I am well aware but it is STILL under Bethesda's umbrella. Fallout 3 had many of the same issues.

I could barely finish a single mission towards the end of the game without it locking up.

As for reviews, I think the only FAIR way to review it is to have someone who never played the 360 or the PC version so they can judge it for what it is and the fact that you cant continue what you began in ME1.

That way it gets reviewed as a PS3 game and a PS3 game alone.

Either way, the experience ME2 offers is MORE than strong enough to stand on its own.


I do recommend that people play ME1 first. IF they can. Playing ME1 after ME2 is harder since the inventory, flow and controls of the game are all different.

I've been a fan of the Fallout franchise since the very first title back in '97 - warts and all. The bugs are a classic Fallout tradition. Anyone remember the patch for Fallout 2 that rendered all your current savegames null and void? Good times, good times. :) That said, I have to admit New Vegas surprised me a little, what with the frequent crashes and all.

Still didn't stop me from logging over 150 great gaming hours into it. Wish I could say it was the buggiest game I've ever played, like most of the hyperbolic negative reviews do, but that honor has to go to Ultima IX: Ascension. Why did Garriot have to leave such a revered RPG series on that note?

But I digress. Hey, did anyone else who pre-ordered Mass Effect 2 from Amazon notice we got a $20 credit for anything on the site? :D

I have to say, the interactive comic was done very well :thumbsup:

+1

I put in over 225 hours into Fallout 3 & I just surpassed the 100 hour mark in New Vegas!! I did pick-up ME2 & LBP2 today however I have yet to open it due to the fact that I want to reach a "stopping" point in New Vegas. :p Definitely looking forward though to losing myself in the ME2 universe soon! :rock:

I just finished New Vegas myself- 50 hours in. Anyway, the genesis comic was cool, I got to switch around my decisions without having to play the first game again.

Ok, so I've been playing ME2 most of the evening on Insanity as a Soldier (only because I've never played a Soldier before) and here are some impressions:

- Load times on the ship are long, but no worse than the 360 version. They ARE noticeably longer than the PC version, however.

- Graphics look very good, especially if you turn off the film grain filter, which seems to help reduce the small amounts of screen tear.

- Ran into my first freezing bug. Game locked up after I finished the mission to recruit The Professor (grrrrrrrr!). Not so bad though since I breezed through it having already beaten the game on Insanity on the PC, plus playing that chapter in the demo before.

- The DLC pack offers some very interesting armor and weapon options, but you certainly wouldn't miss much without them. They're simply not that strong (the best being the mix-and-match Kestrel armor, which is just slightly but strictly better than most pieces of gear in the game on a piece-for-piece basis, though it may not have the focus you're looking for in a particular character build).

- Soldiers are strong, but boring as sin. Having your only active skill being Adrenaline Rush blows. You do get some tactical flexibility in the form of different weapons, but aside from exploiting the AI's inability to take perfect cover with your sniper rifle, it doesn't really seem to offer much else of interest.

- For trophy *****s, this game has a relatively easy platinum from what I can tell. The only really challenging one is beating Insanity difficulty. Most of the others you'll pick up over the course of just playing the game normally and going out of your way to do the side missions. If I don't miss my guess, it's actually possible to get all trophies on a single playthrough on Insanity difficulty (unlocked at the beginning of the game) if you do everything right the first time around.

- There is a small glitch where the wrong ally will go to a waypoint if you spam waypoint instructions too fast sometimes. Not generally a problem, but it's irritating in the heat of battle if both allies are in poor position..

All in all, the ME2 experience looks better than ever, the game plays great, and aside from having the game hard freeze my PS3 requiring a hard power down reset, I've encountered no other dealbreaker issues.

I absolutely agree. For some reason, I can't understand why so many people play as soldier. BioWare released some stats saying that a vast majority of people play as soldier. I just think it's boring without either tech or biotic skills. Just can't see it.

Good to hear! I can't wait to get the game today finally! :rock:

WHile playing through ME1 I do feel is an important part of the overall ME2 experience, the interactive comic can be of HUGE benefit to someone who has already played the first one and wants a quick way to see the effect of their decisions in the 2nd one.

Played a quick couple of hours last night and I'm falling in love with this game all over again. I mean I just finished a Renegade playthrough on the 360 a little over a week ago and still find it refreshing to go through the PS3 version :D

Was anyone able to activate the laptop on the right at the main menu? It's supposed to signify that your connected to the Cerberus network, but even after creating a cerberus account and linking it with my PSN id it still remained closed. :confused:

I noticed that, but it says "connected to EA server" at the bottom. I sat at the main menu for like 5 minutes waiting for that second computer screen to pop up :p

The laptop will only be activated when something new (ie DLC) is coming.

That must be new then. Cause on the 360 version it was always active, even when there wasn't any DLC offered. There was always some type of "in-game" news displaying :p

I chose engineer, because i like being able to use the bots.

They announced last week that they're doing the same for 360.

Well that explains everything....

you guys were right, this game is AWESOME! Rarely do games live up to the hype in my mind, but my experience with Mass Effect 2 has been nothing short of amazing (despite a few very minor annoyances).

dk3dknight, I do enjoy a well-put together instruction manual, but in my mind there's nothing on those paper manuals that can't be done in-game. As you said, it is a nice luxury to have it available for when you're not playing the game (plus, that new instruction manual smell is intoxicating...maybe it's just me:D), but I don't think that's a big enough reason to stick with your basic paper instruction manual (except in the rare case that publishers actually put some effort into them).

Agree with your sentiments on rating systems. I think Gamespot (as of late) has been relatively upfront detailing the process and system they use to grade games. If gamers choose to ignore them and assume they are using the same standards as IGN or Game Informer, that's ignorance on their part... not Gamespot's (...can't believe I'm defending Gamespot after they gave Suikoden a 6.5 and Suikoden 2 a 7.5:o)

Thanks for the info on the Cerberus system in the main menu. I must have restarted, signed in and out, etc a bunch of times trying to make it right lol....

Also, I had played ME1 on PC when it had come out, and at the time I chose biotic as a class because I was looking to manipulate the field of battle and whatnot. The problem was it was so boring playing the entire game with only a pistol that I hated that class because of it. I ended up going soldier this time around just to try out shotguns, machine guns, sniper rifles, etc. Is it possible to change classes on the 2nd playthrough?

Also, anyone notice that some characters cut in and out during conversation scenes. It's like a mix of really bad animation choppiness or something. Happened to 2 different Miranda conversations. :confused: