ProtoCents
Banned
megalowho said:
He did? Did I miss this?
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Mass Effect 2 DLC "The Arrival" [Update: Gameplay Demo Post 674]
- Thread starter Lifejumper
- Start date
He did? Did I miss this?
UltimaPooh
Member
So the DLC is largely skippable until it drops in price?
shinobi602
Member
the walrus said:
Lol, don't know, possibly, but probably not.
I say this because, to be fair, the reason you got emails and texts, etc was because everything is being saved for ME3.
I know a lot of people were angry that you just get emails for decisions from ME1 in ME2, for example
Rachni queen just giving you a message. However, that choice you made in ME1 by saving her will have significant effects, meaning they will be there to help you or not in ME3.
Casey Hudson did say a lot of the consequences of things you did ME1 won't really show up in ME2, but will in ME3. So I have some hope.
Typographenia
Member
For the most part, yes. It's cheap enough that I think it's okay as-is, but you're not really missing on anything you can't wait for a while longer.UltimaPooh said:
UltimaPooh
Member
Typographenia said:
Sounds good... hopefully they will have a deal on it before ME3 hits.
harriet the spy
Member
Put me in the 'it was pretty bad' camp.
It was not *awful*, but it was bad enough that it retroactively made me like ME2 a bit less.
Also I really regret playing this game on normal - I thought ME provided somewhat of a challenge (moderate, but still) in normal, but ME2 started easy and finished a total cakewalk (again, on normal). Pop in, freeze time, shoot them in the head, rinse and repeat.
It was not *awful*, but it was bad enough that it retroactively made me like ME2 a bit less.
Also I really regret playing this game on normal - I thought ME provided somewhat of a challenge (moderate, but still) in normal, but ME2 started easy and finished a total cakewalk (again, on normal). Pop in, freeze time, shoot them in the head, rinse and repeat.
I would recommend to play it if anyone is on the fence, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
It's not as good as Overlord or Lair of the Shadowbroker but it's as good as Kasumi, I do have so complaints such as I wish you could have been with a squadmate but the combat was fine and overall I don't regret buying it at all but if you wait for a price drop I don't blame you as well.
It's not as good as Overlord or Lair of the Shadowbroker but it's as good as Kasumi, I do have so complaints such as I wish you could have been with a squadmate but the combat was fine and overall I don't regret buying it at all but if you wait for a price drop I don't blame you as well.
so a trial hmmm?
I want this reenacted, switch tom cruise by the turian councilor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo
I want this reenacted, switch tom cruise by the turian councilor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo
zmoney said:
That is 95% of Mass Effect 2. I enjoyed LotSB so much because it was a slight change from the usual corridors. Even then it had its fair share of those :lol
I'm not really complaining, but I wonder why people give BioWare the free pass and slam FFXIII's corridor-based gameplay?
UltimaPooh
Member
Kyoufu said:
Probably because as you get into battles they happen and don't have to load into a seperate battle screen.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Kyoufu said:
Not only is it that, but it's also set in the most boring, uninspired environments possible, with no visual nor gameplay hooks to set it apart from any other mission, except for one brief cool moment. It's as basic as it gets.
shinobi602
Member
gdt5016 said:
Hell yea, fools who for some reason start a trilogy at the final part of the trilogy deserve it.
LightofRohan
Member
What makes the environments particularly boring/uninspired to you? Was it just that you felt like you've seen it all before in the game - or was there something else? (I agree - just want to know your view; I'm taking environment design at my school...)EatChildren said:
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Darknessbear said:
Artistically there was no visual stimulation due to a weak colour palette and overly similar style to previous Mass Effect locations. I said it earlier, the first area to me seemed like a less memorable and defined Tuchanka, with the only exception being the rain effect. The second area also lacked any kind of interesting identity, outside of the vistas through the windows. The very last area had similar problems, but had a cool skybox/vista to make up for it.
Environments in games should be like the best environments in real life; while you're there the environment should convey a sense of identity and story, with a certain degree of subtlety, and when you leave you should have distinct memories of your experience. Colour palette, art design of props and structures, vistas/skyboxes, and events should blend together to craft a unique identity that contrasts other places you've visited. I never got this feeling throughout Arrival, as though the assets were mostly original their usage in level design and the progression through levels did little stimulation. It felt like a retread of ideas and art used better elsewhere.
Comparitively, Kasumi had the party scene as well as the museum room. Overlord had the downed Geth ship, the open grassy area with huge vistas, and volcanic strips. Shadow Broker had the car flight through Illium, the battle in residential areas that offered a different look at Illium (as all we had seen were the market areas), as well as the final area which was totally unique. Arrival had none of these.
On another note, I cant be the only one who picked up the parallels betwen Arrival and Bring Down the Sky.
Both have asteroids set on a collision course. One you stop, one you activate. One is Batarians attempting to kill human civilians, the other is you causing the deaths of Batarian civilians
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
Bummer this DLC is the one that caps off Mass Effect 2. I was really disappointed with the lack of creativity here.
Oh, and was Kenson super annoying to you guys? Something with her look and voice just made me want to punch her in the face.
Oh, and was Kenson super annoying to you guys? Something with her look and voice just made me want to punch her in the face.
Melchiah
Member
It pisses me off to no end, that the DLC wasn't made available to European customers on its OFFICIAL release date. Way to make us feel like second grade customers. The most annoying thing is, that now we have to avoid getting spoiled by people, who got to play the DLC before us.
It's beyond me why Sony tends to treat EU customers like shit, eventhough we pretty much single handedly saved their ass during this generation. Yet, we get all the demos and DLCs later than the yanks, and miss out many of the better collector editions.
It's beyond me why Sony tends to treat EU customers like shit, eventhough we pretty much single handedly saved their ass during this generation. Yet, we get all the demos and DLCs later than the yanks, and miss out many of the better collector editions.
Well, that was kind of... Underwhelming. It was good to see Hackett, and to know that Anderson wasn't the only person in the Alliance that doesn't think Shepard's out of his mind. That part with the artifact and the five waves was kind of fun.
If anything, I hope they make them tougher.
They're not so tough. I actually have fun setting them up to nuke the area whlie whiddling down on the lesser enemies' defenses--the explosion clears everything.kai3345 said:
If anything, I hope they make them tougher.
Barrow Roll
Member
So I think I found a gamebreaking glitch in the DLC. I'm not going to spoiler tag since it doesn't ruin any of the plot.
During the sneaking section at the beginning, there is one part where you have to run through a door past the hangar into a room with a crane that you can operate. I got noticed by a guard, used Cloak on my Infiltrator and ran into the next room with the crane. When you enter that room, you cannot go back as the door locks, but the enemies were still aware to my position. I also think it autosaved as I entered the room. I wanted to reload an older save to see if I missed anything but the game just locks up everytime I select LOAD from the menu. I have to hard reboot the 360 since I can't even bring up the Guide. Now I can't even select LOAD or RESUME from the main menu either or it locks up again. I tried deleting Arrival from my HDD and it still locks up. I'm going to try extracting my save file and deleting the autosave, but this is pretty fucked up. If I didn't know how to extract and edit save files then I'd be pretty pissed right about now.
During the sneaking section at the beginning, there is one part where you have to run through a door past the hangar into a room with a crane that you can operate. I got noticed by a guard, used Cloak on my Infiltrator and ran into the next room with the crane. When you enter that room, you cannot go back as the door locks, but the enemies were still aware to my position. I also think it autosaved as I entered the room. I wanted to reload an older save to see if I missed anything but the game just locks up everytime I select LOAD from the menu. I have to hard reboot the 360 since I can't even bring up the Guide. Now I can't even select LOAD or RESUME from the main menu either or it locks up again. I tried deleting Arrival from my HDD and it still locks up. I'm going to try extracting my save file and deleting the autosave, but this is pretty fucked up. If I didn't know how to extract and edit save files then I'd be pretty pissed right about now.
Melchiah
Member
Rekubot said:
syoaran said:
That's right. It's extremely annoying, that they didn't even care to inform the EU residents about the release date being something else than the official one. I'm so pissed, that I feel like passing the whole thing, and giving my money to someone who treats their customers right.
Barrow Roll
Member
Just a follow up, deleting the autosave file after extracting the save file onto my PC fixed the freezing. If I were less tech savvy then I would have had to delete my entire character save to fix the issue.Barrow Roll said:
Z
ZombieFred
Unconfirmed Member
After finishing the DLC, I thought it was quite the enjoyable ride for the one and a half hour run in the game. I did love the stealth aspect in the first part of the game, and also escaping from the facility to get the project going, but you can tell this wasn't polished as some of the previous content was. But it was worth playing this final story chapter in Mass Effect 2, even if it's for the music alone.
What an amazing score for this content. Have the none-combat pieces been uploaded yet?
What an amazing score for this content. Have the none-combat pieces been uploaded yet?
So I've seen a few interesting posts about the ramifications of
in ME 3.
Basically some have been suggesting
Shepard's trial
Basically some have been suggesting
that it would be a good chance to use 'character witnesses' as in characters you've encountered throughout the first two games who can vouch for you. Such as that infected Batarian in the quarantine zone, or those Salarian workers in Illium. I think it would be really cool if your decisions in the first two games somehow has an affect on the outcome of the trial.
It is a great way to solve the problem of "We have two games worth of exposition to do before we can get new players up to speed on what's what in Mass Effect 3." I do not envy Bioware on having to make that interesting.Lakitu said:
Do a trial, have new players get the bare minimum and draw in character witnesses and bring up every single important and semi important event a ME1 or ME2 imported Shepard did. Then just as a verdict is about to be handed down, Harbinger rips the roof off the courthouse and it's on. Besides there's no better character witness for Shepard than a pissed off yellow Reaper tearing the building apart.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
This is crazy. I instantly bought this DLC without knowing about it. That's how much I love ME2. I had to buy the soundtrack on Itunes out of principle. It's great music, but not exactly something I have listened to while on the go on my Ipod.
I am happy to hear that it's not shovelware, but like others, wouldn't you want ME2 to end on a high note? Overlord and Shadow Brooker were really, really, really, really, really good. Overlord was the most scary/creepy element in all of ME2, and Shadow Brooker added new cool stuff to the base game.
I really expected and hoped The Arrival to be the high finale to what I would call on one of the best PC games ever.
I haven't played it yet, but 1-1,5 hours is really sad. And if they skimped on the VA then double sad
As for Mass Effect 3, I am fearful.. ever since the teaser trailer, I am afraid I will go away dissapointed. Like with Crysis to Crysis 2, with Halo to Halo 2, and so on... once the game goes to real world locations that the player can relate to, I often find it much more difficult to suspend my disbelief, and just go with it, because my mind is constant staggered on all the things that seem or look wrong.
I remember being really bumped out in Halo 2 once you got to earth, in a big African Metropolis that there were no people.. no corpses, no refugees, just vaseline ridden cars. giant big meh. on the artificial ring world, it made sense in the context of what was going on... to be all alone.
Same thing with Crysis. The tropical island is of course a real world location, but most of us dont live on tropical islands, so it was a great stage for a game. they just build a jungle and thats that. but once it goes to new york, you expect all sorts of other s**t, and I think that's also why the graphics have been so dissapointing by some individuals. Its not just console dumpy dumpy, but also the fact that making a game in manhatten is endlessly more complicated than making one on a big jungle playground.
If we're fighting in London in ME3, I expect there to be missing a lot of details, and realism.
It's probably just me. It's also why I have a hard time swallowing the harry potter movies. It does not make sense to me, when mixing the real world with the fantasy, like it's a door you just walk through.
I am happy to hear that it's not shovelware, but like others, wouldn't you want ME2 to end on a high note? Overlord and Shadow Brooker were really, really, really, really, really good. Overlord was the most scary/creepy element in all of ME2, and Shadow Brooker added new cool stuff to the base game.
I really expected and hoped The Arrival to be the high finale to what I would call on one of the best PC games ever.
I haven't played it yet, but 1-1,5 hours is really sad. And if they skimped on the VA then double sad
As for Mass Effect 3, I am fearful.. ever since the teaser trailer, I am afraid I will go away dissapointed. Like with Crysis to Crysis 2, with Halo to Halo 2, and so on... once the game goes to real world locations that the player can relate to, I often find it much more difficult to suspend my disbelief, and just go with it, because my mind is constant staggered on all the things that seem or look wrong.
I remember being really bumped out in Halo 2 once you got to earth, in a big African Metropolis that there were no people.. no corpses, no refugees, just vaseline ridden cars. giant big meh. on the artificial ring world, it made sense in the context of what was going on... to be all alone.
Same thing with Crysis. The tropical island is of course a real world location, but most of us dont live on tropical islands, so it was a great stage for a game. they just build a jungle and thats that. but once it goes to new york, you expect all sorts of other s**t, and I think that's also why the graphics have been so dissapointing by some individuals. Its not just console dumpy dumpy, but also the fact that making a game in manhatten is endlessly more complicated than making one on a big jungle playground.
If we're fighting in London in ME3, I expect there to be missing a lot of details, and realism.
It's probably just me. It's also why I have a hard time swallowing the harry potter movies. It does not make sense to me, when mixing the real world with the fantasy, like it's a door you just walk through.
was it posted?
eurogamer's review.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-30-mass-effect-2-arrival-review?page=2
eurogamer's review.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-30-mass-effect-2-arrival-review?page=2
Z
ZombieFred
Unconfirmed Member
subversus said:
At least they got a cool selection of new music to listen do when they were playing it. Got to agree on the miss potential for Shepard's ME2 conclusion.
subversus said:
I think it's a fair and well-written review, however one thing I disagree with is the criticism about the choice, or lack of it. The series is mostly always about choice, but at some point, a choice needs to be canonical. This is the time, as it leads into Mass Effect 3. If it were a choice presented to the player, each choice would greatly impact the beginning of Mass Effect 3. I really wouldn't expect Bioware to create two completely different beginnings depending on that choice. It's also a pretty important plot point in the grand scheme of things and not everyone is going to play it.
I understand the frustration though, as the series is mainly about the choices you make. But in this instance, I think it's forgiven.
Do agree with a lot of the review though. Combat was too heavy and cumbersome, but other than that, I enjoyed it. It was worth the price.
subversus said:
To save people a click, here's a link to Page 1 of that review.
And I guess I must be the only person in the world who really likes Bring Down the Sky. For one thing, I think the choice at the end of that is one of the hardest choices in the entire series, rivaled only by the choice in Mordin's loyalty quest.
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