Videogames: Who Are You Buying This For?

[Enguerrand]

Does that sound like something I should wait on? If you do it that way, are you basically just reloading your game and playing that through? He said that Arrival in particular just feels like the perfect segue storywise into ME3.

Arrival has some nice combat, but that's all. it's bad for all the same reasons ME3 is bad, absurd linear story and forced non-choices. I especially like how Arrival makes all your efforts in ME2 to save human colonists from the Collectors a wide pointless goosechase. You thought you were doing something worthwhile and important, turns out you were just a dummy. But do Arrival after the suicide mission then Shepard is merely foolish but the story still hangs together somewhat. Well except you might wonder why Sovereign tried to conquer the Citadel for centuries when it's just a 2 year FTL trip to Dark space.

[Shryke]

Arrival has some nice combat, but that's all. it's bad for all the same reasons ME3 is bad, absurd linear story and forced non-choices. I especially like how Arrival makes all your efforts in ME2 to save human colonists from the Collectors a wide pointless goosechase. You thought you were doing something worthwhile and important, turns out you were just a dummy. But do Arrival after the suicide mission then Shepard is merely foolish but the story still hangs together somewhat. Well except you might wonder why Sovereign tried to conquer the Citadel for centuries when it's just a 2 year FTL trip to Dark space.

Arrival doesn't make the ME2 plot pointless, ME2 does that by never explaining how it actual helps defeating the Reapers.

And Sovereign is after the Citadel because the whole purpose of attacking the Citadel is to destroy the head of galactic government in one fell swoop and leave everyone disorganized and ripe for the picking.

[Enguerrand]

Arrival doesn't make the ME2 plot pointless, ME2 does that by never explaining how it actual helps defeating the Reapers.

Me2:s plot were perfectly self-contained, if you take the ME1 plot seriously the reapers are trapped in dark space and no longer an immediate threat. The Collector's ties with the Reapers and the plight of the human colonists seemed a reasonable continuation to me. But yes ME2 isn't a setup piece for the destruction of the reapers for all times if that was the story you wanted to tell in ME3. Which apparently Bioware did.

And Sovereign is after the Citadel because the whole purpose of attacking the Citadel is to destroy the head of galactic government in one fell swoop and leave everyone disorganized and ripe for the picking.

Well that seems was pretty silly of him when Arrival shows he could just have traveled to Dark Space picked up his reaperbuddies and returned to the Citadel in 4 years. And in ME1 Sovereign plotted an attack on the Citadel for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Not to mention that Me3 shows that that the galaxy is "ripe for the picking" whether the reapers control the citadel, close the mass relays or destroys the galactic government or not. Making Sovereign's solo cowboy action absolutely unnecessary twice over.

[Muttering Bill]

Did some trade-ins today. Didn't get quite as much as I would have liked, but since it was all 2 year old PS3 games can't say that I'm really surprised.

I managed to pay off my pre-order on Drakengard 3 and also pick up Dynasty Warriors 8 XLCE. I'm most likely going to download Transistor tonight too.

add in that I've just gotten into AC4 and Resogun, and I've suddenly got way too many games to play at once. Eesh!

[Werthead]

EA and Respawn just yanked the CTF and Pilot Hunter multiplayer modes out of Titanfall on the PC for no apparent reason. They've replaced them with two new modes which force the player to spend money on the recent DLC.

That's pretty extreme behaviour, and needless to say has not down EA or Respawn any favours in the PR department. RPS just rescinded their (positive) review of the game as CTF was the thing about it they liked the most. Baffling.

Meanwhile, Civilization: Beyond Earth apparently isn't really an Alpha Centauri II, despite Firaxis themselves not denying the similarities in earlier previews. Maybe they got a warning letter from EA or something. So C:BE isn't SMAC 2, despite being Civ in Space, like SMAC was. Or something.

[Inigima]

I enjoy Titanfall and I don't care about CTF in it, but that's so scummy it makes me wish I hadn't bought it.

[Rhom]

Nearing the end of my "Noobtastic 4 years late Mass Effect 2 playthough." Finished up Operation Overlord, recruited Legion and got his loyalty mission done. Now off to the Omega relay (and then those other DLCs mentioned above.)

I will just say that I think Overlord was one of my favorite video gaming experiences in a while. The crazy VI was really creepy and the entire misguided purpose of the lab was a great atmosphere. Was a lot of fun.

[MerenthaClone]

Arrival doesn't make the ME2 plot pointless, ME2 does that by never explaining how it actual helps defeating the Reapers.

And Sovereign is after the Citadel because the whole purpose of attacking the Citadel is to destroy the head of galactic government in one fell swoop and leave everyone disorganized and ripe for the picking.

Which made literally no difference in the end because the Reapers are still invulnerable except to macguffin crap, and could still (and do) just slowboat into the galaxy without anyone stopping them. They had all the features set up to make the Reapers actually beatable semi-conventionally for the first time in forever (delayed twice for a total of something like 2k years, galaxy aware of them, galaxy able to reverse-engineer and study them for the first time, their sudden decapitation strike foiled, their overwhelming logistical advantage foiled...) but no, it had to be a "Bioware assemble the pieces of macguffin superweapon" plot yet again.

[Daeric]

Did some trade-ins today. Didn't get quite as much as I would have liked, but since it was all 2 year old PS3 games can't say that I'm really surprised.

I managed to pay off my pre-order on Drakengard 3 and also pick up Dynasty Warriors 8 XLCE. I'm most likely going to download Transistor tonight too.

add in that I've just gotten into AC4 and Resogun, and I've suddenly got way too many games to play at once. Eesh!

I've got Transistor and its soundtrack, haven't played the game yet but the soundtrack is very good again, We all become being my favorite so far.

[KiDisaster]

I just restarted Bastion the other night since Transistor was coming out. Going to finally finish it this time. It's so awesome but both times I played it before I got distracted by other games before finishing it. Once I'm done with that I'll be picking up Transistor. It looks great.

The Bastion soundtrack is probably my favorite video game soundtrack of all time, or close to the top at least.

[MerenthaClone]

Anyone played DoW2: Retribution? Is it worth picking up at all if I'm not really interested in the MP or Last Stand modes and just want an RTS to screw around with, leading hordes of guardsmen against bug-things?

[Jon AS]

Anyone played DoW2: Retribution? Is it worth picking up at all if I'm not really interested in the MP or Last Stand modes and just want an RTS to screw around with, leading hordes of guardsmen against bug-things?

It's very focused on the hero characters (more than any of the other DOWs), giving it a bit of the feel of a hack & slash RPG, but it's fun and presumably reasonably cheap at this point.

[Fez]

Meanwhile, Civilization: Beyond Earth apparently isn't really an Alpha Centauri II, despite Firaxis themselves not denying the similarities in earlier previews. Maybe they got a warning letter from EA or something. So C:BE isn't SMAC 2, despite being Civ in Space, like SMAC was. Or something.

If this works out, its going to be really, really good. Good enough that I may need to finally buy a gaming PC just so I can play it.

[karaddin]

Lyanna - Shadowbroker is one of my favourite missions of all three, I've not done arrival but SB is worth it. Especially if you like Liara. Really felt like it should have been part of the game not DLC though.

[Shryke]

Me2:s plot were perfectly self-contained, if you take the ME1 plot seriously the reapers are trapped in dark space and no longer an immediate threat. The Collector's ties with the Reapers and the plight of the human colonists seemed a reasonable continuation to me. But yes ME2 isn't a setup piece for the destruction of the reapers for all times if that was the story you wanted to tell in ME3. Which apparently Bioware did.

ME2's plot is perfectly self-contained, yes. That's why it's irrelevant. It's a side-story that progresses basically nothing in the Reaper story and that was true long before Arrival came out.

Well that seems was pretty silly of him when Arrival shows he could just have traveled to Dark Space picked up his reaperbuddies and returned to the Citadel in 4 years. And in ME1 Sovereign plotted an attack on the Citadel for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Not to mention that Me3 shows that that the galaxy is "ripe for the picking" whether the reapers control the citadel, close the mass relays or destroys the galactic government or not. Making Sovereign's solo cowboy action absolutely unnecessary twice over.

Yes, he could have returned but then they'd have faced stiffer opposition. The point of attacking the Citadel is to make the galaxy as easy to mop up as possible.

The only reason anything goes wrong is because of the Protheans cockblocking Sovereign. Twice. His attack should not have been a tough thing. We see this at the Battle of the Citadel. Why would you go 4 years out of your way and miss your nice opening strike when you can easily just set the plan back on track?

That it's not easy and Sheppard manages to stop it is why Sheppard is the uber-hero of the galaxy.

Which made literally no difference in the end because the Reapers are still invulnerable except to macguffin crap, and could still (and do) just slowboat into the galaxy without anyone stopping them. They had all the features set up to make the Reapers actually beatable semi-conventionally for the first time in forever (delayed twice for a total of something like 2k years, galaxy aware of them, galaxy able to reverse-engineer and study them for the first time, their sudden decapitation strike foiled, their overwhelming logistical advantage foiled...) but no, it had to be a "Bioware assemble the pieces of macguffin superweapon" plot yet again.

The Reapers aren't beatable conventionally though. Not because they are invulnerable but because they are simply too big, too numerous and too technologically advanced.

That's one of the things the series does really well. You can see how the Reapers would want to soften the galaxy up first because while they will likely win eventually, it's not necessarily easy.

The superweapon plot, of course, was cliched bullshit but what do you expect from Bioware?

[Shryke]

Lyanna - Shadowbroker is one of my favourite missions of all three, I've not done arrival but SB is worth it. Especially if you like Liara. Really felt like it should have been part of the game not DLC though.

All the big expensive ME2 and 3 DLCs are worth it. All are amazing.

And all are ridiculously, crime-against-humanity-levels of overpriced.

Last I calculated it out, buying just the story DLC from ME2 and 3 comes out to $80.

[Ziggy Targdust]

The omega dlc on ps3 is free now for some reason.

[balefired-ed]

Just finished Thamasa. The floating continent would be next, but I want everyone to master every esper, so I'm off to the Veldt.

[Lyanna Stark]

When you do those missions isn't the big factor (it can even be helpful), what determines your ability to convince in ME2 people is how many lightiside/darkside paragon/renegade points you picked up out of the total you could have gotten up to that point. Points carried over from ME1 count against points you picked up but not against the potential maximum, so if you imported a character with a lot of paragon and/or renegade points you will always have at least one of the options available throughout ME2.

And you can always pick Samara as an alternative to Jack for that part. ;)

I imported a full paragon Shepard but I still had problems with Jack and Miranda blowing up in my face. In the end, I went with leaving Jack and Tali/Legion to the end (because of how awesome it is to bring Legion on Tali's mission, among other things).

Lyanna - Shadowbroker is one of my favourite missions of all three, I've not done arrival but SB is worth it. Especially if you like Liara. Really felt like it should have been part of the game not DLC though.

Liara is one of my favourites! I ended up just ditching any semblance of good group composition in ME3 and ran Garrus and Liara for almost everything cos I liked them the best (and since you can't get Urdnot Wrex in your party).

[Jon AS]

I imported a full paragon Shepard but I still had problems with Jack and Miranda blowing up in my face. In the end, I went with leaving Jack and Tali/Legion to the end (because of how awesome it is to bring Legion on Tali's mission, among other things).

Odd, I've never, ever been in a situation where I couldn't pick at least the paragon persuade option in a conversation (as all my characters had higher paragon than renegade scores).

I've been meaning to mod ME2 so that every recruitment mission is available from the start, since clearly it was supposed to work like that at least at some point (characters have dialogue for missions you can't possibly take them on the way the game is set up), before they made it a bit more linear (presumably because of console limitations).

Liara is one of my favourites! I ended up just ditching any semblance of good group composition in ME3 and ran Garrus and Liara for almost everything cos I liked them the best (and since you can't get Urdnot Wrex in your party).

Well you can in the Citadel DLC. And it's worth it to pick him when going to the casino just to see a krogan in a tux.