If they sell all the DLC bundled at a discount somewhere, I could potentially justify it. Paying $5 for hour-long dribbles of content goes against my personal belief system, however ridiculous you might find that.
So, no.
You totally missed out.
Mass Effect 2, but my five full playthroughs of ME1 should be enough evidence that I like both quite a lot. If ME3 comes through and finishes the story off well, ME will be my pick for best new series of the generation.
Your loss. I mean that sincerely. I also take it you don’t go to movies much.
Depite the stupid arc story structure, the lame CBS combat, the inane scanning minigame, and the idiotic final boss, 2 was still noticeably superior to 1, because it didn’t have the world’s worst item system coupled with the world’s worst inventory system.
While annoying because of the lack of main arc, the spider-graph of character side quests at least gave a decent impression of openness to the game world. As you go from pretty much any system to any other system while doing all that stuff that has nothing much to do with the main plot, you at least feel like what you’re doing is up to you.
Not in theaters, no. $10 for 1.5 hours of entertainment that’s got a 50/50 shot of being awful? If it’s a truly landmark film, I’ll go and enjoy the cinematic experience, but I’m not throwing away money on Transformers 3 at this stage in my life.
And I’m sure it is my loss. And my losses will continue to mount, because the way I believe games should be made and played is utterly at odds with every trend in the industry at the moment.
Then again, you’re talking to a guy rocking a mechanical keyboard and researching safety razors and badger hair brushes. I’m getting used to the idea of being an ornery coot at the ripe old age of 24.
I liked the story and CnC more in ME2, so I went with that.
I did prefer the skill system from ME1 as it gave more flexibility to what abilities your characters had. Also, kind of meh on the whole thermal clip thing from ME2.
Definitely prefer ME1, even though ME2 had a lot of technical improvements and my favourite story part of the ME series yet - Mordin’s loyalty mission. But ME1 is an RPG and ME2 isn’t. It is, as RPS so aptly put it, a guns-and-conversation game. Far, far too much RPG-ness was cut in the name of streamlining (for this reason, I didn’t even buy DA2 after playing the demo). And the artificial structure of the game was just so transparent that it broke any immersion. It makes the old three-trials structure of adventure games look subtle.
You’re may think you’re a grognard, but you’re really a hipster.
Clearly, it is vitally important for Ginger Yellow’s enjoyment that the arbitrary labels bestowed on games have to be the RIGHT arbitrary labels.
I’m pretty sure Diablo 3. Or the Witcher2.
My next guns and conversation game is going to be a political simulation where you try to get elected president of the local NRA chapter at the monthly meeting in the back of the local civic center.
Bioware is TERRIBLE at making dlc in general. almost all of their dlc is overpriced and lacking on content. If i had to make a blanket statement based on their overall dlc price/worth, i would say not to buy any at all.
BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT
Shadowbroker is by all accounts worth getting and everyone i’ve talked to has loved it. This is an especially good dlc if you played me1. Even more so if you used liara at all and/or wanted to know what happened to change her between me1 and me2.
I also personally liked the kasumi dlc. The mission is very fun, somewhat unique and i like kasumi as a character (both her character and skill set). Honestly though, kasumi is not worth $15 unless you plan to play me2 again as the mission is simply not long enough. HOWEVER, if like me you’ve played through me2 multiple times with kasumi in your party, it is worth it. I still believe kasumi is overall the most powerful party member on insanity by a noticeable margin.
Her stealth backstab makes her extremely powerful and survivable. Using backstab with the skill to make it reset if you kill someone with it (which it does if they only have health) means she is stealthed a significant portion of the time, making her one of the most survivable characters on insanity where anything dies in 3 seconds out of cover.
Flash grenade is extremely nice as well, making enemies behind cover stand up waiting for you to kill them.
I still haven’t got around to playing the last me2 dlc (awakening or ascension i think it was called, at least i think it started with A…), but i’d probably pass on it if you were really worried about money/content of dlc and just watch the youtube of the cutscenes. That is what i’ve heard at least.
I would not personally recommend overlord as i HATE the hovercraft with a passion, but i know some people really liked it.
ME1 gains points for a better overall narrative and the more fleshed out powers and class abilities (though I can see why people would want the ME2 version instead). It loses points mainly for the inventory system, failing to take advantage of the Mako (as others have said, a good mechanic that is foiled by the lousy terrain and wonky driving physics), and elevators.
ME2 has much better shooting, and I did like the interaction you were allowed with party members (especially when compared to its predecessor). The story was bare, the customization felt a little hollow, and the planet scanning minigame made me wish for the Mako back.
Both of them were highly enjoyable but for considerably different reasons. Each one also had issues that frustrated me. I’ll throw the tiebreaker in favor of ME1 because it had both a vastly superior story and Captain Kirrahe’s wonderful speech. Those are two highly compelling reasons for me to give it high marks.
God no I’m not a grognard. Wargames are hella boring, man. I just want Baldur’s Gate 3.
ME2 for me. ME1 was a pleasure to play and I enjoyed the story but, heck, I’m really all about interesting NPCs and I enjoyed the big focus on them (not all of them but most) in ME2. More importantly, and something I’m sure biased the heck out of me, is that I played ME2 on the PS2. That meant I had all the DLC packed in there from the get go. I was positively drunk on content…the experience was so impressive I’m halfway tempted to wait for the GotY edition of ME3. Anything else would feel skimpy.
Miramon does this better than the comic book store guy.
Captain Kirrahe’s wonderful speech
I agree with everything you wrote in your post above, but if you’re going to cite Kirrahe’s speech as a tie-breaking factor in favour of ME1, shouldn’t Mordin’s singing of Modern Major General in ME2 trump it?
So stop trying to be a grognard.
I just want Baldur’s Gate 3.
Kid, you didn’t play BG1. You just think you did. Because of that, you have no idea what you want.
Truth.
Mass Effect 2 FTW!