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Feature
1/24/10 8:27 PM -
Darth Hater on Mass Effect 2 
by sado
, posted January 24th, 2010 at 8:27 PM
The majority of the Darth Hater staff will be doing "research" this week on the newly released BioWare title Mass Effect 2. We could give you some line about gaining insight into BioWare's approach to story or possibly examining their graphic style, but the truth is we are just RPG gamers who love a great game. So /afk, and we'll be right back...


While we're talking about Mass Effect 2 feel free to speak about the game in the comments section of this post. No spoilers please.

Note: No podcast this week but we will be returning next week with a surprise if everything goes as planned ;).
 

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70 Comments
Comment by cdstephens made on February 2nd, 2010 at 1:59pm
Anyone else find interesting the idea of an ME MMO? Everyone on the ME forums hates the idea though lol.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on February 3rd, 2010 at 2:16pm
I quite like it! I can see the Citadel as a hub for players. Most of the encountered races have enough backgrounds given to make them easily playable. Hell you could even peg classes for them based on your party members' classes in ME1(Turian Agent, Krogan Battlemaster, Quarian Machinist, Asari Scientist, for example). Those could be classes for their races for sure, in addition to stuff like Soldier and Infiltrator and all that.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on February 3rd, 2010 at 1:13pm
i dont like it!!!!
 
Comment by cdstephens made on February 1st, 2010 at 10:52pm
How long is it for you guys? My friend beat it in one day straight.

Btw, Vanguards seem to be harder than other classes. When my friend was playing one (he switched to soldier, by far the easiest class), he would always die because charge + shotgun gets you killed lol. Sentinel seems harder though. I play the Infiltrator (SO AWESOME!)
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on February 2nd, 2010 at 1:13am
Beat it over a week, about 20 hours for my first playthrough. Didn't do really any sidequests.
 
Comment by Zenkei made on February 2nd, 2010 at 1:46am
Took me 25ish hours to beat the game and I did all the sidequests. Truthfully, there aren't many sidequests in the game.
 
Comment by Lugano made on January 30th, 2010 at 11:42pm
Okay, some general observations about ME2 game mechanics and how they may relate to TOR.


*SPOILERS AHOY!* (maybe)

Firstly, the mission system. In ME2 you get missions and the entire experience is like an instanced quest. You do not explore an open world like you could previously in ME, but rather you are on a linear, goal based mission that you need to complete to move on with. You often talk to one person or another or head to a specific area to activate the mission. This includes a mission summary and experience points only when you complete it. I personally believe that they could be perfecting their quest system with ME2. This time of questing would make more sense to me in an online MMO when you wanted to create a more in depth single play campaign. Its not fun to be getting all into the game and they look around you and see 20 other people doing the same thing you are. I personally believe that takes away from the "rpg" experience. Just think about Wrathgate questline or the new Quel-Delar quest lines in WoW. They are some of the coolest quests and take you back to parts of the game where its just you by a cool use of phasing. I hope that TOR has lots of these types of quests, especially early on in the game to help establish your character's place in the universe.

Secondly, the companion combat system of ME2 feels like it would translate well to TOR. You get 2 buddies in your party that will act on their own, but they will also take orders and use specific abilities when you give the command. Now, I don't expect the interface to be the same, but I think that a similar concept would work well in TOR. My guess is that they have already elaborated in some way on the companions and how they will work, so I'll just leave it at that.

Lastly, we have weapons and upgrades. This is where I really hope that they will differ from ME2, but I fear that they will use something similar. Rather than going with a standard common or something that you can attach to that lightsaber to make it deal more damage or give it other bonuses. They would do this in lieu of having a new lightsaber drop of some random dude that you kill. I was not very found of the getting like 4 weapons to choose from the entire game and focusing on finding upgrades for those weapons.

Of course, Im sure are completely wrong but I felt compelled to share. Now back to my 3rd playthrough of ME2 :)
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 29th, 2010 at 8:30pm
Just beat my first playthrough in ME2, loved the infiltrator. Have to say the game is amazing start to finish. Some reviewers have said the ending is a bit disappointing but I didn't find it like that at all. There are a few bugs that mar an otherwise perfect game but it's not enough to distract from how great the game is.
 
Comment by cdstephens made on January 29th, 2010 at 4:28pm
Gonna be doing some major "research" this weekend.....
 
Comment by Macer made on January 28th, 2010 at 4:32pm
I'll see Mass Effect 2 in four months. Spain is here for me as long the deathmetal bar is still around. Haha! Yes, there is a club that plays only deathmetal and serve pitchers of beer to college students. \,,,/ -.- \,,,/
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 28th, 2010 at 1:29pm
TOMORROW UPDATE:

i wouldnt be surpised if it was only threat of peace #25 XD

i hope we get......something nice and new and epic and ASUM!!!
 
Comment by ProdigaLLL made on January 28th, 2010 at 7:57pm
Yea Im looking forward to see what satele says
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 28th, 2010 at 1:54pm
Maybe another developer corner in a Fan Friday? I liked the one last time, with some facial customization and shield bombardment animations.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 28th, 2010 at 2:10pm
the scars and stuff ineed looked very nice....wasnt so stunned about the shield,...... it looked ok.
 
Comment by JediCosmin made on January 28th, 2010 at 8:49am
During my first playthrough i lost just 2 people from the team. Never really expected how serious the mission really was, but then again BioWare always have surprises in they're sleeves. I foresee that i'm going to be playing it alot more times. I find it very addicting :P
 
Comment by Korrick made on February 1st, 2010 at 8:55am
Yea I now know what you mean. I lost only one in the last mission and I wanted the achievment, oh well time for another playthough. I just wish I could change my class after I import my ME2 charcter fromt he first play though.
 
Comment by DirectX made on January 28th, 2010 at 6:53am
Taking a break after another 4-hour session with ME2. If the Old Republic is as engaging as ME2, I'll be set for life ;)
 
Comment by zechio made on January 28th, 2010 at 5:58am
Well, after roughly 2 days playing ME2 straight, I won. ( Can't really say beat it...theres a few side missions I haven't done yet...but I did do each persons quest and fully upgrade the ship, and completed the final mission. )

I absolutely loved the game. There were a ton of suprising moments, good times, fun action, tough fights. I can not wait for ME3 now

Really the only 2 ( small ) issues I had with the game was at times ammo could run low. I got headshots probably over 80 percent of the time, had max upgrades on weapons...but sometimes I'de have to kill 30-50 enemies without 1 thermal clip dropping. You know you are getting desperate when you start using a shotgun to fire on ranged enemies. Also, the pistol was more accurate at long range than the assault rifle. WTF? If it wasn't for the ARs significantly higher ammo, the pistol woulda been a far better weapon.
 
Comment by cdstephens made on January 27th, 2010 at 11:30pm
Just a question, how late in the game do you get Grunt, would you say? Just completed Omega, and going off to get the warlord.
 
Comment by hobowan made on January 27th, 2010 at 8:21pm
is, like in mass effect 1 (which I only bought 2 weeks ago due to the hype around ME2) the sound of every rifle the same? ME is cool, but that sucks for me. No matter which weapon i use, each slot (pistol, rifle, shotgun) has one sound which does not change
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 27th, 2010 at 8:29pm
I love that familiar TWANG of the sniper rifle that I've heard in ME2 videos. That's something I'm glad they didn't change. :D
 
Comment by Ender_Roarke made on January 27th, 2010 at 3:49pm
My only disappointment is being unable to lower the graphics on the PC version because my video card isn't amazing enough. There are also a couple bugs that make it difficult to play until they patch it. In the meantime, they game is barely playable and still a lot of fun.
This is all just the PC version. I've been watching my friend play on his 360 and it's beautiful.
 
Comment by zechio made on January 28th, 2010 at 5:49am
Interesting...I have the PC version and it has been the single most flawless games I have played on day 1. I only hit 2 problems: Impulse had an issue for the first few hours if you installed anything into a custom location ( I had mine fixed in a few minutes, and Stardock had a fix up within just a few hours. ) The only other problem I hit was a CTD for no apparent reason...most likely due to having been playing about 16 hours straight.
 
Comment by cdstephens made on January 27th, 2010 at 1:51pm
What do you know, was just thinking of doing something like this.

Well, first off after playing for an hour, choices DO affect combat sometimes (when you go to get Archangel). I hope that's indicative of the type of choices we'll see in TOR.

Infiltrator FTW.
 
DH Team
Comment by emlaeh made on January 27th, 2010 at 2:06pm
You especially are gonna love the article I'm writing as everyone else on the team delves into ME2. ;)

I'm delaying playing ME2 until this is in the can.
 
Comment by Lugano made on January 27th, 2010 at 6:02am
I picked up ME2 as soon as I could yesterday and only got to play a few hours before I had to go to work, but so far I am really impressed. I imported my character from ME1, but I kind of want to start over and import my other saved game because I forgot some of the choices I made in ME1 (like killing Wrex m playing as a Vanguard right now, but I want to try a pure biotic class too.
 
Comment by jaswar made on January 27th, 2010 at 4:31am
If only Dragon Age was set up like Mass Effect2..........the game is amazing ......Dragon Age for me was a huge disapointment.........
 
Comment by Bzrk made on January 27th, 2010 at 5:32am
Dragon Age is a hardcore RPG, ME2 is waaaaay more like a shooter.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 27th, 2010 at 9:08am
i understand jaswar his point....i also like ME more than DAO...dao should have been more open world...less dungeon
 
Comment by Aeli made on January 27th, 2010 at 10:39am
No BioWare game that I'm aware of ever has had open world. I'm hoping TOR will... but we'll have to see.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are designed as completely different genres. If you like FPS's, you'll prefer Mass Effect. If you like old-school RPG's, you'll prefer Dragon Age. You can't really compare the two as trying to be the same thing.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 27th, 2010 at 11:28am
what i mean is that norm ally bioware games are open enough for me .....with DAO all you do is follow 1 small path over and over again.....and i wouldnt care more or less if it was all asum and stuff.... everything took me just a little to long to do with DAO....

and DAO and ME cant really be compared indeed.....but still i like ME more XD (that isnt comparison...thats just an opinion)
 
Comment by Voleonis made on January 26th, 2010 at 11:47pm
Since we are already on the topic of Mass Effect 2, here is a tip on how to import your character on the PC from ME1 if they don't show up:

Launch the game, in the little splash menu before the game actually launches, click Configure, then click Save Games in the side nav, then choose the folder your ME1 saves are in, likely Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Saves.

Hopefully I can save someone from the heart attack I almost had.
 
Comment by Lant made on January 26th, 2010 at 7:44pm
I just got my copy of ME2 about 10min ago, idk if I'm going to play it today tho, havn't unlocked all the colors in TvC yet.
 
Comment by Zenkei made on January 26th, 2010 at 3:02pm
Damn you UPS! Deliver my copy faster!
 
Comment by Bzrk made on January 26th, 2010 at 4:07pm
Damn you Americans... ;)
 
Comment by Deidare made on January 26th, 2010 at 2:42pm
So busy plannin the game I wont be commenting much. Can't wait til next week though :)
 
Comment by Sztanyi made on January 26th, 2010 at 12:12pm
daaaaaaamn you steam 2 more hours :/
 
Comment by Aeli made on January 26th, 2010 at 11:14am
ME2 looks good. I'm not really a big FPS fan, so ME isn't my favourite BioWare title, but I'm still looking forward to enjoying it at least as much as ME1.

It has been a slow month or so for SWTOR I think... planets reveals are great and I would never complain (as nobody has any right to) when we haven't payed any monies to BioWare, but I think its fair to say a lot of fans were hoping for more significant info release in the last month, to coincide with the festive season or website 'anniversary'. I guess the release date did also add a certain pessimism (e.g will we see this game in 2012 then?).

Also, I have to say it; I don't think its fair if you guys are being given information about TOR before the rest of us, but I guess thats the way it works. I'm always grateful for your coverage, either way, because its well presented and fairly debated, amongst other good things.
 
DH Team
Comment by emlaeh made on January 26th, 2010 at 1:59pm
I am grateful for the slowish week; it serves as a reprieve after the hectic December and a nice buffer before the upcoming frenzy of convention season.

Sado's comment was in reference to the podcast, and if you are an avid listener of it, then you can probably figure out what it means when we say "we (DH) have a (DH podcast) surprise." ;)

 
Comment by Aeli made on January 27th, 2010 at 10:47am
Okay, sorry if I misinterpreted then. Anyways, I guess I'd rather you guys were getting inside info than some big news outlet - at least you're more likely to slip up and divulge the info! Kidding.

As to the slow week or so; isn't convention season like a whole six months away? I guess it was quite a hectic December, but nothing I felt was revelatory. I think the idea of two Sith and two Jedi classes was quite obvious a long time ago, and whilst seeing new planets is cool, it doesn't really tell us much about what we all want to know - core game mechanics, etc. Again, I'm not ungrateful to BioWare, I'm just bored of not having an MMO I want to play, being the MMO fanatic that I am!
 
DH Team
Comment by emlaeh made on January 27th, 2010 at 11:44am
GDC is in the beginning of March, and there are definitely a few BioWare folks confirmed to talk about some verrrrrry interesting subjects.

So it starts in March, and pretty much every month there is something through October.

I can only speak for myself, but between Global Agenda, DA:O & its expanded content, ME2, and L4D2, my gaming time so far is semi-booked until TOR releases.

As for information about TOR itself, the stream of information hasn't stopped. IMHO, all that stuff is meaningful and we should treat it like puzzle pieces.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 27th, 2010 at 7:43pm
"Its true that there are more good new PC games to play now than there were six months ago, but ultimately, for me, a single player game doesn’t fill the gap."

To play devil's advocate on that, everything we've seen so far of TOR points at it being a single-player experience too. I'm hoping we'll see more of the Massively Multiplayer Online parts of TOR in the 2010 Convention Season. Some dungeons/instances that require a group, not just the Flashpoints' "Bring a friend if you want" thing. Maybe some Battlegrounds/fields specifically for players to fight each other. I REALLY wanna see some PvP in action, with groups of each side's 4 classes duking it out against each other. Trooper Versus Agent, imagine it.
 
Comment by Aeli made on January 27th, 2010 at 7:11pm
Thanks for your reply again. I wait with baited breath for GDC, then.

Its true that there are more good new PC games to play now than there were six months ago, but ultimately, for me, a single player game doesn't fill the gap. There's a feeling of life that good MMOs have, which - once I experienced it - made me realise/think that they are the pinnacle of gaming, and I miss that feeling. And yet I can't bring myself to re-sub to any old haunts, as theres little new to see, plus, after 3-4 years any game can get boring (but possibly/hopefully less so if its Star Wars and has world PvP etc...)

That aside, I'm only interested in half your list on single player games, because I'm not really a big FPS fan (although I'll play ones that get really good reviews at least once through - and I'm a big BioWare fan). So its DAO and ME2 for me until TOR, as far as I can tell.

I think you're right, there are doubtlessly hints in the already released content on the holonet. The problem I have with that, is many of us have already looked in every nook and cranny, but, like the classes, until BioWare confirm something, we can't really come up with answers, the best we can do is speculate. Which is getting boring/annoying. Again I'll stress, I'm only saying this because I love MMOs, nothing else comes close to an MMO, for me, and TOR is the 'only one' (that I like the look of) on the horizon.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 26th, 2010 at 6:14am
Moar Reviews:
Eurogamer 10/10

Gametrailers 9.7/10

Gamesradar 10/10

Gamespy 5/5

Destructoid 10/10

Warning on the gametrailers one, spoils the beginning setup of the game.



 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 26th, 2010 at 9:04am
DAMN THIS is SOME NICE RATING....have you guys ever seen such a high rating...DAO got pretty high....i think it got boring after playing it some time...but this ratings are even higher!
 
Comment by Flagg made on January 26th, 2010 at 1:36pm
Gametrailers is smokin the crack. Should have been 10/10. Seriously, this is the absolute best single player story driven game I have ever seen or played. I'm putting my 2 cents in for Mass Effect Online right now =D
 
Comment by Flagg made on January 26th, 2010 at 5:51am
After beating it with an Adept and in the [edited for spoiler] with my vanguard I have to say this is one of the best story driven games I have ever heard of, let alone played. Bioware truly outdid themselves. I knew is was golden the second [edited for spoiler]

5/5 Haters agree. Get this game at once.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 26th, 2010 at 3:21am
lol i didnt notice till now that there is a darth vader standing in the background XD...


funny guys XD
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 26th, 2010 at 3:58am
He's a secret companion in ME2.
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 26th, 2010 at 7:42am
yeah i bet he is XD


looks great!
 
Comment by timskywalker made on January 26th, 2010 at 3:20am
just started with one now i hear everyone so enthousiastic about 2....i like 1 so far...cant wait to play 2.....that trailer is so epic...i've seen it like 30 times
 
Comment by Sleyo made on January 25th, 2010 at 11:34pm
My bet for the surprise is the "Soon TM" Darth Hater 2.0 website that has been in the works forever.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 25th, 2010 at 11:39pm
It would be really awesome if that happened ;).
 
Comment by Bzrk made on January 26th, 2010 at 2:40am
Guess not then :D
 
Comment by Remlish made on January 25th, 2010 at 10:20pm
You guys have the test info dont you... I assumed there would be some biggish news following the release of Mass Effect 2 cause thats how Bioware seems to roll , but if its the test info my hype juice may be refilled slightly.
 
Comment by JediCosmin made on January 25th, 2010 at 10:16pm
What can I say about this game... the story, gameplay system and graphics have been improved immensly.
Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that Bioware have alot of surprises in stored for us here. Happy exploring :D
 
Comment by homestar made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:47pm
Hah. You guys really do know more than your're telling us. Can't wait for this surprise.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:00pm
I pre-ordered PC COllector's Edition off newegg today. Now I just need to beat ME1. I'm on Feros, with Therum beat and Noveria to go. I'm bad about inventory management, so I gotta keep stopping and selling stuff. But I'm still excited as all heck about ME2, thus pre-ordering the sequel to a game I haven't beaten. The reviews of ME2 look good so far.
 
Comment by Sztanyi made on January 25th, 2010 at 8:58pm
I ordered a game from steam for the first (and last time)... apparently i have to wait an extra 14 hours to play the game. :/ lesson learned: never use steam.

Anyway, i wanted to ask, what class are you guys thinking of? I originally wanted to go vanguard, but ive heard some pretty negative feedback about that class from those who already downloaded the game via torrents.
If vanguards truly are as "weak" as most ppl seem to think i may go sent. or soldier.
 
Comment by Aflixion made on January 27th, 2010 at 3:49am
I played a Vanguard all through ME1, and they're not weak by any means. True, you're limited to pistol and shotgun (at least in ME1, I refuse to touch ME2 until I've completely replayed ME1), but a maxed out pistol is quite powerful when you combine it with the biotic abilities you get. It may just be me, though, I've always preferred pistols over the "heavy" guns. Besides, you can just bring along your soldier companion if you want to bring out the artillery ^_^
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 25th, 2010 at 11:35pm
Planning on continuing my infiltrator's game for the first play-through. Not sure about vanguards but they looked pretty powerful and I believe IGN's review play-through was as well and said that the vanguard is really powerful.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:55pm
*curse you missing edit button*

On the Steam thing, I gave up on digital downloads once I realized they cost the same as the retail version, with the disadvantage of not having the manuals and other hard copy goodies. Plus no worries about said 14 hour downloads. But I hate missing out on a disk for a quick install, a detailed game manual for reading on the way home from the store(or on the john), and STILL having to pay full price for the game. If it's gonna be missing all the frills of a retail copy, it better be at least a few bucks cheaper.
 
Comment by homestar made on January 26th, 2010 at 5:04pm
lol I read all my game manuals that way too.
 
Comment by homestar made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:45pm
Upgrade to a faster interwebz connection and it should take 1-2 hours
 
Comment by Sztanyi made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:59pm
no, its not that. Steam wont let you play the game until 26th afternoon. I already preloaded the game, steam just locks games until they are officially released, or in this case, 14 hours after they are officially released
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 26th, 2010 at 12:30am
I noticed my newegg order shows as on backorder until 2pm tomorrow too, I wonder if it's related to the Steam delayed time too.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 25th, 2010 at 11:37pm
Yeah sometime around 3pm EST if I remember correctly. Ordered the regular edition through steam and the collectors on 360 through amazon. Either way it looks like if you wanted the game at midnight you had to buy it from Gamestop and I refuse to give them my cash. Just can't stand the staff.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on January 26th, 2010 at 12:41am
Just not a fan of the staff at my local stores.
 
Comment by Sztanyi made on January 26th, 2010 at 12:39am
just wondering sado, whats wrong with Gamestop? i only bought one game from them so far (usually use amazon, but i wanted to try downloading a game this time so i used steam)
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on January 25th, 2010 at 9:02pm
I'm a soldier in ME1, I think I'll repeat that with ME2. The new bullet-time version of "Adrenaline Rush", plus all the ammo types being new abilities(Cryo Shot, Incendiary Shot, Concussion Shot, etc) makes it look exciting.