🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 13:48:01 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Mass Effect 2 is currently "On The House" at Origin. Not a bad title.
>They usually have DOSBox stuff in that offer.

That's a pretty high profile game to be giving away. Thank you for the
post!

On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 15:36:59 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
S. wrote: 

>On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 13:48:01 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Mass Effect 2 is currently "On The House" at Origin. Not a bad title.
>>They usually have DOSBox stuff in that offer.
>
>That's a pretty high profile game to be giving away. Thank you for the
>post!

NP. Only thing Twitter has ever been useful for was this. ;)

-- 
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Hmmm! ME2 IMO best of the 3.

Mass Effect 4 ...proper name 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'
is out in late March
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/game/mass-effect-andromeda-uk-release-date-price-mass-effect-4-features-trailer-3594516/
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")  mouse (its Got Vehicle Driving !) 

Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Mass Effect 2 is currently "On The House" at Origin. Not a bad title.
> They usually have DOSBox stuff in that offer.

Nice. I never played any Mass Effect games. Do I need to play the 
original game to understand its sequel's story/plot?
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On Fri, 06 Jan 2017 20:42:26 -0600, ANT...@zimage.com (Ant) wrote:

>Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Mass Effect 2 is currently "On The House" at Origin. Not a bad title.
>> They usually have DOSBox stuff in that offer.
>
>Nice. I never played any Mass Effect games. Do I need to play the 
>original game to understand its sequel's story/plot?

Not really; like most games, they cover the basics of any earlier
titles. Here's the short of it: "You're a bad-ass space-marine who
learns that evil aliens from pre-history are going to invade the
galaxy. You gather together a crew of rough-n-ready heroes, gain their
loyalty and probably romance one of them (it's a Bioware game, after
all), then thwart the alien's intial attempt at invasion."

What made the games so memorable were their detailed setting (too much
of which, unfortunately, is told through text logs and good production
values. The actual gameplay was average; the later games increasingly
focused on the shooter aspect of things, minimizing the role-playing. 

Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
without the DLC. 

>Nice. I never played any Mass Effect games. Do I need to play the
>original game to understand its sequel's story/plot?

    Though most of the characters are new, you'll miss out on the enjoyment 
of encountering your old crewmates again, and the shadow broker ME2 DLC in 
particular is the only way to meet the most important of them.  Also the 
Mako was a big part of my enjoyment in ME1, and to Bioware's shame it is 
absent from ME2.  I say play ME1 first, it's cheap enough.

rms 

Am 07.01.2017 um 15:42 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
> Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
> a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
> iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
> the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
> included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
> the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
> The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
> controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
> multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
> without the DLC.
Well that happens if EA takes over a company which originally had
specialized on RPGs.
I skipped part 2 and 3 because they were obviously designed as shooters
(which I hate)
instead of RPGs (which I like)

Even part 1 almost was to shootery for me.


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On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 17:40:03 -0700, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>Nice. I never played any Mass Effect games. Do I need to play the
>>original game to understand its sequel's story/plot?

>    Though most of the characters are new, you'll miss out on the enjoyment 
>of encountering your old crewmates again, and the shadow broker ME2 DLC in 
>particular is the only way to meet the most important of them.  Also the 
>Mako was a big part of my enjoyment in ME1, and to Bioware's shame it is 
>absent from ME2.  I say play ME1 first, it's cheap enough.

The DLC does add a vehicle back into the game (a sort of hover-tank
with way too much firepower). It is not quite the same as the Mako,
but does add some much-needed openness to the game and it's one of
those aforementioned areas where the game felt diminished because so
much of it was locked behind a DLC paywall. 

I remember originally playing ME2 and being quite annoyed that -
although the core game featured vehicle controls in its option menu -
there was no vehicle to be found. It was obvious that the vehicle
sections had been removed after-the-fact in order to make players pay
extra for the experience. 

(The Mako, for those who haven't played Mass Effect 1, was your
space-car. ME1 featured a number of planets where you could cruise
around in the Maki, having mini-encounters and discovering useful
craftables. The controls were notoriously poor, the worlds themselves
were fairly barrren and the encounters were cut-n-paste duplicates,
but on the whole the Mako missions were a welcome diversion that added
the necessary bit of expansiveness and diversion to the main quest.
There was no such experience in Mass Effect 2 - unless you bought the
DLC - and without it the game felt claustrophobic and extremely
scripted; a far cry from the vastness of the space-opera genre it was
trying to emulate).

On Sat, 07 Jan 2017 09:42:12 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote: 

>On Fri, 06 Jan 2017 20:42:26 -0600, ANT...@zimage.com (Ant) wrote:
>
>>Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> Mass Effect 2 is currently "On The House" at Origin. Not a bad title.
>>> They usually have DOSBox stuff in that offer.
>>
>>Nice. I never played any Mass Effect games. Do I need to play the 
>>original game to understand its sequel's story/plot?
>
>Not really; like most games, they cover the basics of any earlier
>titles. Here's the short of it: "You're a bad-ass space-marine who
>learns that evil aliens from pre-history are going to invade the
>galaxy. You gather together a crew of rough-n-ready heroes, gain their
>loyalty and probably romance one of them (it's a Bioware game, after
>all), then thwart the alien's intial attempt at invasion."
>
>What made the games so memorable were their detailed setting (too much
>of which, unfortunately, is told through text logs and good production
>values. The actual gameplay was average; the later games increasingly
>focused on the shooter aspect of things, minimizing the role-playing. 
>
>Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
>a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
>iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
>the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
>included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
>the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
>The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
>controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
>multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
>without the DLC. 
>
Actually, my freebie came with the following DLC:

Cerberus Network
Normandy Crash Site
Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
Cerberus Arc Projector
Cerberus Weapon and Armor
Firewalker Pack
Soundtrack, Art books, and Documentary

Did they miss any?

-- 
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> writes:

> Actually, my freebie came with the following DLC:
>
> Cerberus Network
> Normandy Crash Site
> Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
> Cerberus Arc Projector
> Cerberus Weapon and Armor
> Firewalker Pack
> Soundtrack, Art books, and Documentary
>
> Did they miss any?

Quite a lot, only the Zaeed and Firewalker ones include stuff I'd
consider playable content. Well, the Normandy Crash Site has a scavenger
hunt but I think that's borderline.

See http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Downloadable_Content for the
complete list. Looks like four others have playable content.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> writes:

> There was no such experience in Mass Effect 2 - unless you bought the
> DLC - and without it the game felt claustrophobic and extremely
> scripted; a far cry from the vastness of the space-opera genre it was
> trying to emulate).

Wait, was it actually possible to run around with the hoverthingy on
random planets? I think I only did the few missions that were provided
with the DLC but it's definitely been a while...

Werner Punz <werne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Am 07.01.2017 um 15:42 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
> > Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
> > a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
> > iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
> > the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
> > included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
> > the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
> > The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
> > controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
> > multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
> > without the DLC.
> Well that happens if EA takes over a company which originally had 
> specialized on RPGs.
> I skipped part 2 and 3 because they were obviously designed as shooters 
> (which I hate)
> instead of RPGs (which I like)

> Even part 1 almost was to shootery for me.

I am not a fan of pure of RPGs, but I do like action RPGs like Diablo 
series.
-- 
Quote of the Week: "The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the 
wind. The ant, sir, is blowin' in the wind." --the misheard lyrics to 
Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:51:04 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 07 Jan 2017 09:42:12 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>Spalls Hurgenson wrote: 


>>Personally, I found the original the best and purest of the games. As
>>a whole I liked the series, but I felt they got worse with each
>>iteration. The second is okay, but it feels shallow unless you get all
>>the DLC to add in the necessary side-quests. These, of course, are not
>>included in the freebie offering mentioned above. Plus the awful "scan
>>the planets" minigame in the second drags down the whole experience.
>>The third was a disappointing conclusion, and not just because of its
>>controversial ending; its maps were too obviously designed for
>>multiplayer and even more than the second, the game felt incomplete
>>without the DLC. 

>Actually, my freebie came with the following DLC:

>Cerberus Network
>Normandy Crash Site
>Zaeed - The Price of Revenge
>Cerberus Arc Projector
>Cerberus Weapon and Armor
>Firewalker Pack
>Soundtrack, Art books, and Documentary

>Did they miss any?

Indeed, quite a few are missing. Mostly the ones included with the
free version were just extra weapons or armor (although Zaeed adds
another party member and his loyalty quest, and the Normandy Crash
site is a combat encounter you can discover if you scan the right
plan). Most of the ones with actual story content aren't included. The
missing DLCs include:

- Overlord (a fairly hefty DLC with the vehicle sections mentioned in
other posts)

- Lair of the Shadow Broker (reintroduces a major character from ME1
that was otherwise missing from the main story of ME2)

- Arrival (an epilogue to the main story which sets the stage for the
start of ME3)

 - Kasumi: Stolen Memory (adds a new party member and her loyalty
quests)


Also missing are a number of less interesting "horse armor" DLCs that
just add new weapons and armor that don't really affect the game much
Aegis Pack
Equalizer Pack
Alternate Appearance Pack #2
Alternate Appearance Pack #2
Terminus Weapons and Armor
Recon Operations Pack
Mass Effect Genesis (a comic book of ME1)

(There were also a number of other DLC packs that were only available
under certain situations, like if you owned Dragon Age Origins or
redeemed a special Dr. Pepper soda promo, but these also only added
largely cosmetic items)

EA/Bioware gouged players pretty deeply if they wanted to get the full
Mass Effect 2 experience, although at least the core game was solid
enough without the extra DLC (although, as I stated elsewhere, the
"Overlord" DLC really, really helped make the game feel suitably
expansive for a space-opera game. 

Mass Effect 3, on the other hand, was noticably lessened if you played
it without the DLC. The "Leviathan" DLC added vital backstory to the
game (such as who the Reapers really were), the "Citadel" DLC added
fleshed out your party members so you gave a damn about their
sacrifices, "Omega" added a necessary bit of side-questing that filled
out the game and made it feel less linear, and "From the Ashes" added
a new character in a game that otherwise felt too much like a rehash
of the second. The rest of the ME3 DLC was basically pointless "horse
armor" trash but those four really transformed the game from an
missable title to one that - while still not great - at least was a
more enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy. But you had to pay twice the
price (game + all that DLC) to experience it.

On Mon, 09 Jan 2017 15:03:09 +0200, Anssi Saari <a...@sci.fi> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> There was no such experience in Mass Effect 2 - unless you bought the
>> DLC - and without it the game felt claustrophobic and extremely
>> scripted; a far cry from the vastness of the space-opera genre it was
>> trying to emulate).
>
>Wait, was it actually possible to run around with the hoverthingy on
>random planets? I think I only did the few missions that were provided
>with the DLC but it's definitely been a while...

Unfortunately, no (well, not that I remember). You only got to use the
hovertank (the "Hammerhead", if I recall) during the DLC. I think it
added three or four planets that you could roam about with the tank.
So while it did not quite match up to the freedom of the first game,
it still added much-need expansiveness and freedom to what was
otherwise a game made up of pretty linear corridor-shooter dungeons.