Mass Effect 2

[clint g]

Yeah, its hard to imagine the PS3 version of ME2 being anything but a gimped version. Unless they do something awesome like include ME1 on the disc as well. That seems like a stretch though.

[Saquist]

That's exactly what they should do.

[BigFoot]

They'll probably just release ME2 with all the DLC.

[firehawk12]

Microsoft put out a press release saying that ME1 is an exclusively 360 experience. "If you want to the full Mass Effect experience (minus the apparently bad iPhone game) you'll only find that on the Xbox 360" or some such.

So... yeah, I'm not sure what they'll end up doing for the PS3 version. I don't expect them to do more than a simple port, but I wouldn't mind being surprised if they came up with a clever solution to fix the problem.

[Reverend]

Well ME2 already comes with a character creation function for those who can't/dont want to import a ME1 save, does it not? I don't see it being much of a hindrance. It'd be nice of them to include that "Story So Far" video as an extra for those that've never played the first one, but it's by no means a vital inclusion.

[SPCTRE]

firehawk12 wrote:

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Microsoft put out a press release saying that ME1 is an exclusively 360 experience. "If you want to the full Mass Effect experience (minus the apparently bad iPhone game) you'll only find that on the Xbox 360" or some such.

Don't forget ME1 is also available for PC.

But I agree, ME1 should be released for PS3 as well. A special Trilogy Collector's Pack would be awesome once part 3 is released.

[TheGodBen]

Reverend wrote:

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Well ME2 already comes with a character creation function for those who can't/dont want to import a ME1 save, does it not? I don't see it being much of a hindrance. It'd be nice of them to include that "Story So Far" video as an extra for those that've never played the first one, but it's by no means a vital inclusion.

The problem is that over a hundred decisions carry over to ME2, and if you don't have an ME1 save then those decisions are all made for you: Wrex is dead, the Rachni Queen is dead, and so on. Most importantly, it was strongly hinted in ME2 that the decision to save the Rachni Queen would be helpful in ME3, but if PS3 owners don't even have that option, there's less incentive for Bioware to make a big deal out of that in ME3, which is disappointing.

They could include an extensive list of all decisions from ME1 when you're making a new character in ME2, but how many people will want to start a new game by selecting over a hundred options about which they have no understanding of the context? Without doing the Noveria mission, how can you have any understanding of which decision about the Rachni Queen "feels" right for your Shepard?

I'm glad that PS3 owners will finally be able to play this game, everyone should have the opportunity to play it. But it sucks that they're not going to get the full experience from it, and I do worry how this might impact ME3's story.

[Reverend]

I don't disagree, but the way I see it, the worse case scenario is that PS3 users are going to be limited in their starting options in ME3. Which, while it sucks for them, I don't think one of the three main platforms having a slight disadvantage (plotwise) will impact greatly on the overall story for ME3 for which they've probably already worked out in at lest the broad strokes.

I suppose they could introduce the option to have the game automatically make a random selection for all of those little choices so PS3 players will at least have a chance to see things unfold differently if they don't want to set everything manually.Without a release of ME1 on that platform I can't say what else they could reasonably do.

[TheGodBen]

I don't expect the Rachni thing to be a huge deal in ME3's story, but I was hoping that it could have an impact upon the ending. Something like this:

Shepard is willing to sacrifice himself at the end of ME3 to stop the Reapers once and for all, but if you spent the first two games making the right decisions, Shepard survives. The right decisions would be saving the Rachni, saving the Council, stopping the Geth/Quarian war, and allowing Cerberus to investigate the Collector base. If you have three of those things, the odds swing in your favour and Shepard survives, but if you only have two or less, Shepard dies. I think something like that would be a great way to have all three games tie-in with one another, it would be awesome if my decision to let the Council die in ME1 (because I was pissed at them over the death of Kaidan) is what causes my Shepard to die in a game released 4 years later. It would be a great incentive for people to replay the trilogy in order to the combination right.

[SPCTRE]

While I agree with your assessment of the Rachni queen dilemma - I saved her every time -, it would feel wrong to me if there was a "right" decision.

I feel you lack the necessary knowledge about the nature of the Rachni, their history, the queen herself, etc. to make an informed decision. Of course, the game forces you to make a black or white choice for dramatic reasons, but I sorely missed the sensible third option (postpone the decision, keep the queen in custody).

[firehawk12]

TheGodBen wrote:

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I don't expect the Rachni thing to be a huge deal in ME3's story, but I was hoping that it could have an impact upon the ending. Something like this:

Shepard is willing to sacrifice himself at the end of ME3 to stop the Reapers once and for all, but if you spent the first two games making the right decisions, Shepard survives. The right decisions would be saving the Rachni, saving the Council, stopping the Geth/Quarian war, and allowing Cerberus to investigate the Collector base. If you have three of those things, the odds swing in your favour and Shepard survives, but if you only have two or less, Shepard dies. I think something like that would be a great way to have all three games tie-in with one another, it would be awesome if my decision to let the Council die in ME1 (because I was pissed at them over the death of Kaidan) is what causes my Shepard to die in a game released 4 years later. It would be a great incentive for people to replay the trilogy in order to the combination right.

That's really the point. There is no "origin/lore" creation in ME2, so you're stuck with the choices they presume to be canon. So you have a situation where either the ME3 storyline will be kind of limited for PS3 users or there are no consequences for your choices in ME1.

You have some random character show up and tell you that the queen is important, but I get the sinking feeling that nothing of consequence will happen. Heck, at this point I don't think they'll let you choose between the 15 (or however many there are) possible party members that you've amassed throughout ME1/2.

[Jax]

^
I am hoping that saving the Rachni means in my time of need a armada of them are going to come to my aid it would be sooo cool

[TheGodBen]

SPCTRE wrote:

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While I agree with your assessment of the Rachni queen dilemma - I saved her every time -, it would feel wrong to me if there was a "right" decision.

ME2 already told us it was the "right" decision because the Rachni Queen sent an envoy informing us that she was building an army to assist against the Reapers. We also know that saving the Council was probably the "right" decision as all the aliens distrust humans if you let the Council die. We also know that saving Wrex was probably the "right" decision because he went back to Tuchanka to bring peace between the clans. And it's not a simple case of morality either, because saving the Collector base was the right strategic choice while being the wrong moral choice.

Just like with the Suicide Mission, if you make the right strategic calls throughout ME2, everyone survives. I think it would be amazing if the entire Mass Effect trilogy was like that; if you made the right strategic decisions throughout all three games, you wont have to sacrifice Shepard, or Earth, to save the galaxy. I think that would be an incredible achievement on Bioware's part.

firehawk12 wrote:

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That's really the point. There is no "origin/lore" creation in ME2, so you're stuck with the choices they presume to be canon.

Which is particularly annoying because ME2's canonical version was mostly renegade decisions. It must be jarring to play that game as a paragon and keep being told that you were a complete bastard in the first game.

You have some random character show up and tell you that the queen is important, but I get the sinking feeling that nothing of consequence will happen. Heck, at this point I don't think they'll let you choose between the 15 (or however many there are) possible party members that you've amassed throughout ME1/2.

I'd be upset if none of the team members could work with Shepard in ME3, but I'd understand it. But the Rachni Queen being dropped would be a huge let-down, if they're not going to include her in ME3 then they shouldn't have foreshadowed it in ME2. So I'm still holding out hope, and perhaps the PS3 version of ME2 wont force a canonical story on players, but will allow them to choose what happened in the most important events.

[Hartzilla2007]

Reverend wrote:

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I very seriously doubt it. A save file is just a save file after all.

Well looks like it won't be a problem because I got the 1.02 patch to install and now the ME 1 will configure.

[Saquist]

SPCTRE wrote:

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While I agree with your assessment of the Rachni queen dilemma - I saved her every time -, it would feel wrong to me if there was a "right" decision.

I feel you lack the necessary knowledge about the nature of the Rachni, their history, the queen herself, etc. to make an informed decision. Of course, the game forces you to make a black or white choice for dramatic reasons, but I sorely missed the sensible third option (postpone the decision, keep the queen in custody).

I chose the right option to let her go. As an individual she did nothing wrong. But the third option of custody would make sense. But would that be fair? I'm not sure it would. Actually I'm pretty sure it wouldn't. Her captivity would have meant more experiments.