Mass Effect 2 - Skills would do a romance sub-plot but he has work in the morning
 

Just noticed this today. First teaser trailer. It could be considered a spoiler I guess so be forewarned.

Mass Effect 2 - Teaser

It won't be out until Fall 2010 most likely since Dragon Age: Origins, the other Bioware game, which is a spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate is coming out near the end of this year.

Game was fantastic even with the glitches, so I am looking forward to it greatly.

Fuck Dragon Age. I want ME2 NOW.

In before Enemies Everywhere 2 will have boring planetary expeditions yet again.

Is there any chance that the game will actually play like the game they show off in the developer interviews this time?

I mean, waxing lyrical about how you'll be able to talk to nearly everyone in the universe you meet, interupt conversations mid-speech and switch to different characters during battle is great, unless you actually drop every single one of those things before you release the game.

I liked Mass Effect, despite the massively repetitive side-quests, but I'm not going to believe any of the hype about the sequel until I've seen it running on the final build myself.

They actually said all that crap would be in the game? I didn't actually pay attention to the hype for it and grabbed it on the way home from work one day on a friend's recommendation. I loved it, but I wasn't really sure what to expect, either. Glad I didn't read the hype.

Well, the switch characters system in combat that allowed you to set waypoints for them and directly control if needed was one glaring omission. They demoed it early on, but apparently removed it.

You could interrupt conversations and walk away, but it didn't really have that much of an effect. Anything else probably stems from how the game wasn't quite as vast as it appeared to be and Shin is just being bitter.

The teaser is kinda worrying though. Does this mean we can't transfer old characters and have to make a new one? Are they planning on releasing it for PS3 as well and this is their way of making a fresh start of people who haven't played 1? Or is that one of those "this is where it ends, now let's flashback the hell out of this" things.

This is why I pay minimal attention to the hype for most games. It makes me more easily satisfied by what is actually there. I don't want to be dissapointed by what is missing, when I could focus on what is actually on the disc.

I'm excited for ME2, but I don't plan on watching trailers. I'll just snag the game when it hits shelves.

=P

The only video I really watched was an interview from E3 where some dude went into pretty great depth about the combat system (Including character switching) and the fact that inter-personal relationships were really important, showing a demonstration of how the Turian dude was being a bit bolshy so you could just tell him to shut up and do what he was told mid-sentence, with the heavy implication that your relationship with the other characters would have a big effect on the game.

What they actually gave you was a combat system where your team mates spend a lot of time standing in the open right next to some nice cover, getting killed while you just spam the shoulder button commands for the achievement points and kill all the bad guys with pop-up and shoot tactics not unlike Rainbow's but with all the risk of getting killed with a headshot or being outflanked by the clever enemy AI removed. The other members of your party had opinions but rarely voiced them unless you went looking for them and their opinions didn't make the slightest bit of difference to the story, with each major decision (All three of them) being blindingly obvious and being made at that point, bollocks to how you acted all game.

Like I said, I liked the game but after KOTOR 2 with it's depth of characters, an affinity system that actually affected the plot and a combat system than had some semblance of tactics to it (Even if it was incredibly easy to build a broken, over-powered character), one could be forgiven for expecting a little more from Mass Effect, especially after they said there would be a lot more in an interview no more than three months before the thing was launched.

Really, they shouldn't have bothered with Mass Effect at all and spent the time finishing KOTOR 2 and making a third one of those.

yeah i was thinkin about this too, would be super gay since then hyped it all up that you would transfer your char and shit.

I expect save files to carry over, but only so they can set the game up for you without asking questions about Shepherd (aka: KOTOR II). That way they know who you killed off, what Shepherd looks like, who you went to bed with, and so on.

I hate the idea of Shepherd being dead and you having to make a new guy to follow in his footsteps or track him down and some shit. That's what I'm expecting from the sequel after watching the trailer. Just like KOTOR II. -_-

You guys can't seriously believe Shepherd is fucking dead, can you? They would just kill him/her off in the blank area between Mass Effect and the sequel, despite talking repeatedly about how Shepherd will be in ALL THREE GAMES?

I mean it's one thing to remove character switching or interrupting conversations, but to just go back on something like that would be fucking ridiculous.

Given that EA now has the ball, that three games may be multiplied by two. They'll milk the hell out of that thing as long as it sells.

Why are people acting like Bioware had anything to do with KOTOR II?

That is true people, it was Obsidian. Although they are coming back to KOTOR with the Star Wars KOTOR MMO, probably in like three years

Oh and here is a new interview with Bioware CEO's from G4 on Mass and Dragon Age.
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/69...e-Origins.html

And just finishing watching it, they don't reveal much of anything

Of course he's alive. If that trailer's not just an obvious fanboy hype generator then I'll be eternally surprised. Safe money says he's on some top secret mission and they're telling everyone he's dead as some kind of cover-up. The game will probably start with some kind of gay as all fuck MGS2 effort where you play "A mysterious man in a space suit" who surprise surprise turns out to be Shepherd.

I'd suggest though that while you might be able to carry over the character, they won't be carrying over the plot nuances, seeing as how they mentioned Wrex in the trailer as a companion and it's quite easy to finish the game up without him. I mean, KOTOR 2 assumes you didn't leave Carth behind to die on the last planet or kill Bastilla or Jolee Bindu if memory serves.

Pang, I think we're all talking about KOTOR 2 as Bioware are widely associated with the franchise and still are. I forgot they didn't actually do the second game. Still, they could have learned a lot if they'd played it...

I did catch an interview somewhere where a developer for ME2 said that they would, in fact, keep whatever choices you made in the sequels. In a way I guess that makes there no "official canon" storyline.

Seems pretty difficult. I'd like to see it get pulled off, but... I guess we'll see.

Maybe the being dead/super secret mission thing is an excuse for you to remake the visuals of the character. Hopefully they got more choices this time so you can make a sexy hero.

My second playthrough character looks like a female Heinrich Himmler.

More hairstyles. I mean it's a minor gripe, but there was like ONE style for the women that didn't look dreadful, and no style at all for the men. It was a problem because the NPCs you met use the exact same few hair styles and it looked ridiculous.

I found all the evil conversation topics a bit dissappointing. Shepard sounded like a teenager and less like a new Saren.
That said, I wouldn't cry if Shepard is really dead. As long as I can create a character myself that doesn't look like crap compared to BioWare's pre-created dudes.

New Bioware team working on Mass Effect 2?

Not exactly sure what this means for the game. Hopefully nothing bad.

I think it's been common knowledge for a while that EA were shedding jobs and restructuring their studios. I'm sure I read something in Edge before christmas about Bioware being one of the ones getting the chop but I can't find the article now.

The story you linked to is them trying to put a positive spin on the fact they've made a load of people redundant and are cost cutting in terms of locations too. Essentially they've taken two or three studios, sacked a bunch of people and then put those left together and probably decided Bioware was the best name to keep.

One would hope this is a good thing though as new people will bring new ideas and you'd think that the ones who kept their jobs would be the most talented (As opposed to the cheapest, which would be bad news). EA have also said they're concentrating on quality over quantity these days and a rushed out ME2 would do them no favours.

It all depends how far into development they are. If the engine is built, the systems are all in place and they're just scripting the thing, new talent would definitely be a good thing. If they're pretty much starting from scratch then they're fucked, as the release of trailers implies a sooner-rather-than-later time frame for release.

I would have assumed they'd be working on an updated version of the first game's engine, so I'd be very surprised if they were starting from scratch.

Not in the slightest. I can believe the game might start with Shepard missing, presumed dead. That's about the most I can imagine they would do. No chance they are going to kill him off, in my mind.

It's a nice touch when they do decide to do something drastic like kill of the protagonist, though. Shepard is kind of bland no matter what way you played him as, so I wouldn't be crushed if they killed him off.

I'll take Wrex as the protagonist any day. God that would be so awesome.