Rumor: Liara DLC Coming to Mass Effect 2

[Eleima]

In the years between the two games, she'd become embroiled in some kind of intergalactic slap-fight with the Shadow Broker, the secretive - some might even say shadowy - buyer and seller of information.

The "shadowy" Shadow Broker?... Humm... Time to take out the thesaurus, I say!!!

Is turning the near-mythical Shadow Broker into just another goon and then bumping him off in a glorified loyalty mission doing a disservice to the character and the game?

If that's the cause, I predict a massive "aww hell no" from the fans. That includes me, by the way. The Shadow Broker has been a mysterious figure since ME1, and although I haven't read the Redemption comics (yet), I'm willing to bet that he/she/they will play a crucial part in ME3.

I was never much of a fan of the character, but if bringing another biotic aboard means I can finally blow Jack [http://masseffect.bioware.com/universe/squad/subject_zero/] out an airlock, you can count me in.

Me too!! I'll even help you space her!


All in all, I don't mind extra DLC, but at this point, I want to say "enough with the DLC, just get started on ME3, already"!!...

 

[pneuma08]

I find it amusing how Jack fragments the community. Then again, strong personalities do that to people.

I won't be gouged and pecked by these cheaply made cash grabs. They can have my cash when their DLC (if any more really is coming) is either worth the money, or when all o these are released in some sort of fairly priced set.

In all honesty, I'm really amazed people are so readily willing to have their pockets picked by poorly made tack-ons like these DLC adds and map packs.

One can argue that releasing games at all is a "cash grab"; I could take all your statements and apply them to a full retail title, for instance.

Besides, I would sooner pay for an addition to something I already enjoy and want more of than spend $60 on something I may or may not enjoy.

 

[mjc0961]

Augh! I sure hope they don't do a "bump off the Shadow Broker in a single loyalty mission" thing as described in the article. That truly would suck. They might as well change the game to make Jack's loyalty mission killing the Illusive Man as well.

Please be wrong.

 

[Starke]

I find it amusing how Jack fragments the community. Then again, strong personalities do that to people.

So does bad writing when a chunk of the fandom can't recognize it as such. Jack falls into this category. She isn't a strong character, she's an annoying archetype, or Bastilla after the end of KOTOR she suffered a crippling addiction to Meth and this is her way back into the industry.

I won't be gouged and pecked by these cheaply made cash grabs. They can have my cash when their DLC (if any more really is coming) is either worth the money, or when all o these are released in some sort of fairly priced set.

In all honesty, I'm really amazed people are so readily willing to have their pockets picked by poorly made tack-ons like these DLC adds and map packs.

One can argue that releasing games at all is a "cash grab"; I could take all your statements and apply them to a full retail title, for instance.

Besides, I would sooner pay for an addition to something I already enjoy and want more of than spend $60 on something I may or may not enjoy.

Yeah, at the same time, ten bucks a pop is a bit steep for the ammount of content they're offering. Would you rather spend $60 on a 100 RPG (Fallout 3) where each 800MSP DLC is five hours long give or take, or would you rather spend 60 bucks on the 20 hour Mass Effect 2 and 800ms points on it's 1 hour DLCs?

 

[McNinja]

Wow. I can believe that BW would put something as huge as the Shadow Broker is tiny 2 hour DLC. I hope they don't, but then again I also wished that the Hammerhead DLC wouldn't suck.

And wtf is up with Liara and Ashleys characters? First Ashley is overly emotional and stupidly irrational, then Liara, who was great in Mass Effect, is now become embroiled in this stupid revenge mission? And if you've watched the youtube thing-

Spoiler

She STILL stays behind.

I mean damn, what is Bioware/EA thinking?

 

[The Bandit]

Jack may very well be one of the few characters in the game who's got a legitimate and well-rounded persona.
Plus, she's the best looking of the bunch. Always a plus.

How is being a psychopath 'well-rounded'? She's a bloody nutjob and I really don't go for the whole, bald headed punk bullshit.

It really is a shame that you have to romance her to get her full story, since I know there's a lot of people out there who don't want to.

(She was my first choice, though.)

The whole 'I'm a ***** because I've had it rough' routine? Been done to death. It could have been instigated better if she was heavily sarcastic and distrustful. Not a blatant crazy person.

...That's exactly how I found her. Sarcastic and distrustful. Not crazy. Sure, she killed people, but if she didn't, then what business would she have on the Normandy?

She's miles and miles above Liara and Liara is miles and miles above Tali. I hate sweaty nerd fantasies. : /

EDIT: On topic, this SHOULD have been in the main game, and I probably won't buy it on principle.

Another issue- everyone whining about the Shadow Broker is suffering from Boba Fett syndrome. You know nothing about him, so you think he's interesting. He's no different from the Illusive Man. I hope he is killed off in DLC. There's no need for two shadowy criminal leaders in ME.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I was okay with not having Liara come back aboard. Honestly, it was nice to see her developed in a way that wasn't wide-eyed idealism & innocence that bordered on the downright annoying. Tali was much younger than Liara when she first appears and yet has more of a worldliness to her, though the quarian was still a bit agog at the Normandy's drive core.

Anyway, I say save Liara for ME3.

 

[Raithnor]

After listening to the audio, it doesn't sound like you'll recruit her at all. In fact the audio suggests that it was quest content that was cut from the game. To be honest, it felt like the quests Liara gave out were cut rather short. All she had you do was hack a couple of computers.

I suppose that's one of the neat things about someone like the Shadow Broker. "Are you sure you really killed him?" So they could possible pull back the Shadow Broker for ME3.

Keep in mind, you'll be able to import your character over for the next game. For that to be reliable, it had to track all of your choices. If I was making a game where I had to do that and had to provide a stream of DLC I'd set up the framework to track all of the DLC choices in advance rather than just try to patch them in later. It also why you can bits and pieces of the content in the main game.

 

[Ian Caronia]

Pretty sure it won't happen, but if it does it should be an "after the plot is over" release for all those who romanced her the first time around. I'm ecstatic to get Tali as a LI, but I feel bad for you guys/gals who got shafted by not being able to snuggle with her. They should release Liara with a romantic-type side quest (since there;s no way in shit the Shadow Man can be taken out in a fucking DLC).

-As for Ashley/Kaiden, well if they think just an apologetic text is going to do them any good after those monumental ***** fests, especially when you've Garrus and Thane waiting for you on the bed, they've got a surprise coming for them in ME3.

 

[KSarty]

The fact that you want to get rid of Jack of all people really has me wondering about your well-being.

I absolutely hated Jack, but then again having Liara back doesn't really do anything for me since I never used really used her anyways.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

Not exactly suprising, though I didn't actually think they'd do it. She said she needed 'several years' to track the Shadow Broker down, so I figured I'd get to help her fit him into that coffee (asari drink coffee?) cup by the time ME3 is released. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this rumor, because I honestly don't want to see that resolved in one to two hours, just like that. Not to mention, how will this end work with people not getting/buying the DLC? Those people are going to be one giant questionmark when ME3 rolls out.

And even if it turns out to be true, where do we fit her on the Normandy? Kasumi already got the spot I had reserved for Liara.

I am getting annoyed at games putting "Important Plot Point"s in the fucking DLCs.

Remember saints row 2? How the ACTUAL ending and cliffhanger for the Julius sidequest was a FUCKING DLC as WELL as being the intro for Saints Row 3!? UGH!

 

[Thaius]

I hope not. Adding her to the story would be very important to players who romanced her in the first game, allowing them to continue their romance where those of us who went with Ashley or Kaiden cannot. It would be a very one-sided addition to the game.

And for the record, Jack was a great character. Great in battle, and her romance sideplot was fantastic (if you went paragon, at least).

 

[pneuma08]

Yeah, at the same time, ten bucks a pop is a bit steep for the ammount of content they're offering. Would you rather spend $60 on a 100 RPG (Fallout 3) where each 800MSP DLC is five hours long give or take, or would you rather spend 60 bucks on the 20 hour Mass Effect 2 and 800ms points on it's 1 hour DLCs?

I would rather spend - and have spent - more money on games I enjoy than something else that's theoretically more value but I dislike.

Seriously, I have Oblivion but I've put less hours into that than ME1+2, and even if I did I would value ME1+2 more highly. I don't care how much content there is, if I don't touch it and/or I don't like it is worthless to me and not worth my time or money.

For another recent example, I picked up Scribblenauts on a whim. I spent some time with the title and ended up hating it, and ended up selling it to a friend. Net loss: price of Kasumi DLC. Net gain: absolutely nothing (well, to be fair, time spent learning I do not like the game and why). I don't even have to ask which one is the better deal. The amount of gameplay and content is completely irrelevant to this equation. Potential has a value of nothing until it is actualized.

I mean, I can understand where you're coming from, but value just isn't quite so simple.

(Although to be fair, I didn't end up paying anything for the Kasumi DLC since I had some MS points lying around. I would have, though!)

 

[David Bray]

I am so sick of Bioware adding DLC which makes my current save problematic. Save it for a sequel

 

[Senrab]

Jack may very well be one of the few characters in the game who's got a legitimate and well-rounded persona.
Plus, she's the best looking of the bunch. Always a plus.

How is being a psychopath 'well-rounded'? She's a bloody nutjob and I really don't go for the whole, bald headed punk bullshit.

Face-value. What you should pay attention to isn't so much, bluntly, what she's saying; but rather whom it is she's saying it to.
A quite large chunk of her dialogue seems more like an implied catharsis of sorts than a traditional call-and-response.
- The latter perhaps most blatantly shown in the conversations with Tali, which end up in borderline hero worship.

Everybody get that?

 

[Internet Kraken]

I honestly don't care about Liara that much so getting her back for a single DLC mission wouldn't do much for me. But I have to agree with other posters that killing off the Shado0w Broker, a character that has been built up both in and outside of the games for some time now, in a short 2 hour long DLC is pretty lame. I mean there is a lot more you could do with he character and there just going to have knocked off in a short bit of DLC? That's crap.

The fact that you want to get rid of Jack of all people really has me wondering about your well-being.

Actually I'm going have to agree with everyone else who did not like Jack. I found her personality to be, well, repulsive. Any character that describes themselves as a "dangerous *****" is instantly going to turn me away from them. Plus I found it incredibly difficult to talk to her without the game heading towards a romance. She's not necessarily a bad character, I just don't like her type of character.

And her outfit is hideous.

 

[TheBoulder]

Oboyoboyoboy! I can't wait for it!

 

[Starke]

Yeah, at the same time, ten bucks a pop is a bit steep for the ammount of content they're offering. Would you rather spend $60 on a 100 RPG (Fallout 3) where each 800MSP DLC is five hours long give or take, or would you rather spend 60 bucks on the 20 hour Mass Effect 2 and 800ms points on it's 1 hour DLCs?

I would rather spend - and have spent - more money on games I enjoy than something else that's theoretically more value but I dislike.

Seriously, I have Oblivion but I've put less hours into that than ME1+2, and even if I did I would value ME1+2 more highly. I don't care how much content there is, if I don't touch it and/or I don't like it is worthless to me and not worth my time or money.

For another recent example, I picked up Scribblenauts on a whim. I spent some time with the title and ended up hating it, and ended up selling it to a friend. Net loss: price of Kasumi DLC. Net gain: absolutely nothing (well, to be fair, time spent learning I do not like the game and why). I don't even have to ask which one is the better deal. The amount of gameplay and content is completely irrelevant to this equation. Potential has a value of nothing until it is actualized.

I mean, I can understand where you're coming from, but value just isn't quite so simple.

Yeah, it never is. Fallout 3's the one that came to mind. It's just, Fallout 3 prices at 800 points and gives you five hour storyline in its games. The same for Borderlands (Zombie Island may be 10, Secret Armory's about 5, and Moxxi, I never got it, so no idea, but it doesn't really have a new story) and FEAR 2 for that matter. Mass Effect gives you one hour stories in its games for the same price. Even if you really like Mass Effect, hell, I enjoy the gameplay quite a bit, that does seem like getting gipped to me.

(Although to be fair, I didn't end up paying anything for the Kasumi DLC since I had some MS points lying around. I would have, though!)

Well, that's still spending money, it's just you spent the money earlier, and gained a benefit from it later.

 

[pneuma08]

Yeah, it never is. Fallout 3's the one that came to mind. It's just, Fallout 3 prices at 800 points and gives you five hour storyline in its games. The same for Borderlands (Zombie Island may be 10, Secret Armory's about 5, and Moxxi, I never got it, so no idea, but it doesn't really have a new story) and FEAR 2 for that matter. Mass Effect gives you one hour stories in its games for the same price. Even if you really like Mass Effect, hell, I enjoy the gameplay quite a bit, that does seem like getting gipped to me.

I actually ended up using the SMG and the character a LOT in my current play-through of the game, but I dunno.

I think this is a case of apples and oranges, though. Fallout 3 takes a while to go through the content not because there's more of it necessarily, but because of the nature of the game. You go exploring, poking around, talking to random people until your ears bleed, climbing up a random building that has no bearing on the plot just to see what's inside. ME2 is incredibly streamlined in comparison. You go through it more quickly because there's less "fluff".

Besides, the setpiece battles in ME2 are so much better than those in Fallout.

(Although to be fair, I didn't end up paying anything for the Kasumi DLC since I had some MS points lying around. I would have, though!)

Well, that's still spending money, it's just you spent the money earlier, and gained a benefit from it later.

Yeah, but I didn't spend it on the DLC. For some reason the distinction seems important. I dunno, it's hard to place the significance of such a thing.