Zero Punctuation: Mass Effect 2

[yanipheonu]

WOAH! Epic burn at the beginning. 0_o

Yeah, Bioware needs to really work on their facial animations.

 

[AceDiamond]

I never really get why Yahtzee complains about games being too easy when there are multiple difficulty settings.

He should try not issuing commands to the AI on Insanity and see how far he gets...

Someone may have already said this but I'm fucked if I'm reading 191 posts after a 12 hour shift to find out but...

He's only got a few days to review the game, I'm fairly confident that 'easy' is a setting that will allow him to cut a swathe through the story fastest to cover as much game as possible.

In that case he shouldn't say "the game is too easy" if all he's able to do to stay on track is play on easy. I perfectly understand that he's on a schedule and thus needs to compromise difficulty levels in order to play through a game but at the same time if he does that he can't really turn around and say "too easy" because of it. Of course it's going to be too easy, you were playing on easy.

Then again maybe I just suck because I died a good number of times on Normal difficulty.

 

[Raithnor]

I want to know who Yahtzee sexed! I hope it's Tali.

Spoiler

From what Yahtzee described that was the Miranda ending. Although why she felt the need to screw in the engine room is beyond me.

 

[pepitko]

Good vid as always, he seemed to like this one. Good writing is also a big ++ in my book, I love a good story in games.

 

[aPod]

I never really get why Yahtzee complains about games being too easy when there are multiple difficulty settings.

He should try not issuing commands to the AI on Insanity and see how far he gets...

Someone may have already said this but I'm fucked if I'm reading 191 posts after a 12 hour shift to find out but...

He's only got a few days to review the game, I'm fairly confident that 'easy' is a setting that will allow him to cut a swathe through the story fastest to cover as much game as possible.

In that case he shouldn't say "the game is too easy" if all he's able to do to stay on track is play on easy. I perfectly understand that he's on a schedule and thus needs to compromise difficulty levels in order to play through a game but at the same time if he does that he can't really turn around and say "too easy" because of it. Of course it's going to be too easy, you were playing on easy.

Then again maybe I just suck because I died a good number of times on Normal difficulty.

Its Yahtzee's game, he can play it however he wants. You should know that, yahtzee is an entertainer and the main reason he rants is because its more entertaining. He's criticism should be taken with a grain of salt because he has stretched small gameplay flaws in games he actually likes because, well talking about how good a game is BORING.

Anyways, i loved the review. Though we really dont need a square mile of bland terrain do we? I thought we got past this.

 

[Axolotl]

Planescape I will give you and Black Isle died of mismanagement and poor followups.

Mismangement on Interplays side of things with them deciding that consoles were the way to go and cancelling Black Isle's 3 big projects in a row.

But Troika? I had Arcanum and Bloodlines. Both were very flawed pieces that failed to catch on because they had issues that were serious enough to kill being able to really play the game. The writing was okay but if it had been seriously that good it would have caught on. They were ahead of their time considering that the settings were Steampunk and Vampires.

Troika dies because of dickisness from Activision. And Bloodlines did catch on, it has a fan community that is still doing fan patches today. And whilst it had many issues writing quality was not one of them.

Financial success does not equal good writting and vice versa.

 

[Fuhjem]

THANK YOU! You've summed up how I feel about this game.

 

[Jonci]

Jetpacks would be an issue when exploring planets without an oxygen atmosphere. Because the fuel wouldn't be able to combust unless it used oxygen inside the pack intself, but then it would need to be huge.

Mass Effect field. The Normandy can move without burning fuel and biotics can toss you around with their mind. So jetpack equal localized mass effect field that you "drop" into.

 

[BigT65]

You failed to mention the crappy disk swapping.

 

[JeanLuc761]

You failed to mention the crappy disk swapping.

Yahtzee played the PC version which doesn't have that issue.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Wait, this wasn't a Final Fantasy XIII review...

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

EVE Online actually lets you do that AS A JOB?

 

[WJeff]

thank god for no more vehicles

and to anyone developing a game with Unreal Engine 3: NEVER INCLUDE VEHICLE SECTIONS.

but i'm still not going to buy this game. if the gameplay isn't good, i'm not going to put myself through it. it's why i never finished Mass Effect 1.

 

[Soren91]

Bioware should use Yahtzee's idea, it would prove to be the most enjoyable planet exploration method so far.

Yahtzee's reference made me think again what the "story" in Borderlands is actually like. I don't want to read all of that little text though. Ah, laziness...

 

[lozfoe444]

What's with 2009 and 2010 being the years of sequals?

 

[lahanl01]

what game was capt. goble-cock from

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I never really get why Yahtzee complains about games being too easy when there are multiple difficulty settings.

He should try not issuing commands to the AI on Insanity and see how far he gets...

Someone may have already said this but I'm fucked if I'm reading 191 posts after a 12 hour shift to find out but...

He's only got a few days to review the game, I'm fairly confident that 'easy' is a setting that will allow him to cut a swathe through the story fastest to cover as much game as possible.

Possibly, but that's got nothing to do with my point... he shouldn't criticise it for being too easy when he hasn't played it on the higher settings.

And welcome to the Escapist, may you enjoy your stay

 

[CloggedDonkey]

you are funny once again! but what, did people complain about you being to mean to bayonetta and dark siders so you decided to tone it down a little? but whatever, the jokes are funny and that's all that matters.

 

[blippity]

The biggest laugh I got from this was the Eve reference. That was about it really.

 

[ian528]

Planescape I will give you and Black Isle died of mismanagement and poor followups.

Mismangement on Interplays side of things with them deciding that consoles were the way to go and cancelling Black Isle's 3 big projects in a row.

That may be true but we are not privy to why those 3 projects were cancelled. Also the projects they did complete at the end were derivative and no where near the height of what Planescape was. And that team did leave to become Troika. Icewind Dale 2 being a prime example of phoning it in.

But Troika? I had Arcanum and Bloodlines. Both were very flawed pieces that failed to catch on because they had issues that were serious enough to kill being able to really play the game. The writing was okay but if it had been seriously that good it would have caught on. They were ahead of their time considering that the settings were Steampunk and Vampires.

Troika dies because of dickisness from Activision. And Bloodlines did catch on, it has a fan community that is still doing fan patches today. And whilst it had many issues writing quality was not one of them.

Financial success does not equal good writting and vice versa.[/quote]

True that financial success does not equal good writing but it does equate to a sell-able game. Money matters and ignoring the money because you think that product is great does not make the product great. Bioware and Black Isle and in sense Troika (being founded out of the ruins of Black Isle) had worked together a great deal. Obsidian a company that has many people from Troika and Black Isle still works with Bioware and probably will into the future. I think the writing for Mass Effect was exceptionally good overall. However, I also enjoyed and purchased almost all Black Isle and Troika games so I also enjoyed them as well. (I do have elemental evil too.) I must say that I may go back and play bloodlines seeing that there are patches out there but I must admit it was a rage quit as I kept getting blocked by bugs.
I have already pre-ordered Alpha Protocol and hope it lives up to the bloodlines it has.