So, it's a little more than a month away...and I cannot wait...this new video that showed up on Xbox Live today only got me even more pumped...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DtiTxg70gI

Oh, and Martin Sheen for the motherfucking win.

Just saw a clip of OXM at the studio to talk about the game...one thing I caught was the somewhat casual reference to the game being on two discs...not sure how I feel about that.

Game is getting a huge push during 24...

I'm gonna go ahead and predict this to be Game of the Year.

I think you are right... I think the competitors are:

Alan Wake - I think it will be fun and original, but the gameplay doesn't look too intense
Bioshock 2 - Sequel looks too similar to original
Halo Reach - I'm sure it will be fun, but I'm wondering if it will be a huge leap from Halo 3
Splinter Cell Conviction - I'm stoked about this one
Red Dead Redemption - GTA on horseback... no thanks.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising - hmmm could be fun. And won't it be on the 360 this time?
Dead Rising 2 - Campy and fun most likely, but unlikely to win best of anythign
Fable 3 - don't know much about this title
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Like Bioshock and Halo, I doubt there will be a huge leap from the original

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Cap'n Sheperd...

Well, if you were going to pick a game released in January as Game of the Year, this would be it...unless you dig Bayonetta, which I don't...

Obviously I think Halo: Reach is going to be huge, and I'm not alone in that opinion; Geoff Keighley has already said he thinks it will be the biggest game of 2010. Now, whether or not that translates into a GOTY is yet to be seen.

I'm not sure what to think about Fable 3. Once the Peter M. hype machine ramps up, I'm sure we will be promised a game that would be worthy of Game of the Year, but I really doubt we will see it...I thought Fable 2 was great, but it wasn't GOTY in my book.

I'm hoping Final Fantasy XIII is GOTY quality, but the comments about a very linear storyline scares me a bit...I prefer my role playing to be a more open world experience.

Finally, if Epic sticks to the 2 year gap between the first two installments, we are due for Gears of War 3 this year, likely in November. I'm guessing though if we don't hear about it by the end of February that it's not coming out this year. It likely wouldn't win my GOTY award, as I find the multiplayer to be unplayable, but I know it would certainly contend.

Did you see this? Kind of a comment on the quality of the "science fiction" in Mass Effect. I think some of the stuff is very spot on. I've been hammering on this for awhile that Mass Effect is some of the best sci-fi I've seen in awhile. It also has that political thriller aspect to it as well. And it also goes into how that the balance of shooter vs. RPG is pulled off pretty well in the ME series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJvEZNk0jbY&feature=player_embedded#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ayo9znlQGw&feature=player_embedded

I DVR'd that but some fucking wrestling was running late (how the fuck does that happen...scripted wrestling goes late?) so I missed the last segment...they did a special on the original as well...I liked that one better...

Best Sci-Fi I've seen since Halo...

The launch trailer is set to air during "Break 25" aka the two minute warning of the NFC championship today...also, the first half recap will be "brought to you by Mass Effect 2."

EA pulling out all the stops for this fucker...

Not impressed.

I'm also not a huge sci-fi fan, though.

This game sounds really stupid, at least for my tastes. Conversation wheels? If I wanted to spend my time reading i would spend my time reading.

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Yeah... if you aren't interested in the story, then this will seem tedious to you. But as I've said before, if you are in the least bit interested in the plot, then this is pretty good science fiction... hell, it's a pretty good political thriller if you are into that genre too. I'm not one of those fanboys, but I do like to read... this stuff is pretty good, IMHO.

was the 1st game any good?

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@audioidkid

Parts of it were epic. The story, the setting, the conversational system where everyone talks including your own character. The RPG aspects were great too. The game fell apart a little bit in the combat system. It operated similarly to their previous games, but the addition of FPS style gunplay felt a bit off. There was no cover system and the controls were clunky. The side quests were all terribly repetitive and were there only if you had to have more of the game or wanted to learn a little more about the backstory of the universe. Load times were "masked" by elevator rides that took freaking forever. You would jump from one side of the galaxy in mere moments in your spaceship, but take an elevator ride up 3 floors? That's a 5 minute ride. The biggest problem with the original game was the controls of your planetary vehicle, the Mako. It was a complete and utter mess. The controls were really loose and the vehicle only loosely followed any sort of physics while bounding about a planet. It was beyond obnoxious.



The gunplay/combat is supposed to be fixed in ME2, and the side quests are supposed to be far more varied. Bioware claims load times are gone or improved. I haven't seen anything about the vehicle system yet, but I can't imagine they left that part of the game alone.

That was frickin' hilarious! You are so correct about that. Were you a perv like me to try to whirl the camera around to check out the hot girl's ass?

What else were you going to do but play with the camera?

I had already seen the trailer so nothing really surprised me (other than the fact that EA shelled out the cash for a full two minutes).

I did have a couple guys at work today ask me about it...they commented on how it looked more like a movie than a game and how they really weren't sure what was going on. I have a feeling that is how the average person watching that felt.

Props to EA for going all out on the advertising, but I'm guessing they won't come close to getting their money's worth.

9.6 out of 10 from IGN. They say:
"Games like Mass Effect 2 don't come around often enough. Look at any aspect and you can be sure it's great. It's incredibly personal while still retaining a sense of epic sweeping scale. The combat and mission design are outstanding. The visuals, voice acting, soundtrack, and direction are miles ahead of the competition. Perhaps most impressively, Mass Effect 2 manages to fulfill its incredible ambition while only suffering from very few technical hiccups. The only real caveat I should mention is that some of the revelations and plot twists won't be quite as powerful if you haven't played Mass Effect 1, but that isn't any reason to skip this fantastic videogame."

Massive. Nerd. Boner

IGN Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yC-A2To-t8

Gamespot Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uICaY2T1vUE

After a rough start (game froze right before the first save point, and nothing can be skipped prior to that) I'm enjoying the hell out of this. Yes, the shooting and cover systems are MUCH better.

I probably wasted over two hours just doing the mineral collection mini-game...stupidly simple, but it's addicting...plus, hearing Tricia Helfer say the word probe over and over again is a nice touch...

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

Well.. hells bells. I picked up the game this evening figuring it'd be a good way to pass the time in the hotel. 5 1/2 hours later, I'm still up and forced myself to stop playing. So far, everything that was wrong in the first game has been fixed. I'm still early in the game so I haven't leveled my chars much, but I hope they keep the relative skill depth from the first game. I bothered me when Marvel: Ultimate Alliance dumbed down their skill tree ( among other things ) from the first to the second game.

I'm absolutely hooked. The PC version looks amazing and having hotkeys to manage abilities is a nice touch.

So I was sitting in club Afterlife, listening to the music, and I suddenly had visions of a car spinning around while some guy told me what kind of powerplant it had in it.

Major kudos for the first person to figure out what I'm talking about...

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

Played this a bunch last night. Pretty cool beginning. I proceeding really slowly as I'm reading everything. Man, this world is deep. Got 3 hours of sleep last night. Yeah, it's one of those games.

The only thing about the game is that the story seems to be ripping so many characters off. The most annoying is The Illusive Man, which is ridiculously similar to The Smoking Man from X-files. I know the characters will likely get more complex as the story unfolds, but so far they seem cookie cutter. Nonetheless, I still think the races are truly interesting and the worlds are rich and beautiful to look at.

Game has already sold 2 million units...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BioWares-Mass-Effect-2-Hailed-bw-1014215414.html?x=0&.v=1

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

Kudos to EA/Bioware for doing a pretty good collector's edition. For an extra ten bucks, I got some exclusive in game content, an art book, a bonus disc and the first issue of ME: Redemption...plus a nice metal case.

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

That is how you end a fucking game...

When does the third one come out?

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."