David Hingtgen

kaio---sorry for constantly altering your posts, but I think that one particular location is still pretty spoilery. cory---hmmn what? When do we learn that? (the part about "tendencies"). Is it from the 2 asari who keep gabbing on Illium? I listened to them for a while, but never caught that--though that was their main topic. Or is it from the pair(friends?) that they are talking about, a little ways away?

Tell me more about this hardcore/insanity weapon thing. I haven't heard anything about it. Also--do you mean simply having the DLC for the collector rifle means you can't get the hardcore ones? My first ME 2 Shep was an adept, so I NEVER had a collector rifle--but my other party members did. Would that still "count"? Also, I'm certain the "new weapon acquisition" thing is much more complex than is listed. I've read a half-dozen different recounts of what occurs, and none matched what happened to me and few match each other. Some people seem to just get a "better" version of what they have, some get exclusive/awesome versions of what they have---but I was only offered basic versions of things I didn't have at all. (they were new weapons to MY Shep, yes, but not particularly useful as I'd already spent half the game with my "preferred" weapons by that point---I'd have much preferred a bettter version of what I had) Finally--checking the ME 2 wiki indicates I missed a few things---or just didn't "process" them when I heard. I think acquiring "the party member you almost always get last" earlier may open up a bit more dialogue. PS--anyone got a list of armor bits? I'm sure I'm missing a few, but I checked every store everywhere after every major plot point, in case of them getting new stuff. It seemed to me that some places NEVER got more in, and others only refilled once.

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up "everyone survives"--I got it, and it's fairly irrelevant to what I'm talking about. My past 5 posts have been solely about the "romance" options/achievement. Specifically with regards to a certain someone. kaio---yup, way too streamlined. Best, shortest summary I saw on a forum said "ME 1 had too much, ME 2 has too little. ME 3 should be inbetween". They didn't "fix" the inventory system, they eliminated it. And took away a HUGE part of the customization fun along with it. I'd be fine if they ditched all the little upgrade slots for each weapon/armor----but keep the weapons and armor themselves, especially "crew member armor". If I could have just one thing in ME 3, it'd be to pick armor for crew members again. "Same outfit, but now in black" is a poor substitute. I don't expect them to totally revamp the battle system again, it's not going to happen and I wouldn't even bother asking/hoping--I'm *OK* with it, though it's far from what I'd prefer. Just a few tweaks could make it a lot better for non-soldier classes though. But they could EASILY bring back different sets of armor for everyone. Heck, already does have several completely different outfits, one being straight from ME 1, she just doesn't wear it "out on the field". Mass Effect's engine (as are most Bioware games) are built around characters having multiple costumes etc. I'm almost certain it's still in ME 2's engine for every character to have multiple armors, it's only "activated" for a few. The others all make due with a single model, but multiple textures.

Yeah, that's what happens.

That would be the "don't get the achievement" part I was alluding to. It doesn't count, you can't save, it's like it never happened at all.

To answer your last sentence: Yes. Well, tried. You don't get the achievement, it's impossible that way AFAIK, and my Shep was 100% upgraded with all the skin weaves, muscle weave, and bone weave. And was an adept, too.

Doesn't look like it, but variable LERX's are rumored/possible. Need better/more footage though.

If you expand the search to include fighter-bombers, like the F-111 and Su-24, those are always larger than "pure" fighters, yet retain a fighter-esque look. The F-111 especially may be useful, as it's as much the VF-1's inspiration as the F-14 is.

Found Legends Dev today, BTW. (I'm still working on painting my Arcee---she's quite off the model in some areas--it's not a LACK of paint apps, it's that they're WRONG---strange---some places would have been better to not be painted at all) Plus, the face was just painted awful, which you can't see in-package, and that's the hardest of all, as the shape/plastic conspires against the paint--darn near repels it.

I didn't follow through with exploring that chunk of dialogue because Tali specifically said not to, and I didn't want to jeopardize her chances. (though I was such a renegade in the end it didn't matter)

I got that mail, and it really didn't say anything you didn't already know from ME1 from completing that quest, or that couldn't be obviously inferred from what you learn in ME 2. Anyways--I actually plan to play ME 1 again next, doing a super-quick play (level 60, but easy difficulty), just to set up a "female Paragon" for ME 2. I don't plan to do another FemShep run in ME 2 until there's some major new DLC (or at least some new armor). (I actually totally skipped Zaeed, I honestly can't spare the HDD space and couldn't care less about having him on my team). Maybe ManShep Paragon for ME 2 after that, as I missed out on a LOT of Tali and Miranda dialogue by playing FemShep.

What style vanes? A blisk-like structure like a Super Hornet right ahead of the fan, or a set of curves in the inlet like a B-1B has?

That's a really good idea. If the Baroness is little more than a "programming subset" of nanomachines set to CC's whims, you really could use anyone.

That totally doesn't agree with Vigil's comments in ME 1. More thoughts---hey, you know how the Keepers are insects? (spoilers for mid-point of game or so) spoiler for end game: Also--am I the only one who got in the party? Nobody's mentioned her (though I alluded to it in my "awesome choice" post)

Hey, some of us have a heck of an eye for color differences. And it's just plain weird that there'd be an effect like that. I mean, what if the "pure black" hair option was a different shade depending on if you imported vs created new? It really "shouldn't be" and is pointless---yet it's in the game. I started a new character, and was fiddling around to see if I could "tweak" things just a bit, so I recreated my original ME 1 character (I have all the original numbers). Yet I couldn't match the eye color to the imported version! Everything else was utterly identical, down to the most subtle differences for all other color options. So every other "color" option is the same, yet for some reason ME 2 will render "eyes imported from ME 1" a different shade that it will for "eyes made in ME 2". (actually there's another slight eye difference too, but I won't get into that) (also, someone was asking on the Bioware forums how to get violet eyes, and it seems that "importing from ME 1" may be the only way)

I just discovered that imported characters can have eye colors you can't get by starting a character from scratch. (at least for one of them) Imported on top, the same color on the bottom. Both are "6 taps from the right" and the brightest blue option the game offers. I could perfectly recreate my imported character from scratch, all the settings are identical between games--except for the eye color. Should be identical, yet they're different. I recreated this situation several times, and could swap back and forth "live" in-game, so it's not a lighting/TV/memory issue---the game would "hold" both simultaneously until you actually chose, and they're obviously different when playing too. And most importantly--if you cycle through ALL the eye colors in the character creation screen---you won't get the color my import Shep has. It seems to only exist as an import--but how/why? An ME 1 and ME 2 version for each color? I'd need an ME 1 save with a different custom to compare if other eye colors have the same effect, but I don't---my only other ME 1 Sheps are default Sheps.

25-27 hours first time for ME 1, 39 hours second time (did EVERYTHING, never again), 21-22 hours on other ME 1 runs (doing MOST things). 38 hours for ME 2, doing almost everything.

Technically, a Flanker is longer than its nose-to-tail length. An Sv-51 is too, but not by much.

Guess I'll have to take Tali and Garrus to the Citadel then. There's been VERY few dialogues between party members that I've found. PS---keep talking to the game salesman. He's got a comment about how "RPG's now are more focused on big decisions and fast action combat". PPS----very glad I waited until I had won before cracking open the collector's edition (what a pun) artbook. The biggest spoiler in the game is only like 6 pages in. Also, I like every other concept for that spoiler better than what the final design was. Final design was derivative, the others were much more unique and disturbing. PPPS---I expect/hope ME 3 isn't THAT far away. From the artbook, and what has to happen to tie up loose ends from ME 1, a decent chunk has to have already been written/determined. Also--yeah, it seems I'll need to make a quick ME 1 run just to setup a Paragon save like I want, since canon Shep is a renegade.

Video games in general are the great untapped Revoltech/Figma opportunity. Instead it's just "idol singer anime after idol singer anime", etc. Even when they do, they screw it up. Where's the Cammy/Bison/Vega/Sagat Street Fighter figs? They did Ken/Ryu/Chun, and a couple people nobody knows. They didn't even bother making Akuma when they already had 95% of the parts.

I could have made GI Joe a lot better than that. I'd have started by casting a Baroness that wasn't skinny and blonde and not making everyone in Joe and Cobra related to each other.

Yeah, China actually uses the tooling/jigs of other planes for their "new" designs. And of course, there was the infamous Chinese order for a bunch of 707 engines and windows, when they didn't have any 707's at the time... (they were building their own knock-off, and the design was so close no other engine would work)

Anyone heard anything on how different the endings are? Because I may have to keep avoiding ending spoilers until I beat it with a Paragon who takes an un-upgraded Normandy with just a few disloyal people. (luckily, that should make for a short playthrough) (I still haven't won, but should have within 24 hours) PS---what's the "starting from scratch" canon status on Wrex? Man, ME 3 is going to have to have like 9 different endings to account for stuff from ME 1, especially with some choices you make in ME 2. (I don't know if I doomed a certain species or it'll lead to their salvation---or possibly war with the humans)

Ouch, shipping+handling costs more than the book itself.

Heretic! You shall be forever shunned!