Mass Effect 2 'Firewalker' DLC coming late March, includes Hammerhead vehicle and 5 missions

sorry this is off-topic, but yay my first tip was turned into an article!

What level did you finish it at? I was 26 and I simply restarted and did the first area up to where you get your ship and I hit level 30 and then stopped playing it.

I finished the game at.. get this.. 29. Pissed me off so bad!

The campaign is so good :/ I'm on my third trip through it, never gets old :D

Why don't you just replay the campaign on Insantiy like man?

If you import a level 60 from ME1, then do as many side mission as you can, you will reach level 30 by the end of one playthrough

I had to fight myself not to thumbs down you, because I strongly disagree. But you stated your case, and that was cool. Ultimately, thumbs up.

But for me, I just um... I don't enjoy exploring when the controls are so sloppy that I could (and did!) go entire sequences (heading toward the Conduit comes to mind) without ever once feeling like I was properly in control of the vehicle. It felt like I was vaguely directing what direction I might roll, twist and whirl torward and sometimes even spin out and start going toward in reverse...

But I didn't hate the Mako in concept. Just in execution. Truth be told, I actually kindly liked the way the guns on it worked (it took me far too long to figure out how to zoom in, lol.)

Likewise, I loved the exploration in 1. As great as 2 is, it ended a bit soon as far as an entire galaxy is concerned. All these worlds out there and all you do is visit anomalies or mine for resources?

I really hope in 3 that you get to go back to Earth, it'd be wonderful to see how it looks =)

The Mako was fantastic when I could get it to go in the right direction, and when it didn't get stuck.

so, I'd say it was fun about 25% of the time.

i think the crazy twisting and turning was more a result of the jagged terrain on planets. would you really expect perfect handling from any vehicle on that kind of terrain?

i'm replaying ME1 now, and i think that the Mako's crazy physics are what make it fun to drive. there was one point where i was trying to go around a base and hit the wall of a cliff. it would've flipped onto it's roof, but instead the physics made it keep going and do a full barrel role in the air. i laughed.

the only thing that annoys me about the mako is the the turret can't aim downward more than like 5 degrees.

i didnt like it at first, but i realized that blowing up geth armatures with the mako rocket is the most kickass part of the game

I hated the Mako's downward aiming as well, but overall I enjoyed driving it. The first playthrough was a little rough but by the second time through I was ripping up mercenaries, rogue biotics, turrets, hushs and geth like a pro.

Mako's funny physic ensure it won't land on its top, Shepard flipping a Mako over like Master Chief is just too... forget it, that would be awesome.

I think the problem is not Mako but the funky terrains. Say, why so many planets have nearly perfect vertical and undriveable crater ranges as if were striked from orbit with giant rods? A planet's description says it has corrosive atmosphere, but the actual terrains show very fresh and sharp zigzag not fragile crust, etc.

Mako's physics was fine: made to be an interplanetary vehicle for any kind of gravity. Problem was the driving: too responsive. Turn your joystick a little bit to the left and the Mako would completely turn left.

@Ballistic: I think that's because Mako's directional control is relative to camera pointing, like Halo, so when you are not looking straght from the behind, your turning would became all over the place? (Halo itself locks your Warthog's hood to your camera,)

The exploring was great, but it was, virtually, pointless.

Yes it added to the "bigness" of the whole experience, but in the end it seemed like padding to make the game longer.

The fraking Mako drove like a drunken Stevie Wonder and was annoying as hell to get over mountains 90% of the time. When you get all the way to the top of a peak thinking that you'll make it over, becuase you don't want to waste the time driving over empty terrain, only to find that you CANNOT make it over, and slide your dumb self back down... It would make me want to punch a kitten.

Simply put, ME2 was "smaller" but far more character driven. There was an endless amount of depth in each character and I'm happy to trade that for the lesser "bigness" that ME1 had.

That said, I can't wait for this. I'd buy it if they put a price on it. Hell, I'd probably buy ME condoms if I used them.

Bareback all the way!

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I loved the Mako in the 1st game.

The Mako was great. Just wish Bioware included a tutorial on how to control it.

BTW, this DLC is instant-purchase.

@Nick

When they said they were fixing the planets in ME2... I thought they meant they were adding content to the endless empty planets. Instead they ripped it out entirely....

I mean, considering both are completely optional, do you really prefer "Scanning" every planet over getting to drive around on it and shooting up some random geth?

To me the only bad part was the Thrasher Maws... I didn't hate them persay, just the fact they could kill me in one hit.

FYI, I never slid off mountains, even if they were impossibly steep. if it got too steep, you just changed your angle of ascent until you were making progress, eventually as you went sideways along a mountain you'd find a climbable polygon. The Mako drove along sheer cliff faces with zero problem at all, provided it was sideways.

For myself, the problem wasn't the Mako, but the terrain and worlds it drove on... There WERE impossibly steep mountain slopes that even climbing at an angle wouldn't work (these slopes were the usually the ones that you had to crest to get to that one out of the way mineral or crashed probe to scan).

All that driving around mountains made the minutes and minutes of drive time add up to hours - all on your way to the action. "Action" that was often a letdown because the building/mine had the same exact layout as the last four that you visited... It was tedious gameplay. Bioware made the better choice in scrapping it (if not drastically overhauling it) versus keeping it in the second game.

I'm not saying planet scanning is better, because I find it just as tedious (actually, the scan waves that signify minerals are present only remind me of the ridiculous terrain I had to climb in the Mako).

If Bioware (hopefully) removes planet scanning in Mass Effect 3 due to complaints, I will wager that there will be people who will come out saying that planet scanning was their favorite part of the game. It's impossible to make everyone happy. I'm guessing this Hammerhead DLC is something of a crumb tossed to the ME1 Mako fans. Essentially Bioware saying, we hear what you say, & we still care about you too.

Now, for a personal Mako anecdote... I managed to get the Mako flipped on its roof - twice. Both times it happened because a thresher maw appeared directly beneath the Mako. First time the thresher maw ended up killing me, the second I managed to get to the pause menu quick enough to just use the 'go back to the Normandy' function.

I hated what I had to do to activate my Cerberus Network, and you may have been slightly joking, but I agree %110 percent. If a game i planned on purchasing goes this route, I will always buy it new. Take note gaming industry, THIS is how you fight pirates(the ones who might have actually bought your game), and used game sales.

The free DLC I've gotten so far has been crap. If I had known, I would never have signed up with Cerberus Network.

AGREED. I'm not sure that used sales really are hurting sales that much, maybe in the long run, but the first 3-6 months of a great game, doubtful. Mass Effect 2 sells for like $55. Who would but it used?

But, if developers thinking they can make more money by tethering a new copy to only one system so they can give away free DLC, then keep it coming.

In the end I'm just glad that for once, developers are adding value to their products to make money rather than withholding features to make money.

On another note, why can't we figure out a way to authenticate a hard drive install so I don't have to put the disc in to play a game from the HDD?

@Mered

Im having trouble activating my cerberus network account as well.

Everytime I try to edit my profile it keeps saying im not signed in no matter how many times I log back in. FML

@Justcallmered, all the DLC is available on torrent sites, so I don't think it's fighting pirates one bit.

@tabi
If you didn't pay for Cerberus you've got nothing to complain about. If you did...shoulda bought new, it was free then.

Well I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

Freeee fallllling...

WRPGs> JRPGs

And you are right, it was a dumb question to ask. I think countless reviews, and praise by gamers should have given you a good idea on whether or not the game is good.

Well, I mostly grew up on JRPG's, but I loved Fallout and I love Mass Effect.

The space opera theme can get a little over-the-top, and the game now plays more like a third person shooter so you may want to take that into account.

Most WRPG's are very similar to shooters, so if you like that type of gameplay, you should purchase this. The story's very well thought out.

Oh, The Fade.... I'm sure you'll live up to your name soon enough.

"WRPGs> JRPGs"

That's a matter of opinion, Tmac. Ok, scratch the "Is it good" comment. If I didn't like games like Fallout then will I like it?

"Most WRPG's are very similar to shooters"

-Elder Scrolls
-Diablo
-Torchlight
-Dragon Age

etc...

They all play like shooters my ass.

Off topic: In The Fade is my favorite QOTSA song.

On Topic: Mass Effect 2 did away with a lot of rpg aspects, but you do level up, and you do assign points into "talents." One thing that I love about it is that characters that you're not using benefit from the experience that you gain, so you all level up together. I wish other games (Final Fantasy) would employ such a system.

"One thing that I love about it is that characters that you're not using benefit from the experience that you gain, so you all level up together."

Kingdom Hearts did that. Anyways, one of the things about Final Fantasy is choosing which characters to level up, it's one of the aspects that the game founded itself upon.

Did you have a choice of who was in your party in Kingdom Hearts? I don't remember. I mean your entire party, even those that are just sitting back on the ship. Truth be told, I got tired of Kingdom Hearts after 2 (fantastic battle system, though.)

Yeah, I agree, but how fantastic would it have been while playing FF VII to say "you know what? I'm tired of Sid. I want to bring in Vincent." but not have to worry about what level the guy was at. I mean, that system seems to antiquated after playing Mass Effect.

what didn't you like about fallout 3? it's hard for me to say if it's different enough that you might like it.

"I got tired of Kingdom Hearts after 2 "

There is only two... (Portables don't count)

and yeah that would have been nice... I think FF X perfected it though with switching characters during battle. Gave it a nice balance between the characters.

I was counting the portables. I stopped playing after 2. Oh, yes, being able to switch mid-combat was fantastic. I think you can do that in XII also? maybe?

Well, I did like Elder Scrolls IV but as for Fallout it just wasn't open enough for me and not enough side quests. And I'm not about to pay another $40 for all the DLC. And honestly, other than that I don't know why I don't like it, I just don't. I mean, I love the style even, I just... Don't like it and I don't know why.

If you're looking for something extremely open then Mass Effect may not be for you. The story is fantastic, the characters are fantastic, but there isn't enough content to sink over 100 hours into. I spent 40 hours on the original, and 35 on the sequel.