@vinny: Heads Up: That cutscene you & Alex saw with Admiral Hackett was the intro for the Arrival dlc. It’s the one dlc in this game that I (and most others) would pretty strongly recommend playing after the main ME2 campaign is complete as the end of the dlc leads right into the intro events for ME3 (the Arrival mission is the reason Shepard is where they are at the start of ME3). Honestly I’ve never really understood why they decided to let the Arrival dlc become active after Horizon but that’s a choice they made I guess. Obviously if Alex decided to tackle the Arrival mission before completing the main campaign it wouldn’t break anything it would just be narratively strange considering the intro of ME3 is supposed to take place not long after the events of the Arrival mission and that’s really all I can say without spoiling stuff. Anyway, loving the series!
I think Abby would like Resident Evil 7. It’s right up there with RE2 remake in that it’s the most modern game in the series that also has a lot of puzzles and exploration.
Dan’s argument about how he wasn’t cutting the line was bad. Having said that, if I was ever genuinely concerned about potentially going in my pants you better believe I’m cutting that fucking line. If it’s not an emergency then cutting is genuinely a dick move. Having said that, there are people who seem to have extreme views about people who cut lines. Also there are people who seem to have extreme views about Dan. He can be pretty ignorant to a frustrating/annoying degree at times but man people read a lot into him in some very extreme ways. It feels like there are a lot of people who don’t like him so they really want him to be exposed as some right wing prick so that they can be like “SEE?! I knew it the whole time!” Calm the fuck down people. He’s fine. If you don’t like him then you don’t like him & that’s fine but don’t read into shit about a person that really isn’t there folks.
@vinny: Since I’ve seen some confusion about this I wanted clarify the costume situation. You do unlock partner costumes via loyalty missions but you guys also have some dlc partner costumes (you messed with them in a previous episode, thus why Miranda is currently wearing what she’s wearing). You choose partner costumes on the screen where you choose which partners you want to bring with you on a mission. There are two characters I might suggest checking out their alt costumes: the prisoner character you haven’t unlocked yet and Garrus. Garrus in particular because his default outfit stays permanently battle damaged for the rest of the game which just always kind of bothered me. lol. As always, it’s been great to see Alex experiencing this game as (much like you) this a definite favorite of mine.
@vinny: I was someone who previously messaged you about the Arrival dlc activating early and I’ve got an update for you: the trigger for that mission first pops up after the mission on Horizon (which is about halfway through the game). I couldn’t find this information on the previous search I did but I found it this time. I saw a few things that make it sound like the Arrival trigger becomes a thing just before the Horizon mission but most things I read said that the trigger for the Arrival dlc doesn’t become available until after the Horizon mission.
Also, I do post in the comments much so how do you hide spoilers in comments? I ask as there’s just one other thing I’d like to give a heads up about but I’d rather not post in the open about it. It’s related to something that if the plan with Mass Alex is for Alex to eventually play through ME3 then there is something in this game that could... well, complicate that?
@alex: Glad you seem to be enjoying the game so far Alex. Just FYI for conversations, DLC characters like Zaeed can’t engage in unique conversations. They can only talk at you. Between every mission they’ll have 3 (usually new) things to tell you (though the other dlc character has more interesting things to say). Also, for the characters you can engage in normal conversation with you may have to occasionally dig back into old conversation points as there might be new things they have to say.
Oh also ambient dialogue is kind of a big thing in this game (and even moreso in ME3). For example walk past the engineers after a mission and they’ll generally have something new to say to each other. There’s even weird stuff like when you’re at a hub if you walk past two npcs talking where their conversation will seemingly stop but if you walk somewhat far away from them and then back towards them they’ll continue their conversation. It’s really strange the way it works but a lot of the ambient dialogue is actually pretty interesting so I would definitely try not to blow past stuff like that. Also the ambient dialogue tends to be some of the funniest stuff in the game so again, worth seeking out.
Oh one last thing, absolutely play how you want (that’s a big reason why I like watching this series) but something I want to through out there as someone who has played through this trilogy in pretty much every conceivable way: some of the renegade choices in this game are some of the most fun and/or badass choices in this series. Going renegade in certain instances can still mean being a terrible person so I wouldn’t go all in on that. I say that because while ME1 really rewards going all in on either being paragon or renegade I think ME2 does a really great job at encouraging the player to pick the option that best suits whatever their current situation is. You’ve been doing that so far so I guess I just wanted to state that I think you’ll have the most fun if you continue down that path for whatever that’s worth.
The Arrival dlc is meant to be played post game as it’s events lead right into Mass Effect 3. Having said that, if you have the dlc installed at the start of the game the game starts giving you notifications about that mission as soon as the game cuts you loose to do your own thing. It’s very easy to accidentally activate the intro cutscene related to the Arrival dlc (I think it’s activated by selecting something on Shepard’s personal PC or it activates via a Kelly conversation? Been long enough since I’ve played that how exactly it activates is a little foggy). Based on all that I would strongly recommend avoiding the Arrival dlc until the main story is done and I would avoid activating the cutscene for this dlc until you’re ready to play the mission. That second part is maybe not critical but it would probably be for the best. Just FYI, storywise you can tackle the rest of the dlc whenever you want (and you can technically do the Arrival dlc whenever too) but I just wanted to give you a heads up is all.
Dan might appreciate this since he’s brought up not wanting to hunt down a sensor bar multiple times now: For the Wii menu plug in a Wii Classic Controller into your Wiimote and you won’t have to plug in a sensor. The right analog stick controls the cursor and everything else works as you’d like expect. You’re welcome! lol
thepenguin55's comments