Mass Alex: Mass Effect 2 - Part 02

The power bun is back.

from the Beastcast, I believe they finally meet that DLC character

Exciting

For the planet scanning, I'd focus on rich planets. No need to waste time on the moderate planets, plenty of rich ones out there to scan. And focus on the big peaks, when it gets yellow-y. Don't need to focus on the rumbling.

Always be probeing!

Also, fuck yeah Space Clubs!

Is the planet scanning going to be the new "it's gonna be another fusing episode"?

@drewb346: nah, it's going to be another "it's gonna be another mako mission episode"

Oh boy, scanning planets! You're playing the patched version of the game, which increases the size of the scanning reticule and makes it move way faster. Back at launch, it was even more tedious! Get used to scanning cause you're going to be doing a lot of it.

And for the love of god, NEVER RUN OUT OF FUEL. Not all systems have fuel depots so make sure you always stock up when you see one. Running out of fuel may as well just give you the worst ending right away because it SUUUUUUUCKS.

It always weird me out that Shepard just drains an entire galaxy on their resources in the matters of days/weeks in this game.

shit yeah we going to omega baby!

ps- seeing alex take to the scanning suddenly gave me visions of him as a sweet old man on a beach with a metal detector.

Anyone know what texture mod Vinny used for mass effect 2. The one I used that seems to be the most popular one also changes the game's splash screen... its the "alot texture mod"

Wow for some reason I have literally no memory of this Zaeed character. What else have I forgotten about this game?

This game is so fucking good.

I forgot just how awesome it is. I'm gonna have to replay it now.

The best SMG in the game can be obtained by doing Kasumi's loyalty mission, which can be done early. Recommend doing that given Alex will be using the SMG for quite a bit of combat.

I love Alex Effect 2

@squirrelbait: I believe the gunship still shows up, but it is at half health.

Zaeed’s is an underrated gem, his stories are the best.

I believe they are hooked up to a guitar compressor pedal turned all the way up

New studio is underwater

@fontelroy: I would take some more adventures in the Mako over this tedium.

Helmet mod - the stuff at the bottom seems fairly straight forward.

https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect2/mods/108/

I wish Alex would just ditch the helmet entirely. The stat bonuses aren't worth it. Also god I hope they keep the scanning stuff off camera.

Zaeed's all right.

Best series!

@alex@vinny You might want to make sure you investigate mission areas a bit more. You missed opportunities to chat with the heads of the Blue Suns and the Eclipse before you went and got Garrus. It's especially interesting meeting the Blue Suns guy with Zaeed in tow.

Also, there's a bottle of brandy in Aria's club that Chakwas might like.

Don't remember the game being this hard.

There's a circle icon that comes together over your aiming reticle that represents your ability cooldown. You should be spamming throw. It only has like a 3 second cooldown. And always keep tech shield up.

And don't just run out in the open when there's cover.

That's true, but this one is also a super easy interaction to miss, it just kicks you straight into the bridge and starts the mission. It does give Zaeed a little more flavor though.

Vinny, Re: the heat-sinks/bullets/ammo. The small arms use a block of metal as ammo, and the gun shaves off a tiny fragment of metal for each shot. The ammo is effectively infinite (for gameplay purposes) since it uses so little metal each time, but it overheats. You are correct that they realised it would be quicker to eject and replace the heat-sink than to wait for it to cool, so that's what the "reload" is actually doing.

Don't remember the game being this hard.

The circle icon that closes over your aiming reticle represent your global cool down for abilities. You can spam biotic throw; it's like a 2-3 second CD. Also, always keep tech shield up.

And read the descriptions of the guns. Generally take one that's good against shields and one that's good against armor, and actually switch when fighting enemies using one or the other.

He's DLC. You probably didn't buy him.

I wish Alex would do the combat tutorial because the game becomes a lot easier once you start using abilities and pausing during combat.

The rich / good / medium / poor / depleted thing isn't to mark how big the single resource points are, just how many there are still left. You can be at poor and find a single one that is huge.

Zaeed never gets into a real cutscene conversation with you, all his dialogue is like what you saw in this episode.

Alex doesn't really explore the areas he is in. It could just be his playstyle or that he isn't that interested in seeing everything, but his camera control makes him not even look at some areas of the map and miss whole rooms and dialogues (Blue Suns leader).

Also, Chakwas is in need of a certain bottle of brandy you skipped over.

Yay EPISODE DOS!

Spoiler warning: I'm really interested to see if they will max out this adventure (as much as they did with ME1). This game packs some of the most impressive and most heartfelt DLC (Overlord). Also, some of that really REALLY requires you to get very deep into leveling before you can defeat guys like the Shadow Broker.

get rid of the helmet @alex! #freethebun!

Don't know if people have mentioned it before, but the first option on the helmet customization is a dynamic helmet that's only used when an helmet is necessary and doesn't show up on cutscenes, which I think it's way better. I always found it weird to have the helmet on all the time and this current helmet is clipping with the bun in the back of the head.

Would always get "Archangel" and "The Warlord" before doing Mordin, what happens to those guys down in that quarantine zone is hilarious.

Edit: Its great how little self awareness Alex has. "Anyone up here?" *scans half the room near Aria* "No, Kay" lol.

Bowls.

Vinny should have alex remap warp to RB since he seems to instinctively press that one more, and throw doesn't do anything if the target has shields or armor left. I'm also pretty sure a gun being lower on the list = better but it's been a while.

Oh lord, please remove the helmet. This is a dialogue heavy game. Every time it cuts to a big dumb helmet it suuuuuuucks #freethebun

The war against the 3 mercenary empires begins. Let's hope they also get to those collector side missions.

Seemed a bit harder than my playthroughs, then again I never recruited Archangel first. Wish Alex would run out of cover less when being shot at though.

I also would like the helmet to be turned off during cut-scenes. Pretty sure there's an option for that.

Looking forward to this one. I've always enjoyed Omega as a hub even if it doesn't stand up to the Citadel in ME1

Go to our solar system and probe Uranus. Seriously.

@alex Fun fact: that's Carrie Anne Moss voicing Aria.

@johnymyko: That's only available as an option in 3. Well, 3 and Andromeda.

The option for only hiding the helmet in conversations, or turning off showing it completely, is in the options, but only when accessed from the main menu screen.

@vinny@alex

Edit: ...just realized I'm talking about ME3, not 2. Sorry.

Edit 2: Do you guys have unlimited hacking on (a mod or something) for limited hackable places, because the "3 attempt(s) remaining" count did not go down after 2 failures... ;)

Now we're really getting into the good stuff. Omega is such a great starting location for Mass Effect 2 and really sets the tone of the game.

In terms of tips for you @alex and @vinny I would make sure to max out Paragon as much as possible as soon as possible by talking to as many people as you can and doing as many sidequests as you can and hitting all the Paragon interrupts (preferably before loyalty missions). The game unfortunately doesn't really telegraph this that much but you need to really consistently keep maximizing either your Paragon or Renegade all the way throughout to get the best possible ending. You can't really be wishy washy and try to be both unless you don't want the best possible ending (which you should go for for Mass Effect 3).

Also, make sure to fully upgrade your entire ship as soon as possible as well (Enjoy all that probing! It's my least favorite part of this game!)

Jeremy Medina presents: Every time Alex Navarro says "I have SOOOO many questions" in Mass Alex.

@14:58 Do all Batarians look the same to you?? ;)

Also I LOVE Aria! Carrie-Ann Moss is the Boss!!

The erotic planet probing in this episode was something else..