Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Halo 2 (Nov)

@trev666 cheers for the tips and the encouragement! It's really helped me to get going. I am beginning to see the appeal now that I'm out in the galaxy analysing planets and occasionally landing on them! I've been reading all the planet descriptions @themightyant but I've yet to dive into the codex entries. I normally skip codex entries in games (unless it's something I'm really in love with like Doom Eternal) because they use white text on black backgrounds which messes up my eyes. The planet descriptions are an eye pleasing pale blue over dark blue so hopefully the codex entries follow suit.

I think what I'm doing with regards to skill points is basically just using them when I need them. If I've brought a party down to a planet and I don't have enough decryption then I'll up that, same with electronics or whatever else. I've taken your advice and upped my charm/intimidate even more though I seem to be leaning towards paragon even if I've earned myself a few renegade points inadvertently. I haven't really upped any weapons skills yet but I've bolstered my spectre skills. I think ill wait until it seems like I know I won't need specific skills for context sensitive actions for now.

In terms of gear, I think I'm more confused about the upgrades that you press X to see. Is it all just equipped automatically because they all say press X to de-equip. I'm also not sure if the Sell list shows stuff that is equipped or not or whether it throws up a warning if I try to sell anything that is equipped. I don't want to sell equipped gear by mistake.

But yeah other than that, I've done the first world where I found the blue lady (exploring that whole nebula while I was at it) and returned to the Citadel to see the Fan and do a couple of other things. I've gone back out and now I'm at a meteor near Terra Nova. I think I'm basically gonna try and explore all the available nebulas before I tackle the next story world (unless I get bored). I completed one of the sidequests before I got given it and if that's how the game handles sidequests then I have no problem exploring first and just ticking them off when I get back to the Citadel. I'm also going to look up any points of no return later on and make sure I'm aware of them before I trigger them.

It must be a thing in RPGs where you actually have to play a fair amount of it before it clicks and you start to enjoy it. It was like that when I first started the Yakuza games too with Yakuza 0. Tackling the tedious stuff first (like exploring) makes the rest of the game more enjoyable by being able to fast travel to objectives. I was still in that tedious exploration phase in Greedfall before it left Game Pass but I think I'm Gona go ahead and buy that game as it's on the store for 12 quid and I'll make a point to play it after I finish Mass Effect.

Tera nova is quite a long mission as in the original it was DLC

Ah sweet I've worked out what mods are equipped but it's super hard to tell. The equipped mod flashes slightly 😅 and is at the top of the list if it's equipped when you go into the menu. I can barely see the flashing to be honest. I am Gona go through it all later and keep 6 of the best of each mod specialty and mark the rest as junk and sell it all.

Just done a mission that was fairly "close to home" on Earth's moon. I unlocked a specialty from it too. I ended up going with commando for that.

@trev666 I sort of thought it might be DLC because it was highlighted clearly quite similarly to the main story missions

they ironed alot of this out in mass effect 2 and 3. The original mass effect came out in 2007 as an early xbox 360 game so in alot of respects shows its age but the world building, characters and story which is what makes it great are all still there.

my favourite thing is where something you did or didnt do shows up in me2 or me3

I think I've got about 3 or 4 non-story nebulas left to explore before I move on to the second story world.

A couple things I really like:

I love the attention to detail when you land on a planet. If it says it orbits a Blue Giant star then that's what you will see in the sky, same with a Red Dwarf!

I love the alien music. The Citadel music is fine and all but I really like the tunes when you land on an alien planet, it's much more to my tastes!!

I am fully invested in the gameplay loop now. I'm really enjoying exploring different nebulas/systems/planets. I've got tons of gear that I'm yet to sort out and I've even spent all my skill points for all of the characters. I've made sure they all have the context sensitive ones but I've upped their specialties as well as their gun/power proficiencies. They seem to die a lot less during combat now, as do I! 😅

cool glad your into it now Mass effect was one of those games for me as well i tried it on two separate occasions years apart before it finally clicked with me and i realised wow i think this might be my favourite game ive played.

@ralphdibny Greetings Earth-clan. Apologies for the lack of response, I have a good excuse, I was far too busy playing Mass Effect. lol

Where am I?

Embarrassed response, I got a little stuck in/obsessed over the weekend and finished the game and all the missions. Might have given up on a normal life in the meantime so it's good to return to being human this week, I felt like an unwashed Batarian.

Gleeful joy, Glad you are enjoying Mass Effect now. The game has definitely dated in many areas, and initially I was struggling with several things. But soon I got wrapped up in the wonderful universe they created: the story, the characters, the history, the worlds - and all my complaints seemed minor by comparison.

Remorseful response, Completely agree the weapon mods are so poorly handled in the UI. Other games manage this easily but it's completely unclear here, it's just bad design. I didn't realise/forgot there even were mods for the first 5 hours or so and then couldn't figure out what was equipped until eventually realised, like you, it was top of the list and very, very, slightly highlighted. It's bad design and they needed to make it much clearer. Sadly they took all the wrong lessons from this in ME2 and went too far the other way by over-simplifying the weapons system and removing all stats, in some ways it's even more confusing.

Quiet thought, Still cogitating but will post a review soon.

Steadfast agreement, I immediately dived into ME2, which I hadn't planned to do, and have already seen this many times, especially the smaller details. It's so interesting to me playing these back to back for the first time, as I played them each twice at launch on X360 and haven't since. You really realise how many small (and large) details are continued through from game to game. I always knew there was a tight line through, but didn't realise quite how many things followed on.

Excited joy, Will almost certainly play them all in the coming month. That will probably make me late for next month as usual. This month i'm early which might be a first.

@themightyant 😂, I am trying to understand and unpack what you have said so I can reply but I can't stop laughing at the Elcorian delivery

@ralphdibny Laughing out loud, Couldn't resist, it's just too good an opportunity.

Mind blown, Though your comment made me realise if we preface all our text with emojis but type them out as words instead then we basically speak Elcor already. Who needs a Babelfish?

@themightyant 🤬, the elcor truly are a metaphor for speaking online in forums where lack of personable context can create misconceptions!

🥳, One thing I never could work out regarding emoji is where do I put punctuation? I normally just use it as part of a sentence so a full stop would go after 😎.

@themightyant I did not play the 3 games back to back but probably 2/3months apart from each other but yes, you can definitely feel that your world is changing around you do to your own decisions (both minor and major)

@ralphdibny it's a cracking game, glad your digging it now. Have you tried chatting anyone up yet?? I suspect that lady you met might replace your avatar as your favourite blue space lady lol

@R1spam haha it's possible, I do have a couple of earth based blue people I enjoy too (both Mystiques 😅). I like Natalia Tena's Twi'lek in The Mandalorian as well. I'd wish people could actually be blue but I suspect they'd probably end up being more like the hue of that Papa Smurf guy who consumed so much colloidal silver in his life that he turned blue lol

But yeah, I've been Captain Kirking between both Kaiden and Liara. I've told them both that I'm not interested in the other 😅. I want to make sure I end up with Liara though

Well hello there everyone. I haven't frequented any of these here game clubs. However by luck (or possibly fate) I noticed this was sat atop the forum posts.

I finished ME1 for the 5th time about 4 days ago. 3 times x360 / 1 X PS5 / 1 X XSX. 22hours with most of the cheevos knocked off. It hasn't aged well for the big screen and the big time delays are the mountains in the makko.

Contrary to popular opinion the Makko is ok imo. It's the damn level design of the planets. Nightmare. Notice a pickup on top of a mountain over 3 sets of mountains and it's like, nah.

I love the main quest line. I played as a murderous hag and owned everything. Like Vladimir Putin except I got my hands dirty, the coward.

I only missed 4 cheevos. But Im not replaying the game again, too many times now. It's a fantastic game, the improvements are great, The RPG mechanics are wonderful, the story is damn solid. But speeding through this playthrough the Makko sections were half of the total sum.

I completed the remaster last year. All 3 games back to back and played as a nice Shepherd who didn't push my sheepdogs too far. I had forgotten enough for it to feel revolutionary again. 9 months later and it's still fresh in my memory. Being the good girl / guy is more rewarding. Being evil feels wrong. You also miss out on additional story and plotlines.

@themcnoisy nooice one!! You Wana be added to the tag list for future games?

I actually love the mako for some reason. I love trying to get up mountains by timing the boost just right. I've been doing it all night just for fun as well as collecting stuff. It has been broken up by reading planet bios and doing the surveys though!

I think the scenery helps, some grassy boggy planets, some is like salty silica, some are crimson hellscapes. It's all very interesting for me to look at as I swerve around up the side of a mountain! 😅

@ralphdibny Thanks for the offer but no thanks Ralph. There's a few reasons for that.

Going back to the Mako. It can be fun and relaxing in a death stranding kind of way. But on your 5th run it really bogs you down.

I'm Unsure if you've played any of the sequels but 2 is a much better game for pacing with all of the dlc. You get another vehicle, and whilst these missions are shorter in length and a bit contrived, they are engaging. Even if you have finished them before. The graphics overall are much better, the level design is better. It's less of an RPG and more of an action adventure which is disappointing in some ways like missable weapons and upgrades. But it's one of the best action adventure games, up there with HZD and Ghost of Tsushima.

@themcnoisy no worries mate and feel free to message me on PS or Xbox if you Wana chat privately or anything.

I won't be starting Mass Effect 2 until I at least finish Greedfall but I'm already getting a bit anxious because I looked up the points of no return in the first game and by extension saw them in the second game. Looks like there is a big ramification for not meeting certain criteria in a time limit in Mass Effect 2.

I'll probably create a new thread when this month is up to continue the journey outside of Game Club as it's a journey that I'm not sure I want to take completely alone!

@ralphdibny @themcnoisy Another Mako apologist here. I genuinely missed it in future games. While I agree some of the planets layouts are deliberately tough to navigate in it and it's bad design, a little of that is on us. i.e. the fastest way between two points isn't usually a straight line, but it's what we try to do anyway. However they don't really give us the tools to plot a better course other than a vague topography map.

I think what I really loved about the Mako was the sense of adventure and exploration, you actually felt like you were out exploring space, rather than just going colony to colony, corridor to corridor, it felt expansive. It was one of several more RPG elements that they toned down, or entirely removed, in later games. While ME2 is definitely a better all round game, ME1 still has a special space in my heart for this reason and more.

It 100% beats the bloody planet scanning in ME2, whoever came up with that mechanic needs to find a new career. lol

That is AMAZING. Can't wait to see that, as I don't remember seeing this.

@ralphdibny I don't think there's any hard and fast rules for Emojis. But who punctuates on the internet anyway

@ralphdibny the time limit thing is only true if you go for the main content first. As I went all around finishing all planets first I did not trigger it at all (and it appears you are doing the same