James T. Shepard!

and of course as awesome as DA:O is, you know i still had to put it down in favor of (surprise) Bioware's sequal to the awesome game Mass Effect.

cause nothing beats galavanting about the galaxy and screwing alien chicks!

...oh and saving the known galaxy from anihilation

hands down the best thing about the game is you can import your character from the first game.

some people (including me) had trouble importing characters at first but replaying the game from your last save on the first game really quick will fix that (last save is usually an auto save just before fighting Saren's "final form" so its only like 5 mins). but importing your character is so awesome, starting a new character is really kind of a shame. it imports your class and appearance both of which you can alter if you choose too, but most importantly it imports a certain ammount of your characters gained renegade or paragon attributes, and all of your previous games sidequests and backstory info. remember Conrad Verner? oh yeah hes back with a side quest. Reporter on the citadel? prepare to be harrased by her again. Remember the colonists from Feros? you get a side quest after checking up on them! not to mention your character relationships from past games play a role still with extra scenes or unique dialogue lines when you run into those characters again.

the gameplay itself however is alot different from the first. the RPG elements have been scaled down but as much as it sounds like a bad thing its really not. the shooting and action are much more fluid in this game, creating more of a sense of urgency since you dont have to go to the wheel menu ever 5 seconds for a biotic, tech, or weapon power. and while there still are abilities to use, 3 can be mapped to hotkeys for instant use, and some have even been combined (for intance instead of having pistol marksman, carnage, overkill, and assassination, soldiers in mass effect 2 have adrenaline rush, which works for all weapons)

your weapons no longer have to be leveled up individually either, leveling one job specific trait will increase the damage for all the weapons that character can use as well as other things like your renegade and paragon gain rate, health, or biotic and tech powers. this allows for less time contemplating where exactly to put each point but still lets you choose which skills to focus on and which to ignore.

also your weapons are static, no longer can you use an untrained weapon at the cost of your aim and accuracy, you are forced to only have the weapons your character can use period. thankfully each job can have at least 3 weapons including the new heavy weapons, and in some cases the new SMG gun class.

and as much as i loved the Mako im a bit glad to see it go. being the kind of guy i am i tended to explore each and every inch of a planet surface just in case something of real value was laying around. most times there wasnt. but not you drop straight into missions on planets that have them via the new dropship, and for resources (which actually serve a purpose in this game!) can be scanned from orbit and have probes sent to collect them for you, taking less than half the time of a mako tour.

the missions and quests even feel different, the missions are more plentiful, but less long. and considering how i talked about mission length for DA:O im rather pleased about that. you have both a recruitment and a loyalty quest for each character, totalling 18 character related quests, with more side quests availible during missions or from other characters on the normandy, quests are still found while randomly scanning planets, and on occasion from Admiral Hacket or the Illusive Man.

and completely new are renegade and paragon actions... at certain times during normal diologue sequences you will be given the ability to press either the right or left triggers for an awesome actions-speak-louder-than-words moment that changes the course of the conversation. for instance growing tired of listening to a low level eclipse boss give me attitude as to why he wont give me the info i want i literally kicked him through the window of a 50 story building. now he'll have time to think about why he shoulda cooperated with me on the way down! LOL

also new this time around is the Normandy itself, there are now 5 decks, your captain's quarters, the command information center (CIC), crew's quarters, the engineering deck, and the cargo bay. and THANKFULLY its not a 10 minute elevator ride between them. there is however a loading screen but it can go as quickly as 15 seconds if you load the game to and play it from your hard drive.

and the final mission is so totally epic its almost perfect, depending on all the missions you ran pior, your upgrades, and who of your team is loyal to you the mission can go tons of different ways. youre even given choices on who to let handle certain situations. with your choices determing not only the success of the mission, but whether or not your characters live or die.

and theres more love insterests to choose from too. i wonder what Tali looks like under the suit...

*ahem*

and of course the game as lovely as it is cannot escape my criticism :(

one thing i miss is the Mako (wait didnt i just say i liked it being gone? wait for it....) missions (oh!). driving around on certain planets was actually pretty cool, Noveria especially and nothing beats the feeling of driving around in a tank with a kinetic shield. there are obviously no longer any driving missions in this game and i kinda wish there was. now thankfully the rumor mill suggests there will be one coming in a DLC featuring an upgraded Mako but i'll have to cross my fingers and see

and aside from the cliffhanger ending my really only other gripe is the lack of time with Legion. i wont go into details cause itll spoil it for ya, but you get him at the end of the game and you dont really have much time to try him out before the end.

also theres no worthwhile lesbian love intrest! WHHHYYYYYYY? well you can bang Kelly Chambers as a female Shepard but she wont net you the paramour achivement. BLAST!

this game gets a bangin' Tali/10