HARO wrote:
I mined out my first planet last night. Yikes.

I poured myself a scotch after I saw how slow that scanner was moving. I still find it preferable to those God awful driving portions of Mass Effect 1 where you had to drive around entire mountain ranges to get to some stinking minerals that were intentionally placed in some remote area by an asshole designer.

That said, certain portions of ME1 just had you pressing a "Scan" button when over a planet and you would automatically rape the planet of all its resources without having to step foot on it. Why not just keep it that way? Although I have to admit I get a certain amount of satisfaction when the words "DEPLETED" pop up. The entire planet depleted of all its natural resources? Seriously? Makes me feel kinda awesome. You should get renegade points for that.

Other quick reviews...

Combat system:
Love it, I find myself actually switching between weapons (instead of just pistoling it up) and planning things out a bit more. Sniper rifle is too much fun with the adrenaline rush. Squad members are still hard to coordinate though. Cool down on special skills is harsh, but I guess spamming enemies with everything you had in ME1 wasn't exactly challenging either.

Hacking and Decrypting:
I actually enjoy these. Much better than the Simon says bullshit from ME1. Although I'm going to need glasses after trying to squint through all that different colored line text. Ugh.

I love this game. A lot. That opening scene where Shepard walks through the flaming wreckage out into open space to get to Joker's cockpit is like one of those defining video games moments for me. Like the opening to FF6. Great stuff.

... stupid rotations...

Seven wrote:
Harold, talk to all your people and ask them about upgrades. One of them will give you an upgrade that will speed up the scanner. It still sucks, but it sucks less, haha.

But yeah, the story is even more epic. I don't know how, but it is. The opening for this game is just incredible.

The hacking is better, yeah. Still not perfect, but better.

The combat system was ok as an adept on normal difficulty. I am much more impressed with the combat system on Insanity difficulty, as a soldier. Insanity difficulty on this game is BRUTAL.