Carl2291 said: The only problem i have so far personally... Is the "probing" for materials/minerals. It just gets so boring

It can get tedious, but here are my suggestions:

• Only mine from rich worlds. Rich worlds should net you about 40-50k minerals a pop, and cost about 20-25 probes.
• When scanning, pick a face of the planet, and scan every other grid in either an up-to-down, left-to-right motion, or something logical of that sorts.
• Pick up only the rumbling hotspots. Make sure that if its a lower 'peak' to scan around about 0.5 grids to ensure you aren't on the tail end of a bigger cache.

If you follow that, 5 minutes should net you 50k in resources. As I've stated, I have over 300k in resources with about 150k in Iridium alone. And that is after having 100% of all upgrades available as to where I'm at (probably spent about 150-200k in resources so far). Doing the scan this way will net you 90-100% of resources on a planet each time.

And for the record, Platinum is the most needed from what I've seen.

Just finished my first play through and ME2 is a huge technical improvement over its predecessor. I really enjoyed the story's execution, content, and pacing even if it was a bit short. Renagade/Paragon interrupts made for nice additions to the conversation branches. The increase in production values over the first was phenomenal. I skipped most of the exploration but I did recruit all the companions and did all the loyalty missions. Shooting, cover mechanics, and sprinting especially were greatly improved and combat was immensely more satisfying than ME1. The hacking and security bypass minigames were a big improvement over the QTE's of the first game. I have mixed emotions over the equipment upgrade system but found it a enjoyable mechanic for advancement.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in how dumbed down the RPG elements were. Resource gathering was an excessively boring PITA that was included to artificially inflate the time needed to "complete" the game. I need to go back or continue on(very nice addition) and do a bit of exploration to see if any of the random anomaly detected missions are worthwhile. The character class development was a big step back from the original. Biotics felt a bit underpowered or underwhelming except for singularity and group cooldown made made me not bother using other powers as much. They broke a good mechanic here.

There is a special hell reserved for all of you who bitched about the inventory system in ME1. No weapon and armor drops sucks! No real variety in armor or weapons SUCKS!!! 2 weapon basic types per category WTF WHY! Not being able to buy much of anything or sell drops for that bit of kit you really wanted sucks! Being able to buy different bits of armor kit and customise its appearance was ok but I want some non M7 armor THAT I DON'T HAVE TO PAY EXTRA, BUY ANOTHER GAME, OR PREORDER FOR.(damn EA for buying Bioware)

Overall its a much better game than the original but I hate that its gone from story driven Action/RPG lite to story driven Action/Shooter with more limited rpg elements to be more accessible to the masses.

I can't believe you complain about length of the game yet say you didn't do any of the anomaly sidequests.

Thats like saying 'the game is too short. I played 60% of the game and expected 40% more'.

ALL of the random anomaly missions are worth it. I've completed about 10 of them and they are FANTASTIC.

I guess my problem is I dont like the new exploration mechanics. Its good to hear they are worthwhile time to wonder around the galexy map some more. The majority of the story I've seen was in companion developement which I greatly enjoyed.  The main story arc was short. I would have liked it to be longer.

Quick question, where is the point in the game where you can't go back to the galaxy map? Like the one in ME and in DA at the second trip to Redcliff. Or is there even a point like that?

I'm sorry I can't help you there, but the stuff about DA is useful for me!

Anyway, the RPG elements are far too diminished and the shooting is just not quite as good as GeoW or Uncharted, but the nice powers go some way to making up for it. The lack of proper levelling up, and variety in armour and weapons are poor. I am also not sure if using different weapons makes much difference, I see no change in stats. Though I like the way it has been streamlined, it has been taken too far.

But anyway, it is a fun game, even if it is barely still an RPG

Once you go through the omega-4 relay you have to finish the story arc but if you survive you can keep exploring so there is no real point of no return.

I just got my Collector's Edition today, sweet!

Too bad I'm not really going to play the game until I finish off ME1.(Currently about 20hrs in) I want to import my character into ME2 once I clear ME1. I did try out ME2 a little though (got the first achievement with a pre-made character, heh) and wow, it looks great. It's a really big step up from ME1 which I wasn't really expecting. Looking forward to playing through it! (after I finish ME1)

The human members in your group are a lot more interesting this time, in the last game I only used to go with Wrex and Garrus most of the time, but I keep switching in this one, I still have a few crew members to get, but over all the dialogue is more interesting (more options) and the side characters (non crew) are more interesting too.

I agree, Miranda and Jacob are much more interesting, I never cared for Kaiden or bigot Ashley. Furthermore, the achievements in ME1 detracted from the game because if you wanted them, you had to have multiple playthroughs always using the same 2 team mates. But they were there with their own stories, and different abilities that should have been used depending on the mission.

ME2 is so much better in that regard, because now you really can take anyone you'd like, depending on the mission parameters.