Zulu_DFA wrote...
That's how the most planets in space look like. Like a barren wasteland. Sure, they could make more unique placeable objects like that big skull on Maji, more varied design of the underground bunkers and mines... That's the direction they should have worked in.
If you're making a game, then you should take the opportunity to make it more interessting. Life can be boring, but that doesn't mean that making a game boring because it's "realistic" is a good choice. Especially when these planets are usually points of interesst for someone (economical, military, whatever) and you could always use that to make them more interessting.
So yeah, they could certainly make the planets more interessting.
Zulu_DFA wrote...
Ha! So, it's still just corridors with fancy paint job on the walls? Knew it. 
Dude, don't talk about things you don't know about

.
Those are just the limits of the "map" you're given to explore. You know, like the areas "outside of the operational area" in the first game. And truth be told, the river I saw seemed to be so far away, I highly doubted that I could make it there, but that didn't stop me from gleefully trying...
And that doesn't mean you can't explore, there's quite a big area to play around. At one point, I even found a waterfall and that
actually made me happy!
A waterfall!! Water in a ME planet! Oh joy! Oh glee!
And I would have never found it if I hadn't decided to ignore the arrow pointing to the main mission and just
explore the world, which is the
exact opposite of what I did in ME1, where I just marked the important stuff on the map and headed straight for it, only diverting course for the sake of the damned minerals that didn't show up on the map.
Oh, and in the end, even if you were right, I'd still take fancy paint job over
depressing paint jobs any day. Desserts filled of gray and brown are the reason why I still haven't mustered the courage to play Morrowind again.
Zulu_DFA wrote...
This was the feeling ME2 "jungle" planets instilled in me much faster than ME1 wastelands.
How could they be any worse than the bases/planets of the first? Not trying to challenge you or anything, just asking a legitimate question.
Zulu_DFA wrote...
What "certain angles"? Maybe it's a confusion here just like about the ME1 hacking minigame, which was very much better on PC. On PC the Mako had 3 degrees of zoom. The first one gave you the view like you were sitting at the top of the turret, and it helped with driving. And the second and third ones offered the "visor view", similar to the sniper scope view, which made shooting very precise. If that wasn't the case with the X-Box version then I understand the Mako hate, and admit that the Hammerhead may look like an improvement to X-box users.
Nah, I'm a PC user too.
And what I mean by certain angles is that, with the outside vision, you couldn't shoot below the level of the Mako, but with the visor vision, you could pretty much shoot in
every angle except for the bottom of the vehicle.
Apparently the turret goes through the Mako in order to shoot when you're not looking. <_<
Zulu_DFA wrote...
But to me, the Hammerhead is an utterly dumbed down thing.
OK, seriously, the expression "dumbed down" is being used to absurd lengths here.
Something dumbed down is when you take something that takes actual
intellectual effort and take all the thought process needed for it out of the equation.
So, with that in mind, how can the Hammerhead be "dumbed down" when the Mako was
never something that required anything besides the most basic of your brain functions? It was a test in patience, yes, but that doesn't turn it into freaking Chess.
And while we're on the subject, can we stop with the ridiculous "ME2 is a dumbed down version of ME1"? It's already pathetic enough to hear things like "the ME series is a dumb down version of RPGs that never needed anything besides memorizing a given set of rules", but when that sentence comes from inside the same community... it just becomes incredibly sad

.