In the very beginning of the game I'm up against some dead things that set off blue electricity, and I get a training instruction to throw grenades. There are grenades in my inventory, and I think I selected them, but when I went into combat, sure enough it was the crummy little pistol firing away to no effect.

How do I select an item in inventory? I mean, I can select it, all right, but whn I go back out of my inventory screen, the item isn't really selected, after all.

And just how am I supposed to kill those dead things, anyway? I can't even take one down, never mind three of them. And can I control my party members? There doesn't seem to be an option for that.

hagatha, ME 1? I don't remember very well but try the R button.

Again I don't remember but there should be a way to see the default controls from the main menu.

I assume you are playing the PC version if not probably pressing the Select button of the Controller gives them.

For ME 2 this should be more or less the same.

Hmm. I managed to squeak my way through the first mission, using up a lot of health in the process. Not bad, but I wish there was a Pause function. This game is pretty intense and fun.

I'm having some problems with it, though. Maybe just Vista issues, but there have been a couple of crashes and I couldn't even start the game without downloading a patch.

Anyway, farther along, I seem to have picked up some rather strange party members. The plot line is moving along a bit too fast for me to follow -- I'm just running around completing quests.

Right now I'm on a timed quest to rescue somebody, and I don't know who they are or where they are, but I've got three minutes to do it in.

Riiiiiight.

Maybe on the second playthrough it will all make sense This reminds me of the first time I played KOTOR -- didn't have a clue what I was doing for the first quarter of the game, but it sure was fun.

I picked up Mass Effect 2 yesterday, and then, rooting around in my games, found a whole stack of games I haven't played yet, including this one. I have no idea when I bought it.

Hagatha

I've just found my (old) copy of ME1 - there is a pause function. Like in all Bioware games, you'll need to use the space button to pause the game.

This will bring up a tactical screen; you can control your squad mates (a bit). The reason, I'm saying this is that the word over at the Bioware ME forums are that the AI for your squad mates aren't very good...

As for throwing grenades, yes, the R button should work.

Pausing the game by way of the spacebar should also make it so that you can change weapons, change to any team mate, give orders to your team mates and maybe much more...

Well I bought Mass Effect 2 and can't get it to run on my machine.
It won't start. I'm at a loss. This is a new computer with lots of ram, and everything else I've tried on it runs fine. Darn.
Andrea

Karsten, thanks for the tips. I see that the pause function isn't one you can use and walk away from the game; it's sort of a semi-pause. The AI is not very good and if you leave your characters up to their own devices they soon wind up dead.

After the initial few glitches the game seems pretty stable on my Vista laptop. I was thinking it wasn't as good as, say, KOTOR, but then I realized that it was midnight and I'd been playing all day, so it's obviously not bad, either!

luv2travel, have you tried disabling the virus protection?

After many problems I finally was able to play ME1, I have ME2 in the mail and hope for the best. ME1 and Sacred, which I was never able to play despite having better stats than the requirements, were the games that made me buy a PS3 last year when I had been always a PC only player.

Thanks, mcc!
How do I do that? I'm running Windows 7. Have McAfee. Don't know how to turn on or off anything.
Andrea

Normally, you can just right click the icon for say McAfee next to the clock. Then select exit.
This should close the anti virus program down. Remember to turn it on again after you've installed the game, though.

A lot of times one has to go in a different way to switch protection off, I guess it depends on the actual McAfee program.
If you don't have the exit option when right clicking the McAfee icon, click on the Open Security Center, check at the "very" bottom left, if it says Advanced Menu click on it (if it says Basic, you are already in the next step), click on Configure ,next at the top left click Computer and Files, now on the right you should see Virus Protection is Enabled, turn it off, it will give you options of time, choose it and you are done.

Well, I found out my video card isn't good enough for the game. It's an intel one, not an Nvidea or whatever. So I guess if I want to play this game, I'll have to use my desktop. Bye bye comfortable recliner. It'll go on my shelf to possibly play later on.
Andrea

Ah, I had a feeling you had an unsupported video chip in that laptop. So, just never mind my post in the Windows 7 and Games topic! Although I did post a list of the unsupported cards there.

Okay so back to the Beginner's Nlues, anyone have any tips on combat in that stupid Mako runabout?

It's almost impossible to control even on flat gound, yawing from side to side. You can't make it do anything in combat withut it flipping over. I've watched the same cutscene so may times on Feros that I'm about ready to give up. What were they thinking?

Thank you, Draclvr!
I appreciate the attempt.
Andrea
PS Sorry for hijacking your thread.

hagatha, the Mako is a lot of fun after you get proficient enough, it won't take that long, I use to wish for one like that for real!

Many people on both the old ME1 forums, and the new ME forums at Bioware's social site, are indeed complaing (and vey much so) that the Mako is impossible to drive, even on a flat surface.

Fortunately, you do not need to drive to Malo to finish the game...

I am a bit divided about this game. The Mako really is impossible to use. I finally learned to edge forward a bit, take out one enemy, and then back up out of range. It takes forever, but it beats trying to manouever.

The thing that really bothers me is that I am actually trapped in one location with no ability to heal in combat, the way back to the ship is blocked, and I am now facing more enemies than ever before. I can't reload an earlier save, as that would lose me at least 8 hours of game play, and I never retrace my steps that way.

I wouldn't mind the challenge so much, and I'm sure I will eventually win this fight (hopefully, anyway) but for some reason game developers have still not learned that nobody -- NOBODY -- wants to watch the same cutscene over and over and over and over.... Once would be quite enough, thank you. And since there is no way to skip the cutscenes, you are doomed to watch them over and over when you get to a boss battle. Same thing every time you die -- a long cutscene before you can reload. Not really fun.

Otherwise the game is good, but really, there are some limitations, too. For instance, I am at level 18 and still none of my party members are talking. By this point in the KOTOR games my party members were all chatting away happily. This bunch -- nothing to say, I guess, but it's ike playing a solo game with a couple of temporary tag-alongs. It doesn't feel like a party-based game.

ME is a bit different in this regard compared to the KOTOR games. Most of the character specific dialog takes place on the ship, between missions, and your party-members barely have anything to say during a mission. It's the same in ME 2. Of course, in ME 2 there's barely any time to stop and chat, since you're constantly fighting

I played ME1 in one PC (XP) and will play ME2 in another with Windows 7. I understand ME2 gets the character from the previous played game. ME1 had the saved games in a BioWare folder in My Documents? Does anyone know if I have to copy this Folder into the My Documents Folder for ME2 to recognize the character?

If the save files are still in their original locations, the game should detect them by itself. I do seem to remember that you can go into the Bioware configuration Utility and specify where the saves are located if you need to.

Edit: Blah, didn't read that you had 2 different versions of Windows. Anyway, Bioware Configuration or Setup program has the save import feature

Thank you Zimbo, ME2 is in the mail, arriving soon, I put the files in My Documents as they are in the other PC, I hope ME2 finds them if not I'll use the import feature.

As I progress through the game, I'm starting to enjoy the combat. There are still some fights I can't win, though. I've had to reatreat from that Hydra monster that lives in the sand dunes, and I'm not certain I can beat the Boss fight with Liara's mother, just yet.

My ME2 arrived, I am trying to hack the Data Pack but I don't see the way to click on the correct text when I see it. In the center there is this green rectangle but I cannot move it to the sides.

Yeah, that took me a couple of tries too. You don't click, but move the rectangle using WASD (or whatever buttons you have assigned to movement) and confirm with Space.

Edit: Hagatha, do you mean a Thresher Maw? They're a bit of a pain, but you basically just have to keep moving in a circle around it and shoot it until it dies As for Liara's mother, that took me a couple of tries. Again, you can barely afford to stop moving. Try to focus on the guards she has first, and then go for her when they're dead. She'll die eventually.

Thanks Zimbo! I was trying to click the arrows to no avail.

I'm now into Mass Effect 2, and cannot for the life of me work out that ridiculous bypas mini-game. You have to match symbols. So - I click on one, find its mate, and click on that, and nothing happens. Or, sometimes a matched set stays unlocked, sometimes they don't. Seems to be no rhyme or reason, but I sense that this is a going to be a huge annoyance. Is there a way around it?.

hagatha,

One needs to be quick, I start looking where the symbols are before clicking them and later I find the couple with shortest distance first. If you click one and the other and nothing happens go back fast to the one you click first and click it.

Thanks, mcc. I did stumble my way through and then purchased an item that makes the lockout time longer on the hacks.

Lots of fun, Mass Effect 2. A vastly superior gamne to the first, though by the time I finished Mass Effect I really appreciated it. Good Series. I'm looking forward to the third installment.

Hagatha, how or where did you purchased that item? Particularly useful when hacking paragraphs.

I can't remember where I bought that upgrade. I get mixed up with my space cities. Just trying to think where I've been most recently -- maybe the Krogan homeworld?

I've bought everything in sight and am now almost broke. I have a nice tank full of fish, several model ships, and a Miniature Giant Space Hamster named Boo.

Time to go out and do a little mining and quest-searching.

I've only been able to find three upgrades for the Normandy, one of them being the scar removal upgrade that I don;t need. Anyone know how many Normany Upgrades there are and where I can get them?

I have spent almost nothing , I'll better start soon.

I'm actually enjoyuing all the planet exploration and scanning. The scanning is restful. I have tons of ore for making upgrades. Just found the upgrade for larger fuel capacity, so no more running out of gas. Still loads of stuff to do.

I'm missing a crew member. Not sure who that is supposed to be. A suprise, I guess.