Mass Effect 2 'Arrival' DLC further confirmed

PC News | It begins.

The PALGN sleuths were happy to reveal the accidental leak of trophies for an upcoming Mass Effect 2 downloadable content pack called Arrival, and now we're happy to report more confirmation of the pack's existence. As if there were any doubts to begin with.

This latest development comes from a YouTube video, showing someone unboxing the packaging for BioWare's upcoming Dragon Age II game for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Outside of the usual contents, the pack comes with an advertising slip for the Mass Effect 2 'Arrival' downloadable content, with the simple header of 'The Arrival has begun' with a burning planet below. You can check out the video below.

Those following Mass Effect news will know exactly what that burning planet is all about. Hopefully we get a full reveal from BioWare soon.

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22 Comments

Benza

2 years ago

So, is arrival gunna be about the arrival of the reapers to earth?

Cause Jesus christ bioware stop being such a cock tease!

JackSlack

2 years ago

Benza wrote

So, is arrival gunna be about the arrival of the reapers to earth?

Do you think it's too much to hope for that they explain HOW the Reapers got here, since Shepard allegedly stopped their first attempt at getting here in ME1?

Nietzsche

2 years ago

I though that was well explained. They are going the long way instead of straight to the center of known space.

If the reapers succeed in ME1 they would have records of every known planet, the government head would be knocked out and most people would be dead before they even knew there was a war.

Benza

2 years ago

JackSlack wrote

Benza wrote

So, is arrival gunna be about the arrival of the reapers to earth?

Do you think it's too much to hope for that they explain HOW the Reapers got here, since Shepard allegedly stopped their first attempt at getting here in ME1?

At the end of ME2 it showed that the reapers were on there way and not too far off. I imagine they'd have been on there way since the end of ME1.

Jarrod

2 years ago

The whole "they just flew back" thing is a huge, cheap, and tacky cop out to me, but I cant see BioWare doing anything different. They blew their load with the first game and have been boned ever since.

JP2daMC

2 years ago

Spoilers much?

Nietzsche

2 years ago

I'm confused where are the spoilers?

JP2daMC

2 years ago

You mean the bit where everyone just started talking about the ending of 2?

Remember, it's not been on PS3 for long and I'm only just getting to the end.

Benza

2 years ago

Jarrod wrote

I don't rekon it's a cop out to think that they could fly back. The level of tech they have is supposed to be off the charts.

I reckon the thing with ME1 was more just you fucked up there battle plans then there entire way of getting back.

They wanted to end the fight before it started by decapitating galactic society, you fucked that up for em but that doesn't mean they don't have any other options left (Like butt raping earth like they showed in the ME3 trailer)

Quote

Spoilers much?

Really, we're going to have to mark spoilers in a thread about DLC that bridges the gap between ME2 and ME3?

Nietzsche

2 years ago

Spoiler for ME2. The reapers flew back to their home planet of (insert name here) and the galaxy was saved. Now 3 is a farmville game where Wrex rides the mower.

I think it's assumed knowledge that the huge galactic threat was not destroyed in the second game of a trilogy.

EDIT: I realized I should be more nice, so I will say I would be angry if someone spoiled something for me. Also it's hard to know what is a spoiler when you haven't played/seen a game or movie. But in this instance nothing was spoiled at all.

Marka

2 years ago

I hope it is as good as as Shadow Broker and Overlord.

Jarrod

2 years ago

Benza wrote

I don't rekon it's a cop out to think that they could fly back. The level of tech they have is supposed to be off the charts.

I reckon the thing with ME1 was more just you **** up there battle plans then there entire way of getting back.

They wanted to end the fight before it started by decapitating galactic society, you **** that up for em but that doesn't mean they don't have any other options left (Like butt raping earth like they showed in the ME3 trailer)

I'll spoiler my thoughts;

Quote

I guess the story arc and end of ME1 was what hurts the idea that the Reapers can just fly back, for me anyway. The Reapers were built up to be this immensely powerful creatures, and the Citadel battle against Sovereign showed how much punishment they could take. They seemed to me to be nearly unstoppable beasts that you wouldn't want to fight in masses.

I can dig the whole 'disabling the relays cuts off their surprise attack, but they still get back' thing somewhat, but considering how strong they are its hard to imagine being able to stoop hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them. ME3 will no doubt end in a glorious 'all the races vs the reapers' battle, which will be rad, but I guess I just dont see the reapers as something that can be beaten that easily. Even without the surprise attack, and even with the weight of billions against them, the two games have made out the reapers to be an insanely powerful army of millions, each equipped with technology that dwarves everyone else in the galaxy.

Plus I do have a little bit of a problem with the science behind 'flying back', as even though the galaxy looks close in that last ME2 shot its still very, very, very far away. I kind of see it as them being so far out of the galaxy requires them to have an ability to tunnel back through, not just fly back, as even going at the speed of light it would take billions of years to get back to the galaxy from where they are. And that coupled with the length of the Mass Effect story arc, I guess it diminishes the threat for me a little. In other words, if the reapers have the technology to simply fly back to the milk way, from that far out, over that distance, and do so quickly enough that it can all happen in the span of a few human years, then the whole "We must open the relays!" threat of the first game is significantly weakened. Its like, if you can get back that easily, its not a big deal.

But that's a personal grievance and it's my own stupidity for trying to bringing science into a series where there isn't really any. I do believe that BioWare put all their eggs in one basket with the first game though, and I can understand that. It makes sense for a developer to do that, as planning a trilogy is a very, very risky move. ME's final moments, the flow of the story, and how it all comes together is so wonderful. ME2 really pales in story comparison, even if it surpasses in other areas, and I'm not confident ME3 be much better, especially since its another bloody "RECRUIT THE RACES WOOP WOOP".

Benza

2 years ago

spoiler response to jarrod

spoilers wrote

See yeah the galaxy is ages away, but these are the guys that built the mass relay system, there's nothing to say that it's the peak of there technological limit. I see it as kind of like leaving cars around for cavemen, yeah they would massively improve mobility for cavemen but we still have jets.

Of course this leaves the "Why did it take them so long to get back" question, but they spend millions of years outside of the galaxy, there's nothing to say specifically that they're all hanging around the same area, they would have had to gather there forces, maybe wake up from whatever stasis they were in. Hell the milky way might only be one galaxy they're farming and they had to go get everyone back from the other galaxies first.

There's just so much unknown about the Reapers that there are plenty of reasons that it's taken em a while go gather everyone together and go on the attack. You also have to consider that these are beings that basically live for ever, yeah the time between the end of ME1 and the beginning of ME3 might seem a while (What is it 10 years? I forget the exacts) but to them it would be a blink of an eye. They're playing the long game they aren't in any rush.

As for fighting them, they've set up the game as having two races that have the capability if let loose to wipe out the entire galaxay (Rachni and the Krogan) I'm guessing that is going to come into play. We still haven't seen what the Rachni are actually capable of, and I'm still waiting for that rachni queen to pay me back the debt she owes me.

Jarrod

2 years ago

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Well, the whole 'fly back to the galaxy' thing is where the science gets muddy for me

. Its not quite like comparing cavemen with a car to us having a jet. The speeds they'd have to travel at to make it from where they are to the milky way, in the span of a few human years, is just insane. Unfathonable. So fast, it comes across a bit like tacky deus ex machina to me. I really liked the whole 'we need the citadel to get back' thing, as it made as much sense as it could given the context of the game's universe; they were so far out, such a long way from everything, that there was no way they could fly back. Just as everybody else needs the relays to zip around the galaxy so too would they need a relay to zip back, as that is even further away.

But yeah, to me it comes across a bit like "we want an epic battle, the reapers are the threat. How do we make them get back? They um...they flew back". Assuming that's the answer, of course. Maybe its differnet. I hope its different. That excuse is a bit cheap from my perspective, especially considering how much time they spent building up the relays and whatnot in the first game, and even the second.

I guess in some way I was hoping the reapers would be to Mass Effect what Sauron is to Lord of the Rings; an unstoppable, immensely powerful enemy that would be literally impossible to defeat if they were ever to return, and that the trilogy would wrap up with them dying off in dark space or something. I know that sound a bit boring, but I like that idea, as it makes them seem like a really powerful threat, and not one that can be simply beaten in one-on-one fisticuffs.

Benza

2 years ago

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Ya know I was thinking about the beating up the reapers thing, and it could always end with a galactus victory type thing were they never really beat them they just figure it's not worth it atm.

I can't see them being a suron like unstoppable god force though, they've allready been shown to be mortal in the first game. Hard as fuck to kill but still deffintly killable. I mean your original ship appears to kill sovreign with one shot from the big railgun the turians made. (As far as I could tell the other shots wern't even phasing it so it didn't seem like a case of it got weakend and the turain rail gun finished it off) That fight didn't even have the majority of galctic spaces power involved, it was more whatever ships were at the citadel at the time. We're yet to see what the turian fleet is actually capable of.

As for the leaving cavemen cars thing, I was meaning that they could verry well have some more advanced form of travel, they've just been cut off from getting direct access to the citadel, there's nothing to say they coudln't get into the galaxy from another entry point, I mean the amount of space that has actually been explored in the galaxy is pretty small and there are still tonnes of unknown relays.

Island_Wolf

2 years ago

Was looking at the Youtube Video. Wow, 4GB to save on the PS3 (0:32) and 6.5MB on the 360 (0:53) for Dragon Age 2?!? Makes me wonder why there's a significant difference in the save size...

fupoisme

2 years ago

Island_Wolf wrote

Was looking at the Youtube Video. Wow, 4GB to save on the PS3 (0:32) and 6.5MB on the 360 (0:53) for Dragon Age 2?!? Makes me wonder why there's a significant difference in the save size...

The PS3 version obviously has a mandatory install.

JackSlack

2 years ago

I don't really need to spoiler this, but I'll just go ahead and note it's a reply to Jarrod and Benza. Any spoilerish terms are Rot-13'd.

The biggest mistake Mass Effect made after the first game was trying to be a strict trilogy. That more or less forced them into using the same 'big bads' throughout, and when you've effectively neutralised your big bads in the first game, well, it's a problem.

That said, a better written sequel (Mass Effect 2 was woefully badly plotted -- and this is the game that won Best Writing awards, people!) might have handled it in a finer detail. Make the second game all about a new plan to bring them back... and who's doing it, and why? As a rough idea...

Quote

What about if the Citadel BECAME a Reaper? Think about it: We just blasted Sovereign into itty bitty bits right throughout a massive mechanical structure; so much so that even years later not all of him has been found. Was all of it dead? Could parts of the Reaper code have 'leeched' into the Citadel's own systems? Man, that would have been trippy.

Also, am I the only guy bothered about how human-centric ME became after the first game? First it was "Well, you're human, but the whole galaxy is threatened!" then "It's about humans throughout the galaxy!" and now it's "Earth, people! Earth!"

I find it somehow reduced in scale.

Benza

2 years ago

well Cerebus were established in ME 1 as being a human extremist organization and you get resurrected by them in ME 2 so it's only natural that they focus more on humans.

I actually found ME 2 less human centric then ME 1 though, ME1 had the big sub plot of humans viying for a spot on the council and all about humanity's expansion into the galaxay. ME 2 was more just "People getting kidnapped!"

As for ME2 winning best writing award, there's more to writing then just the overall plot. The characters were far better written in 2 then they were in 1 IMO.

Nietzsche

2 years ago

I will agree that ME2's main plot was well weaken that 1's but it's mission to mission writing was well above any other video game, except perhaps uncharted 2.

JackSlack

2 years ago

Benza wrote

well Cerebus were established in ME 1 as being a human extremist organization and you get resurrected by them in ME 2 so it's only natural that they focus more on humans.

I'm still quite certain Cerberus was pushed to the front to justify a human-centric focus. I agree that their use makes it inevitable, but it's not like Cerberus (whom in the first game was nothing more than an evil, evil group of evil scientists doing evil experiments) made a logical player character faction.

Benza

2 years ago

I think a faction like Cerberus was honestly the next logical way to go. ME 1 showed us the side of the galaxy concerned with space politics and shiney future happy space world. Having a less legal and reputable player faction for ME 2 let you see the shady underworld that was only really hinted at in ME 1, while working for the alliance or the citadel you probably wouldn't head to places like Omega.

Also you kind of need a morally bankrupt organization to be the player faction so you can go with the whole zombie Sheppard thing.

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Mass Effect 2

Pre-order or buy:
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Australian Release Date:
  28/01/2010 (Confirmed)
Publisher:
  Electronic Arts
Genre:
  Action RPG
Year Made:
  2008
Players:
  1
System Requirements:
Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
- Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
- Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Hard Drive: 15 GB
- DVD ROM: 1x Speed
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
- Direct X: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
- Input: Keyboard / Mouse
- Video Card: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greate
Recommended System Requirements
- Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
- 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
- 2 GB RAM
- ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
- 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
- DirectX August 2008

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