The What Changed Thread [Spoilers, duh]

Ignoring the stuff that was already advertised, here are some things I noticed.

- Characters are facing the direction they're supposed to go when you first land on Eden Prime.

- Benezia's introduction is no longer a comical boob close-up.

- Councilors are called by their names in subtitles.

- They fixed the out of sync audio when that stalker leaps from the bridge on Therum.

- The audio when escaping the ruin on Therum is no longer obnoxious and loud.

- EAX is enabled by default when you have hardware that supports it (no more config tweak necessary). Some of the reverb is a bit too much, though.

- They fixed Chellick's voice filter in that one line where it originally didn't work.

- Pistols are no longer automatic.

- ME1 no longer has a momentary freeze when quick saving (except rarely when it does).

- Turrets and thresher maws shoot at where you're going, not at where you are.

Update:

- There are now waves of geth drops in both Saren fights.

- Benezia has a bubble around her in her boss fight.

- I got the impression that they changed and added some shots in the Feros scene where you declaw the geth ship. They also improved the sound effects.

And not really a change, but something peculiar I noticed is that the decryption minigame in ME1 on PC is always Circle Frogger, even if you're using a controller. They should have just given this to console users because it's so much better.

Some more for ME1:
- ME1 melee attacks are now manually triggered like ME2/ME3 instead of automatic
- They added covers to some fights that didn't have a lot/any
- Noveria port had a look revamp (seen in pre-release video)
- Some skills were altered (Immunity and Marksman are the ones I know, Marksman now feels quite different without the increased rate of fire)
- Thresher Maw sensory tentacles caused the Thresher to run after you (tentacles are new), don't drive on an underground Thresher Maw, it's insta-kill.

Yes, Immunity now provides a larger damage protection bonus (health-only), but greatly reduced duration. Duration is now 6s for all ranks.

Marksman and Overkill work differently.
- Marksman now increases damage and headshot damage for a short duration. It no longer increases rate of fire.
- Overkill reduces heat and increases damage.

Carnage (Shotguns) and Assassination (Sniper Rifles) now adds damage based on weapon DPS.

Changes to weapon skills a likely result to weapon rebalancing/changes:
1. Weapons now fire different . Some Examples:
- Some assault rifles fire full-auto, while others can fire in a 3-round burst
- Some sniper rifles are high-damage but slow rate of fire, another sniper fires a three-round burts, while another has lower damage but can fire really fast
- Some slow-firing but high-damage pistols, while another pistol fires in a 5-round burst

The various weapons changes will need to be documented. If they had renamed the weapons to be more in line with ME2 or ME3, it would be easier...

2. Weapon talents can no longer be unlocked as bonus powers. This is a rebalancing technique since all classes can use all guns without strict zooming/aiming penalty.

3. Weapon rebalancing includes various stat changes including accuracy. So nice to start with assault rifles with an accuracy greater than 1.

I just started playing ME2 and what I got was a full load out for my chosen field, I'm a Vanguard and got all the weapons' for Vanguard. I picked up the auto rifle and only listed Zaeed the only one who can use.

There was that shady keeper that kept disappearing/not spawning properly on the embassies in the same room that Din Korlack, Calyn and the Elcor that has a quest with Shai'ra/Septimus were. You got that one or is it just gone?   

Keeper count is only 20 on PC too.

EDIT. For changes I've noticed and like: The lack of darkness and colour saturation. And overall cleaner looking graphics. However, the colour pallet is off. I can no longer give my Shepard black hair, it's more darkest brown/red. But I can live with that. My Shepard still looks more handsome than before.....So I'm happy.

Skipping commentary on altering characters for the time being...


Hopefully not true in ME2.

Preorder cancelled.


So it got a key binding. I guess that is one positive.

I guess they wanted all guns to have bad DPS in ME1. Unless they changed the base stats.

So did they gimp biotic and tech duration to make up for the fact that you get amps to help those skills?


So ME1 has headshots now?


So Carnage might be worth using now?


I guess they wanted to change the game to try to get old timers like me to actually spend a few bucks on it. I suppose it is nice to have some variety in the game though.


So do weapon talents exist at all? How well do the non-combat classes use the long guns?

I assume the buffed them to like 3.

Highlighted. Yeah, you can't use any weapon in ME2. It's restricted.

ME1 now has 40 save slots (per character) instead of the 10 that it used to have (Xbox). And inventory has been increased from 150 to 300 items.

Miranda: Lazarus Project only had one objective: bringing back who you were. No clone, no modifications, just you, the real Shepard.

Shepard: So how come I can't use other weapons anymore?

Miranda: Uh...

Short overview of the gameplay changes here.

Some clarifications for you capn:
1. All classes can use all weapons without the zoom/aim penalty that was present in the original ME1. However, only classes with the weapon talent tree can use the weapon-specific power. To somewhat balance it out, you cannot unlock weapon talent trees as bonus talents anymore for other classes. So with the exception of Pistols, only the Soldier, Vanguard, and Infiltrator can improve certain non-pistols and use their unique weapon abilities as a result. Non-combat classes can use the long guns just fine. Perhaps a little too fine in my opinion. I took an Adept and Engineer through Eden Prime. I used Sniper Rifle a lot to great effect.

2. Headshots are a thing now.

3. Some weapon stat changes were made, mostly to accuracy. Starting Assault rifle (Lancer I) now has like 20+ accuracy. Starting sniper rifle and shotgun also have greater accuracy to start. Same with a lot of the early weapon pickups. Sniper rifles no longer have the big sway when zoomed, so more like ME2 and ME3 in that regard.

4. Carnage got a big buff, but it still feels like ass to use. I mean it is good, but it always felt awkward to try and hit stuff with it. I always sucked at using it and I keep forgetting I have it.

5. I think the gunplay is a little too strong in the remaster. Insanity feels like a joke, although it most certainly is not a slog anymore.

6. I don't think Barrier got nerfed. Not that I could see, anyway. Not sure Immunity is worth it now. I do use it, but only rarely. The passive health buff is nice I guess. since enemies can only use it for a short time as well, it is mostly a "don't shoot the enemy for a few seconds" power. That just means you focus on some other enemies for a time until Immunity wears off.

I have not gotten around to ME2LE or ME3LE yet.