Mass Effect 2 patched on 360

By Robert Purchese Published 17 May, 2010

Mineral scanning "optimised"!

BioWare has released a patch for Mass Effect 2 on Xbox 360. A PC version "is in the works".

Top of of the list is "optimised" mineral scanning, according to community manager Chris Priestly's forum post.

Grunt's Fotification ability has been "fixed", as has an "issue" where players could receive additional talent points.

How enemies use cover has also been addressed. We'll wait and see how this manifests.

Head over to the forum for the full list.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Demiath #1 2 years ago

    Does "optimised" mean "actually being fun"? If not they needn't had bothered..

  • LiamK #2 2 years ago

    What about the bit when it goes silent during the asari Maternal Battle Of Glowing Beams?
    Edited by LiamK at 17/05/10 @ 17:12

  • NewbieZilla #3 2 years ago

    Assari? Is that attempted humour, or idiocy?

  • davisorle #4 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • LiamK #5 2 years ago

    Well, I'd have called it a "typo", but if you want to go for "idiocy"...

  • PlugMonkey #6 2 years ago

    Demiath
    Does "optimised" mean "actually being fun"? If not they needn't had bothered..

    Frankly, if "optimised" means "boredom now below excruciating", I'll take it as a stop gap.

  • Tomo #7 2 years ago

    Hopefully optimised means it's now as quick on the 360 as it is on PC! Watching my friend on the PC makes me weep at how long it fucking takes on the 360.

  • VibratingDonkey #8 2 years ago

    Worst mechanic in a game ever.

  • Vanmunt #9 2 years ago

    I missed the planet rover from the first game, just another aspect why ME2 wasn't a patch on ME.

  • LiamK #10 2 years ago

    Drive to anomaly. Get out. Pick up dog tags. Drive to another anomaly. Get out. Obtain minerals. Drive to suspiciously flat anomaly oh my god it's a big worm jump shoot jump shoot kill. Drive to another anomaly. Get out. Get writings. Drive somewhere else. Do mission.

    Yeah, the Mako sure was fun.

  • Ceelion #11 2 years ago

    People have fond memories of the Mako because it gave the illusion that the game was much more open than it actually was. Dozens of planets were up for exploration and each had at least 5 points you COULD drive too, most which meant driving up a nigh vertical cliff by snaking up very very slowly, but the kicker was you didn't have to do any of them.

    These new worlds... all a square kilometre large, all too hilly, and all too similar. I'm glad I never saw the mako again.

  • Freek #12 2 years ago

    What they should do is have somebody else take care of it for you. Or even better; have ocaisions where somebody on the crew misbehaves and you get to punish them.

    "Geuse what buddy....a week of mineral scanning!"

    "...but sir I diden't mean to..."

    "That's it, A MONTH OF SCANNING! And make it the good stuff, non of that paladium nonsense we got a whole warehouse full of that."

  • Faldrath #13 2 years ago

    Does anyone actually play ME2 without a changed coalesced.ini that gives you all resources? Seriously? That scanning minigame is atrocious.

  • Dr.Mott #14 2 years ago

    I really don't understand all of this ME2 hate. It was better than the first one in every conceivable way.

  • septimus #15 2 years ago

    Hope it doesn't remove my points that somehow mean my character is completely maxed (with some spare for good measure).

  • Dylbot #16 2 years ago

    I hope by "optimised" they mean "completely removed, and also the guy that came up with it was sacked with extreme prejudice".

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #17 2 years ago

    I loved ME2, but that scanning thing was fucking awful. Truly awful.

    What made it worse was that it was pretty much required for playing the game to a particular conclusion.

    The Mako was 'better' for two reasons. Firstly, it made you feel like the universe was more real and secondly, most weren't required to finish the game apart from the actual mission based ones which were much better than the arbitrary drop ins anyway.

    ME2 was still the better game overall though.

  • Max_Powers #18 2 years ago

    ME was way more fun than ME2. The second one left me cold.

  • Scimarad #19 2 years ago

    I hope 'optimized' means 'removed'...

  • AllenSpawn #20 2 years ago

    @vanmunt
    The only way a mako would make ME2 better than ME...was if it was a mako shark.



    With a freakin' laser on it's head

  • Koborover #21 2 years ago

    According to people on the Bioware Social Network, they've turbo-charged scanning so it's much faster now.

    EDIT: It appears the scanning reticule is much bigger.
    Edited by Koborover at 17/05/10 @ 20:29

  • bladdard #22 2 years ago

    The scanning was appalling on the PC and I've not seen the borked 360 implementation so I dread to think how bad that must have been. Still not a deal breaker ME2 was great, far from GOTY for me but still very very good.

  • r4z0rbl4d3 #23 2 years ago

    Whether you love the Mako or not, I still loved exploring the different planets. The Hammerhead only got a few missions and the missions are very linear so yes, ME2 lacks in the exploration department. Would be nice to actually explore if you wanted to or just scan if you don't.

    But then again, this is the second game, all the 'magic' and wonders of the first has shifted to focus on the story. And what a story it got to tell! Love it! :)

  • Salaminizer #24 2 years ago

    the Mako could be FIXED, didn't need to be REMOVED. still haven't played ME2, but I didn't want them to remove the exploration, just make it VARIED enough and worth anything.

  • CordableTuna #25 2 years ago

    I kind of like the probing. Gives me Star Control 2 wibes.

  • Ceelion #26 2 years ago

    I'm definitely in the pro-scan rather than anti-scan camp. I found it incredibly relaxing after a couple of tough missions.

  • Destria #27 2 years ago

    That's what the probing reminded me of! Star control! Though Starcon was more fun, as you could zap aliens and harvest them. Plus you knew where the minerals were. And dodging quakes and hotspots was fun. And when you stumble into some random thing because you could never be arsed to scan for energy and didn't know it was there.

  • RESIDENT_nEVILe #28 2 years ago

    Scanning on PC was hell. I can only imagine what it was like on 360. Poor buggers.

  • reality_cheque #29 2 years ago

    I like it when the female voice says "Probe Away" when I'm scanning. The childish giggles makes the whole part bearable.

  • elephant_stone #30 2 years ago

    I look forward to another podcast dominated by the talk of Mass Effect 2's mining! haha

  • Geordiemp #31 2 years ago

    Dont mind the probing...with the upgrade to the scanner cleared out the first galaxy thing every planet in reasonable time.

    Figured the probing out now, get the upgrade and its much quicker. Element zero is the most sparse, so ignore the other minerals and just scan very quickly for a flicker on the left.

    Iggbore the rich or poor mineral level, its about the hard to get zero which allows you to rebuild and advance train (more powers)
    Edited by Geordiemp at 19/05/10 @ 09:47

  • Hix15 #32 2 years ago

    Anyone scan Uranus?

  • BobsUncle #33 2 years ago

    "I really don't understand all of this ME2 hate. It was better than the first one in every conceivable way."

    Yeah. I really loved the fact that instead of improving problem areas they just removed them.

    There were complaints that the first one's inventory was too complicated, so rather than just tuning it so you could sort by type and scroll faster, they removed it, Brilliant! I mean, who could possibly want to customise thier weapons and gear in an RPG game?
    I guess part of the reason the inventory got so full in the first one was because you found stuff all the time, so to fix that you never find stuff in this one! I think I finished it and I'd found 2 assault rifles. TWO. I found more that that before I'd even got to the first cut scene on Eden Prime in ME1.

    Adding heatsinks was also a massive step backwards, and I personally prefered driving the Mako to that fucking awful scanning.

    The first one had it's problems, but all they've done in this one is replace them with worse ones and add more.

  • GrumpyMoose #34 2 years ago

    @BobsUncle
    I completely agree

    @Dr.Mott
    ME2 hate? The game where everyone wanted to lynch reviewers that didn't give it a 10/10? C'mon... I was never a big fan of the franchise, but the first one had it's charm despite some huge flaws, and at least it told it's classic space opera story pretty well. ME2 only made the things I hated about the first one worse, and removed most parts I liked, which is a shame. And with all it's focus on linearity and non-interactivity, it had a surprisingly shallow story to tell. It really felt like huge missed opportunity to me.

  • LiamK #35 2 years ago

    "Anyone scan Uranus?

    Really, commander?

  • desomondo #36 2 years ago

    Nice to hear. Now if upcoming PC version of the patch could just restore the keyboard shortcuts and other little bits and pieces removed from the first game and I'd be really stoked. I'll cross my fingers but won't hold my breath ;)

  • Koborover #37 2 years ago

    I think many people were swept away by the awesome opening sequence of ME2. But in the end it doesn't add that much to the series except for a whole lot of new party members who are hit and miss (quantity over quality?). The story focused too much on solving their problems instead of the alien invasion, when it should have been the other way around like in ME1. This bothered me more than anything else, all in all still an awesome game though.

  • reality_cheque #38 2 years ago

    @Hix15: Yes I did :p

    I was quite surprised to find minerals on Mercury, you'd have thought we'd have strip mined Sol bare by now...

  • darc #39 2 years ago

    ~5 hrs of my life ("probe away";) I'm never getting back, and *now* they fix this? Urgh... The probe enhancement was the first thing I invested in when I played ME2, hoping it would lessen the agony, and it was like a 10% speed imrovement, if that.

  • Kerome #40 2 years ago

    Actually, I didn't think the mining mini-game was that bad... better than ME1's mining, anyway. But I did think it was annoying that that was more or less the only path towards building upgrades, a choice of activities would have been better.