Well, I'm pretty much set. The game didn't look too demanding anyways as it looked a lot like ME1, just a little more cleaned up. Some of these specs look like the same for the first.

Woot. Bells and whistles time! No intrusive DRM seals the deal for me, definite buy.

Nothing ground-shattering. Luckily I bought a new CPU that's been overclocked to 3.15 GHz, so I will be able to run the game nicely.

But this means one of the following things:

a) graphics aren't that great, barely better than ME1
b) they did a really good port
c) they watered down the graphics.

I hope it's the b) option, really.

Abedeus:
Nothing ground-shattering. Luckily I bought a new CPU that's been overclocked to 3.15 GHz, so I will be able to run the game nicely.

But this means one of the following things:

a) graphics aren't that great, barely better than ME1
b) they did a really good port
c) they watered down the graphics.

I hope it's the b) option, really.

Well the first one was a fairly good port with a far better inventory and interface to it so this one shouldn't be worrisome if they have learned from their previous endeavors.

Those aren't exactly massive requirements. I could do with a bit more hard drive space and that's it.

Hell, I more than half of the "Bells and Whistle" category listed at least and my computer's at least a year and a half old, probably more. I love how my 8800 GT is still pr0 enough to play with the big boys even after all this time.

Might need a new processor.

Wow, lucky I'm getting it for the 360. I really do need a PC upgrade.

Do you really need windows xp package 3?

Everytime I try to install it, something funky happens to my computer...so I'm still on 2...

I´m in the clear i guess.Can´t wait for this game.

I'm very worried that the max spec on my graphics card is the min spec for almost every game these days...

Yeah, I need an upgrade. Damn you nvidia geforce 8800!

hazabaza1:
Wow, lucky I'm getting it for the 360. I really do need a PC upgrade.

Same here!

My 9500gt 512mb should hold up nicely, now, im planning on upgrading to 4 gigs of ram just to be safe. I <3 Core 2 Duo.

Marq:
I smell another console port. These specs are fairly low for a 2010 PC.

Port? No.
Co-Developed? Yes.

It's the same engine AFAIK, and I don't think they really need to bump the specs. As long as the graphics and performance issues are cleared up, I'm all for these low specs.

Very reasonable. I'd of upgraded even if they were sky-high anyway; can now get a 1GB VRAM 260GTX for like £150.

Can't WAIT for this game.

Marq:
I smell another console port. These specs are fairly low for a 2010 PC.

You're rubbish at sniffing then - console ports normally have ridiculously high spec because the dev's are too lazy to actually accommodate anything. The first was a port anyway, and it worked superbly on the PC with reasonable specs for the time as well.

Here I thought my 8800 GTS would be able to run games well above the recommended requirements for quite awhile to come, but checking some benchmarks it looks like a 8800 GTS is just slightly below a 8800 GT.

Actually, I'm probably fine because this 8800 GTS is actually a 8800 GTS OC.

hansari:
Do you really need windows xp package 3?

Everytime I try to install it, something funky happens to my computer...so I'm still on 2...

Yeah, for me it froze every time it got near the end. the solution was either to wait or ignore it and restart.

Abedeus:
Nothing ground-shattering. Luckily I bought a new CPU that's been overclocked to 3.15 GHz, so I will be able to run the game nicely.

But this means one of the following things:

a) graphics aren't that great, barely better than ME1
b) they did a really good port
c) they watered down the graphics.

I hope it's the b) option, really.

Probably B). Looked up ME1 combat and noticed that they did a similar thing to Dragon age- complete UI redesign for both PC and console, so it's probably a good port. I'm gonna go out and buy ME1 soon.

Anyone notice how minimum and recommended specs have been more "true" the last couple of years? It used to be you were on the recommended specs and could never set every little graphics option to maximum. Every game I've played this year has been around or slightly above recommended specs and I've had no trouble just maxing everything before I load up the first time. Also, since I went SLI (2x 8800GT) a year ago, with the rest of my hardware being almost 3 years old now, I haven't felt the need to upgrade just yet, while in the olden days you had to keep up every six months.
That's probably because everything is a console port (or a cross-platform game) this year and the devs don't pump up the graphics too hard to keep everything running smoothly across every platform (just speculating here).

Marq:
I smell another console port. These specs are fairly low for a 2010 PC.

Unreal Engine 3 means that you have to really suck at coding to make poor ports across different platforms. It's not Crysis (and who cares, really), but it'll still look a little better than the first and look a hell of a lot better than on consoles.

Malygris:

And for those concerned about intrusive DRM, BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly also noted that copy protection will be minimal. "The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication," he wrote on BioWare's Mass Effect 2 forum. "This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system."

I really hope this game sells very well on PC so that their trust in the platform goes beck up and they keep developing their great RPGs on it. I would have been seriously pissed if this and Dragon Age had been only on consoles...

Now my only problem is I don't know if I want to play this one on 360 as well, or try it on PC.

Malygris:

And for those concerned about intrusive DRM, BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly also noted that copy protection will be minimal. "The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication," he wrote on BioWare's Mass Effect 2 forum. "This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system."

Good. This one I'll actually buy.

Of course, I'll still use a no-cd crack, because discs are a pain in the ass... but will buy the actual game :)

Awesome, I'm going to be able to play it on highest settings.

Can't wait; I have a 8800GT and I was worried this would mean turning down the graphics but they did not lie about their new shaders and general texture mapping.

I beat recommened with my 3 year old rig, hooray.

Though I will porlby not get this game though.

Marq:

coldalarm:

Marq:
I smell another console port. These specs are fairly low for a 2010 PC.

Port? No.
Co-Developed? Yes.

It's the same engine AFAIK, and I don't think they really need to bump the specs. As long as the graphics and performance issues are cleared up, I'm all for these low specs.

They're using Unreal3 again? It's a great engine for sure, but I thought they would be using Eclipse like they did for Dragon Age. Weird, but I guess they have their reasons. Unreal3 is still very pretty.

They might have kept it as the U3 engine just to simplify the transition. There's a few features in ME2 that rely on ME1 data, so it could just be something simple like that. Plus like you said, it's a "pretty" engine. The graphics in BioShock and Mirror's Edge are amazing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_effect_2 Wiki claims it's U3 still.

Amnestic:
Those aren't exactly massive requirements. I could do with a bit more hard drive space and that's it.

Hell, I more than half of the "Bells and Whistle" category listed at least and my computer's at least a year and a half old, probably more. I love how my 8800 GT is still pr0 enough to play with the big boys even after all this time.

Might need a new processor.

Quite surprised with that as well, we've already had 2 new GeForce generations, and still this old boyo is listed in the Recommended System specs of a game due to release in 2010. That could either mean that this game looks like crap, or the card is just really good, and by the looks of released video's and screenies, I'm going for the latter.

Makes me happy for another reason as well, now I can link Mass Effect 2 with my Mass Effect 1 save, which I have also played on the PC. Great news all around. Don't need a new CPU though, upgraded to a 3.1 Ghz AMD dual core. Yes it's Athlon, but I just don't have the cash to go for Intel, especially since I would have to upgrade my motherboard as well. I bought the first version of this PC back when AMD was still supreme over Intel. That was quite a while ago...*goes into nostalgic mode*

coldalarm:

They might have kept it as the U3 engine just to simplify the transition. There's a few features in ME2 that rely on ME1 data, so it could just be something simple like that. Plus like you said, it's a "pretty" engine. The graphics in BioShock and Mirror's Edge are amazing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_effect_2 Wiki claims it's U3 still.

Don't forget the most atmospheric game (yes I recon that game more atmospheric than the almighty BioShock, and gods I love BioShock) made with the U3 engine, Batman: Arkham Asylum.

UE3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Eclipse.

Just play Mirror's Edge or Gears of War 2 to see why.

I'm getting a Leadtek GeForce GTS 250 512MB for Christmas since my awesome last Video card went balistic a month ago. I wonder if it will play the game on medium settings...

I certainly have the specs for it, but I played ME 1 on the 360, so if I want to transfer my saves I'll have to go down that route again.

Damnit.

Captain Pancake:
I'm very worried that the max spec on my graphics card is the min spec for almost every game these days...

Yeah, I need an upgrade. Damn you nvidia geforce 8800!

Don't worry dude, any geforce 8800 can still offer many many times better performance than 360 or PS3 even for recent games like FEAR 2 (as long as your CPU can keep up).

"Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements."

That doesn't make sense.

So it's telling me that it supports NVIDIA GeForce 6800 OR GREATER but it doesn't support NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300.

And I have to be stuck with an 8200...
Oh well I'm getting a 250 GTS soon anyway...

Abengoshis:
So it's telling me that it supports NVIDIA GeForce 6800 OR GREATER but it doesn't support NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300.

From what I understand, those cards are not greater than the 6800.

The number in the thousands place indicates what line they're from. The number in the hundreds place indicates how new they are. So for example, 6800 would be greater than 7300, because 7300 is an older model from a different line.

If I'm just full of shit here though, someone more knowledgeable please let me know.