Gaming Mass Effect Series

Yes, Piranha is very fun! It honestly felt like I was hole-punching enemies, what with the noise it makes and all.

 

Yeah, and the Striker reminds me of one of those old "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns. Actually, the one surprise with the N7 Typhoon is how meek the shots sound - relatively quiet and nothing like the intimidating hammering of the M-76 Revenant or the Cerberus Harrier. Kind of fits with it being a Special Forces weapon ... but it would have added to the badassitude if it had sounded like the old MG42 machine gun:

 

^^Now that's my kind of pumpkin carving.

Don't know if anyone's checked out the MP section today, but they have a special Halloween Challenge going on right now.
The Challenges are:
Ghostbuster: Requires 5 extractions on Firebase Ghost or Firebase Ghost Hazard
Zombie Hunter: Requires 7500 points against husks/abominations.
Monster Killer: Requires 10000 points against brutes/scions/praetorians/banshees.

So, pretty much just do Ghost on bronze 5 times with Reapers and/or Collectors and you'll get it. Down side is that you don't get any packs for doing it, just 15 Challenge Points and a new Title/Banner.

Oh, and the activate/retrieve objectives now look like Jack-O-Lanterns . Thought that was rather cute.

 

Nice touch there. As someone who has never played MP, how many individual kills on heavies would that be for Monster Killer?

Just for fun, I checked what the cooldown penalty was for equipping just the N7 Typhoon I on my vanguard (weight capacity 70). 93% in the blue, not bad. Equipping an upgraded, scoped, stabilized version on an infiltrator might be a lethal combo. Alternately, I could see a sentinel - especially a tank/"f-cooldowns" build - being dangerous with it.

 

I forget exactly how much each of them are, but Brutes are about 1,000 points with Banshees at around 1,300. I think the Scions and Praetorians are about the same, too. Also, you don't need to "kill" the heavies to get the points, just attack them and you'll get some points as an assist at least. It you want a guaranteed kill, just fire a missile at them. One shot kill with splash damage. I think about a total of 3 Banshees and 6 Brutes show up in a bronze match. So, hypothetically, you could almost have the Monster Killer objective done in one bronze match. Realistaclly though, it might take you three matches or thereabouts.

If you want an idea of about how long it might take, it took me five matches to finally get everything. Each match runs about 15-20 minutes, depending on how good the other people are. So figure around an hour and a half at least.

 

Heh, I remember the last time I played that final SP nightmare in London (defending the missile battery) I was proud that as an engineer I was able to take out six Brutes, a Harvester, and two Banshees without shooting them myself. I had Kaidan and Javik along as the biotic bomber force coupled with my own bag of tech tricks, so it was mostly power kills. I finally used that Cobra I was lugging to blast two more Banshees before running up to launch the missiles.

The first time I read the walkthrough for that section was cause for a few utterances of "Sithspit" and perhaps similar-sounding but less esoteric curses. Before that two at once was pretty much the worst-case Banshee scenario.

 

Info on the Mass Effect Trilogy

This blog post includes relevant info especially pertaining to the PS3 port as well as answers questions about DLC.

 

After hating Jack in ME2, I just completed Grissom Academy in ME3 and I'm far more favourable towards her. I think it's the hair.

 

That's part of it, but I think the main thing is that it's the first time in the series (provided you didn't romance her as a maleShep in ME2) where you see her really giving a damn about others. Seeing her as a mentor and protector for her students (albeit a hilariously blunt-spoken one) is a major evolution.

I still haven't done my sixth ME character (adept), but originally I was going to aim that one at Jack. Instead I'll probably go with Miranda just on the basis that you get more interactions with her in ME3. One of the reasons I'm holding off on that character is I expect it to be the most renegade one yet, but I'm fairly sure I won't have it in me to make him a complete jerk. That, and now that I'm working full-time ME1 is a bit of a slog.

 

I knew persevering with Conrad Verner and those annoying 'Find a dozen mythical objects' missions in ME1 would bear fruit!

 

Hehehe ... yeah, I remember getting to that part and thinking to myself, "That's just the kind of diabolical thing I would have done." Although the collections assignments were also great sources of creds and XP in ME1; I managed to boot my second character all the way up to Level 57 on one playthrough largely because I took the time to do all that crap.

 

Oh aye, I still do them all, it's just a massive pain in the backside. The only one that really annoys me is the element hunting just because there's so many of them!

 

The ME Wiki site has the locations of all the mineral resources, including maps for all the UNC planets. I find it a useful resource, not in the least because it also has the locations of all the thresher maws in the game.

 

Aww you didn't like Jack? I mean she was a bit of a psycho female dog but she meant well and she has (or had) a rather legitimate excuse for the way she is (or was, ftm). & yeah, I think the hair is why you find her more likeable since she was cool even without it.

 

Happy N7 Day!

 

Am I the only one who hates the cover system in the first Mass Effect game?

 

I was just about to post that there's a special thing going on in MP right now.

As part of the whole N7 Day thing, they're giving out a free pack. The pack contains a couple of consumables and an Ultra Rare weapon (ex: I got 5 missiles, an ammo upgrade, and the Scorpion). There's also the special challenge, which is just extracting 3 times with a human (vanilla, ex-Cerberus, or N7) character. Don't get much for that except a banner, title, and 10 challenge points though.

Also, I got the Argus assault rifle in MP a few days ago. I actually kinda like it with the extended barrel and stabilizer. Only problem I have with it (and remember having in SP) is the weight, especially if you have a second weapon. Not one I'd recomend for power casters, but if you're more a gunslinger it's a pretty decent gun. Although this is coming from the guy who likes using an Avenger X .

 

I picked up the Firefight Pack along with Leviathan, so by the time I got my hands on the Argus I already had the Harrier - which as I understand is lighter, harder-hitting, and fully automatic. Ergo, I never upgraded the Argus and only tried it out on the firing range a few times. The Harrier is my standard "beast-killer" gun for power classes - even without a piercing mod it can drop Brutes and Banshees fairly well, although the low ammo reserve means I've run out once or twice. On my last engineer playthrough I was reserving it for the big targets and stuck with the M-77 Paladin and a dinky M-12 Locust for taking out lesser enemies.

In replaying my vanguard I've found out that the new Executioner actually does a decent job on barrier-stripped Banshees, provided you have the room to snipe, reload, and repeat a few times. I went for that a few times instead of duking it out up close and personal with the Piranha.

 

Some new info on ME3: Omega - http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_3:_Omega

Looks like this will include Cerberus Dragoons, a new mech (Rampart), and the Adjutant from the comics. We also get the Chakram Launcher and N7 Valkyrie ... oh yeah, and Aria and Nyreen Kandros (the female Turian merc from the previews) will be temp squadmates

 

http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/11/07/mass-effect-3-omega-dlc-developer-commentary

 

An End of a Trilogy video

 

Completed ME3 for the second time last night (first time with the EC ending). Far more satisfying and fixed a lot of the problems I had with the original ending. Shepard calling in the Normandy to pick up (for me) Garrus and Liara after they were injured in the final run to the beam was incredibly emotional. Especially if you romance Liara (I imagine that it's similar if your romance option is in the final team regardless of who it is, but Liara and Shepard is such a good match).

Ended up choosing the Control ending. I managed to save both the Geth and the Quarians so I couldn't with good conscience pick Destroy after going to all that trouble, especially as it would kill EDI. Still rankles having to pick the choice that the Illusive Man wanted...

 

Yeah, I waited until the EC was out to buy ME3 so I imagine that's one reason why I'm not among the people calling for heads to roll at BioWare. I remember for my sentinel (Tali romance) I was going to chose Control, but then after that goodbye scene I just couldn't disappoint her by not coming back and picked Destroy. I think when I finally get around to finishing my sixth ME character the Destroy:Control:Synthesis ratio is going to be 3:2:1; sure it sucks that EDI and the Geth are collateral damage but after everything they've done I want the Reaper threat eliminated once and for all.

Right now I'm probably going to replay my five ME3 characters up to just before Priority: Thessia so they're at a good "staging point" to tackle Omega. If I still have time before the 27th I'll probably go ahead and slog through ME1 with my final adept character while trying to see how much of a jerk I can make him. Quite frankly I think RPGs are a good personality test - for the life of me in KoTOR I and II I couldn't play a DS character. I might have some evil in me but it's not the Sith-grade "stealing from widows and betraying/killing my friends" stuff.

 

For my $0.02, I still don't see what makes it worth $15. Okay, so I go to Omega and shoot up Cerberus (and Reapers? Heard of Adjutants, but wasn't sure if they were Reaper creatures or not) with Aria and Nyreen, but not your normal squadies. Neither one's a squadie afterwards, and Omega doesn't become a hub from what I've been hearing. So... why bother?

I'll look it up on YouTube, for sure. Maybe I'll be wrong (I want to be wrong), but I don't really see me getting this one either.

 

Check the gameplay video I posted, it shows some of the early action and has some details. It looks like Aria's command bunker on Omega, which you reach at the end of the clip, will be a "mini-hub" of sorts from which you will launch the remaining Omega missions. Also it seems that the latest batch of MP weapon mods - the Heavy Barrels, Thermal Scopes, etc. - will be in this as well as the Collector Assault Rifle.