What games are you currently playing?

[Malacite]

Absolutely goddamned hate that roflcart (I just thought of that as I was typing this... MAKO shall now henceforth be referred to as the roflcart).

You answered one of the biggies I was curious about, which is people living/dieing appearing in future games. This was the big reason I wanted to play this series after learning about it, and where it picks up in the one area I disliked most about Deus Ex - player choices have a pronounced impact on the overall story and outcome of the game. I don't know how many times I'll replay it, but I'm definitely going to try and get that Completionist achievement in 1 go so I at least do not have to fuck around with the bajillion sidequests all over again on my subsequent runs (except for maybe the easy ones/good story/rewarding etc. FUCK going resource hunting in the MAKO again)


Is there any way I can get rid of the extra weapons my characters are carrying? For example, Ashley is still holding a sniper rifle and shotgun & pistol when I've only dumped points into ARs since AR is pretty much good all-around (and it saves points) or is she stuck with them? I'm asking this because sometimes in combat, the damn AI pulls out weapons they are holding but aren't trained with which is incredibly annoying. Garrus thankfully seems to have some modicrum of intelligence and is sticking to his sniper rifle even in CQB (the dude is also dropping guys really fast I love him )

[Raydeus]

You were really bad at driving the MAKO, weren't you mate? How many times did you get owned by worms without knowing what happened or got stuck while trying to climb a mountain?

[Icemage]

I don't know how many times I'll replay it, but I'm definitely going to try and get that Completionist achievement in 1 go

If you're achievement whoring, you need roughly 2.5 playthroughs on both ME1 and ME2 to hit maximum level and get full paragon and renegade, and to get the Long Service Award for either importing and completing or completing the game twice.

Is there any way I can get rid of the extra weapons my characters are carrying? For example, Ashley is still holding a sniper rifle and shotgun & pistol when I've only dumped points into ARs since AR is pretty much good all-around (and it saves points) or is she stuck with them? I'm asking this because sometimes in combat, the damn AI pulls out weapons they are holding but aren't trained with which is incredibly annoying.

Been a few years since I played ME1, but I do remember this being a major problem, especially with Ashley since she has access to all weapon types. It got so bad that I stopped using her completely; my eventual team coalesced as Wrex and Kaiden on Insanity, as they both have really strong defensive powers. Garrus is awesome, but he's a glass cannon.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Talia seemed like a really good choice in terms of combat as she's hardcore caster, but... eh, not a fan of her. Personality wise, I like Garrus best, the others are so-so (too bad Joker can't join you in combat).

Just got through reading an achievement guide, and the only ones that really seem like a bitch requiring multiple playthroughs are the complete majority of the game with X Ally... well that and Insanity difficulty. Do I need to beat the game on hardcore difficulty to unlock that? Also, I thought Paragon/Renegade resets on new game plus, and I just read that the glitch to boost either one +25 over & over can corrupt your save file/screw up other things when importing to ME2 so how the hell am I supposed to get it to max for ME2? (and also for that achievement which, yay, asshole writing the achievement guide didn't use proper spoiler tags for THANKS FOR THAT @_@)

[Icemage]

Maxing Paragon or Renegade is completely possible in a single playthrough, with points to spare if you're meticulous about talking to people. Importing a character gives you an leg up on that, but it's really not necessary - the reason you need multiple playthroughs are for other things like getting to max level. Importing from ME1 to ME2 gives you only a nominal amount of Paragon/Renegade points (and ditto from ME2 into ME3), so don't sweat that either.

ME1's Insanity difficulty is unlocked by completing Hardcore difficulty. ME2 and ME3 have it unlocked at the beginning.

---

Been playing more Rainbow Moon on the hardest difficulty setting. This game is scary difficult and grind-tastic on Hard. I'm 10 hours in and just hit level 8 (and characters can go up to at least level 250). o.O


Icemage

[Malacite]

Oh wonderful... bah. I'm up to around 23 or 24/51+ sidequests needed for "Completionist" and I already wanna pull my hair out. Again, I like sidequests, but not when they outnumber the actual story segments.

I'm going to need to do at least 2 other playthroughs then, as my "evil" guy is on casual difficulty so that means I need to do hardcore on a separate file and then insanity (I had planned to do the hardest mode on my "good" guy so I'll prolly do a dry run with minimal questing for exp/money/gear and then do newgame+ on insanity, focusing on sidequest material & getting lv 60 since I'll prolly need it).

I read that enemies scale to your level at every stage on Insanity as well? I want to go for Soldier for my good guy, but then that leaves me wondering who my allies should be... the 2 girls (not Ashley) for caster support? I'm going Soldier both for flavor reasons and because I want to personally be tougher to kill than my AI buddies because lord knows, the AI can be retarded at times and even on casual there are points where I've nearly been 1-shotted because lolVanguard & Lightarmor (and yes I'm using cover but the enemy likes to use AoE & flank)

[Kailea]

Playing FFX-2 (making myself) after that I will continue so I can finish all the FFs..... also on the action side, I am playing Golden Axe (had put if on hold a bit back) and Heavenly Sword

[Malacite]

Meet my new best friend

[Kailea]

Meet my new best friend

GHIDFUIGUSAKDASPODHPO!!!!.... *falls out of chair*

[Icemage]

I read that enemies scale to your level at every stage on Insanity as well? I want to go for Soldier for my good guy, but then that leaves me wondering who my allies should be... the 2 girls (not Ashley) for caster support? I'm going Soldier both for flavor reasons and because I want to personally be tougher to kill than my AI buddies because lord knows, the AI can be retarded at times and even on casual there are points where I've nearly been 1-shotted because lolVanguard & Lightarmor (and yes I'm using cover but the enemy likes to use AoE & flank)

Enemies always scale to your level on any difficulty. Insanity just increases their damage so you take 4x the damage, and they take half damage from your attacks (I think? Somewhere along those lines...).

Soldier is boring but "fairly" durable. I personally think the "best" class for the harder difficulties in ME1 and ME2 is Sentinel. It's up to personal taste though. Sentinel is a low damage-output class but with very high survivability. Heavy weaponry and advanced weapons training fix the damage output by mid-game. Soldier is high damage output and lots of ammo reserves (since you can use every weapon class), but suffers when trying to deal with enemies that don't die quickly, or who have powerful attacks that are difficult to avoid. Sentinel suffers when enemies are numerous in close quarters, since the low damage output makes it difficult to hold positions safely when you're getting swarmed.

ME1 Sentinel gets Barrier, which lets you instantly throw up new shields, and also can specialize into the Bastion advanced class, which has the best combo in the game: Stasis to lock down an enemy, and a passive ability to damage any enemy held in Stasis. You can bring Liara with you and use her Singularity for crowd control by triggering Biotic Explosion combos, bring Wrex for his godly defensive perks, or Garrus with his powerful sniping. Ashley is easily the most useless AI partner; she's not as tough as Wrex, her damage output isn't significantly better than Wrex, and her AI is monstrously stupid. Kaiden is better; his AI is much more defensively minded, and he can at least use Barrier. I don't consider Tali to be a viable partner on Insanity when facing anything other than Geth or robots. She's too fragile against anything that isn't hackable with AI Hacking.

ME2 Sentinel is a little underpowered in terms of offensive production until mid-game (at which point you can learn how to use Assault Riffles for the Mattock), but because enemies do so much damage on Insanity, the perk here is that the basic ability (Tech Armor) gives you lots of second chances, since even a sliver of shield will protect you against a blow that would otherwise instantly kill you, without any blow-through damage.


Icemage

[Malacite]

So about Noveria

Does killing off the Rachi affect whether or not they appear in the 2nd and 3rd games?

[Icemage]

So about Noveria

Does killing off the Rachi affect whether or not they appear in the 2nd and 3rd games?

Sort of. It does impact one storyline (mildly) in ME3 (hence why I mentioned Noveria on the previous page). I can't really say more without spoilers.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Genocide is fun :D

Not really sure how what I did on Ferros will impact ME2 and 3 but I checked up on what happens on Noveria, seemed obvious enough. I don't think there was anything major about rescuing Liara so that just leaves what, Virmire and then 1 more major decision?

What about the achievement (which was spoiled for me, freaking A-hat that did that) "Diffused an Impossible Situation" does pulling that off have a major effect in 2 or 3? It's kind of a biggy...

Also I fudged my "evil" playthrough so I'll likely do Hardcore on a separate file for a bit of a challenge and then reload my Renegade class to do Insanity since having all that epic gear and my levels makes it a breeze according to just about every forum & FAQ I've checked. And by fudged, I mean I stupidly outright denied the reporter a chance to talk to me instead of punching her. THIS CANNOT STAND!!!!

Which brings me to my last question (for now): In ME2 and ME3, do previous interactions with the crew affect what they say or how they act later on? For instance doing Garrus' personal quest, or either of the 2 love interests etc. etc. Right now, Garrus is really happy with me (I initially thought he'd be more paragon but the guy's pretty hardcore Renegade) for basically taking everything into my own hands distributing my own personal brand of justice (and for fragging a certain a NPC)

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Crew interactions ... Eh... There's only one instance I can think of that carries over if you trigger a certain conversation in ME2. He is the very model a scientist salarian.

[cidbahamut]

I finally picked up Bastion now that I have a gamepad that works with it. The gameplay's solid enough, but what's really jumping out at me is the visual style and the narrator. It's a nice change of pace to just have someone narrate everything as it happens. I don't know if that would work for most games but with Bastion they really pull it off. It doesn't hurt that the guy doing the narration has a perfect voice for it.