~Di

You're correct, I don't have Legion yet. Am hinky about going for him, because I suspect that when I do Although I'm partial to my fully-upgraded Vindicator, I'll have to try out the Widow to see what kind of awesomeness we're talking about! The ammo limitations are a big problem for me personally... I've never played a game where I have to search the ground after every battle trying to "run over" spare ammo clips... so I see what you mean about squaddies with super-weapons that never run dry. I was thinking about trying a Sentinel or other fun class that has mad powers to play with. It's the metagamer in me. I want to cast a single bwahahaha power that wipes out a screen full of enemies. On the other hand, to find weapons like Widow and not be able to use them seems a travesty. Maybe I'll stay a professional soldier for my entire ME2 career... presuming, of course, that I eventually, you know, get mildly proficient at the game! You played an infiltrator, didn't you? How did you like it? The sniper and incinerate perks sound fun to me, but I can't figure out what use AI Hacking could possibly be. Any other classes or powers you particularly enjoyed?

"Bonus" weapons can only be used by Shep (if acquired on the Collector ship), or whoever gave you the research upgrade. Why? "Fabrication Rights Management". In fact it's just an excuse to gimp your squaddies even more. The game can be modded to allow squaddies to use these guns, but I recommend you finish your first playthrough "legit", so you get a good idea of what you might want to change in the future. Thanks for the info. Yeah, I'm going to finish my first playthrough "legit"... I always do, even though I sometimes go cheat crazy with later playthroughs (I like money, okay? ). I was just surprised because when I got the eviscerator and other upgrades, my squaddies could use them. Oh, well. And thanks to everyone who told me how to use the M-920 Cain. I took out with a single hit!

Where do you get this arc shooter? I've recruited everyone except Tali and the geth thingy, done all the loyalty missions and haven't run across it yet. BTW, I got the Widow sniper rifle, but only my soldier can use it. Garrus and Thane are both trained in sniper rifles, but this selection isn't available to them in the weapons locker. Does anyone know why not? The Arc Lightning gun was released on the Cerberus Network yesterday. Not sure if it just shows up or if you have to research it first, but you'll need to download and install it before you can use it. Thanks! Got it, tried it... it's pretty cool!

Where do you get this arc shooter? I've recruited everyone except Tali and the geth thingy, done all the loyalty missions and haven't run across it yet. BTW, I got the Widow sniper rifle, but only my soldier can use it. Garrus and Thane are both trained in sniper rifles, but this selection isn't available to them in the weapons locker. Does anyone know why not?

I actually don't hate the mining thing... but then again, I don't think I'm doing it right! I gather one is supposed to meticulously guide the scanner from pole to pole, covering each "strip" of longitude while the planet slowly turns. I just stick the scanner at the top of the planet, and slide the bugger from right to left at a pretty fair clip until I get a rich jump on the scanner. Then I move down a couple of strips, and scan from left to right. Once I've done the part of the planet facing me, I manually turn the planet until the part I've scanned is off screen, rinse and repeat. I do the planet in thirds this way, and truly it doesn't take more than 3-4 minutes tops. Sure, I may not get every drop of resource, but I've found much more than I'll probably need by being picky about probing only rich pops... saving time, and probe money. Or maybe it only takes 3-4 minutes the other way too. But I still like my way better, and I don't find it particularly irritating. However, just because I found a way to blow through scanning by doing it manually, I can't really say that the way scanning was implemented was particularly well thought-out. Addictive? I don't think so. If they allowed buying resources, though, they'd have to find a way to get a heck of a lot more credits in the game. My resources are always chocked full, but I never have enough credits for everything that I want to buy... which is, of course, everything!

I'm not having much luck with heavy weapons at all. I got this M920 Cain heavy weapon, tried to use it on the Thresher Maw. It came up with "192%" in the crosshairs, and I could not figure out how to fire that thing. LMouse, nothing; RMouse, nothing. It cost me a fortune and it does... nothing. What the heck am I doing wrong? I did kill the Maw, though. With my assault rifle. You need to hold the fire button down. It takes a few seconds before it fires. And make sure you aren't standing anywhere near your target. Ooooohhhh. So you have to actually hold the LMouse button down until it fires?? Wowser, thanks. I'd have never figured that out!

I'm not having much luck with heavy weapons at all. I got this M920 Cain heavy weapon, tried to use it on the Thresher Maw. It came up with "192%" in the crosshairs, and I could not figure out how to fire that thing. LMouse, nothing; RMouse, nothing. It cost me a fortune and it does... nothing. What the heck am I doing wrong? I did kill the Maw, though. With my assault rifle.

I've got the armor and weapons upgrades, and haven't recruited everyone yet. Just because I'm too nosey to wait and see, could someone tell me who gives me the ship's shield upgrade? Since these ship upgrades seem to be a big key in the end-game, I don't wanna miss one, especially after seeing a YouTube video of what happens when you do things... well... wrong.

Well, exactly. Don't forget the "there are no homosexuals in Iran" thing too. That whacky guy has a million of 'em!

@ ~Di: Before you go to Haestrom to recruit make sure you pump the difficulty slider to hardcore or insanity. And make sure you keep it there fore the entire mission. I know it sounds brutal (and believe me it is), but the reward is one of the best assault rifles in the game: The Geth Pulse Rifle. Hahahahahaha!!! That's a good one. I spent 3 hours on the Garrus mission on Casual (yes, dammit, that's how much I suck... had to turn it down) and now I'm supposed to pump it up to hardcore? That'll have to wait for another playthrough, after I've learned how to hit the broad side of a barn from behind a crate!! But thanks for the info, which I'd never known otherwise. When I finally get that gun... and I'm tenacious, eventually I will... I'll give you a big, sloppy internet kiss!

Great! I'll pay closer attention tonight. It was pretty late when I tried it out, and I was kind of tired.

Male or female. Yay! Thank you. I lost my faith for a moment. Forgive me.

Yeah, Zaeed isn't much fun to chat with. And he may not be a very good soldier, but I took him on my Grunt recruitment last night and I learned one thing. He's a better soldier than I am. On the plus side, I've got tons of resources now! On the minus side, I spent a whole bunch of them on a thing-a-ma-jiggy that is supposed to make planet scans faster and easier... and I didn't see any danged difference in scanning. Maybe I'm supposed to turn it on or something. I suck at this game. But I'm still enjoying the hell out of it. How sick is that?? lol

Quick question. I haven't been following the New Vegas thread(s), so this question might have been answered. If so, I apologize for the redundancy. I just got my PCGamer mag today, and it had a nice spread on Fallout: New Vegas. Thing is, it always referred to the main character as "he" and didn't note (as it usually does) that the PC could be either male or female. Can the PC be female, or is this the first Fallout where the PC is male only?

Yes. Just... yes.

I'll have to take him along for sure and see what he can do. Since I'm supposedly the soldier... *cough*... I was taking crewmates who had other talents. However, perhaps I should take someone who can actually kill bad guys while I'm hiding behind a damned crate! Rats, I knew that. Don't know what I was thinking when I asked that question. Thanks for the tip. No Slam for me. I'll have to look up what AP and Warm ammo is all about. Good info.

When I booted up the game last night, I went straight to my gun collection and saw... THE VINDICATOR!! I was so flustered during that mission that I didn't pick up a single item while trying to close the shutters, but I must have seen the thing (when I see "gun", it's like a dog seeing "squirrel"!) and automatically grabbed it. Thank heavens. I'm bad enough at this game, and I was getting the idea that I had just royally screwed myself. Anyway, I've recruited a few, including Jack, done Zaheed's loyalty mission... does this guy have anything to make him worth the download time??... and unlike most of you, am very much enjoying scanning planets and chatting up my crew. I also took my new-found planetary riches on a shopping spree for weapon/armor upgrades, and have completed research on Normandy's Heavy Armor Upgrade and Tarrok? Cannon Upgrade. I went through Jack's mission only dying once, lol, so maybe I'm getting the hang of combat... or maybe Jack's mission really was a piece of cake. Thanks again for all the tips. Say, what were your favorite special powers (the one you get to borrow from a loyal shipmate?) I'm thinking Mordin's incendiary thingy, but overload seems terrific for synthetics and I've heard some people swearing by singularity. I haven't seen any of them often enough to have a clue. Your thoughts would be helpful.

Actually...you are sent to fetch the Fereldian archdemon blood supply from the secret warehouse room in Denerim. Where Duncan's shield is. There wasn't any archdemon blood there in any of my games. Only Duncan's shield and a bunch of crap. I frankly don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Yikes. Thanks, Grommy. I'll plod on using ... well, other options.

He never complained about my evil acts, because my pc didn't have any evil acts. She was righteous and good, all the way, had 100% approval rating with him since the early part of the game. Had enough? Bah. The first time my PC ever did anything he didn't agree with... which she does at Riordan's request (you know, Riordan, an "honored" gray warden who was apparently DEMEANING the wardens as a whole and Alistair personally by the "vile" suggestion that the wardens actually need people...duh), he throws a freaking tantrum not at Riordan who has requested Logain's joining in the first place, but at the PC who simply agrees that yes, they need more wardens. Alistair then tosses everything he believes in out the window and storms off like a thwarted child. Might have been in character in the game you played, but it sure wasn't in character in the game I played. Which brings up another WTF at this same point in the game. I initially asked Riordan about performing the joining on others to recruit more wardens and was told (A) that Riordan didn't know how to perform the ritual and (B) that archdemon's blood was required anyway, and the warden's supply of archdemon blood had either been destroyed or stolen. Miraculously, these petty problems are magically resolved (we know not how) to fit the writer's need to have either Logain or Alistair removed from the game at that point. Anyway, you can construct whatever motivation you want for Alistair; it is a role-playing game, after all. Me, when I see plot holes and a break in character, I call 'em what they are... to me... and I just move on.

That was nasty mission, especially as it could be first recruitment mission. My Insane run Shepard Adept is alien lover so of course she disagreed with Miranda and didn't go for the salarian doc first. Garrus taking damage outside the screen, Miranda and Jacob die really fast, your powers are still rather gimpy or do not recharge fast enough, unlimited spawn of mobs while you try to move towards the button. I used granade laucher to kill armor and then singulatity to control 'em. Damn those Krogans could take beating and my guns (both pistols) felt like peashooter. Was hardest fight in the game for me (a lot to do with early levels and low powers, as well as minimal upgrades). Thankfully game autosaved (and ignored mobs that were still alive after 10 secs was over) and moved to cutscene. That Krogan boss killed me when I tried to circle strafe (in order to keep it away from nearly dead Garrus). I was damn pissed at that point because my last quicksave was before the last shutter... first time ever I was happy that there was autosave. Thank you for this post, even if you're just trying to make me feel less incompetent. It worked! The part in bold gave me a clue as to why I had as much trouble as I did. I took Miranda and Mordin, but left Mordin with Garrus thinking that if I didn't, Garrus would die faster. In rhetrospect, perhaps I should have been more concerned about how quickly I might die without them, and been greedy! And no way am I replaying that mission until my next game, when I'll hopefully be a bit more proficient at... everything.

There was another ending if the PC let Logain live. I happened upon it while replaying the endgame several times, trying to see as many endings as possible. In my case, Next thing I know So it's possible to let Logain live and not have Alistair either That said, I hate the entire scene. In my opinion, the Alistair that had been meticulously created to love and respect the gray wardens, who honored the wardens to the point of hero worship, who would even tell the woman he loved that his duty as a gray warden to end the blight came before their own feelings for each other, would suffer such a drastic change in character. He might turn his back on the PC, but would never dishonor the wardens or turn his back on his duty to fight the blight, no matter what sacrifice he had to make to do so. It was a bad design decision for the character they'd created, a true WTF moment that totally jarred the player out of immersion. Since it was so damned obvious that they wanted to make sure there were only two wardens available to kill the archdemon (so that one of them HAD to die if the Dark Promise hadn't been taken), they should have forced Logain and Alistair to fight, and allowed only one of them to survive. That would make sense. The scenario they used did not. In my opinion, of course.

No, I don't think I did. Garrus was screaming at me that everything was so urgent that I didn't even slow down to grab medi-gel. I figured I could loot the place after I secured the location... and scour for ammo, since by the end of the battle nearly every one of my weapons was totally out. Wrong. *sigh* It's a learning curve. For me, a big one!

am reminded of reeses peanut butter cups. bio insists on recreating a digital peanut butter cup... "two great tastes that taste great together." jade empire were a fusion o' fighting game and rpg elements. the fighting game aspects o' je were not particularly challenging, and the rpg elements were lite, but some folks enjoyed well enough. too much fighter-game for Gromnir... and we didn't like the characters or story much. je did have an intriguing setting, but if you not like fighter games aspect... me 1 were combining supposed shooter and rpg, but am thinking that few rpg folks were daunted by me 1 combat; the shootery stuff was made visual appealing but non-lethal. Gromnir, who has limited use of his left hand (nerve damage) did not require many reloads due to inability to aim or find cover. we could die in me 1 if we chose particularly stoopid tactics, but lack o' mad shooterz skillz never resulted in me 1 death for us. me 2, on the other hand... is no way in hell Gromnir could play me 2 on the pc. sure, the game looks superior and has better interface on pc, but me 2 wasd w/o auto-cover makes pc version me 2 functional impossible for our gimpy self. me 2 has far more shooter elements than did me 1, and the rpg elements o' me 2 character generation and development is proportional reduced. we enjoyed me 2, but in terms o' character generation, development and combat, it is only barely a rpg. HA! Good Fun! So sorry to hear about your damaged hand. I didn't know. Anyway, I'm one of those who looked at JE and said "blech, karate game, no buy". Then a year (or maybe two) after it had come out for the PC, I was bored and desperate. I bought it, fell in love with the atmosphere and found the hand-to-hand fighting great fun (no swords or staffs for me unless absolutely necessary!). A light, bright, atmospheric fun little romp that didn't take itself too seriously, and neither did I. ME 2 seems to me (early in the game, admitting I suck at it and suck at most shooters) to have tried to be a shooter first with RPG elements second. No inventory. No real skills to speak of. Research and scanning grinds replacing a hunt for upgrades. Combat where the other guy never misses, but the PC does and will die ugly unless crouched in cover throughout the battle... that's pure shooter stuff. I'm nothing if not tenacious, and I will hone enough skills to beat this game... but I am disappointed in the direction Bio took with ME combat. Very disappointed.

That sounds like Volo's complaint only more honest You have to get used to sticking in cover at all times and precise aiming. Aim for the torso with most weapons so that the next several shots go to the head. Really you should very rarely die in the game. On veteran I reloaded a few times on select locations, but it was often a breeze. I'm hoping you're playing this on the PC. Yeah, I'm playing it on the PC. I just haven't figured out the combat/power tactics needed to... not die. I'm not kidding when I say I suck at combat in this game, and I know it. Reminds me of my first game of JA2 or my first try at Firkrag. Took me three whole evenings... not hours... evenings... to kill him the first time. Once I'd figured out how to peel down his defenses and what spells he was/wasn't immune to, it was cake. It's just that I'm not a shooter person, so it's a big learning curve for me. The story has drawn me in, I love the concept, chatting up my teammates, etc, but real-time shooter mode where they never miss but I always do... it's gonna take me a long damned time to get up to speed with this game. When I do, I'll probably end up playing it a dozen times over the next couple of years, just like I do with all my favorite games. But at the moment, I effing hate it.