Mass Effect 1 & 2

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For XMass I am going to have these two games. Should I play start playing these games immediately (I have one week off) or should I play Fall Out 3?

Once DAII is released any game I got for XMass will start collecting dust for 3-6 months if not longer.

 

IMO Mass Effect is the nicer setting. Fallout 3 is not so much my cup of tea it seems. Very good games, and now the trailer for part 3 is out, which will come before Christmas next year. They are always woth playing, and you'll have an enjoyable week.

 

I'm playing (and enjoying) Fallout 3 at the moment, but the Mass Effect games are probably still my personal Game(s) of the Decade. Playing them back-to-back is a good way to do it as the story is (in videogaming terms) excellent, I've found myself getting attached to my Shepard and invested in the story in a much bigger way than I've done with any other series, even the Baldur's Gate Trilogy.

 

My wife said I could go ahead and starting playing ME 1 over the weekend. My weekends are so busy lately that if I get 10 minutes to play any game that is an accomplishment. Last night I got about an hour so I played around a bit with ME1.

Before I go to far into the game, I think my play time was about 30 minutes, I want to pick a class that will provide me with a good assortment of weapons but not be a tank to say the least. I was thinking of enginer class or the class that combines a solider and enginer. Not which one to pick.

 

Infiltrator (the Soldier/Engineer mix) is a very good choice. The sniper specialisation comes in dead handy (especially in ME2) and having access to Decryption & Electronics frees up your choice of party members. You can reselect your class at the beginning of ME2, however, so don't get too hung up if you don't like whatever you chose at first. What I will say, though, is that it's a good idea to bust a gut to reach level 50 on your first play through in ME1 (if you can) as ME2 rewards you with extra resources and the like for importing a level 50+ character, and as ME2 is much stingier than ME1, this is a great help.

 

Infiltrator will have a difficult time in the beginning in ME2. That only changes once you get access to a decent sniper rifle on Illium*. After that, if the respective skills are maxed and sensible ammo and bonus powers are chosen it's a breeze.

*

Spoiler

tip: recruit the assassin early

 

I'm really starting to like this game. I'm only at the Citdal; have yet to talk to the counsel. I picked up, what I think so far, a pretty decent pistol from the farmers on Eden Prime.

Should I sell the equipment I picked up on Eden Prime that my main character is not using or should I equip the NPCs that are tagging long with Shepard with the better equipment than their standard gear? I'm afaird I will loose it or something if they leave or die. Let me know if I should or should not equip the NPCs with better gear.

I went with the Infiltrator class. I maxed out charm and intimidate (both are 3 right now) and I am distributing the rest of my skill points evenly into pistol and tatical armor. I'm trying to open up Medium armor and the sniper riffle.

 

Don't worry about having both charm & intimidate - you only ever need one or the other. Keep to one side of the paragon or renegade argument, consistently, and you'll find that your conversation abilities are greatly aided.

As for gear, don't worry too much about party members leaving or dying. It can't happen during the course of normal gameplay; it only really matters if you get taken down in gameplay. Having well-equipped party members is a great boon, but don't worry about giving them good weapons if they're not trained to use them, For example, Kaiden is only really trained in pistols, so don't bother giving him a decent Assault Rifle until you've got them coming out of your ears.

I dunno, I found the Viper to be a bit underpowered. While the starting sniper rifle only has ten shots, its headshots will take most stuff down in one. I can't say the same for the Viper, although I understand that the lack of ammo can be frustrating. And (IMHO) the Widow is definitely worth it, especially when you get it.

 

Up until last night I didn't realize that I could use any of the four weapons. I thought I couldn't equip the other weapons if I wasn't trained in them.

After playing around with all the guns I like the shotgun and the pistol best. The Sniper Rifle is great if you want to take out enemies that are out range with other weapons and if you want to maintain some form of cover, though it isn't as stable as using sniper rifles as other FPS games.

After reading up on the game a bit more and playing it I want to use the assult rifle with skill and use it effectively; what makes me upset is that the skill to improve the use of the assult riffle is only available to the solider class.

Why is it that the NPCs can get the assult rifle skill and not be a solider? It just doesn't seem fair that the only way Shepard can use the assult rifle is if he or she is a solider.

I wish the game would allow you to select which weapon skill you can open up. I would modify the Infilitrator class so that it would have the Assult Rifle and not the Sniper Riffle for a class skill. I believe that would be a better class build as I like using the tech abilities but want to develop the skills with the bigger gun.

 

Well, you can take Assault Riffles as a bonus power once you've done the Assault Rifle Expert achievement.

 

Well, it fires fast. When I was good I managed to get three to four kills per use of assassination cloak with maxed abilities due to the greatly increased scope dilation, firing some ten or so (head) shots. The Incisor Rifle works well for that also, but has a smaller general ammo capacity, and I feel that sniper ammo replenishes more slowly than other ammo when collecting clips; a bug or game balance feature probably. Of course, the Widow beats them all - one shot, one kill.

 

Widow all the way

you gain stability as you level it up

 

... and you won't have that problem in ME2.

Besides, when you use the Viper with maxed ammo powers Tungsten ammo and/or Disruptive ammo, it can grind down even a heavy mech rather easily, in particular with repeated head shots. SMG (Locust or Tempest) with maxed Disruptive ammo is devastating against mechs and get alike, and compensates easily for the infiltrator not having the overload power.

PS: I like the Viper because, since the Infiltrator is the generic sniper character, it figures when he snipes a lot; having more than ten shot and a high rate of fires helps with that. The Incisor is good as well, but there's the subjective ammo consumption/ replenishment issue I mentioned (nothing serious, just something noticeable).

The Widow is simply the most potent sniper rifle in the game (which is a lot of fun), no doubt about that. But even on hardcore one can do well with the Viper. It is good enough and you can use it more often.

 

I had to start over because my father in law played my character as a renegade where I was playing a paragon.

What do you mean by your statement above olimikrig? Will it be treated like the other weapon skills?

 

Assault Rifle Expert is an ME1 achievement: "Register 150 Assault Rifle kills. Unlocks Assault Rifle for use as a bonus talent."

In ME2 there is a point in the game when classes can unlock a new (bigger) weapon or a new weapon class.

 

You have to chose the bonus talent on character creation, meaning that you'd have to make a soldier, log 150 kills with the assault riffle to get the achievement, and then create a new character, selecting Assault Riffles as your bonus talent during character creation.

Other than that it will work just as any other weapon skill; you invest points in it, and you get better with the weapon.

 

I was basically married to my assault rifle for my first full playthrough in ME1. But after you've got the hang of using your squad's abilities, you find that biotics & tech abilities can do far more to get you out of the sh!t than sheer firepower. Also, sniper rifles let you take out even the most serious enemies at distance without getting touched -- and for more XP than you'd get for using the Mako (if anyone doesn't know, you only receive 40% of the XP for killing an enemy in the Mako as you do for killing it on foot). Turrets are a synch, and even Geth Colossi can be tackled this way.

Spoiler

Another trick is "whittling"; wearing down a big enemy with the Mako's cannon & machine gun, before jumping out when the target is down to a sliver of health and letting him have it. You get the same XP as you would for taking him out on foot, but with the Mako taking most of the strain. Just make sure you time your vehicle exit to avoid any heavy ordinance coming your way, and have the left side of the Mako facing the target (as that's where you'll be when you bail out).

 

Do you have to be a solider to get the 150 kills with the Assult Riffle? I have only been using the assult riffle and am close to 150 kills now.

 

No. It helps, what with the accuracy, damage bonuses and overkill, but if it's working for you, keep at it. The only weapon I find to be genuinely ineffective without specialisation is the sniper rifle, owing to the thrice-accursed wobbly zoom. Which also makes it probably the most useful to unlock, especially for making a sniper Sentinel.

 

I am now using the Master Specter VII weapons. The assault rifle accuracy along with the two weapon mods that improve accuracy has made my character extremely accurate with the assault rifle. I also use the Incendiary VII ammo with all of my weapons.

I achieved $1,000,000 million credits last night and level 40. I still have 2-3 places left before I head off to Feros. I fought Saren at the bunker where the 2nd Beacon was and talked with the Reaper. This game is definitely getting interesting. Since this is my first play through I know my character maximum level is 50. Is there much more to do or am I near the end of the game?

What is the best medium suit of Armor in ME1? I am currently using Titan IV as it offers the best protection for my main character. If it was a level VII or higher armor I could use two Armor mods instead of one.

I find myself using the special ability to reduce an enemys armor than I quickly attack with my assault rifle. That special ability along with the other one for my Infiltrator quickly replenishes.

*Edited my riffles to rifle.