Achilles

Insanity seemed too hard and Hardcore seemed too easy. Both were tougher in the beginning of the game then they were toward the end. Not sure what the answer is here.

Did you ever pick up the Firepower Pack? I'm not sure how interested I am in any of those weapons for me but I wouldn't mind giving them to party members.

After all was said and done (I didn't pick up the 6th Damage Protection), Legion had 995 in shields. I took him with me for the final boss fight. Miranda (who died ) and I would take down Harbinger's shields and then Legion would damn near finish him off with his sniper rifle. I'd hit him with Heavy Incinerate and then we'd all return our attention to THRL.

I am a little worried though. Tried to start a new game and twice the XBOX locked up on the loading screen for character creation. I was tired so I shut it down and went to bed, but tonight I need to figure out if the save I'm trying to import is corrupt or if my game suddenly decided to be broken. I almost think I'd rather have to buy a new game than rebuild a level 60 Shep to import.

Apparently, you only need about 70% Paragon to resolve the conflict between Tali and Legion. Still unable to get Jack and Miri to make nice though

Yep. Legion's defense type is "Geth Shield". "Geth Shield Boost" is something different, therefore not applicable to Shep. FWIW, Legion has 612 in shields and he still has one more Damage Protection upgrade coming (+35), another 25% boost to his geth shields (+87), and the 262 that he'll get when ever "boost" is active. Err...

Yeah, still loyal, but exiled.

Holy schnikes! I actually lost Tali's trial. This "pure neutral" thing is a lot harder than I thought

EDIT: Hey, wait a second...the Geth Shield Strength upgrade reads, "Upgraded squad members with geth shield technology". I know that means Legion. Does that mean me too?!

If the extent of my "bad influence" is contained to 80's cult films, I think I can die with a clear conscience

This is starting to feel like cheating, even on Hardcore:

Hardware - Kestrel Armor, Kuwashii Visor, Widow, Locust, & Carnifex HC

Disruptor Ammo (3)

Cryo Ammo (1)

Tactical Cloak (4 - Enhanced evolution)

Incinerate (4 - Heavy evolution)

AI Hacking (2)

Operative (4 - Agent evolution)

Geth Shield Boost (4 - Improved evolution)

The only time I die is when I get cocky. Improved Geth Shield Boost give a 10% damage bonus (for 60 seconds) on top of all the other weapon upgrade bonuses. Another 9% for Agent/Operative. Another 8% from the Kestrel Armor and another 10% for headshots thanks to the visor.

For grunts, I just hit the shields and then unload a clip via the Locust until the fall down or hang out behind cover and spam them with a couple of rounds of Heavy Incinerate. For sub-bosses, I cloak and then line up a headshot with the Widow. If I get rushed by Krogan, I apply cryo ammo to my pistol, cloak and take head shot til they freeze then run up close and hit them with melee attacks.

I need a Renegade playthrough for ME (44 of 45...unless I run the update and it adds BDtS to the list of required achievements).

Have fun with Insanity. Good news is that there appears to be a lot of good info out there about how to get through the tougher fights. I will let slip that I ended up resorting to YouTube to figure out how to get past the last one.

ME2 now joins AP in the short list of games for which I've earned every Achievement. I really liked LotSB right up until the new base. All sorts of stuff that screams "Hey look at me, I'm not part of the vanilla game".

My...that's a...lot of credits *blinks hard*

The end seemed a little anti-climatic. Great locations though.

Was hoping to get all the achievements, but only got some. She mentioned visiting so maybe I can come back.

Wasn't even a boss fight; it was the small army of agents after the car chase

I ended up taking Garrus. Chalk it up to nostalgia.

Wow, setting the bar high, are we?

Ok, that's just BS. I just used more medi-gel in one fight then I did in the entirety of my Insanity playthrough.

*clicks 'Continue' after dying for the third time*

*voice comes wafting in from the back of his head, 'Don't forget to level Liara'*

*Levels Liara*

Off to do Thane's recruit mission, then LotSB.

Without giving away anything, can you make a recommendation for 2nd party member? I was thinking of taking Miri.

I found that finding upgrades and trying to survive Insanity more than made up for the ennui that comes from a lack of leveling in an RPG.

Speaking of Insanity; I still think the Hardcore should be the default difficult, but I'm finding that it's getting way too easy. I shudder to think that the only way I can enjoy this game now is on teh crazeh.

Save the game, shut it down, and restarted. Jack and Zaeed have the Damage Protection bonus. Know we know what the game needs in order to apply bonuses.

I, personally, can't be bothered to do this for every area, but I'll be doing this for key fights from now on.

November 11, 2005. I'm guessing around 5am.

Seems to be the default time/date stamp used if your XBOX isn't connected to Live.

Do you have autosave turned off?

Completed Jacob's loyalty, returned to the ship, now taking Jack and Zaeed down to Joab to ruin some Blue Suns' day. Protection back to 250. Wonder what happens when I get to the surface, save, and restart the game.

Got to Disc 2 last night. Landed on 2175 Aeia for Jacob's loyalty mission, saved, and went to bed.

Fired up the game after work and lo-and-behold, both Jacob and Kasumi have the Damage Protection bonus. Now I get to see if it sticks around and then try to figure out why it worked all of a sudden.

Down-side to doing Overlord and Firewalker pack right away is that I unlocked Horizon right after recruiting Grunt.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be heading to Horizon soon, so I don't think I'll be making it that far tonight, but Friday is only a day away.

Eh...

Can't find the article I saw yesterday. Think this one might be better.

http://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect-2-arrival-dlc-might-be-on-the-horizon-194677.phtml

btw, took Mordin and Miranda to recruit Grunt last night. The area where about 12 krogan spawn - Miranda = Warp, Mordin = Incinerate, Shep = Incinerate. All = Pistols, then Shep = Tactical Cloak + Cryo Ammo (still pistol) + Melee. Awesome.

The good news is that I have a 50/50 chance that none of their weapons or armor will behave as described.