Achilles

*Tries to remember if Star Wars was lauded for its writing*

I think we may have solved the mystery.

She's also replaced by a geth prime during the romance scene on the way to the Cerberus base. Steely Legion?

If Tali dies, there's some funky Alliance dude standing in her spot during Shepard's big speech at the end. Completely random.

I think the husks were 3-4 shots each, and while I can't swear to it, I think the drunk camera is even more hammered on higher difficulties. The Marauder get in a cheap shot from which you have to recover before you can return fire. And I think it was 6-8 shots to take it down.

I'll have to google that

Insanity report:

Attempts to beat Kei Lang - 3

Attempts to survive mobs during end fight - 2

Attempts to shoot 3 ****ing husks and a maurader - 5

I guess I should've seen that last one coming, however it was a surprise.

Insanity run has been Priority missions only. First time through where my EMS wasn't maxed. Very different series of cutscenes while heading back to Earth

Awesome! On the fundraising part, not the ratdog not letting you sleep part

I finally tried the blue explosion ending. I think I still prefer green. Starting insanity run.

Long day ahead of you

Good luck this weekend. Be safe and have fun.

Next ME2/ME3 playthrough: Ashley dies, but no ME1 romance with Liara. Romance Miranda in 2 and 3, but she buys it on Horizon. I think that has potential.

How are things looking for your event this weekend?

Odd thing about Soldiers vs. Vanguards. I killed 4 Brutes last night (on Hardcore) before I even knew what happened. Same fight with a soldier usually takes several minutes...and several attempts. On the flip side, I'm nearly reduced to tears every time I see a Cerberus Engineer now. A single turret can magically produce 4 or 5 critical mission failure screens.

Take care of yourself. Hopefully the weather stays nice for a little longer

I literally lol'd

Another ME3 mechanics FYI: if you give Ashley the Saber and/or Incisor, then it doesn't make sense to boost Marksman for Accuracy past level 1. It also doesn't make sense to apply accuracy mods to either weapon (not sure if the sniper scope also squad members to target Centurions/Atlases through smoke screens)

EDIT: I'm thinking the Saber needs the stability mod and the extended magazine. That would give it the same recoil as the Avenger and the same clip as the Mattock. Hmmm...

Concussive shot is helpful for Shepard because of Adrenaline Rush (the evolution that allows him to use one power while AR is active) and by extension, for power combos.

Normally, for combat combos, the trigger action has to kill the target in order to fulfill the combo, however this is not the case for enemies stunned by disruptor ammo (all you have to do is hit them while stunned). Since this is what Ash has, she doesn't need to have a lot of points in CS to use combos. Also, now that disruptor ammo is effective against barriers, she doesn't need it to fight Banshees.

Same thing goes for Garrus with Overload/CS.

With Shepard.

Also, note to self: Concussive shot exists to execute power combos and nothing else.

Addendum: This is true for Ashley and Garrus. It's more useful to Soldier Shepard.

It appears that Kaiden, like Ashley, is built around the sole purpose of being there for the end battle.

I wouldn't take her for the final mission, but after crunching the numbers, she's definitely coming with me any time I have to fight a lot of Cerberus baddies. It isn't difficult to get her tech power damage up around 250%.

Same thing with Garrus. 250-275% damage with assault rifles or 300%+ with sniper rifles. 1200 dps with the Phaeston or 2150 with a Mantis. He's comin' with me for all the Brute fights.

*double checks math*

Holy **** EDI is over-powered!

Mass Effect 3 -the lighthearted tale of a girl and her shotgun.

Seriously. The N7 Crusader may be heavy, but it's as accurate as sniper rifle. It's all Arie carries.

3) Vanguard heavy melee is heavy melee that will get used

Couple of things:

1) damn my femshep is hawt in 3 (so long as her face doesn't move) and

2) Kaiden's emotional outburst in 2 makes a lot more sense now that we know that he's a potential LI for manshep in 3.

EDIT: Someone has a chauvinistic sense of humor. Ash in the hospital = 10,000 gifts in the gift store. Kaidan in the hospital = only one.

sigh

I was really hoping that Newt and Santorum would try to take this to the convention. Maybe I should have donated to their S-PACs.

Finished ME2 femshep vanguard last night. I remember the Collector Ship being a serious pain in the ass on insanity for vanguards, so I did hardcore this time around. Funny thing is that she tore through everything so I'm not sure if I was doing it wrong before or if the difference between hardcore and insanity is that significant.

Regardless, going to import into ME3 tonight and see how she does on hardcore there.

P.S. I may have missed the marketing on this one, but I found out yesterday that ME3 has combat and tech combos (think Singularity + Warp = Detonation, except Target Frozen by Cryo Ammo + Concussive Shot = Cryo Blast on Surrounding Enemies). Suddenly I feel as though I woefully neglected Concussive Shot my first two times through.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Combos

Been spending quite a bit of time the last couple of days on the BW forums looking for under-the-hood info on ME3 (you know, trying to figure out how the game works ). A lot of people have these annoying "______________ deserves a better ending" sig lines.

Just saw one that made me laugh: "Shepard deserves better fans"