11/20 Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

[Rasix]

Can you get the difficulty based achievements on a new game+ by just changing the difficulty after it starts (I didn't see the option to change diffs loading a previous completion)?  Or do you have to start from level 1?  I kind of want to insanity with my soldier and get the level 60 achievement at the same time.

[geldonyetich2]

I haven't actually done it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get the higher difficulty achievements with an existing career (or New Game+, as we've been calling it in a nod towards the Capcom legacy).  The thing is, the foes scale to your characters' levels anyway.

[Velorath]

I haven't actually done it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get the higher difficulty achievements with an existing career (or New Game+, as we've been calling it in a nod towards the Capcom Chrono Trigger legacy).

At least, that's the first time I ever saw the phrase.

[Phildo]

I haven't actually done it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get the higher difficulty achievements with an existing career (or New Game+, as we've been calling it in a nod towards the Capcom Chrono Trigger legacy).

At least, that's the first time I ever saw the phrase.

You are correct, sir.

[geldonyetich2]

Who needs to remember anything anymore?

[lesion]

Can you get the difficulty based achievements on a new game+ by just changing the difficulty after it starts (I didn't see the option to change diffs loading a previous completion)?

The achievement says something to the effect of "without changing the difficulty" so I assume it has to be left one way for the entire game. Luckily you can change that setting in the options before loading/starting a game.

[Miasma]

I was in the second last stage that uses the Mako when I accidentally figured out it had a zoom function with left trigger + right thumb button...  That would have made blowing up turrets on all those other planets from range much much easier.  The funny thing is I actually read the manual while going home so I knew it could do that, then I promptly forgot.

At any rate I finished it last night and am looking forward to the next one.  You guys had me worried by saying that it was set up for a sequel, I thought the ending would feel incomplete and empty but it turned out fine.

[Murgos]

I was in the second last stage that uses the Mako when I accidentally figured out it had a zoom function with left trigger + right thumb button...  That would have made blowing up turrets on all those other planets from range much much easier.  The funny thing is I actually read the manual while going home so I knew it could do that, then I promptly forgot.

Even better?  Left trigger + right thumb button == Zoom but if you hit right thumb button again?  Double zoom.

I played all the Mako parts as extended sniping games with the cannon.

[Mazakiel]

Treating the Mako like a portable sniper nest made the mandatory Mako missions alot more bearable.  Thresher maws were still enough of a pain in the ass I just kept driving, though. 

[MrHat]

Thresher maws were still enough of a pain in the ass I just kept driving, though. 

Canon, jump, canon, jump, canon, jump, profit!

[NiX]

Canon, jump, canon, jump, canon, jump, profit!

Seriously, after the first one raped me, I got the jist of it and demolished them all.

[geldonyetich2]

They can be tricky if you're in the habit of driving over to where they emerge, hungry for blood.  It helps to note that they seem to emerge at a few select spots so you can keep your distance while blasting away.

[Murgos]

It was so obvious when you were getting to a Thresher Maw spawn point that it was pretty much trivial:

"Oh look, flat ground with that exact same hill pattern. I smell Thresher Maw"

Drive until rumble.  Spin Turret.  Jump.  Canon.  repeat as necessary.

[geldonyetich2]

Never noticed the hill pattern, but suspiciously flat ground is usually thresher maw territory.

[Khaldun]

Some Mako parts I just don't bother killing shit. On Feros, I just drive right past all the geth crap.

[Sky]

I'm confused. Is the secret to beating these things jumping and using officially recognized story elements or a brand of printers?

[Murgos]

I'm confused. Is the secret to beating these things jumping and using officially recognized story elements or a brand of printers?

Mr. Hat started it.   I was just to lazy to bother to figure out which spelling was correct.

[Riggswolfe]

A couple of things:

Re: New game+ difficulty achievements: You can do it. Just change the difficulty the first chance you get and it still counts. A dev on their forums said you can change it all the way until you finish Eden Prime and it counts. I got the hardcore acheivement on my soldier. I haven't gotten insanity yet but will soon on my bad ass infiltrator. (My new favorite character, sniper rifle plus tech plus lift bonus talent plus almost unlimited immunity == win.)

Thresher Maws: They're very easy to beat. You just stay barely out of their melee range. Pop them with the cannon. Jump when they fire at you. Rinse, repeat. For massive XPs get them down to a sliver then hop out of the mako and finish them on foot. BTW, I highly recommend killing all enemies on foot if you can. You get more XPs that way. And frankly, I'm less vulnerable to damage than the Mako.

BTW, I can't remember if I posted it here, but my experiment worked. I'm referring to putting zero talent points into charm and/or intimidate and just replaying the same character. I'm on my 2nd playthrough and have 8 points in charm purely from the free points you can get. I need to make a 3rd playthrough to max those points out. I guess in theory I could play the same character 6 times and have both charm and intimidate maxed out but I'm not really a renegade type of guy so I'm not going to.

[Murgos]

So most effective armor or weapon load outs?

For assault rifles as soon as I can I go +dam% -heat% for weapon and then swap back and forth between +organic or +synthetic damage for ammo.  Once you get a second weapon slot opened I usually just double up on +dam -heat.  You get pretty close to +100% damage and only -20 heat dissipation eventually which takes down pretty much anything in two hits from an assault rifle.   My second play through I'm using a sniper rifle as my main weapon and I'm seeing that too much -heat will overload the weapon on every shot so I'm still trying to find a good balance.

Oh, and one of the NPC's always gets whatever best sensor I have but otherwise I do a similar load out.

The armor is a little trickier and I can see some effective min maxing against certain opponents, like +physics +hardening against biotics.  Mostly though I stick with +armor or +shields, especially toward the end game with colossus heavy armor.

[Riggswolfe]

Armor: With anyone but a soldier I've been going with medical interfaces for the health regen. I've found it helps a ton. Especially since they also have power cool down bonuses at higher levels. With the soldier I used the one that steadies your mobile aim and gives a couple of other bonuses.

Weapons:

Assault rifle: Usually two heat cooldowns plus target ammo (+% vs synthetics/organics)
Pistol/Shotgun: Usually one heat cooldown + a scram rail. Ammo varies, sometimes +% vs a target type, sometimes incindiery.
Sniper rifle (my current weapon): Two scram rails + high explosive rounds X. I get one shot then cool down but it is worth it for the fun to be had with ragdoll physics.

[Rasix]

Hammerhead rounds on a shotgun or sniper rifle (hell, even a pistol) can be very useful.  Especially against melee swarm mobs like creepers or husks.  They can take so much punishment and tear you up at close range, it's best to put them on the floor.

It's interesting with a pistol that if you put on at least one heat dampener, there's pretty much no chance of overheating.  My infiltrator barely used the shotgun because I could keep a steady stream of pain going with the pistol.

I think I had at least one combat optics on my sniper rifle, combined with the maxed skill and a good rifle.. there's absolutely no sway.  I can pop into zoom and fire immediately.  I could try reducing the +accuracy and put on something else, but I liked it.

And wtf is up with krogans having basically two lives?  I knock them down at low health and immediately they're nearly full again.  Some sort of near death, trigger maxed out first aid scripting going on?

[lesion]

I assume a white health bar means they're using Immunity, and if they pop medi-gel it means the healing can overpower incoming damage. So use toxic rounds or kill 'em harder.

[Riggswolfe]

Hammerhead rounds on a shotgun or sniper rifle (hell, even a pistol) can be very useful.  Especially against melee swarm mobs like creepers or husks.  They can take so much punishment and tear you up at close range, it's best to put them on the floor.

See, I like High Explosives because it is basically an AOE hammerhead that is guranteed to knock many of them down and/or up.

[Rasix]

I'll have to try that with my insanity play through.  Turn my shotgun into a rocket launcher essentially.

[Phildo]

Explosives are great, except for the excessive overheating.  I like the higher-level incendiary rounds.  Fun to watch defeated enemies melt.

[Bunk]

Just finished my first playthrough. Oddly, I went light side for the first time in one of these games. It was joy. I had a few questions left unanswered, expected certain choices I had made to revist me and they didn't, so I have to wonder if I need a second playthrough to see things. Oh, and I saw side-butt.

Doing a spacewalk and blowing badguys in to backwards zero G somersaults with my shotgun just made everything seem right.

[schild]

I'm playing this now. And going light side the first time through.

[Riggswolfe]

So, I'm on my 7th playthrough and a friend told me about an entire questline on the Citadel I've never even seen that occurs towards the end of the game. It has to do with a politician for that "Humans first!" group. Sheesh. Btw, I think this is finally my last playthrough, with this I should have my character in perfect shape for ME 2.

[Murgos]

So, I'm on my 7th playthrough and a friend told me about an entire questline on the Citadel I've never even seen that occurs towards the end of the game. It has to do with a politician for that "Humans first!" group. Sheesh. Btw, I think this is finally my last playthrough, with this I should have my character in perfect shape for ME 2.

I got one short quest off of him.  There is a whole line of stuff?  Hmm, interesting.

[Bunk]

I get a feeling it's not a Paragon quest, as I basically just told him to piss off in a very polite manner.

[schild]

Guys, does anyone else wonder why it's become a staple of adventure games to have a puzzle/reaction game embedded for unlocking shit? Didn't we get past this with multitools in Deus Ex? :( :( and why does the weapon selection tool feel so awkward.

These are my only complaints so far!

[Riggswolfe]

So, I'm on my 7th playthrough and a friend told me about an entire questline on the Citadel I've never even seen that occurs towards the end of the game. It has to do with a politician for that "Humans first!" group. Sheesh. Btw, I think this is finally my last playthrough, with this I should have my character in perfect shape for ME 2.

I got one short quest off of him.  There is a whole line of stuff?  Hmm, interesting.

I should have said quest, not questline. My bad. I do wonder if there are other quests around that same time period I missed in the Citadel though since at that point I hit "let's go kill Saren!" stage in my gameplay.

[Murgos]

why does the weapon selection tool feel so awkward.

I think it's because you have to select a weapon and then accept it.  If it was just the last one you high-lighted I think it would feel smoother.

[schild]

Well yea, I'd have preferred that. I also think that relying on radial menus instead of a kickass equip screen just annoys me a bit. For whatever reason.

[Bunk]

A few suggestions for those just starting:

In the tougher combats, learn to use the radial menu as your friend. Bring up the menu, reaim at the annoying bouncing target, release the menu button and immediately shoot.

As to the Simon puzzles, get used to them, they are throughout the entire game. 80% you can skip and just use omni-gel instead if you really hate them.

If you see a map are that seems like a pointless side path or alcove, as with all these games, there's usually loot there.

Use the Quartermaster on your ship to sell off all the crap thats below your current level. You do not want to let your self get near the 150 item limit.

Mako: left trigger, click down right analog, and learn to hop