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Cool. I want this game to be available now.

With the character that I took through ME1 and then ME2, I saved Ashley and sacrificed Kaidan, kept Wrex alive, wiped out the Rachni species and saved the council. In ME2, I lost only Legion in the suicide mission but I may reimport and try to keep everyone around for ME3.

Did anyone save Kaidan and lose Ashley in ME1? That was a no-brainer for me. Ashley was a useful fighter and I used her in my party a lot, maybe more than any other character (it's between her and Garrus). Kaidan was sort of weak and useless, and whined a lot.

As I played through ME1 with a female soldier, Ashley was never in my party, except when I needed more muscle. I chose Kaidan. And for some odd reason, I managed to get Wrex killed too (Ashley shot him before she kicked it). Saved the rachni, killed the council.
In ME2 I managed to keep everyone alive. I'm pretty sure I'll import my old character in ME3, since it will give you some bonuses to boot.
I may yet fire up another character (thinking either infiltrator or adept) before I get to ME3, though.

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Thanks for posting that about ME3. I am so excited for that.

I played through ME1 & 2 enough to have made every choice and killed/saved every character at one time or another. I like how ME2 had some random people you would run into if you saved/helped them in ME1 so I have since tried to help out every random person I can.

I'm pumped to have Ashley back. She was great. I'm also gad to have Liara back, and not just because I continued a romance with her with one of my games. Mordin is my favorite character to talk to. He's funny.

I won't miss Jacob, Zaeed or Tali if they stay mia.

I hope they include Thane, Jack & Kasumi (& Morinth if you chose to save her.)

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Thanks for starting a ME thread, btw. It should have happened a long time ago what with all the talk we've given it.

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The means it's all ok.

On that note, can one of our glorious moderators move the ME discussions to this thread, or is that a bit too much to ask?

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and


I'd be fine not including Jack or Samara. Both characters annoyed me. I wouldn't miss Jacob, Zaeed or Miranda too much either. I liked Tali though, so I'd like to see her in ME3. I would definitely welcome back Mordin, Garrus, Liara, Wrex, Thane, Ashley and Kasumi. As for non-party characters, it's good to hear that the Illusive Man will be back. Martin Sheen was excellent. According to the wiki, we can also expect to see Joker, Anderson and Udina. Unfortunately, no sign of Aria.

Do you remember how you got Morinth in your party? I never even had the option come up. Samara just killed her every time. Maybe I wasn't renegade enough.

The only times I was able to swap out Morinth for Samara was when I waited until almost the end to do Samara's loyalty mission. I think you have to have your meter almost completely maxed out in either direction to have the willpower to withstand her charms. Only then does it give you the option to choose which one you want. Morinth's loyalty power is pretty badass. It's like the one where you can make synthetics fight on your side only it works on organics.

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The means it's all ok.

Mass Effect 3 is the cover story in this month's Game Informer magazine. I didn't have time to read it today but it looks cool.

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The means it's all ok.

Mass Effect 3 launch moved to 2012



More here.

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As disappointing as it is, its probably for the best they have pushed it back. I'd rather keep waiting if it means the game will be better.

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It also gives me more time to finish a few more characters. Playing through the entire game a few times consumes quite a bit of it.

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BioWare are passing up the chance at bumper holiday sales in favor of getting everything right. Good for them, although with ME2 setting the bar so high and with Dragon Age 2 disappointing and considered rushed, ME3 really has to be perfect. I'm hoping I'll get Zelda: Skyward Sword and ES V: Skyrim to keep me occupied in the meantime. 11/11/11 looks set in stone for Skyrim (and the demos look totally polished and release-ready) but with Nintendo's reputation and the lack of any news or demos, I'll bet Z:SS gets delayed.

I played through ME2 again, full renegade vanguard this time. Definitely my favorite class to go against Scions (charge and the Eviscerator shotgun with incendiary ammo works wonders) but at a big disadvantage against a Praetorian. I recruited Morinth this time, got everyone through the suicide mission (Miranda - 2nd team lead; Tali - tech specialist; Jack - Biotic barrier; Mordin - crew escort; Shepard/Thane/Legion - final showdown) and kept the reaper ship intact at the end to keep the Illusive Man happy. Oh, and I also finally found out what to do with those forged IDs you find at the end of Garrus' loyalty mission. I finished Arrival too. I concur with you guys. It's good, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't one of the best missions.

Speaking of which, what missions do you all enjoy most? I'd say my top five are Grunt's recruitment, Collector ship, Thane's recruitment, Lair of the Shadow Broker and of course, the suicide mission itself. Least favorites are Samara's loyalty mission, exploring the wreckage of the Normandy, that one where you have to put power cells into the abandoned mech and anything with the Hammerhead -- especially the one Firewalker mission where you collect 5 artifacts, fighting Geth along the way and if they kill you in the final battle, you have to start from the beginning. Thane's loyalty mission is also a bit weak. I wish they'd done more with the whole interrogation thing.

Now playing as a paragon sentinel. I still think this class is missing something, like an extra weapon option or something. I took the assault rifle option on the Collector ship but I'm wondering if the shotgun would have been a better choice given how suited to up-close fighting the sentinel has become with fully upgraded tech armor.

Still discovering new options and new ways to complete missions. The more I think about, the more I realize that this game is in my all-time top ten. We should put those lists together.

I'm still trying to figure out what my 5 favorite missions are. In looking up the missions to help organize my thoughts I found this page that lists some of the content that was cut from ME2. http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_2_Cut_Content I wish they would have kept the Mordin/Grunt confrontation. That would have been interesting.

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Ok, I have narrowed down my list to a top-5 missions:
Recruit Garrus
Recruit Jack
Kasumi's loyalty mission
Shadow Broker (this kind of feels like cheating, though, since it is really 3 missions in one.)
Suicide mission (this is probably my overall favorite)

I agree with Philip about the least favorite missions. I would love the overlord missions if there wasn't so much Hammerhead in them. My overall least favorite level, though, is Horizon (assuming I'm playing on hardcore or insanity.) The final battle is just too difficult to be fun. That mission is still be reason I haven't beaten the game on insanity. I feel like maybe giving it one more try and building my character specifically to beat that level. I feel like I need someone with both overload and reave to get through that last battle.

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I like this one a lot too, especially if you're a class that can use a sniper rifle. I like the things you can do before the mission starts to help make the combat easier later. Also, similar to Mordin's mission (another good one), you do it early on before you're all powered up so you have to rely on your basic skills. I like that.
I'm going to add this to my list (and drop the Collector ship) since I just replayed it and had forgotten how much fun it is. It's a great mission to do early on for non-soldiers too as it gets you the best SMG in the game (Locust).
The final assault on the SB's ship still makes my list by itself.
Same here.
If BioWare decide to remove all driving from ME3, I am totally fine with that.
I got past Horizon on hardcore both as soldier and vanguard. Insanity was too much though. What part of it gives you most trouble? It's usually the initial wave of husks/scions that gives me the most problems.

For me, the part I tried for over 2 hours before finally just quitting was the very end of the mission. That Praetorian is just too much to handle. He can hover over your cover so you have to spend the whole mission running for your life. He also has barriers that replenish. You whittle down the barrier and just when you can start doing some real damage the barrier comes back up at full strength. I think they key might be having a character and squad members who can all take down barriers as well as burn through armor and shields.

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My approach is to keep running from cover to cover, firing when the Praetorian isn't, hiding when he is. Each time you whittle down his barrier, you do a little bit of damage before he slams to the ground, recharges his barrier and comes after you again. It takes about five cycles of this on normal difficulty. I think it took me 12 on hardcore. The key is keeping your distance. When he's down and recharging, use the opportunity to run to the furthest, best covered area. Warp or armor-piercing ammo are your best choices, and I like the collector particle beam as my heavy weapon (which I use liberally against the Praetorian).

I'd say infiltrator has the easiest time with the Praetorian as the class has sniper rifles and incinerate, while the tactical cloak is very useful for moving between cover points without taking damage. Vanguard has the toughest fight as you have no special weapons or abilities to use against him other than incendiary ammo.

I just started a new game on Insanity. Male Sentinel trending towards paragon but I plan on siding with Morinth and letting the factory workers die on Zaeed's mission. I chose reave as my bonus power but I thought long and hard about going with inferno grenade instead.

I know it means Kelly and the rest of the crew won't survive but I want to take Legion with me aboard the flotilla for Tali's loyalty mission so see what they say about me bringing a geth on board.

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Ooh, I haven't tried that yet. I always complete Tali's loyalty mission before getting Legion as a team member.

I've not been able to save the refinery workers and keep Zaeed loyal. I guess my paragon hasn't been high enough.

I started my insanity run today. I recruited Zaeed and Kasumi and then did all of the non-combat Citadel and Omega missions, trying to level up as much as I could before I had to fight anyone. Using the same logic, I just knocked out all the Firewalker missions.

I've never invested much into the tech armor. When I use it does it expire after a certain length of time or just when my shields get blown?

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It's basically a shield boost. It stays on until your shields are destroyed. If shields are only partially damaged, they will recharge to their full, boosted level. You also have the energy pulse when your shield goes down and at tech armor level 3, your squadmates get a cooldown bonus.

You guys are way further in this material than I am. I'm only at my second playthrough (although I am very thorough at at). For some odd reason I can't start the Shadow Broker mission. Do you guys know why this could be?

BTW, A², I read somewhere that you can do both the Tali loyalty mission and Legion's loyalty mission before the Collectors kill the crew. It appears to be the only combination of two missions that saves the crew. Also, you need to be high up in either Paragon or Renegade to convince the admiralty board to let Legion on the Migrant Fleet. And you apparently get some alternative comments from Tali.

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I've caught the completist bug with this game and won't be satisfied until I've done everything which is a worrying thought.
It only shows up after you've completed Horizon. You should get a message from Cerberus with intel they want you to give to Liara but I don't think it's necessary to read it to activate the mission. It should show up on your galaxy map regardless. Also, if you talk to Liara, you should have an option "Let's get to the Shadow Broker". Liara has a couple of hacking assignments but I don't think they need to be completed before starting Shadow Broker.
I think it's possible to complete up to four missions/assignments (read that somewhere) after getting the IFF from the reaper ship and before it's ready to install and opening the galaxy map triggers the collector attack. If you have no outstanding missions/assignments, EDI tells you the IFF is ready immediately but the game still always lets you do Legion's loyalty mission. You just have to activate him and hear about the heretics first. Once you've done that, you can open the galaxy map as normal.

Insanity is going so well that twice I have gone into my settings and checked to make sure I was still playing at that difficulty. It only took me 20 minutes to beat the end of Horizon. Now I am knocking out all the recruitment and loyalty missions. I am managing to only die 7 or 8 times per mission. Sentinal is pretty clearly the optimal class for my playing style. I use the armor, warp & overload and I chose warp ammo for my bonus power. I have been bringing Kasumi and Miranda as my regular partners.

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