What did you do today in ME?

My Shepard died three times during Javik's recruitment mission on Hardcore because she insisted on charging turrets. ;P

Well, it can work but not when five other Cerberus agents also shoot at you. *g*
I guess I should play a little bit more cautious from now on. Still too used to being basically invincible as a vanguard on silver in the multiplayer. Game is so easy on Hardcore that I just charge into a crowd without a second thought. Occasionally this ends badly.

Also, seems like Charge refuses to trigger sometimes in SP too. *sigh*

(Waves) well, the CBT for Revelation got pushed back to 3rd of Nov, so I decided to try to get my evil guy to the end of ME1. So, I've diligently made my way through a bunch of sidequests. Some, I don't even remember from my first time through, like a kingpin on some moon wanting to personally kill Shepard for making his Terminus criminal empire dream crumble. Heh. And some quest with a minefield that I abandoned anyway as too hard to pass. Also had to drop the Geth headquarters on Grissom. I tried to run the colossus down, shoot them, etc, but they just regenerate too fast for me to figure it out. Dunno how people do it on foot, heh.

Anyway, pretty much ready to do Noveria, and afterwards, I doubt I will have patience to do another load of sidequests... we'll see. He's like level 34, so pretty sure he can get through. Noveria is going to be tough, probably, as I am going to be trying to do it with Liara and Tali. If it's a no-go, I guess, I will replace Tali with Ashley. Oh, well, wait and see.

Yep, it is, the Bring Down the Sky! If it is a DLC, I am glad I did not buy the other ones -it's uber-hard, ouch.

For geth missions, Tali is a big help, as she can hack the little shits For the Colossus, use the Mako until its health is almost down (roll over it if you have to, or hide the Mako nose behind some obstacle as they aim for the nose), then get out and give it the last few shots with your weapons (Tali or Kaidan are helpful again with Master Sabotage so it can't fire at you )

I continued my ME1 run over the weekend, but barely had time, so I just did a few side quests only. Looking forward to Virmire! I never left picking up Liara as last mission, so it's gonna be a bit of fun I suppose

File#17
Subject: Listening Post Alpha Mission Report
Followed a distress call from Lieutenant Marie Durand, Alliance 10th Frontier Division, to Nepmos with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Lt. Durand and her men had been repeatedly attacked by rachni. Helped to repel the attacks and secured a rachni infested mine by eliminating all hostile lifeforms there.

File#18
Subject: Metgos Mission Report
Followed a distress call from downed med ship Sacred Angel to Metgos in the Hydra system with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. The distress call turned out to be a geth ambush and all geth were taken down in the process.

File#19
Subject: Presrop Mission Report
Entered a biotic compound with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams to investigate the disappearance of two Alliance officers. Successfully made former Alliance officer Kyle surrender after he admitted to killing the officers that were sent there. He was picked up after he was given an hour to explain his leaving to his biotic followers so they wouldn't turn hostile.

File#20
Subject: Ontarom Mission Report
Went to investigate a research facility on Ontarom as per Admiral Steven Hackett's briefing, with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Corporal Toombs, sole survivor of a thresher maw attack on Akuze, held former Alliance scientist Dr. Wayne hostage. Toombs revealed that scientists on Akuze deliberately released the thresher maw unto the unit to study its effects. As the only survivor he was used as a test subject by an ex-Alliance group he refered to as Cerberus.
Successfully convinced Toombs to lower his weapon, keeping scientist Dr. Wayne alive to be taken in by Alliance authorities.

A few pics:

I wish I could help, but it's difficult to in writing. It's pretty easy to get past the mines though. All I can say is to pull the Mako in front of the base and when you run out, veer left a bit and start moving forward. There will be crates in the middle of the field before you reach the batarians. You'll want to veer right towards the crates once you start getting near them.

Overall I think it's one of the best missions. Kind of a shame that this part can be too difficult for some.

Oh I see. Not sure what to suggest then, not knowing your class. Personally, I play Soldiers a lot... so I just go all Rambo on them

Eh, no big deal I guess. It actually took me years to even get DLC for ME1 (or even ME2 for that matter). I like them now, but the game is OK without it.

Over the weekend I finished recreating a bunch of the ME2 and ME3 guides from the old BSN forums into these new forums. I might try and snag a few more other interesting ones, but I got all the major ones done I think. Anyway, I look forward to playing the game again later in the week, hopefully as early as tomorrow night. Should be fun!

Commander Shepard set sail for Tuchanka to cure the Krogan Genophage in order to secure an alliance between Krogans and Turians. The Salarian Dalatrass wanted Shepard to sabotage the genophage cure, and in return, Salarians would provide support for the war effort and Shepard didn't take the offer. After fought through Reaper forces and summoned a Thresher Maw to destroy a Reaper, Shepard again rewrote history by forging an alliance between Krogans and Turians and helped to cure the Genophage. However, Mordin had to sacrifice his life for the cure.

Shepard returned to Citadel upon Salarian councilor's request and found that the station was being invaded by Cerberus forces. Thane sacrifice himself to save the Salarian councilor and Shepard found out Udina was behind the invasion. Shepard and his squad raced through Citadel to reach the rest of the Council before it was too late. Shepard eventually found the rest of the Council and the traitor Udina. Shepard was able to persuade Ashley to lower her weapon. The Council was eventually saved and the treacherous bastard Udina was killed by Shepard.

Shep did some side quests before headed off to a remote Asari colony on Lesuss after received a request for assistance from Asari high command. The colony was in fact an Ardat-Yashi monastery, where Shep and the squad found Reaper troops and mutated Ardat-Yashi. Samara was also at the monastery and she was there to look for her two daughters. Falere's sister was slowly being transformed into a banshee, however, she was still able to resist the Reaper's influence and activated the bomb to destroy the monastery. Shepard stopped Samara from committing suicide.

Finally got to play some Mass Effect again.

Shawna Shepard:
1. Went to go find Garneau. Found Reapers, strange miners, and a crazy man instead. Crazy man blew himself up. Strange miners were actually under some sort of control. They are free now.

2. Went to go find Ann Bryson at a dig site. She was surrounded by a metric frig-ton of Harvesters, along with a few other Reaper baddies. Managed to get to her and get her out alive...

3. ... just in time to fry her brain tracking down Leviathan. Got shot down by a strange pulse and landed on a shipwreck. Fended off some hordes of Reaper troops, then took a mech down below the surface to face Leviathan. Turns out there was more than one and their species was responsible for creating an A.I. that in turn created the Reapers that in turn betrayed them and started harvesting organic life every 50,000 years. Managed to convince the Leviathans to help fight the Reapers, then hightailed it out of there.

Next up: time to recruit the Quarians! Should be a simple operation, right?

File#21
Subject: Virmire Mission Report
- Went to follow up on a message transmitted to the Council by a salarian recon team on Virmire. Disabled some geth defenses and approached the salarian camp, then met up with salarian Captain Kirrahe, 3rd Infiltration Regiment, STG. Received information about Saren's plan to breed a krogan army on Virmire and agreed to follow Kirrahe's plan to infiltrate and destroy Saren's base.
- Sent Williams with a salarian team to create a diversion from the front of the facility, while my team, consisting of Alenko and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya to fight present geth efficiently, and I infiltrated the base from the back. Took down a couple of major geth defenses along the way. Found members of Captain Kirrahe's team inside the base, indoctrinated. They were taken out in the process or left in their cells.
- Met an asari called Rana Thanoptis, a scientist serving Saren, inside the base. Interrogated her about Saren and his ship Sovereign, and gained access to Saren's private lab. In exchange for the information she was let go, but chances are slim she made it out of the base in time.
- Found another beacon inside Saren's lab and received the full vision as from the beacon on Eden Prime. A holographic image of Saren's ship Sovereign emerged and started talking. It revealed that it is not - as assumed - a Reaper ship, but an actual Reaper.
There are more Reapers around, though Sovereign did not state where, only that they were on the brink of returning and execute their plan to eradicate galactic civilization. The Reapers are responsible for the extinction of the Protheans, and are in fact the true creators of the mass relays and the Citadel.
- Met up with the Normandy at the breeding facility to set a bomb Kirrahe's team was able to make from a drive core. Alenko stayed behind to prepare the bomb while I, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Garrus Vakarian headed towards Williams's position, who had been pinned down at a nearby AA tower.
- Received information that the bomb site had been overrun with geth. Returned to the bomb site to ensure the bomb goes off and fought the remaining geth there. Saren appeared and fled again after a short fight, then every remaining soldier in the area retreated to the Normandy. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams died fighting and with honor. Captain Kirrahe and a few of his men survived.
- Measures will now be taken to contact Prothean expert Dr. T'Soni as soon as possible in order to make sense of the Prothean vision.

Some pics as usual:


I died once during the infiltration part, wonderfully one-shot by a geth Sniper I believe, yay! The rest went fine. I was thinking hard whether I want to help Kirrahe's team or for once let both Kirrahe and Thane die (I've never seen the outcome in ME3 personally), but then I decided that while Neva is a bitch, she can be a team player if it benefits her, haha!
Still having fun and now I'm so excited to pick up Liara soon... after some more... fun... side quests. Ha!

Had an exciting day in the world of Mass Effect 1 today. That journey began yesterday, as Benjamin attempted to navigate the Mako through Therum. It was a bit more flighty than I remembered. Still, had more trouble getting out of it than driving it. Kept trying to use e or r instead of q. Also kept trying to reload Benjamin's weapons with r, but he had no grenades so that wasn't that amusing. Stopped the session at the final Armadillo.

Picked up the game from there today. Still have no idea what the geth ghosts and stalkers do, except look pretty I suppose. Anyway, the fight took a few tries. First time I forgot the sniper, the second time the Armadillo actually figured to aim past the crate and Benjamin got caught in the blast. Third time was the charm. 
The interior run went fairly well. The Krogan Battlemaster only managed to kill Benjamin and crew 5 times I think. Twice because Benjamin didn't try to run and three times because Benjamin did try running and the Battlemaster got him from behind. The battle was won by Benjamin backing away while facing the Krogan. Using the moment while he headbutted to shoot and get some distance. Next time I'll remember to take a biotic with lift or someone with neural shock. 
But I got a few chances to get a screenshot of Benjamin trying to calm down a completely docile Wrex, so that was good.
Then Benjamin found some pirates. These pirates were clever, since they actually stayed behind cover and refused to come out unless Benjamin left the cover and moved into the base, where they promptly shot him down. But they didn't have save and reload, so eventually Benjamin was victorious.
Benjamin also met his first two Thresher Maws. That was fun, but they had more health than I remembered, so Benjamin left the Mako a tad bit too early on the first one. 
Finally he tried to deal with some scavengers. After three times the game gave up and crashed, just when Benjamin was about to finish off the last two biotics.
Bad game. You should have crashed when Benjamin was getting his butt kicked.