Mass Effect

[Alura]

Is so ridiculously good, it should be illegal.

[Rem-13]

Counterargument: Its not out for the PC.

[Saz]

It's pretty great, though I'm starting to notice travelling around can get a bit tedious when you're doing the side missions. But the story just sucks you in so well, plus the combat is so SO much better than I thought it'd be from the little I saw in previews ect...

What class have you chosen for your character? I've made mine a vanguard, seems to be the best class for me, I can use weapons, but still use some biotics occasionally too.

[Kaden]

I went through the first playthrough with an Infiltrator. I thought that was great. The debuffs that someone with tech skills get are absolutely awesome. That, and using sniper rifles is pretty much sweet.

On the second playthrough I'm a Vanguard. So far it seems that Vanguard will be a lot of fun. Having Biotic skills is pretty sweet. And shotguns are pretty much the best.

Just an FYI, if you get the "[skill name] Specialist" achievement, you can then choose to have that skill usable on any subsequent character. For example: I got the "Overload Specialist" achievement from playing my Infiltrator; then, when I made my Vanguard I had the option to give her the "Electronics" skill. So now my Vanguard has electronics in addition to all the other skills they get.

[Saz]

Really? That's a pretty cool addition.

Did you get the majority of the game completed achievement? I keep asking people about it but nobody seems to know exactly what you need to do for it, they just say do the all the side quests, but that'd take ages, especially if you have to do that every play through if you wanted to get the ally achievements...

[Alura]

I'm on the endgame levels with my first character, a female soldier. I did the romance subplot with Kaiden.

I'm still debating the gender and class of my next character

[Kaden]

I got the "majority" award when I was done with, like, 80% of the side-quests. I haven't found any indication of what you actually need to do. I only got the Ally achievement for Ashley, though. I'd swear I had Liana with me for the "majority" of the game. =(

Anyway, for my second playthrough, I plan on doing pretty much only the main-quests and see if I get any of the "Ally" achievements. I'll letcha know how that goes.

[Alura]

On my second play now. MAle vanguard, though I suck with a sniper and pistol, so hopefully this helps me learn

[Kaden]

FYI, when you use the "assassination" ability from the "sniper" skill, it steadies your reticle for that shot. Seem to give you perfect accuracy, too, regardless of what your rifle's acc is listed as.

I was amazed when I saw this secondary benefit to the sniper, then kind of annoyed that they didn't mention that. Regardless, once you get through the "majority" of the game, you get pretty used to the way you move while you're zoomed. I made some pretty ridiculous shots towards the end there.

[Saz]

I just got the completionist achievement at the begining of the Ilos mission, but I didn't get either Ashley or Turian ally achievement... I thought you got the completionist when you, ya' know, complete the game. >.>

[Kaden]

Its when you complete the majority of the game... whatever that means.

My assumption is that there are X number of events in the game and completing the majority of the game means seeing a certain percentage of those events, whether its from side-quests or main-quests.

[Saz]

But if I've had Ashley and Garrus with me for all those events should I have got those two achievements with the completionist one?

[Kaden]

Well... you'd think so, yeah.

[Saz]

Okay now I'm really confused, finished the game, and I didn't get the ally achievements, either of 'em. =/

I'm actually pretty P/Oed, I went through the entire game wanting to try the different characters but holding off for the achievements, and what have I got to show for it, zip.

[Kaden]

That's really crazy. I got the Ashley achievement and I wasn't even consciously going for it.

And Ashley's is probably the best ally achievement.

[Super Buu]

After having heard so much awesome stuff about it from you guys over the past few weeks, I'm pretty excited that I'll be getting this soon (after or on christmas, with any luck). I really wanna see what the fuss is all about. Any advice for my first playthrough? I didn't know until recently that there were 'classes', so I'm anticipating that aspect of the game.

[Saz]

If you're going for any ally achievements make sure you don't start the final mission without them. When I was going for them I thought I'd get the achievements once I had finished the game, but apparently you get them exactly once you've done 75% of the game, so keep doing side missions until the achievements pop up. Oh and I would suggest playing as a soldier for the first play through, if you're not looking for too much of a challenge.

Now I have a question, has anyone played on hardcore or insanity yet? I'm thinking about starting a new game on hardcore, but I'd like to know how much of a jump in differculty there is from normal.

[Kaden]

I'd actually suggest starting as a class that has some tech skills. You end up with so much shielding that you never take any actual damage. I think the one I'm thinking of is called Sentinel. I know Infiltrator gets the tech skill that gives you all the shields.

And no, I haven't tried a harder difficulty yet. Rock Band has been distracting me.

[Super Buu]

Got it on christmas, haven't had a lot of chance to play it yet but I've finally gotten back, so I'm looking forward to delving in. I've made my first character as an Engineer, but I've got big plans for my Vanguard.

I'm a little disappointed so far with the linearity. From what I'd heard, the storyline was massively branching and open-ended, but from what I've seen it looks like that was either me being misinformed, or just the usual over-exaggerated buzz. Like, when I was talking to Executor Pallin, I wanted to agree with some of his statements but the responses were limited to generic, rebellious "the government is oppressive!" and "you just hate humans!"-esque things. In a Role-Playing Game, I want to be able to choose how my character looks at things.

That said, I'm digging the universe and backstory. I got the Collector's Edition, and I've been reading the extra stuff - it's all pretty interesting. I like how it's pretty near future, and the time between then and now is all explained in believable detail.

Pity that you're limited to a human character, too (goddamn Bioware and always having bad character customisation options >=[ ) but I suppose it's pretty vital to the story that you're a human.

[Dr. Cringle]

I, like Greg, got my copy of Mass Effect on Christmas. I absolutely love it so far, and have been playing it non-stop for days. Well, maybe not non-stop, but you get what I mean. I started a soldier since I'm practically retarded when it comes to the mechanics of the game, and it seems like a pretty simple class to handle.

I'm currently on Noveria wondering if I should just off this bloated rachni queen or let her live to spread her spawn. >_< I was curious as to which path I should choose? Both my squad members (Liara and Ashley) practically have polar-opposite opinions on what I should do, and I'm wondering if it'll have any adverse effects on my relationship with Ashley should I choose not to kill the darn thing.

EDIT: Oh, fyi, I'm trying to be a Paragon in my first run on the game through and through. D=