Oh man, yeah! Brandon Keener is awesome! I wish he was in more things though. He's a great actor too.
Master of the Fork
Cid's Knight
Oh man, yeah! Brandon Keener is awesome! I wish he was in more things though. He's a great actor too.
I would like him to whisper sweet nothings in my ear.Originally Posted by Freya
So I decided to nip back to Omega to complete that datapad sidequest. It seemed to be a pretty straight-froward task of giving the pad to Ariel. Even I couldn't screw this up. She was very grateful and said there was a load of abandoned cargo on this planet that she could direct me towards. Paragon Shepard would not hold with such shady dealings... but I wanted the stuff. Gimme. I thought I might as well grab it now as it sounded like maximum reward for minimum effort. This is always appealing. Onward to Daratar!
Bad idea is bad.
Yeah, there were three huge robots there blowing up all the loot! Bastards. I didn't even realise on my first attempt. I was trying to snipe the middle robot from afar without realising what the other two were doing. I noticed there were only 8-out-of-20 crates left before I decided to start again. I have no idea what the ideal strategy is for this but I could not get all 20 crates. I think my team are just at too sh*t a level to complete this effectively. I eventually passed the mission with 14-out-of-20 crates which I didn't think was too bad.
Have I missed out on an amazing item having not got 20-out-of-20?
14 is good. Don't worry, it's impossible to get 20 out of 20, and all that gets you is a bit more money anyway.
Fighting this mission straight up? Eh, it's pretty impossible to get 20/20. On the lowest difficulties it is possible but still very difficult, because there's three mechs to destroy and they love to smash those crates. For those interested, there are two other methods of getting 20/20. One is 'Yes we Cain!' which involves the nuclear explosion caused by the Cain. Aimed well enough, it can destroy all three mechs (your own weapons fire doesn't damage the crates, thank goodness). The other involves the Missile Launcher.
Basically, if you stay in the beginning area and not charge down the hill, the script which triggers the mechs to attack the crates isn't triggered. Using the homing feature of the Missile Launcher, you can shoot from the starting area, just past the rocks, and hit one of the mechs, luring it back to the beginning area and finishing it off that way. Then just repeat with the other two. But that requires some effort and is a bit cheaty.
14/20 is a perfectly good score, so don't worry about it! You only lose some credits.
Gonna try and blast through a couple of updates as I'm behind on this yet again! This first one will be a quickie as it was just the Lost Operative sidequest. The next one will be lengthy as it details my exploits in recruiting Jack!
Anyway, Lost Operative. I had a sneaky suspicion this would centre around an operative that had been lost. Unsurprisingly, I was absolutely spot on. After scanning the planet Lorek, I found an anomaly and was able to land on this watery beauty. I took Kasumi and Garrus for this mission. I remembered Garrus being a tad weak in ME1 but I assumed he'd stay alive long enough to complete a little sidequest. Plus, Kasumi was there too with her badassness.
I entered the base and was immediately under attack from some quite irritated troopers. I unleashed death on them all and Garrus held his own much to everyone's surprise. I then logged onto a nearby terminal to try and find out what the hell was going on. Lost operative who was lost was not lost at all. He was captured by a group called Eclipse. He has sensitive information that must be retained by Cerberus AT ALL COSTS. There were rumours circulating that this information was actually pictures of The Illusive Man at a transvestite orgy in the Omega Nebula system. This has yet to be verified.
It turns out this agent has been killed and they're trying to crack his encrypted data. We better get moving! As we approached the next area, another wave of pretty fierce enemies decided to try and take us out. Bring it on, chumps! Kasumi did most of the work, I sniped a few of them from afar and I made Garrus hide behind a box. Job done.
After looting the facility, I hacked my way into the interrogation room. Lost operative Rawlings was lying on a table and he's clearly had better days... seeing as he is now a decomposing corpse. I then located the heavily-encrypted data and was given three options: Send it to the Alliance, send it to Cerberus or keep it for myself. Knowing that Anderson gets off on weird sh*t, I sent the offended pictures over to the Alliance for Paragon points. Enjoy, my man!
Mission over. Tune in for the next update when much hilarity ensues as Joker's pilot headset gets stuck on the country and western channel.
Last edited by Bubba; 09-03-2016 at 11:57 AM.
Time to go and recruit the convict!
I'd heard quite a bit about this dude Jack who is a ridiculously powerful biotic. For some reason I pictured him as some beefy guy like Jack from Tekken. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
I relayed over to a prison ship called Purgatory, which is the best name for a prison ever. Upon arrival, I meet Warden Karl who wants us to surrender our weapons. No f**king way, dude. Kasumi is my insurance policy and Garrus needs all the help he can get. Jack has been stored in the freezer to prolong his shelf-life. It seems Cerberus are paying for his release which is pretty common on Purgatory. This place sounds, as my Gran would have said, "bent as a nine bob note".
We walk past a few cells and in the first one, a guard is beating the living sh*t out of a prisoner. I managed to convince his fellow guard that they needed to stop being a couple of meanies. Paragone and got me some points. Oh yes, I went there. In the next cell along, I chatted to a nice young man who told me all about the prison ship. Apparently it's lovely. They have a pool table, self-flushing toilets and book club every second Thursday of the month. The final cell contained a crazy man just saying crazy stuff. Timothy Dalton the best Bond? Tssk! Shut it, you wacko.
We push on to a room with a computer, some furniture and blood smeared over the walls. For a minute, I thought I was back at the Shauna's house the morning after the EoFF party. I clearly had reason to be suspicious and this was confirmed a moment later when Warden Karl came over the intercom. Apparently, Shepard is worth more to him as a prisoner than the amount Cerberus were paying for Jack. Cue epic onslaught.
As there was only one exit to this room, we'd clearly been led here like lambs to the kebab shop. The Blue Nun Troopers were out in force along with these really annoying mech dog things. Patience was the key here and the SKG trio emerged victorious once again.
We headed down a nearby corridor into a room with a sole science dude who I dispatched with ease. I then decide to release all the prisoners on the ship because that can only result in good things happening. The key thing though is that Jack was defrosted and HOLY SH*T. Jack isn't a dude... she's a dudette! Now, I'm not really into tattoos but I may make an exception in her case. She is DEADLY. She Biotic-ed a load of mechs before tearing a hole in a wall. I like her. A lot.
I picked up a couple of cool upgrades after laying waste to a few guards and prisoners. There were a couple of tricky mechs further down the line but nothingweKasumi couldn't handle. We eventually found our way into the final chamber where Warden Karl had congregated with a load of goons. He was a bloody coward though and surrounded himself in a protective barrier while he sent waves and waves of unpleasant people our way. They seemed to take AGES to take out as they just kept on coming. Eventually though, it was just Karl left. THE FINAL SHOWDOWN.
... was anti-climactic. How was I going to figure out how to bring down his barrier? HOW?! Oh yeah, it'll be those three generators right near him that have health bars. I was kind of expecting more waves once I'd taken the barrier off but nope just Karl and his pathetic pea shooter. Damn it, Karl! Anyway, a couple of specials to the face and this mission was over.
Cut scene with Jack and she clearly doesn't trust us as we're Cerberus. I told her she can look at all the files Cerberus had on her as this would no doubt piss off Miranda. Jack then agreed to join the team! Back on the ship I was given the option to welch on my promise but Jack does not look like the kind of girl you want to cross. I gave her access to the files and Miranda was NOT pleased. Oh well, I'm not sure I'll be pursuing a relationship with Miranda anyway. I don't think I want a relationship with Jack either but I would definitely be up for a night of freaky sex with her. Someone tell me this is an option?
Tune in next time when Mordin's addiction to the home shopping channel culminates in him ordering a portable walrus-polishing kit... four super brushes capable of tackling even the trickiest of sea-bound mammals.
Nice updates! Garrus isn't as fragile as he once was, he's about average in terms of health.
As for Jack's mission, easily one of the best. As for romancing Jack: you can pursue it just enough to have sex and end it there, but I wouldn't recommend that as she turns very cold towards you afterwards. Either romance her fully or don't basically.
So who's left on your list? Is it just the Krogan left?
Sorry man, meant to reply sooner. Yeah, I've just got Dossier: The Warlord left for new recruits, I think. Sounds like a Krogan to me!
After just finishing a recruitment mission, I looked around for other sidies to do before taking a big plunge again. I stumbled on something called Overlord and thought it sounded pretty cool. So apparently, there is a Cerberus outpost that has "gone dark". My suggestion of hiring a local electrician did not go down well with the Illusive Man so we relayed over to the fantastically-named planet Aite.
PIc 1.jpg
It's quite a lovely looking planet, actually. No time for sightseeing though! My new team of Shepard, Garrus and Jack headed straight into the complex. As I entered, something stirred in my memory. Overlord. I remembered this being discussed earlier on with Randy. I checked back on the thread and yup... this is DLC. What have I gotten myself into?!! No doubt an impossible mission for my current level. I thought "f**k it, I'll give it a go anyway".
For a place that had gone dark, there was plenty of light everywhere. There was a message from someone called Archer on a nearby console. However, I was interrupted by an unexpected side quest. MissH came into the gaming room to inform me we had an infestation of daddy-long-legs in our bedroom. Bravely and skilfully, I removed two enemies using toilet paper and left no remains of the carcasses on the bedroom wall. Sidequest complete! XP yield was disappointing...
Picked up some loot and engaged in a little vandalism by breaking a nearby window. Memories of the ASBO I attained in my youth came flooding back. Archer was on Facebook Live in the next room explaining a little bit about the situation here on Aite. There's a scary dude called Rogue 6 who is some sort of human/AI hybrid that's gone cray cray. First step was to retract the communication dish so we can destroy it (I think). No sooner had I done that then Rogue 6 appeared on a nearby monitor and I honestly nearly shat myself. What the hell is his voice/scream/death song??!! It sounded again further down the corridor and I actually had to turn my TV volume down. Smurfing horrifying.
Bollocks. The next room housed an onslaught of geth. Initially, I thought I was way under-levelled as I was doing bog all damage. After switching to a shield/synthetic weapon, I was downing enemies quicker than Dr Chakwas downs her booze. Jack is a pretty top-notch companion and even Garrus was getting the job done. Go team! With the room cleared, we headed downstairs and jumped onto a tram to the communication dish. A short, pleasant journey that could have benefited from some elevator-style music... maybe a little soft jazz.
We made our way round the dish's exterior walkways taking out the trash with minimal fuss before arriving inside the thing itself. The fight here was horrible and I died a couple of times. You basically just get shot from all sides and there is no decent cover anywhere. Smurf you, game. It was third time lucky though when I discovered that using disruptor ammo shot everything to sh*t. How had I not used this before?!!
We climbed the stairs and emerged outside onto the dish itself. The view was breathtaking. If I could just disable the dish as opposed to destroying it, this would be an usual-but-amazing spot for some prime real estate. There were four fuel tanks to disable (all accompanied by a standard wave of goons) but my disruptor ammo was the equivalent of using a mini-gun on some garden gnomes. Quick work was made.
We're treated to a cut scene which highlights the stupidity of blowing up a communication dish whilst still running around on top of it. The first human spectre, ladies and gentlemen.
Mission over! Well, sort of. I'm still on Aite and there's clearly more stuff to do. Firstly, there was a little tête-a-tête with Archer. He had a team of people (who are all dead now... good job, dude) here working on Virtual Intelligence, Rogue VI is actually his brother who carelessly got fused with the VI. He is surprisingly OK with us hunting down his sibling. To be fair though, after years of cruel torture courtesy of my older brother, I can completely understand.
I headed out in my brand-spanking new mako! This thing is a marked improvement on the one from ME1. It has a new boost, higher floaty-mode button and probably a TV/BluRay player in the back. I was heading for some place called Vulcan but decided to do some exploring before going there. I may or may not have accidentally ran over some wildlife... oops. I clearly wandered too far as I'd begun to head towards some place called Prometheus instead. OK, I guess we'll see if the location is as disappointing as the film. I'll just get my team into this station then I'll call it a night.
Remembering ME1, it will surely be a case of parking up outside and strolling in the door, right? WRONG. The station has a huge shield courtesy of four generators surrounding it. Only... THE GENERATORS HAVE SHIELDS TOO. Damn it, game! Luckily, I'm a genius. There was a huge cannon firing at us in a very aggressive manner. I cleverly hid behind each generator, enticed the cannon to shoot then ran away which destroyed the shields. So once all the generators were destroyed it was a simple matter of... dying because I stayed still too long and was blasted to f**k. On my next attempt though, I destroyed the generators, destroyed the cannon, parked the mako and entered the station. Game saved!
Tune in next time when Jack gets matching 'M's tattoed onto her butt cheeks as a tribute to her Mom.
Last edited by Bubba; 09-07-2016 at 04:42 PM.
Huh, I always leave Overlord to postgame. Same with Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival. I guess out of the three, Overlord is the only one which loses nothing if done during the main story, so go for it! I will recommend leaving Lair and Arrival till' last, but that's just me. Leave Arrival dead last, as a matter of fact.
As for Overlord, one of my favourite DLCs. The story really kicks in towards the last third, and the battle music MY GOD the battle music is incredible.
Anyway, the new Mako. It's... okay. The Hammerhead is very fragile. Even on Casual, it can't stand up to sustained fire. Fortunately if you duck out of range and wait for a short bit it regens health very fast, but it can make combat with it somewhat tedious. That and it tends to burst into panic-inducing flames with panic sirens with worrying frequency. I also have an immense fear of the Geth-controlled cannon in this DLC. My first time playing through this DLC, I got stuck on a piece of a terrain and got blown to bits despite doing everything else perfect. I got snagged by a smurfing branch. I really hate dying in video games, especially so dramatically as that. So I load up again, and pretty much the same thing happens again. So me and the instant death cannon don't see eye to eye. Every other time I do that section I let Mr. Carny handle it, I don't like the stress.
Yeah, the only reason I went for Overlord is because it was the only thing left to do on my journal sidequests. The other DLC's aren't even available to me at this point anyway so I assumed this one would be OK to do now. I could have just done the next recruitment mission but I think I'm just used to more sidequesty stuff after playing ME1! I honestly didn't realise how long Overlord was when I started it... or that it was a DLC!
Ahh, the Hammerhead, sorry. Yeah, it seems pretty cool but I haven't come under sustained fire (one-hit kills not withstanding) as of yet.
I feel your pain with instant-kill moves. The amount that I die generally in games though I suppose it doesn't bother me as much anymore
No, that's fair, part of me hates having to leave it alone in the journal for so long! I tend to make it the first post-game mission mainly so the last team member you get actually gets some combat time. Not to mention they actually excel against synthetics, so it makes sense from that angle. Plus, you get changes to dialogue as well. But that sort of thing can be experienced on a second playthrough, so no worries!Yeah, the only reason I went for Overlord is because it was the only thing left to do on my journal sidequests. The other DLC's aren't even available to me at this point anyway so I assumed this one would be OK to do now. I could have just done the next recruitment mission but I think I'm just used to more sidequesty stuff after playing ME1! I honestly didn't realise how long Overlord was when I started it!
Ahh, the Hammerhead, sorry. Yeah, it seems pretty cool but I haven't come under sustained fire (one-hit kills not withstanding) as of yet.
I feel your pain with instant-kill moves. The amount that I die generally in games though I suppose it doesn't bother me as much anymore
Overlord is pretty long. All of the big three DLCs are, in fact, so bear that in mind. With the Hammerhead, the toughest missions are probably the Geth missions as part of the Firewalker set. Lots of retreating in those ones.
Master of the Fork
Cid's Knight
Overlord is fun. Not my favorite, but fun. Really smurfed up though. HAVE FUN!
A bit late, but that Jack recruit moment is one of the best in the game imho. Sadly she never is as badass as that moment ever again, but dude I loved watching her rip the place to crap.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Oh hey, I'm playing Mass Effect 2 again right now. About to go get Jack which is always good fun. She's such a laugh. In a maniacal "is she going to snap and kill us all" sort of way.
She's AWESOME. Totally unpredictable to talk to which I love. Yeah, I thought she'd be a bit more badass as a teammate (though she's still pretty damn good!) after how destructive she was in her opening FMV. I suppose if she was that good though the game would broken to all hell.
I certainly am so far! Gonna crack on with Prometheus either tonight or tomorrow
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