Spoiler Warning S4E16:
League of Gentlemanly Krogan

By Josh Posted Wednesday Dec 22, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 133 comments

Junktown sure has some weird population demographics. It seems to consist entirely of rejected Krogan professors and incompetent Blue Suns mooks.


Link (YouTube)

As an aside, this is the last episode of Spoiler Warning this week, and there will be no episodes this week, because I am totally going on vacation!

(And in case you skipped over the “posted by” tag just under the title, that’s Josh that’s going on vacation, not Shamus. He’ll still be around, I think. Probably wishing he was on vacation. But luckily, I stole all of his plane tickets. And bourbon.)

Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Josh, Spoiler Warning is the most awesome of awesome Internet Television Shows in the history of the universe! And despite the fact that you are very hard working and completely deserve this vacation (and are not, in fact, a lazy freeloader do-nothing that subsists on video games and coffee), how will I ever get my fix now?!

Well the answer, my esteemed, worshipful fanboy, is…

The Official Spoiler Warning Season 4 Drinking Game!

Disclaimer: This new-and-improved drinking game is Guaranteed Safe* and is not in any way designed to kill you.

So without further ado, take a drink when:
– Josh charges directly into the back of the enemy lines.
– Take a second drink if Josh then swears about how “the targeting system messed up.”
– Anyone mentions Mass Effect 1 in any context of being better than Mass Effect 2, unless it’s Shamus, in which case take two drinks.
– Josh almost dies and anyone else makes a reference to Elmo’s face.
– Mumbles or Rutskarn talk about how “cute” or “dreamy” a character is, or makes any mention of “prom,” “date,” or any variation of the word “diary.”
– Any portion of the gameplay is skipped in the favor of a fast-forward sequence with catchy elevator music playing over the game sound.
– Josh dies.
– Shamus complains about how games in the ’90s were better.

So now, rather than spending the holidays with your loving families/significant others, you can instead spend them rewatching this season and getting completely tanked!

*If you are an Undead Zombie Irishman. If you are of any other genus of mammalian or reptilian pedigree that can digest alcohol, this game is totally designed to kill you.

 


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133 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning S4E16:
League of Gentlemanly Krogan

  1. Integer Man says:

    Games in the 90’s *WERE* better.

    1. Josh says:

      Are you saying we can’t make fun of Shamus just because he’s right?

      1. Nyctef says:

        Yep! When it’s cliché, anyway ;)

      2. RTBones says:

        Nah. I think it should be an addendum to the Spoiler Warning Season Four Drinking Game Rules and Regulations:

        — IF (Shamus is right) THEN
        — IF ((Another cast member agrees with Shamus) AND
        — (Said cast member makes fun of Shamus anyway))THEN
        — DRINK
        — ENDIF

        1. Devath says:

          An additional addendum! Drink whenever any of them mentions rockets!

      3. Integer Man says:

        Of course not. That’s crazy talk.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Isnt he the one selling firecrackers?

    2. thebigJ_A says:

      Pssh. Games in the 70s were TOTALLY better than games in the 90s.

      1. Blanko2 says:

        back in my day we didnt even HAVE games, your grandmother just beat you over the head with a stick and we called that fun

  2. MichaelG says:

    Hey Shamus, did you reply to that email I sent you about never getting any replies to my email? :-)

    Part 5 of Let’s Code is up:

    http://www.sea-of-memes.com/LetsCode5/LetsCode5.html

    Merry Christmas!

  3. Wolfwood says:

    so when you coming back Josh? i gotta know! i totally need my SW fix as soon as possible >.<

    1. Josh says:

      I’ll be back next week, and we should have episodes recorded and up the week after. So this is really just a one week break.

      1. Wolfwood says:

        Ah good to know. Well enjoy your vacation and Merry Christmas.

      2. Specktre says:

        Merry Christmas Josh! (Oh, and to rest of Spoiler Warning team as well, I guess…)

        PS: At 8:38 — That’s what the grenade launcher (on your back!) is for silly!

        1. RTBones says:

          I wondered if anyone else would notice too – you cannot just lob the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch in this game, you actually have to LAUNCH it – LOL.

          EDIT: This is also one of the reasons I enjoy SW as much as I do. I get some sort of demented entertainment out of Josh running/jumping/charging/shooting with reckless abandon/

      3. Slothful says:

        It’s not much of a week off if you start it on Wednesday. And how are you going to get a rocket fruitcake if you stop spoiler warning for Christmas?

  4. Ringwraith says:

    I’ve played infiltrator in Mass Effect 1 and I didn’t actually use the sniper rifle all that often, I was busy using the awesomeness of the pistol. Marksman was just brilliant, as it just turns it into a pretty accurate machine gun.
    I suppose the pistol’s functions were split into the SMGs and heavy pistols for the sequel due to the lack of marksman.
    All the weapon skills got removed in fact, including the long range Carnage skill for shotguns, which you can actually see people use in ME2, most often krogan.

    I played engineer first time through in ME2 and loved it, curving balls of flame around cover is so much fun, as is pulling people out of over with a drone, then hitting them with a fireball.

    1. Jarenth says:

      I did the same thing. With the right combination of skills, it was possible to never have to stop firing your pistol, ever. Heat overload? Hah!

      Those were good times.

      1. TSED says:

        Never stop firing on an assault rifle is far, far better.

        One click to shoot them all,
        One click to fry them.
        One click and the geth are mauled;
        Forever bullets grind them.

  5. Hitch says:

    The thought going through my mind when I played through this section of ME2, and again while watching it here: “Wow, Rivet City is a lot bigger and more violent than I remember.”

    Come to think of it, I didn’t get a good look at her. Is the boss at the end Madison Li?

  6. Avilan says:

    The sniper rifle in ME2 is my preferred weapon for both Soldier and Infiltrator. In ME1 it is hopeless.

    1. Taellosse says:

      It’s actually pretty awesome once you’ve got, like, 8 points in the skill for it. It bites without serious upgrading, though, because of how shaky it is.

    2. krellen says:

      The sniper rifle in ME1 is an exploit. Pop out of the Mako, pull out your Sniper Rifle (training is required here), hide behind a rock and shoot things you’re supposed to fight in the Mako, like towers, Armitages and Collossi. XP is increased by 2.5-5 times, and the sniper rifle lets you pick the cover so they don’t get to shoot back (effectively).

      Higher level Sniper Rifles – especially the Spectre Gear ones – equipped with a single heat reduction mod can cool off faster than they reload, so you can just fire fire fire.

      1. Integer Man says:

        Then they nerfed it by retroactively replacing all guns in the entire world with ones that use clips and not including enough shots for sniper rifles.

        1. Avilan says:

          I never have a problem running out of ammo for the sniper rifle in ME2. It happens, but not more often than getting a weapon overheated in ME1.

          @Krellen: thanks for the tip.

          1. somebodys_kid says:

            Are you playing on the hardest difficulty level? Every time I play on the hardest I ALWAYS run out of ammo for the assault rifle and sniper rifle. Once I got the ammo upgrade for the SMG, I never ran out for that though.

            1. Avilan says:

              I play on normal. On the harder levels, it is supposed to be harder… ;)

          2. Ateius says:

            I consistently ran out of ammo for the assault rifle, even at the end of the game when I was capable of carrying something like 700 rounds for it. I frequently ran dry on the sniper rifle too, despite it being my secondary weapon (with assault rifle primary). Ammunition drops were far, far too scarce for my liking.

            I also had weapons overheat in ME1. If I’m honest, it probably happened about as often as I ran out of ammo in ME2. The important difference is that in ME1, all I had to do was wait ten seconds and I could go back to using my effective weapon again. In ME2, I have to switch to my little pea-shooter pistol for several minutes until I stumble over an ammo cache.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Which is why I prefer power based characters over soldiers.My guess is that in 3 theyll balance this out by making powers use clips as well.

              1. krellen says:

                And thus Mass Effect’s conversion to Bioshock shall be complete.

          3. Integer Man says:

            The problem being that if you run out of clips it’s worse than your weapon overheating after every other shot. It’d be better if your weapon overheated after every shot (for sniper at least) if no clips are available. That way you could at least still fire.

      2. Irridium says:

        What they could have done was keep the heat-based gameplay, but introduce the sinks as a different way to cool down your weapons. So if your gun overheats, you could wait for it to cool down, or just use the sink and instantly cool it down.

        That way the sinks feel like an actual upgrade, you still get infinite ammo, and everyone will be happy.

        1. Ateius says:

          I like this idea! That would have felt like a genuine addition to gameplay, rather than a lateral move towards traditional shooter mechanics.

          1. Ringwraith says:

            They tested the game with that, and testers didn’t really like it, it’s still in the config files somewhere to turn it on. It got mentioned in one of these comments before.

            Mind you, the switch to heat sinks never really bothered me all that much.

      3. LadyTL says:

        Heh, I did that with the Mako. I would stop as far as possible away with it and the use the main gun as a sniper rifle on everything.

        1. Falcon says:

          Yeah, though care was needed. I might have fought thresher maws on foot a few times, and they may have destroyed the Mako while I was doing so on occasion. Oops, guess I’m stranded on this planet now.

  7. bit says:

    Huh, I also have distinct memories of dying in that exact spot, with those exact crew members several times. Wonder what makes it so memorable. Probably because it’s one of the few areas in that game that’s actually fun to fight in, what with all those multiple levels and interesting cover.

    Aww, no more Spoiler Warning! Oh well. Hmm. I don’t drink alcohol, but I do drink a hell of a lot of strong coffee/tea, so I suppose I play until my heart exploded.

  8. Stupidguy12 says:

    Hey, for the new drinking game, on every episode, there should be a count for how many drinks in the episode and then make it a challenge to find all of them. Oh, and so I can get it over with before the episode, because this show is EVEN FUNNIER when you’re drunk. :D

  9. Kanodin says:

    I believe Hk-47 is the droid you are looking for. Also I suggest taking a drink every time Josh get’s a railing kill.

    1. Piflik says:

      You can go about your business. Move along.

      Sorry…had to ;)

    2. kaljtgg says:

      Mumbles should be ashamed of herself for forgetting the best character in the best RPG of all time.

      1. Halfling says:

        Everyone knows that Baldur’s Gate II was the greatest RPG of all time. And Minsc it’s greatest character.

      2. Mumbles says:

        FULL DISCLOSURE: he annoyed the shit out of me

        1. Irridium says:

          What?!: What?!

        2. Felblood says:

          Actually keeping Minsc in your party can turn you sour on him in a hurry.

          He’s really fun and cool, right up until you hear him shouting the same three jokes at the top of his lungs, every single time a battle starts.

          The worst part was the way he drowned out everyone else’s battle-cries and quips, so you never got to enjoy any variety. If you keep Minsc around, it’s all boo all the time.

          You’ll be hearing “Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the Eyes!” in your nightmares.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            You could always tone down the frequency of your partys chatter.

            And just for the record,planescape:torment was the greatest rpg of all times,with morte being the best character.Though its a tough list,since almost all of the characters were great.

          2. Jarenth says:

            If your nightmares feature a yelling Minsc, I’ll gladly trade you those for my general jumble of confusing fear-inducing Minsc-less insanity.

            Addendum: I say this having played two Baldur’s Gates with Minsc as party leader.

  10. Piflik says:

    How dare you not entertain me over the holidays, you lazy bastards!!

    …just kidding of course (duh). Happy holidays everyone and Merry Christmas. Looking forward to more Spoilers when you’re back.

  11. Milos says:

    Nooooo! Josh why hast thou forsaken us? Do you think your vacation is more important then our free entertainment? I’ll go away now to cry uncontrollably, but when I come back I’ll present a strong argument on why you should stay!

  12. Lalaland says:

    2^4 comments. (That’s 10 in Hexadecimal.)

    Eh, no it isn’t, 2^4=16. A=10 in hexadecimal.

    Of course having asserted someone is wrong on the Internet I estimate I have ~5 min before someone corrects me too…

    1. Piflik says:

      10(Hex) = 16(Dec) = 10000(Bin)

      And you only had 3 minutes ;)

      1. Lalaland says:

        Nooooooo!!! Of course, bugger me, how did I miss that? Cheers :D

  13. Integer Man says:

    Just picked up KOTOR on Steam. Wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for all you awesome folks in the comments and the gang (particularly Shamus’) relentless praise for KOTOR. I’m sure I’ll thank you all later.

    Drinking game should have some rules in there for KOTOR references as well.

    1. Aldowyn says:

      Few years too old to qualify for the 90’s references… Old Bioware games, so it includes Baldur’s Gate and Jade Empire? *shrug*

  14. Kian says:

    At about 4:50, when the Blue Suns are shouting “They’re loose! Run for your lives!” and run at you shooting. They’re not really running at you so much as running from the Krogans behind them, which you shoot after dealing with the Blue Suns.

    Seeing you in their way, they shoot. True, not particularly clever, but I assume most people would probably shoot at them anyway if they just tried to run past. And if you’re there, you probably already killed the guys behind. It would be better if they really tried to run rather than shoot, but oh well.

  15. poiumty says:

    – Shamus complains about how games in the '90s were better.

    And yet he hasn’t played Baldur’s Gate 2! SHAAAAAAAAAAAMUUUUUUUUUUUUUSS

    1. Shamus says:

      I am currently pouring 100% of my free time into playing it.

      1. poiumty says:

        I’m going to go ahead and assume (100%) x (your free time) gives the exact same value as your free time.

        Nevertheless, if you do get some free time during the next (year of your death – 2010) years, i think a lot of people on this site would strongly recommend checking it out. You don’t want to disappoint a lot of people on this site, do you Shamus? That would be, like, chaotic evil. You don’t want to be chaotic evil.

      2. Hitch says:

        You have free time?

        1. Zeta Kai says:

          No, no he does not.

        2. bit says:

          And assuming he does, if 100% of it is going into Baldur’s Gate 2, how did he find the time to write this post!?

          *cue Phoenix Write music*

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            That was his “check the blog comments” time.

  16. Miral says:

    You guys seem to keep bagging on the sniper rifles in ME1. This confuses me, as it was my primary weapon and it was completely awesome. (Admittedly, it was a little painful at first until I levelled it up and got the upgrades, but you expect that in an RPG.) The usual pattern was to fire off two rounds and then wait about a second or so before firing off another two; hardly a big deal.

    Sniper rifles in ME2, on the other hand, were nearly completely worthless, since they only had 10 shots, and long-range kills made it harder to collect the ammo/heatsinks. Coupled with ME2’s near-complete lack of RPG levelling, giving no way to improve things, it just wasn’t worth it.

    1. Kian says:

      I didn’t mind so much the lack of upgrading (you could, after all, buy upgrades for the rifles, and get new ones that handled slightly differently). What bothered me was the unpredictability of it.

      In most RPGs, progress is predictable. You know what’s coming up next, and when you can expect to have it. In ME2, however, you just ‘randomly’ find the upgrades in missions. This is always a pain.

      First, I’m constantly worried that I missed something, until the gun is fully upgraded and I can relax. Second, I don’t know what the next upgrade will give me. More damage? More ammo? I may have waited for who knows how long to find an upgrade, and when I get it the upgrade sucks and I am doubly frustrated.

      But what bothers me the most is the lack of control. I can’t choose what weapon upgrades I’m going to get. If the game wants to give me an assault rifle upgrade, that’s what I get. Even if I don’t use them, none of the teammates I like to take use them, and I mostly deal with everything from long range with the sniper rifle even if they did.

    2. poiumty says:

      Are you kidding? Besides the atrocious fire rate given by the heat cooldown, the scope in ME1 was all wibbly-wobbly all over the place. Combine that with the horrible AI who always tried to charge you or get in close, and it was literally like playing football (or soccer if you’re american) with binoculars taped to your eyes. My first char in ME1 was a sniper rifle-only Infiltrator, and it was a ridiculous experience, to say the least. And the last boss with his jumping all over the place? I try not to think about it.

      Then i lost my saves so i had to replay ME1 for the sequel, so i rolled an Adept. It was another ridiculous experience, but for the opposite reasons this time: the combat was way too easy at some points. I remember the last level on the Citadel, casting Throw and just watching ALL of the enemies drifting away into space getting insta-killed in the process. Ridiculous. And if any of them survived, my 400 shields (regenerating) meant they could shoot me for 30 minutes before i felt anything.

      You are SO wrong about snipers in ME2. Besides the fact that the Infiltrator class is the easiest class to finish ME2 on hardcore/insanity, the scope is stable now and headshots (especially with the headshot damage upgrade) do so much damage as to kill almost anyone with a single bullet on lower difficulties. Add to that the various slow-time powers of both Soldier and Infiltrator, the only classes who can use snipers by default, and getting headshots is so easy it’s not even funny. As for the ammo, aside from the Husk battles there’s no point in the game where you need to fight more than 10 enemies at once, and that’s not even considering that the Viper(i think it’s called) has more than enough bullets and the Widow (heavy sniper) has 12, 13 with an off-hand ammo pack.
      Bonus: get Miranda with a maxed passive (+25% damage to the whole squad) and Jack with Squad Warp Ammo (or just take Advanced Training and give yourself Heavy Warp Ammo) and you’ll oneshot everything EVEN HARDER. Yes, i know, Miranda and Jack, blasphemy, burn the witch yadda yadda. But stat-wise Miranda’s one of the best party members you can have, and Jack has the best ammo power.

      No, snipers in ME2 are amazing. And it looks like the level design is even made in their favor sometimes.

      1. krellen says:

        The scope is wobbly because you’re not trained enough in Sniper Rifles. At high levels of skill, the wobble is 0 (activating Assassination also removes the wobble.)

        1. poiumty says:

          Fair enough, i guess i only remember the wobbly scope. Enemies charging was still a problem even in the later stages though.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Indeed.There werent that many missions you could use sniper rifle for.However,it was great for mako sections and random worlds,where you could camp from a mile away and just shoot everything dead.For the missions,however,pistol was quite awesome.Especially with marksman.However,I prefer 2s infiltrator because you can use powers much more often,and both incinerate and hack are great.And disruptor ammo also simply eats the shields away.

      2. TSED says:

        I disagree with you so much.

        Having finished ME2 multiple times, all on insanity, the infiltrator was the HARDEST finish for me.

        For ME1, that sniper rifle can fire forever and oneshot just shy of everything. Seriously, my level 60 infiltrator with a min/maxed sniper rifle outdamaged the mako.

        In ME2, that sniper rifle cannot oneshot things without the most convoluted of set ups. The +10% headshot, Miranda, widow w/ max upgrades, etc. etc. etc. all conjoined in order to… BARELY oneshot mooks with a headshot. And only 13 uses of this? Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll take my ridiculously aggressive vanguard pinball over sitting down and hoping my squad mates finish off the husks before they turn me into salami because pistols don’t do enough and I have no other ammo.

        (They never do.)

        Oh, and bring Jack? Subject Zero? The one who always dies like 3 seconds into any fight? You’re kidding me, right?

        Where on earth did you pick up the Infs = easiest insane? When I was an hour in with my soldier and I already felt more powerful than I did end-game with the infiltrator. The vanguard felt more powerful around the 2-3 hour mark. The engineer felt more powerful before I even left the tutorial.

        1. poiumty says:

          Admittedly i didn’t use Soldier for higher difficulties, just figured infiltrator has the advantage of being invisible while you line up your shot and switch covers. I don’t know how biotics are better than weapon-focused classes on the latter difficulties, since most enemies get extra armor/shield layers and suddenly oneshotting them with Singularity or Pull becomes kinda useless and charging into them becomes suicidal, the only option being hiding and spamming Warp. I did see a vanguard owning stuff on Insanity, but he was borderline exploiting.
          Not sure how you reached that much of an insane damage output with snipers in ME1, but my experience sucked for a first playthrough.

          I said bring Jack for Warp Ammo or get it yourself and use Tali/Garrus instead (for the shield damage).
          Again, never had a problem with Infiltrator on Hardcore (MAYBE on the regenerating barrier floating skull-bag minibosses, but those are a problem on any class) and a friend of mine never had a problem with it on Insanity, and it was his first playthough as well (no imported saves, no xp/resource bonus, no bonus powers).

          1. TSED says:

            Actually, I had no problem with the praetorians on infs. Probably the best class to handle those – SMG the barrier, incinerate / sniper rifle the armour, and unlike other classes you can cloak away if you get yourself into a bad position.

            I haven’t gotten around to adept / sentinel yet (I imagine they will be pretty difficult) but from what I understand, timing warp explosions is amazing. Which is awful because I don’t like either squad mate with warp (Thane and Miranda suuuuuck). I’d fiddled around a little bit with that on my soldier (no SMG so I brought both of the above to destroy barriers) and it seemed decent but not awe-inspiring, so I guess I’ll see (months from now).

            Engineer, though? Holy cow this is a pretty solid class. Drone spam, overload, incinerate. Sucking my thumb a little bit on barriers but I have Kasumi so I nabbed the Locust and it tears through them (one clip can take out a collector). Just finished Horizon.

            What did you mean by exploiting on the vanguard? The shotgun-punch-reload trick? That and slamming myself into cover with charge is half the reason the class is fun. My fights generally only lasted a minute, two tops, and that’s if I won. If I lost it was over in one or two dozen seconds. Much more adrenaline involved, good times, good times. Really have to have good battlefield awareness to pull it off.

            1. poiumty says:

              Praetorians and Scions were the hardest for me, but by “hard” i mean “compared to everything else”. If the game was overall still easy, they weren’t hard by themselves.

              Unless i’m very wrong, Warp explosions (i’m guessing you refer to the biotic detonation effect) can’t be achieved if your enemy still has armor, shields or barriers. That means you’ll have to reduce everyone to their health bar, and the most reliable way to do that besides weapons is Overload and Warp spam.

              By exploiting i meant he stayed close enough to provoke a melee attack from the enemy but was out of range of it, thus receiving no damage. A deadzone, in other words. Hard to pull off, but stil an exploit.

    3. TSED says:

      This is complete truth.

      There’s a reason my easiest ME1 run was an infiltrator and my hardest ME2 run was an infiltrator.

      Another thing is to be clever with the mods. Min/maxing on those makes a hilariously noticeable difference, more so than any other weapon, I believe – including the Infinite Assault Rifle of Horrifyingly Painful And Effective Death.

      Min/maxed at top end gear and level, I had a sniper rifle I could fire for what felt like 5 minutes straight before overheating which one-shot humanoids and geth. It wasn’t quite non-stop like the assault rifle of never-ending death, which I was also so very fond of. I don’t care if by-the-numbers pistols do the most burst dps; the usage of assault and sniper rifles cut through mooks way faster and I didn’t want to blow the character points on a small handful of boss fights.

      1. Avilan says:

        Admittedly on Normal, but infiltrator is the second easiest class to play in ME2, after Soldier. (IMHO).

        1. TSED says:

          I have not played a game of ME2 on a difficulty less than insane, so there’s that.

          [slight spoilers]
          For example, you know the bubble section in the suicide mission? You know the part with husks (and abominations) running at you with two scions? You know how there’s only one or two chest-high walls and nowhere to fall back to due to the bubble? You know how the Widow only has like 13 shots maxed out, and with maximum headshot damage (the +10% headshot damage headpiece, maxed out inf class, max upgrades, Miranda w/ maxed out class for damage, etc. etc. etc.) it BARELY one-shots a mook on a headshot?

          Yeahhh…

          With my vanguard, it was no problem at all. Shotgun shotgun shotgun hurray. With my soldier, even easier: shotgun AND assault rifle AND sniper rifle for the scions afterwords. I haven’t gotten that far on my Engineer playthrough yet, but I imagine it will be cake – drones drones drones. The infiltrator, though, was completely hosed.

          And that’s why infiltrators, to me, suck. There are sections of the game that force you to be close-combat and infiltrators CANNOT stand their ground easily. With a short-range class, long-range fights are only tedious. With a long-range class, short-range fights are tedious, repetitive, frustrating, and incredibly fatal. The one example I provided was nowhere near the only part of the game the class suffers, just the most easily explained one.

          1. bit says:

            Invisibility helps. Like, a lot; with an Assassin’s Cloak paired with Heavy Cryo Ammo, you can mow through them with the SMG, and with a Tactical Cloak paired with Team Cryo Ammo, you can let your teammates do it for you with surprising efficiency. And if you’re good, the Rifle can be just as excellent at close range (especially with the slowdown) making it somewhat of an impromptu ice powered, time slowing, head shotting slug shotgun. Which is quite alright in my books.

            1. TSED says:

              I used cloak as an emergency evac system. Incinerate did MUCH more damage.

              Cryo rounds don’t freeze when they’ve got shields or armour up, and in insanity, everything always has shield or armour up. I found it was just best to ignore cryo since if you had already killed something to 50% or more, why not just finish the job instead of fiddling with other ammo types? (Cryo doesn’t do bonus damage, after all).

              1. Avilan says:

                Yes but that is not the point. The point is that they stop getting up close and tearing your face off.

                1. TSED says:

                  I’m sorry, what?

                  I completely lost the ‘point’ you are referring to in there; I’m not being facetious or sardonic. I simply don’t know what you’re saying.

                  If you cloak you’re buying time, yes, but that’s all it is. Bought time. Sometimes, 3-6 seconds isn’t enough to save you.

                  If you cryo ammo you need to get through armour / shields in order to make use of it.

                  What did you mean?

              2. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Infiltrator is great because you get disrtuptor ammo for shields,incinerate for armor,and tactical cloak for first contact/close contact.Admittedly the problem was getting the enhanced cloak,but with it,you could stay invisible forever,and even use incinerate if you are far enough,and still remain out of harms way.

                And if your focus was sniper rifle for everything,not just the strong enemies,you could use viper instead of widow.Sure,it does less damage,but coupled with incinerate,it tears through anything in about 2 shots(incinerate,shoot,incinerate,shoot,cloak,find new cover,rinse and repeat).

                1. TSED says:

                  I believe I used the pistols far more than the sniper rifle due to the lack of ammo. I am pretty sure I got the Widow before I got the Viper, so there was that.

                  (And yes, disruptor ammo on the submachine gun was pretty nice.)

          2. Avilan says:

            Since I haven’t played at that difficulty:

            In theory:

            1 – The Widow. The best weapon in the game (not counting Cain)
            2 – Spam tactical cloak
            3 – Spam incinerate

            1. TSED says:

              1 – and then you run out of ammo. WHOOPS!

              2 – but then you can’t use incinerate!

              3 – Oh, I did. Believe me, I did.

          3. Avilan says:

            About sniper rifles in ME2:

            Fist of all, complaining that it is hard on Insanity is well… insane. Of course it will be a (insert curse word here) then.

            Other than that though, general tips, which I am sure everyone knows already.

            1. If infiltrator: Cloak before firing. Every. Single. Time. You get a *big* damage bonus if you shoot when invisible.

            2. Headshot. You get a big damage bonus if you hit the head.

            3. Buy the 10% headshot damage visor. The bonuses stack.

            4. Do heatsink runs when cloaked (if infiltrator). Also, of course, to change cover in general. If you are a soldier, switch to another weapon until you clear an area large enough to run and snatch some.

            5. Exploit respawning ammo (I know, you all know this already). Boss fights have places with never ending heatsink spawns. The Kasumi loyalty mission is one of those that are easiest for a sniper since there are at least one good cover you can hide behind with a respawning heatsink *right on top of the cover*.

            6. Go back and get heatsinks. In many places you can retreat far enough to pick up ammo you couldn’t pick up earlier because your heatsink pack was full. There is nothing wrong with strategic retreats.

            7. Be aggressive. Keep the pressure on and unless you find a good place (like the cover I talked about above at the end of the Kasumi mission), switch cover constantly. Press forward and there will be 2-3 heatsinks within reach every time. Camping does not work as a sniper in this game.

            8. Exploit the surroundings. One wasted bullet to blow up a gas tank is worth it if it takes out 2-3 enemies.

            1. TSED says:

              I like how none of those actually dealt with the issue I complained about.

              Also, I disagree on #1. Incinerate + sniper shot does more damage than cloak + sniper shot. If mooks, a headshot kills them anyway. If they’re a boss with shield or biotic barrier, just use SMG as you always have so much SMG ammo and it has that huge bonus against those anyway. Cloak’s damage bonus was, to me, almost completely useless. I used it a few times in testing before coming to the conclusion above.

              1. poiumty says:

                You really are adamant about incinerate, aren’t you.

                The Widow has a base damage of 368, 552 with full upgrades. 690 with Miranda. 1035 with Heavy Warp Ammo against everything except shields, which enemies in the last level don’t have, to my knowledge (collectors have Barriers instead). 2070 vs armor (for a fair Incinerate comparison, since incinerate does 2.4 times more damage vs armor) thanks to the Widow’s inherent bonus and the researched upgrade. A whopping 4554 on a headshot, vs armor (2277 vs barriers/health). Assassination Cloak gives a +70% damage bonus to your next sniper rifle shot. In the case of armor, that’s 3187 extra damage you’re doing.

                Heavy incinerate does a base damage of 210 over 3 seconds. 315 fully upgraded. 756 vs armor.

                So 756 damage vs 3187 bonus damage on your next sniper shot, and 5 times the difference (1593 vs 315) in the case of health.

                Feel free to correct any mistakes, but i think i have my bases covered. At least one aspect of yor infiltrator playstyle was severely flawed. And for the record, i had some trouble finding ammo in the bubble section too, but not nearly as much as you describe.

                That’s the beauty of playing a weapon-focused class: the bonuses stack so much it’s insane. Snipers in particular have crazy scaling factors, and it’s funny to try and see just how much max damage you can get compared to a biotic power. Ammo is a limit, but it can be circumvented with lots of battlefield mobility.

                EDIT: didn’t take the Tech Duration upgrade into consieration, and i’m not sure if it adds to Incinerate’s damage (it should). Nevertheless, even with a 20% bonus it still does much less damage than cloak+sniper while having the exact same cooldown.

                1. TSED says:

                  Mind explaining to me how a headshot + incinerate on a de-barriered Harby would kill him but a cloaked headshot on a de-barriered Harby wouldn’t, then? I don’t doubt your numbers, it just seems something went horribly wrong with my testing. Maybe I missed the headshots? That would be embarrassing but, looking at your numbers, still not enough to explain it.

              2. Avilan says:

                First of all this was a list of generic help for snipers, especially infiltrators.
                Second… You seem to have two complaints, one is “I do too little damage”, which I and Poiumty covered together, and “I run out of ammo”, which I covered.

                1. TSED says:

                  My comments are actually “ammo” and “no way to hold the line.”

                2. poiumty says:

                  This site has some sort of reply limit so i’m just going to reply right here to the above comment:

                  “Mind explaining to me how a headshot + incinerate on a de-barriered Harby would kill him but a cloaked headshot on a de-barriered Harby wouldn't, then?”
                  1. These numbers are with Warp Ammo and you never said you used it. Likewise, your choice of armor pieces. An incinerate focused build would likely use armor with +power damage. Also, you probably didn’t use Miranda (to note here, my numbers were off by 10% on Miranda – was too late to edit – but the above argument holds regardless). Cloak would still do more damage, but the difference wouldn’t be as huge.
                  2. Likely your squadmates got a few hits in while the incinerate was in effect. I seem to remember i couldn’t exactly 1shot him either but using Incinerate didn’t solve the problem. I can, however, compare the speed with which i usually took him out with the speed that i took him out on Normal with my Vanguard… much faster for the Infiltrator for some reason. Soldier was about the same.

                3. TSED says:

                  Now I’m replying to poiumty using his method.

                  1) I used warp ammo. I just loaded up that old save to check. Squad warp ammo is the bonus power – huh, that probably should’ve been the damage bonus instead, admittedly.

                  2) Equipment as follows: head = visor (10% headshot bonus). Chest = capacitor (shields regen faster). Shoulders = N7 (+3% weapon bonus). Arms = off-hand ammo pack (for that extra widow shot). Legs = life support webbing (+10% health bonus). The only weapon damage bonus piece I have that isn’t equipped is arms, for the extra shot. Looking at your numbers, that’s a pretty huge loss of damage.

                  3) Yep, with Miranda. I hate her because I always bring her because she is so incredibly useful and yet so incredibly hateable. That weapon damage bonus is huge.

                  *I only have rank 3 cloak. Class rank4 is Assassin, ie the bonus damage one, so that’s not it.

                4. poiumty says:

                  Rank 3 Cloak only offers 40% damage bonus instead of the 75% offered by Assassin Cloak. Which is almost half, so i believe we’ve found part of the problem.

                  Something else would be the 15% you lose from having Squad Warp instead of Heavy warp, combine that with the possible +20% damage from extended duration on Incinerate, 15% on either duration or damage from the class passive, subtract the 10% i added by mistake and i do think you’ll end up with Incinerate doing more damage on pure armor. I’ll rerun the numbers tomorrow, probably using passive class skill bonuses and armor pieces, but i’m pretty sure i’m right: your build wasn’t optimal. Not your fault that you didn’t min/max, obviously, but a fun thing to note.

              3. Ringwraith says:

                It just seems that infiltrator isn’t your kind of class.
                Like how I can’t snipe for toffee in multiplayer games. (Not too shabby in single-player stuff though).
                I’d try and think of an example of a class that I’m bad but I can’t currently think of any at the moment, even for games other than Mass Effect, as I’ve only played Soldier/Engineer in ME2, ME1 had infiltrator also.

  17. Adam says:

    Hey Josh, it’s possible I missed somebody pointing this out, or that you already knew this and it just eluded me, but you can hit the ‘x’ key to switch to your last used weapon. Might speed up your game a bit, since it’s kind of jarring to constantly watch the action freeze while you pick a new weapon

    1. Jarenth says:

      Welcome to the Give Josh Well-Meaning Advice He Will Completely Ignore, As Is His Modus Operandi Club.

      I’m still working on the calling cards.

      1. Scott (Duneyrr) says:

        That makes the most terrible of acronyms.

      2. TSED says:

        Hey now, he HAS started punching!

        PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH. PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCH

        1. TSED says:

          I wonder if he’ll ever figure out how to punchload his shotgun, by the way? It’s such a lovely trick.

    2. Felblood says:

      I think he’s using the pause to decide where he wants to go for cover, instead of planning this in advance.

      Gotta live on the edge, you know.

  18. Rasha says:

    So guys are you enjoying your session of gears of war?

  19. Jarenth says:

    I’m fairly certain even your typical Undead Zombie Irishman will want to take a break somewhere halfway into the season with those rules.

    Anyway, I wish you a good vacation, a merry Christmas, and for the love of God, Garrus has a sniper rifle, it’s like one click in the weapon change screen a happy new year, of course.

    Regards,

    An esteemed fan, though only worshipful in moderation.

    1. Blanko2 says:

      answer quickly: thane – sniper or smg?

      1. Zaxares says:

        Sniper. With the possible exception of Zaeed (and this is only because he’s an absolute beast with the Mattock), make every squadmate who can use sniper rifles use them. They possess ungodly accuracy with them, and it keeps them safe at the back lines where enemies can’t fire on them. This saves your precious Medigel for your own use once you get the upgrade that allows you to restore your health/shields with Unity.

        1. Avilan says:

          And this goes double for legion, of course, who can get his very own Widow rifle.

          1. Jarenth says:

            I’ve had so much fun with Team Triple Sniper (usually Legion and Garrus), it really ought to be illegal.

            1. poiumty says:

              Thane gets a 50% damage bonus, for a true sniper team Legion+Thane do the most damage (squad AP ammo or squad Warp ammo for even more fun).

              Tried them once, but i just can’t notice the damage my squad mates do. Maybe you’re wrong on their pinpoint accuracy, or maybe it’s me.

              1. Avilan says:

                For me Garrus, Legion and Thane tends to Kill-Steal a lot. I get the enemy in my sight and then (Garrus Voice)”Scratch one!”(/Garrus Voice). Not so it is overbearing or anything but it is noticeable that they do their job.

  20. Jack V. says:

    Happy Christmas to you all!

  21. Jack V. says:

    “in case you skipped over the “posted by” tag just under the title”

    Random thought: if you need to say that (and I think you do) because people aren’t used to multiple posters yet, maybe the “posted by” needs to be at least as big as the title if Shamus could manage it?

  22. Jokerman89 says:

    I dont get why any of the blue suns try and kill you in this mission, they clearly have bigger problems and could do with you being around murdering krogan anyway. Enemy of an enemy anyone???

    What am i saying….These guys are dumb mooks…ignore me.

    1. bit says:

      Near the beginning of the level, last episode, you hear what’s-her-face say “We have guests. Kill them for extra credits.” Or something along those lines.

  23. ooli says:

    I really wish Josh had a blog. His writting skills are far beyond his aiming skills.

  24. Blanko2 says:

    anyone else miss rutskarn and mumbles flirting more overtly?
    it was cute. and funny.
    are they just being more subtle?
    or did we bockclock you, rutskarn? if so, i’m sorry.

    1. Integer Man says:

      Pish posh. Why can’t people just be friends anymore?

      1. Irridium says:

        Its a Bioware game. If you have at least 2 conversations with some random person then that obviously means you want to have sexy time with them.

        1. Integer Man says:

          Tell me about it. Ever since the love scene with the illusive man I just can’t look at Martin Sheen the same way.

          This, of course, never happened.

  25. Zaxares says:

    0:50: If I was female Shepard, I would NOT let a strange Krogan that close to my breasts. The fact that Shepard does raises disturbing questions. (Also consider that the Krogan is only 7 days old and is, in reality, just a baby. Just in case you didn’t think the questions disturbing enough.)

    On the well-spoken Krogan: Just you guys wait until you meet Mr Thax’s representative on Illium!

    Bum rushing Shepard: Hey, you never know! It’s like people who gamble or play the lottery! ;) The odds are astronomically against you, but IT COULD BE YOU! :D

    1. Halfling says:

      Shepard clearly has an alien fetish.

    2. Jarenth says:

      The ‘henchmen trying to beat the heroes’ thing always reminds me of this particular comic.

        1. Felblood says:

          I hadn’t noticed there was a stinger on that one before.

          Thanks.

  26. psivamp says:

    On Mumbles evil game idea: Some game did that. I remember Yahtzee tearing apart some game for exactly that reason. (Invisible walls preventing you from falling off of ledges except for one level.)

    Unfortunately, I can’t remember what it was.

    Edit: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II switches from falling off of ledges teleporting you back Zelda style with no penalty to killing you outright. There may or may not be a closer parallel to Mumbles despicable plan.

  27. Zukhramm says:

    Wow, lots of interesting stuff happening this episode. Shooting dudes, shooting krogans, dudes shooting Shepard, krogans shooting Shepard, dudes shooting krogans.

    This game seems amazing.

    1. Ringwraith says:

      The combat definitely plays better than it looks.
      Playing on Hardcore forces you to pay attention without being plain unfair too.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Still,this part seems a bit too long.Maybe its the setting or something,I dont know.There were longer firefights,but this one is amongst the most tedious ones.

        1. Ringwraith says:

          I think this mission is arranged quite narrowly, unlike say Purgatory which has a smaller number of quite large spaces, so there’s actually less ground to cover to get to the end.
          They also didn’t speed through any of this section that they hadn’t already shown, unlike Garrus’s recruitment mission for example.

  28. Cuthalion says:

    I was just checking out your updated (since I last saw it, anyway) root site (shamusyoung.com); and looking through the links, I noticed the Spoiler Warning one has a typo. Thought this would be the least irrelevant place to mention it.

    A video commentary series where I have a concersation with friends as we play through a popular video game. Sometimes we even talk about the game we’re playing.

    Carry on, nothing to see here…

  29. Walker says:

    I think they should download the Normandy crash site mission add-on because on that mission there is a screen at the crash site that people should see

  30. Sydney says:

    Can I make a suggestion that should have been made in the first-ever episode of this thing?

    Radio hosts know this. Sports broadcasters know this. Awards-show presenting duos know this.

    If someone is talking, nobody else start talking. Pretend there is one mic between the three of you. Taking two speakers and two sentences and overlapping them just turns into a garbled mess.

    It’s the same thing, every time. Someone will be talking. Mid-word, someone else will just inexplicably start talking over them. And then both guys will fall silent to let the other one go.

    If someone is speaking, don’t start. If you wrongly think they’ve stopped and you accidentally cut in, don’t apologize, don’t say “go ahead”, just mute your mic again and wait for them to finish.

    Of course, the week-two-training rule that goes with this is “Nobody can talk until you’re done. Keep it concise.”

    1. Shamus says:

      Sportscasters don’t have conversations with two seconds of lag.

      It’s lag. It can’t be helped. You can’t tell if you’re interrupting someone if you don’t know that they’ve already started talking.

  31. Swedmarine says:

    That heavy pistol makes an awfully satisfying “pew” sound while in fast forward.

  32. Flak says:

    I so wished Tank Grown Krogan could join your team, he seemed way more intresting to me then Grunt. I’d accually care if he died in the end of this game, or in Mass Effect 3. Grant is just so blank and/or boring, that I can’t give a damn about him.

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