David Hingtgen

Nora's heatshield is bare. Nora has her markings on the "head". Ivanov's only has a small "cross" there. Based on location, my money's on the cross being the Anti-UN logo, or the Anti-UN Air Force. So Ivanov has his big personal logo on the heatshield, Nora's has hers further back.

A new VF-11 should definitely come with FAST packs---the -11's are very simple, just 2 boxy boosters and 2 "leg clips". Though, I'd prefer a "not M+" VF-11. There's plenty to do, if Yamato can get the license. Heck, I'd even take a non-canon one. I'm just sick of grey with orange stripes, I've owned two.

Depends on speed of monster. Iowa class is good for 35+ mph if it has to run away. Godzilla's never moved very fast IIRC.

I think he's referring to the armor.

Real warfare vs monster: I'd use a battleship. (Because giant monsters ALWAYS attack cities on the coast, because they're usually from the ocean, or hatched in a lab in a big city). If the ship's only a few miles offshore, then the flight time for the shells is only a few seconds and you won't have to worry about trying to lead your aim much, if any. (a big ship shell goes roughly 20-25 miles per minute)

Just a few more ME notes: 1. 30:28 in. (yes, I played every spare waking hour yesterday and today---definitely not going shopping today) Have done first chunk of 2nd-to-last place. Got the "did everything "achievement" despite having 1.5 places left. It was apparent you wouldn't need EVERY sub-plot complete to get it (which'd be imposssible) but I figured it'd take like 98% or something. So you really don't have to do TOO many "extras" to get it. My advice--skip hunting for minerals. I never completed it (close though) but it takes a LOT of time. Actually, if you do everything but the "get 10 of these" missions, I think that should be enough. 2. I encountered a big spoiler posted in the non-spoiler ME forum, though the poster didn't say exactly who or when, just mentioned it happened. Well it turns out said event happened very soon after I saw the spoiler, and it's an optional/plot point. Actually, I think you have to intentionally cause it to occur, as I re-loaded several times to see what else could happen and almost no dialogue options/choices lead to said spoilery event, besides the single obvious one. 3. If you aren't going for completion/exploration, I bet total time is cut in half. You could probably play a "core quest only" male and female, or dark and light set, in the time it takes to do one "do every little sidequest" play. 3. Neat little hint. Each weapon, tech, and biotic has a "mastery" achievement. Once it's unlocked for that specific weapon or ability, it is then available to ALL classes in ALL future games you play. So if you want a sniping biotic, you can--just have to use the sniper rifle a lot in a previous run-through. Also, you can only choose one "bonus" ability. No sniping bio-master stealth tech soldier... If your first run-through is as a soldier, you have enough time and skill points to unlock 2 weapons easily, maybe even 3. Though I found out too late to make it worth switching to, so I'll just have 1 unlocked for the next time. 4. I'd suggest keeping the same 2 party members for the whole game. They have a lot to say, and there's achievements for always having the same person in the party. (You don't have to ALWAYS have them, just the vast majority of the time). Almost everyone has unique dialogue for every mission, plot, encounter, etc. Heck, I know there's stuff I still haven't seen in KOTOR. But next time, I'm having a completely different party, all the time, to see what the OTHER people have to say.

I think it's hilarious that Graham saw this thread, replied, yet didn't comment about the actual main subject.

Nitpicky comment: Bending wingtips and tailfins on a YF-21 aren't really a "feature" nor optional---it's part of the transformation. A YF-21 toy HAS to be able to do "high-speed mode" to be able to transform.

I think "includes FAST packs" is the biggest news, regarding the YF-21.

I though NMM was dead? Or if not, "so comatose because he's locked in his own mind" that he's effectively dead.

Oh yeah something I miss: Controlling the other party members directly. Heck, I think I once played almost all of KOTOR as the other party members, just because I could. I'd really like that in this game. Hey, it'd be the only way to play as a non-human. ::re-read ME forums to get things straight:: OK, since it was in KOTOR, people expected it in ME. And apparently the E3 video from '06 made it really look like you could, but it was just the camera angle. A thread from July '07 said they were investigating doing it like that 2.5 years ago but decided to go with how it is now. So it's not a "cut feature" like lots of people claim. It was never past the "idea on a napkin stage", but it LOOKED like it was there in a much-seen E3 vid.

I don't think I ever actually used it, just looked to see what it was.

Shin--do you have other ace schemes? I'm surprised they "allow" you to go in expert mode and free mission and get them, without winning hard or expert campaign. As for Pasternak---use your radar. He always uses ECM when he "decloaks" (hey, that's what it seems like) and that paints a nice big blip on your radar. That's how to find him. Also--ALLIED ATTACK. I've taken him down many times without firing a shot. I've taken him down in 15 secs----because of allies.

Are you using the CFA-44? If you're just hunting for the Ace, the -44 makes everything go faster. Also, I think I found her by doing the ship part of the mission first. Some say she appears on the carrier just before or after it sinks, but I think she just "teleported in" at 15,000ft in the vicinity. Operations B and C take the longest by far. I usually do A-D-E-F in about that order. Or D-E-F-A.

Oooh, that's a point--does Peter only copy "known/current" abilities and power levels, or can he "level up" what he's learned just like the person he copied from?

Looks VERY nice now. Graham--time to send these pics to Kawamori/Yamato? Then they can see the original Dobber scheme, and the "interpretation" of Dobber's scheme. I just keep thinking--if this keeps getting more famous, 5 years from now we may see people in Japan asking for "Dobber" Gundams, and "Dobber" EVA's... "Dobber---it's the new low-vis"

My current opinions/summary: 1. It is VERY similar to KOTOR. More so than I expected. Excluding combat of course. 2. Graphics minor annoyances are just that, minor. It's like playing a game on a PC that can't QUITE handle it. It still looks good and plays fine, it's just not wonderfully smooth. Every stage/area is different. I can go 5 mins and have only one tiny little hiccup, or I can have 2 minutes of one staircase that jumps every 10 secs. 3. I expect combat to become more frequent as the game progresses. Again, like KOTOR, the first 6 hours is basically "learning about the world". 4. Combat's still "quick and not sure what's going on". I can obliterate geth in one match, then die in 10 secs in the next. A big part of it I think is in RPG's I'm so used to watching HP/MP bars, while in ME you gotta always watch your targeting reticle--so you can very easily not notice your HP bar is dropping by big chunks. Half the time that I realize I'm hurt and should take cover is because Ashley yells out "Shepard!" PS--you can turn off motion blurring, and almost everyone does so. Blurring makes Vice City unplayable, in ME it's only "pointless". PPS---a lot of it simply because of the lack of loading screens. It's partly a choice they made---do you want 3 secs of black "now loading" to show up every time there's a cutscene or new area, or do want it immediately 99% done, with the remaining 1% visibly loading in the first 2 secs? KOTOR had CONSTANT loading screens. ME has almost none. (And also the reason for the infamous slow elevators--of which there's like 4 in the first 12 hours--they're just masking the loading by going slow, instead of a fast elevator that then makes you wait 10 secs at the bottom with a black "loading" screen) PPPS---many of the "cut" features were never there to start with and merely rumored/suggested from interviews 2 years ago, or they tried them and they didn't work well, so they cut them LAST year. Nothing was cut to make a deadline in the last 6 months. And they were really minor things, like Mako cannon ammo upgrades, etc. There's no "missing planet" that anyone can tell.

Basically--yup, 99% of comments about ME are the technical issues. And it seems every 360 is different (no surprise). Some people have rock-solid frame-rates with atrocious texture pop-up. Some have the opposite. Some (lucky) people seem to have it play 60FPS in high-res all the time (we want proof though). I think I'm typical, as I mainly get: 1. Stuttering when panning. 2. People always have to re-load the high-res version of their clothes when the camera switches between closeups. I don't have severe problems in either case---it reminds me of playing KOTOR on the PC before my new graphics card. As for the actual story----I'm thinking it's going to be a Xenogears level of "you won't get it at all until the end, and you won't REALLY get it until you've played twice". It's just so DEEP if you go explore the world. Seriously, I spent like 20 mins last night talking to Tali about Quarian politics. All those "17 hours and I'm done" people certainly didn't do that. Bioware really fleshes out their worlds and people. Still, if not for MS's stupid rules, or Bioware's apparent "same experience for all" policy even a small hard drive cache could take care of all the texturing issues---it's always like there's just *one last one* that didn't make it in time. My current main issue is that combat has no tutorial and very little is explained--especially in the way of icons. I figured out blue and orange I think, got a guess for green, but then I think I saw a 2nd type of green one. And what represents health/gel/mines/creds is NEVER explained, I just eventually figured them all out by tracking numbers. I really wish we could do the "pause and make a queue of actions" thing like KOTOR, while retaining the realtime shooting. As it is, I usually just issue commands once at the beginning, and after that, keep shooting. I really didn't get KOTOR's battles until the 2nd run through, think it might happen again. Just a lot of slowly experimenting. Basically--any battle so far is winnable without too much effort, but knowing how things REALLY work and choosing appropriate actions will sure speed things up and cut down on deaths.

Sony etc systems don't drop much. Nintendos do. I came THIS close (and should have) to buying a MISB revised NES from TRU for 30 bucks. N64's were 99 after a while (funky colors though), and GC's have been 99 for a long while. GC launched at 200, went to 150 in less than a year, and 100 in less than 2 years.

Mr March---my opinion would be that the VF-5000's nose cone, and "forward fuselage surrouding the canopy" is nigh-identical to the F-22's, but really doesn't match the YF-22 much---it is only slightly closer to the YF-22 than "any random fighter jet". But since Kawamori apparently drew the VF-5000 before the F-22's nose design was really known, he couldn't have copied it---so it's just coincidence. IMHO. And if he based if off the YF-22's nose (which was well-known at the time)---he wouldn't have gotten the shape he did, as it is only superficially similar. It is possible he tried to do a "final version of the YF-22 nose", heavily revising it---and ended up coming up with almost exactly with what the F-22's designers did.

I was thinking about it earlier, and while I personally bet on the Company (canonically), having it be Peter and Adam would be better.

Free mission works, it's almost impossible to get all the aces on just playing through campaign once. I got most, but had to go back to get a few I missed.

I'm buying it BECAUSE it's magenta. I want all my valks to look different. 1 "greyish white" one (Roy) is enough. My others are tan (YF-19), red (Milia) and soon-to-be blue (YF-21). And then a deep grey VF-11.

I'd like at least 24 hours---many people Tivo it etc and can't see it until the next day, or download it off NBC.

Depends on your definition of grey vs blue---all the greys are blue-greys and most of the blues are grey-blues.