Mass Effect: Andromeda - A Better Beginning - The Vault

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I take it that you have made your way to the Gravity Well down to the Remnant Vault by your own.

First task is to open the door in front of you, the Power Console is on the opposite side of your starting position.  Follow the side and activate the Power Console to open the door.


Next start your Scanner and follow the yellow power conduit from this console further into the Remnant Vault.

In the next room, use your Scanner on the console located there. SAM will tell you that it is linked with surface facilities but that it is not operational. Continue through the next door.

Check out the other Gravity Well (don't walk into it as it deals massive damage). Peebee goes solo from here.  Follow the radar beacon to the next door.

In the next room, the floor is lava (or some other liquid that deals damage, scans to Unknown Ferrofluid). Use your jetpack to jump to the next surface.
After jumping on the blocks to the next platform take cover as there will be Remnant Assemblers. Take them down and continue

Use scanner to find the power conduit and follow it to the next waypoint.


In the next area, don't miss to open the door. to the right hand side it contains a loot container. The door can be Scanned.
After the side door, after the next turn there will be more Remnant Assemblers. Do your thing

After that follow to the next waypoint. On your way there you will get a hint to Press RT and you will see Peebee on the other platform.
Don't walk directly into the next door, instead follow the platform around the next corner to find another extra door with a loot container in it.

After the next door in the dark tunnel, the spinning light cube can be Scanned. Then another door followed by Remnants... This time Remnant Assemblers, Observer and a stationary Turret.

After the have been dealt with you can activate the Gravity Well. Climb both the platforms overlooking and activate the consoles. On the left side you can also scan the Remnant Shield Charger in front of the console.

Take the Gravity Well down to the next level.

Turn around and scan the leaking conduit. On the left hand side there is a loot container.
Press RT to look at Peebee and let her help you fix the conduit.

Go through the door.

Use the console and then jump with the jetpack onto the platform that appears.

This is about 24 minutes into the video

On the platform with the strange tree (Scannable), activate the next console and jump the platforms that appear. On the next platform take care of the Remnant Observers that appear and activate the console there. (here I think that I missed a secret door and loot, it looks like a door if you continue further onto the platform after the console, worth checking out)

Head back to the tree.
Next platforms appeared to the left of you. This one you need to run-jump to get across.

Another console. Triggering it will activate more Remnants on your path. After that is done, go to the platform where they came from. The one with the second tree.

The console there will trigger a bridge, just walk over it to the final platform and door.

Follow the platform to the left first before entering the door, another loot container.
Enter the door.

Fix the thing by activating the console (surprise surprise)

About 35 minutes into the video

I'm not going to write about the next part. If you have trouble finding the way, here is a direct link to that part in the video instead. It gets a little hectic.

Thank you for reading, hope this helps someone out there! : )
Until next time: Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work

First Impressions - Mass Effect: Andromeda

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I have been a fan of the Mass Effect series since the beginning and when they announced Andromeda, I knew I would end up playing it. So now, a few months after the release I got around to actually buying it on a bargain.
The story takes place upon arrival to the Andromeda galaxy after a 600 year voyage. So I guess we can throw out all we learned from the previous trilogy and hopefully explore something new both with the story and races. So hopefully no more running around the citadel!

Spoiler alert! Do not read further or click on the videos if you want to have a spectacular first hour of gameplay. If you are unsure about the game and don't care of the spoilers, then go ahead. You have been warned!

Character creation

A lot of options here, what I found nice was the combination of presets and freedom. But dull as I am I went the middle road. A nice touch was that you were able to design the other gender twin to your liking as well even though I guess you will not play as her/him.
Really liked the multitude of hair color choices, but the lack of tattoo designs pulled it down. The ones that are there are well designed but not thrilling in any way.
A nice touch that you are able to select the gender of Shepard from the previous games, makes sense as people played him/her differently.
After that there is the training choice:

Security with starting power Concussive Shot, heat-seeking high impact shot
Biotic with starting power Throw your enemy through the air!
Technician with starting power Overload with damage to shields and synthetic enemies
Leader with starting power Energy Drain that moves energy from your enemies shield to your own
Scrapper with starting power Charge that lets you enter the heat of battle fast.
Operative with starting power Tactical Cloak that lets you stealth

My choice: Security.. mostly as that resembles what I use to play in Mass Effect games. At least the first time through.

Gameplay introduction

The story starts directly and the tutorial part of the game is pretty much integrated into the fact that you have slept for 600 years and that people on the ship know you and seamlessly tell/ask you to do stuff. Introduction to the scanner is done, seems like a neat thing to analyse things in the game world.

Nice intro, gets you into the story.

Also the dialog system has been redesigned. Now each of the four choices has a clear category, Emotional, Logical, Casual and Professional. It seems that the old Paragon/Renegade system is gone. 

First mission

Here we start to see how stunning the game actually is! The scenes on the planet surface, it is as the trailer promised! And jumping! I can't understand how many games lack the jump feature these days, but here it is part of the game play. You have a little thruster on your suite that allows for jumping over obstacles. Also climbing is a feature.
The last few months I have been playing Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands and I really do miss the detailed weapon feeling and ability to take cover a bit more deterministic. The worst thing about combat in Mass Effect: Andromeda is that you cant toggle right/left shoulder camera while in combat. It gets really annoying while crouching in cover. It turns out that you can switch the camera from one shoulder to the other by pressing Right Stick. Now the combat actually works!.. Just not used to the arcade feel when switching from a more realistic game to this game. : ) It is the same old Mass Effect combat.

Conclusions

After the first hour or so of game play, I am hooked. Just hoping that the story is just as long as the other Mass Effect games. Really stunning graphics, a story that pulls you in and a re-designed dialogue system is a step forward at least in my opinion.
Looking forward to continuing.


Thank you for reading, hope this helps someone out there! : )
Until next time: Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - Hide and Seek

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From the Fallen Ghosts DLC

I decided to enter the base from the south, i.e. high elevation.
In the camp there are a huge number of stealth operators, 4 jammers and a bunch of snipers. Meaning that you should make sure that you have looked at every inch of the base with the help of heat-vision on the drone. Make sure you find the generator and alarm while looking around.

Once done

• take out the Alarm,
• follow with targeting the guys that carry the jamming equipment, this will alert the base but you should be OK as you are up in the hills and the alarm is disabled. Use sync-shot and take out the fourth yourself.
• Take out whoever tries to come to your location and try to snipe everyone in the base at the same time before entering. There is a cluster of snipers in one of the towers but it is hard to target them while they stay up there, once the alert is up they should be moving to a better location. 

• As you are already engaged, throw in some mortar fire to take out the generators located against the building closest to the southern hills.
• Once the base has been cleaned up a bit it is time to enter it. Go over the planks from the hills to the rooftop as seen in the above image (right of the generator).
• Clear the base and rescue the rebels (or not, not mission critical but there is a guard down there that you probably missed). Make sure you don't shoot any rebels while you use the thermal vision, hard to tell the difference between people when everyone is a blob.
• Once every threat is neutralized the mission will go to a more scripted part

Part 2

Do as it says, reach the west exit. After that follow the trail of footprints on the ground and track down Major Rocha.  But be careful as there are some stealth operators lurking on the trail. So be sure to swap to thermal on a regular basis to check the surroundings.

The first one is at the back end of the old truck

Continue following the trail.

The second one is on top of the ridge close to another car wreck, behind a plank. In the video that is where I parked my helicopter if that is of any help.

Major Rocha is close to this location, to the south-east behind a crashed airplane wreckage. Go there and finish the mission, he is camouflaged just as his stealth troops so use the thermal vision to spot him.

Hope this helps someone out there! : )
Until next time: Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - The Trail

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From the Fallen Ghosts DLC

Part 1: Meet Socrates' Contact

• Go to the village where the yellow arrow is located. Sneak in, take out the few cartel members patrolling the area so that you can move freely. 

• Go to the house that is marked on the mini-map and talk to the guy in there. 
• Follow the trail of drag-marks and burning trash to the beach. This should be pretty straight forward but be careful just in case.
• At the beach, talk to the witnesses. One of them will point you towards the island not far out in the lake. 

Part 2: Reach the island

This is a mission check-point... That's good as getting to the island and completing the mission is a little bit tricky. Luckily, you should have visited the place at least once before in the original game so the island should not be totally new.

What is new is all the new sniper guys guarding it.

• Get into a boat at the beach with the witnesses. (the island is guarded by air defense, so going by sea is recommended.)
• Use the red route shown on the map (above) to approach the island and enter at the western point. This should allow you to land without being noticed by the elite snipers.
• Use drone to mark all the soldiers. (should not be any stealth guys here, at least not for me)
• Remove the two on the beach that you landed on
• Take out the elite sniper on the opposing beach (tower) as he can spot you
• Continue inland and use the sync-shoot ability to the max and be prepared to rush and finish the job yourself if someone starts to get suspicious. Be aware of the opposing beach from where you landed and take out the marks there to be able to move slowly to the helipad. 
• From there it should be pretty straight forward to finish the mission.

Hope this helps someone : )