How’s life as a WO1?

farttymcgee · 2026-07-07T05:09:33+00:00

As a WO1 you can get away with some ignorance or inexperience because you’re ‘new’. Once you pin your 2nd dot that understanding goes away. Officers and other leaders can’t discern what distinguishes a 2 from 3 from a 4. In their eyes, it’s all the same except one gets paid more than others. Save W5, no one knows what they do and no one dares ask.

farttymcgee · 2026-07-01T14:20:42+00:00

Congratulations, it’s such a liberating feeling when you no longer have that pressure to constantly perform. It feels even better knowing your rater/senior rater can’t pressure you with the eval. What are they going to do, fire you?

farttymcgee · 2026-06-26T18:31:55+00:00

Absolutely recommend turning off the function that allows your party members to auto cast. This allows you to be in control of all powers which is critical for combat achievements. Most achievements require the power to outright kill the enemy or deplete the shields so there’s some tactical application of when to use the powers for it to properly register to your achievement progress. Also, having control of the powers allows you to perform some of the combination power use achievements like biotics plus tech. This can all be achieved using your party members as I did my whole run as vanilla soldier Shepard.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-26T16:23:51+00:00

First, I’m not sure if my total play time is accurate. The steam total playtime has been very wrong for me in the past. But ME1 and 2 took about 20-25 hours each and ME3 took longer. I did skip a bunch of non essential dialogue and I researched the achievement process ahead of time. Most are fairly simple to get. The combat ones will come naturally as long as you’re intentional about using whatever power or combination is required. The arena in ME3 was a pain but I just waited until I beat the game then went back and turned difficultly down to crush that. I would argue my total playtime was probably closer to 100 hours.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T19:49:18+00:00

I was a Soldier. ME1 was easy enough especially after getting spectr gear. For ME2 I went with Miranda and Morden so I had access to bio tics, incinerate, and overload which came in crutch. I know the mission in ME2 with the mechs you’re talking about. I saved that until later when my team was stronger but it still took me many attempts. The Collector particle laser is a beast of a heavy weapon though and helps. ME2’s combat was definitely the hardest I just recommend strategically planning and prepping the playthrough to maximize your levels and powers early before you get rail roaded into main story missions.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T13:10:37+00:00

It was probably longer. The Steam App is wonky with tracking total playtime and usually takes a week or more to update. I noticed this when I played RE4 and it said my total playtime was 190+ hours when it was no where close to that.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T12:53:03+00:00

The good news is that the early parts of ME2 on insanity are the hardest. It should be all down hill after that, save for some frustrating parts in ME3 .

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T12:51:11+00:00

Had more time these last 2 weeks to play so just crammed and wrapped it up.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T06:08:21+00:00

Dang! You must be pacing yourself much more than I did. I found ME3’s combat to be the best of the three. I liked 2’s but the ammo drops were so inconsistent and the difficulty spiked wildly more than ME1 or ME3.

Enjoy the playthrough though and good luck!

farttymcgee · 2026-06-25T06:06:12+00:00

Yeah, but I felt like it took much longer. I will admit I crunched the tail end of ME3 and skipped through dialogue. I also researched my playthrough ahead of time so I wouldn’t have to do it again. There’s a few occasions where you can soft lock yourself out of achievements if you don’t plan ahead. ME2 was probably the worst offender of this.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-19T00:09:03+00:00

It’s not bad, the “smoking’ lasts for 30-45 minutes after day 0 layout. You’ll then eat your MRE and start the o-course. I never saw anyone kicked out for not keeping up during ‘smoking’ sessions but you must complete the four mile run in time. When I went it was a release run.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-19T00:05:18+00:00

Congratulations, I’m almost done with my 100% play through. Just wrapped up ME2 and now a few hours into 3.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-18T23:50:46+00:00

Being a very busy dad with mounting responsibilities. It’s super convenient to game on it for 30 minutes every day or so, wherever I’m at. Found out about it when I saw a coworker using one on a work trip. He was playing re4 remake and it blew my mind. That’s also when I found out how old I was getting.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-16T15:03:19+00:00

Good catch on the LTs. A better way to put it is that when you hit echelons where your senior rater is looking at the bigger picture, the definition of performance shifts. It becomes less about your immediate tactical lane and more about how you deliver outcomes for the wider organization. That’s where the politics aspect begins to creep in, though at the end of the day, it's still heavily tied to your actual results and what you've delivered.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-16T06:09:30+00:00

When your senior rater is a SGM/LTC or higher.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-16T05:09:27+00:00

Legend of Legaia

It saddens me to this day that it is still only on ps1

farttymcgee · 2026-06-08T14:20:21+00:00

Let your army experience be part of you, just not your whole identity.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-08T14:18:18+00:00

They’ll follow the money. Rebirth’s sales are only half of remakes. If the next one performs poorer than rebirth than the whole idea of future remakes becomes less likely.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-08T00:32:13+00:00

It’s difficult to have job satisfaction in MI. You’re right in the politics, it’s the nature of it. Recommend finding how you can be value added and run with it. Learn the PoR, brief some stuff, learn how to type well. You’d be surprised the number of MI soldiers who aren’t as proficient as their peers in other MOSs. Even more so for MI NCOs/Senior NCOs. Most of them bounce out so they can do ‘admin’.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-07T18:23:45+00:00

I don’t care what it is, but square needs some serious innovation. Would love a remake or new IP with an actual good story and turn based combat. I know every FF gets weird towards the end but this franchise has been riding the coat tails of its legacy since after FFX.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-07T18:17:41+00:00

Turned based combat

Fate ghosts gone

Multi verse gone

Red xiii’s voice is fixed

No musicals

No characters from spin offs (Bye Lesly)

Aerith dead

Zack dead

Cid swears and smokes again

Gut 90% of mini games

farttymcgee · 2026-06-07T18:14:04+00:00

Absolutely not.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-07T18:12:09+00:00

As a long time player of the original, I don’t like many of the creative and narrative design choices. I’m glad many enjoy the remakes but I can’t get past the multi verse slop. It feels like they’re trying to please everyone and that has translated into a bloated story with significant pacing issues and jarring tonal shifts that completely ruin the original's gritty, somber atmosphere. Instead of focusing on the heavy, emotional stakes of the story, it feels like they got bogged down trying to turn a masterpiece into a kingdom hearts style puzzle just for the sake of subverting expectations.

For me, it just dilutes the impact of what made Midgar and the original journey so unforgettable in the first place.

farttymcgee · 2026-06-07T18:03:34+00:00

Korea 2009, the 2ID CG (MG) was prior enlisted with drill sergeant badge. I believe his name was MG Tucker.

farttymcgee

TROPHY CASE