uhhhh, isn't all gear in this game unbreakable?

Good point

There's also the fact that you have to grab the item out of the fireplace and then walk all the way to the volcano. Pretty clearly a LOTR reference.

You don't have to wait till playthrough 2 to get to the top of the volcano, by the way. Geary is there also, and he drops a character head when you kill him.

That was cool but I liked the TMNT one better.

It's amazing how many pop-culture references and hidden items are in this game. I just started my fourth character and am still finding new stuff even on the earlier levels.

I found a "Seven" easter egg in The Dust yesterday... opened one of those little cardboard boxes and Jack comes on with the whole "Awww, what's in the box?!" audio. And, yes, there was a head in the box.

As I was blasting an enemy he was crying "I just finished paying off my mortgage!!"

I can't believe (level 20-22ish spoiler)

Last night I 'ed when my Commando quoted Oprah.

"You get a bullet! And you get a bullet! Everyone gets a bullet!"

One of the hidden achievements/trophies is...

So with the AI mission, should I give the AI to Zed (which nets me a talking shield), or should I give it to Marcus (which gets me a talking shotgun)?

The shield seems to be WAY better of a shield than I have now and I should be using it for a good few levels, but the I already have a few shotguns better than the one I'd get from Marcus, although, the novelty of it talking ("die die died") seems pretty awesome, much better than the shield's talking.

Go for the novelty, then. You're going to get better loot soon anyway, might as well enjoy your time.

I found that one!

I spent a good hour trying to protect the tea party yesterday. At least the corrosive pistol she gave me was worth it as the thing does way more damage than the incinerating tmp i was using as my main weapon to that point.

Moving thread to Politics forum.

I played through with a couple characters already so I've gotten both. The shotgun is pretty average and the talking gets annoying after awhile. The shield is very good compared to other shields you'll get at that level. The one I got doesn't talk... thank god.

Speaking of talking weapons, one of my characters has one and I can't figure out which weapon is talking. I got it pretty late in playthrough 1. All I know is it's a female voice and when you reload it says things like "if your aim was better you wouldn't have to reload" and when you kill people it says "why would you do that? you murderer!!". At first I thought it was the Bane weapon, but I've since got rid of it. And it also doesn't matter if I switch weapons or shields, I still hear the voice. Maybe my game is bugged and I'm stuck with the talking. It drives me nuts.

That weapon is badass. I used it from the time she gave it to me, all the way until the very end of playthrough 1. It's very, very effective against robots, even at Level 30+. I made sure to put it in the secret stash locker so my other characters could use it as soon as possible. But there are different variations of it, some better than others. The best one I got from her so far has a x2 damage multiplier and a bigger clip so less reloads since it fires more than one round per shot.

what level do you finish the game at?

ya i don't think mine does double damage. it might be like 85 damage, but corrodes at like 100damage per.

clip is only like 11.

it's better against flesh than what i was using as my main as well, so it's a complete win for me as an assassin as i haven't gotten a decent sniper rifle yet, and only have a couple decent smg's.

I swear, this game was designed by Satan herself (yes, Satan is a woman)! I mean, it feeds all the addictive qualities of videogame obsessiveness; the loot, the hoarding/collecting, the leveling, the constant perks/upgrades/missions, the "what's around the next corner" propulsion, and so much more. It really itches all of those brain triggers, and itches them well. And even when you die, you're never really punished for it so much that it makes you ever want to quit. Point being, this game is evil!

If you do all sidequests, you'll most likely be at 33. I'd say no less than 32 and no more than 34.

I've been getting bonus combat XP thanks to a relic so I'm already hitting the next level ahead of my co-op partners. I love it

What if you also grind and just generally fart around a lot, like I've been doing?

Not much since you gain less and less experience for lower level enemies, even less if you're in a vehicle.

The issue I was running into was around 31-33, the first playthrough XP just grinds to a halt. I was barely leveling up, it's refreshing when you start the second playthrough and you get XP like candy, and the battle are more difficult making it a more satisfying playthrough thus far IMO.

It's just that a few of the missions in the first playthrough already have you running through the same maps a couple times over, where it feels like you've already played the game twice before you actually start your second playthrough.