SWTOR and Mass Effect 3

I'm still plugging away in SWTOR.  I have been plodding through PVP and gearing up somewhat.  Signed up for a raid with my guild, and nobody showed.  I can understand that some cons have been starting up, but if no raids materialize in the next couple of weeks, I may need to rethink my current alignment.  I've been playing with a Bounty Hunter Powertech that I've gotten to level 21.  I did have a fantastic night of PVP with it along with some of my guildmates.  It makes a huge difference having a team talking on Vent.  I was getting over 100k damage using the BH.  With my level 50 marauder, I'm usually at about 75k.  Weird swing there, and I'm still interpreting the data.  When I see warriors dealing a lot of damage, I ask about their builds.  Overwhelmingly, the answer is that they're specc'd in Rage.  They're not necessarily killing a lot of people, but they're spamming the smash ability and getting a lot of crits on the aoe attack.  I'm not sure about this - maybe that's the way to go, or maybe it's just a n00b 'pwn' button.  I really do want to be good with my warrior - so do I follow the herd, or strengthen my core pvp group's teamwork and act as a DPS in a group mentality?  I'd really like to ramp my BH up, but I've been having such a hard time getting into the same old same old on Balmorra.  I'm just about done with that, but I still have the bonus series to go, and if memory serves, that was a grind I hated with the celephoids or whatever they're called.

On to Mass Effect 3.  I really believe the Mass Effect series is the greatest franchise video gaming has known.  I know, that's a tall order, and I'm totally skirting the whole outrage over the ending.  I haven't finished it yet, so I'm trying my best not to know what everyone has their panties all in a twist about.  Anyway, the character development, and closure with many of the characters we've come to know over the first two games has been great.  I don't want to get into any spoilers since others may not be there yet.  However, I've now seen two former companions die for a greater cause, seen one almost die, saved one's species from extinction, helped one get a homeworld back and helped another gain free will.  I haven't played a lick of multiplayer yet, but will start on that soon.  My galaxy at war rating is about 51%, due in large part to the little gains from the iPad Mass Effect 3 data pad app.  

Oh, about that iPad.  I finally gave in and got one.  I have been using a Kindle Fire and found it okay, but not really ZOMG!!!!!  With the new iPad, I think I've finally found that device which serves as that missing link between smartphone and computer.  I can't get over how fast it is, how responsive it is, how good the screen looks.  I downloaded Infinity Blade 2 the other day.  Wow - graphics like that on a tablet.  I also downloaded Mass Effect: Infiltrator.  Great looking game, but the controls are hideous.  It reminds me of trying to play Madden 10 on my iPhone a couple of years ago.  I think where EA fails on their ios games is trying to mimic analog controls virtually.  I can't say what a better alternative would be, but I know I've got this potentially cool game sitting there that I will probably never play again because the controls are god-awful.

I've had a strange urge to watch Alien and Aliens lately.  I had the Quadrilogy box set on dvd a few years ago, but let a friend borrow it and really don't know if I ever got it back.  I could just go and pick up the BRD versions, but wish there was a digital copy for them.  I guess I could just buy the iTunes versions and stream them on the AppleTV which I got for Christmas and sits lonely and abandoned.