I'm going through again on impossible but I remember not using the flamethrower much at all last time.  The pulse rifle too.  I just couldn't find a good use for them.  They don't have all that much power and you go through ammo like Jeff through choco tacos.

"I'm going through again on impossible but I remember not using the flamethrower much at all last time.  The pulse rifle too.  I just couldn't find a good use for them.  They don't have all that much power and you go through ammo like Jeff through choco tacos."

The flamethrower is actually perfect for when the big bloated slicers end up spewing out all the little crawly things that latch onto your back and you have to do the Macarena or whatever to get them off.

"The flamethrower is actually perfect for when the big bloated slicers end up spewing out all the little crawly things that latch onto your back and you have to do the Macarena or whatever to get them off.

Yeah, the flamethrower works perfect for those.

"

It also works very well on the screaming guys that are attached to the wall by the 8 or so tentacle things and  shoot out the pods with one tentacle from its stomach. (God, I hate, yet at the same time, love trying to describe the different types of necromorphs.)

Bloated wall doods?  Yeah, maybe...but that flamethrower doesn't have much range to it, so it could pretty easily get you decapitated trying to do that.

Really?  The ripper replaced the plasma cutter as my main weapon in my first playthrough.  You could do so much damage with so little ammo.  It's definately garbage if you're trying to deal with large groups though.

The main problem with the flamethrower is that is has no stopping power at all... The slasher running at you just becomes a flaming slasher running at you unless you seriously hose it with something like 50 units of ammo.

As far as the other guns, I also found the pulse rifle to be borderline worthless. I hadn't really decided what weapon I wanted to dump my nodes into until I amassed something like 130 ripper blades over the course of 2 chapters... It was a pretty easy decision after that. Fully upgraded, the ripper severs the leg of any enemy in under a second and remains spinning for something like 6 more. If you have trouble judging distance with it, aim it at the floor and walk the trail of sparks up the legs of every enemy you see. The line gun is also incredibly nasty, but I wasn't rolling in line racks until fairly late in the game, limiting the weapon to a strictly situational role.

I also concur with the plasma cutter being off-the-rails awesome. The sound that comes out of that thing makes you feel like you're 10 feet tall.

"The main problem with the flamethrower is that is has no stopping power at all... The slasher running at you just becomes a flaming slasher running at you unless you seriously hose it with something like 50 units of ammo.

As far as the other guns, I also found the pulse rifle to be borderline worthless. I hadn't really decided what weapon I wanted to dump my nodes into until I amassed something like 130 ripper blades over the course of 2 chapters... It was a pretty easy decision after that. Fully upgraded, the ripper severs the leg of any enemy in under a second and remains spinning for something like 6 more. If you have trouble judging distance with it, aim it at the floor and walk the trail of sparks up the legs of every enemy you see. The line gun is also incredibly nasty, but I wasn't rolling in line racks until fairly late in the game, limiting the weapon to a strictly situational role.

I also concur with the plasma cutter being off-the-rails awesome. The sound that comes out of that thing makes you feel like you're 10 feet tall."

When I say "stopping power," I pretty much mean the ability to immediately shoot the mobility-enabling parts of an enemy off. The flamethrower can do this, but it isn't as fast or precise as even the pulse rifle.

If you are having ammo problems, the solution is simple:  just equip that one weapon.

I'm assuming it's pretty good against those spider things.

Yeah it's great against the small enemies and that's it. And oh yeah, the flamethrower cant be fired in a vacuum.

I think the Flame Thrower is best for the Brutes. I use a plasma to get them stunned, run up behind and just light 'em up. Takes them down real good. Probably smells terrible though.

The Flamethrower is good for getting the 20 Gamerscore associated with it. That's about it. I haven't used it for anything else. I use either the Plasma Cutter or the Contact Beam to kill Brutes.

I used the flamethrower for crowd control mostly. If the enemies get too close the second attack type wroks fine for getting them away. The one weapon I only used for its cool factor, but could not make out how to be functional was the reaper. Seems like everything can go right through the blades.

I used the flame thrower whenever I was overwhelmed and I just wanted to burn the entire group.  It's very easy to get control of a group of enemies back when you're dousing them casually with your torch.  The preggers things I mostly used my Line Gun mines on when they gave birth to those mini bats, but it's useful there.  The ideal flamethrower use is against the tall lanky monsters that spew off the little facehugger/Thing tentacled critters.  Burn the mother down, and just keep the ball a rollin!

Line Gun mines take too long to detonate :(

And for the rolly spider things I use the Force Gun.

Force Gun?

I quite like the Plasma Rifle but the Flamethrower is pretty useless. :(

Plasma Cutter and Line Gun are the best weapons in the game. A fully powered Line Gun is monsterous.

The Line Gin fully upgraded Damage will kill alot of things in one shot.  It's lovely.

Only used it for small annoying enemies.

Actually, after Chapter 6 or something, I stopped using it. Eventually sold it. Not very useful.

The flamethrower wasn't that great in Gears 2 either. The one in World at War and the Pyro's are the only effective flame throwers that I've seen recently.

"The flamethrower wasn't that great in Gears 2 either. The one in World at War and the Pyro's are the only effective flame throwers that I've seen recently."

I didn't forget Halo's

I only use it in combonation with the slo-mo.

It becomes very usefull when your up against the thing thats made up of dozen of little aliens. You know the tall lanky one that when you shoot it explodes into a bunch of writhing worm things.

The flamethrower sucks