I've put in a solid 9-10 hours of game play including taking down matriarch benezia and the hades gamma cluster missions, but still have to use my pistol and shotgun. What point do i have to reach to use my assault rifle and sniper rifle, as they are both still listed when i hit the left bumper as "untrained"?

It depends on your class and if you have any bonus talents. Only Soldiers can use every weapon; apart from them only Infiltrators can use sniper rifles. Otherwise you need a bonus talent to become 'trained', and without being trained you'll have a lot of trouble hitting anything with a sniper or assault rifle. --Tullis 21:41, 25 November 2008 (UTC)