Yeah, it seems that Hyperion only makes shields with fire resist, as thats all Ive seen them make so far. I found a Hyperion shield and equipped it even though I had a better one at the moment. Its pretty tough doing this, as you end up dropping alot of good guns that you probably would normally use.
I do have a few good guns still. I have that shotgun that I use for close combat, a purple SMG that isnt half bad, but I dont really use it that much, and an amazing combat rifle. It has something like 56 damage, and is a 3 round burst, has a scope. And the best part? 96 accuracy. I can zoom in and aim for the head, and hit atleast 2 of 3 rounds from the burst in the head. Sometimes all three, its amazing.
Im level 22 or so right now and I am running around with level 14 guns.
Its great fun and it really helps you to appreciate the manufacturers, I would recommend it to anyone that has beat the game.
You could also pick something like Teodore or one of those, but they generally have worse guns than the more rare companies. I might do one with Atlas, since they make some great guns too. Mainly the Glorious Havoc machine gun, that thing is a beast if you get an Atlas one. The other ones arent so great, but that one is a gem.