What did you do today in ME?

My first PT, I would have thrown the game out the airlock if Grunt hadn't survived, after losing both Mordin and Thane on back to back missions. That would have been the last straw.

Definitely true.  On a non-imported PT where I didn't use Gibbed to modify things, Grunt isn't loyal and dies on Utukku.  It was horrible.

OK, this is going to be weird but I started an ME1 PT without wrapping up one for ME3. I have some ME1 backlog I haven't written and a little ME3.

ME3 - Jonathan Shepard:

1. Met with Dr. Garret Bryson to discuss Task Force Aurora, which is investigation into Leviathan, the so-called "Reaper Killer". Unfortunately, he was murdered by his assistant, Derek Hadley, who engaged in behavior that suggested indoctrination. Hadley tried to talk about Leviathan but some outside force shut his brain down - he's not dead, but he is no longer incapable of communication.


ME1 - Jace Shepard, Earthborn, sole survivor, infiltrator. Special note: He's a sort of "transgender" Shepard, which will be evident in some comments.

1. XO of the Normandy SR-1 (the most advanced Alliance ship ever), serving under Captain David Anderson. Went to Eden Prime on an alleged milk run - except for that turian Spectre that was tagging along and following me everywhere. Turns out that Nihlus thought I was Spectre material and wanted to see me in action several times before making a recommendation to the Council.

2. Boots on the ground alongside Staff Lt. Kaidan Alenko and Corporal Richard L. Jenkins. We went in hot after seeing video of an attack by an enormous ship shaped sort of like a grasping hand. This was Jenkins' homeworld and his emotions got the better of him. He ran ahead and was shot down by a drone. Felt bad for the kid by Alenko and I had to press on.

3. Encountered Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, a marine and the only survivor of her squad. She joined with us and immediately proved herself to be more than capable when we were attacked by the geth, an AI "race" that hadn't been seen in over 200 years. I wondered why she'd be assigned to an agricultural world. She talked about the Prothean beacon we were supposed to retrieve. We went to the site, but it was gone. My Spectre "escort" Nihlus had gone ahead and said he'd check things out.

4. Found the dead body of Nihlus. A dock worker said he'd been shot in the back by another turian named Saren. The worker said he seemed to trust Saren and let his guard down.

5. Fought more geth and disabled bombs meant to blow the beacon.

6. The beacon started to glow green and next thing I notice Alenko is being pulled toward it. I leaped into action and tossed Alenko out of harm's way. I experienced some twisted nightmares before waking up on the Normandy medbay. It was 15 hours later.

7. Against my judgment, Anderson insisted we report what had happened to Ambassador Udina and the Council. Apparently Anderson had crossed paths with Saren and wanted him to be stripped of his Spectre status. Predictably, they didn't believe me or the eyewitness who mentioned Saren BY NAME.

8. Went looking for evidence. Led me to an agent of the Shadow Broker, who turned me on to a krogan merc named Wrex. I also tracked down a turian C-Sec officer named Garrus Vakarian who had been investigating Saren. With them, we headed to Chora's Den to confront Fist, who had information on a quarian may have had information on Saren. Turned out Fist was working for Saren and had set up the quarian. After getting her location from him, Wrex shot him since he'd been hired to do so by the Shadow Broker. Fist had switched sides and the Broker didn't care for it. No loss there.

9. Helped the quarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, though she was in no way helpless. She had recovered a recording or two from a disabled geth that proved Saren was a traitor. We brought it to the Council and Saren was stripped of his status. The turian councilor tried to say humanity wasn't ready to have its own Spectre but I reminded them that a turian Spectre had betrayed them and a human uncovered the truth. In the end, they made me a Spectre.

10. Helped a civilian named Jenna get out of a bad situation doing an undercover op for C-Sec. I retrieved a mod for Detective Chellick. He didn't like the way I did it because I killed Jax and his cronies but I don't want those guys around. Fact is, as a Spectre, I can do this kind of thing with impunity.

11. Straightened out a turian general who had a grudge against an asari consort because he didn't get his way.

12. Udina forcibly "retired" Anderson so that I could have command of the Normandy. I understand why I needed my own crew but wasn't happy with how it happened.

13. Killed some criminal scum on Sharjila.

14. Boots on Therum with Alenko and Wrex. Killed a lot more geth, rescued the daughter of Matriarch Benezia (whose voice could be heard responding to Saren on Tali's recording), and took down some of Saren's followers. Almost died when my creative use of a mining laser reactivated a volcano but Flight Lt. Jeff "Joker" Moreau arrived just in time to save our collective asses.

15. Found the missing marines Admiral Kahoku had been looking for on Edolus. They were all dead next to a fake beacon. It was there to lure victims to a thresher maw, which we killed.

16. Killed some crime lords of Klensal. That should make Helena Blake happy.

Jace Shepard:

1. MSV Ontario - L2 biotics have taken a hostage. Good thing I've got an L2 in my crew. No casualties but I let Chairman Burns know he wasn't doing his job if he didn't know how bad it was for L2's.

2. Planet Trebin - Killed another damned thresher maw. Why couldn't these things stay on Tuchanka? An ExoGeni survey team also found some alien tech that turned them into husks like the ones on Eden Prime. Can't be a coincidence. Wrex and Garrus helped me out on this one. Some scavengers tried to kill me to for a probe they'd found. Worst of it was I couldn't get into the damn thing! Disabled a transmitter that was screwing with GPS.

3. Planet Chohe - Keep finding writings of some ancient asari named Matriarch Dilinaga. Clearly hit the jackpot by finding three in one spot. Don't know what the point of these is but I'm collecting in. At some point, I think I'll switch to model ships. A lot easier to find. Found a science lab but the doors were locked. Another notch in my thresher maw belt. Someone needs to tell the krogan to leave their pets at home.

4. Planet Nonuel - Hackett had asked me to negotiate with someone who called himself "Lord Darius". The guy was just an asshole. I shot him instead. Hackett all but said my Spectre status was a factor here because I couldn't be reprimanded for killing instead of negotiating.

5. Planet Agebinium - Sent to retrieve a probe in turian space that contains a nuclear weapon. Turns out it's in a mine. My Dextro Squad thought it was suspicious and I agree. It didn't end up there by accident. Elanos Haliat, some idiot who "runs" the Terminus Clans, armed the nuke specifically to take me out. He failed to take Elysium and took a major hit to his rep. He figured killing the first human Spectre would help him. I disabled the bomb. Then I tracked him down and shot him in the face, taking out the rest of his merc gang as well.

6. Citadel - Admiral Mikhailovich insisted on an inspection of the Normandy, considering it a waste of money. I told him the same thinking could have held us back years ago in regard to ships and other craft that became indispensable. Accosted by reported Khalisah Al-Jilani. She tried to make me look bad but I wasn't giving her the satisfaction. Really wanted to punch her but there are some things even I can't get away with. Convinced a hannar that he was making them all look bad by illegally preaching and then let the C-Sec officer know he just wasn't up to the task of his job. Helped the asari consort with the turian general and the elcor ambassador. She gave me a strange trinket for my troubles.

6. Planet Eletania - Found a mysterious globe in a Prothean Ruin. It was enormous, made of reflective, shimmering material, and floated in the air once unlocked. That trinket the Consort gave me fit right into a slot on this thing. It was Eden Prime all over again with me finding myself on the ground after a flash of light. It gave me flashbacks to ancient, prehistoric humans and encounters with Protheans. Searched for a downed data probe but some stupid pyjaks stole the data module and I had to search through several pyjak colonies just to recover it. I almost think these things are another krogan export except that they're too docile to have come from Tuchanka.

I played once with a Not-Legion (but Legion died, I didn't ignore activation). There's parts I liked, where Shep wanted to project his old experiences with Legion at first. It's kind of sad. Garrus and Tali had to make an intervention. lol

(Wave) I spent my day transitioning to Mass Effect 3, basically played through the Earth, Mars, citadel and landed on Palaven.

My enthusiasm for the game has gone down.

I do love the new moves Shepard got, along with the improved melee. I feel it is a huge plus!
The new looks of the game are really jaw-dropping pretty, though I was stunned to have my Shepard replaced by some blonde girl. Managed to approximate my Domi Sheparad fast enough though through face customization on imported char, so good stuff.

But the drawbacks (for me) are:

Shepard suddenly started to go into really, really, I mean really long speeches, that have very little to do with the blurb on the wheel. Seriously, I half expected to be married to Kaiden (with grandchildren in the way) in the end of her convoluted monologue in a responce that I thought simply said, "Yes, yes, it's me, chill, Kai". I found the whole prologue very slow and not as gripping as both ME 1 and ME 2. The cutscenes with the little boy were just interminably boring.

I loved planet scanning, I want it back! From what I can see, it is a hybrid system now, but I am yet to find anything using it.

My personal tastes do not run to building Alliances strategy components I saw before in Neverwinter 2 and SWTOR, so I am not thrilled that I will need to do it here.

And for the life of mine I can't figure out the new weapon interface, and where all the guns I seem to unlock go, etc. I'll figure it out, but for now, I want me2 system back.

I am also deathly tired of winning endless battles, but loosing the war. My patience is wearing so thin, that I want to go back and replay as a renegade! i would have much preferred a plot with a conquest than in a spectacular frack up because no-one was listening to my all important Cassandra.

I use this site to scan for war assets across galaxy and then to find extra fuel easily.

(Ok, this might be better in the "little things" thread but since you were discussing it. Third time around and i've discovered your can hear a little bleep if you run the Normandy over an invisible object, like a fuel or money cache. That might help.)

Jenna somehow got herself locked up for six months (not sure exactly how since i don't have Arrival DLC) and was about to have to explain to the Alliance Admiralty board about the Reapers when...speak of the devil!. Luckily she escaped the general destruction of Vancouver with help from Anderson and Alenko, but then got ordered to go to Mars by Hackett. On Mars she had a bit of an ongoing discussion with Kaidan (i preferred Ash at this point, it seems a little out of character for Kaidan. Ash has always been questioning Shepard's decisions, it's one of the reasons my MShep loved her, but Kaidan?) and then ran into Liara, in a pickle as usual. Anyway, Jenna also ran into TIM, and considering they didn't part on the best of terms she could hardly be surprised when she was attacked by a robot henchwoman. Robot henchwoman then proceeded to duff up Kaidan and Jenna had to rush him off to hospital.

After a brief spot of Cerberus baiting it was off to Menae, Palaven's moon. Where the gang ran into Garrus. This is getting kind of awkward, since Garrus managed to convince me last game to hook up with him, but Kaidan's back, and it's clear that there's still something going on between him and Jenna. However, Garrus is persistent so how Jenna's stuck in some kind of love triangle. I thought she'd broken up with Kaidan, but it's nowhere near as obvious as the Ash/Miranda decision. Jenna's definitely in a romance, i'm just not sure who with, i feel kind of bad for Garrus and Kaidan...Should have made my mind up back in ME1 and left Kaidan on Virmire.... This is going to be interesting.
Still enjoying Vanguarding though. I'm not getting Jenna's ass handed to her quite as often as i did Scott (the Infiltrator)'s.

Thanks, folks. Yep, I read about reapers, and tbh, I'd be happy to run into them too, to just be sure that the whole flying around scanning has at least some effect I am sure, I'll get how it works. It's just the whole accepting change and moving on thing.

With a bit of free time before the hearing with the Council into the attack on Eden Prime, Karen Shepard decided to try and gather some intel while on the Citadel. Perhaps she would find out something about what Saren was up to, perhaps not, but she figured it was worth a shot.

First up was to introduce herself at the Embassies. The Volus ambassador, Din Korlack, had a pretty poor attitude, but Shepard thought he made some good points about the balance of power amongst the Citadel governments and the relative weakness of the associate members compared to the three Council races. The Volus may not have the most powerful military, but what kind of shape would the Turian war machine be in without the Volus running their economy to pay for it all? Did so much power really need to be concentrated amongst three races?

There were two Elcor representatives as well, ambassador Cayln and a diplomat named Xeltan. Xeltan was complaining about some Asari "Consort" person who had apparently wronged him in some way, but the details were vague so Shepard dropped it.

The station's VI guide, Avina, gave some background info on the political workings of the Citadel governments, the Council and the Spectres. Once again the topic of the associate, or as Avina termed them "lessor" races, came up - Shepard knew she must have looked silly trying debating ethics with a machine, but she felt that some things needed to be said.

She then approached the head of Citadel Security, Executor Pallin, to find out the progress of the investigation into Saren. Pallin refused to give out any information, but did let slip what he really thought about Saren, and the Spectres in general, specifically their lack of accountability. Given everything that had happened, Shepard couldn't really argue.

In the diplomats lounge there were some Alliance recruits discussing this same Asari Consort, named Sha'ira, that Xeltan had mentioned, so Shepard asked the bartender about her. He could only say that she had a lot of influence amongst the diplomats on the Citadel, and that she was very respected. It all seemed a little odd, so Shepard made a mental note to look into it if time permitted.

In the Financial District, Shepard spoke to Barla Von, a Volus banker who spoke very highly of the Citadel, and a Hanar shopkeeper named Delan, who spoke very highly of his own merchandise. Another Avina VI provided history lessons on the Rachni Wars and the Krogan rebellions.

Shepard then stopped in at Sha'ira's, and discovered that the waiting list to see her was months long. It appeared that the Consort had taken notice of her, however, so she was invited into her office. Sha'ira requested Shepard's assistance in dealing with a Turian general named Septimus, who was "spreading lies" about her after a falling out between the two. She thought that a "fellow soldier" could reason with him. Sha'ira's behaviour seemed a little strange, "touchy-feely" one moment and standoffish the next. Maybe that was just her way. Shepard decided to at least meet with Septimus and get his side of the story - given their current situation, a high-ranking Turian office owing them a favour couldn't hurt.

Another Avina terminals provided more info on the Citadel and the Keepers. Kaidan commented on a strange hum emanating from a statue of a mass relay in the Presidium, that made his teeth "tingle". Perhaps there was more to this statue than meets the eye?

It was then time for the hearing, and it didn't go well. Saren denied any involvement in the attack on Eden Prime and attempted to spin it as a smear campaign against him - it turns out he and Anderson had a history. Shepard asked how Saren knew the details of the attack if he supposedly wasn't there (as he claimed); Saren responded that with Nihlus dead the Eden Prime files had been passed on to him. How in the hell a SUSPECT in the murder of a Spectre agent gets access to the victims files is beyond me.

The hearing ended with the Council demanding solid proof against Saren, or the matter would be dropped. Udina appointed Shepard to head the investigation from that point forward - he didn't want the history between Anderson and Saren being used against them again in future. They went over what leads they had, and planned their next move.

Up next - to the Wards

lol... What are you referring to?