What did you do today in ME?

Wrapped up ME1 with my terrible galaxy state Shepard.

Let Ashley shoot Wrex
Didn't lift a finger to help Kirrahe and Kaiden died on Virmire.
Let Rana Thanoptis go
Anderson got shot while getting the Normandy unlocked
Let the council die on the Destiny Ascension
Appointed Udina as Councilor

Really looking forward to ME2, it's going to be crazy.

- Noah wanted to check out Feros first, but when they arrived in the cluster, Hackett asked for help to retrieve a data module. Noah got it back and one or two monkeys may have been in the way of the Mako...
- On Feros, Noah, Kaidan and Ashley slaughtered through the geth after having talked to the leader of the colony. When that threat was gone, another emerged. The colonists had gone crazy, apparently enslaved by an alien called the Thorian. After shooting a scientist that annoyed Noah very much and after accepting some nerv gas grenades to save the colonists by another scientist, Noah went to deal with that thing.
Surprisingly, all colonists made it out alive, even though Noah definitely shot in their direction when some of them closed in (his aim must have been super bad!). Then the team finally faced this giant ugly plant. Noah was glad he could kill it. What a creepy thing. Even more creepy that it spit out an asari at the end. An asari which had worked with Saren and Benezia before. Noah got from her what he wanted - the Cipher - but he couldn't let her live. Who knows what had been altered in her while teaming up with Saren or being stuck in this plant. Better safe than sorry
- Hung up on the Council afterwards. Also had a nice chat with Kaidan and Ashley. Noah gets along with Williams very well, surprised at himself that he even mentioned his dead family. That usually never happens...
Wrex doesn't want to talk and Tali is a bit annoying to Noah, but he hopes she'll pull herself together during this mission.
- Stopped a geth incursion in a nearby cluster and dealt with several other things. Saved a chairman, cleared a husk-infested excavation site, killed two crime bosses (still have to deal with Helena), killed a crazy biotic girlfriend and shut off life support for her braindead boyfriend. On the way to the Citadel they stopped a rogue VI on Luna and Noah became a Shock Trooper.
- Back on the Citadel, Noah met Admiral Mikhailovich and took the elevator down to C-Sec. He got a call that some girl from Mindoir is in the docking bay. Strange, he was just there and no one was around? Noah told the guy he had no time for that right now, but when he heard that the girl might be a danger to herself, he went to try and help. Fucking batarians, what they did... he knew. And he was able to help her, sedating her to get her someplace safe.
Then he gave an interview to Al-Jilani, convinced Rebekah to get the treatment for her baby, helped Emily Wong one more time, helped Dr. Michel by silencing the blackmailer permanently, and bumped into Conrad again on the way (and for once since I didn't start Kahoku's quest line yet I could ask him about Banes!).

Attican Beta

Crew talk

Citadel

Man, I actually died quite a few times The krogan on Feros early on were quite a challenge with not that many developed CC talents Also always fun when your squad doesn't listen to orders, never gets old!
Shotgun Vanguard is much fun! I can't wait to see how many times I will die in ME2 and 3, it will be hilarious
And great to see you guys talk about some things that I will actually have in my playthrough as well this time (like Wrex having to stand down on Virmire no matter what because I won't have Garrus and won't recruit Liara until the end). Still so many things to do in the trilogy

As for the krogan and quarian stuff. I like to mix things up to keep it from being repetitive Always pick according to how my Shepards feel about it. The quest lines for these two bear some great stuff. One of my favourite scenes is when Legion and Tali are friends, but the geth die later on. Tali has some nice stuff to say, it's really cool. In my second run I couldn't broker peace and got this scene, I was in awe how different the game can feel depending on what you do or don't do. Ever since I mix up a lot to see as many different variations as I can

Artemis completed the Collector Ship ambush/trap. She was pissed off TIM let her walk into a trap uninformed. She is a veteran Spec Ops soldier, and has dealt with knowingly walking into a ambush before and not tipping off the enemy. When TIM gave her intel on the Shadow Broker as a olive branch she immediately went to Liara and shared the intel with her. Once Liara verified the intel it was a mad rush across Illum, and then the Broker's base. It ended with Liara as the new Shadow Broker and Artemis having a reliable source of intel. Their friendship now has even more underlying sexual tension.

I wish you could start a romance with Liara in ME2. I imagine Artemis' resurrection would have her reflecting on missed opportunities, and making the most of life this time around. That and the underlying sexual tension with Liara during the Shadow Broker DLC(even when you aren't continuing her romance from ME1), really feeds into the friends to lovers route I am going for this time. I was tempted to use a save editor to flag the romance as active to get the kiss scene after defeating the Broker. Then have Artemis and Liara play it off as weakness in the heat of the moment, and setting the romance back to inactive after the dialog.

4/7 of the original band back together, facing off with another rogue Spectre:


Liara sporting new armor with an actual helmet:
(Zeb's Liara armor mod MELE2&3)


Garrus and Artemis, shortly before Garrus takes another projectile to the face. First a rocket and now a table:


I love how this shot is framed:

There is still a frame rate bug with LE, and it hits vanguards the hardest unfortunately.

After Mars, went to the Citadel


Dream #1. Once I'm done with this playthrough, I will be doing a 'You will all die' trilogy playthrough to see the difference with the Dreams Remade mod.




My previous playthrough, the Project Variety mod playthrough, I forgot to disable the Diana Allers overhaul mod so the PV mod can do it's thing. On the SR2, I saw Allers in her regular outfit. I disabled her mod, then reapplied the PV mod leading to Allers wearing what is shown below.

I did that however long ago. By getting all heavy weapon upgrades, the cain can be used twice against 3 eyes. It was alright, but I prefer completing Arrival after the main mission to have Harbinger appear.

Shep was just gallivanting across the Galaxy righting a bunch of wrongs while hunting down Saren. She's gonna have to take care of a certain Geth related issue in the Armstrong Nebula soon...



She looks really good in white.😍
Back off cow, or you'll be on the menu tonight...

Artemis helped Jack destroy the Cerberus facility where Jack and several other children were the subjects of horrifying experiments. Artemis had Miranda accompany them due to Miranda's knowledge of Cerberus systems. Artemis also hoped that seeing the horrors of Cerberus' work on children firsthand would shake Miranda's loyalty to the dark organization. After destroying the facility, TIM contacted the Normandy wanting Artemis to investigate a Cerberus cell that requested immediate help. With Miranda and Samara, Artemis found that an overly ambitious scientist forcefully used his own brother in a horrifying experiment attempting to control the geth. It was another wake up call for Miranda, and hit even closer to home. Instead of protecting his sibling, the scientist used his brother to further Cerberus' goals. In the end Artemis barely stopped herself from killing the scientist, and his brother was sent to Grissom Academy for help and recovery.

Jack reveals her experience as a child:


Artemis entering the "matrix":

What an awful universe to be in. As it stands, there's no hope for the Galaxy.

Looks like I missed her. She got carried away by seeker swarms since I took a non-loyal Miranda as my biotic specialist.

Originally I was hoping to kill Zaeed during his loyalty mission after the suicide mission. But the game doesn't let you have less than 2 squadmates. That would have been even better having only the worst squadmate, Morinth, alive at the end.

Yep. Less than 2, Shepard dies. What I have done before is kept Grunt for the whole game in the tank. I had Zaeed, not loyal, with a loyal Miranda surviving the suicide mission. Before doing Zaeed's loyalty mission, I let Grunt out of the tank. My Shepard let Zaeed die. Grunt and Miranda punched their tickets to ME3. Both died in ME3.  The best part of that playthrough was getting the breath scene.

I looked at the mod. I smiled at a few comments. I know why Bioware has two needing to survive. I would add an option where Shepard could survive with one squadmate. It would mean the player can no longer do any mission after defeating the collectors. I would even say Shepard could survive with no squadmates. If the crew survives, one of them can help Shepard get back on the ship. Maybe in a remake that can happen.