What did you do today in ME?

This is the digital version from the PS3 PSN.  And now I'm kicking myself.

The digital version used to have a code for the Cerberus Network that would be emailed to you.  About two years ago they stopped using it all together.  The Cerberus Pack on the PSN would enable newer players to use the Network.

I thought I had had that installed.  Turns out I didn't.  So rather than be smart and look through my downloads in my account history, I was an idiot and went to the PS Store.  Which took forever to connect.  When I selected the Cerberus Pack under the ME2 addons, it tried to reinstall the entire game.  I uninstalled ME2 and I'm getting it going again now.  The Cerberus Pack is immediately next in the DL queue.

So yeah, that was two hours of my life wasted because I wasn't through enough with my troubleshooting.  I had already downloaded it, and it was there in my Transaction History in my Account options.  It would have let me DL it on it's own.  Google wasn't any help in this case.

I feel a bit dumb at the moment. 

Among the sidequests I did yesterday evening was Citadel: Signal Tracking. I didn't complete this one on my first playthrough; tried a couple of times but always messed up the mini-game that disabled the bomb. This time, I noticed the power junction next to the computer bank and it occurred to me that Shepard could just whip out her rifle and put a few rounds into it...

Yeah, the squad took a little collateral damage from the explosion, but that's what shields and medi-gel are for!

There was a line in the AI's dialogue about it being inevitable that organic life-forms would destroy or control synthetics. Nice bit of at-the-time-unintentional foreshadowing. (Obviously, the AI didn't get enough EMS to unlock the green ending )

Following up on evidence she found on Feros, Miriam Shepard ordered the Normany to the planet Nodacrux in the Vostok system. Nodacrux proved to be an annoying planet with mountain ranges in precisely the wrong places; alternatively, ExoGeni had built their facility in a location where they clearly did not want it to be found... En route, Shepard, Tali and Wrex encountered some shambling Thorian Creepers. The presence of plant zombies so far from Feros proved that something was amiss.

Shepard and co found the ExoGeni lab infested with Creepers; the three of them made short work of them, though avoiding their acid attacks in such close quarters proved difficult. Holed up in a room at the far end of the facility, Shepard found lead scientist Dr Ross, a few exhausted-looking colleagues and a handful of security guards. Their attempts to breed docile, domesticated Creepers for use as slave labour had gone south after the Thorian's destruction; ExoGeni's reckless experimentation had cost the lives of most of the research staff.

Dr Ross's ethics proved questionable to the end as she attempted to bribe Shepard into letting her go. When Miriam refused to play along, Ross ordered her cut-price security guards to open fire. The ExoGeni staff were dead within seconds.  As with Dr Saleon, it all seemed so unnecessary; why do people never want to come quietly?

Shepard's next assignment took her to Chohe in the Cacus system. A medical research station had been occupied by biotic supremacists who were holding the staff as hostages. In order to minimize the chances of the hostages being harmed, Admiral Hackett did not want to risk sending a conventional unit to storm the facility, instead requesting that Shepard lead a small commando team.

Reasoning that a biotic terror group might respond best to a fellow biotic, Shepard picked Liara to join the squad; along with Tali, they took the Mako to the research lab and made their way inside. Unfortunately, diplomacy was not an option; the terrorists' immediate response was to open fire with their guns and their powers. Realizing that bloodshed was unavoidable, Shepard ordered her squad to use pistols only and aim carefully in order to avoid hitting any of the hostages.

The situation was resolved as best it could be, with the terrorists subdued and none of the hostages caught in the crossfire.

Too bad the ending didn't show him jumping in the beam like it showed TIM for control and Anderson for destroy. Of course that could never happen since ME3 is the third game in a trilogy and the best place to start playing

Yeah. I should've clarified. Also, it's good to see you here now.

--Got my issues with ME2 taken care of.

A tip for folks that might use the PSN version: In order to make sure you access the "on-disc" goodies, you need to go through the PSN store and look for the Cerberus Pack add on. It won't be shown on the DLC menu accessed through the game itself. It'll be on the PSN and it is free.

Once you have the Cerberus Pack installed, the Cerberus laptop won't open. Don't be a worry wart like me. You'll be connected and Kasumi and Overlord will automatically be authenticated. From there, go to Extras on the menu and go to Downloadable Content. Then should see Arrival as well as the gear bundles and alt apperance packs.

It's my husband's day off, so it'll probably be a day off for my Shep too. I'll be getting the rest of the DLC installed probably tomorrow. Then I'm going to go back to ME1.

Next time!

--Noveria. Surely nothing could go wrong.
--Bring Down the Sky
--Back to the Citadel to check for grenade upgrades
--Feros
--Virmire <sniffle>
--Citadel
--Ilos
--Smile at the ending theme. It's my favorite in the series.

Caesar, you made it!
And I finally continued my ME playthrough, and after a couple of tweaks, Maxine Shepard successfully made it into ME3.

How many times do I have to start this over? You are the 4th journal I start since I boarded the Normandy, and you're not even a lovely paper one, just a lousy datapad. Oh well, next time I'm on the Citadel I need to get me a proper one.
But where do I start! A lot has happened - again. After we took out the Collectors I sat in the brig for 6 months. For working with Cerberus. It didn't matter that the reason I did that was to help colonists, but now I'm back with the Alliance. Reinstated. I was on Earth when it all happened. Admiral Anderson and I went to see the defense committee, and from there, it all went too fast. I met Ashley on the way, the Reapers invaded, we had to leave Earth, and Anderson stayed behind. James, who was my guard during the past 6 months (and is really funny), Ashley and I were ordered to go to Mars by Admiral Hackett. There we found Liara, who told us she had found plans for a weapon to fight the Reapers. Sounds great, huh?
And guess what, that damn Illusive Man had used an infiltration unit to steal the data! Almost managed, too. Ashley got hurt bad in the process, but she's at Huerta Memorial on the Citadel now. Liara and I went to see the Council to get help for Earth, but they refused. I should've expected it.
However, the turian councilor came to Udina's office and told me if I fetch their primarch, he can participate in a war summit. I like it, I hope I can appeal to them directly.
Just now I got to meet some old faces, and some new crew additions, Samantha and Steve. They seem really nice. It's good to be back 'home', in the Alliance.
We are currently on the way to Menae, Palaven's largest moon. Palaven. Garrus is there, and the Reapers hit it already. I'm worried sick about him and I miss him way too much. I found the ship models he gave to me and I just really hope he's alright... Please be alright...

Pics!

Update! Jenna, with help from Garrus and Kaidan, has just defeated Saren! She had a grand old time flinging geth around the Citadel tower before facing Saren. She talked him down (coz she's turned out about as paragon Scott, i guess i'll try being a bit more tetchy in ME2) and having left Liara back on the Normandy, had a proper showdown with his shell. She refused to name a human councillor, surely there's a democratic process in here somewhere?
I'd never done that before, and saved me from having to vote Udina to ring the changes. Onwards to ME2 and the next difficult decision...Kaidan or Garrus?

Jonathan Shepard:

1. Went to Horizon. Lost half the colony to the Collectors, which is still better than any other time the Collectors hit a colony. It was at the end. I saw Kaidan. He was so hurt that I was there. Being with Cerberus didn't help. He thought maybe I'd gone undercover and not told him. As if I would ever willingly leave him behind? We both said some things. He couldn't leave the Alliance to come with me and I wasn't as forthcoming as necessary. Not happy right now.

2. Found an M-44 Hammerhead and used it to investigate the MSV Rosalie. Collected some research data.

3. Got a message from Kaidan. At least there's hope.

4. Went to liberate a refinery from the Blue Suns. Turned out this was personal for Zaeed since he helped found the Blue Suns with Vido Santiago until he was ousted. Zaeed was willing to sacrifice the workers for vengeance but I wasn't having it. Zaeed wasn't happy with the outcome but it was his own damn fault for setting the refinery on fire.

5. A news report says my mother turned down a rear admiral promotion to captain a starship. In my memory. I guess it's time to let her know I'm alive.

6. Recruited thief Kasumi Goto, bought some more fish, and then helped Kasumi steal her dead lover's graybox.

7. With Kasumi, helped Jack destroy Teltin Facility. It was a Cerberus op. Again, shows why I don't trust them but I still need their resources.

8. Found the facility that infected a VI and countless mechs. Shut it down with Kasumi and Zaeed.

9. Boarded a Collector ship with Miranda and Jack. It was a trap, one that the Illusive Man knew about but didn't tell me I was walking into. We got some valuable intel about how to get through the Omega-4 relay. It's obvious I can never trust the Illusive Man.

10. Found a mine with a very weird YMIR mech. I had to keep inserting power cells to make it work. That's not the odd part. It kept going into a crouch and gliding into position rather than walk. Whatever. Got the job done.

11. Restored the magnetic field protecting a colony.

12. Followed up on the so-called Firewalker project. Led me to a volcano research center. Activating sensors triggered an eruption and I had to hightail it out of there.

13. Followed a Blood Pack beacon to a planet with creatures that can fly and breathe fire. Could these things once have come to Earth and been the legend of dragons? Shut down the beacon and took out the mercs with Grunt and Zaeed.

14. Found Eclipse mercs in an abandoned mine. Went it with Garrus and Jack. Found some encrypted data. Removed the mercs.

15. Made my way to Illium. Brought Miranda and Jacob with me. I figured it was past time to help Miranda out with her sister. It didn't go as planned. Miranda was betrayed by a close friend. However, Oriana was protected. I still had to break up a fight between Miranda and Jack afterward but they agreed to set it aside until the mission is over.

16. Met an asari with a message from the rachni queen about helping me against the Reapers. Also ran into Gianna Parsini from Noveria. She bought me a beer and I helped her nail a corrupt asari merchant. Just like old times. Returned a lost locket to an asari. Helped Shiala out with a bad deal she and the Zhu's Hope colonists made with Baria Frontiers. Convinced Conrad Verner - who has been trying to follow in my footsteps since I died - that the asari who conned him into trying to get the deed to Eternity - was actually a terrorist. He means well. Helped an asari and a krogan get back together. Returned some family genetic data to a salaraian who had lost it when fleeting Dantius Tower.

17. Recruited the drell assassin Thane Krios. His assignment was to assassinate Nassana Dantius. She's a despicable woman and had it coming, not something I casually say about a person. Jacob doesn't trust Thane. Then again, Jacob made a conscious decision to join the Cerberus.

18. Found Tali in the middle of geth space, rescued her and recruited her. Now I've got a few people on board who I can trust who don't like Cerberus but are with me anyway.

I actually finished my first ever ME3 play through. In spite of watching many YouTube videos beforehand, I cried at the end not to mention I accidently picked the wrong ending two times and still cried each time. I've just started my 2nd ME1 game now. lol. I know, late to the party!

You're not the only one. I've read several posts from folks who started playing the trilogy this year

If you have questions about the games, don't hesitate to ask.