Which ME do you think is the hardest 1st time around?

The older the games, the harder they are.

In other words, ME1.

These days games, especially console games, are geared toward being as user friendly as possible.

The toughest games I've ever played are now considered old.

I thought the Inquisition dragons were tough, until I discovered Thousand Cuts. That ruined all the fun.

Seems to be like that with every console game, though. The characters become godly superheroes. Dark souls doesn't count.  It's only hard because they strip you of everything you gained when you lose. This game would be considered hard if they did that. Any game would. Imagine dying to an Architect and then getting stripped of your skill points and whatever else.

Last time I lost a fight to a truly tough boss in a video game, and kept losing, and never ever won, was in Lotro.

And that wasn't even a solo fight. That game had some really tough fights. Your team had to know what they were doing, or fuggedaboutit.

ME3, for some reason I always struggle on Palaven's moon.

Definitely ME1 for me, as well. The Thorian as someone mentioned upthread... Christ, I'd forgotten until just now how much I hated that whole damned planet. I remember just churning through Medi-Gel like a madman because I had Liara and Kaidan with me and they were both about as resilient as a damp tissue. And then falling back on prayers and bargaining when the Medi-gel inevitably ran out.

In contrast, I just did an ME3 Insanity run this week because Origin never recorded any of my playtime/achievements for it, and honestly it wasn't difficult so much as just annoying. Stupid little Cerb trolls and their smoke-bomb spammy bullshit, in particular.

ME1 for this fight right here.

I remember Grissom Academy mission on insanity kicked my ass half a dozen times before I got the hang of it.

...mostly because Rodriguez didn't keep her shields up...