I know what you mean. I mean, I like having something nice to look at when traveling somewhere, but I also just like my female characters better for some reason.

Having female characters just seems odd to me in games like this for some reason.

I can play as bith genders with no trouble, but I like a bit of girl power sometimes. As long as they aren't just a sex object. I hate playing as a sex object.

I completed the original Mass Effect and loved it. I was playing through it again and went straight to Novaria and, for whatever reason, was unable to defeat Matriarch Benezia. I got tired of the constant cut scene and having to listen to her, so I just shelved it. I think I beat her first time on my original playthrough, so f'uck knows what that was about. Really great game, though.

I've not played ME2 yet though. Can't wait, and can't wait for ME3 either.

I definitely think Noveria should be the last place you go before the Virmire attack (in order: save Liara, take care of Feros, THEN Noveria).

I mean, the game still scales Benezia to your level so it's not like you can grind and get high above her, but you're still a lot stronger and have a lot more powers at your disposal that you can manipulate if you save it for last.

My stategy for dealing with Benezia involves shooting her with a very damaging weapon. A lot of powers aren't very useful on her (she was a preparation for the useless biotics of ME2, I guess) and once you can damage her, it's best to just shoot as quickly as possible, as she doesn't take a lot of effort to bring down considering her damage output, which is the last thing you want to be on the end of. I dunno, I never find Mass Effect's bosses to ever be difficult really. The only tough ones that spring to mind are Hock's gunship with Kasumi's mission (because it takes ****ing forever, and if you make one mistake you're back at the start) and maybe the final boss for Grunt's recruitment mission, because fighting a YMIR mech and respawning Krogan on Insanity is not nice.

The Praetorian is almost impossible in Insanity. How can you not mention that? o.O

The first fight, I mean. The second time is a little easier.

I've noticed with ME difficulty that it's either way too easy or ridiculously hard. For the Grunt recruitment boss on Veteran I literally just ran up to her and beat her to death without firing a single bullet (I was laughing really hard), and on Hardcore I could barely even finish the prologue in the first one.

Oh my bloody hell I completely forgot about that one. And the moment on the Derelict Reaper where you have to fight two Scions at once. And the moments where you have to fight Harbinger and Scions at the same time. Okay, I'll revise it:

-Insanity on ME1 isn't too dificult. The trick is to get as much money as you can early on in the game to hit the high mark and get Spectre weaponry. There's a few enemies that are an absolute pain to fight (Armatures take forever to kill) and the cover system's so awful that you have to be quick dispatching the weaker enemies, but as long as you know what you're doing you'll get through with plenty of time.

-ME2's Insanity system is easier in some ways (the lack of shield regen and rock-paper-scissors style barriers means that basic enemies are far simpler to deal with), and combat improvements such as cover in nearly every single battle and more offensive powers mean that with caution it's far easier to win. However, there are those moments where you are doomed to spend hours failing before getting lucky and scraping through a boss fighr with no ammo left. The Praetorians (I actually think the second one's harder because you have to fight more enemies alongside it and there's no circular cover) and select boss fights (the three YMIR mechs in Garrus' loyalty mission spring to mind) provide ridiculously difficult moments to complete. There's also less margin for error with enemies like Harbinger or biotics, as if they manage to get one hit on you, you're good as dead.

This is fairly accurate. Also, on Insanity, Husks are absolute nightmares. Enemies that shoot at you as cake, since the cover system is so easy to manipulate, but any enemy that approaches you (Husks, Abominations, the Praetorian), are just so difficult on ME2 Insanity.