Here's the deal. I played through ME 1 & 2 with all of the save file and DLC goodiness on a thumbstick attached to my Xbox 360. At some random point the thumbstick stopped showing up as one of the options under the memory submenu on my dashboard. I found out that the device is seemingly wiped clean, as I got some "not compatible" or "doesn't meet standards" message.

I have questions for ME 3 players and tech gurus alike.

First, does anyone have knowledge of this problem? I called MS support and they told me I was boned (and I assume they're right) but if any techies are aware of this and have maybe a fix or any advice then kudos.

Second, as a person who loved all the little minutia that came with importing my ME 1 save file decisions into ME 2 (not just the major ones) and feels attached to his larger trilogy character, will I miss out on a lot by just starting a fresh game and "choosing" the past plot points at the beginning of the game? I care about the ME trilogy so if you didn't like ME 3, telling me it sucks anyway and isn't worth it probably won't mean much to me.

Thanks for any help or comments, since I am one of many who has lost save data I'm sure you all know how shitty I feel right now, since I just received ME 3 in the mail yesterday morning.

I would certainly look into finding a way to get a preferable ME2 save back onto the game.

However, I would suggest going ahead and making those choices through ME3. While your previous ones do have a bit of an effect, they don't seem to be anything really important. You can always go back and play through the first two games again and then the third one, something which I personally plan on doing at least once.

@believer258 said:

I would certainly look into finding a way to get a preferable ME2 save back onto the game.

However, I would suggest going ahead and making those choices through ME3. While your previous ones do have a bit of an effect, they don't seem to be anything really important. You can always go back and play through the first two games again and then the third one, something which I personally plan on doing at least once.

I'm trying to bravely confront the reality of having to play through the first two again, especially 1. I love the first two, including 1, but I played through those games like I was 12 years old again (read: many, many times) so I'm pretty bummed at the prospect of doing it all again. I read online about all the decision transitions from 1 to 2 to familiarize myself with what I would have to do, and I was reminded how almost every side mission at least culminated in an email or news bulletin or short conversation that really added to the flavour of ME 2. I hate the thought of missing out on that in the final game.

If you can get the usb stick to recognize on your pc, there should be a way to pull the save data out then reformat the stick to meet current standards or transfer it to another xbox ready usb. I was able to pull my me2 save data off my flash drive and convert it for use in the pc version for me2/3.

However, if your stick isn't even recognized on pc, then that thing is probably corrupted or dead and you're in a Brad situation which really sucks. If worst comes to worst you can always use another person's save with the same or similar choices.

@AlwaysBeClothing said:

If you can get the usb stick to recognize on your pc, there should be a way to pull the save data out then reformat the stick to meet current standards or transfer it to another xbox ready usb. I was able to pull my me2 save data off my flash drive and convert it for use in the pc version for me2/3.

However, if your stick isn't even recognized on pc, then that thing is probably corrupted or dead and you're in a Brad situation which really sucks. If worst comes to worst you can always use another person's save with the same or similar choices.

The best (and yet still crazy) option I have if it's totally corrupted is to buy a copy of ME2 for the PC, download a PC ME 2 save file (there are some pretty robust completionist ones), and transfer it to ME 2 on the 360. Buying another copy of ME 2 seems crazy, but at least at this point in time its still better than spending 2 months played through both save games to completion again. (I'm in school so I can't spend all day playing through both in a week and a half)

@Brendan said:

@AlwaysBeClothing said:

If you can get the usb stick to recognize on your pc, there should be a way to pull the save data out then reformat the stick to meet current standards or transfer it to another xbox ready usb. I was able to pull my me2 save data off my flash drive and convert it for use in the pc version for me2/3.

However, if your stick isn't even recognized on pc, then that thing is probably corrupted or dead and you're in a Brad situation which really sucks. If worst comes to worst you can always use another person's save with the same or similar choices.

The best (and yet still crazy) option I have if it's totally corrupted is to buy a copy of ME2 for the PC, download a PC ME 2 save file (there are some pretty robust completionist ones), and transfer it to ME 2 on the 360. Buying another copy of ME 2 seems crazy, but at least at this point in time its still better than spending 2 months played through both save games to completion again. (I'm in school so I can't spend all day playing through both in a week and a half)

Before going through all that, remember that the motion comic or whatever it's called is available on Xbox Live. You won't have to go through Mass Effect 1 again if you're willing to spend a small amount of money. You make all of the games' important decisions in that.

Meanwhile, a quick Google search reveals some great news for you! Here's the link. Note that I've never done this so I don't know the reliability of it.

http://www.masseffectsaves.com/xbox.php

@believer258 said:

@Brendan said:

@AlwaysBeClothing said:

If you can get the usb stick to recognize on your pc, there should be a way to pull the save data out then reformat the stick to meet current standards or transfer it to another xbox ready usb. I was able to pull my me2 save data off my flash drive and convert it for use in the pc version for me2/3.

However, if your stick isn't even recognized on pc, then that thing is probably corrupted or dead and you're in a Brad situation which really sucks. If worst comes to worst you can always use another person's save with the same or similar choices.

The best (and yet still crazy) option I have if it's totally corrupted is to buy a copy of ME2 for the PC, download a PC ME 2 save file (there are some pretty robust completionist ones), and transfer it to ME 2 on the 360. Buying another copy of ME 2 seems crazy, but at least at this point in time its still better than spending 2 months played through both save games to completion again. (I'm in school so I can't spend all day playing through both in a week and a half)

Before going through all that, remember that the motion comic or whatever it's called is available on Xbox Live. You won't have to go through Mass Effect 1 again if you're willing to spend a small amount of money. You make all of the games' important decisions in that.

Meanwhile, a quick Google search reveals some great news for you! Here's the link. Note that I've never done this so I don't know the reliability of it.

http://www.masseffectsaves.com/xbox.php

Hmm, I didn't find that in my personal google search (maybe you have a superior google?) but it's worth a try, thanks. And yeah, I could always go through the ME 1 stuff quickly but I'll just be bummed to miss out on all the small stuff that's referenced in subsequent games. Dammit, I really hope I can just import all the stuff I did (but other people did for me) into Me 3, because I'd like to try a relatively complete version of events somewhat soon after I received the damn collector's edition!

@Brendan: If you're commited to xbox, you don't need to buy a pc copy of me2. You can just download the save, mess with it in Gibbs then transfer it to your xbox profile using modio. You just need to make sure all the security stuff gets generated properly. There's actually no need for the pc version at all.

The process of prepping saves for xbox on pc is here:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/2277020/1

Edit: you'll need a working xbox usable flash drive with your profile and an ME2 save on it. Which is why it would be best if your flash drive can be recognized on pc. Then you can use modio to just transfer your existing data onto another flash drive which should just work.

@AlwaysBeClothing said:

@Brendan: If you're commited to xbox, you don't need to buy a pc copy of me2. You can just download the save, mess with it in Gibbs then transfer it to your xbox profile using modio. You just need to make sure all the security stuff gets generated properly. There's actually no need for the pc version at all.

The process of prepping saves for xbox on pc is here:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/2277020/1

Edit: you'll need a working xbox usable flash drive with your profile and an ME2 save on it. Which is why it would be best if your flash drive can be recognized on pc. Then you can use modio to just transfer your existing data onto another flash drive which should just work.

Are there any banning concerns with doing stuff like this? I'm guessing the xbox people don't care so much about single player game stuff being modded but I'd rather avoid the risk.