[quote name='shrike4242']ME1 wouldn't let you go past the endgame into stuff you missed, so if you wanted to do BDTS or Pinnacle Station, you had do that before you went to Ilos.
ME2 will let you do DLC post-endgame, so you can go back and do missions after the endgame.
Not doing LoTSB or Kasumi's Stolen Memory would be a mistake, for what they give you at the end of each.
I think my total gametime with all of the side missions, loyalty missions and DLC was around 56 hours total, though I think 5-6 hours of retries, unnecessary planet scanning and the like could be cut out of that amount of time.
Stolen Memory is about 1-2 hours in length.
Overlord is 1-3 hours in length, depending if you go for achievements or not.
LoTSB is about 2 hours in length.
Arrival is about 1-1.5 hours in length.
LoTSB and Stolen Memory provide enough bonus items you can use later in the game that it's worth doing them before the end of the game. Especially Stolen Memory.[/QUOTE]
thanks for the detailed rundown.
i'll be starting over w/my soldier on PT2 and probably set the difficulty to normal. I dont have the patience to try it on insane w/a higher lvl character...I'm on a schedule.

this way I can knock out the other achievements, prep the world, and do the DLC's...and not have to planet scan as much as I'll already have some resources.
thanks for the tip on Stolen Memory and LOTSB. depending on how fast I go through the game I'll see if I can fit in the other DLC before I trigger the last event.
I needed a break from ME3 demo MP so I don't get too attached to my soon to be wiped progress.
If you carry over your save from ME2 > ME3 are you stuck with the class you played previously?