Mass Effect: early thoughts

I promised many people my thoughts, but I don't have much to say yet. We're maybe 12 hours in. Picked up Liara but have otherwise been focusing on sidequests so far. Playing a fem!Shep Infiltrator named Jane (I tend to use the default name my first time through any RPG). She's a Spacer, a War Hero, and a Paragon through-and-through. The shooting part of combat isn't going too awfully, but I am worse than useless at handling the Mako. (May-ko or Mah-ko?) Fortunately, this is what I have a husband for.

( Some questions and slightly more spoilery things under the cut. )

Thanks to fandom osmosis -- and the fact that we attempted ME2 first, so we ran through the tool that lets you set up your choices and create an import -- I've been spoiled for quite a bit of this game, so I can relax my usual anti-spoiler rules a little bit, but I'd still appreciate it if everyone could keep spoilers vague and to a minimum in comments. Thanks. :)