Thanks for the reply! Here's my savegame and sorry that it took a while to post this. I actually managed to get through Grunt's loyalty mission with the following workaround:
1) Save when standing next to the shaman.
2) Load the save.
3) Loading the save automatically starts the post-mission discussion with the shaman and Grunt will be loyal to you with the mission marked as completed. Unfortunately you can't actually play the mission, but at least you get him loyal... Just don't try to talk to the shaman again, because this would seem to remove Grunt's loyalty and mess things up again. Weird bugs.
However, getting this mission completed still doesn't grant me Legion's loyalty mission ("We are building a consensus, please wait") nor does the scripted
ever happen. I've tried to land on several planets like Citadel, Ilos, Tuchanka etc. again.
Here's the save file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwh95h8w3xnw885/Save_0095.pcsav
And if it helps anything, here's a pic of the trilogy boxset that I have:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8nm1p60b1kglcwe/masseffect.jpg
Although I didn't use the DVD's for installation, just entered the code to Origin, which downloaded the games for me with all the latest updates and tons of DLC content (all mission-based single-player DLC + several weapon packs for ME2 and ME3) that I purchased on the BioWare site.
If there's any way to trigger the said event in my savegame, I'd be happy to play the final missions of ME2. I actually already finished ME3 with every side-mission and DLC mission completed, by importing a downloaded ME2 save. Happened to stumble upon a savegame which had the exact same decisions done that I made across ME1 and ME2 (with the exception of the final mission, of course). This is my favorite game series and I like the 3rd part the best, including pretty much everything about the ending (but I seem to be in the minority on this).
I played around with your save file for a while and it is my opinion that your file is all kinds of messed up. I also encountered the issue where Grunt's mission gets skipped and gets reset the moment I enter the Normandy. Legion also doesn't want to start his mission in my case.
Also note that in the save you uploaded, Grunt is flagged as loyal, even if the mission is marked as incomplete. Maybe the endgame will trigger if you mark Legion as loyal, but then his loyalty mission won't trigger and all kind of import craziness can occur in ME3.
I think the best course of action would be to reload an older save and replay a portion of the game.
Thank you for taking the time to download and try the savegame. Yeah, I figured the save is somehow corrupt. However, starting from an earlier save, about midgame, doesn't seem to help either - it ends up the same way once I reach this point. I haven't started the game all the way from beginning, but whatever corruption or bug has ruined my game, it has been there early on.
Just a few days ago I actually discovered there are savegame editors for these games. I tried marking Legion as loyal, but as expected, it didn't fix the problem. And of course I had to start toying around with my ME3 saves (after backing them up first), since I have saves for the game from beginning to the end. 🙂 A fun tool, indeed.
Now that I think about it, while I don't remember encountering many bugs in ME1, ME2 was actually the buggiest of the trilogy. In fact, even the installation program didn't work from the original DVD. That's when I ended up letting Origin download the games with my CD-key overnight. But after Origin successfully installed ME2, it didn't start. I had to rename MassEffect2.exe as MassEffect2Launcher.exe and ME2Game.exe as MassEffect2.exe. After this the game finally started. But I find it hard to believe this obscure fix would corrupt my savegames. I also encountered disappearing sound during the Shadow Broker DLC (sky car chase), scripted cutscenes not triggering at first during the Overlord DLC (final base), worst graphics glitches of the trilogy and Thane seems to be still sad about
even though I saved him and got his loyalty.
In ME3, the worst bugs were getting stuck in Normandy's cockpit (every single time in the PC version) and the scripted cutscenes after beating
not triggering in the Wii U version (forced me to beat him almost 10 times, since I was stuck in the room with nothing to do). Other than these, the other glitches I encountered involved Shepard facing in the wrong direction while speaking with Liara and similar, more funny than game-breaking stuff.
Oh well, these are massive games and have provided me with more than 100 hours of entertainment. It's hard to complain. If anyone has a ME2 savegame to post just before the
I'd be grateful. I don't think I can fix my own game.
