I never created my own face.
The only time I played a man-Shep was my first play of ME1 where I used box-art Shep.
Same with soldier, only on 1st play. I prefer either engineer or sentinel.
I used Garrus a lot and he's awesome, but he did like climbing on boxes out in the open and getting shot.
The first thing I did was let Grunt out. I used him a lot just because or his damn brute force. Pair him up with a decent biotic like Thane or Samara and you're made.
I fully upgrade the Normandy. It my baby
People only died on my 1st play cause I didn't understand the significance of loyalty. Every other play, everybody lives.
I'm half n half on the last one. I tend to swap paragon/renegade each time I play.