I just got done finishing all the UNC side quests(finding the medals, minerals ect.) and god that was tedious and boring 
. Some of the side quests are fun, like one where I found a random abandoned ship floating around with a small backstory. I am glad though that I am done with basically 95% of the side quests, I can finally finish the main quest now and move on to Mass Effect 2.
Is there a point of getting level 60 btw, since it basically requires me to replay the entire game again after I beat it.
Oh and are the stores better in ME2/ME3? I currently have over 5.6 million credits(or w/e they are called) and have nothing to spend it on, all the items in the shops are at least 2 times worse than my current items.
In ME2 and ME3, the stores deal almost exclusively in upgrades. Either for guns or armor, basically all they sell. Some do have model ships to display in your cabin, plus some have items as part of quests. Credits are not as common in ME2 and ME3 compared to ME1, at least in my eyes.
Btw, if you haven't yet, buy the Spectre gear in ME1. Some of the best weapons in the entire game, especially in terms of accuracy.
Getting to level 60 isn't a must, imo. You get some added bonuses, but my characters were level 49 and 50 when I imported them and still got all the bonuses. Max level in ME2 is only 30, but in ME3 it is back to 60.
