Mass Effect 3: DAM* IT ALL!!

[etherlance]

Okay here's a good idea:

"Calm the hell down!"

The game isn't even out yet, there are no real details on exactly whats going on yet and you want to call the game crap?

Wait till it's out before you throw your little hissy fit.

 

[Conza]

I hate Mass Effect now. I hate it so much. I hate what it's become. Bunch of bullcrap pseudo choices that seem to make little difference other than being mentioned. Bunch of boring cover-shooting.
Know what I'm playing now? Alice: Madness Returns. Yes, the screen cracks and gets kinda red when you nearly die, but there's no regenerating health. There's no COVER SHOOTING. It takes skill to play through even a single fight. Know the patterns. Learn them. Use them to survive and dominate. You get too complacent and WHAM, you're down!
...Played through ME2 with a single gun. >_>

Seriously? Must've been on easy/normal, because I found ammo to be a ***** in ME2.

Anyway, dude, take a breathe, its just a game, ME2 is still excellent, hopefully ME3 will return some of the things they removed in ME1, but yes, likely scenario is that it will be ME2 version 2.0, anyway, let me continue reading your post;

The premise is ripped-off, and the latest enemy designs look even more ripped-off from popular games (one Cerberus operative looked like a female Grey Fox. No joke. Cyborg friggin ninja almost to a T). The story looks like it'll be the same "gather blank for the blank" Bioware trend, the Reapers walking around don't look ominous they look stupid, the hypocricy from Bioware on "But Thou Must" in other RPGs (especially JRPGs) is thick enough to choke on-
What if I didn't want to help Liara with the Shadow Broker? What if I didn't want to [insert spoiler for ending of Arrival DLC]? Why the fuck is the Illusive Man after me no matter what I did in ME2? WHY ARE ALL OF MY DECISIONS BEING MADE FOR ME IN A SERIES BASED ON THE PLAYER MAKING DECISIONS?!

Hey hey hey hey hey, hey. Now relax a bit man, I know, it is a bit annoying that they don't keep the cerberus trend in ME3, but it was way way way too heavy in ME2 anyway.

If you saved the collector ship (or whatever it was) at the end of ME2, the illusive man obviously betrays you, otherwise he'll be mad that you destroyed it, and there we are, plot continues in ME3. It would be very difficult to have him say either 'oh well, lets keep going shepard' as option 1 and option 2 being 'good job, lets keep going shepard' (imo), so this was probably the best solution.

Don't worry about the rest of the decisions, I'm sure they'll carry over many of the ones you made, hopefully in both games, major and minor ones. I shall continue reading.

-and worst of all: it's being made to target a wider audience when, since it's the final act of a trilogy, it should be focusing solely on concluding the story sensibly and coherently.

Yet, with all of this...and with my own feelings on the series, the game, and Bioware/EA as well...
I pre-ordered Mass Effect 3. V_V

Oh to hell with it, you still pre-ordered it? Then what's the problem? You're still going to play it right? I shall continue once again.

I feel dirty. Bioware has me by the balls, and it knows it. EA and Bioware own my wallet's ass ONLY because of the investment I've made in the characters of the series.

Ok, slow down. In Australia, the most you could've ever paid to Bioware for the entire ME series is $330 dollars (assuming you bought retail price for console, each game being $110 obviously), most of us spent much less becaue it was A. Not $110 per installment and B. Slightly cheaper on PC. So they don't exactly own anyones wallets now do they? They want to take from more, yes, and is that a bad thing? I think it was for the second game, but maybe it'll be ok for the third, broadening even further - have faith!

I care about Tali, about Garrus, about the Counselor... Jack, Samara, Joker- hell the list goes on. It's been years. I've replayed ME1 ten times since I first bought it, and despite my disdain for the gameplay I've even replayed ME2 three times (once per character). It's pathetic to go against your better judgement over something so trivial, but I think it's also unfair to make yourself wait until you can find a copy used, at which time you'll surely have had everything spoiled for you about the characters since, let's face it, ME3 Used will be a hard find for several months and the minute you turn on the net everyone will as usual be shouting out their favorite parts as they're entitled to.

Look, I can sympathize, I remember hating to hear the results of MotoGP on a Monday morning when I hadn't watched the race that Sunday night, especially since I had a radio alarm and all the stations I could tune in would talk about it, but anyway.

To your problem. Yes, the easy solution is to buy the game at full price, when it comes out (or pre-order discount or whatever), play it immediately and to the end, then you may resume your online/gaming social life with people who have also done this, and may then, talk about the game.

Alternatively, you could swap your pre-order, 2011 is 'the' year for games, the biggest year since what? 1999 probably? So there's bound to be 'one' other game atleast, that hasn't been released you could swap for. Or, if you can get your deposit back on the pre-order, keep the cash and just avoid talking about it, it isn't that hard, just avoid the reviews, forums and any conversations where people start with 'have you played ME3 yet?' or 'you know how in ME3'. C'mon, it wouldn't be that hard.

Who else feels this way? Anybody else torn over Mass Effect 3? Am I the only one who hates where the game is going, but cares too much about the cast to just let it go?

I've said most of my answer above, but in short.

A little, yes. I do hate, a little, what has happened to the series in ME2, all sorts of little things, you can find my personal list of complaints here*.

Did I still enjoy ME2? Yes. Did I enjoy it as much as ME1? Not quite, but about 9/10 as much as I did ME1, and I loved ME1, I've played that personally, heh, compared to 10 times, 'only' 3 times through so far, with another one going (up to Adept now, wahoo!) And ME2 nearly twice.

So my advice? Leave the pre-order, lock yourself in your room like the rest of us will for 20-30 hours (segmented, locked is a metaphor), until you beat it, then make up your mind on how it didn't hold up to the glory of the original game, and how they improved it upon the second game, don't worry too much, it is still just one game.

*http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.285093.11236026

 

[Thespian]

By your logic, we might as well say "Why do I have to be a Commander" or "Why can't I let the reapers kill everyone in the galaxy?"
Understand that while it's an RPG, it's not a second life simulator. It's not meant to let you do anything. It is supposed to bring you into the interactive galaxy Bioware has made, and tell the story of Commander Shepard whilst letting you fill in the blanks of his personality. The decisions that are made for you aren't made for his character, which is 90% up to you, but just to maintain plot cohesion.

And the gameplay might be straight forward, but it's competent, solid and engaging.

As a side note, is the combat in Alice that good? I want to pick that game up. It doesn't get too tedious, does it?

 

[Ian Caronia]

Gonna reply to the first post because a few people are echoing the same issues.

...Played through ME2 with a single gun. >_>

You should try upping the game from Casual setting. It might be more engaging that way. That came off bitchier than I meant it too.

Oh, well no offense taken then. And the ammo was scarce (ugh another issue with the gameplay) for certain guns, but the assault rifle put in work like a madman. And I actually found Casual hard enough for me.
There's a difference between something being difficult because it's a puzzle to be solved (what is the enemy's weakness, what kind of timing do I need, what weapon works best), and something being difficult because every time I get shot my screen blurs, goes TOTALLY red, and has weird tentacle crap growing over it, thus impeding me from seeing what the hell I'm doing and I die.
ME2 was the latter difficulty. It was hard because of it's needless gameplay failures. But once you stopped trying to fight it and gave into the only strategy in the game (i.e. duck, shoot, duck again) it was a piece of cake. ...A long, boring piece of bland orange and brown cake. The gunplay felt so lifeless. The only thing that made Gears's gameplay just barely likable to me at first was the stupidly fun chainsawing. But that became mundane after the twentieth time and I was left with gameplay just as lifeless. There's no soul in the combat, no spirit from the characters on how they acted, because they all acted the same. Tali acted like Miranda acted like Thane acted like etc. Just AI bots, really. No personality when combat came around. No unique traits aside from what they'd shout (since there was always another character with the same abilities). But then again that issue was in ME1 as well so it's more of a series gripe, I guess.

Tell me one that isn't. No, "putting back together your sanity from inside the delusion" is not original. Not done very often but.. not original.

Unless you can show evidence that it isn't original, you can't say it isn't. I'm prepared to back up my "ripped-off" statement (as always with Mass Effect since it's a BIG issue no one seems to know about/notice/care about):

Literally the premise of an older (not much older) Hard Science Novel known as "Revelation Space"
"As Sylveste [Main character & archeologist] and the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity [tech-enhanced humans] approach Cerberus [a planet, not the organization], Sylveste realizes the massive celestial body isn't a planet at all -- but rather, a massive technological beacon, aimed at alerting machine sentience to the appearance of new star-faring cultures. It is this beacon, Sylveste belatedly realizes, that alerted a machine intelligence known as the Inhibitors to the presence of the Amarantin [the protheans in this case], and ultimately caused the demise of that race."
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space

Get struck by Deja Vu reading that? When I say Bioware ripped off the premise, I mean they ripped it right the hell off. I understand the arguement "nothing is wholly original these days", but that doesn't cut it when the premise for one story is this close to the premise for another.
Example: Bioware just made a survival horror game. The premise is that several teenagers are being hunted in their dreams by a sweater wearing killer who was killed long ago after he was accused of abducting them when they were little. His clawed glove is only one of his many menacing traits he uses to haunt and kill the protagonists one by one. The killer's name is Robby Sopern, and the main protagonist is a teenager with mental superpowers. It's going to be released this Fall.
...Hypothetical of course, but you see where I'm coming from?

You also have to be human, an Ex-Officer, a Spectre and had to kill Saren- *snip*

Actually Saren committed suicide. Well, that aside:
1. I know enough about ME3 because I read up on it. I'm not worried about plot spoilers so I didn't care. Only worried about character spoilers since that's all I'm invested in.
2. You do kinda make a few good points, but from what I've heard on both ends the DLC you could download and play is part of the plot in ME3 no matter what. Meaning it doesn't matter if you download the DLC or not. Shepard did it.
Me: "But my Shepard would never [insert spoiler for Arrival DLC]"
EA/Bioware: Nope. We say he did it, so he did it. You don't get to have a choice in the matter.

Spoiler: Facts involving the plot of ME3, mainly just Cerberus

The Illusive man comes after you no matter what. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. So if you decided to be buddies with T.I.M and help him out, he's still going to turn on you.
...What the fuck was the point of ME2 then? Was there any point? Aside from what you did personally with the characters, the answer is NO.

Also it makes no sense for T.I.M to turn on you even if you did go against him since he clearly states that Shep is the only one who could pull this off. So...revenge takes priority over intergalactic/the human species' security? Dumb. Very, very dumb.

THIS however... I agree with you. My main gripe with ME2 was that it only acknowledged your decisions of ME1, it very rarely acted or changed because of them. I was hoping they did that just so new people wouldn't feel so left out, and so they could save up all the cool reactions and twists for ME3. However this lust they've shown to be more open to new players again is sort of disheartening. Now it will probably only be a very good sequel to a very good series, instead of the singular gaming achievement of this generation it could have been.

*sigh

Ah well. But I mean really, who starts a series in the THIRD installment? Really? Who would do that?

Which is what really sets me off. The FINAL PART of a TRILOGY is being made to APPEAL TO A WIDER AUDIENCE.
Simple: Bioware knows that after DA2 many don't like the DA franchise now, and ME is such a success they want to reel in as much cash as possible. Same for EA.
Mass Effect 3 will be the product of this kind of mentality. Do you lot see why I'm so frustrated and apprehensive about this friggin game now?

In conclusion: Mister Shine you were very polite, as some other posters have been, and I hope you don't think I was being or meaning to sound like a dick. Because I don't. Especially not to someone who is able to logically and reasonably argue their points like you did. Thank you for taking time out and posting this reply
P.S. Indeed! Madness Returns is amazing. XD

 

[LiudvikasT]

By your logic, we might as well say "Why do I have to be a Commander" or "Why can't I let the reapers kill everyone in the galaxy?"
Understand that while it's an RPG, it's not a second life simulator. It's not meant to let you do anything. It is supposed to bring you into the interactive galaxy Bioware has made, and tell the story of Commander Shepard whilst letting you fill in the blanks of his personality. The decisions that are made for you aren't made for his character, which is 90% up to you, but just to maintain plot cohesion.

And the gameplay might be straight forward, but it's competent, solid and engaging.

As a side note, is the combat in Alice that good? I want to pick that game up. It doesn't get too tedious, does it?

Actually I would absolutely love if one of the endings would be of reapers destroying galactic civilization and only a small part of it being saved by shepard But that obviously won't happen.

 

[Irridium]

Spoiler

Because he is (and he is) a dick and because he will do anything to ensure tha humanity dominates (see Mass Effect Evolution comics for more details) he will betray you. I believe Bioware already announced this and thats why you're pissed. He will betray you if you handed him the collector base or not because (probably) you're the only threat left to him. Did you see the way you end your last conversation with him?

No. Having important details of the games and the game's characters revealed in a different medium does not cut it.

It didn't cut it with Halo and its novels, it doesn't cut it with whatever Mass Effect is doing.

Unless telling people to read other forms of media for important things to know in-game is accepted now, in which case I now have a new argument for people who say Halo's story isn't too deep.

 

[dyre]

The story and decision making in ME 2 (and Dragon Age 2) do reek of laziness. If you think ME2's doing a bad job with respecting player decisions, you must absolutely hate DA2's "decisions;" no matter who you choose, be it mages, templars, or some attempt at neutrality, the exact same events happen...

EA doesn't exactly turn things it touches into gold, unfortunately.

I love Bioware, and I'll always buy their games, but lately, their games haven't been quite as satisfying as they used to be. To satisfy my future RPG craving, I'll probably go give another replay to Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, and Arcanum, try Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time, and wait eagerly for The Witcher 3, which I assume and hope will be made.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I think they actually admitted that Mass Effect 2 was easy for PC gamers becuase they tuned the difficulty for consoles. If you play it with a mouse you are basically in god mode. (and no that's not me being PC elitist they actually said that at e3 I just can't find the quote >< apologies)

They say they have tuned this for Mass Effect 3 so that will be interesting to see. A harder difficulty will be awesome.

Let be honest, if Joker is in it I don't really care I will buy it anyways.

 

[Frotality]

the way they market it seems like bioware doesnt even know what ME3 is supposed to be...

im incredibly skeptical, but ill wait for reviews and such to see how exactly it turns out, since the marketing for it so far has been really confused; seriously, the announcements basically go "more RPG stuff!", "no wait, were scrapping that shitty RPG stuff", "BARREL ROLLS!", "OMG leaked level up screen with more RPG stuff!", "..but we totally want to compete with gears of war!", "weapon mods are back!", "kinect voice commands?! uh...why not!".

that said, ive no fanboyism left for bioware after ME2 and DA2; if ME3 sucks, then i wont buy it. ill be content to think that after i shagged tali and dealt with the collectors, the reapers never came back and everyone lived happily ever after.

 

[Worgen]

I dont see the story of ME3 being good, I see it being pretty stupid, but the game still looks fun, I dont think it looks fun enough to do more then the standard edition or waiting till it gets cheap or something tho

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Play Mass Effect 2 on insanity and tell me it doesn't take a ridiculous amount of planning and strategy to not get your ass collectively handed to you.

I don't see how they can streamline the game much more. Combat and inventory is already pretty streamlined(ME3 is actually supposed to have a more robust weapon system). Bioware has always had a tendency to..

Spoiler: Retcon whatever they want.

I'm looking at you Leliana, growing your head back and all. That accent only saves you so much.

I'll be buying ME3 regardless. I still liked ME2 despite it's changes.

 

[Halo Fanboy]

I don't feel any real vitriolic hatred for the Mass Effect series but I couldn't get through 2. The game is a drag with boring combat and the RPG-lite pseudo choices that its had since the beginning. What's the worse that can happen, an NPC might die! Will this affect your ability to complete the game? (It won't.) How about a game actually punishing you for your mistakes. You can mash confirm through every dialogue and you would probably complete the game faster that way.

ME2's combat is devoid of almost any tactical decisions. Picking your squad has no purpose unless you've played the game before since you don't have any idea what sort of enemy you'll be facing. In ME1 I liked the use of biotics and how the enemies also used powers, I thought the awkwardness of the long range weapon was interesting and I really loved the slow regen and one shot per battle healing item. ME2 decided to to stick to the TPS norm as much as possible and as a result I hardly remember any of the feature of it's combat system.

I thought ME1 was OK, the world as a whole left a very good impression on me. The side quest were vapid but at least it felt like there was a world to explore. ME2 you get the chance to scan planets and a bunch of extremely linear corridor shoot outs in the main quest.

And the Mako parts were the best parts of the whole game.

 

[mjc0961]

1. Either say damn or don't say damn. "Dam*" just looks stupid. And yes, you can say damn on the internet without getting in trouble.

2. Maybe wait until you can actually play Mass Effect 3 before whining about it? I mean come on, the first thing you whine about is cover shooting. Last time I checked, Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 used cover shooting as the main mode of combat as well. This is nothing new.

But no really man, at least wait until you've played it to hate it for no rational reason like Mass Effect 2 got hated on.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

Spoiler

Because he is (and he is) a dick and because he will do anything to ensure tha humanity dominates (see Mass Effect Evolution comics for more details) he will betray you. I believe Bioware already announced this and thats why you're pissed. He will betray you if you handed him the collector base or not because (probably) you're the only threat left to him. Did you see the way you end your last conversation with him?

No. Having important details of the games and the game's characters revealed in a different medium does not cut it.

It didn't cut it with Halo and its novels, it doesn't cut it with whatever Mass Effect is doing.

Unless telling people to read other forms of media for important things to know in-game is accepted now, in which case I now have a new argument for people who say Halo's story isn't too deep.

Oh, Bioware's writers write the comics, so I'm just assuming that they all have connections with ingame plots because (at least) the Mass Effect Redemption comic directly relates to Liara and the Shadowbroker dlc as well as the beginning of Mass Effect 2. Matter of fact on the cover of both Redemption and Evolution it says "from the lead writer of Mass Effect 2".
I'm assuming that whoever did Halo's other form of media that you're talking about wasn't one of the writer?

Meh, as an RPG series, Mass Effect was never very good, but looking at them as action games they are great.

I think something is backwards here.

No, they aren't good. I don't how you can call them good RPGs, because BioWare remove any pretensions of being more of an RPG than an action game once they released 2.

It's not any more of an RPG than an action game. Bioware are trying to combine both Action and RPG elements in Mass Effect. Which is why people like (and/or hate) it so much.
RPG = Role Playing Game
You are definately PLAYING a ROLE in the Mass Effect GAMES.

But if we're going to argue about it read these:
http://missmokushiroku.tumblr.com/post/6307829109/mass-effect-2-isnt-an-rpg
http://www.gamerswithcasts.com/the-mass-effect-effect-a-game-changer-for-rpgs/
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/5952/is-mass-effect-3-an-rpg-x360-has-the-answer

But as far as I'm concerned ME2 wasn't any less of a RPG than ME1 just because they added better gameplay mechanics.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

...Played through ME2 with a single gun. >_>

You should try upping the game from Casual setting. It might be more engaging that way. That came off bitchier than I meant it too.

The premise is ripped-off,

Tell me one that isn't. No, "putting back together your sanity from inside the delusion" is not original. Not done very often but.. not original.

The story looks like it'll be the same "gather blank for the blank" Bioware trend, the Reapers walking around don't look ominous they look stupid, the hypocricy from Bioware on "But Thou Must" in other RPGs (especially JRPGs) is thick enough to choke on-
What if I didn't want to help Liara with the Shadow Broker? What if I didn't want to [insert spoiler for ending of Arrival DLC]? Why the fuck is the Illusive Man after me no matter what I did in ME2? WHY ARE ALL OF MY DECISIONS BEING MADE FOR ME IN A SERIES BASED ON THE PLAYER MAKING DECISIONS?!

You also have to be human, an Ex-Officer, a Spectre and had to kill Saren and Sovereign. There is no game in existence where most of what your character does isn't decided for you. Except DnD. And even then, if you don't do what the DM wants you to, he'll probably drop rocks on your head or make you fight the Tarrasque at level 7. And if I may add, we don't know crap about the story other than the Reapers are here and we need to get help so Earth doesn't get squashed flat. And considering DA2 and ME2 have both intentionally avoided the Prologue-4interchangablePlotLocations-Ending Bioware staple, I think we can safely say ME3 won't play that either. And we have no idea why TIM is after us, assuming he's even in charge of the Cerberus guys who are after us. You're judging too harshly on too little information that was released to attract new people to the series, not cater to the old fans. They already know they have our purchase, as you said

-and worst of all: it's being made to target a wider audience when, since it's the final act of a trilogy, it should be focusing solely on concluding the story sensibly and coherently.

THIS however... I agree with you. My main gripe with ME2 was that it only acknowledged your decisions of ME1, it very rarely acted or changed because of them. I was hoping they did that just so new people wouldn't feel so left out, and so they could save up all the cool reactions and twists for ME3. However this lust they've shown to be more open to new players again is sort of disheartening. Now it will probably only be a very good sequel to a very good series, instead of the singular gaming achievement of this generation it could have been.

*sigh

Ah well. But I mean really, who starts a series in the THIRD installment? Really? Who would do that?

P.S., Madness Returns really is fuckin' good isn't it?

I am sorry to get off topic, but you have made my day. The mention of the Tarrasque really brought back some good memories when I was DMing a game many, MANY years ago and first came across that beastie (I think it was in the second Monster Manual? I cant remember exactly) and decided to toss him at the party we had going.

What a mess, lol.

 

[AlternatePFG]

It's not any more of an RPG than an action game. Bioware are trying to combine both Action and RPG elements in Mass Effect. Which is why people like (and/or hate) it so much.
RPG = Role Playing Game
You are definately PLAYING a ROLE in the Mass Effect GAMES.
But as far as I'm concerned ME2 wasn't any less of a RPG than ME1 just because they added better gameplay mechanics.

No, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying ME1 is an better of an RPG than ME2. I'm just saying that ME2 dumped all the things that classified ME1 as an RPG in the first place. Removing the shitty inventory system and pointless leveling mechanics from the first improved the game significantly, but BioWare could have improved them instead of just deleting them. I'm just saying both of them aren't very good RPGs to start with. You are just playing either Paragon Shepard and Renegade Shepard (Nothing wrong with that) but the game doesn't want you actually roleplay (Mass Effect 2 actively punishes you for not going all paragon or all renegade), and the fact that some of the more ambiguous choices in the game are tied to this is ridiculous. Not to mention unlike with some of BioWares other games (Dragon Age, KOTOR) you are actually given more significant choices. I understand why this is, with the way Mass Effect plays and everything but as RPGs I just really don't like them.

On it's own merits, Mass Effect 2 was great, I enjoyed the characters and their respective quests enough (not the main plot though, that was awful) for me to look past the rather bland combat for it be one of my favorite games that came out last year but I just think the RPG aspect of the ME series is the last reason I'd want to play it.

 

[Irridium]

Spoiler

Because he is (and he is) a dick and because he will do anything to ensure tha humanity dominates (see Mass Effect Evolution comics for more details) he will betray you. I believe Bioware already announced this and thats why you're pissed. He will betray you if you handed him the collector base or not because (probably) you're the only threat left to him. Did you see the way you end your last conversation with him?

No. Having important details of the games and the game's characters revealed in a different medium does not cut it.

It didn't cut it with Halo and its novels, it doesn't cut it with whatever Mass Effect is doing.

Unless telling people to read other forms of media for important things to know in-game is accepted now, in which case I now have a new argument for people who say Halo's story isn't too deep.

Oh, Bioware's writers write the comics, so I'm just assuming that they all have connections with ingame plots because (at least) the Mass Effect Redemption comic directly relates to Liara and the Shadowbroker dlc as well as the beginning of Mass Effect 2. Matter of fact on the cover of both Redemption and Evolution it says "from the lead writer of Mass Effect 2".
I'm assuming that whoever did Halo's other form of media that you're talking about wasn't one of the writer?

Some are, some aren't. But that doesn't matter. You should not reveal really important, relevant plot points for the games in other forms of media. In Halo's example, they mostly just fill in backstory. Some do go into detail of the why's and all that(why the covenant are attacking, that sort of stuff), but both are brushed aside.

I just don't feel like Mass Effect's outside media(books, comics, whatever) should be allowed to fill in plot points, while Halo's(and other) game's media can't.

This is mainly just a personal gripe caused by my encounters on the internet, but damn is it maddening.

 

[boag]

I hate Mass Effect now. I hate it so much. I hate what it's become. Bunch of bullcrap pseudo choices that seem to make little difference other than being mentioned. Bunch of boring cover-shooting.
Know what I'm playing now? Alice: Madness Returns. Yes, the screen cracks and gets kinda red when you nearly die, but there's no regenerating health. There's no COVER SHOOTING. It takes skill to play through even a single fight. Know the patterns. Learn them. Use them to survive and dominate. You get too complacent and WHAM, you're down!
...Played through ME2 with a single gun. >_>

The premise is ripped-off, and the latest enemy designs look even more ripped-off from popular games (one Cerberus operative looked like a female Grey Fox. No joke. Cyborg friggin ninja almost to a T). The story looks like it'll be the same "gather blank for the blank" Bioware trend, the Reapers walking around don't look ominous they look stupid, the hypocricy from Bioware on "But Thou Must" in other RPGs (especially JRPGs) is thick enough to choke on-
What if I didn't want to help Liara with the Shadow Broker? What if I didn't want to [insert spoiler for ending of Arrival DLC]? Why the fuck is the Illusive Man after me no matter what I did in ME2? WHY ARE ALL OF MY DECISIONS BEING MADE FOR ME IN A SERIES BASED ON THE PLAYER MAKING DECISIONS?!
-and worst of all: it's being made to target a wider audience when, since it's the final act of a trilogy, it should be focusing solely on concluding the story sensibly and coherently.

Yet, with all of this...and with my own feelings on the series, the game, and Bioware/EA as well...
I pre-ordered Mass Effect 3. V_V

I feel dirty. Bioware has me by the balls, and it knows it. EA and Bioware own my wallet's ass ONLY because of the investment I've made in the characters of the series.
I care about Tali, about Garrus, about the Counselor... Jack, Samara, Joker- hell the list goes on. It's been years. I've replayed ME1 ten times since I first bought it, and despite my disdain for the gameplay I've even replayed ME2 three times (once per character). It's pathetic to go against your better judgement over something so trivial, but I think it's also unfair to make yourself wait until you can find a copy used, at which time you'll surely have had everything spoiled for you about the characters since, let's face it, ME3 Used will be a hard find for several months and the minute you turn on the net everyone will as usual be shouting out their favorite parts as they're entitled to.

Who else feels this way? Anybody else torn over Mass Effect 3? Am I the only one who hates where the game is going, but cares too much about the cast to just let it go?

I believe you are already passing judgement on a game that is yet to be released.

Sure we have been shown that Cerberus turns on you (not a very shocking twist), but did you really forget every single thing they did on ME 1?

Anyways, the fact that you have come to care for the characters means that they did something right, are you really going to call the game that keeps people caring about their characters bad?

If you do you will make Tali cry.