I was really just saying Mass Effect 1 and 2's gameplay in its designated combat and quest sequences isn't very good and other products have exceeded them in quality pretty easily. Mass Effect excels at one thing, but to snub other RPGs and to say it's the pinnacle is silly. As stated earlier, I love me some Mass Effect, but only as a choose your own adventure game. Speaking of I wanna talk about ME3. I'll get to it in a second. Now, anways, regardless of superficial addendums to the character (where they were born, etc) that are added in to give more of an artificial sense of ownership to the player, the character of Commander Shepard is very much the same single person in every game.
Their personality can go through about two, maybe three as a stretch, different apparent changes from the getgo or throughout the game, depending on how it goes. But when the player jumps into Commander Shepard, they're going into a pre-programmed, scripted character who is both somewhat of a blank slate and incredibly defined. And I'd give the voice acting all the credit, because it is what singularly makes Commander Shepard such a pre-defined character who the player has little actual control over. One just points the way and Commander Shepard expertly acts out sequences.
But Mass Effect would be a shitty series if Shepard wasn't such a pre-built character since it's all about watching sequences unfold. It doesn't matter if Shepard is some heroic angel, or some asshole or murders everyone, they're both sides of the same coin and the game is exploring "what would the already made character of Spehard do if they had a bad day" sort of concepts. The major difference between straight Paragon Shepard and purely Renegade Shepard isn't that huge of a leap, anyways, and it's neat how both can be different outcomes to how the same kid grows up.
But anyways, that smallest sense of control, or ownership, is what makes Mass Effect interesting to play as. Because we are treated to feeling like we are Shepard, or own Shepard (both false, but perpetrated by clever smoke and mirrors) and it makes all the dialogue sequences that much more fun. Though, truth be told, I think Shepard isn't that cool of a character and I found the universe of Mass Effect to be the real draw (humans suck I wanna be a drell).
Mass Effect 3 might be able to change that once it comes around. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are linear straight lines where occasionally tiny things break off, only to come back to the huge bold line before it's all over. I think Mass Effect 3 would be interesting if, finally, all those little things that made slight divergences in the first two games could come back and really nail things and finally make the outcome drastically different. In ME 1 and 2, it's easy to write off things like "choose to save or kill the rachni queen" because it has no immediate effect (and I would still write it off, because if the only effect is in ME3, it doesn't count at the moment and no I will not think of the trilogy as one single game). It'll be really cool to finally see the character of Commander Shepard actually break off independently from other versions of it.
I want it to have multiple finales that are all possibilities. I'll be seriously bummed if the only real difference will be some shit like "oh uh… in the final mission the rachni come and... help you or something, if you saved them, I guess..." As long as ME3 has a diverging main storyline, that's all I ask. I want to see how far they can take the illusion of Shepard being the player's character.