Mass Effect/Bioware Might Be Too Inclusive...but

Fair enough. Personally I really like the whole bit about the Jaardan and how they relate to the Angara. In the original trilogy, the parts I really enjoyed the most were basically relatively smaller bits of the setting's history, namely the krogan and the genophage and the initial hostilities between the humans and turians. The whole basis of galactic civilization being a huge lie is the big thing, though it unfortunately went through the wringer of bad story decisions. 

everything in media is. It's all about how you do it to make it feel fresh.

I think ME3's ending is pretty memorable - just not in a good way.

Not memorable? Yeah, that's not gonna stick.

I didn't have big problems with the ME3 ending, myself. The combat portion is a rerun of the ME1 final mission, except it's a bit uglier and the final fight is some fairly-challenging horde mode instead of a weak skippable boss fight. The TIM confrontation was pretty good, and the Reaper revelations were about what I expected, given how crazy the established Reaper behavior had been. That leaves just the nonsense space magic and the moral unacceptability parts. The latter I kind of liked, and the former didn't bug me because the series had always been past my personal threshold for that.

Of course, YMMV for any of these

I love the Tuchanka and Rannoch arcs, and the destroyer fight is my favorite boss in the entire trilogy. They're big reasons why ME3 is my favorite of the 3 games.

I don't know about that Abaris, none of my friends got the ending I got, and certainly none of them left the galaxy in the same state that I did.   Although perhaps 'my' choices didn't matter all that much as a lot of it was decided by Ashley in ME1... well she got her comeuppance for that in ME3 anyway

Sorry but that's  a choice where it mattered....were 2 games of choices added up which was the plan from the start.  People who say choice don't matter in ME ether  want the effects to happen now rather then later and/or still upset over the ending of me3. that's no the only chase choice mattered: suicide  mission, the wrex choice, house divided, Tali's intro and loyalty quest. i can go on.

Sorry but choice did matter just not with every little thing.

All can be resolved in the last game. It might be a little more difficult in terms of number crunching to achieve the same results if you started with ME3 and didn't have any saves from previous games, but every result was still possible. Mordin could be replaced by another Salarian as could Wrex by his brother. It's on the lines of black and white. Two possible outcomes for the Geth and two for Tuchanka. The final result, to be precise. The missions play out exactly the same until it comes to the final resolution.

No it's not. 


Here is the default story options based on what the official guide says. Also ill add what the effects are in ME3



Both games no DLC played but story still happens offscreen.

Also no romances but can romance people still.



ME1

Garrus recruited

Wrex recruited

Colony on Feros not saved-no war asset

Asari taken by Thorian on Feros was killed-no war asset

Rachni Queen killed- War asset/ there is a mission dealing with the Rachni queen, not sure if it would be there if you killed her in ME1

Wrex killed by shepard on virmire-doesnt appear in ME3 thus changing a lot of conversations and appearance on earth

Council died and the Destiny Ascension destroyed-Asari Battle ship- war assets

Udina Counciler/ nothing really changed.... for what ever reason he became councilor in 3



ME2

No loyalty missions- certain situations have different possible ways of ending. with out spoilers... pretty much had loyalty missions been done certain characters would put more trust in shepard and did more in their roles.

Mordins loyalty mission not done-no choice for data on genophage cure- mostly conversations since experiments by his apprentice still happened.

Zaeed and Kasumi not recruited(DLC)-war assets

Mordin alive- possibly replaced by someone else for story purposes

Garrus alive- recruitable in ME3

Grunt never woken up from tank- no appearance-war assets

Tali exiled by her people- conversation change

Jack dies in suicide mission- slight story change and mission change- doesnt appear at purgatory, might lessen how much war assets for her group

Tali alive

Samara never recruited, got off Illium but was later killed by Morinth- Does not appear in mission and war assets

Thane died in suicide mission - changes how the citidel incident in ME3 plays out

Miranda alive

Jacob alive

Legion was never reactivated-changes mission and story of quarian and geth storyline

Collecter base destroyed

Suicide mission survivors -Joker and Chakwas- had everyone else in the crew survived the two engineers could be pardoned and come back to the normandy