I remember getting this back in the day for my 360. The memories, really. I must have obsessively played this game then for quite a while. Beaten it four times, two with Paragon Shepard (a shame he never got to level 60, but got stuck at 59), one with Renegade and since I learned that Bioware was planning to give some choices that could eventually lead to the dead of the Commander if you were too careless, I also made a neither-paragon-nor-renegade inept Shepard for a fourth walkthrough, though I eventually only carry on my save files for the first two.
It was a unique soap opera back in the day, with the potential to rival other sci-fi universes, such as Star Trek's or Battlestar Galactica's.
It is weird that the sequels never captivated me as such, despite, honestly, playing much better than the bizarre hybrid that ME1 was (this being said, that's also what made it kind of unique). Beat Mass Effect 2 twice, and then I just kinda beat Mass Effect 3 once, with some halfway through loaded save file for a "second" playthrough.
I definitively agree that among MS's biggest mistakes in regards to gaming was passing through the chance of buying Bioware. Just picture for a second things like Mass Effect and Dragon Age exclusive to them, plus Knights of the Old Republic could have taken a different direction than MMORPG.
