Three was the worst in truth. It strayed so far from being an RPG to a third person shooter that its not even funny. Mass Effect 1 was a true RPG influenced by KOTOR and built a legacy. 1 and 2 were less linear had more customization and actually followed through with the promise that your decisions mattered. This was the promise of this franchise and 3 dropped the ball hard even though not many games this year can compete with it.

Being mechanically unsound in terms of combat does not a "proper" RPG make; ME1, 2, and 3 all have similar levels of consequence to player decisions, though in terms of character builds and customization the "RPGness" would definitely go 1>3>2. Your skill trees and skill allotments in ME3 mattered more than in either of the other two games, and so did the particular synergy of how your team worked together in combat (that is, how their powers and power evolutions worked with each other).

3 was basically one long string of "here are the consequences of your actions from the first two games," and it built to nonstop climaxes for character arcs that had been built up for the rest of the franchise. It did things the other two only managed to have in snippets.

ME1's writing is the weakest; its worldbuilding is the weakest; its characters are the weakest; its combat mechanics are the weakest.

Mass Effect is a series that improved as it went along, especially in terms of character writing. I defy you, I defy you to go back and replay ME1, go through the character dialogue with your squadmates - or, God help you, one of the romances, which were pretty much the very nadir of BioWare romance writing - and tell me that it compares favorably to either of its sequels in that regard.

No indication one way or the other; safest to assume, for now, that it's not included.

Yeah, really. I absolutely despised Liara in ME1, but she turned out to be a total badass by the time they were done with her. Strange that they chose to do it in DLC, though.

I felt the same way! It's just easy to forget when you're looking back over the franchise, because she starts doing such hardcore shit as soon as the first game ends.

But the thing is that applies to everyone in the first game who isn't Wrex. Of all the squadmates, he's the only one whose writing is actually really strong in that game. We all look back at Garrus and think "He's so cool and funny, what a bad-ass" but none of that showed in ME1 at all

And don't get me started on Tali

I am somewhat worried on how they are going to implement the choices from ME1 > ME2 on the PS3. I don't believe ME2 has the data for the options to carry over.
Surely they won't overlook this, but will it be a patch for Mass Effect 2 or will the data install onto the ME2 game data from the ME1 disc/PSN download?

They have confirmed that the games will be compatible with older versions of Mass Effect, so I can only assume that ME2 on PS3 will have that option patched in one way or another.

Your decisions didnt affect three much at all. Very little in truth because the game was so highly cinematic. If you wanted a game that trully gauged the consequences for your actions the Witcher 2 did it best without all of the nonsense. I'll agree that character customization in 2 wasnt as good as 3 but the pacing of the RPG elements was better in two than three. It seems that with every game they streamline a certain part of it (After EA bought them).

I played two multiple times and experienced more variation in it than three (between itself and one), which  is why I went back and started over part one or used the comic book to change the story a bit to play through twice. I've found zero reason to play three twice. The only real thing that counts is who lives or dies leading you to the people who are in the game. Part three is an insignificantly changed story which leads to the three choices at the end.

Let's not go overboard. ME1 had fantastic worldbuilding. It actually felt like a universe existed outside the scope of your mission, especially with how they went into great detail about stuff that ultimately had little to no bearing on Shepard.

The rest is indisputable, though.

It's four choices now, thank you.