There is nothing special?! What is special for you?

3rd person shooter is not new but one whith special powers (bionics and techs) are. Also the Universe they created, the races, the locations, the characters.They created a Sci-fi universe with complexity that rivals Star Wars. Yes,it is very special. I dont know how you can even say that.

I see you skipped all the side quests. Thats a big no-no. Both games were 40-50 hour + for me.

I don't think you're being entirely fair on ME2.

I do agree with you that planet scanning was really awful, but it was a peripheral aspect of the game and you weren't really forced into doing too much of it. Regardless, it's the game's greatest weakness by far. Weapons sharing ammo isn't a problem, it's just a design decision which works pretty well on a story level as well. There was no inventory because they were trying to drop some of the RPG elements because people didn't like the absurd inventory system of the original Mass Effect. I had no problems with the AI at all. Your approach of avoiding power use will get you killed repeatedly on anything above Casual on any class other than Soldier. Upgrades are numerous, and I'm glad they are easily gained because they are obtained by resource mining. The plot wasn't much to write home about, but the characters were excellent, and they have always been BioWare's strength.

The third is, in my opinion, the best in the series. It adds in more RPG elements but doesn't return to the clunky gameplay of Mass Effect 1. There's far more story progression, a great many more difficult choices, and no resource mining. I do feel like ME2 did better in the character department (with twice as many combat teammates) but that doesn't mean ME3 does badly at all. Plus, it has a surprisingly great multiplayer segment. Even considering your complaints, I think you ought to try it.

The controls break the games for me

No, the first Mass Effect is very boring. The story and universe is excellent, but it's not very exciting or fun.

Mass Effect 2 on the other hand, is absolutely phenomenal.

Nope, nothing wrong with that. Started with 2 and then I bought the collection after it was announced. I decided to start with the original and I remembered thinking how much I disliked it - for a plethora of reasons. Eventually I warmed up to it and I consider it the second best game (overall) in the series.

ME2 is by far my favorite in the series and I hope the next installment will me something along those lines.

The first one was really mediocre. There's a few nice choices there but other than that, it's pretty bad. Don't know about the rest and I'm not eager to find out thanks to the first.

Hmm. I played about 8 hours of the first game. It started off quite well and the story seemed quite interesting, but it quickly went downhill. It was glitchy as shit and the gameplay felt uninteresting to me. I'll definitely give it another shot over the summer though.

Good game =/= You will like it. This doesn't mean Mass Effect is a good game, though.

You're quite normal, as I don't think Mass Effect is that good either. Look there is a reason why in the third game they gave you the option to cut out all boring as watching paint dry 'gameplay' and just play through the shooting bits. The game is drop dead boring. Yeah, it gets better as the series goes on but if your starting with ME 1, you're definitely in for a disappointment. My advise, start with with the 3rd game in the Trilogy, it is the more refined version - still a crock, but certainly not as bad as the first two.

You've been infected with what's called the "Wii U" effect, and yes, you are a monster but that's because you're playing a game that now has ties with EA.