I find it that myself and S.T.A.G.E have nigh completely different opinions about characters. This game really does a amazing job at presenting many types of people as characters and gives everyone a opportunity to really enjoy the characters or hate them completely. Instead of everyone universally loving HK-47(For example) or hating someone else. It seems like mass effect has something everyone can love.

This is what makes Mass Effect so awesome. Everyone has different takes on each character and their usefulness. I'm gonna have to start another play through when I get home from work. I still wish Shepard could hook up with Tali, she was my favorite. As for Ashley she didn't bother me too much. I understand why she felt the way she felt and with my Shepard I managed to get her to set aside her hatred of aliens.

I didn't like Mass Effect 1. It was boring as hell but the game was well put together.

Mass Effect 2 looks promising, I may just pick this one up.

Yeah you greatly influence pretty much the entire crew. Your actions greatly influence Garrus for instance.  The gender of your Shepard seems to be play a role in how much pull you have with some characters. The "choice" was uncomfortable but easy for me on my first playtrough because my Shepard was male and Kaidan doesn't open up to you as much. On my second playthrough I made Renegade female Shepard and it made the choice harder because Kaidan seems to open up more. Your back ground, choice, etc. have such an effect on the each play through. Mass Effect is by far my favorite 360 game of this generation.

I never changed my team throughout the entire game. Tali and Wrex and I was a Sentinel. Perfectly balanced and with the only 2 good character.

As a renegade I bark out orders towards Tali and she backs into a corner saying "ok I'll go back to work, I wont touch the ship....sorry." LOL!

What? That was my team on my first playthrough!

If you ask me, the characters from best to worst are:

1. Wrex

2. Tali (she's a good tech buff so you don't have to worry about not being able to decrypt and whatnot)

3. Liara

4. Ashley

5. Garrus

6. Kaidan

Worst thing is that on my second playthrough, I decided that I was going to have Garrus and Kaidan on my team. Kaidan can't take more than a couple shots before dropping dead. So yeah, put them in whatever order you want, but Kaidan is definitely last.

My brother is now borrowing Mass Effect. Also, I played through it once, which is enough for me actually.

Exactly! Kaidan is a weakling! He had to go when I made a choice between him and Ashley!