I was so excited for Mass Effect that I pre-ordered the collector's edition ... and then sold it a few years later (with all my games) to pay for medical bills only to later realize that it was worth hundreds when I tried to buy it again

Anyway, I loved it! Paragon, infiltrator, spacer, sole-survivor FemShep, with Liara (romance) and Wrex by my side throughout. I did not care for Mass Effect 2 nearly as much. The whole game felt like a betrayal of what I loved in the original. Party characters were much better developed, but only because they forced you to choose them all for key missions ... I missed having a core team! The Shepard frankenstein / clone setup was such a copout in storytelling. I hated the lack of the Mako and the new ammo system was annoying (I was an Infiltrator, after all). The final boss was way too cheesy as well, but I think I saved everyone. No Liara romance, so I played through completely unattached until Shadow Broker came out. Never bothered with ME3. Sorry, I'm a sourpuss!
I tried to play again a few years ago when I bought the PlayStation 3 trilogy, in part because I figured I should give ME3 a go, but kind of got sidetracked. Started with Tali and Liara in ME1 though. Would like to return, someday....
Mass Effect Andromeda has me kind of excited, but it would be nice to play this one from a scientist's / explorer's perspective as opposed to always from someone in military service. The in-game universe interests me way more than the combat. Fingers crossed for varied backstories this time around!