Sure there were a lot of good and funny times/points.
But we were also let down, they made a lot of promises, but probably during production a lot of things had to go.
Now here is what I miss, or what I expected to be present:
1.) Endings: I will not comment on the lack of a proper ending, epilogue or closure and the multitude of questions they raised or left unanswered - I can answer them myself, but I wanted them answered that is why I played the game - it is just sad and I feel sorry for BioWare and the team.
Up till now every game they made, up to a point even ME1, ME2 and DA2 had a proper ending + epilogue: ME1 - showed the future power of humanity, and the hopeful note that we will eliminate those sleeping Reapers; ME2 - warned us that the Reapers are no longer sleeping, but are coming, nevertheless we gained their blueprints so we could find a weakness, also they were both marketed as part of a trilogy, so we couldn't expect an ending; DA2 was marketed as a prequel to DA3 and used an interesting framing narrative so they couldn't describe the future as it hasn't happened yet.
It is true that it is easier to find faults then to create, but please bear with me.
Split the Military Strength/War Assets into 4 parts:
Citadel (Low - Cerberus/Reapers take the station; Mid - you get the chance to defend against Cerberus, similar to current; High - you get the chance to evacuate from the Citadel when Reapers come; Ultra - you hold the station, but you have to sacrifice some other War Assets)
Crucible (Low - you don't finish the Crucible and have to try conventional warfare; Mid - as current, you finish the Crucible, but have no idea what it does; High - you know what it does)
Sword (Low - you are toast; Mid – current low state; High – current best state; Ultra – you have the mightiest fleet in the galaxy)
Hammer (Low – current state, aren't they always killed?; Mid – kill a Reaper, loose all of them; High – can take down a Reaper, but with losses; Ultra – a Reaper? a pyjak is more dangerous)
Now here the endings would be based on the levels/states: do you control the Citadel and have the Crucible? Pick door A, B or C. Don't like the doors? Try to take Earth on your own. Did you lose the battle? The doors are still there. Or do you have sufficient forces, why don't you sacrifice alien forces. Are the Reapers gone? Why don't you open fire on the aliens a la Star Wars III's Order 66?
2.) Scanning: The pinging is interesting, but it would be better to know, how far I actually scan. Also the planetary scanning is redundant and it ought to be skipped and a return to ME1's scan would make it easier.
3.) Impact of ME1 or even ME2: I have not seen any major decision, which was not checked in ME2, to have any impact on ME3 – other than the Conrad subplot. Council, Rachni, Wrex, Rana, Kirrahe, Shiala all were in some form checked in ME2. Where are those thousands of variables?
Even ME2 handled this better, those emails were fun. Now we got only 3 or so from ME2 and that's about it others are from ME3.
Wouldn't it have been interesting to see info from Hackett or Lira on Cerberus based on to whom we gave the data in ME1, or that some assets have lower strength because Lord Darius continued his Red Sand production. Also EDI, Hackett or maybe Miranda could have decoded the data of that Cerberus agent from ME2...
Or a line from Anderson that the Reds have joined the Resistance...
Similarly, where are the Citadel news? We have a journalist on board, but get no news. They could have used Emily Wong, when you arrive at the Citadel for the first time you would see her death on news - that is impact.
4.) Crucible: Why I agree that it came out of nowhere after the archives on Mars were just sitting there for 30 years. Why not use:
Hackett: Our scientists found similarities to the data you obtained from the Collector Base in corrupted parts of the Mars Archive, so we asked Dr. T'Soni to take a look there.
But really, the Alliance and may be also the Citadel had Reaper blueprints for more than half a year and they still wait for Shepard to tell them what to do?
5.) Upgrades: this is something I miss from ME2, why can't I convert credits into equipment/War Assets. If you are playing Xth NG+ you may have credits to spare, why not use them to give Thanix cannons to Quarian ships or Asari ships or ... Also, why not give Rocket launchers to Krogan infantry...
6.) N7 missions: They could have made them repayable and or giving a permanent boost to readiness, but alas...
To this I was watching the Bioware forums before launch and Hudson gave a direct answer several days before launch after the early reviews /space launch leak that we would be able to raise readiness in SP, not EMS or just War Assets, but readiness. Now was he lying or was the reason for his mistake that he didn't keep up to date on the current, biggest BioWare project?
7.) Appearance: Is it just me or do the ME2 characters look differently than in ME2? I can't put my finger on it, but Miranda, Jacob or Kelly seem somewhat strange to me.
I see also a problem with the Alternate appearance of squadmates, in ME2, when I changed their appearance then this new appearance would be used on the Normandy, in cutscenes and so on, but now the new appearance is used only in battles...
And what about the old problem from ME1 when we used weapons we didn't have? Now it is back.
Still ME3 has many good points: banter, genophage, quarian/geth problem solving, background talks: like the asari huntress with mental problems a la Hawkeye in the ending of MASH, the talk with Liara's father, even that volus talking about Sanctuary (is he the same as the one buying prefabs on Illium in ME2?)
I was so sad when I brought Charr's note to Ereba, when it was me who brought them together; well at least the little one is on the way...