Great episode guys! I would like to set the record straight: I've only played the Mass Effect games once not 7 times like Link said! I did play the shit out of them though. Probably over 100 hours played between the two and I will be playing all three games back to back sometime this year.

Multiplayer: Heard it was good, but I don't really care. If I have a couple of buddies online I might give it a try but I won't go out of my way to play it. I'll probably do the same thing I did for the the other two games: Play every side mission and get about 50-60 hours out of it.

As for the feature to make the game more story less gameplay I have to say if it doesn't effect my wanting to play this game like an RPG then I'm fine with it. I will get pissed off, however, if they strip away the gameplay to make the game a $60 movie. I don't think it'll happen so whatever.

Mass Effect 2 I for sure clocked in 55+ hours with all the side missions and DLC. I'm just going to assume ME1 was around the same amount of time. It wasn't 100+ hours for each, it was both together.

When it comes to multiplayer I'm extremely picky. I usually only play with friends unless it's Call of Duty or something awesome like Blur. I loved the multiplayer in AC: Revelations though. never tried it in Brotherhood. While ME3's multiplayer seems to be more of a survival mode I don't really trust random people I don't know for modes like this (thinks back to Bulletstorm and how frustrated I was at morons causing us to lose in the later rounds by stealing my high-point kills in order to get less points...) so I'll probably only play with people I know.

I'm kind of on the fence about it. As long as it doesn't effect me wanting to play the game as an RPG then I'm somewhat ok with it. However, going down this route might be a slippery slope in the future. I just have a fear that lazier developers will start taking queues from this "story" mode to make their games more cutscene heavy and involve less gameplay just because Mass Effect 3 did it and it's (going to be) a big-selling game, if that makes sense. I don't pay $60 to watch an interactive movie, I pay $60 to play a videogame. But like you guys said, if it's an option that doesn't effect the way I want to play the game then it doesn't bother me, but I really don't know anyone who wants to watch a game like a movie. It just seems like a giant waste of money to me.

BTW I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't mind the pirate section of Uncharted 3. Yeah I died a lot, but there were a few checkpoints after you killed a certain amount of guys so you wouldn't have to fight all of them all over again. I thought it was kind of old school difficult. Trial and error to figure out the best way to take them all out.

I played a ton of multiplayer in the demo and only stopped because I didn't want to burn myself out by replaying the same 2 maps over and over.

It works because the combat in Mass Effect is solid. Between the weapons and powers it allows for a lot of different playstyles. Now that every class can use every weapon; or you can go it with a single weapon and get more powers really just broadens the ways you can play. Then you can level up your powers and get more weapons and tweak your character even more. I also enjoy the fact that the people backing me up are actual people and not AI bots which just seem to get themselves killed half the time.

Eric? Newcomer to the team or did I miss something?

LoL, now that is a awesome release marketing move!
I'm all for a combat skip button.
A very odd approach to game completion options.