Well, I am still very much looking forward to playing Mass Effect 3. It’s sitting in my living room, but I’ve decided not to get into it until Bioware releases a fix for the character import issue. If you haven’t heard about this, essentially anyone who made their Commander Shepard in the original game, and kept that same Shepard in Mass Effect 2, cannot import their character’s face into Mass Effect 3.

I spent a fair amount of time simply trying to rebuild my Shepard’s face from pictures, but like many others I’ve found that certain features just aren’t included in the options. And a somewhat close facsimile just isn’t going to cut it. Bioware has stated they’re working on a fix, but in all liklihood it will be a week or two before it hits the game, the way Microsoft’s patching system works.

I’m anxious to play, but I just can’t bring myself to do it without my Shepard. I’ve played through a dozens of hours with him over the past two games, I just know I’m not going to enjoy the game as much or connect with the character if suddenly he looks totally different.

On the bright side, the multiplayer is fairly entertaining. You basically fight off waves and waves of enemies, trying to survive until extraction. You earn experience, and you earn credits, which you can use to unlock various “booster packs” of random items with a chance to get a rare. It’s pretty neat, and will serve as an enjoyable timesink until Bioware lets me close out this story with the only true Shepard I’ll acknowledge. The one I’ve taken through the last two games.