It's now several weeks since Carola and I finished it and I even also played my Renegade and my MaleShep run, so it's about high time I also write a journal about ME3 . Spoilers to follow obviously,
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Now first of all 90% of the game are great despite some plot holes, that can't be denied. Only this make the Epic Fail of an ending even more upsetting. An ending like that after DA2 (which it kinda had) didn't surprise me there, but here it's a total "what were they thinking". I remember several times during our 1st playthough thinking to myself "just what must the ending be like, if everyone bitches so much about it?!?!".
That said I've not thrown a tantrum and joined the "I'll never buy a Bioware game again"-crowd, most of which will probably succumb anyways, but I'll most certainly not pre-order or buy upon release from then again. If they get their act together for Dragon Age 3 and it turns out to be a grand finale, then I'll still be worth buying half a year later (and probably run more stable with some patches done by then). But I wont buy it until after it's been out and played and feedbacked by others for a while.
Now rant over going to list my plusses and minusses:

+ Combat system best of the trilogy. Adept and powers in general valid on even Insanity given that enemies there are now, well better in everything but don't all have some "powerimmunity granting protection" which nerved the Adept in ME2 on Hardcore or higher. Also weapons and weight offer much better flexibility. Infiltrator best sniper again instead of Soldier. Also more RPG elements again compared to ME2 given the 6 levels for skills and more of them.

- No ME2 returning characters squadmembers whatsoever. Particularly annoying given that expect for Wrex we get our entire ME1 team back.
Some make sense (Mordins heroic death, Jack and Grunt having their own team, Thanes illness). But others certainly don't. In particular: Samara, Legion (that whole disseminating code was just a flimsy excuse IMO, it's SOFTWARE for crying out loud can be copied losslessly) and Miranda. For Miranda at first glance it makes sense that she doesn't come back because of Oriana, until you consider that she spends the entire time until Horizon following up leads, gathering info, etc etc. and we have the SHADOW BROKER on board the Normandy. So whatever she could do on the Citadel regarding finding her sister, she could do even better on the Normandy. Then follows the utter ridicoulousness or TIM having sold her little sister to their crazy ass father and she not coming along to attack Cerberus headquarters. Yes scriptwriters, Miranda totally isn't a woman who'd want some personal payback . More like facepalm, than rolleyes but you get the idea.
This also kinda makes my MaleShep a liar during the battle on Earth when he tells his squadmates "I can't think of anyone else I'd rather do this with".

+ The reputation system is a great change IMO as it allows you to be more nuanced instead of having to stick to a path. In particular I went Renegade interrupt on Han Gerrel, Udina and Kai Leng and also took some Paragon options in my Renegade playthrough.

- The ME2 romances - besides Garrus and Tali - obviously totally get the short end of the stick compared to Liara, Kaiden and Ashley. No cure for Thane. Miranda and Jack hardly get any extra interaction and although Jacob is probably missed by very few fangirls, him cheating is totally out of character. Also any Paragon Shepard regardless of romantic choices wouldn't have turned himself and the Normandy over to the Alliance without getting Amnesty for her/his ex-Cerberus crew in the 1st place.

+ Teammates no longer being in the same spot on the Normandy all the time but moving around and even talking to each other was a nice touch.

- Ken & Gabby hardly get any dialogue, although Ken working "MURDUR" into a sentence with his Scottish accent was golden.

+ Much less planet scanning!

- All stores in the same Citadel level would have been much more convenient.

+ Plenty of humour and funny shout-outs not just to earlier MEs but also to other stuff like Joker saying "The only way they'll detect us, is if you all start singing the Russian national anthem"

- Although they missed some opportunities for funny shout-outs. In particular: When picking a squadmate to repair, hack, etc something during a mission she should be saying ""By your command" not "As you command" and when she says "Destroyer terminated." she should be faking an Austrian accent.

+ Despite no returns the appearances of the ME2 squadmates themselves work very well for their missions.

-  Did I mention I want Miranda back ?


Final note: I managed to clear Insanity difficulty on an Adept run, so if anyone else who also wants to get the trophies needs any tips just ask.