So I was thinking that I've done a few additional play-throughs of ME2 above the 2 characters imported from ME1 and one of the things that irked me was that the last two played out similarly in sections because of the default choices given to you. 
 
I'd quite like if it in ME3 you were given the option to pick some of the 'choices' 'your' character made if you started a character fresh in ME3, based on what your longest running character has done. For example: 
 
John Shepard has played ME1. He was imported to ME2, survived, then was imported to ME3 to finish of his fate and completed his trilogy.  
-A player who has done this, if they say wanted to create a new character fresh in ME3, they would be able to choose some of the major choices from ME1 and 2 that their brand new ME3 character starts off with. 
 
Ellen Shepard has played ME2. She survived and was imported to ME3 and completed the two games. 
-A player in this set-up who then created a fresh character for ME3 would be able to choose major choices from ME2 only based on their 2-game character. 
 
Why do this then? You could argue that I should bite the bullet and play through all the games again and there is certainly a good argument for that, not to mention plenty of time for fun...but there are other considerations. The changing of game-play is quite fundamental, so even if you don't like all of the changes between ME1 and 2 (and then whatever is in store for us) I think you'd be hard pressed to say that on the whole, ME1 plays better than 2. There is also the time consideration, that I don't necessarily want to play through say, 50 hours of game play just to have one set-up before I start on the game I want to play. 
 
Why let people who play ME3 only not have this option? Think of it as an award for playing through the previous games. I just want to experience a different reaction to something I didn't take previously, but I know exactly what would happen because I've played the game and know what would happen in that specific game.  Someone who only plays ME3 will probably know about the Citadel Council survival (or not) and the Collector Base's condition, but they will likely care less about, say, the Rachni Queen or how many of your enemies you wish to push out windows etc. 
 
So the exact way I propose this would be done is that major decisions, usually the ones at the end of missions including the two big end-game ones be selectable as to what happens and then for other minor decisions to either be defaulted to off or on or whatever, or all be placed on some sort of randomly placed switch so that out of say these 150 random decisions you could've made, 75 will randomly be 'positive' and 75 'negative' or whatever.  
 
Okay, feel free to rip this to shreds.

I'm pretty sure you can  make some of the big decisions like that when you start a game.

I agree, and i'm sure they are going to do it in the ME2 for the PS3.  
 
But will that transpire to ME3? It's anyone's guess.

I agree, I was gutted when I lost my saves for ME1 and started ME2 only to have Wrex dead and the Council :(. I really didn't want to go through ME1 again as I have too many games to go through as it is. It wil suck hard if you can't pick some decisions in ME1 and 2 if you start a new game in ME3, since there are way too many different paths you can take in the 2 previous games. I swear you would have to have like 4 characters min to see the effect of most decisions. (Council redemption, Rachni, Wrex ashely or Kaiden etc.)

Hopefully something like this is incorporated in the ps3 version.

" I'm pretty sure you can  make some of the big decisions like that when you start a game. "

" Hopefully something like this is incorporated in the ps3 version. "

I agree that some choices should be able to change if you start fresh but i still think it is great to in rich the people who went and played every mass effect game.

Honestly, I would hate that. The whole notion of carrying a save forward is the fact that what's done is done and thus this is my Shepard and his story. If they opted to give me the freedom to alter the past, it would kill some of that even if I don't use it. Perhaps if it's opened up as a feature after a playthrough, ok, that I can live with.

Sure, they can do that, but it really takes away from the experience that the Mass Effect trilogy is trying to convey. The games are meant to be played as a saga and with the same characters that you had in ME1 and 2. I mean sure you can still play it starting out at ME3 or ME2, but you're not getting the full experience and it negates the whole point of the cross game character development feature.

" Honestly, I would hate that. The whole notion of carrying a save forward is the fact that what's done is done and thus this is my Shepard and his story. If they opted to give me the freedom to alter the past, it would kill some of that even if I don't use it. Perhaps if it's opened up as a feature after a playthrough, ok, that I can live with. "

" @Pezen said:

" Honestly, I would hate that. The whole notion of carrying a save forward is the fact that what's done is done and thus this is my Shepard and his story. If they opted to give me the freedom to alter the past, it would kill some of that even if I don't use it. Perhaps if it's opened up as a feature after a playthrough, ok, that I can live with. "

Having that as an extra feature once you beat the game sounds reasonable, but I agree that just having that as a flat out option seems to go against the spirit of the game. "

" Sure, they can do that, but it really takes away from the experience that the Mass Effect trilogy is trying to convey. The games are meant to be played as a saga and with the same characters that you had in ME1 and 2. I mean sure you can still play it starting out at ME3 or ME2, but you're not getting the full experience and it negates the whole point of the cross game character development feature. "

It seems like a reasonable idea. There is so much stuff to do in those games, the chances of seeing every outcome is pretty small, unless you play it dozens of times, so having an option to see a wider range of plots would be interesting. Still, I'm not sure Bioware would really bother. I just have images of a large table full of a ridiculous amounts of questions and a "yes/no" box by the side of each one. I suppose you could just whittle it down to the bear essentials; Wrex's fate, did Ashley or Kaidan die, how many of the Normandy II's crew survived etc, but whether Bioware would even do that is debatable. It would be an interesting mod project if nothing else, and one that I would probably try out, but I think it would only really make sense for the PS3 version simply because of there not being any original Mass Effect file. But even then it would probably be easier just to have a set path, such as the default in ME2. The Bioware guys are pretty smart though, so I'm sure they've thought of something.

To condense what you want: basically you want to be able to have the option to choose what some of the big decisions in past games were.

I'm remembering it 2nd or 3rd hand, but one of the things that was tested for ME:2 was similar to what you're describing. They had some option for new characters where you could choose "default" or "custom" for the story, similar to the face reconstruction thing; choosing custom gave a list of all the things in ME:2 that could be effected by ME:1 choices.

Personally I've invested too much time on my saves to be comfortable having them on the HDD only. Makes me care more about how I've played the game knowing that if I lose it, my chances of affecting the next game is gone.
 
I guess a feature spoken of would be appreciated to the ones that had their save lost, but it also takes away a bit of the feeling that if I screw up, I'll have to restart because it will eff up things in the sequel.
 
Also, having to get to choose who survived the Collector base is just wrong because that took a lot of work. Taking the edge of it by being able to say "well I screwed up royally in the finish of the game but meh I'll just start a new Shepard in ME3 so I can choose who survived." The stakes of what to expect in terms of carrying over to the next game has been set and I can really only see this thing being very much viable between ME1 and ME2 (more from the fact as to how polished and smoother ME2 is compared to ME1). Getting to choose whether you purged or blew up the station perhaps but not who survived and did not, if you're that invested in the characters then you would play ME2 to get to that.