Just unlocked the PC version (via VPN).

The import is basically unchanged from the demo. The game simply sticks your codes into the character generator when you import a ME2 save.
As a result none of my Shepards faces looks the same. In fact the 2 faces that I have come to know and associate ME with from the start of the series now look nothing like my characters from either ME1 or ME2.

On top of it all the base facial structures and slider limits are all different on the faces. Making it practically impossible to even recreate how my Shepards looked.
The male face generator is especially bad in this regard with all faces basically being fat or big boned.
If you had a relatively thin faced Shepard in the previous versions, say goodbye to him. Trying to create a decent looking female comparable to previous ME games is likewise much harder. My super slick no nonsense tough renegade femshep now looks like a mentally challanged individual.

Sorry fellas. I'm not hating on the game or anything, just begun to play it. Simply saying how it is. 
/le sigh 

Unfortunate
 
EDIT:
As per request here are some femshep comparisons, same ME2 imported character.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here is her in ME3:
(I would not be so displeased if I could adjust or recreate my ME femshep, but no matter what tweaks I do, top part of her head still looks fucking enormous) straighy up importing and it's barely a human.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My male shep face import:

@Tennmuerti: Could you post some screenshots of before/after? Like how it looked in ME 2 and how it looks now in ME 3?

Another reason people should stick to the default Shepard!

Well that sucks. Hope I can recreate Catherine Shepard.

Probably unfortunate side effect of graphics technology changing over 5-6 years.

So it seems.

@Brodehouse said:

Well that sucks. Hope I can recreate Catherine Shepard. Probably unfortunate side effect of graphics technology changing over 5-6 years.

not so much that i think as them stylistically deciding they can do better leaving the old behind. try recreating your shepard in the demo.

Give me a sec I will upload some femshep faces.

Off topic, but how much effort does setting up a VPN take?

@Tennmuerti: Which VPN did you use?

This should not be as bothersome to me as it is. Please do put up some pics, though.

That's a shame. After playing the first game with a custom face, I realized I couldn't stand how any of my own creations looked, so now I always roll with the default. If the new facial creator makes it easier to make normal looking people I'd be happy, but still probably roll with the default.

@ryanrulez said:

Off topic, but how much effort does setting up a VPN take?

Not much. I got it to work with flyvpn but their trial service is pretty jammed right now and it took awhile to actually be able to log in.

Try www.flyvpn.com and set the server to hong kong it should unlock the game, and bioware said they dont ban for this if you're woried.

And yes the face codes from mass effect didnt work for me either but i still managed to make something that resembles my shepard from ME2 (Shepards tits are bigger?).

I think the reason why this doesn't bother me as much as it does some is my history of playing crap tons of Smackdown games. I'm used to having to redo my guy every game because of improvements with the engine between each iteration. In the demo for ME3, I recreated my dude in about five minutes without any difficulty. I always look at it as a chance to improve upon any mishaps I may have had previously, which there always inevitably is.

@galloughs said:

Another reason people should stick to the default Shepard!

I think the default face looks pretty horrible.

Seeing as the hair options haven't gotten much better, looks like I'm going to stick with the shaved head and no bright lipstick look.

Just unlocked the PC version (via VPN).

The import is basically unchanged from the demo. The game simply sticks your codes into the character generator when you import a ME2 save.
As a result none of my Shepards faces looks the same. In fact the 2 faces that I have come to know and associate ME with from the start of the series now look nothing like my characters from either ME1 or ME2.

On top of it all the base facial structures and slider limits are all different on the faces. Making it practically impossible to even recreate how my Shepards looked.
The male face generator is especially bad in this regard with all faces basically being fat or big boned. If you had a relatively thin faced Shepard in the previous versions, say goodbye to him.
Trying to create a decent looking female comparable to previous ME games is likewise much harder. My super slick no nonsense tough renegade femshep now looks like a mentally challanged individual.
Sorry fellas. I'm not hating on the game or anything, just begun to play it. Simply saying how it is.
 
/le sigh
 
Unfortunate.

Man that's a real bummer. I'm gonna be angry at the game before I even start. Hope that's not a sign to the over all quality of the rest of the game :(

I imported my female Shepard into the demo using the code and she looked fine to me. She did look slightly different but I think that has more to do with the different graphics engine they're using. It wasn't like a night and day thing.

Meh the face transfer from 1 to 2 already destroyed my shep but as long as there is a porn stach I don't care.

To me this is bad news, it can't be my story if my main character suddenly looks different.
 
Bah :/

I hate the hair on man-shep, but change it to a non douche hair cut. Hair that is that short and round on your head is for assholes. I give him a higher cut, with the same face and throw on a man mustache to give him the Freddy Mercury look.

Then Lady Shep, default face, with a less pronounced mouth with red hair. She is sexy.

I know it's possible to make good looking Sheps with the ME3 tools, there's some good ones already on the mass effect faces site. Just don't know if I can recapture the spirit of my specific Shepard. A lot of magic happened that day...

Heh, when I imported my save I was just greeted with a "Mass Effect 3 failed to reconstruct your face" or something along those lines. Had to load up ME2 again to get the face code. And yeah, they do look a bit different.

@NinjaHunter said:

I imported my female Shepard into the demo using the code and she looked fine to me. She did look slightly different but I think that has more to do with the different graphics engine they're using. It wasn't like a night and day thing.

From what I've seen, it really depends on the face. Some faces are practically identical save for a few small things and some are drastically different because they moved stuff around.

@NinjaHunter said:

I imported my female Shepard into the demo using the code and she looked fine to me. She did look slightly different but I think that has more to do with the different graphics engine they're using. It wasn't like a night and day thing.

It's not a different engine. It's still UE3, a much improved one from the last Mass Effect. Bioware probably dumped some of the old models and re-created new ones.

OT: That's unfortunate, but it's not a problem for me since I'm using default Shepard both for male and female. I'll create a new to see the difference between the "canon" decisions and mine. I hardly doubt there will be a difference but oh well.

I'll keep an eye out for this and see what the general consensus is post-release. I myself am once again sticking with Default MaleShep, lazy I know.

@TheHBK: Mustashes are for old men.

Welcome to the Mass Effect 3 experience. 

Uploaded my femshep picture now.
 
"Enjoy."

@Packie said:

@NinjaHunter said:

I imported my female Shepard into the demo using the code and she looked fine to me. She did look slightly different but I think that has more to do with the different graphics engine they're using. It wasn't like a night and day thing.

It's not a different engine. It's still UE3, a much improved one from the last Mass Effect. Bioware probably dumped some of the old models and re-created new ones.

OT: That's unfortunate, but it's not a problem for me since I'm using default Shepard both for male and female. I'll create a new to see the difference between the "canon" decisions and mine. I hardly doubt there will be a difference but oh well.

Aren't they using Frostbite? Or is that not for character models?

Damn it, I moved all my saves over to PC so I can use my Shep. Now I will feel like I am playing with an imposter.

At least it's clean.

Lol man, those before/after pics.

Christ. I was actually not expecting it to be that much of a change, but she looks like her entire head mutated between games.

Other than the forehead (which, I wholly admit, looks dramatically different), does anything else about the look bug you? It seems all right otherwise, at least to me.

That forehead though...yikes!

@Dezztroy said:

"Mass Effect 3 failed to reconstruct your face"

HA. That's amazing. Legitimate lol (llol?). It's like the game is trying to burn you or something.

'Oh yeah?! Well, ME3 failed to reconstruct your mom after last night!"

Good thing I use the default male face :P

Eh, I had to make adjustments from ME1 to ME2 as well, since the Lazarus Project got rid of that gigantic gash scar on the side of my Shepard's nose. I always do some tweaking.

Other than the forehead (which, I wholly admits, looks dramatically different), does anything else about the look bug you? It seems all right otherwise, at least to me.

That forehead though...yikes!

Looking at those pics, the movie Mask comes to mind.

That is not a good thing.

Eh, I had to make adjustments from ME1 to ME2 as well, since the Lazarus Project got rid of that gigantic gash scar on the side of my Shepard's nose. I always do some tweaking.

I've always learned not to go too high with the jaws and cheeks because they tend to get a bit pointy and unnatural. When all else fails, go a bit lower on the scales, as there is probably a less chance of deformities. I assume since they are using a different/improved engine, they just take the face codes and convert them to the new system. It doesn't actually scan the face and recreate it. It just inputs the code.

Luckily I went with default Shepard or else I´d be really bummed out. It can´t be that hard to get it right can it?

Added 2 male shots.
My male shep isn't perfect but at least he looked human.

I've always learned not to go too high with the jaws and cheeks because they tend to get a bit pointy and unnatural. When all else fails, go a bit lower on the scales, as there is probably a less chance of deformities. I assume since they are using a different/improved engine, they just take the face codes and convert them to the new system. It doesn't actually scan the face and recreate it. It just inputs the code.

At first I thought "Eh whatever it's just a bad angle" and then I saw the one where she's next to Anderson.

Woah.

I'm taking some pictures of my Shep. From what I can tell the face structure is the same, but it's smoother, which makes her look 10 years younger. I'll upload pictures shortly.

My face has always looked bad, fucked up in me 1 and did not fix it in me 2 guess it is going to look even worse in me3 xD

The faces look like they have a much lower poly count. Look at her ears. They're like squares.