Mass Effect 3 (PC) just unlocked for us Europeans 2 hours ago. Love it thus far. Especially the weapons/weight/upgrade system seems awesome.

I imported a ME2 character and started out being something like lvl 20. Wierdly I wasn't able to chose combat difficulty from the onset. I take it there are no difficulty related achievements? Anyways - I intended to play the game on Hardcore. Saving the galaxy from the reapers must be appropriately hard. Hardcore turned out to be way too easy. Guess starting out overleveled had something to do with it. Mostly though, I accredit the lack of difficulty to the game's AI. My companions are as effective and deadly as they never were before and the enemies no longer bumrush me Kamikazi-style. They flank, they throw grenades, they push up - in short, they try and they try hard, but they don't just walk up to me and shove a shotgun in my face like they did in ME1 & 2 on high difficulty settings. The AI plays fair, respectively is super-useful.

Hence - within an hour, I decided to dedicate myself to Insanity from the get-go. Tell you what - it feels just right. At least on PC - with swift KB&M aim precision and an abundance of hotkeys.

What about you guys? Gone Insane too?

I went Hardcore, I wanted to have fun my first time through.

No. I don't normally play games on the hardest difficulty first time through, and for Mass Effect 3 I'm here to see how it ends, not to continually get my ass kicked. I doubt I ever will play any of the Mass Effect games on Insanity.

I went Hardcore, I wanted to have fun my first time through.

I imported a level 30 Sentinel from ME2 (PC) and so far the game is an absolute breeze on Insanity. With the improved combat controls, ability to use any weapon, the diverse powers you get as a Sentinel (you have the means to easily take down any type of defense), the instant level 30 (abilities are upgraded and recharge quickly) and a KB+M (aiming and hotbar spam) the difficulty is kind of a joke. Admittedly I'm not that far into the game, but if it actually gets so hard that I get frustrated I'll just turn it down a notch.

I think this is the first time ever in mass effect that I've EVER used the power hot keys.

I started on insanity. Seems doable so far. Haven't died at all yet.

I finished the game on hardcore after finishing ME2 on insanity like a month ago.

Nothing in ME3 is ever as frustrating on even that difficulty, because the battlefield is usually pretty open and like Seppli said the enemies dont rush you except husks and all of the mini boss type enemies like brutes, with decent power usage and just shooting people in the face its pretty damn easy.

The only time when they really ramp it up is the last combat sequence in the game and even that isnt that insane.

At this point I couldn't imagine anything other than insanity. Even then, the only times I die are when the cover system fails or I get too eager and try to melee stuff while there's still a group of enemies around to pound me.

While the Insanity playthrough of Mass Effect 2 is probably one of the reasons why I love ME2 as much as I do - I opted to go for Hardcore, just to take to be able to chill a bit. Bit premature to say now (as I'm not finished with ME3 yet), but I'll probably do like I did for ME2: First playthrough making the choices I feel is right on Hardcore, then (in 6-12 months or something) come back and do a Renegade Insanity run :)

I'm playing as a vanguard on insanity. If you focus mostly on cooldown reduction then it is EXTREMELY easy. Charge, nova, charge, nova.... occasionally fire the shotgun. Everything dies and you're pretty much invincible.