Mass Effect E3 Preview

GamersInfo has put together their own preview of Mass Effect, after checking out BioWare's demo of the sci-fi RPG during this year's E3. Here's a bit to get you started:
What would a futuristic tale of mass genocide be without a little combat? Mass Effect delivers one of my most wanted features for this type of game: you can finally control your squad mates! No, not directly since combat is all in real-time. Instead, you pause the game and control a marker for each of your squad mates. In the demo we were shown, both friends were ordered to flank an enemy on both sides and lay down suppressing fire while our character was able to deal the finishing blow. Skill will be required for combat this time around, however. Since this is an RPG, your characters stats will influence how easy it is to hit an enemy, but there will be some manual aiming required especially for precision shots like sniping. Using an over-the-shoulder perspective, the game will help you aim, but it's still up to you to get the precision you need for that critical hit. Or you can just use some heavy weapons and destroy the entire area and not worry so much about aiming.