E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 hands-on  Josh Augustine at  Mass Effect
3 Thumbnail  If you listened to yesterday's E3 podcast, you
already know what made my day: getting to play through the Mass
Effect 3 demo behind closed doors (something I routinely taunted
my fellow editors with until they stopped talking with me). The
first thing that struck me is that ME3 is gritty. I'm playing on
the Salarian homeworld, and it's obvious it's seen better days -
everywhere you look there's debris, burning rubble, and scarred
buildings, all swarming with Reaper monstrosities and Cerberus
soldiers. It reminded me of that first scorched-earth moment
when you step onto the ambushed Citadel in the original Mass
Effect.  But one of the Salarians' science facility houses a
fertile female Krogan who could be key to earning the Krogan's
support in the war - so I'm not giving up this planet without a
fight. Oh, and how sweet, sweet that fight is. ME3's Shepard is
eager to play dirty in this final chapter of his trilogy. I was
playing as a