re: Any Mass Effect fans on this board?

I'm losing faith in Bioware's ability to deliver great RPGs, I think they're trying to pander to the mainstream a bit too much.

The new multiplayer features for 3 have me a bit nervous. Why not finish off this trilogy that has always been single player with another single player game? I hope they don't dumb things down in order to make co-op more palatable. Multiplayer is great and all, but in the wrong series it can frick things up. This is my concern.

ETA: I didn't really research the co-op, but if it's standalone, I'm a lot less anxious about it. That still means that they had to devote time away from the main narrative in order to get the co-op up and running though.

However, I want to know what happens to Commander Shephard and how his story concludes as much as anyone.