I like to tweak my characters up in Mass Effect 2. I start a new game, watch the cutscene, play the interactive ship section, go through the comic, watch another cutscene and finally reach character creation. Fix up the class, the face and the background, everything is cool and I get into gameplay. "Hmm, that beard isn't good enough, better change it, I will be playing this character for 50+ hours."
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Opening cutscene. Character creation. Dislike.
Aaaand ragequit. Seriously, Bioware, skippable cutscenes? Or a fastforward? Anything?!
"No", says Bioware. "We put a lot of effort into this cutscene, you will just have to watch it and love it!" Then at least place character creation immediately after NEW GAME? "No", says Bioware again. "We will save it for the sequel. You're still dumb enough to buy ME3. We will keep this trick in our sleeve until ME4 comes around."
Pricks. And due to the interactive Saving Private Joker sequence, you can't just hit NEW GAME and go do something else. No, you gotta siddown and watch it all. Every. Single. Time. The horror...