I haven't had a chance to try out Mass Effect yet, but I am an absolute character customization whore. (Thank you WWE games) Given the extent to which I've been able to tweak and edit in the past, I'm usually underwhelmed by anything else I see in any other game. So it makes me happy that this sounds a bit open-ended.

Given that, I will have no problem taking a good 3-5 hours working on my character before actually playing, then test running, and going back to the drawing board. It's a commonality for me.