The Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)

For what it's worth, while I agree that the Mass Effect games are more action games/shooters than RPGS - I usually dislike (and suck at, due to poor reactions) action games/shooters and love RPGs, and I loved all three Mass Effect games (much to my surprise). They don't really feel like shooters, to me.

If you like story-driven games with good characters, where your choices affect what happens down the line (and not just at the games' endings), in a compelling setting - then I'd say give the ME games a try. And I'd recommend playing all three, in order. As anton said, you get more of a connection to your character (and other characters in the games as well) that way, as well as more control over your character's background and story. Also, while each game is more-or-less self-contained, they do form a overall story, so you'll only get the full picture by playing all three.

I started ME1 for the first time about 5 months ago, and while some aspects of it are a bit primitive now in comparison to the other two, I still found it very playable.

Can't comment on Borderlands as I've never played it.