Yeah, it would probably have been a lot better for both the staff at Bioware and their fans if it was MS buying them instead of EA. Mass Effect looks awesome, but to be perfectly honest, my impression of Bioware has always been that they've been overrated. Jade Empire was fun, KotOR was fun, but Bioware tends to make the same simplistic, cliche ridden rps over and over again from what I've seen.
Mass Effect could change that and I'd be pretty let down that they're now evil, but I'll wait and see on that.