OK, sounds like I should just start with the 2000-era games and go from there (besides, I still have Beyond Two Souls sitting unwrapped on my TV stand).
By the way, I downloaded and installed MotioninJoy software when I got ME1 so I could use my DS3 controller when playing on PC. I don't suppose it will work with older 2000-era games as well, or are those keyboard/mouse only.
Thanks again for the input.
You can use software like that to map keys to controller buttons. I only use my controller for games that have native support for it and you won't find that on most older games. I mainly do that because they play just like a 360 game would for the most part. If you map keyboard keys to a controller the game is still going to reference keys instead of buttons and that can make things confusing. Battlefield 3 is the only game I have tried with controller support that still gives me key prompts instead of button prompts.