I like the old one better. I think it's cause it has blue in it and I tend to lean more towards cool colors opposed to warm colors.
I think I can understand why people wouldn't like it. It really does look like the cover for an older game. Then again, the new one sorta does too because of the girl. Remove her and it'd lose that old look.
The Collector's Edition however looks much more sleek and modern. I like it the most. Kinda makes me think of Crysis.
I'm almost looking forward to this. I just bought the first Mass Effect for $10 on a Steam half-price weekend. Not the best thing I ever played (I prefer JRPG's, I like the cute anime girls dammit!) but it was a good time killer and for 10 bucks, you couldn't beat the amount of content. Made me feel much better after pissing away $60 on MW2.