Corona | Coming Attractions

You can finish the main story missions of Mass Effect relatively quickly. It might be worth replaying the first as it will give you a bigger investment in the story. However, if you start ME2 without importing a save from the first game, it will sort of prompt you about major story decisions from the first game. A sort of "You remember when we did...." kind of thing. I think its supposed to be integrated into the story somehow, but I haven't played it personally.

I love the first Mass Effect, so I can't wait to play the new one. Hopefully I can find a good deal on it somewhere sooner rather than later.

I started playing again this weekend, looking at my last save, it was June of 2008 :)

pretty easy to get back into it, and luckily I had pretty much maxed out my character so now it's just a matter of finishing the game.

I picked up ME2 at TRU today. This is awesome in two ways. One, I'll be able to play the game tonight. Yay!

Two, there was a misprint in TRU's ad that had ME2 listed twice. So I was able to get the game for $45, plus they gave me a $10 gift card to boot. The gift card was the real sale, but they had a picture of ME2 in a spot for $45 games (I think it should have been MW2 instead). Anyway, the guy at my local TRU store got his supervisor to ring in the lower price and still gave me the $10. Not too shabby if you ask me.

So I got to play ME2 for a few hours last night, and I have to say that the beginning of the game is pretty damned awesome. I played just long enough for the game to open up a bit before I had to finally go to sleep. After playing through the intro, I spent most of my time scanning some planets and checking out the Citadel for a bit.

So far, I haven't seen any of the graphical pop-ins that plagued the first game. Also, I was a bit wary when I heard that ME2 would have loading screens instead of elevators (I actually liked them), but so far each loading screen is custom to the area you are in and are very slickly animated. ME2 shows tons of polish, improving upon the original in just about every area. Seeing as how the original was no slouch in presentation, I find that to be pretty impressive.

Agree with you about the start of the game, Strider. Fantastic opening--didn't see any of that coming. I'm about 15 hours in. I think the pacing, editing, graphics, storytelling etc. are all vastly improved from the first game. Also, the world just *feels* richer somehow.

I finished my first playthrough this weekend, and I started a new game immediately after the credits rolled. The ending was fantastic. I need to play it again to try and save everyone (I lost one member of my crew).

I just finished the first ME, really thinking about getting ME2 now.

Go for it!

I absolutely loved the first Mass Effect. The second game blows it away in presentation and with great characters. Plus, importing a character from the first game gives it that extra something special that really immerses you in the world. Some of your major decisions from the first game are carried over into the second, and you even meet several minor characters from the first game here and there. As soon as you finish the intro of ME2, you won't want to put the controller down until you are finished with the game.

that's what I am afraid of :) I liked the end of ME. In fact, I saved right before the final battle to see the different options.

The finale to the first Mass Effect is really well done. The buildup over the last couple missions is excellently paced so that once you reach the final encounter, it feels very epic. It does a great job of making you feel bad ass no matter which way things play out.

Mass Effect 2 is like taking ME1, adding more graphical polish on top of already excellent visuals, streamlining the clunky inventory system, slightly playing up the shooter elements while making the biotic powers more fun (once you figure out that some powers "seek" their targets, you'll see why I say this), adding a bunch of great new characters, keeping great characters from the first game and making them better (provided they survived the first game), amping up the humor factor, and adding an awesome "interrupt" system into the dialogue that provides for many awesome moments.

Pretty much the only thing about ME2 that I didn't think was an improvement was getting rid of the elevators. I actually liked the elevators from the first game in that they keep you firmly planted in the world without popping you into a loading screen. ME2 just uses loading screens, even when you're on an elevator. It's a somewhat minor thing, but I prefer the way ME1 did elevators. At least the ME2 loading screens are gorgeous.