Drops next week. I hope there's some people here that are excited about it.

For those who are interested:

Its improving the dialog system from 1 (you can interrupt conversations now apparently, there's a video of Shepherd pushing someone out the window to interrupt a conversation). The morality system is touting itself as being vastly improved so it actually feels grey, but as with all games that claim this, I'll believe it when I see it.

New planet exploration: My biggest gripe with the first game was that every planet was essentially the same thing with different graphics and bump maps. Land in the Mako, drive around looking for all the points of interest, do the quest that you get, leave. Apparently 2 is trying to have more mixed scenery, more diverse planet types to explore (with and without the Mako, I hope), etc.

Characters: Sounds like there's more emphasis on character personality, as well as several new races that are being introduced to broaden the spectrum. More emphasis on character interaction is being made, which I think is good. Especially since the way you play could have Shepherd getting killed (!) at the end of the game.

I'm excited.

pre-ordered and a bday gift to me from leah. i love ME and can't wait for ME2!

Toying with pre-order, but I haven't yet. I'll definitely play it, just not sure when.

is this a rpg? I'm not familiar with it...

aye, sci-fi based.

Oomph. I still haven't beaten fallout or dragons age yet!

The original Mass Effect is great - like most of Bioware's games, it's a pretty solid design. Check out Jade Empire too if you haven't already. A little hard to get used to, but it's another great RPG.

saw a 30min special on sci fi about it, i am so jazzed now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HX5bhyJaRs
lots of youtube videos out there, here is the E3 one.

Mass Effect was solid. It was pretty dull outside of the main storyline (visiting every planet wasn't an enticing prospect when it became clear that every planet I could land on was the same routine with different scenery), but it set down some very solid ideas for the sequel to take and run with.

Also, the voice acting crew looks pretty off the chain. Here's a video with some of the more popular ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg_fLkajMVE

To me, Bioware has done a great job of establishing a new IP that while not fully developed, has the potential to become one of the best Sci-Fi properties around. I'm super duper excited for next week.

i love all bsg and chuck actors :)

Check out IMDB's list of actors.

I finally got this today, after realizing I missed the pre-order date. So far impressed, and Martin Sheen surprised me right at the beginning.

It feels like a completely different game to me. The shell (the story, the general look and feel of the worlds) seems very similar to 1, with a slicker looking graphical engine. The underpinnings of the game itself though are a starkly different game. How it works has been improved and modified a great deal.

I never played the first ME, but I am enjoying this one so far.

This game is amazing! I love it!

It does feel different, but I think it fits the story. I didn't really get into it until after Omega...and then I started loving the game. The darker feel goes with the less-than-a-hero Shepherd.

By the way - stupid as it is - there's free headgear if you redeem codes of Dr. Pepper bottles.

Akom - check out the first one, possibly even before you finish the 2nd one since it's loaded with spoilers. It was a great game, and the technology isn't far behind this one.

lost my save from the first one so i've decided to restart and then hit 2 :)

I'm loving it so far. Omega feels like a dark version of the Citadel, I also like the club way more than Chora's Den and Flux from the first game, but I don't really know why. The atmosphere and characters there are awesome too, especially Aria.

Also really digging the new storyline, especially since you're in the same area of known space (from the first game) but you're in completely different environments because you're visiting the Terminus Systems rather than the places you were before.

Some nods to the first game that I've found, it seems like the developers at Bioware really wanted to tie into the first game.

especially running into Garrus on Omega. Far out. :)

Another game sitting on my shelf waiting for me to play...sigh.

Really enjoying this. Blanket improvement across the board to the gameplay, though they accomplished that by removing some elements altogether. Story is great, but I end up spending hours scanning planets for resources and side quests so I don't think I'm really all that far into the game yet.

Finally beat it last night. Great game, ending was a solid way to close out the game while leaving a believable tie-in to the next one. Kudos to Bioware for making so many tie-in's to the first game's quests. Probably one of the better games I've played in the past two years or so I'd say, next to Dragon Age. Have to build up my repository of saves before ME3 hits though..

Beat this the other day, and have to admit that I really enjoyed the game. Though I felt really "rushed" through the whole campaign. Maybe its because I only had an hour or so at a time to play, so I tried to force as much as I could into each session?

Anyway, a great game and that last screen image definitely was a fantastic teaser for ME3.

I loved the final mission... It felt epic making very important choices within the actual mission!

I agree, but I do miss the last minute galaxy-changing decisions from ME1.

I'm on my second play through, trying to complete everything this time around. I know I skipped plenty of smaller missions on the way.

http://erooups.com/img/img3/20100215/erotic/daily_erotic_picdump_196_85.jpg

That link doesn't work.

Ooo erotic pictures. Try again maybe, this time without the pr0n?

Ooo erotic pictures. Try again maybe, this time without the pr0n?

What would be the fun in that?

weird - it's working again for me now.

Good point Immort~

Been trying on a number of attempts to get into Mass Effect (the first one), and it just seems kinda slow and boring for me. Does it ever pick up? I just did the trial and stuff like that.

Unfortunately, the pace of ME compared to ME2 is fairly slow. The cover system doesn't work nearly as well. In general, its the kind of game you have to want to play, and even then you won't really play it for a bit. There's definitely some exciting parts, but the one I'm thinking of (highway chase on the mako on uhh...Ferros? maybe?) got hindered by the goofy controls dropping me to my death a couple of times.

The story in ME1 is great - I don't think it really picks up until after the trial. Don't get hung up on exploring every side planet, unless you're a completionish. Those are a bit of a drag.