The first Mass Effect (for 360 , that's the one I played) was a technical mess. Pop-in all around, tedious loading, screen-tearing, game-crashing glitches ( I ran into one that had I not saved my game in a different file I would've lost everything), and worst of all choppy framerate. I seriously question reviewers like IGN that are so ready to crucify games like the poorly port Bayonetta while they just turn their eyes away from a mess like Mass Effect and award it with a very high score. That game was just ugly while in motion and painful to play.
I'll take whatever any reviewer has to say about ME2 "technical shortcomings" with a MASSive grain of salt....