well that's good to hear. khuutra's opinion on music more than offsets other persons negative opinion.
I'll see for myself soon. I need to stay away from boards/youtube when the game comes out. The interesting plotpoints in games I like alwyas get spoiled.

You're thinking of the use of heavy brass, particularly in the ending of the first half of the demo? It's becoming more popular in action movie trailers of late, yes, especially after the Dark Knight trailers, but it's best used like it is here, as punctuation for a moment of dawning dread or terror.

The single player demo is deeply flawed for a lot of reasons, but that music makes it worth playing a few times.

This is the FPS-shooter fan in me talking, but the reason 3 out 4 of my Mass Effect saves are soldier is that they seem to have some edge in firefights. When I rented Mass Effect I tried an non-soldier class and literally could not aim due to having a dodgy aiming reticule and also being hampered by the lack of an assualt rifle (one of the main reasons I play as a soldier).

Funnily enough, my only non-soldier save file is a Vanguard. Did not enjoy being stuck with a submachine gun. Also being constantly on the edge of death or verge of dying? The latter would drive me insane. Still may have to try a different class and see if I feel any different.

Weapon choice in ME1 is arbitrary, since your best DPS most of the time can be achieved effectively with a pistol.

In ME2, you do not use the Vanguard submachine gun. Not for anything, except for maybe two boss fights throughout the whole game. Everything else is shotgun. SHOTGUN SHOTGUN SHOTGUN.

Vanguard is the shotgun class. In ME2 and ME3 they are teleporting shotgun tornadoes.

Believe me. Try a Vanguard, see how you like it. De-equip everything but your shotgun, and Charge away. You will be pleasantly surprised.

What the heck? That looks much worse than ME1 on the 360. 

I downloaded the demo but only to try the MP (I'm keeping the single player fresh) and it is pretty awesome. Definitely a great addition to the series!

Mmm. Don't know if I'd use the word epic. I do like the sense of contrast that it carried, though, the way that it can convey serenity and horror at the same time.

Mr. Mansell is very good at his job.

Try the SP man! It's only two "small" missions anyways!

OT:

I though the music was pretty awesome.

Everyone was loyal, I think.  I know that on one of my playthroughs, Zaed wasn't loyal because I chose to save some lives instead of killing his target--but he's never died.  Hope it's not my insane mode playthrough!  Anyway, I do have Miranda go to hold the line.  I think I bring Jack and Jacob but I can't remember.  Whenever we go back to the ship, poor Miranda is always dead.  I'll change up my tactics since I have a week off from work.  Sometime before the game launches, I'll get the right combination.  I'll try your recomendations first!

The way that the "Hold the Line" section works is that every person who holds the line has a point value assigned to them in terms of strength. Let's say a non-loyal Mordin, Kasumi, and Tali are the weakest and have a rating of zero. There are three tiers of characters stronger than them, so let's say the strongest ones - Grunt and Zaeed - when loyal, have values of 4. If they were disloyal, they would have values of 3.

What the game does is it takes the mean average value of every single person that you leave to hold the line. If that mean average value is above a certain threshhold - say, 2 - then nobody dies holding the line. If it's between, say, 1 and 2, then one person will die, with priority given first to disloyal people and then to people with the lowest defense threshhold (Mordin will die first in most cases, but Miranda is disloyal in your file so she bites it here).

Since Miranda is disloyal, the only way for her to survive is to leave her behind and pad out the strength of the line as best you can. Send Mordin to escort the ship, bring Kasumi and Tali with you, and the average value of the defenders will be as high as possible. Taking Jack and Jacob could make all the difference. Jack's almost as weak as the bottom four, but Jacob is in the second-highest tier, a certifiable bad-ass.

In order ot make Miranda survive, here is what you need to do:

1. Make sure Mordin is the one who escorts Dr. Chakwas and the rest of the crew back to the ship.

2. Bring Tali and Kasumi with you to fight the Baby Reaper.

If everyone else is loyal, Miranda will survive. If you want, I can go find the actual formula for you, and I'll do the math just to be sure.

No need.  I believe you.  In fact, I'm going to give it a try, today.  Probably in a couple of hours so I can quit worrying about if I can or can't see Miranda's boobies in ME3.  I used to have a copy of Game INformer (I probaly still do) that featured a flow chart of exactly what would happen if I chose A instead of B and who could/couldn't be loyal.  I don't keep track of my gaming mags like I used to.