Woo I finished insanity! The last boss took a few tries, but other than that, it was really rather easy in the 2nd half. I think I managed to keep my whole team alive this time, despite several not being loyal...

1 odd thing is that my Shep can use an assault rifle during cut scenes

It's been like that since Mass Effect 1. No matter what your class is, Shepard would pull out the assault rifle in ME1 as well.

Made sense in ME1 since you had the assault rifle RIGHT THERE. However in ME2 you don't even have it equipped.

Not to mention, every single player class can equip heavy pistols, so using them in cutscenes would've made a lot more sense.

The question is "what is story"? The central plot for Mass Effect 2 is very straight forward true. However, the world and character development done in the loyalty missions is superb. The loyalty subplots, character developments, and main plot are all interwoven into Mass Effect 2's story. You need to have a variety of plots and subplots to keep a story interesting. Bioware does interweave plots / subplots and produces very good stories.

The game is not perfect. I disliked the scanning but the writing in Mass Effect 2 is not in question.   

I totally agree, but the game can be sumarised as:

You are brought back from the dead, assemble a squad and gain their loyalty, then lead an attack to stop the collector threat once and for all

THAT is it, I just wanted something a little more exciting, it does feel like the middle of the trilogy. I expect (in fact DEMAND) that ME 3 features an explorable earth, and that will certainly add some more excitement and feeling of peril into the plot. I always felt like I could take my time, I was never convinced that there was an imminent threat, and it was predictable. The other thing I demand of ME 3 is to see more of the Alliance fleet... and something indicating that the galaxy is in peril, the reason the alliance and rest of the council aren't getting involved is because not that much is happening

The only development the story had was learning who the collectors were. That's it.

I got this update on the new hammerhead missions from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mass-effect-2-hammerhead-in-late-march

BioWare has announced plans to release the Firewalker pack for Mass Effect 2 in late March, introducing the Hammerhead heavy assault vehicle.

The pack will be free to Cerberus Network members, so if you bought the game new then you won't have to pay any extra money.

You will get to use the Hammerhead in five new missions. It hovers over the ground at over 120kph and has a guided missile system "ensuring accuracy even during aggressive manoeuvring".

Alceste007: Sounds like a nice change from the usual combat style/settings and free is always good. We'll see if the graphics and textures hold up at high speed.

Munkeh: Thanks for the pep and yes it did ease up. I really think Vanguard is a mistake for Insanity. Barrier doesn't last long and limits you offensively. Reave and you can kill anything but your health is so low you end up cowering like a bunny behind a rock. Charge seemed like another suicide mission. Why can't I swap Charge for Warp Ammo? Still, good fun.

Viewed as part of a larger story this is the necessary rebuilding process that will allow ME3
to focus on uniting the disparate elements, overcoming adversity/disbelief and the final confrontation. Not the best plotline ever but imo the overall story stands up quite well to Sci-Fi's classics. Hasn't everything been done before somewhere?

Due to popular demand, I present to you:

The Tali Survival Compilation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee5uaUadudQ
(spoilertastic vid of spoilerdom)