I don't have an Xbox Live Gamertag, well I do but i'm never on it.

It's Zanerith.

Pretty good review and close to my views. I'm not in the ME is 'one the best camp'. It's very good, but way too flawed with repetitive planet missions, mostly boring side quests and weak shooting mechanics to be in the best of the best camp IMO. I felt ME, like Halo before it, is revered more in terms of that kind of game on a console vs that kind of game in total.

In many ways I found it a step back in pure RPG terms, with limited content around a good core story, with a drive to be more 'action' orientated to appeal to the modern shooter crowd which was hampered with fairly average shooting mechanics.

85% game for me. ME2 does look better though, so I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl as well.

Oh, and you're right, landing on the Moon was quite cool indeed. A nice touch to be sure.

I'm playing the game on Insanity as my first run through. I think I can actually get all the achievements in 1 go. It is really flippin HARD. But fun.

I totally agree with you on ME1. ME2 actually lives up to the hype, I urge you to check it out.

I've always thought that the absolutely strongest point of Mass Effect is the presentation. The story, the battles, the sidemissions etc. are all flawed. But it has an atmosphere to die for, because of the audio visual presentation. It builds slowly, but after 4 hours I found myself enveloped in a bubble that seperated me from the real world so I could focus completely on the virtual one on the screen in front of me.

If you are not in the bubble, Mass Effect is not a very good game. If you are, it's one of the best. Therefore I disagree with your likes/dislikes column. It's interesting, but I don't think it really affects how good the game is.

I'll definately get ME2.  I'm travelling around on my laptop at the moment so I'm going to hold off until I get home to my PC in a few weeks.  I don't want to spoil it by playing it with settings dialled down.

Good to hear your view - I've been pretty confident that Bioware were going to keep the good stuff (of which there was a lot) from the first while improving all the weak elements.

You are making a wise choice waiting to get home. The graphics and art directiong are frankly stunning. Not the best "technically" (though close), but one of the most varied and detailed I have seen. Another perk is the awesome framerate this game kicks out even on a modest laptop. My 9600GT mobile has no problem with maxed out settings (even AA) at 1280x960. A half-decent desktop GPU like my GeForce 250 runs it like butter at 2560 x 1600. Compared to the usually shitty preformance of non-exclusives it is really nice to see. I'd be curious to compare it to the 360 version, though I can't imagine it would even be competitive.

Don't forget to import your ME1 save if you still have it, there are lots of cool perks.

Indeed my final save game is just waiting for me to pick it up.  I'm quite pleased that the general view is this is better optimized to PC than ME1 was.  Again, it looks like Bioware have made ME2 better in every way.

I'll just have to avoid spoilers for a week or two then I can dive in myself.

Thanks for the feedback.

Just got done getting one of the main characters, my god the end of that mission was freaking intense. Insanity mode is evillll.

If that's the case, the sequel will disappoint you, the RPG features are either completely gone or watered down into transparency. The dialogue options is the one thing that keeps it from simply being a really long action game in my opinion.