So do I need to get and play the first one before I play through the second? Because it is looking mighty tempting right now

tell you what...i played through the first one and i only did it once and i did it very quickly without doing mos tof the stupid side quests.

the geek working at gamestop basically humiliated me when i told him i only saw one ending for the game so he seemed to think the game was THAT special.

I found the first game to be visually awesome but had painfully boring game play.

I played it such a long time ago I dont even remember what "choices" i made.
Im getting ready to play the second one now and I'm hoping its as fun as the reviews have been saying.

I would recommend playing the first one. A lot of what you did in the first game will carry over. The relationships you develop in the first game will impact you in the second game. Who you saved and didn't save and so on. Also, you will start at a higher level. In Mass Effect 1 I got to know a journalist who interviewed me and then turned around and wrote disparaging articles about me and the work I was doing with the council. In Mass Effect 2 I ran into the same journalist who wanted to interview me again. I told her to shove it and punched her in the face, sending her limp body to the floor.

I never played 1 and still got to do this

I imagine you can still punch her. But there are two angles you can take with her in the first game. Whichever one you take is the one she will talk to you about. Thus the punch in the face carries more weight because it is an angle you actually, physically took and not a preset response.

damn it. Double post

Sure you can play part 2 without having played part 1, but most of the plot will carry a lot less weight and meaning.

Yeah, that's what I said earlier.

Plus, it's extra awesome that you get to import your charachter and choices from the first game. It's a planned trilogy - hopefully, we'll be able to import our character from ME2 into ME3.

Putting about 3 hours of game play in...I can already say this is better than the first. It is cool that I got to import my character. I got a bunch of bonuses too for doing it.
There's a lot of cutscenes but the story is so engaging and it looks so good.

This is one of the first games that made me start a second run-through immediately after finishing it.

The following could be regard spoilerish, I dont think it is but maybe someone else who has finished it can approve it or whatnot.

Spoiler: show

There is a final outcome that will mean you cannot import to ME3, but all other outcomes will allow you to.

There's an achievement for

Spoiler: show

surviving the suicide mission

as well as one for

Spoiler: show

having all squad members survive

Got both, but plan to see the other options on my second play-through.

What a game. Can't wait for 3.

just started part 2.... this is great

How badly do I need to play these games?

same question, but with this tacked on: which system? is it xbox only? or will my ps3 suffice?

xbox only... one could argue these are the best games on the system

Lame.