With Mass Effect now at Platinum game status and the first trailer for Mass Effect 2 online, I figured this was a good time to discuss what people hoped to see in the sequel. I loved the game and have played it through twice. I enjoyed it both times and will probably play it again close to when the sequel launches.

Changes I'm hoping to see:

Inventory control -- Please give us better access to our items!  It's difficult to see exactly what items we have, especially when buying and selling.  I'd love to have things in categories on the buy/sell menu at the shops. And, PLEASE put them in alphabetical order. I hated trying to figure out if I had the latest version of the upgrade I was planning to sell. Scrolling back and forth was a pain when things seemed to be listed in order of when I picked it up rather than simple alphabetical order.

Squad A.I. -- I found that my squad was pretty helpful when I equipped them well, but they weren't always super bright.  My squad tended not to use cover very well and I often found them shooting at boxes or walls in their attempt to get the enemies behind them.  Also, they were often running into my line of fire, or shooting me in the back. Sigh. I love them anyway.

Enemy A.I. -- They weren't bad, but they often rushed at me or tried to run around me in circles instead of using the cover.  I suppose they could be on a battle high and couldn't help themselves.. In any case, they often had me backing up and looking for new cover. If that was what the developers wanted, then it worked fine and they can just forget about this.

Planet Exploration -- They're fun to check out, but they often looked the same and for crying out loud, does every planet need to be the Rocky Mountains??  I'm sort of a completionist and explorer so I always feel compelled to look around everywhere, but it could get a little boring and tedious.

NPC Movements -- This is mostly an observation and a source of amusement for me. All of the NPCs moved the same while in conversation. It was easy to predict when they would scratch their heads or wave their arms around.  And, always, when the conversation was over, the character always turned their heads and then exited to the side. Like I said, this is more of something that made me laugh than anything else. Otherwise, I thought the characters looked great, even if after a while I ran into the same style and look. 

I'll still greatly enjoy the game, even if the above things aren't fixed. I'd complain about the texture pop-ins if I thought they could be fixed. It seems to be a flaw of the Unreal engine than of the game itself. I found that installing the game to the hard drive seemed to reduce the time it took for the textures to pop-in but it didn't make the problem go away.

I just wish Mass Effect 2 was coming out this year rather than 2010...  If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, there shouldn't be anything to stop you with the great price of $19.99.  This also includes the Bring Down the Sky add-on and a bonus disk.  I paid full price for this game and have put in almost 80 hours with two play-throughs – definitely worth every penny for me.  For only $20, you really can't go wrong.  Unless, I suppose, you hate sci-fi action RPGs.

What do you want to see in Mass Effect 2?