You should be fine jumping right into ME2, but for story and character development sake, I'd recommend getting ME1 for the full Effect (see what I did there?)
BW made Mass Effect 2 where it wouldn't hurt you if you didn't play the first. However there is quite a bit of stuff that is Nostalgic feeling when playing because choices come up from the first one. Plus the story will have a bigger impact on you if you played the first. If it were me I'd play the first one then play the 2nd. You wont regret it.
I just started this the other day. I'm loving it so far and you can see the impact early of some of the decisions from the first game. It's pretty cool seeing your exact same character in the second game. And I love that the elevator rides in the normandy don't take five minutes.
Its actually the same amount of loading now. Actually there is more Loading on the normandy because of the different levels.
It can't possibly be as long as it was in the first game. I dreaded moving around the ship b/c it was so long.
it actually ends up being about the same. Proof that we are just far more conditioned to accept loading screens. I agree that it felt like it was so much shorter but it's crazy that it really isn't.
It appears that with the latest update, the minigame scanner has gotten bigger and moves much faster. Instead of only covering 2 squares width/height, it now covers 4. And it's not a grueling pace either! hoorah! this jumps the game up at least another .5 points on a scale of 10.
I'm bumping this. I went a long time without playing Xbox for various reasons but over the past few weekends I've had a chance to get back into this game. Last night I finally finished it. Spoiler I ended up losing the Normandy crew. Maybe b/c I did the Legion loyalty mission before going to Omega 4, I don't know. If you do that the Doc will basically accuse you of not acting fast enough. Kelly and some of the others got shredded [it was actually a little disturbing to me to see]. After that I just renegaded and sent the Doc and the others back alone. Naturally they died. Even though realistically it didn't seem like that long of a trip and I had cleared the area. For some reason I sent Thane to hack later realizing Legion would have been the best choice. Thane was killed at the end of the hacking segment. He was shot in the head basically. It seemed pretty random. I guess at the time he seemed like a logical choice for the 'suicide' mission because he was terminally ill anyway. I chose Miranda for the biotic barrier. Her biotics were supposed to be pretty powerful but she wore down at the end. My team at the end of that segment was Grunt and Jack. Miranda's barrier expired as we hit the doorway and Jack bought the farm. She was carried off by the bat things. This was also disturbing to a degree. I had had the romance going with Jack for a while [mostly because Miranda was a ***** the whole time and I hadn't recruited Tali yet] but later chose Tali when I was called out to make the inevitable choice. So before the mission Jack wouldn't even speak with me and then she gets whacked. Figures. I chose Garrus as team leader both times, it worked out well. My team for the final battle was Grunt and Samara. Samara almost fell to her death but I was able to catch her. I purchased all of the ship upgrades I was aware of before the final showdown. What happens if you don't have the advanced weapon and shields? Loved this game. What a great scifi story and such a rich story world. I'm almost glad I waited so long to beat it b/c now I won't have to wait as long to get my hands on ME3. Overall I put about 41 hours into the game. I think I did almost everything. I didn't quite scan every system. I may go back and do that. I'm also thinking of downloading and playing the shadow broker missions.
Spoiler You can do Legion's loyalty mission before going to the relay but nothing else or some crew will die. If you don't get the weapon and shields upgrades/ not everyone is loyal some of the crew will end up dying during the battle with the collector ship. The Shadow Broker DLC is great and the last DLC will be coming out in the next few months. From the sounds of it, the DLC will deal with the start of the Reaper invasion and lead directly into Mass Effect 3.
I didn't know more DLC was coming, that's awesome. I'm probably going to download Shadow Broker and start it today.
I hope the Virmire survivor shows up in the next DLC, I'm not the biggest fan of Liara. Here is a quote by one of the developers that makes me even more excited about Mass Effect 3: