[martok2112]

Well, I loved the first Mass Effect. It was a great game with a cool and divergent science fiction story behind it.

ME2 takes all that, and ups the ante.

It even has exploration of sorts....for those who are more Star Trek inclined. You can take your warship, The SVR Normandy, and go to unexplored planets and scan them for minerals and even distress or radio signals.

The scanning of a planet is pretty interesting. You orbit a planet with a 0% or low numbered "percentage explored" rating. You can then run your scanner manually over a planet (you can be as quick or as methodical as you choose). On your scanner HUD (that's Heads Up Display for those who aren't military or video game minded), you see the planet with a reticule (that's a targetter) on it. To the right of the planet is a graphic readout representing the four major minerals in the game (Element Zero, Iridium, Platinum, and Palladium). As you run your reticule over the planet, you can watch the graphic analysis. When you start seeing an increase in one of the four elements on the GA, you can maneuver the reticule to try and get a hotter reading. If the reading is really hot, the controller will vibrate. You try to move the reticule to get the strongest possible reading, and then launch a probe to collect the minerals. (These minerals go towards mass effect, ship and weapons upgrade research.) If you see a big white blip in the center of your reticule, that means it's a radio or distress signal, for which you can opt to land a shuttle on the planet to seek out the source of the signal.

This is just one small aspect of a VERY epic game with lots of combat, but I figure it's one that might appeal to the Trekkie in all of us.

It also has diplomacy of sorts, as when you view conversations between your on-screen character and whomever they are talking to, you can choose different responses. Such responses can prove beneficial, or detrimental, or indifferent, depending on what you choose.

There are also opportunities during some cutscenes where you can either commit a "renegade" action (perhaps killing the subject of the cutscene) or a "paragon" action (helping that subject out somehow).

Folks, if you love good, interactive science fiction, it truly doesn't get much better than the Mass Effect games.