Yup, got mine. However it turns out you can't import a past save if you didn't actually finish ME2, and I never quite got round to that. Given I now think I made a couple of wrong decisions I'm in a quandary whether to just finish off ME2 and go with it, or 'rebuild' my Shepherd from scratch and say I made the choices I now want to make instead . Oh the burden of destiny...

Picked mine up from Sainsbury's tonight. Can't wait to get on it.

I would just finish your game Jon as it is. I didn't get the 'perfect' ending for ME2 but it doesn't matter, I played the game how I played it and that's what makes it individual to me.

Do I need to have played the other 2 before playing ME3?

A guy at work said that the story and characters carry over from one to the next?

You will certainly have a richer experience for having done so, that's for sure. ME2 was suitably different to ME1 that you could probably get away with it; but that's about it. It's a bit like starting the Matrix trilogy with the 3rd one I suspect.

Also they said that there is a "Previously on Mass Effect" type thing at the beginning of ME2.

IIRC it depends a bit on which platform you're playing on. If you're on PC, at the beginning of ME2 (after the tutorial level IIRC) you get a cut scene where you get asked various questions about your 'past' - and how you answer those defines what gets 'carried over' from ME1. Course if you haven't played ME1 the questions don't have any context so you might as well just guess.

If you have a PS3, which never got ME1, so you get an 'interactive comic book' which tells the story of ME1 and stops at the pertinent points to ask you what decisions you want to make. So you get the same decisions to make but you get proper context to make them in.

IIRC, they might have back-ported the 'comic book' thing to ME2 on PC/360, but I can't guarantee it.

Jon

I'm 28 hours in and love it. Had one go on MP and it was ok. Not sure if I'll bother with it to be honest.