joiedecombat | ME2 on Gametrailers TV

Caught some interviews with Bioware staff on Gametrailers TV last night, including some new information on Mass Effect 2, most of which pleased me. They're still being cagey about Shepard's status, of course, but they did mention that the player character's identity would be confirmed at E3... and I'm not really that worked up about it anyhow, so it's all good.

Points of interest:
* We may "experience the story from a different perspective."
* Playing from an old save will affect the game right from the first scene.
* There will be more characters available for the player's team, and more possible love interests; romance subplots will be "just as well-done and sophisticated" as in ME1. (No word on continuing romances from the first game but that's to be expected since they're not admitting yet whether or not we'll be playing as Shepard.)
* The story will continue to involve the Reapers and the general subject of humanity's role in the galaxy, which, duh.
* The "Illusive Man" from the novels will appear, which backs up the implications of a larger role for Cerberus.
* No playable space combat in ME2 but they want to include it later in the trilogy (which implies ME3 unless they're using a looser value of the word "trilogy").
* Shepard lives?
* A replacement for the Mako? Doesn't exactly look any easier to navigate.
* The Illusive Man, maybe.
* New teammate?
* Powered armor or an Alliance-made giant robot?
* Young and/or female krogan?
* There will be news about downloadable content "soon."