Mass Effect 2 - Interview @ The Guardian

The UK newspaper site is next along with a Mass Effect 2 interview, with Producer Adrien Cho answering the questions:

How do you keep your Role Playing Game fans happy while attempting to reach this new shooter audience?

There is a fine line here. But if RPG fans liked the original Mass Effect then they shouldn't have a problem as we haven't removed any of role playing elements. There is still plenty of number crunching going on in the background, probably more than in the original. What we did do was take a look at what didn't work in the original game and make it more streamlined and efficient. For example we took a lot of flak about the inventory system in the first game. We've now streamlined that so that it is much easier to scroll through your items and customise your armour. The key thing is that focussing more on the shooter elements has not taken away from the role playing. The story is still amazing and there is plenty of freedom.