Alright, Mass Effect 2 is on the way. It's confirmed that decisions from the 1st game will carry over, and surviving characters will appear again. Darker story, reworked combat system, new species, and much more. Personally it's all more than enough to get me to go back and "redesign" the story of Shepard and co. for the next installment.
What do you mean decisions from the 1st game will carry over? You mean decisions that your character made? Maybe I'm not up with how they do things but I didn't think this was possible...if that's what you meant