Why it will rule:
We haven’t been this excited for a game release in quite some time. The first Mass Effect changed the way we looked at the Action/RPG genre and proved that the folks at BioWare have enough creativity to keep themselves in business for years to come. Building upon everything that made Mass Effect our 2007 Game of the Year, BioWare has also responded to the gamer feedback to not only improve upon their original release but send it light years ahead of its predecessor. Everything from the game’s visuals, to the beefed up combat system, to the new characters we’ll meet and new worlds we’ll explore have us chomping at the bit to finally get our hands on Mass Effect 2. A likely contender for 2010’s Game of the Year is just around the corner. January 26th can’t come soon enough!

Why it might not:
We’re hard pressed to come up with a single reason that BioWare’s sequel will fall short of its mark. I suppose by some stretch of the imagination, the game’s developers could have suffered from some kind of memory loss and forgotten how to tell an amazing story. Or perhaps they really haven’t gotten rid of the elevators which are probably the slowest in the universe. Maybe we’ll have to spend hours collecting mineral samples everywhere we go by repeating simplistic button combinations. I suppose if Seth Green’s character Joker ends up having a twenty minute long stand up routine in the middle of the game it could take some of the wind from its sails, but we’re more than confident his comic jabs will be kept in check.