There was always the sense that Mass Effect was a console game where the ambitions of the developer were held back significantly by the technology utilised. BioWare's use of Unreal Engine 3 was an inspired choice in creating the look and feel of its epic space opera, but in terms of the basic performance level the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect was legendarily disappointing.
Digital Foundry's first, brief hands-on with the sequel was uniformly positive. But a hand-picked demo of a specific level is one thing, and in-depth analysis of the complete game is quite another. In this feature Digital Foundry will be measuring Xbox 360 performance of both Mass Effect titles, then factoring in and evaluating the PC build of the sequel.
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A few weeks ago i noted the complete lack of AA on the 360 version of mass effect 2 and theorised that is where the extra performance has come from to shore up the problems from the first game :) The Pc version is disappointingly light on the enhancements, but as the article says 60 frames a second is easy to achieve and really makes the game feel incredibly smooth. Its also relatively easy to force some AA, even the basic 2 x AA will take away most of the worst if performance can allow it. The control system is pretty good. Pc is where its at if you have the choice
Bioware have certainly fixed most of the engine problems from the first game...