Mass Effect 3: Planning Affects ME2 Playthrough

Mass Effect 2, which is still some way off, is being affected by the development of its sequel. According to the official forum:

"'After finishing ME2 can I take my character and restart a new playthrough preserving that characters gear and abilities'", asked a reader.

"The short answer is no", responds Preston Watamaniuk, Mass Effect Lead Designer, who continues:

"The reason is progression. We have been working very hard to make sure we design the abilities system to offer smooth progression into ME3 from ME2. Allowing double progression on characters makes that almost impossible. We have to have reasonable knowledge about where a character could end up finishing all content on a playthrough. We also want to offer choice of character build within specific classes.

"We replaced that feature with playing after you were done because it preserves progression and allows for smoother downloading of PRC (Premium Rate Content)."

In short, finish everything you possibly can before ending ME2... if you want to carry through max XP and gear to the next game.