Is there enough time for me to beat Mass Effect, enjoy the game thoroughly, and do everything needed to connect fully into Mass Effect 2 before it's released next month? 
 
I don't really have time over the next few days, but maybe I'll start-it-up the day after Christmas. 
 
Anyone got any tips for me as far as easiest/funniest/fastest class to play or anything else?  Will I have to play this thing through twice (good/bad/etc.)? 
 
Lastly, am I a dumb-ass for waiting this long to play the first Mass Effect? :p  
 
Thanks ahead of time for any tips! 

Probably not, it took me the whole summer to beat all the side quests and the story.

i started playing ME 3 days ago, i've tossed about 8 hours a day into it, and i'm ALMOST done with the game, i just lost like 45 minutes of gametime cause i died and forgot to save, so i'm taking a tiny break for the moment.
 
As for your question, i certainly think you could.
 
Also, I actually played Mass Effect Earlier this year and wasn't too interested to begin with, but having another go at it, really made me see why the game is pretty good (the mako still handles like a melting ice cube on a melting stick of butter, and in that Ilos section, make it A Melting Ice Cube on a Melting Stick of Butter on an extremely fragile Jenga tower).

It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.
 
The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies.

I beat the game in like a week of casual play while doing a decent portion of the side quests, took me about 21 hours though I feel like I spent a lot of time wandering around aimlessly. It depends on how much time you play video games really. Also unless you want all the achievements there isn't really a huge reason to play through it multiple times.

I put about a week or so into the game and beat it last night.  If anything: set the game to Casual, have a FAQ open for the locations of the sidequests, and don't do any of the collecting/scanning missions and you'll be good.

it should take 1-2 weeks to experience it at a steady pace...

Yeah, for better or worse, Mass Effect isn't some massive DAO-style game that will sink hours and hours of your life away. If you give it some pretty dedicated play, you can finish it in a few weeks, if that.

" It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.  The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies. "

You can beat pretty much every single side quest in the game and the main story in mass effect WHILE doing a ton of conversing with people still in under 20 hours.

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.  The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies. "

It's more then just who you didn't kill, some of the side quest stuff also gets carried over. Plus the fact that you were a renegade or a paragon gets carried over as well. "

When you are playing through pick either paragon or renegade and do not mess around with the speech skills of the one you do not choose.
 
Any class will work because the combat is pretty easy.  Just do not make a sentinel what ever you do.  It takes the worst engineer abilities and the worst biotic abilities and combines them with a complete inability to do damage.
 
You do not have to do most of the side quests because most of them are not very interesting or meaningful.  If you are pressed for time just do the side quests on the citadel, it is faster moving around the citadel than moving from planet to planet.
 
It shouldn't take too long if you stick to the main story.  The game is probably around 30 hours so its not too bad for an rpg.

" @CL60 said:

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.  The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies. "

It's more then just who you didn't kill, some of the side quest stuff also gets carried over. Plus the fact that you were a renegade or a paragon gets carried over as well. "

What could be carried over from side quests? People you helped? "

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" @CL60 said:

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.  The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies. "

It's more then just who you didn't kill, some of the side quest stuff also gets carried over. Plus the fact that you were a renegade or a paragon gets carried over as well. "

What could be carried over from side quests? People you helped? "

  The player's choice of love interest. The player's treatment of Conrad Verner.    Whether or not the player completed the UNC: Asari Diplomacy sidequest.   Whether the player chose to allow the Alliance to conduct experiments on Nirali Bhatia's body.   That's what's been announced. I'm sure there will be more. (more stuff was announced just it involves main story.) "

" @CL60 said:

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" @CL60 said:

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" It's not like your level carries over, it's only your character's appearance and the people you didn't kill.  The side quests in Mass Effect were rubbish anyways. All you did was go to a abandoned planet, find the ONLY building on it, then enter and kill all the enemies. "

It's more then just who you didn't kill, some of the side quest stuff also gets carried over. Plus the fact that you were a renegade or a paragon gets carried over as well. "

What could be carried over from side quests? People you helped? "

  The player's choice of love interest. The player's treatment of Conrad Verner.    Whether or not the player completed the UNC: Asari Diplomacy sidequest.   Whether the player chose to allow the Alliance to conduct experiments on Nirali Bhatia's body.   That's what's been announced. I'm sure there will be more. (more stuff was announced just it involves main story.) "

I wouldn't call Love interests a side quest >_> More like a side conquest if you catch my drift...heh...  Lame joke D:> "

You do not need to play the side quests to enjoy Mass Effect. Most of them are lame actually. I only played through them all for achievements, and that was incredibly tedious. The main story is all you need.

shit, im gonna have to track down a friends copy to borrow in time.

There's always enough time for Mass Effect. Seriously.

You need to put at least 25 hours in order to get something out of it. Just running through it to get caught up for ME 2 seems kind of pointless.  Will you just run through ME 2 as well?  On my first play through, I read every planet description & did every available mission, landed on every planet, even the first DLC.  For the second play through for renegade (in progress), I originally just wanted to do the primary missions. However, I found I wanted more achievement points, so I've tried so far to get some of the Ally achievements, but it doesn't look like that will work.
 
Probably best bet is to play through it at least 2 or 3 times, perhaps get an S-rank on the achievement system.  I'm striving for that in the interim til ME 2 gets here (or my new Xmas gift games arrive).

I played through it 3 times in two weeks to complete the ally achievements.  You definitely have enough time to finish this game.

Ive owned Mass Effect since X-mas 07 and still haven't played much of it i started it up yesterday and am now the farthest i have been yet i think you can beat it at least once by the time ME 2 Comes out.