OK, so I just pulled the plug and picked up a 250gb Xbox slim. Also picked up ME 1 and 2 as I've heard raves about both, but most especially the 2nd game.  Should I jump straight to ME2? Will I ever go back to ME1 if I do?  How impactful is it to have a ME1 save when you boot up 2 for the first time? 
 
Thanks for your input.

It's not really impactful to have a ME1 save for ME2. You should however play through it first if only for the story.
Also playing through ME1 first you will come to appreciate the changes they did in ME2 a lot more.

Play the first, first. Just...do it.

I concur; play the first, first. The first can be beaten and you can have everything you want done in 12 hours easily, so it's not too much of an investment compared to me2.

yeah, go ahead and play the first game. 
 
it's not perfect, but i think people exaggerate its shortcomings.

I would recommend that you play through the first Mass Effect, because there are a lot of references to the first game in the second game. 

You'll miss a lot of the universal story if you don't go through ME1 first.

Cool. Thanks all for the responses. I'll check out ME1 first.

The first has a much better story and you won't realise how much they crapped all over it and made ME2 basically one big side quest until you play both, startig with the first one.

ME1 is a heavy hitter that can absorb a huge chunk of your time, saying that I would run through it to get blooded into the universe and story of Mass Effect. The touches that carry over to ME2, that you wouldn't notice if you didn't play the first game, are great.
 
You can blow through it, but I suggest doing a few of the side quests to not just plow the game. Make sure you don't start a new game after your first completion, as you cannot take that Shepard into ME2 if a second game is in progress. I found that out the hard way and had to throw 25 hours towards completing a hardcore run of it.

" OK, so I just pulled the plug and picked up a 250gb Xbox slim. Also picked up ME 1 and 2 as I've heard raves about both, but most especially the 2nd game.  Should I jump straight to ME2? Will I ever go back to ME1 if I do?  How impactful is it to have a ME1 save when you boot up 2 for the first time?  Thanks for your input. "

PLAY THE FIRST ONE.  It's arguably just as good of a game or even a better game, also you'll get attached to some characters more, and it helps with some of the story. 

Play the first one. It has its fair share of shortcomings, but the story and the amount of things you learn about the Mass Effect universe is well worth it if you want to jump into ME2.

Never played the first one. They throw way too much story at you from the start. I tried playing it twice and got bored with it. But Mass Effect 2 is awesome.

I played the second one first as the reviews were really good. After completing it twice I had to get ME1 so I could understand the story more. Play ME1 first for sure.

The Mass Effect series is extremely story centric, skipping the first game is like skipping the first Lord of the Rings movie. Sure you'll still think it's good but you'll miss out on a lot of details and you'll still be a little loss.
 
You'll have no idea how shepard became a spectre.
You'll have no idea who the people that remember you from the first game are
You wont know why shepard hates the council
And a whole bunch of other shit.
 
I SHOULD TRACK YOU DOWN AND SMACK YOU FOR EVEN CONSIDERING SKIPPING THE FIRST GAME!!!! *rage over*

play the first.

The first is a better game, so you should play the first.

play the first.  ME 2 has far better gameplay, as far as the shooting mechanics go, but i preferred the ME 1 story by a wide margin.  it takes a while for the first to get going, but the second half of the game is probably where all the praise comes from.

Considering the story is the entire point of Mass Effect, you should really play the Mass Effect 1 first.

You already bought both of the games, so you might as well play the first.

When you play the first make sure you install it.  It seems to run a whole lot better.  It still has problems but there are fewer noticeable ones.

Kinda silly that you would buy both but think about playing the second game first. ME1 is a great game, after ME2 came out everyone was like "Oh man this game is awesome remember how awful ME1 was!?"; don't listen to those people. The first game is brilliant.

" The first is a better game, so you should play the first. "

Don't listen to what anyone says if it doesn't mention that you should play the first one first. Yes there is no broken citadel council room or anything but you will definately see references from the first and half of the big refs you won't have a clue who or what the hell they are if you didn't play the first and import.
 
Import, whatever you do, do it.

Play the first. It has a better overall story than the second (though it's not as good of a game), and you'll get more connected to the characters. Plus you get an extra achievement at the end of ME2 if you beat the first one.

It should be a requirement to play the first game before the second. All the references ( and there are ALOT of references) made in ME2 will mean nothing to you. So finish ME1 or you will ruin ME2 for yourself.