I went back to play ME2 again today, I never finished it, got maybe two thirds the way in then stopped for some reason. Well my save is gone. All the DLC and both discs are there, but I somehow either deleted my save or lost the usb stick it was on.

Anyways, I'd like to get through ME2 before I get into ME3. I rented it from gamefly on a 10 day trial. I assumed I would wrap up ME2 tonight/tomorrow and then play through ME3, but not sure what to do now. I'm ok sticking to the main quest, I saw most of the specific character missions I was interested in. Any idea on how much time it would take to get through the main story on easy?

I would say about 12-13 hours or something if you main line it.

I just played through with doing Arrival, Shadow Broker, and hardly any side quests. Final hour count was 21 hours.

Almost instantaneously

Probably 15 hours at least, you'd really have to speed through it with a less satisfying experience if you want lower.

I just finished it not even 5 minutes ago, final count was 26 hours, and it was a perfect run, with all my crew surviving.

I did Shadow Broker, Kasumi and Arrival for DLC.

The thing is that I already played most of the game and saw most of the story parts I wanted to see. I mainly want to see what I missed and have a save to import into ME3, I imported from ME1 to ME2. Only thing I want is for everyone to survive so that might take so extra work. But I dont have a problem skipping most of the cutscenes and rushing the dialogue as I've already seen most of it. Once I get to new stuff I haven't seen I'll take more care. Anyways, looks like I wont be starting ME3 for a few days.

I think you left bold on.

Anyway, I did a run recently of 17 hours with full crew, all loyal, and the Zaeed DLC. I also used a save editor to give me a ridiculous amount of money & resources, because I just cannot stand doing planet scanning for a second time. Even then, I still did every hacking & bypassing mini-game. Party because I wanted every upgrade, but even the ones I knew were only money I still did. Who knows why.

@MrOldboy said:

The thing is that I already played most of the game and saw most of the story parts I wanted to see. I mainly want to see what I missed and have a save to import into ME3, I imported from ME1 to ME2. Only thing I want is for everyone to survive so that might take so extra work. But I dont have a problem skipping most of the cutscenes and rushing the dialogue as I've already seen most of it. Once I get to new stuff I haven't seen I'll take more care. Anyways, looks like I wont be starting ME3 for a few days.

If you want everyone to survive, it's going to take a while. Twenty hours at the very least, and that's if you only do the bare minimum required to pull everyone through. 25-35 is a more realistic estimate.

@Paul_Is_Drunk: was this on PC or did you transfer the save to 360?

@MrOldboy: This was on the PC. No idea if you can save edit on the 360, but I'm sure there are guides out there to speed up planet scanning. Probably save you a couple hours. I also went full renegade with a new character for fun, so I was able to burn through a lot of conversations quickly without skipping.