I came across this article earlier while looking for topics of discussion on the third game. Initially I thought it was written by a dick, but I read on and found some valid points.   There's no way I agree with his overall sentiment, I think he's completely wrong on some of his points.
 
 http://www.infoaddict.com/the-many-failures-of-mass-effect-2
 http://www.infoaddict.com/the-many-failures-of-mass-effect-2 
 
How can the combat be improved?. Do you it's fair to say the nature of the environments make the combat predictable?. Is a lack of interaction with the environment and complex physics partly to blame?. No surprises? 
  
Has pandering to the current audience negatively effected this games design (- a question I direct at Bioware fans first and foremost), if so, what aspects of the game do this most?

I disagree with most of what you linked to said. Seems like they were stretching a lot of their arguments.
 
I would say that Bioware shouldn't listen to reviewers or the rabid fanboys. Nothing good comes out of it. Everyone complains about elevators and they remove it completely, replacing it with lackluster loading screens. People didn't want the Mako, so they gave us planet scanning.
 
It is still one of the best games ever made, and because of that, there will be a lot of scrutiny that comes with it -- most of it unfair.

All I want is a more subtle Paragon/Renegade system, since my time in Mass Effect 2's conversations felt like a giant speech-checking grind. 
 
And if they are going to have resource gathering, streamline it. And have only one resource, that can be traded for money and vice versa.

I want a better story. Don't get me wrong, I love ME 2, but the story is just...ugh. I swear I saw/played it somewhere before.

I haven't read that article you linked to (I always take those fanboy rants way too personal) but you mention that problem with the environments making encounters predictable. I found some of it to be a huge bummer. Every time I saw a bunch of waist high crates I knew there was gonna be a fight, where the enemy would come from and what options for cover I have to counter their attack. These things could be fixed with a way to make your own cover, like the Soldier's turret in Borderlands. Maybe make some things in the environment destructable (like collapsing walls) to make cover or even use as weapons. I don't know if it would really be a gamechanger but in my head it sure looks damn cool. But the shooting isn't really the important part of the game, right? If they deliver more of that "make your own sci-fi story" thing and better then I would buy it even if the shooting part was nothing but a light gun shooter.

Needs to be on PS3, then it'll be perfect.

" Needs to be on PS3, then it'll be perfect. "

 I wrote a whole list of suggestions for ME3 back in Feb. In short, there is a lot to improve and I'm confident BioWare knows how to do it as well. 
 
BTW, we already discussed that article in great detail: 
 
http://www.giantbomb.com/mass-effect-2/61-21590/the-many-failures-of-mass-effect-2/35-386673/#124

I think the combat is great but i think the cover system could use some tweaking. I think the game should be less linear too and go back to the more open world style of Mass Effect 1. I still think its an overall better game, but i would like some more exploration. The planet scanning should just be removed.

Mass effect seriously needs better AI. The AI was just plain retarded. The whole game talks about the need for an elite team yet all I see is Garrus and Mordin stuck, humping a wall.

Will they end the series on the 360 or put and wait for a new Xbox do you think?

" @Evilsbane: I've got two 360's, just prefer my PS3. "

" @Evilsbane: I've got two 360's, just prefer my PS3. "

The game would be perfect if it weren't ported to a PC rather than it being exclusive for the PC.

@WinterSnowblind: Right, but I wouldn't call my posts in this thread fanboyish. Would you like some pictures of my 360's?  Jesus, the idiots are out in full force today. "

" @Evilsbane: Ok, but so I know for future reference, please point out which part of the following sentance isn't calm
 

" @Evilsbane: I've got two 360's, just prefer my PS3. "

@WinterSnowblind: Right, but I wouldn't call my posts in this thread fanboyish. Would you like some pictures of my 360's?  Jesus, the idiots are out in full force today. "

I didn't really like how the story basically accelerated way too fast after you assemble your team...I also hated the lack of "STUFF"...the game was simple enough as it was

The only things I'd really ask for is less percentage of the game length building a team and more percentage actually using it, and more interaction between the members of your team (it doesn't have to effect the storyline but it'd be cool if it did). I really enjoyed the tactical nature of the combat using squadmates, especially given the game is not primarily part of the action/shooting genre.

Ai needs improving, basically I want Mass Effect 1 again, without ripping out every single chance for different weapons and armour, it took out the feeling of rewards for missions with how infrequently I found stuff.
 
Story needs to be written by the guy who did ME1 or somebody else who can make it like ME1's longer more action packed story.

Get rid of those cheesy "mission summary" screens. Give us a proper debriefing instead.

Better team AI. They are useless on insane.

1. I think this was already posted.
 
2. Better combat environments and better Team AI. The author is right in saying that combat is downright predictable. 

I'd like to see the return of weapon and armor mods personally.  Not quite the same as ME1 obviously where you just had 70 tonnes of junk force upon you making inventory management a pain, but more of a simple find/purchase model... possibly using a sort of "blue print" system so you only have to get the 1 mod instead of 1 for every weapon on every character.  Then you could just apply the stat boost to the weapon from like a drop down menu or something.  I just want something to make my gear feel a little more personal.

Also a means to gather cash other than quest rewards (running out of cash before you can purchase everything is lame).

Also, open up the area's a little.  A lot of the locations in ME2 felt cramped and restrictive.  Let me see more of Omega and Illium in a more wander around kind of way, not just instanced off sections for quests.  Give me back some more of the wards on the citadel and lets me wander around the presidium again.

" Shepards dance. "

When the NPC says stuff like : "This FTL drive is better than  a 345-ct cooling pin recombinator" and Shepard replies: "why is it better than a 345-ct cooling pin recombinator?" instead of just replying: "how so?" or something like that. It only happens a few times here and there and it's obvious how much I like this game because the only fault I see with it is something so stupid.
It would probably be super hard for them to have even better dialogue but thankfully it will be the future when ME3 comes out.

I just think it needs to have more weapons, shorter load times, and to just completely iron out all glitches. 

Eye graphics.  Had all kinds of clipping/placement problems.  I might add more meaningful things later, but that was the one inexcusable graphical failure of ME2

The smiles... Oh, the nightmares I've gotten when a human character decided to smile.
 
I didn't see a smile, I saw an accursed empty vessel mimicking humanity.

Lock, as requested by TC.