Apparently, if you don't have a save file from ME1, there is just a default set of decisions.  It won't ask you what happened like, say, KOTOR 2 did.
 
The Council decision is by far the biggest decision in ME1, so they'll obviously address it, but I can't see it having a massive / realistic impact on the core of ME2 - that would just be too much work.
 
Party decisions off the top of my head:
 
Wrex:  Recruited or not, Alive or dead, Family Armour mission completed or not.
Garrus:  Recruited or not, Kill Dr. Heart or not.
Ashley / Kaidan:  Alive or dead, Love interest or not.
Liara:  Love interest or not  (can't really think of a Liara specific mission?) 
Tali:  Whether or not you do that mission to destroy the 5 Geth Outposts, and whether or not you decide to give her a copy of the classified info about the Geth you get from that mission.

I fully agree that it would be impossible to have major impacts on the Council.  
I hope that the party impact has some effect, and I really can't wait to see what is on the horizon in ME2. 
The only thing that bothers me is if the time you spend with your party has an effect - for example, even if you finish all the side quests, you must have the specific party member in your party for X amount of hours for them to have recognition of you. 
I played my game with usually only Garrus (my favorite) and someone else, but as stated I never used Tali or Kaiden all that much. I hope that will not negatively affect my game in ME2.

played through twice on the same profile and made different decisions each time. I just wonder how ME2 will discern between the two.

No! i beat ME1 at least 4 times and one became level 50. Going back to that game would kill it for me, it was a good game don't get me wrong... but the issues it had, oh god the issues just makes me cringe by the thought of playing it through again.

" No! i beat ME1 at least 4 times and one became level 50. Going back to that game would kill it for me, it was a good game don't get me wrong... but the issues it had, oh god the issues just makes me cringe by the thought of playing it through again. "

I played the game 2 years ago, and I completely forgot the story. All i remember is the last 3 hours of the game being amazing. For some reason, I'm getting the story between Mass Effect and Kotor mixed up. I hope I don't miss anything with Mass effect 2 because all of my saves are gone.

I am almost done finishing my play through with my adept, only the sqaudmates and a few noveira missions and I'm good.  I still am doing the collectibles for some reason...just feel they are important.
I started around early last year when it was announced, so i had some time to finish some stuff up.

No.  My last character was so badass, perfection was reached.

I wonder if the DLC will play into at all? The end game decision there was significantly different shades of gray;

I think all party members had some type of personal interaction with Shepard in ME1.  Choosing to kill Wrex  on Virmire.  Having either Ashley or Kaidan die on Virmire.  Being intimate with Ashley or Liara.  Garrus' mission about some rogue doctor.  Wrex's mission to get his family armor.  Tali's mission to research the Geth so she can bring something back to the Floatilla (sp?) to show her maturity.  If ME2 does read into how you interacted with your party members, I hope it is based on how you handled these situations, rather than just seeing who you had in your party most of the time.  Doing so would be kinda messed up.  With the way classes work, you were pushed toward having certain characters in your party most of the time based on your class.  For example, if you were a soldier, you wouldn't want your party to consist of Ashley and Wrex, leaving you without any engineering capabilities.
 
As for the original topic... I'm using my ME1 save file to continue my story.  I played through the game twice, but I made all the same decisions in my second playthrough.  I like the idea of sticking with the consequences of your actions.

You don't choose the decisions when starting a new ME2 character. The decisions are already made for you. And I probably won't start a new character because ME1 takes at least 15 or so hours to beat, and I wouldn't want to go through all of that just to start the second game a certain way.

I want to go back and finish everything up. But I've spent so many hours playing that game. I did like half of the Eden mission and stopped.

I don't have time for that crap. I would like to go back, but there are too many new games I'd rather spend my time playing.

I've already replayed the game once in the last few weeks, and I'm about to finish a second. If I'm not totally sick of it by the end of the current playthrough, I may even go back to my Soldier for a third time to get him up to level 60...

Bah. I buckled and loaded up Alan Shepard for another run through, because I can't quit remember what the hell i did on the Insanity run through. Popped it down to Casual so it should be a cake walk.

I would've liked to do another playthrough to get my character to level 60 with all the decisions I want but my 360 is being repaired and I have 3 new games that I'd like to play before having to play ME2, which I can't wait to play.

played through twice already and doing  it a third time now

I see that ME1 is up on the game activity list on the front of Giantbomb.  A lot of people must be replaying in anticipation of the sequel.

My main ME character that I got to 60 was on his 4th playthrough. I went through decisions so fast by the 3rd and fourth time I've no idea what I chose and I would assume the save data would come from the latest playthrough.
 
Therefore, yes I am in the middle of replaying ME1 right now in order to get the decisions that I would have (probably) made the first time around when I didn't know what was actually happening. I will use that save to import and see what happens from there.
 
Really hope I get to re customize my Shepard though. I  hope there are more customization options!

" I see that ME1 is up on the game activity list on the front of Giantbomb.  A lot of people must be replaying in anticipation of the sequel. "

" @Stephen_Von_Cloud said:

" I see that ME1 is up on the game activity list on the front of Giantbomb.  A lot of people must be replaying in anticipation of the sequel. "

Yup, I'm one of those people. Replaying it to refresh my memory of the story and stuff. My current character is all the way renegade, but I can't imagine bringing her over to ME2.. She's just so... mean.  "

wait! so if i imported my half completed new game + w/o getting to the point where I save the council (like I want to) I can still choose that option in a disguised questionnaire at the start of ME2 and that'll be what happens? The main things i care about in ME I've done apart from the council thing (Wrex, Bug queen thing, paragon mostly) but I dunno whether I'll get to finish it before ME2 comes out. Will I still get bonuses with this 1/2 complete new game + if I import it to ME2 while still choosing on the main choice at the end that I didn't get to in ME at the start of ME2??

I'm about to start replaying it, so i can refresh my memory, but mainly to have a character i can import.

I'm about to start playing it for the first time... hope it's not too late to start! And hopefully I'll enjoy it this time. Stated last year and stopped after a day. Have been meaning to go back ever since!

The best example for that is the three dialogue choices at the end of the game involving the Council. I felt the top was straight paragon, the bottom was more sociopath/space racist, and I thought the middle choice was actually the real renegade choice.  Atleast that is how I played my Shepard. ie. As a no nonsense, gets things done kind of bad ass (ended up 100% renegade meter with about 25% of the paragon meter full) which is my personal definition of being a renegade/loose cannon. "

yes i have been playing again for the fourth time, i wanted a savegame where i had saved ashley, saved wrex and saved the council.  Mostly a paragon character since my others were renegades.

  I can't be arsed to make an account for the Bioware forum, so hopefully someone here will know. Okay, so I'm pretty sure that with my main Shepard I'm on my third play through. Since I've yet to finish it though, I know based on the released facts that I can transfer my finished 2nd game of that character over to ME2. However, what about that first one? It has all the choices that I want to transfer over (Wrex lives, boned Ashley, Keith David running things).    

What sucks is ME2 wont have this feature for ME3 from what bioware is says...kinda spoilers i think.  SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Why are the spoiler warning not working for me?

i wont replay the first... in fact, just like the guys said on a recent bombcast, i too barely remember the first game. I know i loved it, and finished it...and I know I didnt kill Rex, but thats about it. Weird... Still want ME2 bad tho

"   I can't be arsed to make an account for the Bioware forum, so hopefully someone here will know. Okay, so I'm pretty sure that with my main Shepard I'm on my third play through. Since I've yet to finish it though, I know based on the released facts that I can transfer my finished 2nd game of that character over to ME2. However, what about that first one? It has all the choices that I want to transfer over (Wrex lives, boned Ashley, Keith David running things).     "

" wait! so if i imported my half completed new game + w/o getting to the point where I save the council (like I want to) I can still choose that option in a disguised questionnaire at the start of ME2 and that'll be what happens? The main things i care about in ME I've done apart from the council thing (Wrex, Bug queen thing, paragon mostly) but I dunno whether I'll get to finish it before ME2 comes out. Will I still get bonuses with this 1/2 complete new game + if I import it to ME2 while still choosing on the main choice at the end that I didn't get to in ME at the start of ME2?? "

 Just bought ME on steam even though I've done two play throughs on the 360 version.
 
I need to play the hell out of this until the 29th for my story to pull across on the PC version XD

I have not played through this game again but I have it with me in case I want to.  I think I will play through it again just so I can make sure I have all of the choices that I want when I start my game in ME2.  I do like my character that I have at level 60 so I may start with him since he is all the way paragon right now and his name is T'Challa and a soldier.  I'll probably play through ME2 multiple times to see what the classes are like and how the supporting characters feel as well.  I cannot wait for this game to come out as well.

I don't need to. I already have 3 distinctly different playthroughs saved.