Wow. Mass Effect sucks now.

I had the same experience recently when I went back and played the original Assassin's Creed again. For about twenty minutes.

I'm kinda glad I got all of ME1's achievements before I played the second one, because I'm afraid to go back now.

So by the time my gaming has caught up sufficiently to get to the Mass Effects - 2013 or so - what do you suggest? ME1, then ME2, or skip ME1 completely and go straight to 2?

No. Play ME1, do two playthroughs to get the different choices (and all achievements if you're playing 360). Then you use those files for playthroughs of ME2 (things will be quite different depending on your choices in the first game). And then probably ME3 by then.

I played Mass Effect for several hours a day when I first got it 2 years back.

No. Games that are not even three years old DO NOT require a sodding remake.

DE speaks truth... sort've.

The truth is, with our current rate of change, I think we're going to start seeing games become dated quite quickly.

But does that mean we should keep returning to the same games until they are perfect? I'm not sure. Few games are timeless.

That said, Bioware has never been one for remakes.

I can really imagine the dialog in ME2 being confusing if you haven't played the first one, because there's a crapload of fan service thrown in there. Characters are always like, "Hey, remember Ilos? Good times!"

I'd still recommend ME1 for its story, and I still like the game even though the sequel did everything better. Worst case scenario, it's a short game that you could literally beat in a single day if you ignore the side quests and have a lot of free time. I've done that twice.