February 23, 2009 - Last Friday, BioWare released the first teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2. In it, hints were heavily dropped that Commander Shepard was killed in action. Is that just marketing designed to get you in a tizzy over losing the character you spent hours building up in the first Mass Effect game or does it hint at a sinister end to Shepard?

The implications of Shepard's death were enough to cause hysteria on the Mass Effect forums. Videogamer spread the word that BioWare community managers hopped into the fray to mention three times to "Hang on to your Mass Effect 1 saves." This hints pretty heavily that your Commander Shepard character will carry over from Mass Effect 1 to 2 and that perhaps the reports of Shepard's death are greatly exaggerated.

Click here to watch the trailer.
At the DICE Summit in Las Vegas last week, I asked BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk if the save data would carry over to Mass Effect 2. He replied that was "the goal" but also mentioned that "there are many goals," before letting his sentence linger. These message board posts would lend a bit more weight to his vague response.