ME2 was in pretty much every way superior to ME1. Better art direction, better combat mechanics, better writing and characters.
What, you missed the clunky ME1 inventory? Don't be ridiculous.
Id Tech 5 is best suited for action games, not large freeroaming simulators. So it's only logical that Beth uses Gamebryo again, however they certainly modified it so I'm not worried about that aspect. More worried about the quality of writing and quests and stuff.
They better find a reason to get Ashley killed (in a heroic epic Bioware fashion of course) because she was one of the most lame characters in the entire ME series.
This is only a Rockstar published title so I'm expecting something different anyway.
Still wondering what's up with Agent. The premise sounds really good so I'm more interested in this.
I doubt they will just abandon it. The reason they haven't worked on it yet is because their plate is full with DA/ME. I'm sure at some point in the future they will return for a sequel.
You really should get one with ME2. As for attacking Earth, it makes sense since it was a human (Shepard) who was able to destroy the first Reaper, so they got mankinds attention.
I haven't heard anything official about this matter, but if you observe Bio's policy and read some BioDocs interviews you come to the conclusion that ME/DA are Bio's babies and they ain't gonna give them away.
Bioware is very protective about their own IPs, so no, they will definitely not outsource anything to Obsidian. And why would they? They have 600 employees so they can handle that on their own.