Patches changing the code directly will trigger anti-viruses.

Replacing all changed files has significant advantages because it can update any and all previous version; find-and-replace patches only support a particular version and are sometimes blocked by antivirus software, and in the worst cases you will need to install multiple patches one by one to get up to the desired version. With full replacement patches you can typically install whatever version of the game you have and then add the latest patch straight away. With even demos being around 2GB these days a few hundred megabytes for a patch isn't unreasonable.

I don't really know about that since Steam probably redownloads the whole goddamn game for me for all I know.

I've seen it be far vaguer than that and not even include a percentage or download speed. I'd actually have to try and start the game to get the better download monitor.

I know... developers are simply concentrating on public, which tends to have fast internet these days. The problem is when you don't have access to fast internet. The best connection in my... village is 1mbps with a daily limit of 1GB (after that I get cut to 256kbps for the rest of the day). So you can imagine I wasn't particularly happy when I noticed that steam started downloading an 800MB patch for Torchlight some time ago :) Especially when that patch added only one new pet and some balance changes... *Sigh* Also, anyone who tried to update Company of Heroes knows what I'm speaking about...
Anyway... theoretically I should have access to some real connection soon, probably at least 32mbps with no limits, so things should get better for me :)
Does anyone know any recent statistic about average connection speeds around the world? Because right now I don't know if I belong to the majority, or the minority. Gamers usually have faster internet though, so such statistic might be problematic. I just feel that developers are disciminating people with slow connections waaaaay too much lately.
umm, btw, I'm sorry for going off topic :)

Here are my first impressions of Mass Effect 2.
Installation took forever, but I suppose that's unavoidable with two DVDs.
Launcher options. Standard fare, I see. Oh, it tells me there's a new patch. Neat. Let me get that and install it. There, done. Launch again. Oh, it still tells me there's a new patch. Let me check. Nope, same patch. Why the hell doesn't it check whether I already have it installed? This way, after the first patch is released, that button is useless. It'll ALWAYS tell me there's a new patch.
Launch game. Aw, man. Unskippable credits? People still do that? Damn... Log on to the Cerberus network. Hey, new content. Let's get that and install it. There, done. Now lauch the game again. Unskippable credits again... Log on. New content? Really? No, not really. Same crappy functionality (or lack thereof) as the patch button in the launcher. Useless, in other words. Someone really didn't think this functionality through when they coded it.
Import my ME1 character. Bunch of bonuses for doing that, nice.
Skipping ahead a bit... Hmm, controls seem much more console-y than in the first one. Not a good sign. Why can't I have a "jump" button? This one-button-performs-all-functions-because-console-players-have-limited-interface-options-and-coordination-skil ls crap does not belong in a PC game.
Getting into a fight. Disposable heat sinks? Well, that's nice in a heavy firefight, but you can still wait for your weapon to cool down, right? No, that's wrong, apparently. So they took out overheating and replaced it with limited ammo. Can't say I like that decision. I liked having to think about my rate of fire, rather than just holding down the fire button until all the enemies were dead. Of course, now I have to think about how many bullets I shoot altogether, but I still preferred it the other way around.
The Illusive Man is played by Martin Sheen, no less. No disguising that voice. Not bad. The animation is bad, though. He just stuck his cigarette between his lower lip and his chin, where it froze in place until he took it with his hand again. And now his hand sank two inches down into the arm rest on the chair. All in huge closeups, so you can really see how badly it's done.
As near as I can tell, the new ship has about fifty percent more functions than the old one, but requires that you spend four times as long navigating between them. Really poor design. None of the decks are large enough to warrant those extreme loading times each and every time.
What happened to the map? For that matter, what happened to the keyboard shortcuts to the Journal, Map, Squad screen, etc.?
What, so just because I completed a task, I am automatically booted back to the Normandy? I've still got a lot to do on that space station! FFS...
Man, it used to be that when you earned things (XP, cash, resources, etc.), they were listed as text on the right side of the screen afterwards. Easy to see and get an overview of what you just accomplished. Now, they pop up one at a time with huge pointless illustrations, for about five seconds each. It's been more than 30 seconds since the end of that conversation now, and they're still popping up. Needlessly distracting, and makes it much more difficult to get a feel for what you actually did get out of it.
Okay, a planet. So no more planetside excursions in the Mako. Fine. But what did they replace it with? Are you kidding me? By the end of ME1, I was getting tired of the ME1 planet gameplay. I'm only halfway through scanning my very first ME2 planet, and I'm already tired of this. I foresee lots of time spent on this, the most boring gameplay mechanic ever invented, over the course of the game. What the hell were they thinking? This is like watching paint dry! Yes, the Mako stuff could be improved upon (the first thing that springs to mind is dividing the Z axis of all the height maps by 2), but this sure as hell is no improvement!
The story so far does not really grip me the way the first one did. I hope it gets better along the way.
That's about it, so far.

I found the game a lot of fun overall, but many of your complaints I can agree with.
I personally didn't mind the planet scanning though, but I also enjoyed driving the Mako and overall would have preferred they kept the Mako in. Or at worst, if they mixed it up a bit with scanning on maybe gas giants and very hostile worlds, with landing and planetside exploration on the rest. The good news is you don't need a ton of resources to get all you need for upgrades, so you can just scan planets when you need the resources.
As for the loading times, I didn't find them long at all. What kind of rig are you playing on? I found that the longest load times on the Normandy would be around 4 seconds on my rig.

There's going to be a hover Mako in an upcoming DLC sometime soon. In other words it should be a less bumpy ride than the Mako usually was.
But yes, there are a lot of valid criticisms you can level at the game. The lack of journal, map and squad hotkeys was inexplicable. Hopefully they'll patch that back in.
Personally I much preferred the ammo over the overheating. Watching your ammo is easy enough and ammo is often scattered around after a fight so there's no risk of running out, but I frequently had weapons overheat from two damn shots.
I didn't find the loading screens long. In fact, compared to the bloody lift sequences it had before, I'd take five loading screens over that shit.

Yeah, a hover tank. What're they calling it? Hammerhead? Too bad it's only going to be useable in the DLC though, and not the planets in the main game.

Well, most of the gameplay in ME2 was pretty fragmented and could be played in any order you wanted to. So depending on how it's implemented, there's no real reason why it would be noticeably separated from the rest.

True, but they're saying 5 new missions with the Hammerhead. Considering most of the missions were pretty short and looking at the huge number of planets in the game, you have to admit, it's not really going to replace exploring with the Mako. I'm still looking forward to it though, for my second run through the game.

Personally I'd rather have five missions that are well designed around the Hammerhead than a load of shoddy polygon peaks that see you spend half the time either airborne from or vertically clinging onto.
In ME, the best uses of the Mako were on planets involved in the main quest somehow. The rest were a bit sketchy to say the least.

A fair point. I'm hoping for ME3 they can pull all the good elements together to make one helluva finish to the series.

My rig info on my XFire profile: http://www.xfire.com/profile/wishbone77/#game_rig
It's probably due to the fact that I installed it on my C drive, which hasn't been defragged in a long time. Since the game is so big, the files are probably spread out over a bazillion sectors on the hard drive. I'm thinking seriously about buying an SSD.