Yes, the box is the source of the date. I think they will milk (not in a bad manner) ME2 and DA with DLCs and the proper sequels as fast as possible, too.
About the countdown, I know nothing new about it but I would like to see their new project.

Just got this game in the mail for PC (bought it for $29.99, not a bad deal). Gonna fire it up tonight, hopefully I will actually get some sleep.

You won't!
Where'd you get it?

Gogamer had a sale a week back, got that and Maelstrom (never heard of it, wasn't part of my decision making process) for 29.99 with free shipping. I have the original on Steam, I was slightly tempted to get it there for consistency, but price discrepancy was too big.

Well, I can promise you that Maelstrom won't cut into your sleep time. That game is horribly, horribly crappy and broken.

Well, I watched a person play ME2 on the 360 and I will say that scanning for resources looked rather boring and like a mundane, repetitive task that serves little purpose to it. This took place for about 5-10 minutes until and event was located on a planet and then the game went into 3rd person on planet mode.
This too seemed boring as it amount to locating 20 dog-tags that were scattered about and inside crates (do not ask me how they got there). It was a bunch of senseless running around.
Maybe I am missing something but that was all I could take (about 30 minutes) of repetitive boring game play.

Well, the planet scanning is just about the most boring game mechanic ever invented in the history of gaming, and even though it is not necessary to do it all that much in the game, it's still far too much for my taste. Whoever thought up the idea to replace the planet exploration from ME1 with this crap, needs to be fired and never work in the industry again. Then it sounds like you also witnessed one of the most boring missions in the entire game, which is a pity, because the game really does have much more to offer. The storytelling in particular is where the game shines, and you didn't really get to see any of that.
That said, I still think ME1 was a better game, by quite a large margin. But ME2 is okay. At least, I haven't quit playing it yet. But then, I haven't finished it yet either. I'm not sure I'll play through it a second time, but I'm pretty sure I'll give ME1 a second playthrough.

Well, even before I started playing I got a pleasant surprise with the DLC. With Dragon Age, you needed to log into the server through the game itself to download the DLC, which was an issue since I'm behind a uni firewall which prevents me from doing so, meaning I could never download stone prisoner, etc.
With Mass Effect 2, I can log in from the game, OR just download the DLC from the bioware website itself as individual files, meaning I can actually activate and download the DLC for the game, which I could not do for Dragon Age. Yaaaay Bioware for learning.
Nope, take that back. I can download and install, but it won't activate them in game unless I connect to the server. arg.

Hooray for DRM.

Well, got in a few hours of playtime yesterday, a few thoughts:
1) Planet scanning is horrible
2) Traveling in space is horrible. I keep overshooting the systems/bases I want to go to because apparently your ship needs to slow down before stopping. Why can't I click on a location and go there? I'm playing on the PC, and I definitely feel that the space travel mechanic was made to be used with a gamepad joystick, not a point and click interface. And fuel? Really? I need to load up on fuel now?
3) Combat is fun, although having the limited and different ammo on each weapon is slightly aggravating, I dislike having to go run around picking up ammo clips. In the beginning the special abilities feel very limited. I don't, however, like the new command screen in combat where you choose what you're allies do. The buttons are way too tiny.
4) I'm completely ignore whether I should be a paragon or renegade and just playing how I feel like I should be.
5) I have the Cerebrus armor and Blood Armor DLCs, but I don't want to use them because you can't go helmetless in them and the blood armor looks RIDICULOUS with the helmet on. It's basically wasted on me, I much prefer the standard armor, pitch black with red highlights, no helmet. Or even with helmet it looks better.
6) I don't really enjoy the fact that it seems that enemies now spawn. I go into a room, I see four guys. I kill them. Then four more come, kill them, and a few more come. Mass Effect 1, for the most part, gave you what you saw and that was it. This feels like the game is more of a set piece rather than a living universe. Enemies wouldn't come at you in waves, they would all come at you at the same time, doing them in waves just prolongs conflicts for no good reason and makes me feel like I'm playing a sub-par FPS.
7) In addition, the 'end level' screens are a horrible idea. Way to destroy the illusion of actually playing/living in a real futuristic world.
8) As I was starting a brand new game with the DLC downloaded, it was a little strange to get onto the Normandy for the first time and already have messages from Alliance staff asking you to do stuff. no one even knows I'm alive yet!!

So, is anyone besides me extremely disappointed with the Hammerhead and its missions?

Meh, I had some fun with it. At the end of the day you can't really complain about free and Bioware have hinted there are more missions in the pipeline.

You covered most of the things I didn't. I mostly agree with all your points.

*joined the "dark side",because of this