Ha! Yeah, I had a mouse for the SNES too. It came with Cannon Fodder. It makes ALL the difference.

Precisely. The main difference is that developers now have the ability to draw on the experience old games have given them. What worked and what didn't. What's required and what's surplus to requirements. What annoys people and what they enjoy, and so forth.
The only question is whether or not they pay attention to that or not. Many still don't Most business practices in the industry are still shoddy as hell. There's still a long way to go before we can honestly expect a major game with a large budget to actually be a good game.

I think it's debatable whether ME1 is more complex than ME2. Some things were simplified, some were made more complicated. And I certainly cannot agree that nothing of value was lost in the "streamlining", as you call it.
I'm not very far into ME2 yet (I just bought it last saturday), but so far it seems quite a bit inferior to its predecessor in my opinion.

Old Games have more to offer for good gameplays.
It's a shame that fucktards from Hollywood and the Next-Gen Shit ruined the future of video games.

Because old games were mostly dreamt up and subsequently made by one person or a small team, who could easily keep control over his or their ideas, without being bothered by executives, managers and producers wanting to have a say too, chime in or pressing you to finish on time.
Thus, games were more... harmonious, consistent.
Edit: basically, I agree with HertogJan

What do you think is more complicated? And what do you think has been lost that was worth keeping? As for first impressions: give it time. My first impression was along the lines of 'OMG dumbed down for consoles!'. Only slightly less fanboyish. But given the time it quickly proved itself to be a superior sequel. Which is a rare thing indeed.

My in-depth first impressions of Mass Effect 2: Coming soon to the ME2 thread on this forum!

Hey, I did use that increase damage by 200% but increase heat by like 500% bullets on my sniper rifles (or something like that). One shot kills on nearly anything.

Yeah, when the fucker stops waving around like a 8 year old kid with asthma is aiming it.

By the time you get that high explosive bullet upgrade, you should have access to sufficient stabilizers to hold it pretty steady. And your sniper rifle skill should be maxed out.

Yeah, that's what I meant by when. It kinda sucks being the infiltrator class until it's stabilised.

Eh, not really. Your tech skills can do decent damage/suppression against techs and biotics (dampen/sabotage/overload) and your pistol can actually do a lot of damage. I used my sniper rifle at long distance, used pistol in close, didn't have any issues taking anything down fairly quickly. I mostly used biotic/soldier backup, either Wrex/Ashley combo, or the asari chick/wrex (fan of wrex). With tech abilities Garrus and Tali become pointless, and Kaidan just blows in general.

Yeah, but I had already played through the game with the Engineer class. Which meant I was already very well versed in being stuck with the pistol and having similar powers. I went for the Infiltrator class pretty much for the sniper rifle, really. I wanted a more balanced character.

Incorrect target.
Why do companies keep making games like they do? THOSE GAMES SELL. It's just like people complaining about the music industry and the state of popular radio...know who's to blame? The general public. Companies make what people want to buy.

You mean that's why so many new game protagonist are "SO AWESOME AMERRRRICANS" ?
Huh, guess so

My guess is that it's due to most of those games being developed in America and companies are going to focus on marketing towards their native countries since it's easier and cheaper.
So which games are you talking about anyway? I usually focus on Sci-Fi games so I'm not entirely sure. Didn't the MW games focus mostly on a SAS team and the Americans you play as get killed? I played the first one and the USMC failed to disarm a nuke and a shitload died, which hardly qualifies as awesome.