A lecture called The Iterative Level Design Process of Bioware's Mass Effect 2 has popped up in the lecture schedule on the official GDC website.
Speakers are Corey Andruko (Project Manager, BioWare) and Dusty Everman (Lead Technical Designer, BioWare). Even though it is no secret that Mass Effect 2 is on the way, we have no official announcement yet. Perhaps the game will be shown prior to GDC as it would be a little weird to talk about the level design of a project not yet officially announced. It could of course be that the lecture is going to focus on examples from the first game and then explain in theory what changes has been made. But reading the "takeaway" suggest we will get some concrete examples of level design from Mass Effect 2:
"Attendees will: - Gain insight into some of the major issues the development team encountered while building Mass Effect at BioWare; - Get a detailed look at the Mass Effect team's new approach to creating levels while avoiding these issues; - Find out how this new process is working for the Mass Effect team; - Learn about new pitfalls the team discovered that can potentially be avoided on future game projects."
Let's hope they design the side mission bunkers in a few more ways for the sequel... But sign me up for the lecture - Mass Effect 2 is easily one of my most anticipated titles for whenever Bioware are ready to release it.