Mass Effect 3 has plenty of 'magic' and 'epic moments' - BioWare

BioWare says Mass Effect 3 contains a lot the 'magic' that makes the series special. Oh, and "epic moments" as well.

Speaking in the latest PSM3 magazine, which includes loads of Mass Effect 3 information, exec producer Casey Hudson discussed how he's gone about approaching the third and final game in the trilogy.

"There are certain things you want to do when making a game that are part of the 'magic' of the experience. Those things aren't necessarily the big things - they're often little moments," he said.

"There's a lot of this in Mass Effect 3. The whole game is filled with really epic moments, but I think the story will really start to hit home when players start realising things about Shepard's personal life, through sacrifice on a galactic scale."

Yesterday loads of new gameplay details emerged for the third game, including word on Shepard's new SWAT moves and destructible enemy armour.

Hudson told PSM3 BioWare already knows how the series will end - and it's going to be "spectacular".

"We know how we want it to end and we've already established what makes the series special," he said.

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MASS EFFECT 3: NORMANDY SHIP REPLICA from Dark Horse Solicitations July 2011

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Mass Effect 3 PSM Scans

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Mass Effect 3: Marca Player Photos

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Mass Effect 3: The Q&A For Hardcore Fans (Gameinformer)

Mass Effect is a blockbuster franchise with a legion of loyal followers, and certain pieces of information about Mass Effect 3 are on everyone's must-know list. What characters are returning? How will Shepard's choices affect the fate of the galaxy? However, some questions about the series go off the beaten path; they are born from an attention to detail, an affinity for speculation, and the will to thoroughly read the in-game codex. To get answers (or at least hints of answers) pertaining to these topics, we talked to Mass Effect 3's lead writer, Mac Walters. Some may dismiss the following interview as trainspotting, but dedicated Mass Effect fans are likely to learn a few tidbits of tantalizing info – and learn which storylines might resurface in the trilogy's conclusion.

GI: Was the fact that Harbinger is a Reaper supposed to be a surprise at the end of ME2? It was presented like a reveal, but players (and Shepard) would have to be pretty dense to not have it figured out.

Walters: No, it wasn't meant to be a surprise, but it was important that we make the connection clearly at the end of the game. The goal was to reveal just how close the Reapers were to returning to our Galaxy, and to foreshadow the fate of humanity if Shepard failed to stop them.

On the original cover of Mass Effect: Revelation, both of Saren’s arms appear normal. However, in the first game, one of them is clearly made from Geth/Reaper technology. Did this aspect of his design change during development?

Good eye! It is common for most of our characters, especially those as important as Saren, to go through many revisions throughout the course of the game. And it's not just the visual concept – the voice, background, and even the gender of our characters can change (Saren got off lucky with just an arm change!). However, in this case, the difference is because we’re seeing Saren before he was indoctrinated and working with Sovereign (the time period for Revelation was about 18 years prior to the events of Mass Effect).

Why do most of the Reapers we’ve seen so far have similar insect-like appearances? The human Reaper looked different, but otherwise it seems like the Reapers mainly build themselves out of bugs. Is that correct?

The exterior of the Reapers does follow a similar pattern, an efficient design for the purpose they were created for. However each Reaper is created from a unique species, and as we saw at the end of Mass Effect 2, the core of each Reaper is designed in the likeness of that species.

In ME 2, Conrad Verner seems to the think that Shepard held a gun to his face, even if players chose the paragon option in ME 1. Was this just a glitch, or is there some story reason behind this?

Well, it may have been a glitch, or maybe Conrad was just having an off day (even more off than usual). Stay tuned in Mass Effect 3 to see how Verner deals with this embarrassing misstep with Shepard.

Where is the Illusive Man physically located during the course of Mass Effect 2? What’s going on with that colorful cosmic display outside his window?

The colorful cosmic display is a clue to the location of the Illusive Man, which I can't reveal. Not yet.

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Mass Effect 3: New Details Emerge from Spanish Magazine MarcaPlayer *UPDATED*

Eurogamer.es translation of Spanish gaming magazine MarcaPlayer (via the BioWare forum), reveals that Mass Effect 3's Shepard has a "SWAT turn" and new melee attacks, including kicks and punches. The Heavy Melee class takes advantage of these new melee attacks.

Shepard can roll, jump small gaps, and hit cover in a way likened to Max Payne.

Space battles are possible, but unconfirmed at this stage. The Engineer can build turrets, and weapons are customisable.

New locations include New York, London, the Salarian home planet, a Quarian moon, and Mars. Developing each location takes six months, and BioWare test them as soon as they start working on them.

Pro-human organisation Cerberus, which acts against Shepard in the game, has mechs, assault units and "ninja-style" shock troops at its disposal.

But Shepard and his party members are able to cause damage dynamically to enemies. The Cerberus mechs, for example, have a weak spot that must be shot. Arms can be cut off and armour can be broken.

The combat is described as "more dynamic", forcing players to move quickly. "Game rhythm" is 10-15 per cent faster.

Mysterious alien robot race the Reapers come in different sizes, from 500-600 metres to two kilometres. Sovereign, for example, is a two kilometre Reaper.

Environments are bigger. We'll see people walking, ships fighting and more detailed architecture. BioWare is looking for photo-realism by using new lightning techniques for the environments. Atmosphere is also better and there are more interactive elements in the scenarios.

A new scanning system has been implemented, and we won't drive the vehicles of previous Mass Effect games.

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UPDATE: Christina Norman confirmed on her twitter that there are no new classes - all classes now have melee special moves.

Gameinformer: Exclusive New Mass Effect 3 Screens

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution gets 'very special edition' in select territories

Do you live in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand and long for a super fancy, ultra limited edition of Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Square Enix has announced plans for a "very limited Collector's Edition" to launch alongside the regular, old, boring and utterly normal edition when it arrives this summer.

The "very limited" iteration of Deus Ex comes packed with a "highly collectable" figure of protagonist Adam Jensen, the "Explosive Mission Pack" (which is also part of GameStop's pre-order incentive), a smattering of in-game weapons, 10,000 extra in-game credits, a "making of" DVD and soundtrack, and a 40-page art book. How much will all that "very limited" stuff cost you? Square's not saying just yet, though pricing and specifics on availability will be made clear "closer to launch."

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Sarif Industries TV Spot

Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Human Augmentation company, of course:

Mass Effect 3 Details Revealed (Gameon)

including an appearance by Mark Meer!

Casey Hudson: a Mass Effect MMO makes sense

Just in case all the Mass effect 3 news wasn't enough:

Casey Hudson, BioWare's executive producer for the Mass Effect franchise, has teased the possibility of an MMO based in the sci-fi universe.

He told Game Informer that although the team hasn't come up with anything yet, multiplayer has a definite future in both BioWare and Mass Effect titles.

"We haven't yet come up with a way to do that, so we don't have anything to announce at this time. But, obviously, multiplayer is something we want to do more of in the future as a company."

He went on to talk specifically about the possibility of an MMO, saying that it's something fans have requested and a genre he feels the Mass Effect universe is well suited to.

"A lot of people say that they want to see an MMO, I think that kind of makes sense for this universe.

"I think Mass Effect has that quality to it. If you get rid of the Reapers and win that, wouldn't it be amazing to just live on the Citadel or just take a ship to Omega? That makes sense."

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Mass Effect 3: Gameinformer Scans *Spoilers*

Full credit: Harmony15 @ Livejournal

Mass Effect 3 - More GI Details Emerge *spoilers*

Did you enjoy chapter one of our epic compendium of Mass Effect 3 details? We're sure that you did, and now there's more! The spoils of Game Informer's coverage of the game were not entirely exhausted with the first load of details, and now having read the entire article ourselves PALGN can report all the other little things that were missed on the first round.

Buckle up, because here comes some more Mass Effect 3 details. Oh, and for the spoiler cautious out there, we will be keeping the first few paragraphs of news completely free of anything other than gameplay and mechanic details. Once they are done, we'll mark that the rest of the article contains spoilers, so read on without fear.

Combat foundations being built on a similar style to Mass Effect 2 means that, according to BioWare, Mass Effect 3 must be able to compete with other shooters in the market. Because of this, Shepard will be seeing a few move upgrades for added control flexibility. Firstly, players will be able to vault over obstacles without having to go into cover first, and secondly, Shepard has been given a roll/dodge ability to quickly dart out of the way of enemy attacks. Additionally, the 'peeking' feature will be expanded in unspecified ways. All of this will be necessary to combat what BioWare is promising to be more advanced AI than in previous games. Where AI once was quite content with taking cover and blind firing, they're now co-ordinate attacks between one another, acting somewhat like a 'chessboard', in BioWare's terms, and as a whole Mass Effect 3 will be more difficult than the previous game.

To expand on the character recruitment details in the previous news, without spoilers, it would seem that there will be two types of squad mates; those always available, and those temporarily available. Like with the previous game, Shepard will have an entourage of characters he can rely on for any mission, however some characters will pop up as temporary squad mates in singular missions, similar to how Liara worked in the Mass Effect 2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker. While BioWare cannot make every squad mate from both games return as perminent squad mates in Mass Effect 3, they can have many act as temporary squad mates in specific missions.

We should note that the Game Informer article does not specify any of the guaranteed permanent squad mates, so the characters we listed as returning as squad mates in the previous article may not be permanent, and could potentially just be mission specific squad mates.

Speaking about the 'choices' players have been able to make across both games, BioWare has stated that Mass Effect 3 has a greater dynamic and response to choices. The engine has been upgraded to reference saved choices at a faster rate, allowing for sequences similar to the final mission of Mass Effect 2, allowing choices and changes to take place on the fly. Additionally, players concerned that the choices they have made in previous games will hinder their experience in Mass Effect 3 need not be worried. From BioWare's perspective, there is no 'good' or 'bad' way to experience the game, which neither paragon nor renegade choices leading to a 'better' Mass Effect 3 experience, just a 'different' one.

Lastly, in the realm of non-spoiler news, those wishing for the return of the Mako or the Hammerhead might want to quell their hype. BioWare has stated that vehicle focused missions will not make up the main story path, but might still appear in side missions. Oh, and scanning is back in some form, though according to BioWare in a way that is nothing like Mass Effect 2.

Sadly, this is where we must end our spoiler free coverage. The following details contain story and scenario spoilers, and those wishing to go in fresh are advised to bail out now.

As stated in the previous report, Earth is under attack from a Reaper invasion, and Shepard must high tail out of there. But Earth isn't the only Reaper target. Instead, Earth is the first planet to fall, and the Reapers are now spreading throughout the galaxy, appearing on other worlds and causing trouble for all the green, purple and orange species of the Milky Way.

Shepard's duty will be to recruit the races, but not all races are interested in complying. Most are scared of the Reaper thread, and many are involved in their own big problems. Visiting the Salarian homeworld, Shepard finds them caught in a conflict regarding the genophage, while speaking to the Quarians he/she discovers they're on the verge of war to take back their home planet. Attempting to resolve these issues each species is facing may earn their alliance in the war, but it wont be easy. Based on choices made, the outcome you're expecting might be something else entirely, and in some cases it will be impossible to find a perfect middle ground.

This galaxy spanning war will serve as the core for presentation and art. BioWare wants to convey a great sense of scale, both for what is at stake, and the literal scale of ships and creatures. In one scenario demonstrated to Game Informer, players were riding on a Krogran railroad, only to have the rails destroyed by a Turian gunship plummeting into the planet's surface. Who could take such a ship down? A Reaper of course. The colossal beast flies overhead, until suddenly a gigantic Thresher Maw explodes from the ground. From the ground below, players will witness a battle between the Thresher Maw and Reaper as they tower overhead. Then, in a moment of advantage, the Thresher Maw wraps itself around the Reaper, dragging it straight under ground, leaving behind nothing but an eerie silence. This silence is soon disrupted, when the ground begins to shake, and laser fire from the Reaper begins erupting through the planet's crust, the two creatures still caught in a vicious struggle.

One of the most common used buzzwords in the industry today is 'epic'. It might be thrown around like nobody's business, but with all the information from Game Informer finally summarised, Mass Effect 3 could be the most best candidate for the title this generation.

Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later that we actually get to see some footage.

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First Mass Effect 3 Details Emerge from GI *Potential Spoilers*

As promised, the first Mass Effect 3 details have arrived in US retailer mag Game Informer.

According to the mag, BioWare's third and final sci-fi instalment kicks off with Shepard on Earth, facing trial for the events that occurred during the recently released Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2.

In the middle of the trial, the Reapers invade, and it all kicks off. Mass Effect 3's prologue involves Shepard's escape to the Normandy, and subsequent mission to yet again gather allies to battle the Reaper troops.

Confirmed squadmates from the GI article include Liara, Ashley/Kaiden, Garrus (if he's alive) and a man called James Sanders, who we're not familiar with. Wrex, Mordin, Legion, and Anderson will also appear in the game (if they're alive), but aren't confirmed as squadmates.

Mass Effect 3's set to include numerous endings, BioWare's confirmed, and just like the last game who you have in your squad and which allies you recruit will have a drastic effect on which ending you get.

The Illusive Man also plays a prominent role in the third game, and Cerberus is out to kill Shepard for reasons unknown, says GI.

In the gameplay department, RPG elements are being beefed up for the third game, says BioWare, offering players more freedom with character skills. Skill trees are said to be larger, and powers will evolve several times instead of just once, offering players even more freedom.

Weapons are similar to those in Mass Effect 2, except mods make a return, allowing you to swap out different parts such as barrels, scopes, and so on, which effect both the weapon's combat performance and appearance.

All classes can wield all weapons unhindered now, but will have limited slots to carry them. For example, only the Soldier can carry all weapons at once.

Finally, for those who've missed out on the series so far (shame on you) GI says Mass Effect 3 will feature a "previously on Mass Effect" comic to make decisions from scratch.

info collated from GI article.

Mass Effect 3 - Gameinformer's May Cover Revealed

Commander Shepard has already saved the galaxy twice, but the final entry in the Mass Effect trilogy could be either the hero's last stand or finest hour. Earth is in jeopardy, entire civilizations are at risk, and we've got all the details. Our latest issue has 12 pages of exclusive info, screens, and art that no Mass Effect fan should miss.

Subscribers should be receiving their issues in the coming days. After you finish reading up, don't forget to keep checking back with gameinformer.com throughout the month, since we'll have plenty of updates delving into Mass Effect 3 and the franchise as a whole.

In addition to explaining Shepard's latest mission, the May issue includes an in-depth look at Spider-Man: Edge of Time, a status report on upcoming Kinect software, and an examination of rumors that Activision might buy Take Two.

While you're waiting, you can marvel at the image you'll see adorning the issue when it's in your hands.

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EA and FUNimation Entertainment Announce Mass Effect Anime Movie Deal

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioWare™, a division of leading video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and FUNimation® Entertainment, the leading distributor of Japanese animation in North America, announced today an agreement to create an anime feature film adapted from one of the video game industry’s most revered franchises, Mass Effect™. Tokyo-based anime and international feature film production company T.O Entertainment, Inc. has signed on as a co-producer on the video. Based on the Mass Effect universe, the anime video will tell the tale of an epic science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets.

Casey Hudson of BioWare, executive producer of the Mass Effect series, will serve as executive producer on the film, along with FUNimation President and CEO Gen Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes and T.O Entertainment’s CEO Takeichi Honda and Yui Shibata.

"Over the last few years, we have revealed different pieces of the Mass Effect world through different media. Extending the story through an anime medium is another amazing opportunity for us,” said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer for the Mass Effect series. "Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we will bring this rich universe to life with the utmost quality and the same attention to detail that the Mass Effect games are known for.”

"It is thanks to the enormous and passionate Mass Effect fan base that this movie is made possible," said Gen Fukunaga, President & CEO of FUNimation. “With production underway on the Dragon Age video, we are excited to team up with another BioWare team to add an exciting new chapter to this vast sci-fi world.”

Production of the Mass Effect anime movie has already begun. Digital and home video releases are scheduled for the summer of 2012.

The original Mass Effect game and its sequel Mass Effect 2 have received over 250 awards and 100 perfect ‘10’ scores from critics worldwide. Mass Effect 2 is available now for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC. Stay tuned for more news about the continuation of Commander Shepard’s adventure as BioWare will release more information about Mass Effect 3 soon.

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UE3.5 2011 New Engine Features

You can expect to see some of these in future console games (Gears 3 probably being the first), some however, will be locked to DX11 capable PCs for now - tesselation, for example.

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Imminent Mass Effect 3 reveal backed up as OXM teases gameplay details for next issue

An imminent gameplay reveal for Mass Effect 3 has been backed up by another games mag.

The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine - which is with subscribers now - promises a full reveal for the Bioware sequel in its next issue, on sale May 9.

Earlier than that, respected UK unofficial title PSM3 has said it's to boast a "world-first look at Mass Effect 3 on PS3" in its next release, which goes on sale on April 28.

Meanwhile US retailer mag Game Informer's promising a reveal of a "highly anticipated" sequel to one of 2010's best games, with its issue likely to arrive this month. That's Mass Effect 3, then.

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