Gecko Mines, Railguns & Crab-paste

Mass Effect 3: James Vega Featurette (Gametrailers)

2012-01-21T12:07:00.000Z

Looks like we traded Stuart Beattie (Mordin) for Freddie Prinze Jr as Vega. Still at least he sounds sincere...

VGA 2011: Mass Effect 3 Exclusive Trailer

2011-12-11T11:43:00.001Z

Mass Effect 3 @ Eurogamer 22-09-2011

2011-09-25T11:22:00.000+01:00

I personally attended the first day of Eurogamer to get a hands-on of Mass Effect 3. Unfortunately the booth was quite small, with decent but not huge Samsung monitors (especially compared with the giant LED TVs inside the Battlefield 3 section) and the kiosks were very uncomfortable to stand at. The demo was the same Sur'Kesh one seen at E3 and Gamescom and here are my impressions:

The demo was a decent length and included the "boss" battle against the Cerberus Atlus mech, however even playing on hardcore it didn't feel all that difficult - which makes me believe that a "god" mode was on - despite that i only came near death once or twice the whole time anyway. The best thing was the feel of the game - if you like mass effect 2 you are going to be very comfortable playing this game - it's feels just right and exactly the same as the last one - just with better-designed levels and more enemies, so it's all good.

I didn't really notice much improvement in being able to take cover tbh - it's a much vaunted improvement supposedly, and although it could have been the unusual circumstances, i could swear that several times i could not pin to various parts of the environment/cover and definitely not "swat-turn"/roll between various parts of it (even with the little hologram icon telling me to).

I played as a soldier class, and buffed up incendiary ammo a little as one of my powers, again like mass effect 2, this makes a massive difference to the effectiveness of your weapons, but the bane of mass effect 2 still rears it's ugly head: ammo clips. once again you get a set amount of ammo, distributed equally when collecting clips from dropped enemies, however this hugely limits you from just sticking with a preferred weapon sometimes - i was using the mattock and during the boss fight i simply ran out of ammo and had to finish with a handgun - why oh why we are still having arbitrary limits on what the player wishes to do in this day and age is beyond me - especially given the ammo-less system employed by mass effect 1 to such great effect. As an artificial difficulty-spiker it's pointless as it doesn't empower the player and just covers deficiencies in either level design/enemies/weapon effectiveness instead.

One nice element Bioware have borrowed from Gears of War is at set times you can press Y to focus the camera on something interesting happening in the level (spaceships flying past etc) which nicely increases some of the dynamism of the levels. Another new aspect really played up is multi-tiering - ladders and stairs really open up some of the combat environments, which still follow the rather narrow-corridor feel of these types of games sometimes.

Another nice things is the increased visual fidelity of the graphics - weapon effect, level textures, draw distance - everything has had a noticeable bump from even Mass effect 2 in beauty - i can only imagine what earth and other levels will looklike on my 40" LED TV in the comfort of my own home...

Finally i guess, whilst i got in early and most people made a beeline for either the '18' section and Battlefield3/COD or even Batman: AC (in the centre of the auditorium), by midday there was quite a nice queue forming to play the game - so hopefully the interest is there and the critical/commercial sucess of ME1/2 will translate to an even better game and more success for Mass Effect 3.

Mass Effect 3: PAX 2011 Screenshots

2011-08-31T21:08:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect Artbook Coming from Dark Horse

2011-08-31T21:01:00.001+01:00

"The Art of the Mass Effect Universe" is a hardcover encapsulation of the entire franchise's visual work thus far, presented with (text) commentary from the folks at BioWare.The $40 book's due in February 2012 and will contain art from Mass Effect 3, placing it in vague spoiler territory in front of the game's March debut.

DARK HORSE AND BIOWARE ANNOUNCE THE ART OF THE MASS EFFECT UNIVERSE!August 25, MILWAUKIE, OR – Fans of the Mass Effect™ series looking to go deeper into the Mass Effect universe are in luck. Dark Horse is proud to announce The Art of the Mass Effect Universe, an expansive, hardcover art book showcasing the stunning and imaginative art behind the highly anticipated action RPG Mass Effect 3. With commentary from the creators of the Mass Effect series, The Art of the Mass Effect Universe invites fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at the critically acclaimed franchise."Mass Effect 3 is the climax of the greatest sci-fi epic of our generation, so it's only fitting that Dark Horse up the ante as well," Dark Horse editor Dave Marshall said. "The Art of the Mass Effect Universe will reveal reams of never-before-seen artwork that was created during the development of this modern masterpiece."The Art of the Mass Effect Universe will be available for purchase in February 2012 for $39.99.From the award-winning developers at BioWare™ comes Mass Effect 3, the pinnacle of the critically acclaimed epic action RPG series. The galactic war has begun. An ancient alien race known only as the "Reapers" has launched an all-out invasion of the galaxy, leaving nothing but a trail of destruction in their wake. Earth has been taken, the universe is on the verge of total annihilation, and you must lead the counterassault to take it back. The price of failure is extinction. Only you, as Commander Shepard, can determine how events will play out, which planets you will save from annihilation and which alliances you will form or abandon as you rally the forces of the galaxy to eliminate the Reaper threat once and for all.Look for Mass Effect: Invasion, the latest comic series, to arrive on October 19, 2011. The collection of the previous series, Mass Effect: Evolution, is on sale September 21, 2011.

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Mass Effect 3 hands on preview and interview – a moral war

2011-08-20T23:28:00.001+01:00

From the Metro newspapers of all places:

Gaming’s most epic sci-fi saga is about to come to an apocalyptic end, as GameCentral goes hands on with Mass Effect 3 and talks to associate producer Mike Gamble.

There have been many great Western role-players this generation, but BioWare’s Mass Effect series is arguably the most innovative and influential. Melding elements of both role-playing game and third person shooter the games exist outside of the boundaries of normal genres and exhibit some of the best storytelling gaming has ever seen. And now that story is coming to an end…

Although we’ve never been hands on with Mass Effect 3 until now we did see quite a bit of it at E3 in June and very little extra was being shown at Gamescom this week. You can find our original preview here, but this week we did also get to go hands on with what was referred to at E3 as the ‘Combat Demo’.

The story for this mission was… all in German. But thankfully the E3 rolling demos were also being shown behind closed doors, hinting at a backstory that involves Shepard and crew (specificallly Liara and Garrus in this instance) trying to help Mordin (the hyperactive doctor from Mass Effect 2) deliver a female Krogan to safety.

Long-time fans of the series will know that the violent (but not necessarily evil) Krogan were made infertile in order to stop them overrunning the galaxy. With the Reapers looking to wipe out all life it seems as if that process is being reversed – if you can get the female to safety.

This involves shooting an awful lot of Cerberus troops, who even though they were your allies in the second game are now being mind-controlled (or at least influenced) by the Reapers. The Combat demo demonstrates all of Shepard’s new moves, as he flips between cover and performs SWAT turns to look cool while hiding behind door frames.

Grenades are back too, you’ve now got stealth attacks, and we were able to make good use of the new ominblade melee weapon (an inflatable plastic version of which we’ll post to the reader who sends us the best haiku illustrating their love for the Mass Effect franchise).

But as competent as the third person combat has always been in Mass Effect, and as usefully improved as it now seems, it’s still by far the least important aspect of the game. We enjoyed the demo but what we were really interested in was seeing how the galaxy had been changed since the second game and meeting up with what by now seem like old friends.

Luckily we got to discuss all this with Mike Gamble, who’s the franchise’s associate producer and has worked on all three of the games so far. He was able to hint enticingly at Mass Effect 3’s other new features and what sounds like an appropriately epic end to the series’ first trilogy…

GC: The impression we get about Mass Effect 3 is that it’s primarily aiming to combine the approaches from 1 and 2, which are actually two quite different games. So you would have the deeper role-playing elements from 1 but the better combat from 2. But is that really what you’re doing? Because you also talk about increased accessibility, and accessibility isn’t necessarily a role-playing byword….

MG: Exactly, so I think at a high level if you want to summarise it that way that’s actually probably a good way. We take the deep RPG systems from 1, but when you say that they’re still completely optional. You don’t have to spend the time customising your Shepard, you don’t have to spend the time levelling up and acquiring all the specific powers. There’s always the option to just play the game as a Shepard soldier, but I do think the RPG elements are important and we’ve made a conscious effort to bring the role-playing elements back.

But we’re also refining the shooter element too, with things like cover, SWAT turns. Even what might seem like little things like ladders and stuff like that. That actually adds a huge new element to the gameplay in terms of being able to actually now have multi-floor, combat spaces instead of just flat combat spaces.

GC: So our understanding is that the Mako [the armoured personal carrier from the first game] is not in 3 and that there’s no equivalent vehicle either?

MG: We haven’t made a decision either way as to whether or not there’s going to be any sort of vehicle combat or vehicle exploration in 3. We haven’t decided. But I think the general consensus is that we're keeping it away from the main storyline. It’s not going to be integral to it, but that said exploration is still a pretty key tenet within the series.

GC: That’s true, because although the Mako combat could be hugely annoying, it did seem to be throwing out the baby with the bathwater by getting rid of the vehicle sections completely. As you imply, it really showed the size and scope of the galaxy; and just the excuse to see those amazing sci-fi vistas was well worth it in our eyes. And yet the Hammerhead downloadable vehicle for 2, all that seemed to do was add some weird platforming sections…

MG: What you’re saying is exactly the problem, which we’re trying to solve. So, we have this huge galaxy, right. We don’t want to limit it to just the areas where you do missions, we want the scope, but at the same time you don’t want to make the other areas redundant and useless. Currently we’re looking at a couple of options and we’ll be able to share them in the next couple of months. Rest assured that that scope is still going to be there and showing how big the galaxy is, but the way in which we focus and the way in which we deal with content through that is what we’re working on now.

GC: Is Lair Of The Shadow Broker, one of the last and certainly the best, slices of downloadable content an indication of the style of mission you’re aiming for in Mass Effect 3? It did seem to feature a little bit of everything in terms of the unique setting, the strong combat, and the touching romance element.

MG: Oh absolutely, there’s two a track approach to DLC. We like to do the smaller micro-content packs. There are customers and fans that absolutely love the customisation options they offer. But when we release a main pack we make it the main focus of what we’re working on at the time, just like a main game. Rest assured we’ve learnt that lesson and definitely we want to use that approach in Mass Effect 3. Obviously we haven’t announced any downloadable content yet, but that’s the approach.

GC: Many of the missions in Mass Effect 2 involved you trying to get someone on your side or doing someone a favour. But it’s hard to imagine doing anything like that now, when there’s such an important war going on. Where is the space now for the more trivial quests in the new game? Do you even have those styles of mission in the new game?

MG: We don’t! Mass Effect 3 is all about the Reaper war. So you no longer, for example, have to gain the loyalty of Garrus. Garrus sides with you because basically Reapers are attack his homeworld and…

GC: So he’s finished his calibrations?

MG: (laughs) Exactly. You’ve got your teams, right. What you have to do is basically work to resolve a lot of those outstanding large scale conflicts. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the rachni and the geth and the quarians. Those are huge large scale conflicts that actually, without resolution, can definitely hurt the overall galaxy at war. So those are the things we’re focusing on. So the scope and scale has definitely increased in Mass Effect 3.

GC: Okay, so simply those kind of missions just won’t be there?

MG: I can’t say conclusively that they won’t be there, but the focus is all around that. So, people are asking what the critical path is through the story. But all the side quests, all the optional content, feeds back into the whole galaxy at war theme. There’s not like separate satellite pieces.

GC: Just a quick point, but we didn’t realise that the Reapers are attacking many other planets. So it’s not just Earth?

MG: No. Earth is basically where they first attack. It’s like the first point of contact and this comes as a huge surprise to everyone. But at the same time calls are coming in from other parts of the galaxy that the Reapers are also there. So you go through very many places that the Reapers have attacked, destroyed, etc.

GC: Has the idea of ship-to-ship combat ever been considered for the games? Everyone always asks about co-op and multiplayer, but space battles seem to us at least as good a fit for the series.

MG: Um… no, we’re not going to do ship-to-ship combat, I can pretty much tell you that. There are no plans for it and we like to focus even more on our relationship based stuff and that kind of stuff. And to tell you the truth there’s already some stuff from Mass Effect 3 that’s adding another layer for quests.

GC: Mass Effect 3 is being described as the last part of a trilogy isn’t it?

MG: Yes. So, everything you know about Shepard basically concludes in this game. We’re not going to bring him back later or anything like that.

GC: Okay, so if there is a Mass Effect 4 Shepard won’t be in it. Or at least she/he won’t be the protagonist?

MG: If there was a Mass Effect 4 it would not be Shepard’s story.

GC: In Mass Effect 3 how will you accomodate those that haven’t played the previous games and so haven’t made the moral choices that are remembered and used from one game to another?

MG: So I think overall what we’re trying to do, for those of you that haven’t played Mass Effect 1 or 2, we’re trying to establish basically the best possible way so you can see the most amount of story content. Obviously we encourage you to go and play the earlier games, but we’re also looking at other mechanisms to explain the gaps between the games and at the same time we are really determined to work out the easiest and best way to get new players started.

GC: So would it be an interactive comic, like Mass Effect 2 on the PlayStation 3?

MG: Nothing is really solid yet. That’s really the next step now that the story has been finished. We have to basically figure out that branching path and how everything is affected.

GC: One of the things we’re worried about is that we made what we believed to be a morally sound decision about what to do with the geth at the end of Mass Effect 2. But as far as the game is concerned we got awarded renegade points for the decision. And now we’re worried everyone is going to think we’re evil when the plot point gets raised again.

[At this point Gamble, who has clearly been struggling with a very sore throat and cough the entire interview, exhibits an almost Pavlovian response at the topic of morality and immediately leaps up into his chair for the new topic – his illness for the moment forgotten.]

MG: So right now we’re getting into that whole, ‘depending on how your moral compass works’ and moral relativity. There are some choices in Mass Effect which appear morally correct to some people but not others, and to feed into Mass Effect 3 we have a lot of situations where there’s not really, in a lot of cases, a really good or bad choice in terms of morality. There’s just varying shades of grey, with varying different consequences. There’s always going to be sacrifices and in Mass Effect 3 that comes out.Speaking to your exact point there I don’t think you have much to worry about in Mass Effect 3. They will know your choice, but you won’t necessarily be made to feel you made the wrong choice.

*SPOILER ALERT* THE ENDING OF MASS EFFECT 1 AND 2 IS DISCUSSED IN THE NEXT QUESTION. *SPOILER ALERT*

GC: The question of the geth is definitely one of the most interesting choices in the series, but our favourite overall is at the end of the first game. Our Shepard is a very moral character and also a good talker, and so she was able to talk Saren out of his indoctrination – at which point he took his own life. For us that was a great moment in video game storytelling, especially for an action game. And yet at the end of Mass Effect 2 it was just a fight with what looked like an end-of-level boss from Contra. Will there be more non-action based story resolutions in Mass Effect 3, compared to the last game?

MG: Yes, absolutely. So, the conclusion and resolution to conflicts, storylines – it’s not always going to end in combat. There’s a lot of choices in how you do them and they can end in a variety of ways. The Sarien example that you gave is I think is a good example of one way to do that. It does exist elsewhere in the game.

GC: OK, that’s great. That sounds really good. Thank you.

MG: My pleasure.

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Bioware Interview with Patryk Olejniczak

2011-08-20T23:02:00.001+01:00

Pukse interview with the amazing artist who won the SDCC fanart competition and a job at Bioware as a result:

Gamescom: Mass Effect 3 - The Highs of Hands-On (IGN)

2011-08-17T20:51:00.000+01:00

Gamescom represents the very first time we've gone hands-on with Mass Effect 3, and while doing so may not have revealed any shocking revelations, there are certainly some very cool changes that fans will appreciate. For those keeping score, the section we were able to play through was shown at E3, and sees Shep trying to get Mordin Solus and a female Krogan off-world. The Krogan may hold the key to reversing the Genophage that left the Krogan race almost entirely sterile, but she's in quarantine, which means a series of steps to get her out. Naturally, the Commander meets some serious resistance along the way – from Cerberus in this case. You can see the sequence – as well as some incredible action set on Earth - in the video embedded further down the page. Here are five things we loved during our hands-on session:

1) The Omni-blade! Snikt!

It's all very well to have a multi-purpose holographic device attached to your arm, but if you can't stab people with it, well, it's not that useful, now is it? Ladies and gentleman, forget the Omni-tool and welcome the Omni-blade, Shepard's latest toy. This orange holographic blade sits on his arm, and is one of the precision instruments with which he'll carve his revenge into the guts of his enemies.

Using it is simple – just get close to an enemy and stab. The camera moves in close and judders, giving the attack a really punchy feel. It also helps Shepard feel like more of a bad-ass at close range. Honestly, it can be a little clunky trying to take down moving enemies with traditional weaponry at close quarters, so the Omni-blade greatly simplifies things, letting Shep gouge a great big hole in his enemy's chest with one smooth motion.

2) Upgrading Powers

Remember the upgrade system for powers in Mass Effect 2? You'd pump stat points into each power, upgrading them along a fixed path until the final upgrade would give you a choice of two variations on the power. It was cool, but for Mass Effect 3, BioWare is giving players more this or that choices. Take Liara's singularity power. You spend a point to purchase it, and each subsequent upgrade costs more points – much like the old system. The second upgrade increases its duration, the third its radius, then for the fourth, players have a choice between extra duration or wider radius, for the fifth it's a choice between increased damage and faster recharge speed and for the final upgrade it's another choice, between having a 50% larger size for the first ten seconds or having the ball of gravity collapse in on itself and explode when the power ends.

It means players will be able to customise every power they have in pretty cool ways – sometimes literally. In our hands-on we bumped our cryo ability way up, meaning that cryo ammo would often either cool and slow enemies or outright freeze them, opening them up to be shattered into a million pieces with any further damage. Weapons can also be modified, letting players upgrade different stats, like fire rate and clip size.

3) Cover Evolved

It may not sound glamorous, but the revamped cover system definitely makes combat in Mass Effect 3 more flowing. What's changed? Well, Shepard can now move from cover point to cover point, move around corners in cover and commando roll to evade fire/get to cover. And like the last game he can still vault low cover objects, but the system seems less clunky. The team has stated that the combat is going to be more challenging in this game, so ensuring players have the tools to smoothly and tactically use the battlefield can't be overstated. In short, we've used it and we like it.

4) Squad Controls

Mass Effect players have always had a fair amount of control over the members of their squad. After all, at any time you can bring up the radial menu and tell your squad mates which enemies you'd like in the air/in giblets/frozen/concussed/etc, and they'll give it their full attention. That level of control has only increased for Mass Effect 3. We weren't able to test out the Kinect voice commands, which enable you to simply state what you want each squad member to do, but it is clear that the game is going to be pushing players to use their squad controls – in particular the waypoint system – more during battles. One moment in the hands-on has a couple of enemies holding up shields coming towards the player, and it's a simple matter to position one of your squad to draw their fire while you – or the other squad member – flanks around them. Mind you, it's even easier to command Liara to use her singularity power to suck them into a swirling ball of gravity. Gravity – is there anything it can't do?

5) Meching New Friends……or destroying them, as the case may be.

The end of the hands-on featured a battle against the Cerberus Atlas, a towering bi-pedal mech piloted by a Cerberus agent. Using squad members to draw its fire and avoid copping rockets in the face gave us the chance to get around behind it and dish out some damage to its shields. The team has demonstrated a couple of encounters with much larger enemies, so you can expect this to be a mini-boss that will likely pop up a number of times throughout the game. We hope so, because the team mentioned that if players can take out the pilot without destroying the mech, they'll be able to hop inside the cockpit themselves.

While the area we played was pretty contained, essentially featuring a number of mid-sized rooms, each with a number of cover objects, there are going to be some amazingly cinematic settings for the action and narrative. The sequence on Earth, for instance – which you can see in the video above - is staggering. The sheer scale of the Reaper invasion is truly intimidating and impactful. One thing's for sure – our hands-on today was just the first step down a road that has the potential to be one of the greatest gaming experiences of recent years.

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New Mass Effect 3 screens from Gamescom 2011

2011-08-16T21:36:00.000+01:00

Gamescom, from Cologne in Germany:

and some concept art of Tuchunka:

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Mass Effect 3 Squad leader Trailer

2011-08-16T21:00:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Interview: BioWare Talks Shepard, Kinect, RPGs (NowGamer)

2011-08-03T11:04:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 has had fans speculating since it was announced, with the future of Shepard - and the galaxy - hanging in the balance once and for all. In our exclusive Q&A, Casey Hudson, Executive Producer for the Mass Effect franchise discusses Kinect, Final Fantasy, Cloud Gaming, the mechanics of the sprawling Mass Effect universe and the future of Shepard.

We've seen the Kinect features demoed (dialogue, squad commands) - were any other ideas discussed? Are there more to come?

No, a total and fundamental integration of Kinect would really require us to design a game from the ground up specifically for that experience, and with the 3rd title in a series it wasn’t the time to re-invent how people play our game. But we did see the voice control as a definite value-add, and with Kinect it’s relatively easy for us to implement.

Much is made of the information ported in saves between games - how significant are those profiles in Mass Effect 3 and how do you ensure things like DLC packs have an impact even though not everyone plays them?

We designed ME3 to be able to handle all different kinds of player backgrounds, whether you’re totally new to the ME universe or you have played every game and DLC so far. Each experience, and the choices inside it, simply set different situations and outcomes that you’ll experience in ME3. The result is that if you have had a deep experience with decisions in past games, you’ll see those having real impacts on the ME3 storyline. But if you’re coming with no prior experience with the series, ME3 introduces itself to you in a way that’s custom-designed for you.

Star Wars:The Old Republic producer Daniel Erickson told us a while back that his game benefitted from using BioWare's tried and tested dialogue system. Has Mass Effect 3 looked to any internal/external games for mechanics or inspiration?

At this point we’re mostly incorporating a blend of things we want to do and things fans have asked for, to get closer to the vision of Mass Effect that we all share. I think Mass Effect players know exactly what the experience should be about, and we’re using that as more of an inspiration than looking to other games, which in general are trying to solve for very different design goals.

What do you see as the biggest, or perhaps most unexpected changes in Mass Effect 3 compared to the original Mass Effect?

The feel and intensity of combat is one of the things people will take people by surprise. I think we’ve come full-circle in terms of capturing an amazing 3rd person shooter experience in a game where you also control a diverse squad and have access to spectacular powers. There’s really nothing in the world like ME3 combat. We also are going places in the story that are bigger, more shocking, and more emotionally powerful than we’ve ever done before. It’s a pretty amazing range from gigantic action scenes down to the most delicate personal moments, and I think players are going to have an experience unlike anything they’ve played before.

Jesse Houston recently talked about 'past mistakes' with regard to customisation options, and melee attacks - are there any other areas in which fans have directly influenced features in Mass Effect 3? How do you go about floating new ideas to fans during development without giving them away in full?

Ultimately there is a bit of a dichotomy in game design, regarding feedback. On the one hand, we must listen to the millions of players around the world who know what it’s like to play our games even better than we do. At the same time, we must still be game designers - we can’t simply implement all requests exactly as described by fans. So to continue to surprise and entertain players, we need to interpret the feedback, and convert the countless requests, criticisms, and hopes into elegant and innovative designs.

What do you see as the current holy grail for RPGs right now?

To be honest, I don’t know. I never consider myself an RPG developer, and I don’t really worry about traditional genre conventions other than our own goals for making a great game. Typically our goals - creating interactive story, compelling progression, intense combat, and exploration -result in games that are classified as RPGs. But my intention is always to make the best possible story-driven games, and for me and my team, the next great design that we’re excited about is what we’re doing with ME3.

BioWare recently noted FF: The Spirits Within as a visual inspiration for Mass Effect - what about the games? Are you influenced by any other Japanese culture?

We have many sources of artistic inspiration, but we mostly look to the real world for inspiring reference on architecture, clothing, weapon design, etc. One of the things that really helped us actually is that when we started ME1, we essentially condensed our various inspirations down to design principles. Designs consisting of the spaces created by long arcs and straight lines, costumes generally being comprised of two main color tones, weapons typically having two barrels, etc. We built an entire guide book on how everything should look. With that in place, and an entire game of designs to support it, we’ve established an aesthetic that can now easily be applied to new designs.

A Mass Effect MMO isn't in the works (yet) and the future of the series is currently being considered - you must have loads of ideas?

We obviously have a lot of great opportunities to develop aspects of the Mass Effect universe, but certainly our focus for now is creating a tremendously satisfying experience with Mass Effect 3.

Shepard's story could finish its arc in Mass Effect 3. Do you think it will be the last we see of him?

I know the precise answer to that, but can’t tell ya.

What was behind the idea of using the female Shepard to promote Mass Effect 3?

It’s more of a community initiative – something we can do to reflect the support for the female character experience that fans have expressed. We saw that there were some fun things we can do for players to view the game as one that stars a female character, through alternate box art etc. It was amazing to see the reaction of the audience at Comic-Con, where we revealed possible options for the female character that will be used by some of our marketing material going forward.

Mass Effect 2 was recently demoed on Gaikai - do you see cloud gaming taking off?

Yes, games will transition to “the cloud” as time goes on, much like the transition to streaming movies on Netflix etc. There are some severe technical hurdles in the short term, but I remember when the idea of streaming movies over the internet seemed ridiculous.

Wii U was announced at E3 - what are your views on the console? Have you got any ideas about how you'd make the most of its unique features?

It’s an interesting system. One of the challenges and opportunities with that kind of device is that it takes a while to really figure out what the amazing forms of gameplay will be – but it also has enough flexibility to potentially do things that are totally unprecedented in games. It’s very exciting, but I definitely need to think more about it and spend more time with the actual hardware.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution Stealth Mode Video

2011-07-30T00:32:00.002+01:00

Lead Writer MAC WALTERS Delivers MASS EFFECT 3 Game, Comic (Newsarama)

2011-07-28T10:42:00.001+01:00

As in comics, fans of video games are beginning to find not just specific game companies or series, but specific writers and creators that they want to follow.

Lead Writer for Mass Effect 3 at BioWare, Mac Walters is one of those creators. Having been part of the team since the start of the epic space-based trilogy, he has built the characters of Commander Shepard and the people Shepard interacts with from the ground up.

Walters and BioWare weren't satisfied in only using the games themselves to do this, however, so they teamed up with scripture John Jackson Miller, artist Omar Francia, and Dark Horse Comics to expand the universe and get deeper into the heads of some of its rich canvas of characters.

With Mass Effect: Invasion coming to stores in October, finishing up its four issue run just ahead of Mass Effect 3's launch on March 6, 2012, we sat with Walters at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2011 to talk about the comics, the games, what has happened and what's to come. We have exclusive new details about the upcoming mini-series' story, and a new tease of a couple elements of Mass Effect 3 that many fans will be excited about.

Newsarama: So Mac, let's start with the recent announcement of Mass Effect: Invasion, the third Mass Effect comic mini-series. This is going to tie into pretty much everything, the comics, the novels, and Mass Effect 3, bridge everything together, right?

Mac Walters: Yeah, it definitely takes elements; we're dealing with Aria, we're dealing with Omega, we're also dealing with the Illusive Man and the relationships between all those different people and place. If you've been following the novels at all, you know that Aria and the illusive Man are not exactly friendly. They have what you might call an uneasy business relationship right now.

The Illusive Man [Slight Spoilers for MASS EFFECT 2 Here!] has the base beyond the Omega 4 relay, and that's very important to him, all the research that Shepard was able to obtain for him there in Mass Effect 2. But it's kind of – guarded – shall we say, by Omega. Aria's ensconced there and she has no plans to leave. So this is kinda about their relationship, but also about where Cerberus is heading in Mass Effect 3. I can't really get into that, but it does elude to that.

Nrama: There's that magic word floating around, "indoctrinated," is that something the comic will provide any hints for, or is that something you're saving for the game?

Walters: Well, at least as far as it ties to the experiments that Cerberus is undertaking, much like they did with Paul Grayson in the novels. Mass Effect: Invasion will expand on that for sure. We'll see a little more of what their plans are, what they're going to do. I haven't told anyone that yet, so there you go!

Nrama: So Cerberus is continuing to play with fire...

Walters: They are. In the same pursuit as always. The Illusive Man is very much about control, very much a "let's not destroy it needlessly if there's a way we can use it for our own advantage." And as you say, they're playing with fire. How many times until they get burned?

Nrama: Of course it looks like the Illusive Man "got burned" during the First Contact War (as seen in Mass Effect: Evolution) and maybe doesn't even realize it yet.

Walters: Yeah but even that is kind of open as to exactly what happened there. Obviously, Mass Effect 3 will reveal all; that's the point of Mass Effect 3, we tie up a lot of those loose ends. But I think it's safe to say The Illusive Man is still very much "himself" throughout the course of what people have been playing. We wouldn't ever want you to feel like "oh this guy I worked for was really an enemy all along." But that doesn't mean there weren't influences in his life.

Nrama: With Mass Effect 3 being kind of the end of at least Shepard's story, the end of this tale, does that mean the comics will have to sort of end with it too, or do you feel like the comics give you a way to keep telling stories in this universe?

Walters: You know, I think much like the Star Wars comics are popular to this day, the Mass Effect universe is huge, not just in space but in time as well. Things happened before the events of the game series, maybe things that happen after; there's no limit to the stories we can tell. I think as long as we keep focusing on interesting characters, especially ones that are introduced in the novels or the games, they will continue to be successful. And there's so much room for that. There's all the people you know and love from the games, but there's also the friends of those people and the parents of those people and on and on it goes. So I think there's always a way to tie it back to something from the "original trilogy" of Mass Effect.

Nrama: You've mostly done plotting with John Jackson Miller scripting, but what was the learning curve like jumping into the comic book world?

Walters: I think it was like any medium, when you take your craft to it there's a huge learning curve at first. But fortunately, [Editor] Dave Marshall and the other guys at Dark Horse gave me as much information as I wanted. They were fine if I just stood on the side and said "here's the story, go ahead," but I wanted to learn. I'm a guy that if I'm not challenged, I get bored and die. And that's why I've taken on the two 8-pagers that I've done as well, that I scripted myself and made mistakes. You know, that's the way you learn! I made my mistakes and we fixed them, and I have a third 8-pager coming out that will digital release only. I don't know what we've talked about on that one, I don't think we've said who that's about yet. It's an interesting character...

So yeah, there was a huge learning curve, but it's something I think I'm picking up and really enjoy doing. I'd be up for doing a whole series myself if the opportunity arose. Or maybe even branch off and do my own series. Dark Horse is really open to that, creator-owned work. I certainly have lots of ideas. The problem is I have no time and no energy; right now Mass Effect 3 has all my time and energy.

Nrama: So maybe we'll be having another conversation in March or April...

Walters: Yeah! Who knows?

Nrama: With Mass Effect 3 coming in March 2012, things already seem to be reaching a fever pitch for fans, even with seven months yet. Did you have any idea that fans would get this ravenous this early?

Walters: Interestingly, we've never done a true trilogy before, so there are new things we're seeing here. But our fans are our fans. They know what they're going to get from BioWare so they're always excited for what we're going to put out. Obviously it's growing, because it is a trilogy and it's leading somewhere, it's all part of the same story; there's that sense that it's coming to a head. They have all these expectations and I honestly believe that we will fulfill all of them and more. The story as it is now, I think we're going to blow their minds, and be able to satisfy on every level.

So yeah, it's a slightly higher fever pitch than we've seen before, but we are used to our fans and the interest, the passion is awesome; it drives us to do more and do better. One thing you can honestly say about BioWare, and I haven't ever worked at another game company, but we never rest on our laurels. We get to the end of one game, we say "damn, we didn't get to do X, Y, and Z, so we're doing it next game!" We know the fans want it and we're going to do it. Even things like story, character, we're always trying to grow.

Nrama: You and Drew Karpyshyn worked really closely together on the first couple of games, but then you took a sole role for this last one?

Walters: Yeah, so the way it worked was Mass Effect 1 I was the Senior Writer, he was the Lead Writer. We had about 4 or 5 writers maybe. Mass Effect 2 we knew early on he was wanting to try something different, go somewhere else, so I was kind of being "groomed" as it were to take over as lead. Then about halfway through the project he went down to Austin to start work there, and I took over as Lead there. Then on on Mass Effect 3 I am the Lead on it. So we did the halfway through handshake and that was it.

Fortunately I've been on it since the beginning as well, so it's not like I was coming in blind and didn't know anything about the IP. I was there when we were creating the war and the characters, so it was a pretty easy transition.

Nrama: As Lead Writer, how much do you let your writers kind of go down their paths, and how much of it is stuff that you feel like you have to crack down on because of your particular vision?

Walters: You know, I think a lot of that is handled up front. We say "this is the vision for the game, this is the style of the game, what we're trying to go for. We work a lot of that out with Casey Hudson, the Executive Producer, we hash that out. It's not just a top down "here this is what we're doing." We sit with the writing team and see what they want to do where they want to go and we adjust based on that.

Then the way we do it on the Mass Effect team is a lot of times a writer is given a level to do. Easiest example is you had your acquisition missions, your loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2, each of those is a level and a writer would be given responsibility for that. They were pretty free within the realms of "this is the greater sense of the story, this is what we need to get across here" and go. So we gave them a fairly big box which they can then work in and go.

The thing that I always stress with writing, and I think this is true anywhere, is iteration. You improve over time, you improve as you look at it. So every level, my own included, all the major scenes, they all go through a peer review process. We all go into the room and sit down, and it improves from there. I think that's part of the thing that makes us as good as we are, makes the story as good as it is. Then all of that, I oversee it and get into the nitty gritty, line-by-line and can say "this feels out of character" or "this feels like the wrong moment to be bringing up a joke."

I'm kind of sometimes the style taskmaster, keeping people in line with that, but it's more of coming in for a decent polish at the end, and working on my own levels.

Nrama: One of the things that seemed to be missing from Mass Effect 2 is the party banter; it's something we saw in the elevator sequences of Mass Effect 1 and is a big part of the Dragon Age series, I think you've said that is something you're exploring more in the third. What can you tell us about it?

Walters: Yup! That's one of the key things, actually. I tweeted that out, much to the relief of fans. Part of it in Mass Effect 2, honestly, was a logistics thing: 12 henchmen. How do you write banter for 12 potential henchmen, right? We tried it, we tried a bunch of different things but it would get really unwieldy.

Nrama: I love all the different words you guys at BioWare use for them: Companions, Henchmen, Squadmates, Followers...

Walters: Well I'll give you the quick breakdown! A Henchman is someone who can join your party, a squadmate is someone who is in your party right now. That's the difference between those two. Companions, I think is more of a Dragon Age term.

Nrama: Fair enough!

Walters: But yes, in Mass Effect 3 it's a huge part of the game. it's something that I've hammered home, and we're actually doing specific banter passes through the levels. We're saying hey, when should we be chiming in, not just for informational purposes but also just for the stuff people love where they're chatting back and forth and developing the characters.

Nrama: One nerdy question, and one to let you run free a little bit. Nerdy question: Please, just tell us, when we see Wrex, will we get a "Wrex." "Shepard." moment?

Walters: *laughs* I don't know if we do, I'm trying to remember now. I'll let you know when I get back to the office, I'll look into that.

Nrama: What's the one thing, if you have to pick, that you're really excited about, whether it's a feature or a theme, for Mass Effect 3?

Walters: For Mass Effect 3, the thing is; you learn so much every time you do a videogame. There were so many things that we wanted to accomplish with Mass Effect 1, and then we felt like we got a lot of that in Mass Effect 2, and ME3 is really like "wow, we're doing it." Your imagination is a lot of the time bigger than your budget, what you're actually able to accomplish. I think our imaginations on 1 were so big, it took us until 3 to get there.

It feels like, not just in one thing, but in everything; the way the gameplay feels, the way the art's coming together, the way the music themes tie-in, how all of that is fitting around this sci-fi epic crazy story that we've done. As I mentioned at the panel, we still have characters; we still have personal moments.

One of the big things I've also said I want to do is explore Shepard. People are playing as Shepard and as a role-playing experience you can't go too far off the rails with who Shepard is, because it's their Shepard. But I have found a way to allow people to explore Shepard's humanity, to explore some of his or her vulnerabilities.

One of the things I drew a lot of inspiration from for some of the themes of Mass Effect 3 was the movie The Gladiator. You have this heroic character in ME3 who kind of knows that their days might be numbered, this heavy burden on 'em with people dying all around. The way Maximus explored that and the way he stood apart from everyone around him, the burden that he had and the skills that he had. What did that feel like?

So the player has all these friends, all these companions, these people that are close to you, and yet you're slightly removed from that. So what does it mean to that character? So we're kind of being able to look into Shepard's soul.

And that's optional! You don't have to, you can just be like "I'm off to kill things!" *laughs* And that's a valid response! That's a valid Shepard response to this. "Where are them Aliens? We're gonna kill 'em!"

Source.

2011-07-26T11:02:00.004+01:00

Bioware producer Casey Hudson has said that the decisions players make in Mass Effect 3 will have a bigger impact on the story than in any previous Mass Effect game.

"With the first one, we're kind of launching everything, and we're kind of throwing up these huge threads to the later stories," said Casey Hudson in an interview with Destructoid.

"And then with the second one, we're kind of inbetween. It's actually the toughest one to make, because it has to work with previous stuff and still tie-in with other stuff a little bit later.

"But with Mass Effect 3, this is really the opportunity to do whatever we want with the remainder of the story, which means players can do whatever they want with the remainder of the story. Your decision can have much bigger consequences, things that you've done earlier can have much bigger consequences.

"So we can really throw around a lot of big impacts from your decisions, from prior games and from decisions you'll make in Mass Effect 3.

"It's really astronomical. The number of different ways that you can play it, the combinations of different decisions that you can make, and then all the different ways that the story can end up depending on what you're doing.

"The whole story, the whole galaxy ends in a way that you're going to decide."

What do you think of Hudson's remarks? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Mass Effect 3 is out on March 6, 2012 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

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Mass Effect 3 first hands-on preview (Gamesradar)

2011-07-24T11:53:00.003+01:00

As wowed as we were by the Mass Effect 3 demo at E3 last month, no hands-off demonstration can substitute for actual hands-on time with the game. That's why we were excited to hear that BioWare and EA decided to give Comic-Con attendees the very first hands-on time with Mass Effect 3. The demo was brief, but gave us a good feel for some of the major changes to the final installment in the series.

Our play session began with choosing Shepard's class (soldier, adept and sentinel were the three options available) and distributing skill points to our squad. At first glance the level-up system looks the same as Mass Effect 2's system, but we soon saw that it's much deeper than before, with branching skill trees within each stat.

When you add a point to a particular stat, a sub-menu pops up where you can further choose what direction you want that stat to take, starting at the fourth level of each stat. For example, adding a point to combat mastery might let you choose between an offensive or defensive boost on one level, and on the next level you might choose between a boost to special ammo damage or weapon power damage. And for biotic powers, would you rather have increased damage or quicker recharge times? Because each new level is an either/or choice, you can't just max everything out – you must decide how each character will take shape and what his or her specialties will be.

With class and stats out of the way, we began the mission in earnest, which was the same mission we saw in the E3 demo where Shepard must protect a female krogan that Mordin is escorting in some kind of medical pod. Liara and Garrus joined Shepard as squadmates, but disappointingly, Liara only had a little flavor dialogue during the mission, and Garrus had none at all. I asked about Garrus after the demo and I was assured that he would have plenty to say later, so not to worry – but it was still a letdown not to hear him say anything.

As waves of Cerberus agents attacked, the most obvious difference in the combat is the new cover system, which was difficult to get used to because we're so familiar with the old controls. In short, it feels very Gears of War. Hitting the A button near cover makes you take cover as usual, but when you're away from cover pressing A makes Shepard do a dodge roll in the direction you point the analog stick. The rolling animation looks bizarre at first, because we've never seen Shepard move like that before, and it looks especially weird when you roll him toward the camera to dodge backwards. It doesn't look bad, just really different compared to how Shepard moves in the previous two games.

Also like Gears, when you're behind cover, you can use the analog stick to bring up arrows on screen that allow you to jump from cover to cover by hitting A. This proved particularly useful when we had to quickly flank a couple of Cerberus agents with riot shields so we could attack them from their vulnerable sides. By the end of the demo we were still adapting to the differences in the cover system, so it's still hard to say whether the Gears-style will be an upgrade or a downgrade overall, but so far it seems to work well for navigating combat zones quickly and stealthily.

Speaking of gunplay, we also got a good look at the improved return of weapons customization. Instead of accessing weapon upgrades through Shepard's inventory, you can select up to two add-ons to any weapon at the weapons load-out locker, which was located within the level during the demo, but we assume there will also be a weapons locker on the Normandy too. Upgrades seem to work like they did in the first Mass Effect, but the interface for choosing upgrades is much easier to use. The menu here gives you a remarkably physical sense of the gun itself, as if you were really looking at a gun on a table with the upgrades laid out before you. You can see what each upgrade actually looks like on the gun and see how it affects the stats of the gun all on the same screen.

Other than the changes to the cover system and the addition of the omniblade melee weapon (which honestly, we didn't get a chance to use much here), the rest of the mission played out like a typical mission from Mass Effect 1 or 2, where we progressed through the base to find Mordin. It almost felt a little like the Archangel mission from ME2, because the hull integrity of the krogan's medical pod decreased over time, shown by a health bar at the bottom of the screen, so we had to move quickly to reach it in time.

Right as we reached Mordin and the krogan, a giant Atlas walker mech appeared out of nowhere and the demo suddenly ended, much to our dismay. We can only assume that a boss battle with said humongous mech followed, but we'll have to wait until another time to find out. Like the E3 demo, our hands-on time at Comic-Con just left us wanting to see and play more, so we hope to have more opportunities to play Mass Effect 3 before it releases in March of next year. Expect more details as soon as we see more.

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Comic-Con: Mass Effect Movie (IGN)

2011-07-24T01:04:00.003+01:00

Legendary Pictures presented their panel for their planned game-to-film adaptation Mass Effect at Friday's San Diego Comic-Con with screenwriter Mark Protosevich and game creator Casey Hudson there to talk up the highly anticipated movie.

The Legendary exec on the panel said he was aware of the poor reputation of past video game movies, but that they believe the fact they're working with the powers-that-be behind the games gives them the confidence that they will make a film that will go against that trend.

Protosevich said that past game movie makers were smitten with the visuals and action of the games and mistakenly believed they could simply recreate the game on film. The writer added that he believes Mass Effect has a mythology as rich and deep as those of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, but that they are focusing solely on the first game for the movie version.

Beyond that there was no real news to be had on the movie. There's no cast or director yet, nor did the panel show any concept art from the film. Maybe next year's SDCC will see a more substantial Mass Effect movie panel.

Source.

Mass Effect 3: San Diego Comic-Con 2011 Stage Demo (Gamespot)

2011-07-23T15:53:00.002+01:00

Toy Maker Kotobukiya Getting Into the Business of Sexy Mass Effect Girls

2011-07-23T15:36:00.001+01:00

Japanese toy maker Kotobukiya has already welcomed a few Comic-Con friendly femme fatales to its "bishoujo" line of beautifully sculpted figures. They started with superheroines from Marvel and DC Comics, but now they're moving on to video games.

Kotobukiya has already welcomed some Tekken characters into the fold, but the company is also bringing some Western alien talent. Mass Effect 3's Liara T'Soni will join the bishoujo line with a new statue based on the Shunya Yamashita drawing seen here.

Bishoujo Liara is planned for a Q4 2011 release.

Source.

Considering the demise of the DC Direct line, this could be a good replacement if they do more than just Liara.

Mass Effect movie @ SDCC 2011 Legendary Pictures Panel

2011-07-23T15:31:00.001+01:00

1:22 Now we're on to video games!!!
1:23 Or at least a very special one....with a Mass Effect trailer!
1:25 They're in the early stages of developing the ME film but the game creators are here!
1:26 Casey Hudson and Mark Protosevich
1:26 Casey says te strength of the game comes from the characters n
1:27 Mark says gamers can be easily seduced by the visuals and cinematic qualities of a game, including gameplay.
1:28 Filmmakers try to translate this into a movie but ignore the test of whether or not the game has a strong storyline or character development.
1:28 Mark likens this to talking to a hot girl and finding out they can't carry a conversation.
1:30 Mass Effect has a universe as strong as Star Wars and LOTR. Now it's about making this into a good film.
1:31 Casey is making sure that they make sure to include scenes and ideas that they know the fans will love.
1:31 Working with Legendary has allowed them to make sure their movie will be different from other video game movies.
1:33 Strong stories and strong characters, just like other Legendary films. Making sure the ME film is good starts with good partnerships.

As SDCC doesn't allow livestreams for panels, this is the transcirpt of the liveblog that was done for the Legendary Pictures panel with Casey Hudson (Producer) and Mark Protosevich (writer).

Mass Effect’s Depth Will Save It From the Fate of Most Video Game Movies

2011-07-23T15:28:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect won't suffer the same fate as other video game movies, said the screenwriter assigned to the project, because it draws on far more than the "seductive" visuals and active sequences that all video games are known for, whether or not they are accompanied by a story with any depth.

"In the early days [of video game adaptations], the idea was, let's try to recreate this, instead of pausing and asking is this a good story," said Mark Protosevich. "Does it have interesting concepts, does it have interesting philosophies and themes? I think most games fail that test. This doesn not."

Little was divulged about the film, which is known to release in 2012, but does not have a specific date. (The panel showed a trailer for Mass Effect 3 at its beginning). Protosevich and Casey Hudson, the game's creator, discussed the concepts and challenges of pulling off such a large narrative, spanning three games whose final release will be March 6, 2012.

"This is a really rich world and what Casey and his team have done is create a universe as rich as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings," Protosevich said. "It is a challenge to condene that to a sinle feature film."

Source.

James Vega Revealed and a more opinionated post than i would normally make...

2011-07-20T10:52:00.000+01:00

Crossing the 10,000 follower-threshold on Twitter, Casey Hudson revealed of of the new Mass effect 3 squad-members: James Vega. Personally i'm not a big fan of the stereotypical "big butch" guy, especially when he looks pretty (again: stereotypically) gay in this case, mark my words: a s/s romance option. i'm not against s/s romances, but jesus: cliche much?! i think that does more disservice to the s/s crowd than anything. At least they haven't butchered any existing character to force s/s romances with those. yet.

Worryingly recently, as BW have expanded, the general trend towards quality control with the franchise is in something of a decline: the tie-in media has generally been abysmal (books and comics especially), the action figures were fine but a year late (and series 2 was cancelled outright). Thankfully the clothing and Lithographs in particular have all been stunning.

I am particularly worried about people Like BW's new marketing man, David Silverman, who (after the "awesome button" debacle with Dragon Age 2) seems to be primarily concerned with ingratiating himself into a small subsect of gamers who play femshep (that, by BW's own stats makes up a decreased 18% of total players): promising marketing, trailers etc focused on that, instead of appealing to the much wider audience. i mean: really? i have nothing against femsheps - apart from the VA work - i have one myself, but to focus on that tiny aspect of the game/audience when BWs marketing of the series hasn't exactly been always brilliant till now, just means the other areas will be ignored even more. Hell even Dragon Age 2 had more promotional videos/avatar stuff/themes on XBL than Mass Effect 2 before it was even released. what does that say?

I apologise if this post seems somewhat more opinionated than normal, but in a franchise i deeply care about, some of these questionable decisions are worth pointing out.

Mass Effect 3 PS3 vs. 360: 'You won't see a difference' say BioWare

2011-07-20T10:31:00.002+01:00

BioWare has told CVG that should you compare the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Mass Effect 3, you'll notice "no drop in quality".

In fact, the studio believes that you won't be able to tell the two apart, thanks to its strict adherence to creating all three versions of ME3 - 360, Ps3 and PC - side-by-side.

Mass Effect has a slightly patchy release history on Sony's console. The first ME game, released back in 2007, never appeared on PS3.

The multi-award winning second title in the series was released for the format in January this year - 12 months after it appeared on 360. The Blu-ray version contained an introductory cinematic to bring PS3 owners up to speed on events from the first game.

Discussing Mass Effect 3's arrival in March next year, BioWare marketing boss David Silverman told CVG: "This is the first time that all three platforms have shipped at the same time and it will be an amazing adventure whatever platform you play it on. I don't think you'll see a difference between the Xbox version and the PS3 version. There's no drop in quality on either."

Mass Effect 3 takes place after the events of the second game. Its action-packed story sees ancient alien race the Reapers return, launching an all-out attack against the rest of the galaxy - starting with Earth.

Silverman added: "People tell us we're amazing storytellers and we hope we are. We know we can't give you all-out galactic war by cheaping out on the action. It needs to feel an epic war against insurmountable odds. That's what makes the story even more emotionally engaging."

Source.

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: "MASS EFFECT INVASION"

2011-07-14T10:14:00.000+01:00

In anticipation of Comic-Con International in San Diego and its BioWare panel on Saturday, July 23, Dark Horse has provided CBR News with an exclusive preview of "Mass Effect Invasion." Written by "Mass Effect 2" and "ME 3" lead writer Mac Walters, the miniseries, co-written by John Jackson Miller and featuring art by Omar Francia, ties directly into the storyline of the third game. Check back with CBR News next week when we'll have and interview with Walters and Miller about the latest chapter in the "Mass Effect" saga.

In addition to the pages below, Dark Horse is making another seven pages from "Mass Effect Invasion" #1 available in the publisher's digital comics store -- where all "Mass Effect" comics are available free through tomorrow, July 14.

Mass Effect 2 & 3 Lead Writer Mac Walters returns to comics with an essential extension of BioWare’s massively anticipated video game Mass Effect 3!
The Omega space station is the center of lawlessness in the galaxy, a den of vice ruled by the deadly asari Aria. It is also a strategic foothold in a galaxy-wide power struggle, and when the station comes under attack from a new threat unleashed by the humanity-first organization Cerberus, Aria is forced to become more ruthless than ever to protect her home—and her dominion!

This canonical chapter in the Mass Effect saga reunites Walters with writer John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knight Errant), artist Omar Francia (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II), and cover artist Massimo Carnevale (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for a galactic showdown sure to thrill any serious science-fiction reader!

By Mass Effect 2 & 3 Lead Writer Mac Walters!
Mass Effect 2 sold two million copies in two weeks!
IGN.com named Mass Effect 2 the greatest Xbox 360 game of all time!

Source.

Sadly omar fancia's artwork is as bad as ever, you can't even tell what the (unknown) enemy is supposed to be/resemble... and a story on Aria, again?! she wasn't that interesting/exceptional in ME2, let alone being able to carry-off spin-off comic series'. once again BW's quality control fails when it comes to the always excellent series tie-ins in other media.

E3: MASS EFFECT 3 Brings Back the RPG (But More Action, Too)

2011-07-10T13:00:00.002+01:00

"[Cerberus] is indoctrinated. They are capable of anything."

Any Mass Effect fan that heard those words is bound to freak out, and that was just one little line in a sea of new information at E3 2011. The three demos revealed a few more familiar faces you will see in ME3 as well as how the combat has changed and improved from the last game.

All classes can now carry any weapon type, but only the Soldier can carry one of each category of weapon at once. And of course there is the omniblade – the beautiful omniblade. No more awkward punches when a husk shuffles too close. Now Shepard’s omnitool becomes a lethal weapon. This weapon, which looks similar to the plasma sword from Halo, allows for more satisfying melee combat and can be used during stealth takedowns. Stab someone around a corner or over cover, or see the class-unique strong attacks that will really show off this new melee weapon.

The RPG elements that many felt were discarded in ME2 have made their return. There will be work stations placed throughout the game, where Shepard can place a weapon and add any new attachments they have found or bought throughout the game. This gives the player more of a chance to customize each weapon to their personal fighting style. The sheer amount of customization we saw, from weapon elements that will change rate of fire to damage to more stealthy styles was astounding; and this was just from one workbench in one small portion of the game.

In addition to weapons, the abilities your character possesses are much more customizable in ME3 than in ME2. You will start with a "powered-up" Shepard, especially when importing your character from Mass Effect 2, though the exact details of that have not yet been revealed. Long-time fans will recognize most of the abilities, but they will be able to use them and upgrade them in ways they never have before. Passive abilities, like Combat Mastery has several different subcategories under it, like Damage, Recharge Speed, Influence & Duration, Headshots, Weapon Mastery, Influence & Damage, Influence & Dilation. In other words, you won't just add a point to "Operative." Instead, you'll get to choose exactly where that point gets spent, and what boost it gives your Shepard.

Another important upgrade made in ME3 gameplay wise, is how Shepard moves. The cover system is back, but now you can do so much more than just crouch and vault. Shepard can jump, climb, move seamlessly from cover to cover, and even take over enemy heavy mechs, like the Cerberus Atlas shown in the demo. In the demo, the Soldier, one of the more clunky classes of ME2, moved with practically the grace of a ballerina. Light blue arrows direct the player in the cover system, letting you decide whether you want to roll around a pillar or jump over a cargo box. If you consider yourself a stealth player, these smoother controls should really help with your style of gameplay.

Although you have all these upgrades to your abilities, weapons, and movements, the game will certainly not be a cakewalk. Enemies in Mass Effect 3 have been upgraded as well. For example, enemy tactics that you typically find in a FPS, like ranged enemies pinning you down while a shielded enemy slowly crawls in to attack you, will be seen in this game. Because of this, squad tactics are more important than ever. You can use your squad members to pull the shield from one enemy while you take on the ranged opponent. For Xbox users, this is where the Kinect voice controls in ME3 will come in handy. For the unintiated, on the Xbox 360, you’ll be able to simply tell your squadmates what you’d like them to do. “Liara, move up.” “Garrus, concussive shot.” By giving those verbal commands through the Kinect microphone, you’ll see your squadmates carry out the orders while you concentrate on fighting your own battle.

Speaking of squad members, from the demos it would seem that players should not expect every NPC they team up with to be on the Normandy for the game’s entirety. During the closed-door demo, Shepard and Anderson are trying to escape Earth in what seems is the start of the Reaper invasion. Once they reach the Normandy, however, Anderson proclaims that he is staying behind to help others escape (but not before throwing Shepard her dog tags and saying she should consider herself reinstated in the Alliance Military). Both Legion and Mordin made cameos as well. Mordin was helping Shepard retrieve a fertile Krogan female and Legion was seen driving a vehicle while Shepard attacked a chasing Reaper. Casey Hudson, the executive producer of the franchise, has said in the past that almost all major characters will make an appearance. It would seem that these cameos and temporary squad mates is how BioWare is going to make that happen.

But let’s get back to Cerberus being indoctrinated, shall we? When it was announced that no matter what Shepard decided at the end of ME2 Cerberus would be coming after them, many fans, particularly if they had a Renegade playthrough, wondered what happened between the two games to cause this. Although we only have this one line, “They are indoctrinated” to speculate about right now, fans of the Mass Effect comics and novels might have been guessing that Cerberus, or rather the Illusive Man, has been indoctrinated since the First Contact War. Mass Effect: Evolution from Dark Horse comics in particular explored the origin of the Illusive Man and revealed that those aren’t crazy contacts from the future that he is wearing - his glowing blue eyes are a result of touching a Reaper Artifact.

ME fans know just from the games that coming in contact with Reaper technology usually results in indoctrination. When Jack Harper endured a physical change and created the identity of the Illusive Man after touching the artifact, was he already indoctrinated? That’s just one of the questions that one-off line certainly pushes fans to ask (and will almost certainly be answered in Mass Effect 3).

Casey Hudson began the demo by saying, “This really is the main event. This is full scale galactic war.” He also claimed, with full certainty, that “this is the best game in the series.” From just the small upgrades to graphics, combat, abilities, and the care they have taken with the details of this massive story, ME should feel assured that this statement is true. Mass Effect 3 isn’t just a sequel, or the end of a story. It’s the culmination of all that has come before it, and with that kind of pedigree, it should be very good indeed.

I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my most anticipated game of 2012.

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The Mass Effect Movie Will be at Comic-Con

2011-07-07T10:25:00.000+01:00

Hollywood studio Legendary Pictures will be holding its first ever "standalone panel" at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego. Why do we care? Because they'll be talking about the Mass Effect movie, that's why.

Yes, tucked away at the bottom of the press release announcing the studio's showings is the news that the film's writer Mark Protosevich and BioWare's Casey Hudson will be holding a panel, where they'll discuss their work on the long-in-production film project.

Interestingly, the release says Protosevich is "adapting the game to film", which sounds a lot like they're simply turning just the first game into a movie. Leaving the other two games to be covered by, well, another two movies!

Since there's no actors in costume yet, don't expect any footage of the movie. If you're lucky, you might get some concept art or CG sequences, though, and hopefully word on a director as well.

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Mass Effect 3: BioWare on intense combat and overhauling AI

2011-07-07T09:31:00.000+01:00

In the first part of Xbox World 360's BioWare interview series, Mass Effect 3 exec producer Casey Hudson and art director Derek Watts discussed their surprises, inspirations and the tough decisions behind creating the eagerly anticipated sequel.

Part two saw lead sound designer Rob Blake, and senior environment artists Don Arceta and Noel Lukasewich reveal their audio and game world secrets.

Now, in the third and final part of XBW's Mass Effect 3 chats, BioWare gameplay designers Christina Norman and Corey Gaspur answer a few questions aimed at combat and AI. Enjoy. It's been emotional.

Mining aside, what elements from the last game needed fixing for Mass Effect 3?

Christina Norman: Well, we want to make it so that when the player's fighting in the moment they feel like they have more options than just aiming, shooting and using powers. We really want to make mobility a factor - like, "am I in the right position on the battlefield? Where are my enemies? How am I going to get from point A to point B? How are they going to get from point A to point B?" So the player is never thinking, "I'm walking into this safe place with great cover, I'll stay there and fight" but more "how am I going to move through the battlefield as the enemies move through the battlefield against me?"

And the AI has been overhauled to support the new things Shepard can do?

CN: We do an AI overhaul pretty much every day! If there's one thing the programmers always want to do better it's definitely the AI, so we've done a lot of work on that. We still have some more work to go, but we want you to feel that the enemies you're fighting are more complex, that they have multiple behaviours, and that they're reacting to what's going on.

Corey Gaspur: And enemies like the Cerberus Troopers are elites. They can do everything that Shepard can do now as well, so you're fighting a force that's a lot more intelligent this time around, and a lot more punishing. The game is just intense even when you play it on Normal.

How has enemy design changed over the years?

CN: With Mass Effect 2 we had this 'let's come up with cool enemies' approach, and we made each enemy as an individual. Now we look at enemies as a force, with units within the force, and each of them has a role. You end up with this really cool chessboard thing, where you have a knight and a bishop, they'll work together in one way but if you have a knight and a rook, they'll work together in a different way. It's giving our level designers and combat designers a lot more opportunities, not with heavy scripting, but just by combining these pieces that work together in new and interesting ways.

And the system in the new game will make them harder to fight, even on Normal?

CN: Yeah. And in Mass Effect 3 it's not just that the game is harder on Insanity, it's that this creature actually behaves differently on higher difficulty levels. On those harder difficulty levels we can make the enemies exhibit specific behaviours more often, or even give them new behaviours that we think will work for a harder difficulty level, but which won't work for an easier one.

And enemies are bigger too, right? A six hundred foot mini-Reaper and the new Atlas Mechs - how do you make such behemoths interesting to fight?

CN: Without going into the specifics of any of the enemies you'll face, I can say it needs to be more about smart ways of taking them down. If a large enemy is nothing but a bullet sponge where you shoot him until his hit points go to zero then that really doesn't work. If you can interact with the enemy in specific ways by shooting at weak points? Use the environment against them? Those are the factors that make larger enemies more interesting to fight.

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Robot Dance: The Aesthetics of Deus Ex 3 (IGN)

2011-07-06T16:19:00.000+01:00

The 12-minute Deus Ex video walkthrough published today on IGN shows the visual range of Eidos' Studios' interpretation of the Deus Ex universe, with cleanly clinical indoor labs whose windows look out upon the industrial sprawl of a giant two-tiered Chinese city. Human Revolution has a very distinctive style, full of colour and wearing its cyberpunk influences proudly on its sleeve.

Recently, we sat down with Jonathan Jacques-Belletete, the Art Director of Deux Ex, to talk about Deus Ex: Human Revolution's visual design – a man for whom other videogames are a "last point of reference". Read on to discover its baroque influence, how Warren Spector helped them justify the style differences with Deus Ex 1, and why the future will be yellow.

IGN:Did any particular artists inspire you for the style of the game?

Jonathan Jacques-Belletete: As an Art Director, videogames are always my last point of reference. I'm really big into architecture and fashion, like Tadao Endo and the Scandinavian architects; the idea is that cyberpunk is never really far in the future, it's just an anticipation, a grafting of the old onto the new.

We travel internationally in the game, but a big part of it is in Detroit, and I was asking myself: how am I going to make it look futuristic, like European contemporary architecture in Scandinavia? We don't have much of that in North America, and just by putting it in Detroit in front of those old buildings from the 30s, it makes it look futuristic and credible. If someone says to me that it's too futuristic, I can say "those buildings exist right now in Japan and Scandinavia and London." I'm a big industrial design freak.

IGN: Do you think the Bladerunner Cyberpunk style is old hat?

Because Cyberpunk's been done quite a bit, I wanted to bring something new to it, and I started analysing all the transhumanist themes. Quite rapidly, you start seeing this connection with the renaissance period, because it was about the humanistic and we're dealing with transhumanistic stuff; the renaissance was, if you want, the beginning of the transhumanist era. If you want to upgrade a system, you first need to be able to understand how the system functions at its basics, and the renaissance is the first time in the west when we start going back into antiquities research and understanding the human machine. That's where transhumanism starts, understanding how the machine functions, and then in 2027 we upgrade that machine.

IGN: So how do you tie this high aesthetic concept into the game proper?

I thought to myself, 'Eh, what happens if I actually mix the aesthetics from the renaissance with the baroque and the cyberpunk stuff -would that be a cool flavour? Would people say that it's cyberpunk, but it just belongs to that product?'

It incorporates Vermeer, the renaissance, the baroque, the black and gold palette, the Rembrandt stuff, night and candles… The black represents the dystopian aspect of the game, the gold represents the human flesh-and-blood aspect, which is so much of what we deal with, and also a little bit of the hope that's still in the world at that time before the big collapse.

IGN: You had to move between our time and the original Deus Ex, knowing what the future was going to be. Do you feel that led to any design limitations?

We didn't really think about it that way; we thought, let's do our homework about where things are going to be in 30 years and base our stuff on that. At that point, whether it matches or doesn't match 100% with the first game, we didn't care that much. Not in a disrespectful way, but because a lot of the tech in the first Deus Ex is outdated now; a lot of the televisions are still 4:3 ratio and already today our world looks more futuristic than the first Deus Ex.

Also, I remember talking with Warren Spector about this (he hasn't worked on the game at all, not even as a consultant, I've just bumped into him), and even he said "hey, maybe we just visited the really gritty places of the world in the first one and all the stuff you've done was already extant, it's just not where the player went."

IGN: Is there anything in the game you've not justified in the fiction?

Everything's justified. We really went nuts with all that stuff. We had over four writers, including some great SF guys, like James Swallow who writes for Games Workshop. Our lead narrative writer Mary rally supervised it, but pretty much all our writing team are detail freaks.

IGN: If the world turns out how you've projected it, how will you feel about it?

That's a great question. I would be totally spooked. It goes back to your questions about whether we've pushed the tech too far; me and the game director [Jean-Francois Dugas] say we should have a dinner in 2027 and play the game. Sometimes we think that we might have a good laugh – maybe we didn't push it far enough, actually. With Shanghai we did this two-tiered city thing, that's not to going happen, but some of the things Kia's working on the morphing materials...they say that in ten years it'll be on the market, that your phone will get bigger for the keyboard and then morph around your wrist for the watch. Nanoparticles that can remember two or three different positions... We think the next thirty years are going to be really crazy, but if it turns out like our design... it's going to be really yellow.

IGN: One thing that a lot of futuristic things don't do is have lots of throwback to the past, unless it's something like Bioshock that was specifically designed like that.

Something's that very important to us is "show, don't tell." Make a visual set-up that tells a story. You don't say "this is what this means"; you see for yourself. I find in games, too often, we're obsessed with reproducing reality, and photorealism seeps in... Let's say you have to do the lobby of a bank... we'll take a picture of a bank lobby and we'll make it just that boring. The wood and marble could look just like real life, but it would still look like a bank, the most boring thing in the world.

One of the things we try to do in Deux Ex is to always surprise you, so you may walk into that bank lobby and find a really weird installation art thing hanging from the ceiling, made from random recycled stuff in some kind of unexpected shape.. Why's it there? Because it's interesting.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director Commentary Video Spoilers

2011-07-06T11:38:00.000+01:00

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 'Behind 2027 The World Of' Trailer

2011-07-05T16:00:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3: BioWare on art, sound and sharing with DICE

2011-07-04T15:50:00.000+01:00

In the first part of Xbox World 360's BioWare interview series, Mass Effect 3 exec producer Casey Hudson and art director Derek Watts discussed their surprises, inspirations and the tough decisions behind creating the eagerly anticipated sequel.

In part two of the unabridged interviews with the men and women in charge of production, sound, art, design, and combat, XBW talks to lead sound designer Rob Blake, and senior environment artists Don Arceta and Noel Lukasewich.

What's all new for the sound of Mass Effect 3?

Rob Blake: We're focusing on enhancing a lot of the combat sounds. We've been chatting to the guys over at DICE who did the Battlefield and the Medal of Honor stuff and we've been doing a lot of knowledge sharing and asset sharing with those guys.

We're taking on board some of their environmental changes that they've done really well. The new Assault Rifle has different layers that change depending on what type of environment you're in, for example. There are lots of interactions between sounds - you can hear the different decay as shots echo off walls.

What came up between your team and the guys at DICE?

We're doing a lot of knowledge sharing which has been really useful, and we love the Battlefield games. We're big fans of the audio so we're definitely trying to build on the work that they've done, but at the same time they're very different games.

Their focus is just the guns but we have spaceships, biotics and tech powers and all this extra stuff that we have to deal with. But one of the things I wanted from them was their environmental interactions, so that when you go into different areas things change quite drastically. They also have a sophisticated ducking system - when you fire your gun it will lower the volume of other people's guns.

When a gun's sound differs between indoor and outdoor locations, do you build all-new sounds or simply tweak one existing gunshot effect in-engine?

Both, actually. We do a lot of real-time reverberation effects with convolution reverb - that's samples of interior and exterior spaces and lay that on top of our sounds. But we're actually changing out some of the sounds too, so for example, with the new Assault Rifle effect, you can hear the bullet still disappearing off into the distance. When you're inside a room, you don't hear that because the bullet doesn't go as far. Again, this is something Battlefield did well so we're doing a lot of work like that.

How do you think the music will change with the arrival of your new composer? (Clint Mansell, who worked on Black Swan and movies like Requiem for a Dream)

We work with a lot of composers. Over the whole Mass Effect franchise we've worked with about eight different composers. It's always outsourced but we work very closely with them and they're always following our original vision - that retro futurism style we've built for Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is this mix of old and new in a lot of ways so we spend a lot of time with new, cutting edge synthesis mixed with old, modular analogue synthesis, trying to create really unusual and interesting sounds. Our big thing has always been an orchestral sort of feel but with some elements replaced with 70s and 80s synths.

So there are those two very specific technical things but composers often think more emotively so we work very closely with the writers to find out what the feel for each level and each narrative moment is; and how the player is supposed to be feeling when experiencing things.

What's the best location you've built for the game?

Noel Lukasewich: I'd have to say Don's Earth is pretty awesome. It showed us a lot of what we wanted to do, sort of paved the way for a lot of our new stuff.

Don Arceta: Yeah, but eventually they're all going to have that same level of detail as that Earth level. We're still building the game, so there are some awesome environments right now but the scope of the levels is really big. We have this awesome Earth vista and there's just going to be tons of things going on out there. I think the thing that's going to make the levels awesome is just what happens in them.

Mass Effect is basically a world without denim - there are few things recognisable from the present. How do you make Earth feel like Earth?

NL: Well, we've had conversations about what to push and what to keep. We don't want to have the streets paved with plastic and that kind of crazy stuff but do we keep the concrete? Do we keep the road signs?

DA: It's hard finding that balance because Mass Effect is all big curves and arching structures, and you don't want famous landmarks to just stick out like a sore thumb in that sci-fi universe. That's the kind of the balance artists are looking for - making it fit but still feel like Earth. Just putting Venetian blinds on the windows makes it more familiar to the player that this is Earth. You wouldn't ever see that on an Asari planet.

What sort of interaction is there between the gameplay guys and your team?

DA: It's a lot of back and forth. We let the designers know exactly what's important to us on the art side - maybe the way the sun hits inside a room or something that we just don't want to lose - and design will work with us exactly how to keep that.

We have a lot more integrated cover, so you don't walk into a room and immediately know there's going to be a combat there. It's about making these spaces feel natural and not forced. It shouldn't ever feel forced, by gameplay or art - it really should be this perfect marriage.

NL: Yeah, you don't want to walk through a room and go, "okay nothing's going to happen here. There's no cover for me here," and then you walk around the next corner and you just see a sea of these chest-high things - you basically see the fight ahead.

That's something few cover-based shooters get right.

DA: Yeah, you play a game like Gears of War and they just have sandbags everywhere, and we really don't want to do that. We really want to get away from arbitrary things placed just for the sake of gameplay.

BioWare tend to build spaces that often feel like they exist only to have a fight in, not to live and work in. How important is it to fix that?

NL: Absolutely important. All the departments are involved now - we'll have writers and combat designers in and we'll really talk about the history of the places.

DL: We're really pushing the variety within the levels, so you're not walking into the same room just decorated differently. We're really trying to push each room as a functional space. A hallway has a function for people working there, and we're just trying to really make sense of it in the game.

NL: I'm doing something right now where I've built the environment as an undamaged structure, and then I start smashing bits up. We try to design the architecture first before we blow it up, rather than just having a box and cramming destroyed bits in it. We're really thinking about how someone from the future designed this building, and whether it functions well. Then we blow it up!

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Mass Effect 3: BioWare on surprises, inspiration and tough decisions (Part 1)

2011-06-30T10:15:00.001+01:00

Mass Effect 3 wraps up a story that began back in 2007 and will either end with the Reaper threat crushed, or all life in the universe extinguished.

Last month Xbox World 360 ventured into the snowy Canadian wilderness, fighting bears, moose, and Mounties, for a look inside BioWare's studios.

Here for the first time are the unabridged interviews with the men and women in charge of production, sound, art, design, and combat. Show them some respect. It's bloody cold in Edmonton.

In part one we talk to Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect franchise and Derek Watts, art director on Mass Effect 3....

Where does Mass Effect 3 kick off?

Casey Hudson: It's a few months after the ending of Mass Effect 2. The DLC 'Arrival' is basically the last piece of story that bridges the two games. Admiral Hackett sends you to investigate this mass relay where the Reapers are going to make their entry point into the galaxy because their original plan - the Citadel - is closed off.

You have to sacrifice thousands of people in order to slam that door shut on the Reapers. So Shepard's kind of stuck trying to explain all this stuff. But as you're doing that the Reapers actually arrive and take the Earth.

It's not an alien invasion story where you're fighting off the invasion; they are unstoppable, you narrowly escape, and your goal is to figure out how to rally the forces of the whole galaxy. That's what it's going to take in order to return and take back the Earth.

It's kind of like ME2 where you're building a team of twelve people, but here you're building an entire army from across the galaxy.

So how do you stop something unstoppably massive?

That's something we reveal over time. You see humans being harvested and processed to become fuel for the way Reapers reproduce. This is their reproductive cycle and we're just a part of it. We're nothing to them.

Will many of your friends help fight them?

Every main character is in there somewhere, kind of doing the thing that is right for that character. Zaeed for example is a very simple character and what he's up to is different to, say, Liara, who is very pivotal.

Do you think players would rather have their old squad

All feedback is valid. People wanted us to recreate the experience that we had with ME1 in ME2, and to them it meant that all those characters had to come back and do all the same kinds of things, but if we did that when you get together with someone a second time, that's very different.

So much of the experience from ME1 was discovery. So we'll do that again with ME3, but we're focusing on a smaller squad with deeper relationships and more interesting interplay.

What feedback really has changed Mass Effect 3?

People really want us to deepen the RPG aspect of the experience. We interpret that as being about the kind of intelligent decision making around how you progress. To us, the RPG experience isn't necessarily about stats and loot. It's about exploration and combat and making a good character-driven story and good progression.

We had progression in Mass Effect 2 in armour and weapon choices but that activity chain was too simple. That whole activity chain I think was a button we weren't really pushing in ME2 and specifically were trying to hit for ME3.

Will Shepard get to punch a reporter again?

Yes.

Will there be a treat for players who have imported a save across all three games?

Definitely.

You've been working on this for years now. How has the art team's work progressed over all that time?

Derek Watts: Art-wise the original Mass Effect's levels worked really well but for gameplay they weren't so good. We had a lot of raised platforms and areas you could get caught up in - stuff we should have fixed right from the beginning.

Because it was our first next-gen game we were actually thinking we were doing a really good job. It's just the challenge of trying to make that first next-gen game was huge. Everybody else had issues too. Getting used to the technology made it difficult for us. We wanted those wide open areas, those swooping curves, the grand vistas and stuff, but it was hard to do with that engine.

All the characters have been given a redesign for Mass Effect 3. Do you ever worry about fan reaction?

You know, they've been pretty receptive to the changes we've made. We haven't really had much negative feedback from them. We changed Tali - that was tough because people were very passionate about her. A lot of people want to have her face revealed and obviously people are going to be pissed off either way.

Like "I thought she was going to look beautiful!" or "I thought she was going to be the most hideous thing ever!" So we've had a lot of debate over Tali's face, but that's the one we kind of dread a lot. We're always "well, let's talk about something else for a while!" That's something we're going to have to decide.

Are there any artistic themes you have to maintain for continuity purposes but would redo if you could?

The one problem is trying to get that Mass Effect arc through everything. It's in the logo, it's on the armour, it's on the guns, it's everywhere. That was always the intention with Mass Effect - if there was one thing we would try to use on everything, it was that arc.

It's tough when you're trying to put the arc onto all these alien planets. We're trying to make some brutalist Krogan stuff that's all solid geometric shapes, and how do you run an arc through that?

It's hard making everything so clean as well, right?

Yeah, videogames look a lot better if you clutter up hallways. It usually looks more realistic. It's hard to do with clean, plastic, white hallways with the reflective floors you see in some of the movies. I can't even think of those clean movies - I don't think Hollywood does them any more!

The new star trek movie was quite clean. Tron Legacy, too. They're the only ones.

Yeah, and that's hard for us to do. You rely heavily on the lighting and the materials and can you get those reflective surfaces? Can you do it real time or is it all faked? Do you have to flip the level upside down and make part of it transparent? You have to end up faking it and making it as good as you can.

And at least it doesn't look like Blade Runner, like every other sci-fi future.

Yeah. I love that movie. I remember seeing it in the theatre because I'm that old, and it wasn't what we were expecting but we ended up loving it. Doing the (Blade Runner Designer) Syd Mead thing is hard with games. He usually does one area, he does his style - the arc, the 45s - but to try and repeat that through a whole level...?

The new Deus Ex does actually go that blade runner route and really takes it somewhere new

Yeah, I was looking at that. I actually think it has, like, a Japanese feel to it, like the way they do their tech.

Very Ghost in the Shell

Yeah, you know we actually referenced a lot from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. We used a lot of their GUIs and the way they did their ship - that was kind of like in some of the early designs for the Normandy.

Our attack helicopters are loosely based off that movie. There's some great stuff, especially their glowing GUI screens; we used those a lot. I keep a folder of that stuff and I still actually tell the guys "just go back and look at that. Change it like that!"

Keep an eye out for part two of our interview featuring lead sound designer Rob Blake as well as gameplay designers Christina Norman and Corey Gaspur.

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Obsessed With Imagination: BioWare’s Co-Founders On Storytelling And The Future Of Mass Effect

2011-06-28T10:38:00.001+01:00

The co-founders of video game company BioWare are often referred to as “the Doctors.” Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip started the company in 1995 after their graduation from medical school at the University of Alberta; in the decade that followed, they made some of the biggest and best-regarded games in the business, including the Baldur’s Gate series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

In 2007 the company was purchased by video game giant Electronic Arts, and it has continued to crank out hits, including the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. Today, Dr. Ray Muzyka is Chief Group General Manager of BioWare and Senior Vice President of Electronic Arts; Dr. Greg Zeschuk is General Manager of BioWare Austin and Vice President of Electronic Arts.

I spoke to Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk earlier this month at E3, the game business’ biggest annual trade show. The following excerpts from that conversation are edited for length and clarity.

David Ewalt: At the risk of betraying personal biases, I have to tell you I was blown away by the Mass Effect 3 demo.

Ray Muzyka: I think it might be the best behind closed doors demo we’ve pulled. And it’s one of the very best we’ve ever shown at E3. It’s really, really tight. First time I saw it, I kind of knew what was happening, but still was like, wow.

Greg Zeschuk: You kind of know when you’ve got it. It’s that chill on the back of your neck. There’s that moment that you start to have a physical response, not just a mental one, that you go ‘Wow.” My mustache twitches, actually.

One of the things that was interesting for me was seeing characters that, in my Shepard’s world, are dead. I know they aren’t going to appear in my version of the game.

Ray Muzyka: Yeah. If you import your saves [from one Mass Effect game to the next], because they reflect your decisions and choices, it changes the pantheon of characters. But [Mass Effect 3] is also a great entry point for people that haven’t done any of that. It’s a new beginning for them… In fact, if they’re just going to play one Mass Effect title, we’d rather they start with this one, because we think this is the best game of the franchise. This is the most exhilarating, most visceral, intense action.

Greg Zeschuk: Yeah, it has a sort of awesome, epic quality, an over the top summer blockbuster element. But it’s also got depth. Our feeling is it’s probably the best balance of what we deliver; the action intensity is bigger and better, the battles are bigger and better, but at same time, like, there’s a nice level of depth as well.

How difficult is it to script and produce a game where you know certain characters aren’t going to exist for certain users?

Greg Zeschuk: Oh, we don’t like to do the easy stuff. We’ve always strived to make games that make you think. They’re more mentally engaging, they’re thought provoking, there are dimensions to them that you don’t see in other games. I think one of the fun things for us, when we know we’ve really nailed it, is when when players get together and talk about their experience, and they’re quite different, so much that they may seem like different games. That’s one of the things we’ve really been trying to nail.

I think the persistent experience from title to title works really well, but wonder if it’s a novelty, if other designers will say ‘Oh, that’s what Mass Effect did.’ Will more game franchises offer this sort of personalized experience?

Ray Muzyka: One of the requirements for games to import saves and have continuity is that the player has to care about that experience. It has to be meaningful to them. That could be mean characters you care about, it could mean abilities, progression on your character that you want to retain. It could be any of those things, or all those things.

But if you don’t have something that people actually care about translating from one game to the next –you could do it, but there wouldn’t be a point. But because people do care about our games, they care about the persistent state of the story, there’s a reason to do that. And we’re excited about that. Because we love allowing our audience to be immersed for a long time in our universe.

Do you see BioWare returning to the Mass Effect universe once you’ve completed the trilogy?

Greg Zeschuk: Certainly the setting has really resonated with people, the type of aliens in the world, the type of people that inhabit space. Obviously we focus first and foremost on nailing it on this game, and then, you know, the possibilities in the future are very, very broad.

Ray Muzyka: We want to make sure it’s awesome. [Mass Effect 3] is our first focus. Beyond that, we do have a desire to continue the Mass Effect franchise, and we’re working on the details, figuring out what the fans want, figuring out the right way.

Bioware’s known for making role-playing games. Why that genre?

Greg Zeschuk: I think some dimension of what we do and why we do it is related to our experience as gamers. As younger gamers growing up, for whatever reason, we really identified with role-playing games, and played a lot of them. I just personally thought that was always the strongest experience.

The other dimension of it was the element of story and narrative. Most of the reason different media forms exist is to create different ways of telling stories. We’re always telling stories… it’s central to our learning and our culture.

What were you playing, computer role-playing games, or tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons?

Ray Muzyka: I got into video games and PC games pretty quickly, but I did play D&D a little bit. I read through some of the other roleplaying systems, too. I found it really interesting to read. I always had this fascination with the source books, I’d just kind of open up the Dungeon Master’s Guide, read through and think about scenarios.

Greg Zeschuk: It’s interesting, because some folks just don’t have a sense of imagination. I mean, one way we describe why we are no longer doctors, kind of a joke, is that there’s no creative doctors.

Ray Muzyka: We don’t like doctors applying creative solutions that aren’t tested.

Greg Zeschuk: I think there’s imagination in research, certainly, and that’s where some of those folks go. But in gaming, everyone here who works with games has to have some degree of obsession with imagining things. I think that was sort of fueled, in our case, by all the D&D books. I mean, I still remember the pictures, and what pages they were on in that book. I’m pathological.

Which comes first? Are people who are more imaginative and interested in fantasy attracted to role-playing games, or do role-playing games bring out those qualities in their players?

Ray Muzyka: It could be either. Now people of all ages are playing video games. Back when we were growing up, at 9 or 10, I remember I was one of the few kids in school that was using an Apple 2. I loved it. I was programming, and I was learning basic assembly, and playing cassette tape adventures. I was fascinated with that.

Greg Zeschuk: I actually spent an entire beautiful summer with a bunch of friends, like making our own little games on our Apples. I didn’t go outside at all. My parents were livid. They’re like, ‘Get outside, it’s beautiful!’ No, we’re working. We’re 10 or 11 years old, and that was more fun than running around outside.

Source.

Mass Effect 3 'Most Promising' Retail Game Of E3

2011-06-21T09:21:00.000+01:00

Video game research firm EEDAR has named EA and BioWare's upcoming Mass Effect 3 as the "most promising" retail game shown at this month's E3 expo, citing purchase intent and online media consumption.

EEDAR's research involved analyzing page views, purchase intent and video views through its media partners, IGN and GameTrailers, to rank which of the games shown at E3 had the highest sales potential at retail.

"EEDAR has had strong demand from its retail partners to create an objectively quantifiable method to measure the commercial potential of games showcased at E3 2011," said EEDAR's Jesse Divnich, saying that its new report "highlights the collective activity of over 20 million consumers during the week of E3."

According to EEDAR, Mass Effect 3 had the highest number of recorded page views among all tracked games. The firm says that its data indicates the game could sell in excess of 20 percent more copies than its predecessor.

"We are excited to see that there was such a high level of interest in Mass Effect 3 during E3, especially when you consider how many amazing games were on display at this year's show," said BioWare VP of marketing Patrick Buechner.

The top 20 most promising retail releases showcased at E3 2011, according to EEDAR, are as follows:

1. Mass Effect 3 (Electronic Arts)

2. Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)

5. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Ubisoft)

6. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Sony Computer Entertainment)

7. Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive)

8. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo)

9. Halo 4 (Microsoft)

10. Infamous 2 (Sony Computer Entertainment)

11. Duke Nukem Forever (Take-Two)

12. Star Wars: The Old Republic (Electronic Arts)

13. Tomb Raider (Square Enix)

14. Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)

15. Rage (Bethesda)

16. BioShock Infinite (Take-Two)

17. Super Mario 3D (Nintendo)

18. Resistance 3 (Sony Computer Entertainment)

19. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Microsoft)

20. Street Fighter X Tekken (Capcom)

Note that EEDAR's research methodology weighs all three factors (page views, video views and purchase intent) with its own internal metrics. While Mass Effect 3 had the most page views, it was actually Modern Warfare 3 that topped the list in both purchase intent and video views, despite its placement at number four.

EEDAR's report also named Nintendo the most-watched publisher of the show, saying that the announcement of its new Wii U made it stand out above all other publishers.

"While investor reception was slightly negative, EEDAR believes the initial sentiment from the finance community was premature and unwarranted," said EEDAR. "EEDAR believes that as Nintendo continues to release additional information regarding the Wii U, investor sentiment should reverse."

The most-watched platform of the show, says EEDAR, was Microsoft's Xbox 360, which came out on top in both purchase intent and page views. The firm cited its continued perception as "the quintessential core gaming platform" of this generation, as well as the long-anticipated announcement of Halo 4, as contributing to its placement.

For further analysis, the full report is available here.

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E3 2011 Machinima Coverage - Mass Effect 3 Game Demo / Interview

2011-06-10T09:51:00.000+01:00

E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Video Preview (IGN)

2011-06-09T11:16:00.000+01:00

Mass effect 3: E3 Live video walkthrough and chat with Jesse Houston

2011-06-09T09:46:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect E3 2011 PowerTV Gameplay Trailer

2011-06-09T09:33:00.000+01:00

E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Interview - Customizable Weapons, Returning Characters, and More. (Xbox 360)

2011-06-08T16:26:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Interview with Casey Hudson (Machinima)

2011-06-08T15:46:00.001+01:00

Mass effect 3: OXM E3 Preview

2011-06-08T15:43:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3's Kinect integration was a genuine 'wow' moment in Microsoft's keynote. The ability to bark orders at squad mates completely revolutionises the RPG's combat by stripping away the need for the Power Wheel without compromising any of its features. Now more than ever, Mass Effect 3's moments of action resemble those of a fully-featured third-person-shooter.

The behind closed doors demo at EA's E3 booth skipped these additions entirely and focused on features long term fans are more familiar with. With no Kinect in sight, executive producer Casey Hudson talked us through two new areas. Stage one involved an assault on a Reaper base, with Shepard's ultimate goal being to destroy the facility for good.

Short but sweet sums this one up: Shepard opened a giant vault doorway built into the ground before painting the facility beneath with a laser. Moments later the Normandy dropped a missile barrage into the gaping hole, seemingly obliterating whatever was inside. If only things were that easy...

Not only did the Normandy's airstrike fail to kill the Reaper lurking underneath but it angered Shepard's deadliest foe and created a blast powerful enough to knock our hero down to the ground too. Cue the Commander running through ravished environments while dealing with squads of cunning assault troopers as well as one very grumpy Reaper.

Combat looks better than ever, with plenty of tactical rolls and smart cover usage on display from both sides. There was a big focus on melee kills too: Shepard loves nothing more than to run in close to an enemy, clock him around the chin with a rifle butt and then stab him in slow motion - from behind, no less - with the new omni-blade. It's brutal but effective stuff.

The level concluded with Shepard, still being dogged by the towering Reaper, leaping up to what appeared to be a fixed turret. It was indeed fixed, only onto a vehicle that soon took off and zipped away from the devastation. Naturally the Reaper gave chase until Shepard's on-rail cannons won the battle - the Reaper's glorious demise as spectacular as the explosion-filled pursuit itself.

From there Hudson turned the clock back for the second level of the show: back to a scene plucked from near the beginning of the game. Shepard was on trial on Earth just as the Reapers invaded and had to battle his way out of a collapsing city and ultimately make it off-world before succumbing to the Reaper threat. Here he paired up with Anderson and took in a brief panorama of the burning buildings before making a bee-line for the extraction point.

The journey from rooftop to safety involved many more battles with husks, troops and new mutations the 'cannibals'. Weapons looked to have been refined yet again - something confirmed when Shepard set down his gun onto a table and the screen switched to that of a weapon customisation menu. There were only space for a couple of attachments, but even the smallest modification changed the weapon's stats. Equip special ammunition, meanwhile, and a small holographic icon attaches itself to the side of Shepard's gun to remind players of their limited costly rounds.

The opening scene wasn't quite as impactful as Mass Effect 2's beginning (to be fair it's nigh on impossible to top the Normandy's shock destruction) but did still try to play with our feelings. Half-way to safety, Shepard found a small boy cowering in an air vent. Despite offering to help the child the boy ran off, only to reappear a few minutes later while boarding a transport ship that was blown out of the sky mere seconds after take-off. As Shepard - newly reinstated to his Commander post by Captain Anderson - looked away in horror we pondered whether or not better dialogue wheel options would have spared the boy his fiery doom. If so, Casey Hudson wouldn't spill the beans when quizzed...

So impressive was the showing that Mass Effect 3 received the only round of applause of the day - something it fully deserved too. Even without factoring in the exclusive Kinect features, BioWare seems to have saved Mass Effect's best 'til last. A definite contender for E3 2011's most exciting game.

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E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Shoots for the Stars (IGN)

2011-06-08T10:52:00.000+01:00

BioWare's Mass Effect sci-fi role-playing franchise is one of the best in video games, yet I admit it's had problems in the past, from technical issues on the Xbox 360 when it was first released to the endlessly irritating planet scanning mini-game in Mass Effect 2. Still, through all the flaws, I kept playing, enraptured by the story and the thrill of gunning through the fast-paced action sequences. It let me hop around an unknown galaxy and interact with fascinating characters and explore alien worlds. Mass Effect 3 is meant to be the finale, and it could be the best entry in the series.

That's going to be hard for BioWare to do considering how good Mass Effect 2 was (taking IGN's Game of the Year award in 2010), but from what's been shown off so far, it seems to be on the right track. The combat and sense of sweeping drama seem to be heightened even further.

Since I'm the type of gamer that would rather put Mass Effect on my coverage blackout list to avoid story spoilers, I won't go into that many specifics. The basic concept is Earth is getting attacked by Reapers and Shepard, naturally, has to save it. Just because the focus is Earth doesn't mean you won't be exploring the galaxy, though. You'll still get your ship, the Normandy, to visit locations and find new quests and characters. There'll also be plenty of ways to upgrade your gear as well, more in line with how it worked in the first Mass Effect, though with a better interface.

During gameplay most of the interface is familiar. To switch weapons and special powers you can bring up a radial menu, and you can still run around with a team of two and direct them in battle. If you want to upgrade a weapon, tough, you'll find special benches around the world that can be accessed and used to mod your guns. This alters the statistical values of the weapon, as well as its appearance, making it seem like there'll be a lot more ways to customize your arsenal than with Mass Effect 2's more restricted system.

In combat, moving from place to place as Shepard has been made a lot faster. He can spin and roll between cover spots in this sequel, which in addition to serving as a more effective method of staying alive, also lets him stay hidden. Using his Omni Blade, a glowing knife that extends from his hand, Shepard can perform one-hit kills if he's able to close range on an enemy. If he manages to use cover to get into an area undetected, he can even reach over low walls and slam the enemy with the blade before it has a chance to react. It makes the game play much more like a traditional third-person action game than its predecessors, adding in the added option to lob out grenades provided you have some handy.

What's really great to see is how BioWare is building some incredible-looking scenes to explore. Characters in Mass Effect 3 don't simply say 'Reapers are attacking Earth!' while you're stuck in a generic box of a room, unable to see the reality of the conflict. Instead, you're dropped right in the middle of the invasion. Enormous squid-like Reapers slowly advance through a dense metropolis knocking ships from the sky in bursts of flame. At one point a larger starship is knocked down the force of the blast rips all the way through the air and into Shepard, knocking him from his vantage point of the battle. What was shown had great sound, better combat, and some awe-inspiring visuals. I can't wait to see where else BioWare takes the story, because so far it seems as though Mass Effect 3 could be the best of the series.

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Mass Effect 3 preview: Run and gun (Joystiq)

2011-06-08T09:54:00.000+01:00

Since the beginning of the Mass Effect series, BioWare has had to walk the line between the role-playing genre the company is known for, and the series' setting-driven third-person shooter combat. The first game in the series was arguably a role-playing game with shooter elements, and the second game, to both cheers and jeers from fans, definitely bent a little further towards the shooter side of things. And with the third title, a BioWare representative told Joystiq at E3 this week, Bioware wants to "bring both of those elements up at the same time" -- increase the depth of the customization and the role-playing game, and make the combat sequences more smooth and exciting than ever.

We got to play through one short segment of the game, and while we didn't see a lot of the RPG elements in that part, it's safe to say that the combat is coming together to be some of the best the series has ever seen.

BioWare has always borrowed from the language of modern videogame shooters for Mass Effect, and this iteration is no different. The biggest change in 3's combat is that the A button (on Xbox 360, at least) has a bevy of new functions. It still sends you into cover whenever you're close, but once in cover, the button can also be held down to either roll across a gap, or pushed forward to jump out of cover quickly and move on. The effect is very Gears of War-esque to be sure, though Shepard still doesn't roll himself around quite as quickly as the Gears do.

The A button's also used for various interactions with the landscape -- at one point during our mission (in which Shepard, Mordin, and Garrus were trying to release a female Krogan from captivity on the Salarian homeworld), Shepard had to jump a gap and then climb a ladder. The task was quickly and easily accomplished with one press to jump across, and then another press to haul up the ladder.

BioWare's stolen another trick from Gears of War as well: During certain sequences, a prompt appears on screen to press Y, and the camera will zoom in on a point of interest. It's well-traveled ground for the bullet genre these days, but interesting to see the effect implemented in BioWare's series finally.

And then there's that melee attack. There's always been a random gun bash in Mass Effect for enemies that get a little too close, but in the third iteration, the player can press B to have Shepard whip out "an Omniblade" and get stabby. Just hitting the button allows for a swing, but holding it down (when aimed correctly at the enemy) send Shepard in for a quick kill. There are even stealth kills, of a sort -- my Shepard took some low cover behind an unsuspecting enemy, and then I held B down to grab the bad guy from behind and take him out with the Omniblade.

Combat in general feels quicker and more responsive -- not overly so, but it's definitely been refined yet again. Grenades are back on the Left bumper and have been revamped a bit to work more tactically. At one point, Shepard and crew had the high ground on a group of enemies under cover, and tossing a grenade down in the middle of the group with the bumper took out a couple and sent the rest running out into the open. Enemies will also work together -- we saw one group using smoke bombs to block Shepard's shots, and were told that later enemies will revive each other at times.

The demo ended with the arrival of a gigantic mech called a Cerberus Atlas, and while I didn't actually get to fire a shot at him, I was told that after taking him down, Shepard would eventually be able to get in and control the robot, wreaking destruction on a much larger scale.

That, along with everything else Mass Effect 3 has in store (I didn't get to see the Kinect features in action, unfortunately) will have to wait until later. But the shooter combat that I did see definitely seems like a solid upgrade of the previous titles, and a sign that BioWare is much more sure of its balance over the RPG/shooter line that the series has always had to traverse.

Source.

BioWare Pulse ep3 - Behind the Scenes at the E3 Press Demo

2011-06-08T09:29:00.002+01:00

BioWare Pulse episodes 1 & 2 - Mass Effect 3 at E3

2011-06-07T14:30:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Gameplay Trailer E3 - Fall of Earth

2011-06-07T14:29:00.001+01:00

Mass Effect 3 E3 2011 Extended Gameplay Trailers

2011-06-07T10:14:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3: Escapist Magazine E3 Producers Insight Video

2011-06-07T10:03:00.002+01:00

Mass Effect 3: Producer Insight

2011-06-06T21:49:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Moves Beyond Dirty Dozen, To a Warring Galaxy

2011-06-06T21:40:00.000+01:00

With the promise of more fluid combat, vicious melee attacks, tougher enemies and a nimbler Commander Shepard, Mass Effect 3 is shaping up to be the game Bioware says will be definitive Mass Effect experience.

"Mass Effect was always designed as a trilogy," Bioware game director Casey Hudson told a gathering of press, "and Mass Effect 3 is the main event."

That means an overhaul of the combat, cover and mobility in the game, reworked enemies and weapons and new customizable powers.

It also means a different sort of narrative backdrop.

Where Mass Effect 2 was loosely structured around a Dirty Dozen storyline, its sequel will take a step back and have you gathering not individual members for a team, but commodities for the war effort.

"The large scale story and even the little missions, the little friendships you accumulate during the game contribute to the overall war effort," Hudson said. The greater you do the better your chance of success."

Mass Effect 3 will be about the galactic war that the game has been moving toward for two titles now.

"This is the story of that all out galactic war," he said. "You start out with the Reapers having captured the earth. It is your job to rally the forces of the galaxy and unify everyone behind the cause and wipe out the Reapers forever."

The game also has a number of tweaks to the way you'll handle Commander Shepard. He will have a whole new level of mobility, Hudson said.

"You can climb things, leap across gaps," he said. "In combat you can roll in and out of cover or between cover. That really helps with the overall fluidity of combat.

Enemies will be tougher too with a "lot of new behaviors" from flying in on rocket boots to crawling out of holes. Some will come at you with physical shields.

Your squad members will have new abilities too. For instance you can send one in to go into a fight a rip a shield out of an enemies hands.

Shepard will, of course, also have new abilities including a new collapsible blade attached to his arm that can be used for vicious, skewering attacks.

To give us a sense of what he was talking about, Hudson let us see a bit of gameplay from Mass Effect 3. It was from early on in the game when you are on a Salarian home world.

The brief demo was a chaotic scene of thumping guns, smoke and fire. Arrows directed when Shepard could roll to new cover or could press a button to see a pivotal moment in the gunfight. A serious injury caused Shepard's vision to blur and the noise from the battle to echo briefly.

At one point in the battle a group of enemies formed up with shields, blocking the return fire of Shepard's team until he was able to flank and cut them down with shotgun blasts and that blade of his. Shepard activates an adrenaline rush power that essentially slows everyone but him down, making his assault easier.

Later in the battle a mech lands. Hudson says that if you can take out the driver you can control the suit.

"We're trying to make Mass Effect 3 the best of the series," he says. "It's about improving the moment to moment action, providing an epic conclusion to this storyline."

Source.

Mass Effect 3 E3 Demo Gameplay

2011-06-06T21:32:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Releases 6/03/12 (09/03/12 for us Europeans)

2011-06-06T21:12:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 E3 Gameplay Trailer

2011-06-06T21:01:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 Gets More Tactical and Conversational with Kinect

2011-06-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

During Microsoft's 2011 E3 press conference this morning, BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka demonstrated how Microsoft's Kinect could make the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 3 the one to own.

Mass Effect's famous branching dialog system comes to life thanks to Kinect's voice recognition. Each decision made can be made using your natural voice, unless you are ridiculously drunk or suffer from a serious speech impediment. Wouldn't it be lovely if the game's characters became confused and asked you to repeat yourself in those cases? Immersion a-go-go!

Voice is for more than just climbing dialog trees, however. Issuing commands to your companions has never been as easy as it was on stage this morning.

This is exactly what I wanted Kinect to do. Thanks, BioWare!

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Amazon outs Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition Updated 07/06/11

2011-06-06T16:21:00.001+01:00

Product Features:

Premium metal case featuring commemorative artwork of Commander Shepard.
70-page hardbound art book featuring hundreds of unique and gorgeous illustrations from the BioWare development team plus an exclusive 4x6 lithographic print featuring a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork
Limited edition Mass Effect comic by Dark Horse Comics, complete with unique cover artwork
Join the ranks of the N7 with the premium fabric N7 patch
A full collection of in-game content that can't be found anywhere else!

Source.

Mass Effect 3: E3 2011 - From Cover to Combat

2011-06-03T09:58:00.000+01:00

Mass Effect 3 plays like a shooter.

Sure, Mass Effect games have always looked like shooters, but they've never really played like them. Yeah, you pointed and shot at things, but the less tangible particulars of combat have always eluded BioWare's sci-fi epic. Gunplay in Mass Effect was a clunky exercise in behind-the-scenes dice rolls, RPG-style. Mass Effect 2's battles weren't the chore they often were in the original, but they weren't what anyone paid the price of admission for. The cover mechanic was limited in comparison to dedicated third person action games, and guns lacked any sort of oomph.

My playtime with Mass Effect 3 was set on the Salarian homeworld of Sur'Kesh. Ostensibly, my job was to escort a Krogan princess offworld. But in practice, my main job was kicking Cerberus ass across a science station, and Shepard was more equipped than ever to get the job done.

A host of seemingly small additions have changed the way Mass Effect 3 plays. Basic character movement is more responsive for starters, more animated. Guiding Shepard around is less of a struggle than it's ever been. Aiming also felt snappier, and guns have the punch now that they've always lacked.

These changes alter the way you can move around combat zones in Mass Effect 3. Previously, firefights in Mass Effect were mostly static affairs. You'd find a good sized bit of cover and fire away, or throw abilities at your enemies hoping they'd never really get in close enough to make Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2's unwieldy combat controls a liability. If you were a Vanguard, you might risk your life to use your powerful charge move, but it was an awkward maneuver that missed as often as it hit. But Mass Effect 3's revised movement and aiming make Shepard viable at variable ranges in a way he never was before.

Moving and shooting, a previously suicidal maneuver that most players outgrew within a few hours of Mass Effect 2, isn't just an option now - it's a good choice. Cover is still important; it's also been revamped from the last game, easier now to traverse and use dynamically rather than finding a point to set up at and pray that enemies don't close the gap. But BioWare wants you to mix it up in close - something made obvious by the revised melee system.

The awkward melee shoves and slaps of past Mass Effects are gone. Formidable melee punches and attacks specific to each class have taken their place. The Soldier Shepard I used delivered some solid, fast punches that knocked enemies back without causing me to double over like I had shattered every bone in my hand. But the real new addition to close quarters combat is the instant melee kill - hold down the B or Circle button and Shepard will wind back to deliver a killing blow unique to his class, in this case a tech-blade in my Soldier's wrist armor. Shaped similarly to the energy-based armor used by Sentinel classes in Mass Effect, it cut down enemies in one hit. Other classes have their own heavy melee attacks - Adepts have blades of psionic energy that they use to cut down their enemies in close, for example.

Then there are the grenades. Mass Effect 3 sees a series debut for actual, round, conventional grenades. This adds yet another combat option to the game that changes the way Shepard can engage with enemies, and adds a new tactical wrinkle to flanking and other maneuvers.

All of these things combine to provide a shooting experience that, honestly, feels a bit surreal in a Mass Effect game. As I made my way to the Krogan princess on the other end of a science platform with my teammates Liara and Garrus, there was a point in the demo where Cerberus operatives stormed the opposite end of the corridor. The platform had the standard smattering of cover objects between us and the Cerberus forces, but there was also a passage to the right that flanked to the other side. Ordering Liara and Garrus to use their abilities as a diverson, I stuck to cover and ran to the corridor. I made my way to the end and blind-tossed a pair of grenades into the other side of the room.

As the explosions rocked the Cerberus personnel, I swung around the cover and quickly popped a pair of enemies with my assault rifle. Then I dashed forward, sprung over a bit of cover, and took out another Cerberus agent with a pair of quick melee strikes, then ducked back into cover and made my way around to the remaining enemy's rear, cutting him down with Shepard's tech blade.

It all felt like a different game, like a different series even. Where Mass Effect 2 felt like a slightly tighter Mass Effect combat-wise, Mass Effect 3 is in an entirely different space. The familiar elements that need to be there are intact - powers and talents are still in the same menu wheel structure, and weapon types remain unchanged. You're not going to select an assault rifle and be shocked by its looks. But you will be taken aback by how well it works. I was. And now the wait to play Mass Effect 3 until 2012 is that much harder.

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Mass Effect 3: E3 2011 - The Galaxy's Fate is in Your Hands

2011-06-03T09:53:00.000+01:00

Spoiler Alert: This article contains some story spoilers for Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and previously released downloadable content.

The Reapers have come to Earth. This is how Mass Effect 3 begins. The first two titles in the series were building towards an epic war with the ancient arbiters of doom and that war has finally come. Good thing the galaxy has you, Commander Shepard, professional Reaper killer.

Mass Effect 2 focused on gathering the best mercenaries in the galaxy for a suicide mission against the Collectors. Mass Effect 3 is a survival mission. You must rally the various races from around the galaxy to your cause to reclaim Earth and save every form of life from extinction. Fail, and everyone and everything dies. No pressure.

It won't be easy. This is full blown galactic war and to many, the battle appears hopeless. How can any army possibly defeat the Reapers? Forget about earning the trust of individual allies -- you must unite warring factions to one purpose. Returning to Earth with anything less than a galactic armada would mean failure. In Mass Effect 2, you helped Jack deal with her past and tracked down Samara's daughter for a family reunion. Here, the stakes are higher and the importance of each mission is going to be greater.

One example of these unifying missions comes about halfway through Mass Effect 3. Shepard and crew have journeyed to the Salarian homeworld, Sur'Kesh, to rescue a Krogan princess. Yes, she's crazy hot. The princess in question is the key to uniting a divided Krogan homeworld. Mordin Solus is assisting (it is his home planet after all), and naturally the Krogan clan leader Wrex Urdnot has quite an interest in the princess.

But wait, is that team even possible in your version of Mass Effect 3? This is where the branching paths of the first two games begin to really affect the final battle against the Reapers. What if you killed Wrex in the first game? What if Mordin died at the end of Mass Effect 2? What if you gave thumbs up to the Genophage? It's unclear how these choices affect the missions -- maybe losing Mordin just means another character is there in his place -- but in some cases the differences should be significant.

Mass Effect 3 Executive Producer Casey Hudson says that "all things contribute to the war effort." Meaning every major decision from the first two games has an impact. The relationships you've built, and those you need to build going forward, matter.

With the Krogans, you might have murdered one of their own. You might have further doomed their species to extinction. Now you must ask them to help you save the galaxy. Awkward. But there are other decisions that should have an impact. Did you kill or spare the Rachni Queen in Mass Effect 1? When Sovereign attacked the Citadel did you sacrifice or save the Council? At the end of Mass Effect 2, did you destroy the Collectors' experiments or save them for (then ally, now enemy) Cerberus? Thinking about all of the decisions made in the first two games and if/how they impact Mass Effect 3 illustrates the scope of the trilogy. This is something we've never seen before.

The separation between someone who played Renegade versus Paragon in the previous games makes the large scale of Mass Effect 3 all the more interesting. Renegade isn't the traditional "evil" you see in games with morality. Often times, it's about self-reliance. Many of those decisions show a Renegade Shepard as being direct, uncompromising, and perhaps trying to prove that humans don't need help from anyone else to survive in the galaxy. For some species, that brash mentality can earn respect. For most, it likely shows that humans are under-developed savages who should be destroyed by the Reapers. I've got to imagine a few things my no-nonsense Queenie Shepard did are going to come back to bite her in the ass.

If you didn't play any of the downloadable content, Mass Effect 3 assumes the events happened. You get a little more out of things if you played Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival. But either way, Liara is the new Shadow Broker (think queen of all mercenaries) and Shepard has been arrested and is on trial on Earth at the start of ME3.

Mass Effect 3 might be about big-scale battles and the fate of all worlds, but there's still time for love. There's an epic battle for Shepard's heart, after all. If you were suave in Mass Effect 1 and 2, then you have two love interests, both vying for you as worlds are about to end. This love triangle will be resolved by the end of Mass Effect 3, so look forward to walking off into the sunset with Liara. I mean, seriously, who else would you want to be with -- Kaidan?

Regardless of how your love life turns out, the Reapers need to be taken down. With a galactic armada at your disposal, that should be doable. All you have to do is convince the galaxy humanity's worth saving.

Source.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - House of Revenge Trailer

2011-06-01T09:27:00.001+01:00

Master Craftsmanship Comes to the Mass Effect Universe

2011-05-19T09:43:00.000+01:00

Were this a 3D render of Mass Effect 2's Thane, it would be impressive. Thing is, it's not. This is a tangible, old-fashioned sculpt. Get a load of the detail!

Seriously, had you not been informed this was crafted by hand you'd simply assume it was a game asset, such is the colour and intricacy on show. From his neck scales to his gills, he's looking sharp.

The piece stands just over 6 inches tall, and you can see more shots by scrolling through the gallery above.

It's the work of Brazilian character artist Rafael Grassetti, who makes a living doing everything from 3D art to texturing to traditional sculpture like you see here for movie studios, game developers and toy companies.

Artist's site. Source.

Mass Effect 3: Bioware used DLC to experiment with Mass Effect 3 ideas

2011-05-18T12:44:00.000+01:00

News probes are still coming back from our trip to BioWare to see Mass Effect 3 being built. Executive producer Casey Hudson tells us that they’ve been using the Mass Effect 2 DLC we’ve been playing as prototypes for ideas they want to put into Mass Effect 3.

Fair warning: the first part of Casey’s answer is about how surprising Mass Effect 3 is, and in the second part he tells us something that happens right near the start. He also refers to some stuff that happens in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2. Spoilers follow.

PC Gamer: What was the biggest area of improvement that you wanted to focus on in Mass Effect 3?

Casey Hudson: One thing that we’re doing is just making the entire experience feel a lot more… it’s the moment to moment unpredictability, the variability. Anything can happen. We’ve got these action moments, little micro-cutscenes and stuff that lead in and out of actual gameplay. We’ve got lots and lots of epic situations that you’re in for gameplay and combat stuff that we’ve never done before.

Some of the stuff we did in our DLC was very successful, and were in a way prototypes for what we’re doing here. So when you fought the Shadow Broker, there’s a different scenario for how you’re fighting this huge guy who’s smashing parts of the environment, and charging you, and you’re working together. Or you’re on the back of that big ship, and there’s wind. And we had the whole car chase thing in the Shadow Broker. So with some of these things we’re just kind of experimenting with stuff to broaden that envelope of gameplay that we’re doing in Mass Effect 3.

PC Gamer: So what kind of stuff in Mass Effect 3 does that relate to?

Casey Hudson: Well, without me giving away specific situations… a moment on Earth where you’re trying to get away from the Reapers. You’re on a building where the structure’s collapsed, and you’re sliding down the glass face of a skyscraper, and you roll at the bottom. It’s a moment, but you feel like you’re part of it. And these kinds of things are throughout the game: grabbing a turret and mowing down a few of the guys before you go on to the next thing.

But a lot of it is also narrative based, so in shows like Band of Brothers, the group will be fighting their way through and then they’ll meet up with a tank, and they’ll crouch along with the tank as it moves up to the next thing. So we’re doing moments like that, where we’re letting the narrative be more and more part of the combat.

Source.

Mass Effect: Genesis Interactive Comic now on XBL

2011-05-18T11:10:00.000+01:00

No substitute for actually playing Mass Effect (1) - because it is still an awesome game, if not as awesome as the sequel - but useful if you just want to import a Shepard into Mass Effect 2 with different choices (and markedly better than default creation choices), especially if you've upgraded your 360 and the importer no longer works, despite having all the save files present and correct.

This digital comic back-story was created by BioWare and Dark Horse comics. The 15 minute interactive experience allows you to make the key choices of Mass Effect 1. This retelling will also let you have those choices reflected during Mass Effect 2.

Source.

Gameinformer: The Mass Effect Covers That Could Have Been

2011-05-16T10:47:00.000+01:00

During our recent trip to BioWare's Edmonton studio to check out Mass Effect 3, we got to see a lot of cool stuff related to the franchise...including these mock-ups of box art possibilities for the original Mass Effect.

During the filming for our Mass Effect 3 video features, we were allowed to capture some footage of these preliminary tests for the game's cover (which are hanging up in a hallway of the office). It's interesting to see how some of these covers highlight different characters and aspects of the game. My personal favorite is the one above, accompanied by the tagline "In 2007, The Reaping Begins." Of course, that gives away something about the story, so I can see why BioWare steered away from it.

Check out all six:

Source.

Mass Effect 3: XboxWorld 360 Scans (My Own)

2011-05-11T15:05:00.001+01:00

Mass Effect 3: OXM Scans (my own)

2011-05-09T14:46:00.003+01:00

Mass Effect 3: PC Gamer Scans

2011-05-06T10:15:00.000+01:00

Source.

Some dubious information about Cerberus (inferred not confirmed they are working for the Reapers), and (Ugh) Tali confirmed as a squad-mate.

The Smithsonian Has Picked the Games of Its Art of Video Games Exhibit

2011-05-05T20:52:00.000+01:00

The Smithsonian American Art Museum revealed the winners of its public vote to decide what games will be featured in their exhibit, The Art of Video Games, today. The exhibit creates a visual history of the evolution of gaming from its humble beginnings through the present. The vote, which took place between February and April, helped to pick the majority of the exhibit, with only a few iconic selections guaranteed entry.

The games are split into five eras, each focusing on a generation of gaming. The Smithsonian was egalitarian in its selection, leaving very few consoles unrepresented. (Sorry, Jaguar!) Each game was selected to represent the gameplay and artistic style of its generation.

Their classification of games doesn't exactly match the classifications made by gamers. Fable and Shenmue are "adventure" games, Sim City represents strategy games, and so on. Both shumps and dungeon crawlers share the "Target" category, because they all revolve around players selecting a target and (generally) pressing a single button. Certain genres bounce around: Doom II is an action game, while Goldeneye is a "target" game. While these generalizations might seem abnormal to some, putting an emphasis on how much games have evolved in forty years shows many of these games in a different light.

Want to see if your all-time favorite game made the cut? Here's an alphabetical list of all the games featured in the exhibit.

1943: The Battle of Midway
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
After Burner
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Bioshock
Boom Blox
Brütal Legend
ChuChu Rocket!
Combat®
Desert Commander
Diablo II
Donkey Kong™
DOOM II
Dune II: Battle for Arrakis
Earthworm Jim
Einhander
Fable
Fallout
Fallout 3
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VII
flOw
Flower
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Goldeneye 007
Gradius V
Gunstar Heroes
Halo 2
Heavy Rain
Jumpman
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Marble Madness
Mass Effect 2
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metroid Prime 2: Echos
Minecraft
Myst
Okami
Pac-Man
Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Phantasy Star
Phantasy Star IV
Pikmin 2
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Pitfall!
Portal
Rez
Shadow of Colossus
Shenmue
Sid Meier's Pirates!
SimCity
SimCity 2000
Sonic Adventure
Space Invaders
Spy vs Spy
Star Fox™
Star Fox™: Assault
Star Strike
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
StarCraft
Super Mario 64
Super Marios Brothers
Super Mario Brothers 3
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario World
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Tomb Raider
TRON: Maze-Atron
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Utopia
World of Warcraft
Worms Armageddon
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Zaxxon

Looking at the list, some of the games chosen are obvious shoo-ins: Mario 3, Metal Gear Solid, and Bioshock, to name a few. Others—Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Metroid Prime 2—for instance, are more interesting. Certain series are very well represented: Zelda, Mario, Panzer Dragoon.

Though the games of the exhibit have been unveiled, the instillation is far from complete. The Smithsonian plans to open "The Art of Video Games" on March 16th, 2012, with the exhibit running from March through September.

Source.

Mass Effect 2 has some of the best art, artists and concept art in the business - great to see it represented.

Road to E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 (IGN)

2011-05-05T12:31:00.000+01:00

What We Know

Thanks to the May issue of Game Informer, we know the basics about Mass Effect 3 and Commander Shepard's final push to eliminate the Reaper threat. The homicidal sentient machines quickly invade Earth at the beginning of the game and it's up to Shepard to "flee, gather support, and mount a counter-attack to reclaim the planet" according to Casey Hudson, executive director of the franchise. Cerberus is back, but not in a friendly way -- they've now turned on Shepard, but mum's the word on their new motives.

The third game will also incorporate more traditional RPG elements than the second game did, including more in-depth skill trees and weapons customization. Each class now has a dedicated melee attack and the cover system has been refined. Hearing about all of these things makes us very excited, but we've yet to see them in action.

We also know some of the returning characters, notably the Illusive Man, Liara and the Virmire survivor (Kaidan or Ashley).

What We Expect at E3

The news that Mass Effect 3 has been delayed until early 2012 may influence what we see at E3. Now that the PR cycle needs to be stretched out for a little longer it's likely that we won't see as much as previously anticipated.

Still, we know the gist of what's going on, now we just need to see how it will function. Clearly we'll see some of the combat changes in action during the E3 demo, and we're looking forward to seeing how the new melee attacks will change the feel of the game.

We're also curious as to how you will recruit civilizations. Will it be possible to recruit everybody or will it be more like Dragon Age: Origins where you must choose to side with certain people and alienate (or kill) others in the process? BioWare may be saving this aspect for later in the development cycle, but there's still a chance we'll hear more about it at E3.

What we really want to see is the new customization interface and skill trees and I think that's a realistic expectation for the E3 demo. BioWare will want to show off that Mass Effect is still very much an "RPG" to help appease those were unhappy with the drastic changes in Mass Effect 2.

Finally, every Mass Effect fan is dying to know the entire list of returning characters as right now only a handful of favorites have been confirmed. I'm sure BioWare will release a few more returning characters at E3, but not the whole list.

Source.

Personally i think the new delay will lead to an increased info flow - if anything to alleviate concerns over the delay and show off whatever new features that may be the cause of it. at least, i hope it will...

Mass Effect 3 delayed to Q1 2012

2011-05-05T09:17:00.000+01:00

From the Mass Effect 2 Facebook page:

Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012. The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations.” - Casey Hudson, Executive Producer Mass Effect series

2 more screenshots (that we've seen in mag scans):

Source.

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

2011-04-22T21:05:00.000+01:00

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.

Source.

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

2011-04-22T20:56:00.000+01:00

Source.

Mass Effect 3 PSM Scans

2011-04-21T22:16:00.000+01:00

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Mass Effect 3: Marca Player Photos

2011-04-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

Source.

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

2011-04-21T21:48:00.001+01:00

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.

Source.

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

2011-04-20T21:42:00.003+01:00

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.

Source and here.

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

2011-04-20T20:50:00.000+01:00

Source.

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

2011-04-20T20:35:00.000+01:00

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."

Source.

Sarif Industries TV Spot

2011-04-13T12:06:00.000+01:00

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

Mass Effect 3 Details Revealed (Gameon)

2011-04-12T15:36:00.000+01:00

including an appearance by Mark Meer!

Casey Hudson: a Mass Effect MMO makes sense

2011-04-11T15:14:00.000+01:00

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."

Source.

Mass Effect 3: Gameinformer Scans Spoilers

2011-04-11T10:57:00.002+01:00

Full credit: Harmony15 @ Livejournal

Mass Effect 3 - More GI Details Emerge spoilers

2011-04-11T09:44:00.001+01:00

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.

Source.

First Mass Effect 3 Details Emerge from GI Potential Spoilers

2011-04-08T11:54:00.003+01:00

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

2011-04-08T09:57:00.001+01:00

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

2011-04-07T14:33:00.002+01:00

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

2011-04-06T11:12:00.001+01:00

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

2011-04-05T09:41:00.001+01:00

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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Mass Effect 3 PS3 details coming April

2011-03-30T14:50:00.002+01:00

It looks like Mass Effect 3 gameplay details should be with us within a month, as games mags start to tease the Bioware sequel for their next issues.

One such mag is respected UK unofficial title, PSM3. Its current edition promises a "world-first look at Mass Effect 3 on PS3" in its next issue, which goes on sale on April 28.

The French Official PlayStation Magazine's also promising a "long overdue" gaming return for its next issue, whilst US retailer mag Game Informer's promising a reveal of a "highly anticipated" sequel to one of 2010's best games. That's Mass Effect 3, then.

Source.

*Image used by Patryk Olejniczak

Mass Effect 2: Arrival IGN Review

2011-03-30T12:25:00.000+01:00

If you want something a little more official than my own findings, here's IGN's review of Arrival:

It's bittersweet to review the final piece of downloadable content for Mass Effect 2. On one hand, there's nothing left for our favorite game of 2010, but that also means Mass Effect 3 is ever-closer. While Arrival isn't the highest note that BioWare could have ended Mass Effect 2 on, I understand why they chose this piece as the cork in the bottle. Arrival is all about Shepard and the Reapers and it does give some (but not a lot of) context to what we've seen of Mass Effect 3 so far.

Picking up after the Horizon mission, Arrival begins as a rescue initiative that you perform as a favor for your old friend Admiral Hackett. The woman you need to find, Dr. Amanda Kenson, has located a Reaper artifact with proof of their imminent invasion. The story is linear with no branching Paragon/Renegade pathways, though you can garner a handful of those points through scattered conversations along the way. I didn't mind the linearity here -- after all, most of the extra content has been presented the same way.

Arrival's twist comes in its combat -- you'll fight solo almost the entire time. Though you're down two squad mates, I didn't feel like it changed the game that much. Fighting through waves of enemies was slightly more difficult without others, but it never bordered on frustrating. There are some nice set pieces that you'll blast your way through (I won't spoil the locations) and it's still fun toying with your enemies by overloading a pyro and watching him explode or freezing someone then shattering him with bullets.

As fun as killing people is, the majority of Arrival consists of combat sequences and that's what I found disappointing. I love conducting conversations in Mass Effect, so the fact that most of this is running and gunning isn't bad, it's just not what I was hoping for. Arrival is on the shorter side and took me a couple of hours to complete, so I didn't have time to tire of shooting enemies with ammo and my biotic/tech powers.

While the new content doesn't technically have a lot of problems I can pinpoint, I didn't walk away "wowed" like I had with other content like Lair of the Shadow Broker. Arrival is still a worthy add-on with cool moments, but you shouldn't expect to feel butterflies of excitement in your tummy.

I had fun with Arrival, but I am concerned that people who don't buy it will be at a disadvantage in Mass Effect 3. Casey Hudson, executive producer of the franchise, assured me that that although Arrival will create differences in the player's Mass Effect 3 playthroughs, they would never "punish" players for not purchasing DLC. I guess we'll have to wait and see when Mass Effect 3 comes out this holiday.

CLOSING COMMENTS

Purchasing Arrival means there’s more to do in Mass Effect 2, and that’s always a good thing. It sets up the tone of urgency that’s prevalent in the Mass Effect 3 trailer, but don’t expect it to explain a lot. If you don’t mind combat-focused, linear missions, it’s worth the $7 or 560 Microsoft points.

Rating (out of 10): 7 - Good.

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Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC My Review

2011-03-30T12:19:00.002+01:00

So, the final piece of story-based DLC arrived yesterday, after a 6-month hiatus from the awesome Lair of the Shadowbroker DLC - a hard act to follow. Arrival though promised to be a true bridge to ME3 with a plot that tied directly into the main storyline of the trilogy and the arrival of the arch-enemies: the Reapers.

So - how is it? initial impressions aren't good, after a brief chat with Admiral Hackett - where he informs you that he wants you to solo-rescue one of his best agents who was working on something to do with the reapers in batarian space before being captured, as a huge favour to him - on the Normandy you land on a rain-sodden planet in Batarian space. Not having been in the rain since Pragia in the main game (though LoSB had some outside a window) it was nice to appreciate the water effects running down Shepard's armour before proceeding inside the prison... which is where the disappointment comes in - prisons are never going to be the nicest environs, but this one is particularly drab and for all it's labrynthine maze-feel, this is an illusion as it's still pretty linear (however to get the achievement for not engaging the enemy before the rescue you have to make good use of the "multiple routes" (read: side-passages) to avoid guards, being an infiltrator made this very easy).

Once you rescue your target, you basically have to shoot your way back out to the hanger you went through earlier, though the layout changes due to different doors being openend and guards appearing everywhere make this a nice challenge. Once on-board the escape shuttle you proceed to the second area of the DLC - the human base on the asteroid that forms the "plan" to stop the reaper invasion, which - according to the agent - is scheduled for a scant 2 days time...

Upon verifying her findings (cool-looking reaper artifact!), there's a plot-twist shocker you really should see coming a mile-off and a massive firefight ensues against literally, everyone in the base plus mechs. Survive 5 waves of this you get an achievement but the artifact still ensures your capture...

You wake up 2 days later and have to break out and try and fight your way to stop the agent from stopping "the plan" and letting the reapers in, which leads you into firefights against the hordes of soldiers (on a clandestine base in Batarian space?) until a final confrontation and, eventual, dramatic escape. Success means you end up with a nice cut-scene and an astronomical body-count, even as a paragon you can't save anyone - nice, huh? Hackett arrives on the Normandy to debrief you, setting up some troubling notions of possible events in ME3, which i'll get to in a minute.

Whilst the DLC is good, it's nowhere near LoSB quality: it lacks the plot, coherence impact and even urgency of that mission. going in solo (for contrived reasons) doesn't especially ramp the difficulty or gameplay. the promised consequences for ME3 must be trivial: the only real choice you get to make in the DLC is whether to warn the Batarian system-colonists about the plan, or not. unfortunately you can't anyway and this makes the whole choice a non-starter - what's the point if you fail regardless? oh, you get 2 paragon/renegade points, just showing how important the choice is. the renegade interrupt on catching the agent at the end was epic though, i will say that.

My biggest problem with the DLC comes at the end: the Hackett debrief - it's strongly hinted that Earth wants a scapegoat for what happened to the Batarians (despite no-one knowing you were even there) and that although evidence is circumstantial you may well be called to face the music at some point soon. but, wait a minute: since when does shepard answer to anyone in the alliance? oh yes - not since becoming a spectre at the beginning of ME1, let alone any subsequent choices - which don't matter because no shepard can canonically re-join the alliance at any point later. They have zero authority to do diddly regardless of what they want, especially if you are still a SPECTRE (which i always am - worked hard for that, dammit). this is total BS and smacks of "you are forced into dealing with this only because of the writers thought it was a cool story/plot to explore" - i hate manadatory scenarios like this, that also ignore your previous game choices. besides we already did the "trial" thing with tali's loyalty mission, i really don't see the need for two in a trilogy, especially when there are better things to be doing, like killing reapers and makin' sweet love with Miranda...

So, overall i'd say the DLC is well worth it for a few hours Mass effect entertainment (certainly better value than any movie i have seen all year) and it just felt so good to play something new mass effect after such a long wait.

Bring on ME3!

BioWare considering environmental HUD, new enemy designs for Mass Effect 3

2011-03-30T11:45:00.001+01:00

This story was picked up by Gamesradar from this thead on the official BW forums, regarding HUD iteration for ME3:

Commander Shepard may be taking a page from Isaac Clarke's book. BioWare Senior Designer Brenon Holmes told Mass Effect fans this weekend the studio is tinkering with the addition of an environmental HUD system for Mass Effect 3, much like the one last seen worn by the delusional engineer of note in Dead Space 2.

“That's one of the things that I love about Dead Space; the interface... it feels really immersive. I just want to touch the hell out of those buttons. So we are still investigating ways of putting some of our HUD elements into the environment... we'll see what we end up with,” wrote Holmes in a back and forth chat with BioWare's Mass Effect community.

Holmes said BioWare had played around with different prototypes for a health and shield indicator on Commander Shepard's armor during the early phases of ME2, but weren't able to find a way to do so without having it obscured when players took cover in the middle of the action.

In a later response to criticism over ME2's use of a fuzzy red screen-'o -death to indicate low health, Holmes confirmed this was something the studio was “actively iterating on.” He also noted the sequel would feature more variety on the battlefield, explaining, “One of the things we're trying for ME3 is to make it a lot easier to identify the various types of enemies. Silhouette of the character is a huge component of that, and our character art/animator guys have done a pretty awesome job. I'm pretty excited for when we get to start showing off some of the really cool creatures we've been working on.”

Holmes avoided discussing specific examples, but emphasized any character design changes would be done to suit an actual purpose - gameplay, plot or otherwise - and not just for the sake of mixing things up.

Over and above demonstrating BioWare's open relationship with fans, Holmes' chat over the last few days on BioWare's forum hints at promising improvements in the way of gameplay and design. Small improvements, sure, but ones that could make a difference when the intergalactic crap hits the fan.

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Mass Effect 2: 'Arrival' DLC Has Arrived!

2011-03-29T11:49:00.000+01:00

Should be out on PC sometime around 5pm BST, too...

Mass Effect 2: Arrival Launch Trailer

2011-03-28T21:44:00.000+01:00

A day early but totally awesomely epic!

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Exclusive "3 Ways To Play" Gameplay Footage Trailer

2011-03-25T09:40:00.000Z

This game is beginning to look pretty awesome in the same vein as Deus Ex 1 was back in the day, on PC, (& thankfully not like the awful sequel).

Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC Gamespot Gameplay Demo

2011-03-25T09:26:00.002Z

Gecko Mines, Railguns & Crab-paste

Mass Effect 3: James Vega Featurette (Gametrailers)

VGA 2011: Mass Effect 3 Exclusive Trailer

Mass Effect 3 @ Eurogamer 22-09-2011

Mass Effect 3: PAX 2011 Screenshots

Mass Effect Artbook Coming from Dark Horse

Mass Effect 3 hands on preview and interview – a moral war

Bioware Interview with Patryk Olejniczak

Gamescom: Mass Effect 3 - The Highs of Hands-On (IGN)

New Mass Effect 3 screens from Gamescom 2011

Mass Effect 3 Squad leader Trailer

Mass Effect 3 Interview: BioWare Talks Shepard, Kinect, RPGs (NowGamer)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Stealth Mode Video

Lead Writer MAC WALTERS Delivers MASS EFFECT 3 Game, Comic (Newsarama)

Mass Effect 3 first hands-on preview (Gamesradar)

Comic-Con: Mass Effect Movie (IGN)

Mass Effect 3: San Diego Comic-Con 2011 Stage Demo (Gamespot)

Toy Maker Kotobukiya Getting Into the Business of Sexy Mass Effect Girls

Mass Effect movie @ SDCC 2011 Legendary Pictures Panel

Mass Effect’s Depth Will Save It From the Fate of Most Video Game Movies

James Vega Revealed and a more opinionated post than i would normally make...

Mass Effect 3 PS3 vs. 360: 'You won't see a difference' say BioWare

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: "MASS EFFECT INVASION"

E3: MASS EFFECT 3 Brings Back the RPG (But More Action, Too)

The Mass Effect Movie Will be at Comic-Con

Mass Effect 3: BioWare on intense combat and overhauling AI

Robot Dance: The Aesthetics of Deus Ex 3 (IGN)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director Commentary Video *Spoilers*

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 'Behind 2027 The World Of' Trailer

Mass Effect 3: BioWare on art, sound and sharing with DICE

Mass Effect 3: BioWare on surprises, inspiration and tough decisions (Part 1)

Obsessed With Imagination: BioWare’s Co-Founders On Storytelling And The Future Of Mass Effect

Mass Effect 3 'Most Promising' Retail Game Of E3

E3 2011 Machinima Coverage - Mass Effect 3 Game Demo / Interview

E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Video Preview (IGN)

Mass effect 3: E3 Live video walkthrough and chat with Jesse Houston

Mass Effect E3 2011 PowerTV Gameplay Trailer

E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Interview - Customizable Weapons, Returning Characters, and More. (Xbox 360)

Mass Effect 3 Interview with Casey Hudson (Machinima)

Mass effect 3: OXM E3 Preview

E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 Shoots for the Stars (IGN)

Mass Effect 3 preview: Run and gun (Joystiq)

BioWare Pulse ep3 - Behind the Scenes at the E3 Press Demo

BioWare Pulse episodes 1 & 2 - Mass Effect 3 at E3

Mass Effect 3 Gameplay Trailer E3 - Fall of Earth

Mass Effect 3 E3 2011 Extended Gameplay Trailers

Mass Effect 3: Escapist Magazine E3 Producers Insight Video

Mass Effect 3: Producer Insight

Mass Effect 3 Moves Beyond Dirty Dozen, To a Warring Galaxy

Mass Effect 3 E3 Demo Gameplay

Mass Effect 3 Releases 6/03/12 (09/03/12 for us Europeans)

Mass Effect 3 E3 Gameplay Trailer

Mass Effect 3 Gets More Tactical and Conversational with Kinect

Amazon outs Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition *Updated 07/06/11*

Mass Effect 3: E3 2011 - From Cover to Combat

Mass Effect 3: E3 2011 - The Galaxy's Fate is in Your Hands

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - House of Revenge Trailer

Master Craftsmanship Comes to the Mass Effect Universe

Mass Effect 3: Bioware used DLC to experiment with Mass Effect 3 ideas

Mass Effect: Genesis Interactive Comic now on XBL

Gameinformer: The Mass Effect Covers That Could Have Been

Mass Effect 3: XboxWorld 360 Scans (My Own)

Mass Effect 3: OXM Scans (my own)

Mass Effect 3: PC Gamer Scans

The Smithsonian Has Picked the Games of Its Art of Video Games Exhibit

Road to E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 (IGN)

Mass Effect 3 delayed to Q1 2012

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

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

Mass Effect 3 PSM Scans

Mass Effect 3: Marca Player Photos

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

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

Gameinformer: Exclusive New Mass Effect 3 Screens

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

Sarif Industries TV Spot

Mass Effect 3 Details Revealed (Gameon)

Casey Hudson: a Mass Effect MMO makes sense

Mass Effect 3: Gameinformer Scans *Spoilers*

Mass Effect 3 - More GI Details Emerge *spoilers*

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director Commentary Video Spoilers

Amazon outs Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition Updated 07/06/11

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

Mass Effect 3: Gameinformer Scans Spoilers

Mass Effect 3 - More GI Details Emerge spoilers

First Mass Effect 3 Details Emerge from GI Potential Spoilers