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PS3 Mass Effect 2 to have 'seamless introduction,' integrates 'a lot' of DLC
BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka has revealed to VG247 that Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network DLC will be available for the PS3 version in a "full way." While he didn't get too specific, he indicated that "a lot," if not all of the post-release content that's been released for the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game will be integrated into the initial PS3 release. Additionally, the PS3 port will feature some form of an "introduction experience that provides the backstory and the things that have happened" in the first game (which is not available on PS3). "We haven't revealed what that is yet," Muzyka said of the introduction for first-time Mass Effect players. "It'll be something that provides a good introduction and provides a lot of the backstory and introduces you well to the story-arc, and kind of makes you feel like you're part of it all. And then you can jump right into the action in Mass Effect 2." Muzyka also touched on the possibility of Mass Effect 3 launching simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, teasing, "That'd be a good guess, but we haven't announced any details on any future formats or anything -- or even formally announced Mass Effect 3 yet." Of course, BioWare "wants to support different platforms, reach different audiences," Muzyka added, "we're part of EA and we want to make sure we can embrace that as well. I think we're trying to do that with all of our products, whether it's Dragon Age or Mass Effect."
Mass Effect 2 out on PS3 January 2011
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite announcement from Gamescom." The official reveal of Mass Effect 2 on PlayStation 3 comes after this morning's appearance of an Amazon listing for just that. The retailer's January 31 date matches with the official "January 2011" timeline given at the presentation. According to an EA press release, the PS3 version will include "hours of bonus content" (the existing DLC, perhaps?). BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka classified the announcement as "friggin' awesome," and we're inclined to agree. Check out the official reveal trailer and press release after the break.
Mass Effect 2 DLC delivers 'Firepower Pack'
There's a fine art to negotiating with otherworldly forms of life. As Mass Effect's Commander Shepard has demonstrated on numerous occasions, it is sometimes best to put aside your intolerance and treat those six-eyed scumbags with the respect and dignity they think they deserve. But when diplomacy fails -- and it will -- it's best to speak in your native tongue WHICH IS BULLETS. If you're done shooting the breeze with these inhuman invaders, try shooting the bejesus out of them with the Firepower Pack, a new downloadable add-on for Mass Effect 2 (available now on Xbox 360 and PC). A donation of 160 MS / BioWare Points ($2) will grant access to the Phalanx, a heavy pistol with a laser sight, and the Mattock heavy rifle, a "semi-auto beast" usable by those proficient in assault rifles. You'll also get the Geth Plasma Shotgun that hits enemies with a charged shot and at greater distance than regular shotguns. Remember: Guns don't kill people, they kill aliens. [This message brought to you by the Cerberus group. Firepower Pack not brought to you by the Cerberus Network.] %Gallery-98768%
Mass Effect 2 getting new DLC weapon pack before Shadow Broker
A few hardcore Mass Effect 2 devotees noticed something off in the media released to promote the game's upcoming DLC pack, "The Lair of the Shadow Broker" -- Commander Shepard and Co. were wielding some heretofore unavailable weaponry. While some assumed the new content would include these future-guns, BioWare community manager Jarrett Lee quickly took to the forums to explain that "they are in fact part of a different pack that will be released prior to Lair of the Shadowbroker." Lee assured fans that while the guns would be sold apart from the newly announced content, "Lair of the Shadow Broker does, however, contain some *really* cool stuff we haven't revealed yet." We're assuming he's talking about a hideous race of space monsters that can only be killed using ... these new, purchasable guns! Then again, our hearts are cold and calloused.
New Mass Effect novel penned by sci-fi writer William C. Dietz
In a recent interview with our PC-centric sister site Big Download, science fiction novelist and experienced game-to-book adapter William C. Dietz revealed he was recently "hired to write a Mass Effect tie-in." When pressed for details about the project, Dietz, who has also written books for the Resistance, Hitman, Halo and StarCraft franchises, could only reveal that it was due to his publisher in early 2011. So, we've got Mass Effect: Ascension, Mass Effect: Revelation and, out next week, Mass Effect: Retribution -- and now Dietz is going to throw another piece of literature on the pile? Had we known that falling in love with the Mass Effect franchise would require us to do this much reading, we probably would have skipped the whole darn thing.
Mass Effect 2 DLC ventures into 'Lair of the Shadow Broker'
BioWare has just announced the latest Mass Effect 2 DLC: "Lair of the Shadow Broker." If you haven't played ME2 , you may want to skip any details about this mission ... suffice it to say, in the intergalactic world of Mass Effect 2 there are shadows and sometimes, those shadows need to be brokered. Oh, and they have lairs. Those of you who have played ME2 can probably guess how this is going to shake out. As expected, Shepard teams up with Liara T'Soni to "confront the mysterious and sinister Shadow Broker," the very same info-dishing individual (or group of individuals?) that aided Liara in recovering Commander Shepard's body. As BioWare so delicately puts it, "it's time to even the score." After last month's exceptional "Overlord" DLC, all eyes are on BioWare to keep it up. All the info we've got is a "coming soon" release window and the three screenshots below. %Gallery-97994%
More Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age DLC now available
Bioware buckaroos, mount up! New DLC add-ons were deployed this week for the developer's sci-fi, space-faring RPG, Mass Effect 2, and its traditional fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. Head past the break for complete details and stuff to look at.
Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 gain +10 cheapness on Amazon
At their standard retail prices, BioWare titles typically offer players an unparalleled amount of HEPD, or "hours of enjoyment per dollar." That highly scientific ratio has been significantly altered by Amazon today.
Review: Mass Effect 2 DLC: Overlord
When your entire game builds to a final, bombastic mission as in Mass Effect 2, it's hard for any downloadable content set after that point to not feel like an afterthought, and that's certainly true of the "Overlord" DLC from a structural standpoint. But when even your afterthoughts pack more fun and emotional resonance into a couple of hours than many games manage in their entirety, who's complaining?
Gaikai signs multi-year licensing deal with EA
Gaikai may not be ready for action just yet (the service doesn't have a release date), but the company was more than happy to drop news of a multi-year licensing agreement with Electronic Arts today. The news appears to be delivering on promises that the company's fearless leader, Dave Perry, made back in April of a big E3 announcement. Among the games Gaikai will be bringing to the web-streaming service are The Sims, the Battlefield: Bad Company series, the Dragon Age series, the Mass Effect series, Medal of Honor and Need for Speed. "Gaikai's innovations open whole new experiences for both current players and new customers looking for the best of interactive entertainment," EA's Richard Hilleman said of the licensing deal. We're open to both "whole new experiences" and "interactive entertainment," so that sounds just fantastic to us.
Interview: BioWare's Casey Hudson on the making of Mass Effect 2
With arrival of the final piece of Mass Effect 2 DLC today, executive producer Casey Hudson took a few moments to talk with us about how the series got to where it is today, and give us the smallest glimpse of where it's headed. Be aware: If you haven't played Mass Effect 2, you might find a couple of the things in this interview a mild spoiler. Joystiq: When you started development on Mass Effect 2, was there a priority, one thing you wanted to achieve more that any other? Casey Hudson: That's a good question, because there are two things that we look at in terms the next game that we make, and one of them is our list of goals, but there are only a few of us making this game, and millions of people playing it, so it's kind of egotistical to say we know best about what it needs to be. There are people who play it five times, seven times, unbelievable. That's the other part we try to mine and really understand is, for people who become experts in the game by playing it, what's their perspective on what needs to be better? So it's really those two halves that we put together. It ends up creating a big list of our goals and goals of our players. With Mass Effect 2 we tried to do literally every single one of them, and there were basically 40 different categories of things we wanted to add or improve or change. %Gallery-70022%
Mass Effect 3 pulls in over 1,000 variables from Mass Effect 2
We'll have an interview with Mass Effect chief Casey Hudson for you soon, but we wanted to give you this interesting little tidbit from the interview. Hudson says, "We're pulling in probably over a thousand variables from Mass Effect 2 into Mass Effect 3 if you're importing your save game." It's an impressive number to be sure, but keep in mind, they're not all reality-shifting choices. For example, Mass Effect 2 is slightly different depending on what advice you give to Rebekah Petrovsky regarding her baby (remember her?). So maybe not 1,000 earth-shattering variables.
Kmart instore deals next week include Mass Effect 2, BFBC2, Heavy Rain
Kmart is having some nice instore deals during E3 week, June 13-19. Although there are heavy discounts on Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War 3 and Heavy Rain -- the real standout deal is Mass Effect 2 for $20. With those credits saved on the ME2 purchase, it's totally worth grabbing Kasumi's Stolen Memory and next week's Overlord DLC from the Cerberus Network. Check out all the discounts after the break.
Mass Effect 2 DLC 'Overlord' observing June 15 arrival
Major Nelson's latest "Coming Soon" post lists Mass Effect 2's Overlord DLC with a June 15 upload date. Apparently the VI overlord is ready to go online and observe all the E3 festivities next week. The Overlord DLC was revealed last month and will feature Cmdr. Shepard battling through "five levels set across one story on one planet" -- with a jaunty drive around in the Hammerhead tank. Entering into battle against the virtual intelligence will cost 560 ($7). Update: June 15 date also confirmed by EA.
The Daily Grind: From start to finish in no time
There is a grind. There is almost always a grind in any MMO, whether it be the real-time skill progression of EVE Online or the slow acquisition of deeds in Lord of the Rings Online. Conventional wisdom shows that the grind has to be there, that slowing progression is what keeps you playing, and removing it entirely would result in players leaving the game in short order. Anyone who is having flashbacks to the state of MMOs in the heyday of EverQuest would not be entirely incorrect. After all, conventional wisdom at the time was that you had to force players to party early on, or no one would keep playing. More recent games have greatly streamlined the need for grouping, and the idea of being unable to solo to the level cap in most games is a thing of the past. So, would you play a version of your favorite game that removed all of the grind? Would you keep coming back, day in and day out, if there was almost nothing grindy left? Or would you lose interest if the pacing was closer to a game like Mass Effect 2, where any level grinding is almost an afterthought?
Sins of a Solar Empire for $4; Mass Effect and Dragon Age bundles part of Impulse sale
Impulse's Memorial Day sale this weekend has Sins of a Solar Empire at the heavenly price of $4. Go buy it now -- full stop. Whatever nit-picky issues the 4X strategy title may have can be thrown out an airlock at that price point. It may lack a single-player campaign to teach the ropes of glorious galactic armada warfare, but setting up a medium-sized map using normal AI is a good place to start. Which reminds us: Gratuitous Space Battles is also on sale. Impulse also has a more mainstream space opera experience on sale with the first two chapters in the Mass Effect saga bundled for $42. Want something not involving spaceships? There's a Dragon Age: Origins bundle, which includes the original game and Awakening, for $48 -- that'll definitely keep you busy all weekend. Check out the rest of the Impulse weekend sales after the break. %Gallery-15134%
New details on Star Wars: The Old Republic companion characters
BioWare's lead designer James Ohlen has done a quick interview with IGN about Star Wars: The Old Republic's concept of "companion characters." Not only do you get to tool around the universe as a Sith or a Jedi, but as we first heard back at the game's announcement, you get to bring some other poor suckers with you. The idea sounds a lot like your party members from Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 -- your companions will follow an "Affection" system, and you can end up making them "twisted to the dark side of the Force" or "stronger and more independent," depending on how you treat -- even gift -- them. (Those being just a couple of examples.) Companion characters will also have a lot of combat utility, and you may want to bring some of them based strictly on how they complement you in combat. The gear you equip for them will also make a difference, so you may have to tailor your party and their gear for the specific goals of any given mission. The system doesn't sound too different from past BioWare games, with the caveat that, since it's an MMO, you'll have to direct AI players in real-time rather than pausing the game to give out orders. Ohlen also says his favorite recent character is Alistair, which worries us a little bit -- he always struck us as whiny. [Via Massively]
Report: Mass Effect movie rights obtained by Legendary Pictures
We're wary of video game-derived movies, which is a pretty fair stance for a genre that has Mortal Kombat sitting unchallenged atop its pinnacle, but the effort to bring Mass Effect to the big screen sounds legitimate enough to pique our interest. THR reports that the film rights have been picked up by Legendary Pictures (the studio behind 300, The Watchmen, The Dark Knight and the still-in-development Gears of War). BioWare's Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Casey Hudson will reportedly be brought on as executive producers. Mark Protosevich, the writer behind I Am Legend and the upcoming Thor, is in talks to pen the adaptation. The question, of course, is who will play the game's lead, Justin Shepard, the brave space adventurer that bears a striking resemblance to a slightly handsomer, moderately more chiseled version of Joystiq's Justin McElroy. The author of this post thinks the choice is clear. [Via Slashfilm]
Gap between Mass Effect 2 and 3 filled with future DLC
Mass Effect 2 is already outstripping the original in terms of DLC, and it looks like the downloadable bounty will be getting even more interesting in the future. In a recent interview with VideoGamer, BioWare's Casey Hudson made it known that upcoming DLC will link the stories of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. "We'll start to have packs that'll tell the story between Mass Effect 2 and 3," said Hudson, adding that it will be "quite a few months" before BioWare is ready to start talking about Mass Effect 3. We're all for more Mass Effect 2, especially DLC that extends the story. Honestly, though, how can BioWare top the fact that Saren is actually Commander Shepard's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?
Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360 patch offers 'optimized' planet scanning
A BioWare representative announced on the developer's forums (login required) that one of the most ambiguous, open-to-interpretation game updates we've ever encountered launched this morning for the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2. Sure, a few of the changes included in the patch are straightforward, such as a fix for a game-crashing error that would occur due to DLC incompatibility and the removal of another glitch that would allow the game's more sinister players to get infinite skill points using a simple menu exploit. However, some changes are far more enigmatic -- particularly the suggestion that "scanning for minerals has been optimized." What does that even mean? Is the mining minigame now faster? Do you get more minerals with each probe? Can we now listen to phat beats while performing this otherwise mind-numbing task? We'll just have to download the patch to find out. Check out the full list of (frequently perplexing) changes after the jump.
