Mass Effect

Bioware have recently released 4 new screenshots showing off the revamped HUD for the PC version of Mass Effect.

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Biowares Community Coordinator Chris Priestly has recently announced a slight change in the release date of the highly awaited PC version of its hit Sci Fi RPG Mass Effect. He had the following to say about the change in the date…

I have just confirmed with the development team that we are making a small change to the release date of Mass Effect for the PC. We had previously announced May 6, 2008 for North America. The new release date for North America is May 28, 2008 and June 6, 2008 in Europe.

The team here at BioWare, working closely with the good folks at Demiurge Studios, has decided that a few more weeks in the studio will ensure we deliver the quality that our fans deserve. The additional time will allow us to incorporate more play-testing feedback, add extra polish and tune the additional features so that Mass Effect is a natural and outstanding PC gaming experience.

BioWare and EA are dedicated to excellence. We’re confident that the extra time will be reflected in the final PC experience that we deliver to our fans.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to delivering a great game!

Thanks all.

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Bioware and EA have recently released 4 new videos of the upcoming PC version of the smash hit sci-fi RPG Mass Effect.

BioWare began whipping the PC iteration - which is due out May - into shape toward the tail-end of work on the Xbox 360 version. And it says it didn’t simply want to do a straight port.

To this end, PC gamers can run Mass Effect in higher resolution with up-scaled textures, environments and character models, blah, blah blah…

More interestingly, on PC the game features an improved user interface, the ability to control squad members individually and what BioWare’s terming “Run & Gun Control”.

Run & Gun Control refers to the optional ability to assign biotics - essentially special powers for your character - to keys 1 to 8 for on-the-fly use. On Xbox 360, you had to pause the action and select a biotic from a radial menu. Lord bless the keyboard.

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Bioware have recently given another interview to CVG talking about the questions the sequel will raise. Senior PR manager Matt Atwood had the following to say about it.

How do we make what you did in the first game affect what’s happening in the second game?… Who is the main character? Who will re-appear in the game? Mass Effect really is all about dramatics and cinematics and choices and exploration, and I think we’ll expand in each of those areas. There is a story arc already written for the whole thing… I do know that the level of impact from a wow factor, a dramatic factor, is going to be really quite compelling in the next game. I think people are going to be thrilled. I will tell you it won’t be three and a half years or four years, which is what the first one took to create. Beyond that we haven’t disclosed anything. We’d like to see it soon, but as the old saying goes, we will sell no wine before it’s time. The team’s working hard already but they’re going to make sure it’s just right… hopefully [it will be] sooner than later… I don’t know if it’s sooner that you expect, or what you expect, so we’ll just wait and see and once we’re ready to divulge the date, we’ll let you know.

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Biowares senior manager Matt Atwood has recently been talking in an interview with CVG and has said that the sequel to Mass Effect will be exclusive to Xbox 360, at least for a short period of time (PC version too).

I believe we’ll be Xbox 360 exclusive for at least a short period of time,” BioWare senior manager Matt Atwood revealed to CVG on the subject of the sequel’s release plans.

We’re still working out the details on that, but we’ve had a great relationship with Microsoft and done very well.

We haven’t solidified the plans yet but we’re headed in the direction where we want to be as close as possible [on PC].

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President and Co-Executive Producer at BioWare Dr. Greg Zeschuk has recently been revealing some little bits of information about the sequel to the highly rated Sci-Fi RPG Mass Effect.

I think with ‘Mass’ we just wanted to say, ‘Let’s make a whole bunch of planets for people to explore.’ They all encapsulated, amongst themselves, some fun stories to do. Side quests can sometimes be left on the side, so to speak.

One of the things we’re looking at for sequels and some of our other games is better technical ways, smarter ways to auto-generate content, to create stuff that seems richer to the player.

Another thing we’re looking at - again not specific to one game, but just generally - is a way of tying those additional moments back into the story: whether it’s having to gather certain things for those other planets, kind of making them more central to the story but making sure that they’re still the supporting cast. [We want to be sure] that there’s something really purposeful about them.

We look at Mass Effect 2 as incredibly exciting. Just the amount of effort and knowledge and know-how that went into building the technology for the first one is huge, and [we now have] the chance to actually make things a little bit richer.

We look into BioWare’s history and we’re really aiming for what happened with Baldur’s Gate II compared to what happened with Baldur’s Gate one. Baldur’s Gate one - extremely solid game, huge impact on the industry. But with Baldur’s Gate II we just took it to a whole new level. And I think that’s what we’re excited about with Mass Effect.

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The highly anticipated, first expansion pack for last year’s RPG blockbuster hit, Mass Effect, has finally been made available on the Xbox Live marketplace today! The first Mass Effect expansion pack, called “Bring Down The Sky”, features a brand new campaign mission that sees you, Commander Shepard, squaring off against Batarian extremists whom have hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system. Read more »

The Bring Down the Sky expansion for Biowares highly acclaimed Sci Fi RPG Mass Effect has recently been put onto Microsofts Xbox Live service.

The pack includes a new mission on a renegade asteroid, that introduces the elusive Batarian race talked about in the prequel book

A Batarian extremist group has hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, the story goes, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova.

Naturally Commander Shepard has to save the millions of innocent civilians before the asteroid hits, or you’re going to get a lot of renegade points on your profile.

As previously explained, the new content doesn’t take place after the game’s conclusion, but in fact exists as a side-mission in the middle of the game. That means you’ll need to dig out those save files if you’ve already completed the game.

Its available now for 400 Microsoft points…

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We knew it was coming in May but Electronic Arts and BioWare have now given us an exact release date for the PC version of the award winning Sci-Fi RPG Mass Effect. It will be hitting stores on May 6th in both US and Europe, only 6 months after the Xbox 360 version.

The “superior” mouse and keyboard version sports the obligatory controls and resolution changes, but on top of that the studio’s talking about “Run & Gun Control” (”Players can assign biotic powers or skills to ‘hot keys’ allowing them to play Mass Effect with a heavier focus on action”), a new decryption mini-game and a revamped inventory system and user interface.

The Bring Down the Sky content pencilled in as a downloadable purchase on Xbox 360, looks to be included in the PC release too.

Bioware have recently uploaded 8 new screenshots of the PC version of Mass Effect to their gallery. Showing the reworked inventory screen and some action shots.

Can See The Screenshots And Comment On Them Here