“I just did another session with [BioWare]“, Henriksen told G4TV. “They were saying there’s a little bit of a problem with the abruptness of the ending. So we did a whole series of things to add to the end of the game, to live up to the quality they’ve been doing.”

The Extended Cut will be a free addition to the end of the game that adds new cinematics and epilogue scenes. It’s an attempt to build bridges with players who felt let down by the way the Mass Effect trilogy wrapped up. “We think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision” BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka said back in April.

That dialogue is being recorded suggests that the script has been finalised and that the Extended Cut is entering the last stages of production – so hopefully BioWare are still on to release the DLC during the summer as originally planned.

To say that Mass Effect 3′s ending divided the community would be an understatement. In our review, Tom Francis called it “satisfying in some ways, nonsensical in others, and ultimately too simple.” Hopefully the new scenes will add depth and an increased sense of personalisation to the finale.

Graham, Chris and Tom Francis gather to discuss the Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative, Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, upcoming MMO The Secret World and Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s problematic cutscenes. We also talk about Graham and Rich’s ongoing FIFA 12 rivalry and (try to) answer your questions from Twitter. Also, we decide that capitalism doesn’t work. See below for show notes.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.

• Chris’ Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative hands on video and the final map.
• Tom’s Torchlight 2 video series.
• Chris and Tom Senior’s first look at The Secret World.

And as well-rounded geeks at PC Gamer, we share your unrestrainable urge to own awesome things and understand that you’ll likely feel compelled to buy a few comic books related to video games while you’re there. Here are three that I read this week and what I thought of them to help you make your picks.

Update: Dark Horse is offering their FCBD comics as digital downloads for the entire month. You can grab the Star Wars/Firefly combo book and the Buffy/The Guild combo book on their official site.

Mass Effect: Invasion #3

By Mac Walters and John Jackson Miller (writers), Omar Fancia (art), Michael Atiyeh (colors), Paul Renaud (cover)
On sale from Dark Horse for $3.50

How it ties into the game: In Mass Effect 2, Aria T’Loak is the tough Asari that rules over the asteroid-turned-crime-city Omega. In Mass Effect 3, you find her hiding in the Citadel after Cerberus has taken over Omega and run her out of town. This four-part Invasion series tells the story of how that happened, and this book in particular highlights Cerberus’ ruthless tactics and Aria’s commanding ability to corral the warring gangs of Omega under her.

Is it good? Aria is a great character, with a perfect gunslinger attitude for an underdog story like this. Her interactions with the Cerberus general and doctor in the lab that she’s being held captive in are well-written and dig into the psychology of a Cerberus believer who’s beginning to see cracks in their esteemed Illusive Man’s plan. The art is sometimes a bit cluttered for my personal taste, but has a lot of detail and effectively captures the gritty sci-fi vibe. Aria’s biotic powers are drawn brilliantly to showcase the powerful energy bursting through an area. I loved Aria’s short role in ME2 and really enjoyed getting to see more of her character in this book, but doubt I’d be quite as interested if I hadn’t played Mass Effect. Taken on its own, the story is straightforward and passable, but anyone that’s played Mass Effect 2 or 3 will get much more out of the characters’ encounters.

The best line: “Let me go and I’ll shove your Tolstoy up your ass!” — Aria to the doctor imprisoning her

Diablo III #1: Sword of Justice

By Aaron Willions (writer), Joseph Lacroix (art and colors), Saida Abbott (letters), Dave Stewart (cover)
On sale from DC for $2.99

How it ties into the game: The book starts at the beginning of the world—well, technically, a bit before that. The first several pages explain the battle between good and evil, and Tyrael’s role in creating Sanctuary, a safe world for people to live away from the constant battle between angels and demons. Of course, Sanctuary is where all the Diablo games take place and it is far from peaceful, so you know things’ll go badly. From there, the story follows Jason, a new character who is on the run from his homeland in the north and on his way to finding Tyrael’s lost sword, the namesake Sword of Justice.

Is it good? This book is fantastic. The art is forceful and overpowering at the right moments, and laced with subtle details that never feels overwhelming. There are at least five characters that are interesting enough to be the lead character, but careful pacing keeps them from overlapping to the detriment of the story. Plot twists are frequent as the groundwork is laid for Jason’s backstory and the writers have the admirable restraint to know when it’s more effective to say nothing at all. I’m not very familiar with the lore of Diablo, but I didn’t need to be–this story stands on its own, with enough intriguing characters and gorgeous drawings to make it worth anyone’s three bucks. One scene in particular made me stop and stare at the page, eagerly absorbing all the detail of a massive barbarian chief, foot on his victim’s chest with crazed eyes and axe ready to swing. Warning: you’ll want to immediately read the other four books in the series, but only two others are out yet.

The best line: “I am the heir of the constable of Staalbreak, and this… this man is under my protection! His life is not yours to take, barbarian.” — Jason as a child to a hulking barbarian chief about to kill his best friend

Star Wars: Jedi Volume 1—The Dark Side

By Scott Allie (writer), Mahmud Asrar (art), Paul Mounts (color), Stéphane Roux (cover)
On sale from Dark Horse for $18.99

How it ties into the game: Set 53 years before the battle of Yavin (Episode IV), and 21 years before Episode 1, the books bundled into this paperback compilation are chronologically closest to the Episode 1 movie tie-in game that I never played (and was probably pretty terrible). More important, however, is that it features Qui Gonn Jinn and revolves around a civil war on Telos IV—that nice planet where you were stripped of your possessions and imprisoned in Knights of the Old Republic II. While there, you chose to either side with the Ithorians or the Czerka corporation and battle your way to the hidden Jedi temple in the snow. The Ithorians are still around and references are made to the troubled past that you played through. Yoda also makes several appearances.

Is it good? The longer length of this compilation (118 pages) lets it tell a complete story arc, centering on the struggles of Qui Gonn and his young padawan, Xanatos, son of the king of Telos. I had fun unraveling the mystery of the insurgency alongside the main characters and the world is painted with beautiful strokes and strong colors to make the shadows linger and the action pop. The large-scale combat scenes are filled with multiple points of action and drag your eye around wonderfully. The intimate scenes between a frustrated father and a bitter son are emphasized just as well. The main storyline is a bit predictable, but there were a lot of smaller reveals along the way that I didn’t see coming at all. Its story captures that irrestible lure of Star Wars: a very human protagonist struggling to make sense of a dangerous world with alien species and odd customs that’s prone to bouts of violence and entertaining explosions. The ending has a satisfying ending, and primes for an even more dramatic follow-up that I’m excited to read. And as an added bonus, the back of the book has an image of what appears to be Qui Gonn Jinn tearing off his own face.

The best line: “You Jedi train in order to conquer your emotions, don’t you? I’ll need a moment alone to marvel at the result of 13 years’ work.” — Xanatos’ father to Qui Gonn after Xanatos mocks him.

The XP boost is nice, but most players will be in it for the bonus race. I’m hoping for a Geth Infiltrator, though I don’t know how they’ll fit him into that tiny box. Which new class would you most like to play as?

TWO NEW MAPS

•  Firebase Hydra – A massive Quarian dam on an abandoned Quarian colony.
•  Firebase Condor - A Turian warzone outpost located on one of Palaven’s moons.

Click to enlarge

SIX NEW CHARACTERS

•  Asari Justicar Adept
•  Krogan Battlemaster Vanguard
•  Geth Infiltrator
•  Geth Engineer
•  Batarian Soldier
•  Batarian Sentinel

THREE NEW WEAPONS

•  Striker Assault Rifle – Krogan rifle with explosive rounds.
•  Kishock Harpoon Gun – Deadly one-shot batarian weapon. Causes bleed-out or disruption
•  Geth Plasma SMG – Fully-automatic geth submachine gun.

 
If you’re like us and have finished the game and all but exhausted everything in ME3′s multiplayer, this is simply splendid news. Again, it won’t cost you one farthing, so head on over to Origin and download that mess post haste.

The so-far steady trickle of attention BioWare is giving Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer mode is continuing next week with its first genuine content update. The ME3 “Resurgence Pack” is free, thank goodness. Here’s what’s in it.

Two new maps join the mode’s existing six, called Firebase Condor and Firebase Hydra.

Six new classes and races—the Asari Justicar Adept, Krogan Battlemaster Vanguard, Batarian Soldier, Batarian Sentinel, Geth Engineer and the Geth Infiltrator. These were rumored last month.

Some new consumables. Ho-hum.

• Strength Enhancer – Applies a melee damage boost for one mission
• Targeting VI – Applies a headshot damage bonus for one mission
• Stabilization Module – Stabilizes weapons while firing and moving for one mission
• Shield Power Cells – Shortens the length of time shields take to begin recharging for one mission

 
Three new guns: the Striker Assault Rifle, Kishock Harpoon Gun (what?) and Geth Plasma SMG.

This update is coming a month after Mass Effect’s March 6 release. It’s cool to see the new classes and races confirmed; I’m still waiting to build that’s better than my Salarian Infiltrator (Carnifex Pistol, maxed-out Power Drain and Tactical Cloak, no points in Proximity Mine).

“Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe,” says Bioware co-founder, Ray Muzyka.

Bioware announced that they’d be adding new “game content initiatives” a few weeks ago to cater to fans disappointed by Mass Effect 3′s conclusion. The Extended Cut DLC is set to be released this summer, for free.

It’s a bold move from Bioware, and it’ll be interesting to see to what extent these extra bits alter perceptions of the finale. Will extended cutscenes and a bit of epilogue action be enough for fans who truly hated ME3′s ending?

Angry about Mass Effect 3′s ending? Or angry at people who are angry about Mass Effect 3′s ending? This has nothing to do with that—just had to get it out of the way. This is a skit by USC film student Andrew Allen of Padinga, and while the premise is well-worn (heavy investment in games = strain on relationship), it’s done cleverly, so it has earned our hearty “hey, this is cute, so watch it” endorsement.

If you promote two level 20 characters you’ll receive an additional Commendation Pack. There’s no word on what they’ll contain this time. Maybe … dinosaurs?

The weekend task was announced on the Bioware blog, where they also note that “participants need to set “Upload Gameplay Feedback” to “on” in the online options to be able to participate in Operation RAPTOR.” The event starts at 5pm PST tomorrow, and will run until 5am PST Monday. Time to get levelling.

Let me explain. It’s not like Kaidan was a bad squadmate. He could be the most nuanced character in the entire Mass Effect universe, for all I know. The guy seemed fine, really. Until he opened his mouth.

I’d recognize that voice anywhere. When Kaidan started speaking on Eden Prime, I didn’t hear the voice of an Alliance-trained Biotic. I heard the smarmy reproaches of Carth Onasi, goody two-shoes hero of the Galactic Republic. It was a voice I had learned to despise while abusing the Dark Side in BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic. Carth was the voice of empathy, usually—a voice I didn’t need to hear while Force-choking the innocent and blackmailing aliens into handing over their meager life savings.

Uh, Carth? You have exactly two seconds to stop looking at me like that.

There I was, fifteen minutes into Mass Effect, and BioWare had already thrown a voice I despised right into my ears. He was in my squad! It was a waking nightmare. I stuck out the opening mission and spent the rest of Mass Effect paying as little attention to Kaidan as possible. And then I spent the next four years thinking of Kaidan Alenko as little as possible. It wasn’t until Mass Effect 3 arrived that I realized how incredible that is—because I killed Kaidan, and he still matters.

BioWare struck gold with the personalization of Commander Shepard, as evidenced by the Internet’s reaction to every Mass Effect screenshot out there (“That’s not what Shepard looks like! Shepard looks like this!”). Mass Effect takes one interpretation of the “role” in role-playing game to its logical extreme, cultivating an unusually fierce bond between player and avatar.

The way the entire Mass Effect saga handles player choice is ultimately a greater achievement, at least from a technical perspective. Dozens of minute decisions carry over from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3—yet Kaidan dwarfs them all.

Think of it this way: voice actor Raphael Sbarge has dedicated several months out of the past half-decade recording dialogue for the Mass Effect trilogy. Writers at BioWare have dedicated even more time to creating that dialogue, assuring that Kaidan gets his share of unique dialogue. Artists and animators devoted dozens of hours to Kaidan’s armor and movements and character expressions in each game.

I didn’t care about any of that. While playing Mass Effect, I said to myself, “Man, I hate that guy.” And BioWare responded with “You know what? That’s okay.”

In Jane Shepard’s world, Kaidan’s been dead for more than four years. He was never promoted from Staff Lieutenant to Staff Commander because I sacrificed him on Virmire. Actually, “sacrificed” isn’t the right word. I left him to die, gleefully, elation triggering a reaction in my head that went something like this: “Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.”

I might have done a little dance.

So long, sucker!

If my trusty shotgun hadn’t been equipped with sledgehammer rounds that sent even the mightiest of Krogan warlords ragdolling into walls, killing Kaidan would’ve easily been my fondest memory of Mass Effect.

But that doesn’t make Kaidan a bad character. Video game characters usually earn my scorn through shoddy storytelling or dialogue: I can’t stand the legions of Japanese characters like Final Fantasy VIII’s Squall Leonhart, who lean far too heavily on the the Japanese tsundere archetype of aloof hostility.

Kaidan, on the other hand, fits the definition of a well-developed character. He has a complex backstory and traits that cast him as the most virtuous of the Normandy’s crew (much like KotOR’s Carth Onasi). Ironically, good characterization is what makes me hate Kaidan. BioWare nailed one of the key aspects of character development laid out in Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design: using the power of the voice.

As Schell writes, “the voice acting in games seems primitive compared to the powerful performances in film…Because the process of game development is so volatile, it is expensive to create characters around their voices.”

Mass Effect often suffers from stiff or wonky animation, but the series sets a high bar for interactive dialogue and voice acting, which games like L.A. Noire have built on with extensive motion capture. And Kaidan’s voice fits his character perfectly, which is why I really can’t stand him. He’s just too damn genial. Evoking such a strong reaction—even a negative one—makes Kaidan an unusually memorable cog in the complex machine of Mass Effect’s narrative, considering I spent less than thirty minutes interacting with him.

I'm just out of frame, so you can't see me cheering from the sidelines while this crazy cyborg beats the snot out of Kaidan.

BioWare facilitated my hatred for Kaidan by letting me kill him, and that decision has a huge impact on Mass Effect 3. By importing my Shepard, I intentionally shut off access to a squad member, his unique dialogue and role in the game’s plot. A choice I made as a sophomore in college still affects me now, four years later. I don’t live in the same state, or have the same job, or even play on the same platform I once did, but Kaidan Alenko is still dead.

The way BioWare embraced that player decision created a permanence in the Mass Effect world that really doesn’t exist elsewhere in gaming.

But Mass Effect’s critical moments fall victim to one of interactive storytelling’s most common problems, laid out in The Art of Game Design: “time travel makes tragedy obsolete.” Schell writes:

“Freedom and control are one of the most exciting parts of any interactive story, but they come at a terrible price: the storyteller must give up inevitability. In a powerful tragic story, there is a moment where you see the horrible thing that is going to happen, and you feel yourself wishing, begging, and hoping that it won’t. … This rush of being carried along toward certain doom is something that videogame stories simply cannot support, for it is as if every protagonist has a time machine, and anything seriously bad that happens can always be undone.”

Is that his corpse? Please tell me that's his corpse.

With enough Paragon or Renegade points, nearly every disaster in the Mass Effect series can be avoided, and gamers react so strongly to those moments they’ll load an earlier save (“time travel”) just to make a different decision. It’s a natural reaction, but the sacrifice on Virmire avoids that trap through a forced binary choice between Kaidan and Ashley. Is that the most sophisticated form of interactive storytelling? No—but BioWare makes up for that by carrying the repercussions of Kaidan’s death throughout the entire trilogy. Kaidan and Ashley’s character arcs may be interchangeable in Mass Effect 3, but I can think of one pivotal scene that I would’ve handled very, very differently were Kaidan still alive.

And that’s awesome. I’ve replayed games to fully explore content I missed the first time around. I’ve devoted hours to the GDI, NOD, Axis and Allied campaigns of Command & Conquer. I’ve blasted my way through thousands of Las Plagas in Resident Evil 4 to revel in the brain-splatting power of decked out magnums and shotguns. But I’ll never create a new character in Mass Effect 3 just to see Kaidan alive again.

Partly because I hate him; primarily because BioWare let my choice matter, and as a result I felt like less of a content consumer and more of a collaborator in their storytelling. That’s an accomplishment BioWare can’t destroy, no matter how they modify or expand Mass Effect 3′s ending. Mass Effect 3 delivers resolution for returning characters both major and marginal, but the relationship between Shepard and Ashley (or Kaidan) feels especially important from the outset. Closing or widening the gap that opened between you during Mass Effect 2 leads to a defining moment for both characters.

Killing Kaidan on Virmire and carrying that decision through the Mass Effect trilogy is a landmark moment for interactive storytelling. And so is saving him. But why would you do that?

One voice I wanted to include in this dialogue was that of BioWare’s fellow writers and designers throughout the industry. To find out what they thought, I talked to Chris Avellone, Gary Whitta, Greg Kasavin, Jesse Schell, Chuck Jordan, Paul Taylor, Steve Gaynor, Susan O’Connor, and Bobby Stein. They’ve worked on Fallout: New Vegas, Bastion, Far Cry 2, Frozen Synapse, BioShock, BioShock 2, and other games. I’ve presented their opinions here, which are only edited for clarity.

Looking to improve your ending? Check out our in-depth guide to Mass Effect 3′s War Assets and Readiness before reloading your save.

I asked each person the following question: Do you object to the idea of developers changing a game’s narrative based on player feedback after release? Or do games (especially games that promote player agency) present a unique opportunity for “story collaboration” between users and producers that designers should take advantage of?

Here are the responders and their responses.

Fallout: New Vegas

Chris Avellone

Avellone is Obsidian’s Creative Director, Chief Creative Officer and a co-owner at the studio. His game credits include Fallout 2, Icewind Dale II, Star Wars: KOTOR II, Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and F:NV’s DLC.

“Games should take advantage of feedback and using it for DLC changes and sequel changes. I feel BioWare does this from game to game already, and it’s the reason that some companions have achieved the prominence and romance options in the games that they do because the players strongly responded to those characters—and I’ll be blunt, we as narrative designers have no idea how a character’s going to be received, and “breakout” characters we envision may end up not being that at all once the game is released into the wild.

Most importantly, game development is an iterative process. Our goal is to entertain our players. No one knows more about what they consider “fun” than the player themselves. While you can’t please everyone, there are iterations that make sense to do in DLC content and sequels. As a case study, the DLC process from Fallout: New Vegas allowed us to collate all the weapon feedback from FNV and adjust it, and it also allowed us to take a long look at what gameplay elements and mods people were making for New Vegas and incorporate that into the narrative and quest lines. The best example is we noticed that people were making a LOT of homebase mods. So, we designed a good chunk of Old World Blues to specifically revolve on you making a new homebase in New Vegas with all the improvements people were pointing out. Even better, we were able to make it part of the story and the characters. Everybody wins, and people seemed to really enjoy it based on the fan (and press) response—but the catch is, we never would have thought to do that without analyzing the fan response and taking that into account.”

BioShock 2

Steve Gaynor

Gaynor was a Level Designer on BioShock 2, then Lead Designer and Writer of the Minerva’s Den DLC. He worked on BioShock Infinite for a year before leaving Irrational to go indie.

“There’s great value in thinking about the story of a game as a collaboration between the player and the developers. In the collision of fiction and game mechanics, my experience of a game is never exactly the same as yours; the more systemic and divergent the results of the player’s contribution, the better. Much of the player’s experience of Deus Ex or Skyrim is the story of how the player played that game, and how they shaped the gameworld to express themselves; the experience of Minecraft is entirely that. It’s incredibly powerful.

But things like “cutscenes” and “endings” are completely authored by the developers, and the developers altering the authored content of a game after the fact has nothing to do with the systemic player-developer collaboration described above. It’s no different than a movie or book being released and, upon fan outrage, being edited and re-released to pander to the most vocal dissenters in the audience. It’s not unique to games; it is unique to a certain type of entertainment media that attracts fans who feel entitled to dictate exactly how the product should bend to their desires, instead of standing as a unique experience to be enjoyed, or not, on its own merits.”

The Walking Dead

Gary Whitta

Whitta was Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer for four years. He wrote the film Book of Eli. Whitta is currently a story consultant and writer for Telltale’s The Walking Dead game, for which he’ll write the fourth episode.

“I’ll be interested to see how BioWare will respond to the fan reaction in terms of future content—clearly they intend to do something, but what remains to be seen. As much as it left me with many questions and ultimately feeling kind of uncomfortable, I really hope they don’t attempt to retcon or in any way “undo” the ending they presented. I’ve always felt that games like Mass Effect are all about living with the consequences of your choices, no matter what they may be, and I think BioWare should do the same thing here and stick with their original choice, trust their original creative instinct, rather than allow the fan response to cause them to second-guess themselves. My gut feeling is that they will add new content to help clarify and resolve some of the questions that are out there while sticking to their original creative intentions and I while that’s less bothersome than calling a complete do-over, as a storyteller it still bugs me.

I read an op-ed which argued that since videogames are a “malleable artform” that get altered and patched all the time people shouldn’t be bothered by this. Well it bothers the hell out of me. Games usually get changed for technical reasons like bug fixes and multiplayer balancing. Altering one of a game’s artistic cornerstones—story—merely to appease the malcontents is wrong. While I’m sure George Lucas would agree about the malleability of art, I think changing the ending of such a high-profile title would set a very disturbing precedent for games.”

WARNING: That is not a cute or clever title! We delve deep into Mass Effect 3’s ending controversy as an act of charitable therapy. Better still, joining us to stick up for the storyteller is none other than Gary Whitta, former PCG Editor-in-Chief and current big shot screenwriter! Seriously, if you have not finished Mass Effect 3, put this episode on the backburner until you do. We won’t tell you again… okay, one more time. CAUTION: SPOILERS!

PC Gamer US Podcast 310: Mass Effect 3 Spoilers

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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@garywhitta (Gary Whitta)
@logandecker (Krogan Decker)
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He says that Casey Hudson and the Mass Effect 3 team are working on “a number of game content initiatives” designed to provide “more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey.” More will be revealed next month, he says. Before you read on, note that while this post contains no spoilers, there might be a few in the comments.

“We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received,” says Muzyka. “This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.”

“If you are a Mass Effect fan and have input for the team – we respect your opinion and want to hear it. We’re committed to address your constructive feedback as best we can. In return, I’d ask that you help us do that by supporting what I truly believe is the best game BioWare has yet crafted.”

There’s one question at the heart of this. What on Earth is a “game content initiative?” Will it be DLC that will provide a different ending, a new cut of the ending they currently have, or something else entirely? What would you like to see Bioware announce in April?

A post on the Bioware blog says that players have emerged VICTORIOUS from a weekend of blasting Brutes and desperately backing away from the hideous Reaper Banshees shouting “nonononono.” “The community goal of killing one million brutes was beaten handily by participants,” say Bioware. “Through your combined efforts, over THREE MILLION brutes were destroyed!” Yaaay.

Now all that remains is for us to reap our rewards. Participants will receive a Victory Pack, and those who survived the entire Reaper wave on silver will receive a Commendation Pack. Each Commendation Pack contains “a random N7 Arsenal weapon,” these heavy duty firearms are currently only available in single player to owners of the N7 Collector’s Edition. There’s no other way to get them in multiplayer.

The contents of the Victory Packs, meanwhile, remain a mystery. They’ll all be dished out later today at 5pm PST / midnight UK time. A few of us banded together over the weekend to push back the Reaper menace. It was a tense and fraught affair, but bloody good fun. Bioware say “we’ll be announcing additional challenges in the days to come.” Bring it on, we say. Bring it on.

Did you take on Operation Goliath this weekend? How are you finding Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer?

STEAM

As expected, Steam has slashed the prices of a couple of games this weekend, including Dungeon Defenders, which is free to play and cheap to own until Monday:

•  50% off Dungeon Defenders and all DLC
•  40% off Anno 2070 – $29.99
•  20% off All Zombies Must Die – $7.99
•  50% off Rochard – $4.99

ORIGIN

It looks as if EA’s Origin service has finally taken a page from Steam’s flexible price plans and drastically reduced the cost of several kickass titles. Even better, they’ve got a deal going on where you can get Arkham City for $10 just by purchasing Mass Effect 3!

•  50% off Battlefield 3 – $29.99
•  50% off Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand – $7.49
•  50% off Batman: Arkham City – $29.99
•  50% off The Sims 3: Pets – $29.99
•  50% off Saints Row: The Third – $24.99
•  50% off Mass Effect 2 – $9.99
•  50% off Crysis 2 – $19.99
•  50% off Gotham City Imposters – $7.49
•  50% off SimCity 4 Deluxe – $9.99
•  BIG DEAL: Buy Mass Effect 3 and Get Batman: Arkham City for $10

AMAZON

Amazon’s having a Buy 1, Get 1 Free sale on $5 DRM-free Ubisoft downloads. Titles include Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Call of Juarez, Rainbow Six Vegas and more.

• Buy 1, Get 1 Free $5 Ubisoft Sale

 
Also worthy of Amazon note, it looks as if the superstore has matched certain deals on Origin. Many post-2009 EA games purchased on Amazon, such as Battlefield 3, can be activated via Origin. Check the FAQ for more.

•  50% off Battlefield 3 – $29.99
•  50% off Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand – $7.49
•  50% off Mass Effect – $9.99
•  50% off Mass Effect 2 – $9.99
•  65% off Dead Space 2 – $6.99

IMPULSE

Impulse has many of the same weekend deals listed elsewhere, and even more on top of that! This week’s “King of Savings!” not only has The Darkness II at the lowest price anywhere, Impulse’s offering the 2K Ultimate Bundle pack, which includes BioShock, Civilization III, IV, V, Mafia II, Duke Nukem Forever, Borderlands, the entire X-Com series and more for $69.99!

•  50% off The Darkness II: Limited Edition – $24.99
•  Over 75% off the 2K Ultimate Bundle – $69.99
•  50% off Battlefield 3 – $29.99
•  50% off Batman: Arkham City – $24.99
•  75% off Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY – $9.99
•  50% off Saints Row: The Third – $24.99
•  75% off The Haunted: Hells Reach – $4.99
•  50% off Dead Rising 2: Off the Record – $14.99
•  66% off Alice: Madness Returns – $8.99
•  75% off Dead Space 1 & 2 Bundle – $9.99

Know of any more game deals this weekend? Be a dear and add ‘em in the comments.

Talked this week: the phenomenon of Kickstarter game funding, Baldur’s Gate: Extended Edition, Mass Effect 3′s ending, and what happens to your Steam account when you die?

PC Gamer US Podcast 309: The Achievements of the Father

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Click here for a full-screen image of the stats, which represent the aggregate worldwide data across all platforms. I’m surprised the class composition seems to be pretty even—I thought Soldier would be much more popular.

But hey, EA and BioWare aren’t just releasing an horn-tooting infographic. Already underway is ME3′s first multiplayer event, EA has announced. During the “N7 Challenge Weekend,” which ends Monday 3/18 at 5 AM PST, you can unlock a unique supply pack, the Commendation Pack, by beating the Reapers (the hardest enemy group in the game right now, if you ask me) on Silver or harder. If the community kills 1 million Reaper Brutes collectively, everyone gets another unique pack. Here’s EA’s explanation:

• “Any player who is part of a squad that beats the Reaper faction on Silver difficulty or better will unlock one Commendation Pack. This means that at least one member of the squad must be extracted at the end of the mission—this will earn all squad members the reward. Each player can earn a maximum of one pack and each pack contains a random N7 Arsenal Weapon. Originally only available as single-player weapons via the N7 Collector’s Edition, these multiplayer variants will be exceptionally rare and are NOT obtainable through regular purchasable Reinforcement Packs. The Commendation Packs will contain one of the following guns at random: (1) N7 Crusader Shotgun, (2) N7 Eagle Pistol, (3) N7 Hurricane SMG and (4) N7 Valiant Sniper Rifle.”
• “Destroy as many brutes as possible—if the multiplayer community kills a combined 1 MILLION brutes within the hours of the challenge, ALL players will receive a Victory Pack as a reward.”

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, you're fine, I hate you...

EA tells me that all rewards will unlock on Tuesday, 3/20 at 5PM PST. Hard instructions From the press release: “You must redeem (open) your packs in the multiplayer store menu within 7-days of receiving. If you do not redeem these packs within the allotted 7-days, the packs will expire and cannot be restored. To participate, all players must enable the data tracking option in the game (options online upload gameplay feedback make sure it’s “ON”). If this is set to “OFF” your completion and/or contribution to the challenges will not be tracked and you will not receive any unlocks.”

As Edge report, the campaign has garnered plenty of support. The Take Back Mass Effect 3 campaign has 25,000 likes on Facebook, 3,000 Twitter followers and 40,000 backers in a Bioware forum poll.

All this noise hasn’t gone unnoticed by Bioware. Mass Effect 3 director and executive producer Casey Hudson spoke to Digital Trends about what the team were aiming for with the finale. “I didn’t want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people–debating what the endings mean and what’s going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in,” he says.

“That to me is part of what’s exciting about this story. There has always been a little bit of mystery there and a little bit of interpretation, and it’s a story that people can talk about after the fact.”

The good news is that Child’s Play has unexpectedly gained a lot of support form the movement. The Retake Mass Effect Child’s Play page has so far raised $32,502.60 for the charity. The campaign organisers say that they started the drive to “bring positive attention to our petition for an alternate ending to the fantastic Mass Effect series.”

“We would like to dispel the perception that we are angry or entitled. We simply wish to express our hope that there could be a different direction for a series we have all grown to love,” they add.

The likelihood of Bioware making another ending for Mass Effect 3 is … very small. However, it’s possible that the campaign will have an affect on upcoming DLC misisons, as Casey Hudson mentions: “We have some really great multiplayer content and some really great single-player content coming over the air, and their feedback will become part of how we design that.”

Personally I was never happy with the ending of Citizen Kane. It was severely lacking in bears. The story of one man’s corruption at the hands of his own ambition would have been much improved with a bit of unarmed man-on-bear combat. As such I’m petitioning Warner Brothers for a full re-cut of the final third. Is it what Wells would have wanted? Pfff, who cares. What do you reckon, should Bioware change the ending?

Since then Mass Effect 3 has been released worldwide, giving PC gamers the chance to dive into Mass Effect 3′s files. Some players found evidence of voice files, animations and character models for the From Ashes companion character on the Mass Effect 3 disk, leading many to believe that, contrary to Bioware’s statement, the DLC had been developed alongside the main game.

Gamble took to Twitter to explain the files. “Because the plot of ME3 is so richly interwoven with the character interactions and moments, you simply cannot use a DLC module to ‘insert’ a new character,” he said. “As we’ve mentioned before, that character has to be planned and the framework has to be established ahead of time for us to build off of with the DLC module.”

He also mentions that elements like the character selection screen can’t be overwritten with DLC, so spaces had to be left for the DLC character from the start. “certain elements of the Javik appearance and some of the VO needed to be included on the disc. That is a fact,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean the content was created, and then removed. It is a necessity of adding a rich character presence in our game.”

“Certain elements of the Javik appearance and some of the VO” wouldn’t amount to a functioning character, you’d have thought, but a video has appeared online showing how a seemingly combat ready version of the DLC squad member can be unlocked, apparently by changing a line of code.

“The DLC is over 600 mb,” Gamble explained. “The DLC data holds the mission itself, the cinematic flashback moments, the cinematic dialogue interactions with Javik, his weapon, the appearances for squad members… everything that makes the adventure a cohesive experience.”

“‘From Ashes’ is not Javik’s character model. It is the story of finding the last remaining Prothean, and how his tale interweaves with Commander Shepard’s as he struggles to destroy the Reaper threat.” If you want that interweaving tale, it’ll cost you 800 Bioware points.

In Steam, when a game finishes downloading, it’s ready to play (unless any prerequisites need installing, but that’s generally painless). I assumed Origin would work the same, and the service’s FAQ claims it does: “Installations are easy, as Origin technology enables instant play after a successful download.” But when Mass Effect 2 was finally on my hard drive, the download button turned into an install button. No big deal…until I clicked on it.

Not only did I have the Hungarian version of the installer, but it was encountering an error which I couldn’t read. That’s pretty damn absurd, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I really wanted to play Mass Effect 2, and hey, I’m a resourceful PC gamer! I can fix a simple localization mix-up! So I poked around in the installer’s directory and discovered the installation configuration ini. A simple change to the file name loaded the installer in English. Easy. Now what was that error?

I reopened the config file and saw that it does reference file locations in terms of discs. It’s apparently a known problem, and the solution I found claimed it was caused by a corrupted download. That meant my only option was to redownload the game with my fingers crossed. I had too much resolve to give up there, so I went ahead and redownloaded the game, but at a much faster rate and without crossing my fingers…

Ta-da! Problem solved.

I’d chastise myself for feeling entitled to instant gratification, but instant gratification is the main benefit I get from buying digital editions. I spent two hours downloading a broken product and another hour trying to fix it. I was done. Because Steam was there to save the day, I finished Mass Effect 2 in time to have a fresh save ready for Mass Effect 3 before the weekend was over (yes, I played all weekend).

I know it’s a bit late to jump on the Origin hate bandwagon, and I never really wanted to—at least, I never expected to rant about it here (what is this, r/gaming?). But it shouldn’t fail at its core function: delivering games. I don’t think every game needs to be on Steam, and I’m not just cheerleading for Steam. I know EA won’t abandon its platform, so I want it to work well and succeed. I don’t hate Origin, and maybe this was just a fluke, but it doesn’t give me confidence.

It’s not news that Origin has problems, but maybe this post will spare someone my specific frustration: if you need to catch up on Mass Effect 2, I don’t recommend acquiring it on Origin. Buy it on Steam, and your save will port over just fine when you play ME3 (which did install fine on Origin).

————————————————-
UPDATE (Mar 13, 2012)

Here are a couple updates from conversations I had with EA today:

Clarifying the FAQ, which states that “Origin technology enables instant play after a successful download,” EA Dev Relations Account Manager J Eckart explained: “Games older than Origin use the old ‘click to install’ method simply because they were shipped (and their installers built) before Origin’s tech existed. In those instances Origin is simply a delivery mechanism to get an image of the disc down to your HD.”

Regarding my specific issue with the ME2 installer, John Reseburg, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, added: “We’ve been able to pinpoint an issue around the experience you had – it’s exceedingly rare, but we’ll be taking steps to ensure it is resolved.”

But over the past week, players on the Mass Effect 3 forum noticed an issue with this system: their items, classes, and other unlocks were disappearing.

Update: As of March 19, BioWare has fixed this issue. Read more here.

BioWare is aware of the issue. In the 370-post thread, Community Coordinator Chris Priestly says you can do two things to reduce the chances of losing items:

• Avoid going into the Store while “Ready” for a multiplayer match. It’s best to un-ready yourself before you go to the store.
• Don’t accept invites while in the store/purchasing.

 
Many players within the forum are understandably frustrated—they’ve lost access to items they earned or purchased with real money. “Lost my Quarian Infiltrator and Asari Adept,” says user TheLostOne3. “I already promoted my Quarian once so you’d think there’d be some record of it. I’ve been trying to unlock it again ever since with no luck.” “I lost the Carnifex, a Geth Plasma Shotgun, and a bunch of mods/characters,” says Kopikatsu.

Another player named Wozlynn, playing on PC, claims she lost unlocked content when she dropped from a multiplayer match. “I lost all of my multiplayer rewards on the early morning of March 10 and I can confirm that my case had nothing to do with accessing the in-game store. My game abruptly stopped playing during wave 11 of a multiplayer match and a message appeared to inform me that Origin is currently down. I did not lose my internet connection during nor was I doing anything else with my computer while playing the match. Perhaps unrelatedly, my teammate disconnected mere moments before I received this error message. He had no issues reconnecting but when I next logged in I was greeted by a welcome to multiplayer message and a new starter pack. I soon discovered that all my other acquired multiplayer rewards were gone.”

Anecdotally, after unlocking four Spectre Packs and one or two Veteran Packs over the weekend, I don’t believe I’m missing any items. Has this happened to you?

I’ve reached out to EA to ask for clarity on how many users the bug is affecting, and if this issue would require a patch or just a back-end fix on the Origin/ME3 store. I have not yet heard back. “We continue to investigate this issue and will update when we have more information,” Priestly last wrote on the thread related to the issue.

Evan, Josh, Tyler and Chris reflect on our week of coverage, talks, and appointments at the Game Developers Conference right here in our backyard of San Francisco. That includes MechWarrior Online, Valve’s “History of TF2″ talk, the infamous Steam Box, SimCity, PlanetSide 2, and (duh) Mass Effect 3. Josh also checks in about the SWTOR guild summit, reported on in more detail here.

PC Gamer US Podcast 308: GDC 2012 Recap

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Remember the big flashy CGI trailer that Bioware released a few weeks ago? Remember how it starred the WRONG Shepard? Worry no more, the correct version has arrived. It’s similar in almost every way, except the generic stubbly bloke who was in it has been replaced by the red-haired female Shepard that fans voted for.

This seems like a good time to point out that Mass Effect 3 is out on March 9 in the UK and Europe. Wait. That’s TODAY. What on earth am I still doing here? Let me distract you with these shiny postcards of Mass Effect 3′s prettiest planets while I make my escape. So long, friends. I’ll see you in SPACE.

And here’s the big version of the headline shot. If you take any while you play, link us to ‘em in the comments. imgur is probably the simplest way to upload.

Narrative mode makes all combat trivially easy. You can’t skip it, exactly, but even standing in direct fire of multiple enemies, your shield is barely hurt and regenerates quicker than they can hurt you. Even the AI is different – enemies amble idly rather than trying to flush you out or surround you.

Action mode rips out the other half of the game: the combat stays the same, but you don’t get to create a character, you have to play with the default male Shepard, you don’t get to choose a class, you can’t choose how you level up, and you can’t even choose dialogue options – every conversation is just a pre-scripted cut-scene.

I actually think it’s cool to provide options for radically different types of player. The narrative option in particular will open Mass Effect 3 up to a large and under-served group of people who are excited to explore the worlds games create and the stories they tell, but don’t enjoy the challenge of combat. As hardcore gamers, we sometimes forget that even easy mode isn’t easy for everyone.

Action mode is harder to appreciate. I would have thought that the kind of gamer who itches to get at the combat and doesn’t care about the story would be the kind who wants to unlock cool new abilities. There’s already an auto-level-up option in role-playing mode, if you want to skip the decision.

I’d understand better if it let you skip the story stuff, but it doesn’t – as in all the other modes, you can only skip individual lines in certain conversations. Are there people who are allergic to choice? How much do we want to cater to that mindset?

I can hear myself being a jerk, here. I don’t think anyone should begrudge the option of Narrative mode for the combat-averse, and here I am begrudging Action mode for the choice-averse. Really, I’m just disappointed it’s not an Impatient Jerk mode that lets you skip anything and everything you want – something I’d actually really appreciate on a second playthrough.

Bioware are on the case. Chris Priestly has posted on the Bioware forums to let fans know that a fix is on the way. “We are aware that some players are having issues importing the faces of characters from Mass Effect 1 or Mass Effect 2 into Mass Effect 3,” he says. “The issue is likely in how faces were detected when imported from Mass Effect 1 into Mass Effect 2, and we’re working on the best way to correct it for affected players.”

In the interim, he recommends a fan-made mod program, Mass Effect tools, as a possible solution. Otherwise, players can soldier on with a brand new face, or painstakingly try to recreate their old one manually, though there’s always the risk of getting something slightly wrong and then having to spend the next 30 hours going slightly mad as your mind latches onto every imperfection. A disturbing fate. Might be better to wait for that patch instead.

For more on Mass Effect 3, check out our Mass Effect 3 review and our look at how multiplayer will affect your story’s ending.

Now it’s out, it’s brilliant, but how does it compare to our wishlist? Let’s give it a score card, point by point.

1. A little faith

Fulfilled: yes!

We were frustrated, then incredulous, then just kind of bored of people not believing the Reapers were real. For a long time, BioWare said Mass Effect 3 would start with you on trial for killing thousands of Batarians to stop the Reaper’s arrival, because people were still sceptical the Reapers were coming. They changed that, thank God. You’ve been discharged for “the shit you’ve done,” as Anderson puts it – which to be honest is fair enough.

The Reapers are everywhere. No-one doubts it. And as a result, working with the various races to rally them together is a much less frustrating process.

2. More varied combat

Fulfilled: yes!

They went to town on this one. The relationships between enemies like Cannibals and Marauders are particularly interesting and fun to deal with. Brutes, Banshees, Ravagers and Harvesters all change how you have to play to survive. It’s excellent enemy design.

3. Free run of the galaxy

Fulfilled: yes!

We worried ME3 might be too Earth-centric to feel like a galaxy-trotting adventure. It’s not. In fact, people keep giving Shepard a hard time for leaving Earth behind so quickly.

4. Broader choice of weapons

Fulfilled: yes!

Each category of weapon has lots of meaningfully different types, now, and they’re all viable throughout. One shotgun is like a cluster nailgun whose charge you can vary. One pistol fires delayed-detonation explosives instead of regular bullets. One assault rifle is virtually a sniper rifle.

5. More convincing romances

Fulfilled: remains to be seen.

I can’t comment on this one yet, because I stayed faithful to Liara. Four crew members made it pretty obvious they were interested, but I don’t know how convincingly that unfolds if you pursue it.

6. No coolant clips

Fulfilled: no.

They’ve changed the system a little, but only so that it makes even less sense. These supposedly universal clips only give you a set amount of ammo for each weapon, so that taking more weapons into battle gives you more ammo total. It’s still unclear to me how I can run out of Sniper Rifle ammo but still have hundreds of Assault Rifle shots spare, if they both use the same clips.

7. A mix of the personal and epic

Fulfilled: yes!

I thought this was handled beautifully. The scale of your mission is bigger than ever, but the characters from your past are each vital to it, and your relationships with them come to a head in moments that decide both your friends and the galaxy’s fate.

8. A less fiddly cover system

Fulfilled: god no

This has got worse. They key I was already mocking for doing so many functions taht it became fatally unpredictable in certain situations now does even more. Space bar now loves to make you do forward rolls at inopportune times mid-combat.

9. No Cerberus

Fulfilled: yes, in spirit

Cerberus are still in, but my complaint was having to work for them. This time, you don’t.

10. A closer knit squad

Fulfilled: yes

It’s certainly a smaller squad, and it’s mostly characters you know well. Most of your squadmates don’t have as much of a role in the plot as the other returning characters, but before the final fight, there are some lovely quiet character moments with each.

11. Better class abilities

Fulfilled: mostly

I still didn’t find Soldier or Sentinel very interesting, but Adept, Vanguard, Infiltrator and Engineer all feel upgraded and devastating.

12. Old friends

Fulfilled: yes

Absolutely. The only major characters who didn’t return in my game were the ones I got killed at the end of ME2, or only met in DLC with a different savegame.

13. An Elcor team mate

Fulfilled: no

Intense disappointment: not much Elcor love at all, though what little interaction you have with them is delightful as ever.

14. Female Shepard on the box

Fulfilled: yes!

Holy shit, they actually did this. Female Shepard features alongside her male counterpart on the N7 edition, and on other editions the cover is reversible to feature her.

15. Tali’s face

Fulfilled: no.

Colleague Andy Kelly redid a major decision to see if there was any way to get her unmasked on camera, but it doesn’t look like it.

That’s 11 of our 15 wishes fulfilled – pretty impressive, given that all of them were things Mass Effect 1 or 2 failed at. It does mean, however, that my review score of 93% was incorrect. Mathematically, we can see that the game is really only worth 73%.

Mass Effect 3 is about a war with the Reapers, and as you play the single player game, the people and armies whose help you earn count as War Assets. The game’s still story-driven, and it doesn’t end until you’ve completed the main series of missions. But when you do, what happens in the final cut-scene depends on how many War Assets you have accumulated.

That part is kind of cool. But the balance is incredibly harsh: I did every proper quest I could find in Mass Effect 3, made sensible decisions that didn’t conflict with my choices in the previous games, and brought people together. But I still got a gallingly bleak ending.

That’s because I’d never played the multiplayer. It’s a co-op mode where you and up to three other players have to survive waves of AI enemies and complete objectives. If you succeed, you get an increase to your Readiness rating – a percentage by which your single player War Assets are multiplied by. These are specific to each sector fo the galaxy, so if you have a lot of War Assets in the Terminus Systems, you’ll gain more by playing on a multiplayer map set in the Terminus Systems.

It’s all rather… dirty. Presumably they’re trying to encourage you to try the multiplayer because to do well in it, you have to buy or earn unlockable items, and you can get these for real money. But they’re doing it by hurting your single player game, slapping a good playthrough with a bad ending as a penalty for not playing co-op. Even if you like co-op, it’s not unreasonable to want to play through the single player first.

It is possible to get the best ending in single player without playing multiplayer, but it’s twice as hard. All your War Assets only count for 50% of their potential value. The biggest gains in War Assets come from a culmination of your decisions in the previous games and your decisions in this one: if you’ve helped a race before, and you help them here, it’s often possible to get their full support and resolve their conflict to get someone else on your side too.

In other situations, a wrong call somewhere along the line, or a Paragon or Renegade score too low to pick the right thing to say, can mean a character dies, a race is demoralised, and if they fight for you at all they’re worth much less to the war effort.

I said I did all the ‘proper’ quests I could find – if you want to maximise your War Assets without playing multiplayer, you’ll have to do the others. The only quests I had left were ones to scour certain systems for planets that aren’t marked on your map, scan them, then fire a probe and return to the Citadel. Even compared to Mass Effect 2′s resource-scanning, these are dull.

Here’s what I recommend: don’t. Don’t do any quests that are boring, don’t play multiplayer if you don’t want to, and don’t go through old save games trying to optimise your decisions for the most War Assets. Don’t let BioWare’s seedy design decision manipulate you into playing in a way you don’t want to.

If they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark if you don’t play multiplayer, they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark. That’s how I reviewed it, and it’s still phenomenal.

And that’s all I’ll say about the plot. This review will be spoiler-free even for those of you who’ve avoided the trailers and the demo.

In all three games, your time is split evenly between persuading people to help you and shooting people who won’t. The original’s strength was its main quest: a chase that felt both personally motivated and galactically important. Mass Effect 2′s plot was muddled and brief, but livened up by an exotic cast of new characters with interesting side stories.

Mass Effect 3 tries for the best of both worlds: an urgent and galaxy-critical plot that directly involves the entire crowd of oddball personalities the series has built up. And it works.

Inside of 20 minutes, you have a crucial goal and a clear route to achieving it. And unlike the previous games, every sidequest and adventure along the way is connected to that. The war gives everyone a reason to need your help, and everyone you help has reason to join the war.

Let me put on my armour before getting in my mega armour.

That brings you into contact with just about every familiar face from the previous games, each of whom gets at least one fan-pleasing moment of bravado or violence. But the most remarkable thing about them is what makes Mass Effect 3 unique: they could all be dead.

By the end of Mass Effect 2, only one of your 13 former squadmates is certain to be alive. Those who are each play a leading role in a subplot of Mass Effect 3. Those who aren’t have their stories invisibly trimmed out or rewritten with new characters.

These newbies are not just bland stand-ins, either. In some cases, a friend’s absence is filled by someone with a radically different motivation, and new relationships with the rest of the cast. A Turian squadmate summed up his feelings for one of these replacement characters mid fight:

“I don’t like him!”

It’s an extraordinarily complex, reactive and futuristic bit of storytelling, and it makes Mass Effect 3 personal and unique for anyone who has a history with the series. If you’re starting fresh, the game assumes the death of a few characters whose stories make less sense to new players, and leaves the rest alive.

Some fights are a huge mess of troops and minibosses.

Other than the colourful, beautifully designed characters, one of the main treats of a Mass Effect game is the colourful, beautifully designed planets. The large-scale problems you’re facing in this third outing make your mission a whistle-stop tour of the key races’ home worlds, their glowing sci-fi dreamscapes in the process of being stomped on by mountain-sized robot lobsters. It’s spectacular, and it feels like exploring the heart of the gorgeous galaxy you’ve been skirting all this time.

Each away-mission to these places is a substantial, satisfying fight against one of several different factions. The combat feels another notch more impactful than that of Mass Effect 2. The classes are stronger and more distinct: the Infiltrator bursts heads with every sniper rifle shot, the Vanguard can slam herself into enemies over almost any distance or obstacle, and the Adept flings crowds of enemies into the air and rips them apart with biotic combos.

You fine-tune these powers as you level up, deciding between, say, a longer cloak duration or the ability to use one power without revealing yourself. And the weapons you find and buy give you interestingly different compromises between fire rate and stopping force – tweaked further with mods.

But the most radical and effective change to the RPG side of combat is the ability to choose your own balance between weapons and abilities. Any class can now take one of each weapon type into a fight, but the more you carry, the slower your powers recharge.

I gave my Infiltrator a heavy shotgun, meaning she could use Cloak less often but deal a chunkier slam of damage when she struck. Trying an Adept, I shelved everything but a featherweight sub-machinegun, letting her wub out Singularities and Warp Fields every second. It finally feels like the class system has lost the last of its arbitrary restrictions, and you can create your own play style.

"Why didn't you feed my fish? WHY?"

It all mixes well with your squadmate’s powers. I liked to stealth behind enemy lines, hack their turrets, then let my biotic friend lift people out of cover to float them into range of their own subverted weapon. Once, a lifted soldier was pelted over to us by his own turret’s fire, and my Cryo ammo power caused one of our shots to freeze him solid. He dropped to the ground and shattered. I felt like applauding.

The fights have also become more complex and less repetitive, thanks to a lot of smart interplay between enemy types. Some give each other armour or shielding, or feed on each other’s corpses, or burst out of each other when you shoot the wrong sac. Huge, fast, melee-only Brutes force an alarming change of pace from cautious cover shooting. And the Banshee, a tall, spindly horror that teleports towards you as it shakes with rage, is properly traumatic to fight.

The best way to deal with all of this varies with the arena it’s found in – something Mass Effect 2 never managed. It’s the difference between dreading the next prolonged combat sequence and relishing it.

The low points of the combat are the bigger boss fights, which too often involve one- or two-shot kills that hit you almost instantly and seemingly at random. If you have no pride, and lord knows I don’t, you can always jam the difficulty level down to its new ‘Narrative’ mode for a moment: it’s designed for non-gamers who just want the story, so it makes you virtually invincible.

The only unfixable problem, boss-wise, is a recurring character who’s scripted to survive and escape your first few encounters. It’s always painful to watch someone fail to shoot the bad guy in a cutscene. When it’s my Shepard, a character I love for prematurely ending conversations with a bullet, it’s downright agony.

"Remember the last time we saved the galaxy?""No. I wasn't in those games."

I’ll get the other irritations over with now. The spacebar – previously only used for sprinting, ducking, taking cover, using switches, talking to people and vaulting over things – is now also used for diving away from cover too. It makes an already maddeningly imprecise system utterly ridiculous. At least half my deaths were from the spacebar not doing what I expected it to.

We’re on PCs. We have 128 keys. We can handle a separate button for taking cover.

The multiplayer is a cooperative survival mode – you and your friends pick a class and fight off waves of enemies. It’s not switched on at the time of writing, so I can’t tell you how that plays beyond what you can try for yourself in the demo. But the way it affects the main game is needlessly problematic.

In singleplayer, everything you do accumulates ‘war assets’. When you finish the game, how many of these you have determines how good an ending you get: how well the final fight goes for your side. Success in co-op multiplies your war assets, up to twice their normal value. That means that if you only play singleplayer, or want to finish singleplayer first, you’ll have to grind the living hell out of its most tedious fetch quests to get the best ending.

These quests generally involve scouring the galaxy for a planet someone mentioned, scanning it, then returning to the Citadel. I did every proper quest I could find, but didn’t play multiplayer and skipped most of these empty FedEx ones. The ending I got… I won’t say how, but it could have gone a lot better.

"Their toy ship is getting awaaaaay!"

In general, too, the end of the series is a mixed bag. Satisfying in some ways, nonsensical in others, and ultimately too simple. But the sheer scale of the adventure it’s ending – and the music, which is gorgeous throughout – gives it an emotional impact that goes beyond its plot payload.

It left me feeling incredibly sad.

Shepard is the best game character I’ve ever played. She’s been an ongoing improv collaboration between me and BioWare to build a hero that works for their plot, but suits my tastes. Since we composed her first inspiring speech to the crew when she took charge of the Normandy, a commanding, brutally effective woman has emerged through 60 hours of tough decisions. She’s killed thousands who got in her way, hung up on the interstellar Council four times, punched the same reporter in three different interviews and shot people mid-sentence. But she has also formed conflicted, quiet, sometimes touching relationships with some of the alien weirdos dragged along on her mission. Relationships that gave her character a gentler side I didn’t expect, but which made sense of the person I had in my head.

I’m thinking back through all that as the credits roll. At the end of them a box pops up. It says: “you can continue to build Shepard’s legend through further gameplay and downloadable content” then reloads my last save.

So now I’m laughing instead.

Can Tribes: Ascend make it as an eSport? In this episode, Evan, Chris, Tyler, and Gavin discuss why jetpacks and Spinfusors could make competitive Tribes matches a new streaming staple, as well as Mass Effect 3′s non-DLC-related controversy and the “revolutionary” new setting of Assassin’s Creed III.

PC Gamer US Podcast 307: A Quest Called Tribes

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Mass Effect 3 is out TOMORROW (in the US, Friday in Europe). Within a few days many Mass Effect fans will finally know how it all ends. It’s the climax of a story that’s taken Bioware five years to tell and the launch trailer suggests it’ll deliver a finale we won’t forget in a hurry. Hopefully Hollywood’s trailer makers are watching, they could take a few tips from this one.

Also, a quick warning. If you’re searching for Mass Effect 3 trailers, we’d recommend you avoid one called “The Invasion.” It’s thought to be an unofficial fan cut that includes scenes from the ending. If you’re avoiding all spoilers, best steer clear.

It brings up the thorny issue of pre-orders. Both Game and Gamestation offered exclusive content in exchange for early customer enthusiasm. Now all those DLC codes are getting lost within the internet, like tears in the rain.

As promised last week, EA have made efforts to resolve the situation. Specific websites have been set up with advice on where you can still purchase EA games and bag yourself some exclusive content. Predictably, Origin pre-orders are not affected by the debacle.

Just click the game name to get some advice: Mass Effect 3, FIFA Street, The Sims 3 Showtime, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13. Good luck with it all!

“In Mass Effect 2, if you wanted to get the hardest Charm options, you had to play an almost completely Paragon character,” Patrik Weekes explains. “We intended many of those Charms to be fun Easter eggs, but many players felt like they had to play pure Paragon to avoid being penalized by the loss of a dialog option. In Mass Effect 3, your Reputation score determines both Charm and Intimidate options, and that score is determined by adding your Paragon and Renegade scores together.”

That should let us choose to act as a Paragon one moment, and go Renegade the next, making decisions based on the situation rather than a need to grind for maximum morality points. Many important acts in Mass Effect 3 will increase Shepard’s overall reputation score without changing the Paragon/Renegade balance. In these cases “the bar on your screen will grow, but the Paragon/Renegade ratio will remain unchanged.”

Mass Effect 3 will have one overall reputation measurement instead of two separate bars. New conversation options will unlock as your actions push the bar past four progression points on the bar. “If you see that you’re a bit short of hitting a new line, and someone has just said something like, “Let’s head down to [that person's homeworld] and finish this once and for all,” it may be worth your time to go do a couple of side-quests first,” says Meekes. You can see the new reputation bar on the left in this here screenshot.

Eurogamer spotted the news this morning, in a memo sent around GAME Group employees. For PC gamers, the news means we won’t be seeing any new EA titles for release in both GAME and Gamestation this month. Keen speculators would assume that drought would continue beyond March.

According to a launch update put out on EA’s site, people who’ve ordered the N7 edition of the game – the collector’s version that comes with free DLC and a pet robodog – should re-order their copy via Amazon, Play, Zavvi, or ShopTo. GAME promised a special pre-order bonus with their version of the game: the N7 Warfare Gear weapons pack. EA’s site urges customers to stay tuned for the status of that. Course, we can still get copies from Origin, a magic internet shop unaffected by the whims of the high street.

More news as we get it from GAME Group and EA.

The Earth is under threat. A fleet of Mass Effect 3 trailers are poised above the Earth ready to descend and convert us all into Mass Effect obsessed husks. It’s already happened to Chris. He doesn’t sleep anymore. He talks about Mass Effect, goes home, plugs into the mains to recharge and then returns to talk about Mass Effect some more. Only the game’s release on March 6 (US)/March 9 (EU) will silence him, until then we’ve sat him front of the live action trailer above, which looks to have been leaked ahead of its TV debut on VG247. It’s a bit like last week’s Mass Effect 3 CGI trailer, except this one has more crying people, and shocking scenes of bridge destruction.

Is day-one DLC (like Mass Effect 3′s “From Ashes”) a crime against gamer-manity, or simply an unoffensive, optional bonus? When are developers “allowed” to stop updating a game like Terraria and step away? Evan, Tyler, Logan, Josh and Gavin tackle these topics on this week’s episode. In beta talk, Josh and Gavin also give a generous account of what they did and didn’t like about the Guild Wars 2 beta; Evan and Logan reflect on the multiplayer and single-player Mass Effect 3 beta.

PC Gamer US Podcast 306: Downloadable Spinal Cords

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We recently mentioned Bioware’s plan to send Mass Effect 3 to space and back by attaching copies to weather balloons and sending them into the stratosphere. According to the Mass Effect 3 in space page the first couple of balloons have been launched, but they’ve hit a bit of a snag, and by snag I mean tree.

A tweet from the Mass Effect twitter feed mentioned the problem, adding that this team of onlookers are “…currently trying to knock it loose with a baseball attached to string. Some just went to Santa Cruz for gear.” Since then they appear to have gotten into some sort of fight with the tree in question. “It’s foliage is foiling our plans!” they say.

An auspicious start for an ambitious campaign, It’s going even worse than our initial predictions for the fate of those copies of Mass Effect 3. You can track the progress of each balloon using GPS on the Mass Effect 3 site.

Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson has taken to Twitter to say that the From Ashes DLC pack was put together once the main game was finished at the start of the year. “It takes about 3 months from “content complete” to bug-fix, certify, manufacture, and ship game discs,” he tweeted. “In that time we work on DLC.”

He later added “DLC has fast cert and no mfg., so if a team works very hard, they can get a DLC done in time to enjoy it with your 1st playthrough on day 1.”

Videogamer note that producer Mike Gamble has taken to the Bioware forums to defend From Ashes saying “The content in “From Ashes” was developed by a separate team (after the core game was finished) and not completed until well after the main game went into certification.”

He also explains their justification for attaching a cost to the pack. “The Collectors Edition has been sold out in most places for some time now, and is becoming very hard to find (many players prefer not to purchase the digital version). As such, we wanted to make this content available so that SE buyers could also incorporate the Prothean into their game.”

He also confirmed exactly what the DLC will contain, and it sounds like it’ll be pretty important to Mass Effect fans. It’s premature appearance Xbox Marketplace has provided a few slightly spoilery clues, which we mentioned in yesterday’s article (now updated with Gamble’s info). Don’t click through if you’re avoiding all ME3 info until release. Mass Effect 3 and the accompanying From Ashes DLC will be out on March 6 in the US and March 9 internationally.

The Xbox Live Marketplace listing also contained a bit of info about what the DLC will contain, but it’s quite spoilery, so I’ve quarantined it beneath the indomitable red ‘Read and Comment’ line below. If you’re avoiding spoilers then stay up here where it’s warm and safe.

From Ashes will apparently contain a Prothean team mate. This ancient race is supposed to be entirely extinct, but somehow, at least one has survived. VG247 highlight a number of Prothean lines that one fan managed to find hidden away in the files of the recently released Mass Effect 3 demo.

Update, with minor spoilers: Producer Mike Gamble has posted on the Bioware forums with a short description of what the From Ashes DLC will contain. More details and screenshots are set to arrive on Monday. Here’s what he says:

“From Ashes” includes the Prothean squad mate, an adventure on Eden Prime, a new weapon, and an alternate appearance for every squad mate. Note that these alternate appearances are in addition to the ones already advertised in the CE.”

Eden Prime! A Prothean you can chat do and fight with! I don’t know much about Mass Effect 3′s main plot, but as a Mass Effect fan, these things seem pretty important.

The extended cut of yesterday’s Mass Effect 3 trailer has appeared on All Games Beta triggering some debate in the PC Gamer office. The shot that caused the controversy occurs at 2:19, when Shepard steps forward and his assault rifle mysterious pops up off his back all by itself. How?

Tim reckons a it’s down to a stealthy butt clench. We watched it again, looking for some sign of tension on Shepard’s face, but there was nothing. Then Chris said something about the neural interface implants that Shepard’s had since the start of Mass Effect 2 that would let him unholster his guns with a thought but we weren’t listening because we were too busy thinking about Shepard’s bum. Will we discover the truth of the matter when Mass Effect 3 come out in two weeks? No. Definitely not. We’ll probably get to beat up some Reapers, though, so hooray for that.

This is the full length version of the CGI Mass Effect 3 trailer EA teased last week, in which we learn what happens to those sunflowers. They … don’t make it. The little girl is also toast. This means WAR. Which means SPACESHIPS and LASERS and POSING with GUNS.

Not a bad trailer, but will the game be able to deliver that sense of a huge galactic struggle? Will it really feel like we’re part of a massive space war, dictating the future of humanity and its alien allies? We’ll find out in less than three weeks when the game is finally released.

An extended cut of the trailer is set to be released tomorrow, which will be the third version of the video released within a week. Mass Effect 3 is also due to be launched gently into space pretty shortly to give orbiting aliens an early look, the lucky buggers.

At the centre of the roleplaying petri dish, a colourful swirl of games are gently bleeding into each other. Flat-out action games adopt the character builds and XP systems of the traditional RPG, while roleplaying adventures of a certain mass-market mindset bury their statistics deep behind rows of headshots.

Mass Effect 3 looks to be a high point of this trend. BioWare say that it’s set to make a leap in quality beyond ME2 like the leap ME2 made beyond the original.

Eager to temporarily borrow the keys to someone else’s Shepard, deep within BioWare HQ I saw off enough Cerberus commandos to give this bold claim credence. The premise of my early mission was a violent race in the shadow of an encroaching sandstorm through a Mars mining facility.

A Prothean artefact with anti-Reaper qualities has been uncovered, and both Shepard and the Illusive Man gang dearly want it on their mantelpiece. Aided and abetted by new boy James Vega (heavily inspired by Sawyer from Lost) and whoever survived from the Ashley/Kaiden collective in Mass Effect, the advance in action quality is apparent from the off.

BioWare have doubled the number of developers giving life to Shepard’s freeflowing ducks, rolls, melee swipes, running jumps and potshots, and also to the combat smarts of the Cerberus and Reaper fodder that stand in her (or his) way. Shieldwielding enemies scuttle down parallel corridors to flank you while their buddies tactically retreat further up in the map, while the simple addition of verticality (ladders!) manages to spruce up level design no end. Sudden twists in the action were used sparingly in ME2, yet here they’re laid end to end. Ambushes on incoming NPCs, surprise attacks from the dark through satisfyingly smashable windows, long-distance fire-fights on a moving monorail… there’s more life on the Red Planet than you might expect.

The primary draw of ME3, however, is its role as a grand finale – a blaze of glory for your own personal Shepard. It begins with a hastily convened meeting between Shepard, Anderson and the woefully prepared leaders of Earth on the day the Reapers (the caretakers of the galaxy, who sweep up all organic life every 50,000 years) finally make their eventful return.

The skies outside the window are suddenly pierced by vast Reapers descending like clawed fists, who go on to stomp between futuro-Vancouver’s skyscrapers and destroy all that stands in their path with unworldly ‘phftang!’ noises. Before anyone has time to comment on the scene’s War of the Worlds feel, the room is awash with blood, flames and broken glass. Shepard’s quest to unite the disparate races of the galaxy against their common enemy has begun.

If you’re a returning hero, then your reputation and prior activities in the galaxy will take its toll on your recruitment drive. Gazing into the development toolkit of lead writer Mac Walters – a busy nest of stored decisions feeding into a mesh of dialogue possibilities – feels a little like being in freefall. “It took three months at the beginning of this project to deal with the decision to kill off any of the henchmen at the end of ME2,” he mutters. “They’re all major characters, but they all could be dead. What were we thinking?”

The first game’s binary choice of whether you save Kaiden or Ashley means you’ll have either the sensitive soldier or the brunette space racist onboard (both suspicious of Shepard’s dealings with Cerberus in ME2) but previous decisions made over the Rachni queen, the Collector base, the Genophage, the Geth and good old Wrex will also come back to alternately haunt or help you. Getting a perfect playthrough and appeasing enough alien races is promised to be very tricky indeed.

Enter stage left Mass Effect’s controversial Galaxy at War system, a sort of social metagame hub where your success in ME3’s horde-based co-op multiplayer (and the Facebook games and apps) serves as a multiplier to your proficiency against the Reapers on the approach to the endgame. You’re presented with the forces you’ve amassed, including characters such as Samara and contingents of Asari Commandos and Mindbenders, and encouraged to shuttle them between Reaper troublespots. It’s a needless addition, but a forgivable one if it turns out to be fun. Shepard’s adventures tend to consume body and soul, so being able to aid the war effort while on the bus has a certain allure.

Inside and out, Mass Effect 3 is laced with feelings of wartime chaos. As I stood in the BioWare writers’ room I couldn’t help but notice stirring Churchill quotations pinned above the door. Anything in the game that lacked urgency has been trimmed (goodbye mining), and wherever you fly you’ll see charred space detritus or fleets of doomed warships. The final battle will soon be upon us, and the bodycount will be high. How high? That’s down to you.

If you find a copy when it lands, it’s yours. Unless it lands in a volcano. In that case it’ll belong to Ifrit, Lord of Fire, who is not going to give it back without a fight. Each copy has been fitted with a GPS tracker and the Mass Effect site will be updated with their progress as they gently fall back to Earth, or become dislodged and fly off into some distant corner of the universe. The lucky few who do manage to retrieve a disk will get to play the game about a week before release.

If you think the chances of a copy of Mass Effect 3 falling out of the sky onto your lawn are too slim to plan around, there’s always the Mass Effect 3 demo, which will let you try out the first couple of missions and the co-op survival multiplayer mode.

The space lobsters are coming for the daffodils. Earth is doomed. This teaser is a short clip of a full CG trailer set to be released on Sunday, and is the latest piece in an escalating frenzy of Mass Effect 3 marketing materials surrounding the release of the Mass Effect 3 Origin demo yesterday. It contains a couple of missions and a taste of the new multiplayer mode and got us so excited that we livestreamed it.

Executive producer Casey Hudson tweeted the day before yesterday to let us all know that Mass Effect 3 has gone gold. It’s finished. All we have to do now is play the demo over and over again while we wait all those disks to be printed off and ferried to shops ahead of release on March 6 in the US and March 9 in Europe. What do you think of the demo? Are the new close combat moves big and punchy enough for you? Does James Vega bulge too freakishly? Is Shepard still badass enough? Let us know your thoughts.

Within: watch the saved video to get a sneak peek into your future life as Shepard, the total jerk or merciful angel.

Part 1

Part 2

The Mass Effect 3 demo is imminent, but if, like me, you have a genetic predisposition to absorb everything related to Mass Effect 3 immediately with no care for spoilers, then you might enjoy these many minutes of footage from the first couple of missions.

VG247 spotted the videos, uploaded by a YouTube user who apparently got early access to the demo. We get to see a few familiar faces like Anderson and Ashley, and see more of the half man, half neck hybrid James Vega machoing his way around the corridors. Is it possible for a man to have too many muscles? James Vega has the answer, and that answer is “yes.” He has the look of a man permanently on the verge of explosive decompression. Don’t salute too hard, Vega, you could pop at any moment.

The demo is due out tomorrow, and the full game is out on March 6 in the US and March 9 in Europe. Here’s part two of the demo footage.

It’s been a long time coming, but Bioware have finally released the promised trailer starring the female Shepard that fans voted to create. It’s a treat for anyone who loved Jennifer Hale’s performance as female Shepard in the first two games and it sent a tangible shiver down my spine during that last scene. You know the bit. “Tell your friends we’re coming for them.” ORCHESTRAL BONG. FLAMING LOGO. March 6 can’t come quick enough. If this trailer isn’t enough Mass Effect for you, a whole cluster of Mass Effect 3 trailers were released earlier.

The Mass Effect 3 website has been updated with FIVE new trailers. The one above struck me as the most interesting to Mass Effect fans. It’s the first we’ve seen of the upgraded weapon and armour customisation. Attaching better barrels, silencers and scopes will change the appearance of the gun as well as its stats. Armour values like shield regeneration, health regeneration are now easy to scan, making equipment easier to compare. Also, you can tailor your colour scheme and turn the little glowy bits pink, if you like.

The other four trailers follow, showing some of the biggest space war scenes we’ve seen yet, including a shot of a vast fleet of Reaper vessels swarming like angry space lobsters towards the alliance fleet. Epic stuff.

You’ll be able to use the app to boost your Galactic Readiness level, the overarching indicator that defines how well you’re doing in your struggle against the Reapers. What do you think about receiving texts from in-game characters. Is that weird? It seems a little weird. Here’s a screenshot from Shepard’s phone while you ponder.

Freddy Prinze Jr will be playing new squadmate, Vega, in Mass Effect 3, triggering panic attacks among those who remember his role in the Wing Commander movie. It’s okay, he’s been in Frazier, Friends, Boston Legal and 24 since then. He joins second newcomer, Jessica Chobot, who plays reporter Diana Allers.

The voice cast video above is worth watching to see how closely the cast resemble their in-game counterparts. Vega is essentially Freddy Prinze’s face transpanted onto a hulking frame, Joker looks as close to Seth Green as ever and The Illusive Man is like a young, bionic Martin Sheen, or “Mr. President” to West Wing fans.

The cast will feature a few more familiar voices. Tricia Helfer returns as the Normandy’s AI, Yvonne Strahovski reprises her role as Miranda. Carrie-Anne Moss is Aria T’Loak and Lance Henriksen is Admiral Steve Hackett. See Mass Effect 3 characters old and new in the fresh batch of screenshots below.

I was just explaining this to our Production Ed, Tony. Basically, we’re just going to have to accept that in the far future things will be spelled and pronounced slightly differently. Sometimes, grenades will be “gernades.” Sentinels will not always be sentinels. Sometimes they will be “sentinals.” That’s just what happens and we should just accept it now. “NEVER!” Tony screamed, “NEVAAAARGH!” Then he beat his Mac to death with a dictionary.

These are without a doubt the best gaming typos made since … earlier today, when Capcom faced uncomfortable revelations regarding the release of their latest game, “Resident Evil: Revalaitons.” In other news, Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer mode actually looks quite punchy and exciting. Now I’m off to make some tee and write more wards for our wobsite.

Here’s a screenshot of the page you want. To get there, sign into the Bioware social site with your EA account and get to the Mass Effect DLC page like this:

Then pick a DLC pack and make your way to the checkout page. Click “add Bioware points” at the top and buy away. It could be an error. The 1200 points for £4.33 option isn’t available on the Dragon Age page. As such, you might want to snap this one up quick before it gets changed.

The randomised codes “could include powerful new weapons and new characters,” according to a post on the Bioware store, or they could contain “character boosters, weapon modifications, and weapon upgrades to make your multi-player squad stronger.”

The four figures can be pre-ordered ahead of shipment in April/May for $75.on the Bioware site. The Big Bad Toy Store has eight figures listed available for $17.99 each including Shepard, Tali, Thane, Garrus, Legion, Miranda, Mordin and Grunt. If you have $650 knocking about, there’s also a full size replica of a Mass Effect assault rifle which I’m going to immediately click away from to protect my bank balance.

Bioware haven’t announced their DLC plans for Mass Effect 3 yet, but I’d be surprised if the weapons and upgrades supplied with the figures weren’t available as DLC after release. Retailers have already been outlining their pre-order bonus packages for Mass Effect 3, which will include extra armour and weapons for ME3′s single player campaign. The game’s due out on March 6 in the US, March 8 in Australia and March 9 in Europe.

But will your PC run it? The full system requirements have popped up on the Bioware forums. We slipped the Shadow Broker a few credits and he sent them over stapled to the forehead of a courier Volus. Here they are.

Minimum Spec:

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU – 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible
• DirectX – DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

 
Recommended Spec:

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU – 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible

 
And here’s a list of supported graphics cards: “Supported chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 9300, 8500, 8400, and 8300 are below minimum system requirements, as are AMD/ATI Radeon HD3200, HD3300, and HD4350.”

I was talking to our Chris Thursten last night about possible superweapons that could be used to defeat the Reaper menace. He suggested using a Mass Effect relay to shoot the Mako through the heart of the Reaper mothership (if such a thing exists), turning it into a massive, bouncy bullet. That could be quite awesome. How would you defeat the Reapers?

The Mass Effect 3 demo won’t bring you true love on February 14, but it will unlock extra armour pieces in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which is almost as good. The full game will be released across the milky way on March 6.

It’s not an entirely surprising move. EA will be looking to use their major titles to get Origin onto more systems. Last year, the Battlefield 3 beta and the digital version of Star Wars: The Old Republic were available exclusively through Origin. It seems to be working. Way back in October, EA said that five million people were using Origin on a daily basis. What do you think of Origin so far?

It goes the other way, too. Playing the Kingdoms of Amalur demo will grant you Reckoner Knight Armour and a “Chakram Launcher” in Mass Effect 3. Both items are designed by comic book artist Todd McFarlene. Get a closer look at all the bonus gear in the screenshots below.

Once upon a time you’d buy a game and play the game, and that would be that. Big modern releases are sprawling multimedia assaults wrapped in pre-order deals, tie in iPhone games and cross-series promotions. The Dragon Age Dead Space armour was especially odd, but nothing’s managed to beat the Force Unleashed/Monkey Island crossover yet. What do you think of these cross-promotional bonus deals, a bit of fun or a bit too much?

The perfect conditions for voice acting have the actors face to face, feeding off each other’s performance, establishing a degree of chemistry sorely lacking from many game performances. The latest episode of Bioware pulse goes inside Bioware’s sound studios to explain why that simply isn’t possible. With so many characters and so many voice actors in different locations, it’s a logistical nightmare. The video above explains how the devs get around this using long distance calls and lots of organisation. Skip to the two minute mark to get straight to the interesting bit.

It’s interesting to see how different devs approach voice acting performances. Bioshock Infinite has the luxury of having just two main characters, so they can afford to get their stars in the same room. You can see one of those sessions in this Bioshock Infinite developer diary. Bioware are no strangers to the voice acting game, they just took a Guinness world record for the staggering amount of voice work in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Scraps take place in small arenas, presumably lifted from the singleplayer game. They have the clean lines and futurecrates of the previous games’ environs, but if the blue-tinged city wing I fought in was anything to go by, lack the main game’s interesting RPG clutter. My battleground was built entirely for combat, and decked out with a convenient abundance of three foot walls.

Goodness gracious great balls of plasma.

I found sticking to these made my life a lot easier. Mass Effect isn’t built for quick reactions: not-Shepard’s turning circle is as ponderous as Shepard’s, and the guns you’ll be using are more gentle hose than precision tool. The exception is the heavy sniper rifle still as boomingly lethal as ever. For the first five waves of the eleven wave cycle, I hid behind an idle spaceship and squeezed off echoing headshots at targets chasing my allies. Only after wave six was I flushed from my hidey-hole, as my foes got bigger and gooier.

Then I was forced to fall back on my secondary powers. I played one session as a bog-standard soldier, his two abilities a concussive shot that knocked enemies backwards, and a shield boost to help out under fire. The other classes had less in the way of weaponry, but infinitely more enjoyable powers.

Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer isn’t as satisfying as its violent peers. More interesting is the ‘galaxy at war’ system. Embark on a multiplayer session and you’ll level up your character. You can then choose to send him off to join the fight against the Reapers on the main game’s galaxy map. Players who had otherwise completed 95% of the actions necessary for a ‘perfect’ ending may well find them bumping that 95 up to a nice round 100. But of course Bioware were keen to stress they weren’t forcing people to play with their friends – the new multiplayer is a secondary skirmish, not the frontlines of the war.

You can find it all and more on newstands now! Or, if your house is surrounded by small rabid beasts which have somehow made it clear that only your flesh can satiate their voracious appetites, you may want to stay inside and check us out on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.

Mass Effect 3 is out in a couple of months, which makes it high time for retailers to start weaving a confusing web of pre-order deals to ensnare early buyers. The trailer above shows off some of the bonus bits you’ll get for pre-ordering from Gamestop and Origin. The N7 armour and N7 Valkyrie Rifle will come with Gamestop pre-orders, the AT12 Raider Shotgun will be an Origin exclusive, and the M55 Argus Assault Rifle will be available to everyone who pre-orders from either retailer. Find out more from the Mass Effect 3 Pre-orders Q&A page and get a closer look at the items in the shot below.

Pre-order bonuses have felt especially clunky in Bioware games over the last year or so. The extra equipment tends to get dumped in your inventory at the start of the game, which always made me feel like I’d gained an advantage I hadn’t earned. Also, in the case of the Blood Dragon armour, it looked hideous. And then there’s the cross promotional stuff. Remember the Dead Space Dragon Age 2 armour?

Still, a few extra guns is standard fare these days, and things haven’t become anywhere near as confusing as Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s mad pre-order situation. Yet.

Good. Now get a friend to stand behind you facing in the opposite direction. Then get a third friend to stand slightly behind both of you off to the other side.

Finally, adopt your most dramatic aiming pose and pretend you’re on an alien planet.

Congratulations, you are a Mass Effect 3 screenshot!

Chances are, if you’re reading this, that you already have a strong sense of who your Commander Shepard is and what they’ve been through. If not, well, you’re missing out on one of the standout game narratives of the last five years. What are you waiting for? You’ve got a few months. Come back when you have a deeply-held opinion about the nature of Shepard’s chromosomes.

According to executive producer Casey Hudson, ME3’s Shepard is a combination of the person you’ve made and the underlying themes that have been there since the opening moments of the first game. “There is a common experience among all versions of Commander Shepard. In particular, Shepard is really just an average human, swept up in exceptional circumstances. We’re trying some new methods to get people inside Shepard’s head, making them feel more of the internal struggle Shepard has been facing.”

Instant melee kills specific to each class have been introduced.

At the heart of that struggle are the Reapers, the malevolent machinegods that have finally arrived after two whole games of set-up. The race to fight back is Mass Effect 2’s companiongathering structure blown out to galactic proportions. As you progress, you’ll assemble a force of capital ships, special forces squads and vast armies, each of which constitutes a War Asset.

“As Commander Shepard you fight to build an enormous alliance and secure war assets across the galaxy,” Hudson explains. “But how effective all of that is in the final fight is dependent on how well the overall war effort is going. If your allies are killed, they won’t be ready to join you in the final battle. But if they are well in control, they will be ready to bring their full potential to the fight.”

That’s where cooperative multiplayer comes in. Separately from Shepard’s story, you and your friends can take charge of teams of operatives fighting the battles around the galaxy that the Normandy can’t. Performance here improves that readiness factor, making your war assets count for more in the singleplayer.

Your enemies are easily perturbed by goose stepping.

These high-level mechanics are supported by a retooled combat and upgrade system. Weapon mods that give you the freedom to customise guns to your taste are a major focus – Hudson shares his favourites: “I enjoy the mods that allow you to increase the capacity and rate of fire on sniper rifles, so you can target an enemy at range and still fire off quick shots before reloading. Using a scope on a pistol is a fun way to extend the effectiveness of an otherwise basic weapon.”

We know the broad shape of Shepard’s final outing, but not what it contains. Mass Effect’s use of transferred savegames makes it one of the longest coherent stories in gaming, and it’ll be good to come to its final chapter unspoilt.

There’s one thing that the Reapers didn’t count on: giant indigenous sand worms. The big evil alien race that’s threatening to overwhelm the galaxy will be very familiar with Shepard after the end of the second game, but the big evil baddies have never read Frank Herbert’s Dune. Perhaps that is the weakness the allied races will use to defeat the Reaper threat. It looks like the third game will have set pieces on a scale that could rival the spectacular final acts of the first two games. Roll on March 6 2012.

Update: Commenter Crossngen correctly identifies the “giant worm thing” as a Thresher Maw, which I now remember fighting alongside Grunt in Mass Effect 2, though I don’t remember it being quite that huge, or especially hard to defeat. Maybe those Reapers aren’t so hard after all, eh?

Skip to the 1:30 mark to get to the punchy bits. The latest episode of Bioware pulse focuses on the animation tweaks the dev team are making to Mass Effect 3. Most of them are geared towards making Shepard’s punches the punchiest punches in the galaxy. The animation system will sync up Shepard and his victim, to ensure the following attack always hits the foe right in the gut. Pity the voice actors who have to act countless variations of “oof! Argh! Urk!” and “no not the face!” to ensure that Shepard’s enemies never sound repetitive. Pity even more the hordes of aliens that’ll be lining up to try and stop Shepard in March.

One and a half minutes into the latest episode of Bioware’s regular web TV series, they give us a look at some of the improvements they’re making to combat in Mass Effect 3. New powers are being introduced to try and make each combat class feel powerful and unique. For classes like the Vanguard, upgraded versions of the super-satisfying charge move do the trick, but it’s support classes like Engineers that will benefit most from new toys, including deployable turrets and hacking tools that will let you turn enemy turrets against their owners.

That’s not to say the Vanguard has been left out. He’ll get a nova ground punch that will send enemies flying backwards. Bioware say that every class will get a different heavy melee move. The Adept can propel a single enemy across the room with a psychic attack, while the Engineer can set fire to foes, obliterating their armour. Mass Effect 2′s combat was a big improvements on the original. What would you like to see Bioware change for Mass Effect 3?

“There was a Mass Effect 2 plot that was a kind of callback to the first Mass Effect that was going to be on the Citadel, and we cut it. But now it’s made a resurrection in Mass Effect 3,” says Walters. “That’s the nice thing about trilogies, sometimes you get a second chance.” Hopefully it won’t be a sequel to the Keeper scanning side quest.

Walters also talks about the difficulties of writing Mass Effect 3, particularly the difficulties of writing around the fact that any number of former companions and crew members may be dead or absent at the start of the third game. “They’re more hurdles. Sometimes they’re hurdles that we’ve given ourselves, so we kind of smack ourselves in the head and say ‘What the hell were we thinking? Why did we do that?’”

Mass Effect 3 is out in March. Resident sentient Mass Effect encyclopaedia Chris Thursten has convinced me and Hatfield to play through the entire Mass Effect series, starting in January, completing every sidequest and slice of DLC in preparation for its release. We may go a bit space mad in the process, but it’ll probably be worth it. Will you be retreading Shepard’s steps ahead of Mass Effect 3?

For those who consider it a spoiler, we don’t name the character up here, but you can find a screenshot and a name beneath the cut.

Yes, it’s everyone’s favourite surly convict, Jack! Only with hair! And slightly more clothes!

Despite initial marketing convincing me I would hate Jack, she eventually grew to me one of my favourite characters in Mass Effect 3. Talking to her enough made me realise she’s surprisingly vulnerable beneath the rough, tough criminal facade. Then we did the horizontal tango in the captain’s quarters. I have no regrets.

Can you spot any other hints in the trailer? Let us know in the comments!

Most intriguing is the promise of a bonus character and mission, presumably similar to Zaeed in Mass Effect 2, details for that one are being kept under wraps however. Check inside for the full list of bonus material.

Included in the special edition will be:

Physical goodies:

• Metal case featuring both male and female Commander Shepard
• 70-page art book
• Mass Effect comic by Dark Horse Comics
• N7 fabric patch.
• 4×6 lithographic print of the SR-2 Alliance Normandy

In Game content:

• N7 Arsenal Pack – Bring the firepower with the N7 Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, SMG, and Pistol.
• Squad alternate appearance pack
• Robotic Dog for on board the Normandy
• Mass Effect 3 digital soundtrack.

Multiplayer’s always been on the cards for the Mass Effect series, but the solution was to build Mass Effect 3 from the ground up with multiplayer in mind. Rather than controlling Shepard, the player is charged with an independent character for multiplayer. “Shepard is still the hero, making the big decisions, deciding what’s going to happen with the universe and building alliances,” said Hudson. “But now there’s armies all over the place, fighting to just hang onto different locations.”

This approach inevitably leans towards an Mass Effect MMO – something BioWare head Ray Muzyka has previously hinted at. “On a personal level, I think I would like to play a Mass Effect MMO,” said Hudson. “I would love to just be in a lot of these locations. I would like to live in the Citadel, and walk around and do neat stuff, get caught up in adventures.”

Bioware say that singleplayer “can still be played all by itself without any kind of multiplayer or third party and you can still get the absolute best ending. This just gives you new options to be able to get that ending.”

In singleplayer, the Galaxy at War System measures how well prepared the universe is for the imminent Reaper invasion. Your actions in Mass Effect 3, and decisions made in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 will boost this level of preparedness, altering how the trilogy’s finale pans out. Gaining experience and achievements in multiplayer will also boost this score.

The co-op mode also means a few brand new team mates. Bioware confirm Krogan, Drell and Asari characters, but also say that “there will be a lot of interesting races that you may not expect to be able to play as because they wouldn’t normally be looked upon as characters who are for the fight.” As ever, we’re secretly hoping for a playable Elcor, or a heavily armoured battle-Volus.

The new characters won’t appear in the single player campaign, however. “While it is separate to the main story they will never be involved in the actual campaign of the main story. It’s more like a side mission to the SP,” say Bioware. “We don’t want to create situations where MP players have something that SP players couldn’t otherwise see.”

The multiplayer items will be “very similar on the weapons side” to singleplayer, but “there are more customization options for the MP armor side”

“They are structured differently so stats don’t play the same way, so SP guys have something that feels better for SP and MP guys have something that feels better for MP.”

The multiplayer mode is new territory for the Mass Effect series. Beta tests are slated for January and early access will be granted to those who bought Battlefield 3 new. Are you interested in the co-op mode, or will you be sticking to singleplayer?

If you’re not sure whether the new footage below is worth watching and you’d allow me two words to tell you why, I’d use these: Krogan lady.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LoBRhSo2kPE

It’s great to see a big budget game commit to a pre-release demo, an increasingly uncommon occurrence these days. With a lot of fans asking questions about the multiplayer it’s a smart move from Bioware to give them a chance to try it out before the game launches on March 6th.

If you’re struggling to make out the images on the video, we have larger version in our Mass Effect 3 multiplayer screenshots post. We’ll see how well the two sides of the game work together when Mass Effect 3 is released on March 6th next year.

The game’s audio lead Rob Blake announced on Twitter that 40,000 lines would be recorded for the final game in the trilogy. The revelation came in response to Twitter users voicing concern over the consistency of volume in Shepard’s voice. In response, Blake tweeted: ‘We do our best to keep consistency but it’s tough with 40,000 lines! We’ve got new techniques on ME3 that improve it tho!’

To bring this all into perspective, Mass Effect featured 20,000 lines whilst Mass Effect 2 had 25,000. However what is not clear is where these extra 15,000 lines will be featured. With Mass Effect 3 now confirmed to feature a co-operative modes too, will the multiplayer contain as much conversation as the first game, or will most of this extra dialogue go towards creating a richer single-player experience?

Check inside to see the images in full. If you want more details on how it wall all work, check out our Mass Effect 3 multiplayer explained post.

Check inside for a full explanation of how multilayer will work, and how it will integrate with Mass Effect 3′s single player story.

The article, spotted Sticky Skills, finally explains how exactly the multiplayer component will affect the single player campaign. Completing side missions and plot points in single player will earn you a currency called ‘war assets’ which enables you to ‘buy’ allies, fleets and other support options to aid you in the fight against the Reapers. Completing all or most of the content in single player will net you enough war assets to save the galaxy, but you can also earn them by playing the multiplayer mode. This means that multiplayer is entirely optional, offering an alternative method of completion to those that don’t want to explore all the sidequests. I wonder if this could be a reaction by Bioware to the number of people who never actually finish their games. Personally I always like to do everything I can in RPG games anyway, but that won’t stop me trying the multiplayer on for size.

According to the article the co-op mode will you playing as a four man team under the command of Admiral Hackett, returning from the previous games. You’ll be defending key single player locations against increasingly difficult waves of Cerberus foes, much like Dawn of War’s Last Stand mode. Each stage offers eleven waves of enemies, from stealthy assassins to armoured mechs. There will also be objectives scattered around the map, such as retrieving data or protecting an ally while they hack a terminal.

You’ll be able to play as races and classes from the Mass Effect universe, with Drell (aka: Thane’s race from Mass Effect 2) joining the previously announced Asari, Krogan and Turian options. Solider, Infiltrator, Sentinel and Engineer classes were also revealed, with more to follow. It seems likely that the other single player classes, Vanguard and Adept, will appear, although they may play differently in multiplayer. Each race and class will have special abilities, such as the Krogan’s charge attack.

You can level your characters up to level 20 during the multiplayer, with each class levelling separately. You’ll also be able to upgrade your armour and weaponry, picking which powers and weapons to take with you before the action starts. There’s no word yet on the extent of character customisation, although you will be able to choose your gender (unless you’re an Asari, presumably).

Finally defending areas will bring them up on a strategic map, viewable from outside the game via Facebook and mobile devices, which will also have their own tie ins to ‘Galaxy at War’, although we’re still waiting on the details for those.

It’s all shaping up to be a very exciting addition to the series. As I said yesterday I was initially sceptical about the need for multiplayer in Mass Effect, but everything released so far leads me to believe it would be very good, and won’t be a detriment to the single player at all. The idea of participating in the same war as Commander Shepard, but from a different perspective is a good one, and should really give the conflict a sense of scale.

Mass Effect 3 will be out on March 6th 2012, my birthday. I think I might have to book some time off.

Check inside for a full breakdown of how this will work.

The co-op mode won’t star Commander Shepard or any of his or her crew. Instead, you’ll play as a special forces team fighting in another part of the galaxy, representing the larger scale of the war against the Reapers. You’ll be able to customise your team by choosing from a variety of familiar Mass Effect classes and races like Asari, Krogan and Turians, each with special abilities.

The most interesting part of the announcement is how it will impact on the single player game. While the multiplayer mode is separate from the main story, it contributes to something called the ‘galactic readiness level’ which represents how prepared the galaxy is to fight off the Reaper threat. Having a high galactic readiness level is vital to getting a good ending to the story, but Bioware were keen to stress it is perfectly possible to get the best ending while only playing the story mode and ignoring the multiplayer completely. This all forms part of Mass Effect 3′s ‘galaxy at war’ system, which will see players able to affect their galactic readiness via a variety of methods across different platforms, although exactly what those other methods are is currently under wraps.

The multiplayer components are being made by a separate team at the newly formed Bioware Montreal, allowing Bioware Edmonton to continue focusing on the single player story. This comes as something of a relief to fans, some of whom were concerned that the addition of multiplayer would detract from the main game.

I was sceptical about the inclusion of multiplayer into such a heavily story driven series, but the new mode sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Will you be sticking to the single player? Or will the lure of playing as your own Krogan Battlemaster be too strong?

The Australian magazine just posted this on their site:

“That’s right – Mass Effect 3 is getting multiplayer! We travel to BioWare’s office in Edmonton for hands-on time with the series’ first foray into online gameplay, and chat with Mass Effect Series Producer and Mass Effect 3 Project Director Casey Hudson about the decision to go multiplayer in the epic battle for the galaxy.”

The coverline of the mag reads: “Fight alongside your friends as the galaxy goes to war!”

Despite rumours that Mass Effect 3 would feature a multiplayer component, Bioware have been careful not to confirm the mode, until now.

What’s your Mass Effect multiplayer mode of choice? Co-op, adverserial, or a Brink-esque combination of the two? Or should Mass Effect have stuck to its singleplayer guns? Let’s talk.

Eurogamer previously reported that Bioware are working on a “standalone” four player co-op mode with “competitive elements”. CVG cited a “reliable development source” as the origin of information they received suggesting that Mass Effect will get “original missions made for online,” designed to be replayed over and over again. “We’re exploring multiplayer in all of our games and all of our franchises,” BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka told Eurogamer. “It’s always an idea we’re interested in.”

Owen got a chance to quiz associate producer Michael Gamble about the existence of a co-op multiplayer mode at Gamescom this year. No matter how hard Owen tried, Gamble remained evasive.

Owen: Co-op stuff – can you tell me a bit about the co-op?

Michael Gamble: Well we haven’t really talked about anything relating to multiplayer, that’s mainly rumours and speculation that’s been going around. Right now for Mass Effect 3 it’s all about the singleplayer experience, delivering the best possible experience of the time. We have a lot of people expecting an amazing ending, so we want to deliver on that.

Owen: I know that you’re not confirming that but do you think that could work in the Mass Effect universe in the game as it is now … maybe a co-op mode?

Michael Gamble: Uhm – in the game as it is now, I’m not so sure but I think that Mass Effect is a really great IP and in terms of multiplayer it’s – there are places within Bioware games in general to put multiplayer things and we think that this adds a great amount to the game, depending if it’s done right. So it has to be done right and it can’t be rushed, it can’t be thrown in haphazardly or it’ll feel like a tacked on feature. That was the last thing that we wanted to do with Mass Effect and that’s why we’re focusing on singleplayer.

Nice try. Would you like to see multiplayer in Mass Effect 3? A defend the Elcor mode, perhaps? Capture the Volus?

“Not at all no,” says Bioware CEO Dr. Ray Mazuka when we put the question to him at Gamescom this year. “We have ambitious plans to continue this franchise going forward. Mass Effect 3 is simultaneously a couple of different things; a thrilling and epic conclusion to the trilogy as we promised our fans we’d provide for Commander Shepard, but it’s also a brand new beginning – it’s an entry point for new fans and it’s also a brand new beginning.”

But does this mean an end to our favourite deep-space reporter puncher? No more arguments over hair colour? No more comparisons between Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale? No more Shepard?

“Yes,” producer Michael Gamble told us. “After this, Commander Shepard’s story is complete.”

“So even if there are more games in the Mass Effect universe, he/she definitely won’t be in them?

“Correct.”

With its detailed universe and huge cast, there was never much chance of Mass Effect fading from the stars just because the Reapers were pointed to the door. Not everything revolves around Shepard, and with so many worlds, there’s never going to be a shortage of stories to focus on. But where would you like to see the series go next? An MMO? A Homeworld style strategy game involving the Flotila? Another RPG, picking up the adventures of a specific character? Or do you think it just won’t be the same without Shepard, Joker and the gang leading the way? Share your ideas here…

…is not in fact called that, nor does it look like there’s a lot of Asari kicking. Nor can you play as Tali’Zorah vas Kneed-ya, engage in Hanar-hand combat, or many other puns. Instead, it’s called Dark Corners of the Galaxy, and honestly, it’s not great. It is pretty though, and a better way to pass the time until Mass Effect 3 than printing out early screenshots, squinting at them, and jiggling them about until they appear to be moving. Bonus points for the enemies whose entire role in life is to run up to you and explode. Such a noble sacrifice, all in the name of slightly denting your health bar.

So far, it looks a lot like Mass Effect 2 (and Mass Effect) which is no bad thing, but this is only part one of the “combat reveal.” Hopefully we’ll see more of the new close combat manoeuvres in trailers to come.

However, I have my standards. I like my ladies to have character, originality and a bit of attitude. All earnest qualities that Female Shepard Number 5 completely lacks. Frankly, if I saw her in a locker room, I’d glaze over and move on, in search of more interesting entries for my Filofax of Filth. She’s just so utterly bland.

If the future is in the hands of this blonde bimbo, I'm out.

This is the first time that female Shepard will be shown to the world. The real world. It’ll be the first time she’s used for marketing campaigns, advertisements and, in my wildest dreams, adorning the box itself. Think about it – this will be the first in a long time that such a well-written, kick-ass female hero will be brought into the spotlight – merited not for the size of her dirty pillows and the tightness of her tramp-stamp jeans, but for her ability to dominate the battlefield, unite humanity, and stand up in the face of intergalactic adversity. So it breaks my heart that the mass public have gone for such the wishy washy, Barbie faced personality vacuum that is Shep 5.

The modern day world is already so much more culturally diverse than yester-year, so why don’t future representations reflect this? Isn’t it about time that the cliché of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed pin-up was phased out?

Ginger Winona Ryder is the best of a bland bunch

Commander Shepard deserves better than this. You’re talking about a woman who brought down a teched-up Saren. A woman who survived being brought back to life after being blown out into space. The woman who punched that damn annoying reporter right between her lying eyes. Just look at Shep 5, then back to these words. Now look at Shep 5 again – that is the face of a woman who cares more about her glue-on nails and handbag Chihuahua. She’s not the saviour of the goddamn universe.

Please, boys and girls, I implore you. Don’t vote for Number 5. Vote for diversity. Vote for originality. Vote for personality. For the love of god, vote for someone I can proudly place on the first page of my Filofax. Thank you.

You can get a look at all of the contenders below. Number five is well in the lead at the lead at the moment. Let us know your favourite in the comments.

• Digital commemorative artwork of Commander Shepard.
• 70-page Digital art book featuring hundreds of unique and gorgeous illustrations from the BioWare development team.
• Limited edition Mass Effect digital comic by Dark Horse Comics, complete with unique cover artwork.
• Exclusive Digital 4×6 lithographic featuring a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork.
• A full collection of in-game content that can’t be found anywhere else!
• N7 Arsenal Pack – Bring the firepower with the N7 Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, SMG, and Pistol.
• Robotic Dog Companion – A faithful sidekick to keep you company on board the Normandy.
• Squadmate Alternate Outfit Pack – New appearances for your favorite squad members.
• N7 Hoodie – For Commander Shepard’s casual days on board the Normandy.
• Relive all the greatest moments of Mass Effect 3 with the digital soundtrack.
• Display your initiation in the N7 ranks with a collection of forum and social badges, avatars, and perks.

 
The Deluxe Edition costs $79.99 / £54.99 and is available through the Origin client and the Origin site.

Battlefield 3

EA came out in force this year with Battlefield 3. DICE’s incredibly loud shooter took to the stage with a first look at the game’s multiplayer component – arguably what most people will be buying Battlefield for. The result was impressive; DICE may not have created a multiplayer revolution with BF3, but it’s certainly and evolutionary step forward, both in sheer technological horsepower and immersion. The short trailer showing off the Operation Metro map; a 3-stage Rush game set in Paris, demonstrated some of the incredible smoke and destruction effects, alongside the Mirror’s Edge-style vaulting and incredibly punchy shooting mechanics. DICE clearly realise where their key strengths lie, and have preserved everything we loved about BF2 and Bad Company 2, whilst tweaking elements to created a completely refined experience. Tim got to play it, and everything we see in the trailer appears to come true when you take up keyboard and mouse. We already know we’ll be playing Battlefield 3 every night for a year. Will you be joining us?

Bioshock Infinite

Over the months since we last saw Bioshock Infinite, interest has wandered slightly. E3 pulled our focus back to Irrational’s steam-punk shooter, and we can’t wait to get hands on time with it. Colourful, intense and on the right side of mental, this rollercoaster ride through a world of American exceptionalism (literally a rollercoaster at times due to the sky-rails) looks like it will capture us with as iron-like a grip as the original. Whilst much of the trailer appears scripted, we’ve been assured by Irrational that it isn’t; rather it’s just tightly rehearsed. Interestingly this time the silent protagonist has been abandoned in favour of the much more chatty central character Booker DeWitt. This works well for Infinite’s central narrative; where BioShock was very much the loneliness of exploring Rapture solo, Infinite at its core is the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth, and the dialogue brings this relationship alive with vibrant and amusing quips.

Brothers in Arms: Furious 4

Gearbox abandon their Band of Brothers influence in favour of something more bombastic for their latest entry in their WW2 shooter franchise. The trailer – clearly influenced by that scene with Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds – is a jarring change from Matt Baker’s harsh journey through Normandy, but is no less welcome. Furious 4 looks incredibly good fun; Bulletstorm with Tommy guns. The forums have filled with people upset about this new direction, so we should assure you that the days of Baker and the 101st are NOT over, but for now we implore you to give Furious 4 a chance. We liked what we saw, and think you will too.

PayDay: The Heist

PayDay was a massive surprise for us. We had no idea what it was, nor who developers Overkill Software were before E3, but now they’re firmly on our ‘to watch’ list. PayDay is Left4Dead for criminals; a co-op survival game where players must first break into a variety of targets (among them banks and skyscrapers), steal a fuck-load of moolah and then get the hell out. Problem is, the moment you blow that vault open every cop in a twenty-mile radius will close in on you. Using a combination of firearms and harsh, harsh language, you take down those out to put you in cuffs and make yourself very rich. Tim thought it was the best discovery of E3. Fans of films like Heat and Point Break are going to love this.

Tomb Raider

Of all the games I’ve seen at E3 this year, two are battling for supremacy. Naturally Battlefield 3 is one of them, but Tomb Raider is putting up a fight. Everything about it looks gorgeous; from Lara herself to the grimy environments to the outstanding flame effects. The demo was the sole impressive element of an otherwise poor show from a Kinect-obsessed Microsoft. Despite the demo not showing what I wanted to see (namely the expansive open areas of the island), it did give a good sense of the claustrophobia some of the environments will offer. Uncomfortable tension was broken by outbursts of violence, although the frantic scrambles away from the few enemies emphasise that combat may well be more of an event than a regular occurrence, which would bring a better sense of gritty realism to the normally gun-totting Miss Croft. There were some sequences of QTE, but I’m hoping that these will be nothing to worry about.

Mass Effect 3

Video from Mass Effect was numerous at this year’s E3, with a pre-scripted trailer, a live-action trailer and the mission demo from EA’s conference. Whilst it’s almost impossible for BioWare’s sci-fi epic to not impress, the demo showed a very weak segment from the third game. An on-rails shoot-out against a live Reaper may well look beyond awesome, but it doesn’t promote what we love about Mass Effect. There’s probably nothing to worry about, but it seems odd that BioWare would show off a segment that uses a universally hated mechanic. Still, there’s also footage of the new melee system, which converts Shepard’s omni-tool into a wrist-mounted blade for some satisfying stabby moves in close quarters. So despite a somewhat off-step demo, it’s hard not to get excited about Mass Effect 3.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

The last time someone attempted to make an action game set in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, the result was as frightening as a trip to the Eye of Terror itself. Thankfully the current guardians of the 40k licence – Relic – are masters of design. Third-person action may be a departure from their RTS comfort zone, but it looks just as polished as the Dawn of War games, maintaining their perfect understanding of Games Workshop’s universe. Point in case: the blood. If this was a film, the total blood gallon count would be equal to that of Coca-Cola’s annual output. We also finally get a real look at the Chaos troopers. Whilst grinding Orks with chainswords is clearly going to be a most satisfying affair, something less fleshy and encased in power armour will be more of an enjoyable challenge for our blessed Heavy Bolter (she has a cyclic fire rate of 635 rounds per minute. We call her Vera).

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim was one of Graham’s top 3 games he saw this year, and it’s pretty easy to see why. The above video from G4TV is a great 14 minute interview with game director Todd Howard as he explains many unseen elements of Skyrim. Among them are the finer details of inventory and spell-casting, alongside Dragon Shouts and interacting with NPCs. Whilst the combat still seems to have a little of that clunkiness that Oblivion had, Skyrim certainly looks amazing, with some beautiful snowy vistas. They’re nothing compared to the dragons though; breathtaking monstrosities that truly steal the show. If you’re anything like us, you already know that your first fight with one of these winged beasts will be a highlight of your gaming year.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Before E3 we really weren’t sure of The Old Republic. Our hands on sessions left us a little confused, and none of the info we were gathering was helping to form a cohesive picture of what SWTOR really was. E3 changed all that. We finally saw raids, space combat and the details that helped gel everything we knew into the big picture. And we love it. The video above shows off the Eternity Vault raid, and it’s everything we’d want from a Star Wars MMO. Lasers, giant robots, leaping Sith and a feeling of grandeur. Plus, there’s a kick-ass cinematic at the start of the game. A long time ago can’t come quick enough.

Dead Island

We had cinematic CGI trailers, screen shots and info aplenty on Dead Island, but E3 was where we truly got to see this zombie paradise in action. And even without that haunting melody and falling child, Dead Island’s gameplay still manages to be shocking without going too far; bloody yet still retaining the carefully designed impact of a holiday gone horrifically wrong. It’s a combination of Far Cry and Left 4 Dead, and looks to be an absolute triumph.

Nope! Marketing director David Silverman says they’re putting the female Shepard, and the male one, on the box for the collector’s edition of the game. And they’re now working on a new trailer for the game that stars the female version of the hero. Silverman says they’re working on her appearance, but that it’s been influenced by input from the cult fanbase the female Shepard has inspired.

The image above isn’t an actual screenshot of the result. We all know, of course, that the real female Shepard looks exactly like mine and all others are imposters.

So, er, does this mean we’re getting an Elcor squadmate too?

Thanks Alex Hopkinson.

CVG say they’ve heard from “a reliable development source” that the multiplayer mode will feature “original missions made for online.” There will be a small number of missions designed to be played over and over again.

CVG’s source says “Mainstream penetration is a major goal for Mass Effect 3 and those high up feel online co-op is the answer they’re looking for. EA’s keen to push the multiplayer side of the game to help spread word of mouth – so it’s not just going to rehash stuff from the campaign. It’s going all out.”

Bioware haven’t yet commented on the rumours, but at E3, BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka told Eurogamer “we haven’t talked at all about multiplayer in the Mass Effect franchise, but we’re exploring multiplayer in all of our games and all of our franchises,” admitting that “It’s always an idea we’re interested in.”

Mass Effect 3 is coming out March 2012. Check out our hands-on from E3 to find out how the game’s shaping up.

Read on for the details.

When asked about the possibility of an MMO, Ray told the website “I think there’s many, many different directions we could go in in the future with new IPs and extensions, business models and platforms. We really want to go where our fans are and some of the ideas you mention – there are definitely possibilities.”

Dr. Ray did insist that Bioware are “committed to The Old Republic for many, many years plus launch,” saying: “It’s going to be a massive endevour to drive content towards fans and make sure the service quality is really high… we have some really cool stuff going on with our Virginia studio out of Bioware Mythic.”

We’re exploring new types of online play. We also have some new things in the pipe we haven’t announced yet out of our Edmonton studio… We’re obviously looking at Mass Effect, Dragon Age – they’re epic franchises, and we have more things planned in the future. Mass Effect 3 is the beginning of a Galactic war. The future’s bright.”

Mass Effect 3 is due for release in March 2012. You can read Josh’s first impressions here, and Tom’s “15 things we want to see from Mass Effect 3″ here. Star Wars: The Old Republic will hit PC later this year. We have a whopping three previews on the site.

Two games of reporter-punching have prepared Shepard well for the final showdown in Mass Effect 3. Now he has some sort of nano fist-fist blade that lets him punch even harder. If I was a Reaper, and sadly I’m not, I would be worried by this. The latest Mass Effect 3 trailer that shows Reapers reaping and Shepard super-punching his way through a variety of alien foes. Mass Effect 3 is coming out on March 3 next year.