Mass Effect 2 Message Board older than one year ago

We've been big supporters of BioWare and EA's approach to churning out lots of DLC for its new releases, but it seems to have hit a serious snag this morning. Due apparently to some scheduled downtime for BioWare's social site, players have been unable to download DLC from Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network (unfortunate, but understandable) and some have been completely unable to play Dragon Age: Origins -- kind of a big issue for a single-player game.

Near as we can figure with our limited staff testing, the Dragon Age issue might involve whether or not you chose to submit your feedback and character profile data to Bioware.com. We'll keep up with the situation and let you know when it's resolved. The server maintenance was scheduled to end at 9 a.m. EST, so here's hoping it'll pass soon.

[Thanks, requiemvalorum]

If there's one thing we can say the Mass Effect series has going for it (besides impressive graphics, interesting combat, and complex characters), it's the great story. We may not be the types to invest in literature based on our favorite gaming franchises, but the first two issues of the Mass Effect comic -- a series titled "Redemption" -- may actually convince us otherwise. Heck, they've already turned lots of other folks; the first issue sold out in under three weeks and the second issue took just six days, according to CBR News.

It certainly doesn't hurt that Redemption explores the actions of our favorite Asari while she searches for answers on Shepard before the story continues in Mass Effect 2 -- can we help it if we miss her a bit? Okay, okay, we miss her a whole lot. Where have you gone, Liara?! We just wanna talk, baby!

[Via Big Download]

EEDAR vice president and analyst Jesse Divnich has sent out some surprising facts about game sales during the month of January. Well, okay -- it isn't exactly chart shattering that a crapton (that's 572,000) of Mass Effect 2 units were sold last month, but, according to EEDAR's calculations, the game managed to become the best-selling January release of all time in just six days of retail availability. Even with such a small window to achieve the record, Mass Effect 2 completely destroyed the previous record-holder: Poor, poor NFL Street for PS2 (with 325,000 units in sales, for the old record).

Though Mass Effect 2 certainly set a high bar for the quarter, Divnich's report suggests that game sales aren't likely to decline with blockbusters like Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III just around the corner. His firm also promises to closely watch sales of Dante's Inferno -- if the game can can beat its expected sales target of 500,000 units over the next three months, it means that those outlandish PR stunts were effective and we can look forward to more cake arms and $200 checks once Purgatorio is inevitably announced. Awesome.

It's a pretty sad comment on our unabashed love of Mass Effect 2 that we can happily while away 15 minutes, just poring over a four-page-long story on Game Informer about the creation of reptilian assassin Thane. We learned important stuff too ... like how his look was partly inspired by Hellboy's Abe Sapien! That's interesting!

You know, we call Thane a "character," but he's really more than that, isn't he? He's more like a friend. More like a lifelong friend. Or, in the case of Alexander Sliwinski's own Oprah Shepard, a lover. So if you think about it that way, reading four pages about him isn't all that weird. ... Right?

Sure, last month's NPD numbers post had all sorts of green arrows plastered all about its form -- this month, we knew things would go down. Little known fact: Christmas never occurs in January and this year is no exception. Without Consumermas driving console adoption, numbers were down across the board; what's not so obvious is that numbers were also down year-over-year. That means that overall sales are down 13 percent since last January, way back in ought nine.

Nintendo's consoles lost the most in sales, with the Wii dropping a heft 718 percent; however, that still wasn't enough to knock the white wonder from its top spot. The Xbox 360 and PS3 continue their back-and-forth battle, with the Xbox reclaiming its number three spot again, having just reclaimed it in November. A good reason for the Xbox's "victory": the not-available-on-PS3 Mass Effect 2 which pushed an impressive 572K units in the six short days following its release. That still wasn't enough to dethrone New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which moved 657K units with a full month of sales propelling it.

Beyond Mass Effect 2, the bottom of the list is made up of similar newcomers: Army of Two: The 40th Day in 8th, Just Dance in 9th place, and Darksiders. Really, universe? Just Dance made the top ten while the excellent MAG is nowhere to be found? Color us disappointed in all of you.

-Wii: 466K3.34M (-718%)
-DS: 422K2.89M (-684%)
-360: 333K977K (-294%)
-PS3: 277K1.08M (-391%)
-PSP: 100K361K (-554%)
-PS2: 42K291K (-700%)

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

During this week's quarterly earning's report, EA COO John Schappert answered an investor question with a somewhat vague but potentially far-reaching comment regarding the publisher's future strategy for implementing online functionality into its games. "In fiscal 2011 [from April 31, 2010 to March 31, 2011], every one of EA's releases will have an online component, both downloadable content and online play," Schappert said, according to a VG247 report. CFO Eric Brown then cited Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network as the company's "most recent example" of how this plan might manifest.

The obvious question: Does the plan apply to all platforms, including Wii, DS, PSP, and mobile? Schappert clarified to Joystiq today: "My statement wasn't in reference to any specific platform as most of our titles are multiplatform and have different features per platform. Though you can expect our PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 titles to have very robust online features. Of course, depending on the title, this may extend to other platforms as well."

While this clarification is not exactly the firestarter statement one might interpret from Schappert's original comment, the plan still raises concerns -- based on recent experiences -- that EA games' online components could continue to induce headaches so long as they are tied to EA.com accounts and the issues that have arisen as EA has increased its DLC efforts. If the plan is to include online components in all EA games in the future, then the wrinkles need to be ironed out of Project Ten Dollar now.

If you bought Mass Effect 2 and you like being on the winning "team" when it comes to game trends, high five. According to DFC Intelligence, BioWare's latest spacefaring adventure sold an estimated 1.1 million copies (of the Xbox 360 version) in January -- six times the sales of any other game. Estimating game sales based on GamerDNA activity, DFC also believes that there was a significant uptick in play of Mass Effect as well, "likely supported by the ability to transfer a save file from a completed Mass Effect game into Mass Effect 2 where several key player decisions in the first game could be carried over into the second game."

The other leading Xbox 360 sellers in DFC's estimate include Darksiders (150,000), Bayonetta (170,000) and Army of Two: The 40th Day (175,000) -- with Dark Void somewhat of a surprise bomb (22,000).

If you bought Mass Effect 2 and you like being on the winning "team" when it comes to game trends, high five. According to DFC Intelligence, BioWare's latest spacefaring adventure sold an estimated 1.1 million copies (of the Xbox 360 version) in January -- six times the sales of any other game. Estimating game sales based on GamerDNA activity, DFC also believes that there was a significant uptick in play of Mass Effect as well, "likely supported by the ability to transfer a save file from a completed Mass Effect game into Mass Effect 2 where several key player decisions in the first game could be carried over into the second game."

The other leading Xbox 360 sellers in DFC's estimate include Darksiders (150,000), Bayonetta (170,000) and Army of Two: The 40th Day (175,000) -- with Dark Void somewhat of a surprise bomb (22,000).

We're pretty sure that the new Mass Effect 2-centric video from Mega64 that you'll find after the break is pretty funny. The crew seems to be grilling everyday citizens on censorship, specifically relating to all the xenofornication going down aboard the Normandy.

We say "pretty sure" and "seems" because ... well, we can't watch this sort of thing with the sound on because it makes us too uncomfortable. There, we said it out loud. That means we also have no idea if the language in the video is safe for work, since we can't hear it. Let's just play it safe and assume it's not, OK?

EA teases us with something major in 2011.

A post on the Bioware forums has revealed that two new bits of DLC will be coming to Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network tomorrow, February 9. Players will be able to download both a new set of armor and a new shotgun for free via the game's DLC pipe. The Cerberus Armor ups heavy weapon ammo capacity, shields, and health by 10 percent each, and the M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is "a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads" that "also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties."

But those "treaties" were never ratified by the Citadel Council anyway, so who cares? The new DLC should be released by 2pm ET, so you can start ganking with the new space shotty then.

[Thanks, Michael]

Letting go is hard to do, or terms of space endearment.

BioWare ups the ante once again.

Is it worth the extra cash?

Seriously.

The Doctor (Muzyka, not Mordin) talks as BioWare tell us about the future of Mass Effect.

Deal with it, fanboy.

Deal with it, standard-definition television owners.

OK, there seems to be some confusion out there. Gamers have taken a microscope to the code in the PC version of Mass Effect 2, which they claim hints at an inevitable PS3 release. Well, we hate to break it to you, but it looks like that's not gonna happen. Bioware's Chris Priestly hopped onto the forums to bring some balance to the Matrix. "The Unreal Engine is cross platform, hence the PS3 code," he said. "This was brought up back in Mass Effect 1 days as well." So, there you have it. Priestly also added one last quote, to help drive the point home: "Mass Effect is for the PC and Xbox 360." [Via GameWire]

Cerberus Network will be updated in the weeks ahead.

In space, no one will let you role-play your way.

Mass Effect 2 has warped to the top of Chart-Track's UK sales chart, revealing that Britain isn't just about Just Dance (which still stepped its way into second place, by the way). Comparing debut weeks, the Normandy crew's second outing sold twice as well on Xbox 360 than the original did back in 2007 and three times higher on PC. EA is expecting a good financial return from Mass Effect 2, having already shipped 2 million copies. Taking the bronze this week on the all-formats chart is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and in fourth is ... MAG. Yes, coverage of the PS3-exclusive may have been totally eclipsed by BioWare's space opera, but it still managed a strong debut -- have a look at our review to see if it's worth the attention. The rest of the list features the usual suspects, though Dragon Age: Origins has made a return to the top 40. It seems Mass Effect 2 wasn't the only BioWare game casting a spell over consumers last week. Source - Mass Effect 2 gravitates to No1 [GFK Chart-Track] Source - Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]

Beginning February 3, the first issue of the four-part comic series Mass Effect: Redemption will be available on the iTunes App Store. To celebrate its release, Dark Horse and EA have announced the issue will be free for a limited time. How limited is the "free digital comic" window? One day only. After February 3, the digital release is bumped up to 99 cents. Of course, if you're a Mass Effect 2 fanatic you probably own the collectors' edition, which included a mini-version of the first issue. But, if you love moving pictures, a free digital comic is a hard thing to ignore.

Jacob sucks

Garrus is still awesome

Grunt is a pretty cool guy 

*SPOILER* Shepard stars in the steamy montage of mating behavior from Mass Effect 2.

*SPOILER* The fate of Shepard and his crew is revealed in the first of six in this endgame gameplay series.

*SPOILER* The second installment of six in the endgame videos for Mass Effect 2.

*SPOILER* The end of Shepard and company's second story continues in the third of six endgame gameplay series.

*SPOILER* The fourth part of six in the endgame gameplay series to BioWare's Sci-Fi epic.