#masseffect
Let's see, let's see...do I clothe Mass Effect 2 nutjob Jack in tattoos and some packing tape? Or do I go the Kanye West route, and opt for sci-fi sunglasses and jeans? Decisions, decisions. More »
According to BioWare, an upcoming DLC pack for Mass Effect 2 -- the Alternate Appearance Pack -- will feature new outfits for "your favorite squad members." Apparently, you don't like Miranda, Jacob, Grunt or Mordin, because this pack includes new costumes for Garrus, Thane, and Jack.
While these new outfits seem like an appropriate fit for the Cerberus Network, this is actually the second announced premium DLC offering for Mass Effect 2. Available on March 23rd, the pack will set you back $2 on Xbox 360 or PC. Let's hope the upcoming Kasumi's Stolen Memories add-on will be a bit more reasonably priced than these costumes.
Commander Shepard can pick up the keys to the Hammerhead hover tank on March 23, the official release date of the Firewalker pack. The new wheels, er, propulsion things are the latest piece of free Mass Effect 2 DLC. Available through the game's Cerberus Network, the pack includes five missions that utilize the new vehicle -- which will hopefully handle a little better than the first game's infamous space car.
(Of course, a drunk Krogan successfully engineering a Geth self-destruct algorithm was more likely to yield success than the Mako's control system ... )
#gdc
The doctors behind BioWare, the hallowed game studio behind Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, were telling Kotaku last week that their plans to add content to their recent games is flexible. More vehicle missions are possible. More sex? More »
Like some of the best loyalty quests in Mass Effect 2, "Kasumi's Stolen Memory" is an inventive sub-story that steps away from all the galactic peril just long enough to explore the motives and traits of a newly recruited squad mate. The downloadable add-on introduces Kasumi, a cocky human thief in search of data relating to a former partner (in crime?), and sees Shepard accompanying her on an important and incredibly dangerous two-person mission. You know, a date.
Donning a sleek bit of evening wear and a false identity, Shepard accompanies Kasumi to an exclusive party -- the kind that requires either a shiny invitation or a shady conscience. While the commander mingles, a cloaked Kasumi keeps an eye out for the hidden art vault that she believes holds her partner's grey box. What they eventually find encroaches upon spoiler territory (that's especially sensitive given the 90-minute length of the mission), but unsurprisingly triggers one of Mass Effect 2's intense combat sequences.
#gdc10
Players of the original Mass Effect had a big impact on the story of the second, if they imported their character save from the first game. BioWare imported some 700 player choices and associated plot points into Mass Effect 2. More »
While Mass Effect 2's in-game DLC pipeline, The Cerberus Network, continues to transport new weapons (and soon, a new vehicle) to players for free, BioWare has announced the game's first pack of paid downloadable content. "Kasumi's Stolen Memory" finally completes Commander Shepard's dirty dozen, adding a confident female thief to your anti-Reaper repertoire. It's currently scheduled to launch for Xbox 360 and PC on April 6th.
After downloading the DLC, players can get in touch with Kasumi on the Citadel, either in the middle of an ongoing Mass Effect 2 game or after the completion of the main story (lesson learned from Mass Effect 1 DLC!). Once recruited, Shepard aids Kasumi on a secretive mission of recovery, which requires a suave disguise and a run-in with an influential and predictably corrupt art collector. The content, which also provides the "Locust" SMG, a flash-bang grenade loyalty power and a new Achievement, should take about an hour and a half to complete.
BioWare is currently in the midst of "internal discussion" to determine the price of the DLC, but we'll keep you updated as soon as it's finalized. Look for some impressions of "Kasumi's Stolen Memory" on Joystiq later today. Spoiler: It looks great.
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel." - English
"Jestem dowódcą Shepard, a to jest mój ulubiony sklep na cytadeli." - Polish (machine translation)
In a GDC 2010 session entitled "Localizing Large RPGs," which forms part of an ongoing localization summit, BioWare localization project manager Ryan Warden eloquently explored the revered developer's process of adapting a huge, dialogue-driven game like Mass Effect 2 for alternative markets and languages. It may surprise you to learn that BioWare's processes are significantly more elegant than hiring an army of workers to copy and paste lines of text into Google Translate.
With 450,000 words and 30,000 lines of voice-over in the English version, Mass Effect 2 demanded an active approach in its translation to eight languages, including Russian, Czech and Spanish. "Trying to manage this scope is almost unfathomable," said Warden. "For BioWare titles, we don't have the luxury of waiting for the title to be fully complete before starting localization."
The concurrent process was designed to provide as much information and context to translators as possible, allowing them to focus on the job without having to request further information for each new conversation. BioWare compiled a complete localization kit, complete with a pronunciation guide (that's crow-guhn, not kroggin!), an IP glossary, a collection of translator Q&A documents and an extensive character database. "Any time that a translator spends time asking questions and waiting for feedback ... that's wasted time," Warden added. The goal, he said, was to "eliminate any doubt in the confidence of the translator."
#dlc
Mass Effect 2's newest available firearm spits electrical bolts and looks like someone weaponized a jumper cable from a fetish dungeon. If I knew what one of those looked like. A fetish dungeon, I mean. More »
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel." - English
"Jestem dowódcą Shepard, a to jest mój ulubiony sklep na cytadeli." - Polish (machine translation)
In a GDC 2010 session entitled "Localizing Large RPGs," which forms part of an ongoing localization summit, BioWare localization project manager Ryan Warden eloquently explored the revered developer's process of adapting a huge, dialogue-driven game like Mass Effect 2 for alternative markets and languages. It may surprise you to learn that BioWare's processes are significantly more elegant than hiring an army of workers to copy and paste lines of text into Google Translate.
With 450,000 words and 30,000 lines of voice-over in the English version, Mass Effect 2 demanded an active approach in its translation to eight languages, including Russian, Czech and Spanish. "Trying to manage this scope is almost unfathomable," said Warden. "For BioWare titles, we don't have the luxury of waiting for the title to be fully complete before starting localization."
The concurrent process was designed to provide as much information and context to translators as possible, allowing them to focus on the job without having to request further information for each new conversation. BioWare compiled a complete localization kit, complete with a pronunciation guide (that's crow-guhn, not kroggin!), an IP glossary, a collection of translator Q&A documents and an extensive character database. "Any time that a translator spends time asking questions and waiting for feedback ... that's wasted time," Warden added. The goal, he said, was to "eliminate any doubt in the confidence of the translator."
Well, whaddya know? I get up this morning and ride down to Deck 2, and the first thing outta Kelly's mouth is that I have a new message at my Private Terminal. About time -- things have been damn boring around here since beating up the Collectors! Anyway, it's from Illusive Man -- who else -- with a tantalizing subject line: "Arc Projector."
So, get this, ol' Smoking Man says Cerberus has passed off a new "advanced electrical attack device" to me. It was recently tested on some geth during a "highly successful" skirmish in the Skyllian Verge. (I guess I won't tell Legion that part, but "he" probably already knows.)
Well, I'd sure like to test it myself, but the galaxy's awfully quiet these days. I guess it's finally time to start up that New Game+...
-Shepard
The Arc Projector heavy weapon add-on is available for free to Mass Effect 2 owners with a Cerberus Network account. In-game item description: "The arc projector ionizes targets with a nonvisible laser to ready them for a high-voltage electrical attack. As tge lightning-like bolt hits its first target, a sophisticated autotargeting system paints succeeding targets with the ionization laser, allowing the electricity to take the part of least resistance and arc between them. An entire enemy strike team can be shocked to death with a few pulls of the trigger."
#clips
This is a video guide on how to look like Miranda, one of the stars of sci-fi adventure Mass Effect 2. Not how to dress like her. How to actually look like her. More »
#clips
Later this month, Mass Effect 2 players will get access to the Hammerhead hovertank, along with five new missions for the game. Here's what the new toy looks like in action. More »
BioWare's space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon's "Deal of the Day." The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is $10 cheaper than you'd pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag.
At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi soapy and their shooters refined, this is a deal worth going through the Omega 4 Relay for -- see, if you play the game, you'll know what that means.
We know that some of you are less than excited about the return of vehicular gameplay to the Mass Effect franchise -- we still have vivid nightmares about our time behind the wheel of the Mako from the original game. However, your position will probably be reversed by last night's episode of GameTrailers TV, which showed off the Hammerhead vehicle which will arrive in the upcoming "Firewalker" DLC for Mass Effect 2. It is, in a word, rad. In two words? Totally rad.
Check out Chapter Four of the episode to see the Normandy SR-2 crew's new toy in action.
#toys
While they were first revealed in January, courtesy of a blurry magazine scan, that was no way to get a good look at DC Direct's line of Mass Effect 2 figures. This is. More »
#bioware
Mass Effect 2 owners—specifically, original owners—will get all new downloadable content via the game's Cerberus Network, with five new missions coming next month in the "Firewalker" pack. More »
BioWare has detailed another dose of Mass Effect 2 DLC, dubbed the "Firewalker" pack. The upcoming release includes five missions featuring the Hammerhead vehicle, according to an update on the Cerberus Network page, part of the official Mass Effect site. BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk described the Hammerhead as a "hover tank," during a recent interview with Joystiq, adding, "It's not a wheeled vehicle, so it's going to have a bit of a different control scheme" than the much-maligned Mako vehicle featured constantly in Mass Effect 1.
On the website, the Hammerhead is promoted as "a heavy assault vehicle that hovers over the battlefield at up to 120 kilometers per hour [75 mph] and features a guided missile system ensuring accuracy even during aggressive maneuvering." In other words, it's everything the Mako wasn't -- and it's optional.
The Firewalker DLC pack is scheduled for a "late March" release and will be accessible free of charge through the Cerberus Network in-game delivery system. Of course, nothing's really "free" when it's got Cerberus' shady name attached to it, is it, Mr. Illusive Man?
In a new interview with Industry Gamers, SCEA's senior vice president of publisher relations, Rob Dyer, shared a candid view on platform-exclusive titles -- particularly when they're on that other platform. "Look, we're not going to get the exclusive games," he said. "The Mass Effects, Gears of Wars and Left 4 Deads aren't going to happen nearly as often. But we have our own first-party development and exclusives like Final Fantasy XIV and Agent. Exclusives just aren't as commonplace as they were during the PS2 days. What is going to be the driving force is either exclusive ad campaigns, like the Madden campaign, or exclusive content like we had with Batman."
He went on to contrast Sony's considerable first-party firepower with the "very few" developers at Microsoft Game Studios. "So rather than putting their money behind that, they've been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that's where they throw their dollars." Microsoft's money lobbing appears to have paid off for EA, as the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2 sold 572,000 copies in the U.S. within six days. Did consumers care whether its development was internal, external or bought? (Will they care when the Square Enix-developed Final Fantasy XIV arrives on PS3?)
According to Dyer, the PlayStation 3's growing install base now does "better for our publishing community than 360 does." Since the PlayStation 3's installed base grew by a greater percentage than the Xbox 360's, "particular" titles have taken the lead on Sony's system. Of course, with more PS3 owners leaping into the fray, more of them are buying games which may have already sold in to the larger Xbox 360 crowd in previous instalments (think: Guitar Hero). "As our installed base starts catching up and gaining on 360, you're going to see the publisher side much quicker get to par than even if we had the same number of [360 hardware] units," Dyer said.
That's a notable "if" -- if buying trends remain the same, if the 360 doesn't experience its own growth burst -- but it's hard to argue the PS3's improved fortunes in recent times. And who could resist all those exclusives?
[Special Thanks: Michael Pachter]
We frequently tried to find ways to keep ourselves occupied during the days we spent probing planets for precious, precious minerals in Mass Effect 2, but largely came up empty-handed. You can only scan Uranus so many times before it loses its comedic value, you know? If only we'd followed the cue of YouTube rap sensation Kabuto the Python, who spent his mining moments crafting rhymes and beats, then combining the two into a single package which we feel comfortable calling a rap song. Check the NSFW track after the jump.
