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A comprehensive look at the first-month NPD sales figures for three main games in the popular Mass Effect role-playing game series from acclaimed developer, Bioware.
"One of the more controversial topics with BioWare’s Dragon Age series has been the option to engage in a relationship with characters of the same sex as your avatar, something that has now become an option for both genders in Mass Effect 3. In order to clarify just where the developer stands on the issue, studio heads Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk stated it was all a matter of providing choice to the player."
Craig Will of GoozerNation.com found a good deal for Mass Effect 1 & 2 on the PC which is handy because he wanted to get Mass Effect 3 on the PC but his Commander Shepard was stored on the Xbox 360. Also, where should you pre-order ME3 from?
Amazon has started another Buy 1 get 1 40% off sale. Over 500 select games on the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, PSP and Xbox 360. Some of the better games include Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, Final Fantasy XIII, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Mario Kart 7, ICO/SOTC collection, The Oregon Trail: 40th Anniversary Edition, NBA 2K12, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The King of Fighters XIII, Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition, and Mass Effect 2. Goozernation...
The dedicated agents of the U.S. Department of Electronic Entertainment have compiled an exhaustive report on all video game sales for the weekend of December the 16th.
Bioware has revealed the price and other additional details for their Dead Reaper and Prototype SR2 Mass Effect 2 Lithographs, which is now available for pre-order.
"If you happen to be an Xbox LIVE Gold Member, then you can get the exclusive Gold only discount on this week’s deal, Mass Effect 2 content. Expand the gameplay of the role playing game that you love so much with these discount add ons. Don’t miss out on your chance to play hours more of fresh Mass Effect 2 content for a great price."
Bioware has revealed the price and several other details regarding the SSV Normandy Ship Replica - Cerberus Variant figurine based on Shepard’s ship in Mass Effect 2 and 3.
"The lead gameplay designer for Mass Effect 2, Christina Norman, announced today that she has left Bioware for Riot Games. The news that Norman was leaving the studio behind the Mass Effect trilogy came last week, but just today she confirmed on Twitter where she was headed."
Steam has made this a great summer to stay in doors thanks to all their great deals, and today is no difference. For the next 24 hours there are some great games on sale, highlighted by . Be sure to hurry to get these great titles at a great discount.
In honor of the 4th of July EA is running a sale on some of their iOS and PC download games. There are over 50 iOS games on sale. Most of the iOS games are $0.99 and this includes titles like Dead Space and NBA Jam. For the PC download sale such titles as Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 are on sale
"EA is starting off US Independence Day right with a huge sale on tons of games. A lot of newer games like Dead Space 2, Mass Effect 2, and Battlefield Bad Company 2 are up to 40% off. So if pay day just passed you by and you got all that money in your pocket just burning a hole, why not get some games."
Steam is famous for having some ridiculous sales on occasion.
Today hosts one of those sales.
You're gonna want to check out how cheaply you can get Mass Effect 1 and 2 today for PC through Steam.
Electronic Arts recently announced a new customer appreciation event called Sequel Celebration in which all Dragon Age II customers will receive a free copy of Mass Effect 2 on PC.
"As the Reapers prepare to make their return, Shepard must decide how to deal with the threat in Mass Effect 2: Arrival, which has been confirmed as the final mission for Mass Effect 2. Sent to the edge of the galaxy, Shepard must rescue an undercover operative with evidence of an impending Reaper invasion. Fan favourite character Admiral Hackett will make a comeback in Arrival too, voiced by legendary gruff sci-fi actor, Lance Henriksen of Aliens and Terminator fame."
Amazon has begun a new “Buy One, Get One 50% Off” sale for select video games (including Halo 3, Mass Effect 2, Metal Gear Solid 4) priced at under $20.
Grace Chen, Senior Manager of the PlayStation Store, reveals the download size for the PSN release of Mass Effect 2 in addition to the full game trial start date for Playstation Plus subscribers.
While everyone was busy gushing over Eitanya's plushified rendition of Garrus from Mass Effect, TK-Nation's Cassandra Khaw took it a step further and investigated the full extent of Eitanya's abilities.
Conclusion? She wants the Okami hat. Bad.
Producer Jesse Houston revealed that the Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 2, which will be released in January, is running off of the Mass Effect 3 engine.
"Mass Effect 2 for PS3 also includes the previously released downloadable content Lair of the Shadow Broker, Project Overlord, Kasumi: Stolen Memory and the Blood Dragon Armor on the Blu-ray disc. The Zaeed and Firewalker content is also accessible through the Cerberus Network."
Today GameFly announced their annual end of the year sale would be held between December 22nd and January 3rd. Look for many blockbuster titles of 2009 and 2010 at "blowout" prices with free shipping to boot.
New details for the upcoming Playstation 3 port of Mass Effect 2, which will be released early next year, have been revealed in the latest issue of the Official Playstation Magazine.
"BioWare has released a video and a single screenshot of their next major project and asks us to stay tuned for more. That 'more' will come in the form of a world premiere trailer at the 2010 Video Game Awards on SPIKE Saturday, December 11th at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.
On top of this the mystery increases as there are two tweets on the BioWare Twitter account, biofeed, pointing to two Data Matrix bar-codes."
The first gameplay details from the upcoming Playstation 3 version of the critically-acclaimed PC and Xbox 360 RPG, Mass Effect 2, have apparently been revealed.
Over 1.54 million votes were casted over a span of 200 days, and between 4000 titles, the winners of the Golden Joystick Awards have finally been announced.
"Influenced? Cliched erotic content? Ladies and gents, I think the gauntlet has now been thrown. Jan then tries to back out by adding,
"Dragon Age really was influenced by us and that's great, because it's a genre that doesn't have that many games and it's not like that serious a competition..."
But it's too late, Bartkowicz. You can't unthrow the gauntlet. GAUNTLET UNTHROWING IS NOT ALLOWED."
When mass effect 2 releases for the Playstation 3 in 2011 there will be a few enhancements. Bioware founder Greg Zeschuk has confirmed that the visuals will be improved.
"BioWare has announced that the next Mass Effect 2 DLC episode The Lair of the Shadowbroker will be available on the PC and Xbox 360 on Tuesday September 7 and will cost 800 BioWare/Microsoft points."
PlayStation 3 fans will be happy to hear that Mass Effect 2 will be coming to the PlayStation 3. EA announced the release of the game at their press conference at gamescom today.
"The Aegis Pack adds the M-29 Incisor sniper rifle and the Kestrel armor to Shepard’s armor locker. The Incisor sniper rifle is a burst-fire weapon that excels in destroying enemy shields. The Kestrel armor comes in five pieces."
Mass Effect 2 Overlord DLC adds 5 new planets to explore, along with a new mission. You must eradicate VI problem before humans are destroyed. Overlord will cost 560 MS points ($7), and is ready for download today.
"The first two Mass Effect games have been commercial and critical successes as single-player RPGs. But, could you and some friends shoot it out with the enemies of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3? That may be the case according to a job listing put up by EA senior recruiter Jeff Goldstein on LinkedIn."
Legendary Pictures have announced they have a Mass Effect movie coming soon, penned by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend). It's uncertain as to whether it will be based on either of the games, or a new story entirely. I'm in two minds, personally - whilst I love the games, I'm not sure a movie would work given the amount of choices available and that I've become accustomed to the current actors. What do you think? Could it break the movie license 'stereotype', or could it be a sci-fi epic? Post y...
"...this task has been made much more stress-free and quicker by certain optimizations in the latest patch. For instance, the actual speed of the scanning pointer is much faster, with the pointer itself being much larger too. These two combined improvements may not have resolved the monotony of planet-scanning, but they at least quicken the process."
In a recent earnings conference call, Electronic Arts revealed the sales results for Army of Two: The 40th Day, Dante’s Inferno and Mass Effect 2 during the last quarter.
"Today, Bioware launched the latest DLC pack for their outer space gun-packing dance of bravura, Mass Effect 2. The Equalizer Pack is DLC that adds new items and armor to help Shepard stop the Collectors from harvesting all of the human race. Players who wish to play dress-up with Shepard in these new duds can purchase the DLC pack on Xbox Live or via Bioware’s Social Network for the PC version."
GameStop is offering $10 coupons for select video game purchases. Notable games include Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction and more.
"Wedbush Security Analyst Michael Pachter looks into his crystal ball in this week's episode of "Pach-Attack" on GameTrailers.com to look at the future of exclusives on consoles. With the cost of game development increasing does it make sense for developers and publishers to limit their potential audience to only one game console? He also gives his thoughts on whether Microsoft will come out with their answer to the DS or PSP."
"Fans of Mass Effect 2 should be happy to know that the latest DLC for the hit BioWare RPG is now available for the PC and Xbox 360. Kasumi's Stolen Memory can be yours for 560 MS Points ($7)."
We know there have already been a couple of Mass Effect 2 discounts worth posting about, but this latest one is for those who need the whole Mass Effect saga. Amazon is currently bundling Mass Effect 1 and 2 for $50.
"Mass Effect 2's "Firewalker" DLC is now live for both the PC and the Xbox 360. "Firewalker" comes with the Mako replacement, the Hammerhead hover tank and five new missions. More importantly, this add-on comes in at the low, low price of free."
"Fresh off the announcement that the "Firewalker" DLC is coming on March 23, Bioware has announced that the "Kasumi's Stolen Memory" DLC is coming on April 6 for the PC and Xbox 360. No price has been announced for the Mass Effect 2 add-on."
"Are you one of those that miss the Gecko from the first Mass Effect? Then you might want to check out Mass Effect 2's "Firewalker" DLC when it comes out next Tuesday. If you're willing to pay the high entry price of free then you'll be able to take the hover tank "Hammerhead" for a spin across five missions."
For one day only, Amazon.com discounted Mass Effect 2 for Xbox 360 to $39.99 (PC version is also on sale for $29.99). That's savings of 33% compared to regular price and the best price ever available for both versions of the game.
Amazon.com is offering 2 promotions for Xbox 360 Consoles that can be combined for great savings on Xbox 360 Elite or Arcade with Mass Effect 2. Taking advantage of the promos, you can get Xbox 360 Elite, Mass Effect 2 and $50 gift card for $329. That's savings of close to $70. Alternatively, you can get Arcade version with Mass Effect 2 and $25 gift card for $229. That's savings of close to $50.
For Reward Zone Members (membership is free and you can sign up on the website), Best Buy is offering $5 to $20 printable coupons
on select video games such as No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Glory of Heracles, Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2 and more. Please note that printable coupons only work in Best Buy store and not online.
Michael McWhertor discusses part of what John Schappert said during financial calls. EA has decided that every game they make in 2011 will have DLC and Online Play.
EA executives talks about "something far reaching from Mass Effect" in early 2011 and explains why there was no mention of new games from the Rock Band franchise in yesterday's quarterly financial report.
"On Tuesday February 09 2010 Mass Effect 2 fans will be able to get the new Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun DLC fof free through the Cerberus network. It should be available for all fans, both on PC and Xbox 360 at 12:00pm Mountain Standard Time.
Cerberus Assault Armor
Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops, turn the tide of battle against creatures or forces that would decimate normal soldiers.
Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
Increases shi..."
Mass Effect 2 producer Casey Hudson explains to Game Informer the concept behind "suicide mission." BioWare seems pretty intent on forcing you to live by your decisions, but what's to stop people from just creating a backup save with a memory card or an internal hard drive? Rather than making you start over, it would be interesting to see the rest of the story pan out through the eyes of another while still centering the story around Shepard.
""People who claim to be old enough and mature enough to handle sex and nudity in a game seem to believe that any lack of sex and nudity in the game is a sign of self-censorship," said BioWare's Stanley Woo. "They generally don't believe that a game can be called 'mature' without explicit sex and/or nudity."
"Let me tell you, folks, that as a developer full of mature individuals, we are also free to not have explicit sex and/or nudity in our games, no matter what you, Fox News, the governme..."
BioWare has heard the complaints about Mass Effect 2's text being too small on SD TVs, but unfortunately they are unable to fix it.
"After investigating potential solutions, we have determined that while this issue does affect a small portion of SDTV owners, we are unable to resolve it for Mass Effect 2 through a title update," the game's product manager, Michael Gamble, said.
But don't worry about it affecting future ME games. They are looking into the situation and hope it will be fix...
"If you haven't made the jump to HD TV and plan to buy Mass Effect 2, you'll be in for a slight surprise. Thanks to a design choice by BioWare, those with an SD TV
may have a hard time reading the text in the game for mission, equipment, and planet descriptions."
PS3 codes were recently discovered in the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Mass Effect 2, feuding speculation about a Playstation 3 port. BioWare’s Chris Priestly quickly dismisses this rumor.
"This week Andreas and Ronnie discuss Apple's latest announcement the iPad along with GTA DLC coming to PS3 and PC, patch released for Darksiders, Monster Hunter Frontier announced for 360 and Red Steel 2 coming March 23rd in the news section. And for what they have been playing its Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2."
"BioWare's best work is "still ahead of us", says co-boss Ray Muzyka.
"If it wasn't difficult it wouldn't be worth while," he said. "Our best work is still ahead of us. That's why I'm doing it, because I think our best work is still ahead of us and that's why our teams are doing it I think.""
Icrontic's amicable CB Droege brings us this week's interesting new releases in gaming. We get a look at Escapee GO!, MAG, Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans, and Mass Effect 2.
Amazon.com discounted Mass Effect
2 Collectors' Edition: Prima Official Game Guide to $16. That's almost half off regular price for this limited edition hardcover collector's item.
"BioWare has exhausted their options. “We’ve release a 2 minute trailer. We’ve released a five-minute web-only trailer. We’ve release a 10-minute weapons featurette for the Modern Warfare 2 nerds who know the difference between a futuristic rifle and a futuristic carbine. Let’s just say that our video team has spent more hour putting together trailers in the last four months than our dialogue team spent on Dragon Age: Origins.”
So today, we’re happy to reveal the latest trailer from BioWare..."
Steam has recently released their top 10 sellers for the week of January 17-23rd, and surprisingly the top sellers are actually Pre-Orders. With Mass Effect 2 being released on the 26th of January and being called by Time.com as "the Avatar of video games — except it's better written", it could hardly be surprising.
However Battlefield Bad Company 2 takes the second spot and has only been available for 2 days out of the 7 possible selling days. Although Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 stil...
Until January 26th (the day of the release) Amazon.com continues to offer $10 video game credit with pre-order of the following titles: MAG (PlayStation 3), Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, PC) and Tatsunoko VS Capcom - Ultimate All-Stars (Nintendo Wii).
All Age Gaming's Phong Nguyen bring's us the 26th AAG "The Week That Was". This week he discusses Nintendo's promotion of the Wii's online functionality, Microsoft's proposed deal with ESPN, the Mass Effect 2 Limited Edition console, the PS3's motion controller, the reported sexual assault on Playstion Home and more.
"Customers at GameStop locations where it's safe to be outside that late can expect a tank building challenge, a commando dress up contest, a grenade launch, and more, while those who frequent seedier stores will instead stand outside until around midnight, huddled together for safety."
This probably comes as no surprise, but it looks like Mass Effect 2 has been leaked onto the 'net a mere week before it's release. Already many gaming sites have full plot summaries and spoiler footage from the game splattered across their sites. So if you are a Mass Effect fan, you might want to stay away from forums until you get your hands on the game.
"When we do, it will obviously be a big deal. You want to see, ‘What’s happening on Earth?’ What’s it like because a whole world. It’s so big. There are so many questions you want answered what Earth is like in this fiction. But we do plan do go there at some point, but just not yet.”"
"If you are hoping to own the entire Mass Effect trilogy on the Xbox 360, you are in luck. Mass Effect 2 project director Casey Hudson revealed that the complete trilogy will be completed on the Xbox 360. With Mass Effect set to release in just a week, Xbox 360 and PC owners didn't have to wait too long to experience the second chapter of the Mass Effect series."
You might remember Fox News' report on Mass Effect last year, that basically slandered the game for it's "graphic sex scenes" and "objectifying of women", despite neither the interviewer or psychology 'expert' Cooper Lawrence (who appeared in the report) ever having actually played the game. Gaming journalist Geoff Keighley tried his best to set the record straight and defend the game, but was ultimately ignored by Fox's interviewer.
Now that Mass Effect 2's release is just around the cor...
Walmart.com significantly expanded the list of soon-to-be-released games that are eligible for the free $10 gift cards with purchase. At this moment the list of games that are available includes Star Trek Online God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, MAG and many more. There are more than dozen games in total that are eligible.
This is a look at the Mass Effect 2 cast. VGB runs you by the main characters from BioWare's upcoming action-RPG sci-fi adventure. It will be released on January 26th, 2010, for Xbox 360 and PC.
"Gamemakers aren't wasting any time in 2010 and have made the January-February-March quarter a kind of Christmas Part 2 with a wide variety of big releases across all genres and platforms. Dark Void, MAG, Mass Effect 2 and BioShock 2 only scratch the surface of what 2010 has to offer. To dig deeper you can find an expanded list of many of this year's releases right here."
Amazon.com put out an updated list of soon-to-be-released games for which it's giving out free $10 future game credit with purchase. Games eligible include MAG, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Army of Two: 40th Day, Dante's Inferno and several others.
""The fall of the JRPG in large part is due to a lack of evolution, a lack of progression," Zeschuk said. "They kept delivering the same thing over and over. They make the dressing better, they look prettier, but it's still the same experience.
"My favorite thing, it's funny when you still see it, but the joke of some of the dialogue systems where it asks, 'do you wanna do this or this,' and you say no. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. Lemme think -- y..."
"One of our most anticipated games of 2010 is the sequel to Bioware's epic RPG Mass Effect, today the ESRB has released it's "findings" on Mass Effect 2 and to say they are shocking would be a massive understatement; more after the jump."
"1 - Yes, there are 2 game discs for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions, both the Collector's and standard editions.
2 - There is a 3rd disc with the Collector's Edition. This is a movie DvD containing making of and other bonus information.
3 - The PC version is a standard install. You install the information from both discs and then play with 1 disc in the drive. No swapping.
4 - You can install the game to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive as long as you have enough memory to do so and have t..."
"Critically acclaimed videogame development studio BioWare, an Electronic Arts studio, has revealed new gameplay details from it’s highly-anticipated sequel to 2007’s widely respected Mass Effect. Due to arrive early in 2010, it appears that the psychic warfare has received a great deal of attention."
"Not wanting to be left out after the recent success stories concerning Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II, Electronic Arts (EA) has today announced that it has set a new record for site traffic at DragonAge.com and new user registrations at its social networking site, Social.Bioware.com. With the release of Dragon Age: Origins, the BioWare community has grown to a record five million registered users, propelled by outstanding word-of-mouth buzz among..."
"Man, so much time tied up today in meetings and “secret stuff” I didn’t get any time with ME2 at all. =( Still with the coming surprise for next week on the ME2 website, I’m sure fans will forgive me for no update. Did I, Evil Chris Priestly, just drop a hint? Yes. Yes I did."
Here it is everyone, the release date for Mass Effect 2 has been confirmed for January 26, way earlier than the initial "Spring 2010" bit.
Of course there are retail-exclusive pre-order bonuses, which is both good or bad depending. GameStop, as always, hogs the good stuff, that being Terminus armor and a heavy weapon. "Other retail outlets" get the Inferno armor.
Really huge images of both armors (plus details) at the source.
Yesterday there was a rumor floating around the 'net that Mass Effect 2 would be coming to PS3. EA have confirmed that this is false. They also confirmed that Left 4 Dead 2 also won't be released on PS3.
Mass Effect 2 has been known as an Xbox360 and PC game, but Bioware hasn't denied the possibility that the franchise may come to PS3. When CVG asked Bioware why they haven’t brought the series to PS3 yet, Muzyka stated the following:
“I think a more accurate way to frame it is to say we’ve announced we’re developing Mass Effect for 360 and PC. Right from the beginning we said we wanted to deliver Mass Effect on the 360. Right now all we’ve announced is we’re working on 360 and PC.”
“We ...
Like so many of its contemporaries these days, Mass Effect 2 has adopted a regenerating health system, where in cover it will begin to refill. This is in contrast to previous statements made by lead system designer Christina Norman, who said they would be altering the design of the game, but not dumbing it down.
The source of the new info is the game's publicist Heather Rabatich, who says it's an effort to bring a new crowd of gamers; apparently they're not fond of the word "RPG." Note Rab...
""When you're playing the first game, everything that you do is setting a variable so that as the story progresses we know that you did a certain thing on a certain planet, and then internal to the game, we can reference those things," Hudson explained. "Your Mass Effect save game contains all of that information. When you import it into Mass Effect 2, now we can continue mining all that information."
The information pertains not just to what your ending was, but to "literally hundreds of t..."
It seems that Amazon have revealed a few Mass Effect 2 details... Humans disappearing across the Galaxy? An all-out assault? Shepards fate?
*Quote below may contain Mass Effect 1 spoilers!*
[ Mass Effect 2 Forum ]
![Box shot of Mass Effect 2 [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvUEMvUm9sZS1QbGF5aW5nL1NjaS1GaQ==/mass_effect_2_frontcover_small_FRHUKgUNLgR2JME.jpg)