Bioware Hint's at Upcoming DLC for Mass Effect?

This weekend at the Montreal Comic Con, Bioware teased fans with an image at the end of their panel the looked like Commander Shepard staring at some red holographic-image.

 The developer has yet to announce what it means but most fans speculate that is has something to do with Omega, the squalid space-station that you visited in Mass Effect 2. The station was involved in the Mass Effect Comic, Ascension that reveals how Aria T'loak lost Omega to Cerberus. This comic was given to free for people who got the N7 collector's edition of the game. And if you played Mass Effect 3 (with a ME2 save file) You remember that Aria is trapped on the Citadel and is planning to retake her beloved Omega. For right now, Bioware is content keeping us in the dark.

I would like to take the time to say that I'm sorry for a lack of posts in the previous months from me. I've had plans to keep up to date and even do a review of Dawnguard but between work and starting School things just fell apart with the blog. But now I'm hoping to at least update once a week for you guys. I also will be doing a review of Darksiders 2 and Minecraft (xbox 360 version) sometime in the near fututre so keep reading!

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Leviathan Will Change Mass Effect 3's Ending (Hinting at new DLC)

If you weren't satisfied with Extended Cut ending, then maybe getting the new single-player expansion Leviathan will tickle your fancy. Bioware has confirmed that the DLC will have an impact on the games ending. It is not clear how much and how big this change will be but they're most likely keeping it under wraps for us to figure out.

Leviathan is scheduled to be released later this summer, most possibly by the end of August or the beginning of September.

If you've played Mass Effect 2 then I'm sure you remember Aria, the self-proclaimed ruler of Omega. In ME3 she has become stranded on the Citadel after having Omega taken away from her by the Illusive Man and Cerberus and asked you to rally three of Omega's biggest Mercenary Groups under Aria's banner to one day retake her station.

Some code in the game was found that reveals Aria dialogue that hint's at a mission to retake Omega from Cerberus. However if you already played through Mass Effect 3, the you probably already knew that Bioware had plans for DLC around this story anyway.

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Mass Effect 3 getting SIngle Player DLC (And Wii U News)

If you've been tired of all the new Multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect then you'll be happy to know that the rumored DLC titled Leviathan is completely true.

The story of "Leviathan" takes place during the events of Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard investigates the origin of the Reapers creation as well as finding Leviathan, a supposed rouge Reaper that has indoctrinated a small mining company.

The DLC pack will also let players unlock the raider shotgun (previously exclusive to origin) and the Argus assault rifle (Gamestop Pre-Order). The pack is expected to be released later this summer for 10 dollars on PSN and Origin and 800 MS points On Live. Bioware has also released a new trailer for the DLC too.



A new FireFight pack will also be released August 7th for 2 dollars on Live, PSN and PC that contains 7 new weapons to use in single player. The weapons haven't been revealed yet except for an SMG that was shown in the screenshot below.

And lastly, Bioware and EA has announced that Mass Effect 3 will be a Wii U launch title, while it seems like a gift to future Wii U owners, it seems like they'd be left out of the loop without having both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Bioware has solved that problem by including an interactive comic that recaps the events of the First 2 games as well as the Extended cut DLC. The Wii U version will integrate new controls using the Wii U's touch screen to make navigation and commanding your squad much easier.

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Mass Effect 3 Extended Ending Coming This Tuesday

BioWare's extended ending for Mass Effect 3 is right around the corner as the developers have said today that the ending will come out on June 26 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"The Extended Cut is an expansion of the original endings to Mass Effect 3," BioWare said. "It does not fundamentally change the endings, but rather it expands on the meaning of the original endings, and reveals greater detail on the impact of player decisions."

The additional ending will be free and finally gives closure that Mass Effect fans have been wanting.

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Mass Effect 3 coming to the Wii You

Nintendo shocked fans today while announcing third party titles coming to the Wii U with the announcement of Mass Effect 3. Nothing else though has been said about the game and how it will be different in this version, but it is confirmed to be heading to the Wii U. Expect more in the near future.

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Mass Effect 3 Rebellion Pack announced

Hey there gamers, it's certainly been a while since my last post, I've just been super busy with my new job working tireless hours, but I digress.

If you didn't get enough with Mass Effect 3's previous multiplayer pack Bioware is releasing a whole new second one with even more characters, weapons and maps

The pack has six new character each has their own new ability
Vorcha Soldier - Bloodlust
Vorcha Sentinel - Flamer Skill
Male Quarian Engineer - Arc grenade
Male Quarian Infiltrtor - Tactical Scan
Ex Cerbeus Adept - Biotic Smash
Ex Cerberus Vanguard - Lash Attack

Weapons:
 Harrier Assault Rifle - A mattock rifle modified by cerberus is now fully automatic still with it's amazing stability but at the cost of less power and still has a small clip.

Reeger Carbine Shotgun - Named after the famed Quarian Reeger Family, this weapon uses the arc pitols ability to send an electrical current thorugh multiple enemies

Krysae Sniper Rifle - This modified turian weapon is made for killing reapers, the scope adjusts to distance of any opponent making it great at any range and specializes in armor-piercing and explosive ammo.

Maps:
 Firebase Jade - This jungle reservoir was abandoned cneturies ago by the Salarians. A central room is the best strategic point then you can advance towards the enemy and corner them.

 Firebase Goddess - The center of Thessia's metropolis is the final push for the Asari's resistance against the reapers. This circular map will keep you struggling as you fight enemies from every possible corner.

The rebellion pack will be available May 29th for free. Keep up with Bioware to look for more weekend events and promotions

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Mass Effect 3 gets a Free Multiplayer pack next week

Bioware has announced that they will be releasing a new multiplayer pack for Mass Effect 3, free of charge. The resurgence pack will brings loads of new content including characters, new races, maps, weapons and equipment.

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

Maps
Condor - A war zone outpost located on Palaven's moon Menae
Hydra - An abandoned Quarian colony that was converted into a power facility

Weapons
-Striker Assault Rifle
-Kishock Harpoon Gun
-Geth plasma SMG

Equipment
Strength Enhancer - Boosts your melee damage for one mission
Targeting VI - Increases headshot damage for one mission
Stabilization Module - Increases stability of all your weapons for a mission
Shield Power cells - Increase shield/barrier strength for one mission

You can download this DLC on April 10 for Xbox Live, PSN and Origin. However, those in Europe will have to download it on the PSN on the 11th. You can see the new Pack in action in the new trailer.

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Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut Only Adds More Scenes

Yesterday it was announced that BioWare will be changing the ending of Mass Effect 3 through DLC, now today we were able to get more information on the changes that will take place. The add-on content will not have new gameplay, instead it is simply change the scenes to correspond with the choices you have made throughout the game.

The Extended Cut DLC will offer players a more varied experience from their game, which is what was expected to have originally. There won't be any new endings or anything, it will just have more scenes that provide more clarity for players.

If you are confused on how the DLC will be applied to your game, all you need to do is download the DLC and load up a save file before the end scenes.



[Discuss this on the forums.]

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Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC Will Change the Ending

Bioware has listened to the hordes of angry fans and has announced they will be creating a DLC that will change the games ending.


The Extended Cut will change the ending through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, Casey Hudson had this to say concerning the DLC.

“We have re-prioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player,”


While I was worried with how they were going to approach it, this seems like a good idea. The endings wouldn't have been as bad if they explained it better as well as giving some idea of how our choices will effect the galaxy after the game. The Extended cut will be released this summer and will be free to those who played the game before April, 15th, have internet access and an origin account/ EA account (no answer on how much it will be to pay). How do you feel about this? Do you think Bioware is truly listening, or just caving in?

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Review: Mass Effect 3

After five years of waiting the Reapers have finally arrived and humanity faces extinction. Now only you, as Commander Shepard are the last hope of the entire galaxy. This game was nothing short of being the most intense and emotional joy ride I've experienced in a long time. The game was flawless in all it's aspects. Mass Effect 3 is truly a contender for game of the year.


The Good
-Rich character and weapon customization
-Intense and fast-paced combat
-Amazing story, dialogue and character development
-Choices you made in previous games will have a big impact in this one
-Big choices will have to be made
-Multiplayer is very fun and engaging
-Beautiful graphics and brilliant original score
The Bad
-Some minor glitches
-Long loading times
-Finding resources is still not that fun
The Ugly
-The ending left us with questions and made all our choices irrelevant

Story

Mass Effect has always had a strong story element, and this game is the strongest of them all. After the events of Mass Effect 2's Arrival, Commander Shepard has been relieved of duty and grounded. However, the Alliance has been finding massive signals approaching Earth, so they go to Shepard for his advice. And he/she has only one answer, the Reapers. At that moment, gigantic 2-story tall machines rained down the sky and began to decimate everything in their path. The Reapers have finally arrived. Now the first human spectre must travel across the entire galaxy to recruit every alien race and gather whatever you can to take Earth back from the Reapers.

What made this story so great was the emotional impact it had throughout the whole game. With the reapers slowly taking the galaxy by control, I was always on the edge of my seat always expecting the worse to happen. There were so many amazing moments throughout this game, there were parts where I laughed hysterically, parts that had a load of suspense and even parts where I actually cried, and if you loved the story of Mass Effect as much as I do, chances are you will cry too.

The struggle has taken a major toll on Shepard's morale

While in the first two games your paragon and renegade levels would always effect how you would handle a situation and could open new dialogue options, this time it is different. Now Shepard has a reputation system, where talking to citizens, aiding others in need, doing side quests will give him a higher reputation, unlocking paragon and renegade dialogue options that could help you solve impossible situations. Your paragon and renegade levels now only affect your appearance. And the choices you do have to make will be massive. In the other games big choices would usually either doing something or not doing it and the difference will be minor. Now entire races and even worlds depend on your decisions, but no pressure.

My biggest problem with this game would definitely be the ending. If you haven't heard already, there is a huge controversy over the ending. I'm not going to spoil anything for you but the only thing that bugged me about it was that the ending scene of the game seem a little too farfetched, even for Mass Effect and that how the ending was set up, made all the choices from all three games worth absolutely nothing, despite the fact Casey Hudson said himself that our choices will matter in the end. Despite this big snafu the game showed an exemplary example of amazing story telling, character development and dialogue.

Story: A+

Graphics

While Mass Effect 3 still has the artistic direction of Mass Effect 2, Bioware upped the ante by giving the game a rougher, grittier look while also making some of the most beautiful environments I have ever seen in a video game. From start to finish the game gives you a plethora of unique environments each being beautiful up close and far away. When you start the game on Earth, you can see once glamorous city being decimated right in front of you and even miles away as the Reapers landed right above you. It was a terrifying sight but I was still awe struck at amazing detail of the world around me.

We're gonna need a bigger gun...

The amazing imagery spread across the entire galaxy from the massive dust storm on Mars, the tropical cliffs of Sur'Kesh, the Desert Lands of Rannoch and even seeing the ancient ruins of Tuchanka, revealing that the Krogan were a once civilized and cultured race. I wish I could go into more detail but that would take just way too long so I'll just show you. (These are all screenshots from the game not concept art.)

The Salarian home world, Sur'Kesh

A Geth base on Rannoch, the Quarian home world

Mars and it's massive dust storm

Luckily all these amazing worlds didn't sacrifice the character models. All characters and npc's are brilliantly designed as well as the weapons and, which all look very unique and can be customized to look even cooler. Another cool bonus is that most armor pieces keeps Shepard's iconic N7 stripe on his/her right arm, well played Bioware.

Dressed for Success. And killing reapers.

Graphics: A+

Sound

Mass Effect 3 has one of the best scores I've ever heard. There are pieces that truly captures an intense emotional moment and ones that still retain its futuristic sound reminiscent from the first one. In the beginning of the game when you leave Earth and witness a small boy running for his life, you hear a soft piano that fills you with grief but also with hope, and is then overpowered by a blast of brass horns that resemble the terrifying call of a reaper, a true musical masterpiece. However, the game does reuses music used in the older games for instance the Citadel still uses the same soundtrack for the presidium in Mass Effect 1, but it's still good music.

Sound effects have received a major upgrade. The guns from the previous two were way too flimsy and sounded more like laser shooters than actual rifles. Now weapons sound and feel like real guns. When using the predator pistol it had an actual punch to it and sounded like a real handgun rather than some futuristic pea-shooter.

Sometimes "pew pew pew" doesn't cut it.

Weapons weren't the only one with improved effects, Shepard and his squadmates' abilities now sound as deadly as the are in action. In the previous games you could mix biotic attacks together to cause even more damage and mayhem. Now when you mix them, for example using pull on an enemy and have Liara finish them off with warp, the explosion is massive and will blast through your speakers. And that's not just with biotics, mixing tech and combat abilities will also create amazing sounds like shattering a frozen enemy with another ability will cause a giant cryo explosion that sounds like you blew up an iceberg with a rocket launcher.

Voice acting is brilliantly well done. Mass Effect brings promises with a huge star cast and returning characters including Martin Sheen (Illusive Man), Seth Green (Joker) and newcomers like Freddie Prinze Jr. (James Vega). Everyone brings their best performance in this game, and a great time to do so to enhance the intense feeling of loss, sacrifice and suspense as the game's running theme. Except for the voice actor for the little kid, he was pretty awful.

Sound: A+

Gameplay:

One thing I've noticed about a lot of other Mass Effect fans is that they complain about how Bioware made ME2 more like Gears of War than an actual RPG. But I'm also pretty sure most of those people were the PC users who never played Gears of War like I did and just went by watching videos. First I want to point out that Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 play NOTHING like Gears, they have a cover combat system and that's all they have in common. And second, Mass Effect was and always has been called and ACTION RPG, meaning it's supposed to have action based combat gameplay while still also having character customization, player choices and open world system like an RPG. This is what my interpretation of what the Mass Effect series is about, and it's MY opinion.

Mass Effect has been a constant evolving hybrid of both action shooter and RPG. The first one lacked action and had too many items that made organizing my inventory a chore. ME2 trimmed all that fat and got rid of useless features like omni-gel and exploring boring, lifeless planets, but took away too much of its RPG elements and not to mention scanning planets was annoying. Mass Effect 3 has a perfect blend of action and RPG, with easy but well detailed skill and weapon customization.

Things can get really tense with 20 story reaper trying to blast you to pieces.

Pacing of the combat is much faster but still has a strong practical approach. Combat, tech and biotic abilities can now be chained together rather than just one and can create multiple and deadly combos. And enemies come in three groups, Cerberus, Geth and Reapers. Each group comes with a different tactic and has a variety of enemies and they can get pretty overwhelming since their a.i. system allows to adapt as the battle changes.

You can survive a Husk's attack but other enemies can instantly kill you no matter what.

The skill tree is very similar to Mass Effect 2's but adds a whole new twist. You can fully upgrade all your abilities but by the fourth level increase you get to make a choice on how you want to upgrade it. Say you're a Vanguard class and is fully upgrading your signature Charge ability, by the fourth upgrade you can either increase its damage and force or can hit an extra 2 enemies within 2 meters of impact, then you can choose whether to temporarily increase your weapon damage after a charge or power damage, then the final upgrade gives you the choice for a 25% chance charge wont cause a cool-down or have 100% of your shields restored after one (great for chaining up with the nova attack), you can mix hundreds of skills between and your squad and can even reset them if you aren't happy with your current settings (for a price of course)

A treat to my fellow Vanguards, Shockwave is finally useful now.

Weapons can now be upgraded and customized like in the first game but in a different way. Weapons have different stats and functionality. You can put on two weapons attachments that can increase it stats like damage or accuracy and can purchase an upgrade for your weapons in your armory. Another note is that each class can carry any and as many weapons they want but each weapon has a carry weight. Weapons like Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles will weigh more and will increase the time of you abilities cool-down period, soldier classes will have a higher carry weight and can use more and stronger weapons while adepts and engineers should stick to one or two smaller weapons for full effectiveness of their skills.


A new system in ME3 is collecting war assets. By completing missions, talking to others, doing fetch quests and playing multiplayer, Shepard will gain assets to help him fight the reapers to take back Earth. However you can also lose assets as easy as you can gain it, some choices you make will have a negative effect on your military strength later on. However these assents can't be everything, you also have an effective military strength that will ultimately decide the fate of Earth. The EMS (effective military strength) is determined by the galactic readiness, which is achieved by playing multilayer. However you don't need to play multiplayer to achieve the perfect ending, but it will require a lot more exploring in the galaxy.

I was first appalled with the inclusion of multiplayer but after careful investigation and actually playing it, I must say I am extremely impressed. Mass Effect 3 uses a four player class-based co-op where you fight through 11 waves of enemies. Teamwork will be needed to survive especially as enemies get more aggressive each wave. Skill and weapon customization is just like the one in single-player except you MP character will only have 3 skills to use. During one of these waves there's a chance you will be assigned with a certain task like unlocking several terminals throughout the map or killing high valued targets, these objectives are simple but failing to do them will cause you to instantly fail the mission, and most of these will require you to stick together.

Each alien race will have certain classes (except human) that they can use and each have different skills and special abilities. The only problem is that alien races have to be unlocked by purchasing packs that you can get by earning credits from playing multiplayer, whats worse is that finding these races will appear at random. But you'll probably enjoying yourself too much to notice. (You do get a random free race to use when you start though)

Still waiting to unlock a Drell...

Gameplay: A+

Replay

Mass Effect 3 will last you a while. Breezing through the story will take about 20 hours, add an extra ten or fifteen if you are going to take the extra time doing extra missions, building relationships and helping others. And even if you imported your ME2 save, you won't hit the level cap or purchase every upgrade weapon, mod or armor on your first playthrough. And if you're like me you might have multiple save files with different Shepard with different actions, choices, personality and romances so no two stories will be the same. And mutliplayer is made that you will be enjoying it for a while and come back for even more. (Your galactic readiness lowers by one percent every time you start up the game, to make it worth coming back to). Bioware has done a good job of making sure you continue to play afterwards even after beating the game, something that has plagues the first two Mass Effects.

Replay: A+

I'm glad to say that this game gets a perfect score from me, after several of my most anticipated games utterly disappointed me, I'm happy that this one did not. It played perfectly, sounded perfectly and is a true mix of amazing big budget gameplay while having a beautiful and independent art direction. Mass Effect 3 shines in all aspects what makes a good video game. If you loved the first two games, you'll love this one. And if you never picked up the first two Mass Effect games, while this one is more welcoming to newcomers, I definitely recommend playing the first two. Mass Effect 3 is a guarantee to get 2012's game of the year, without a doubt.

Gaming perfection.

Mass Effect 3: A+

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Next Mass Effect 3 Patch Will Fix Face Importing Problems

After a few weeks of Mass Effect 3 being out, BioWare has found a way to fix the custom face importing problem many players faced.

We have fixed the issue of faces not correctly importing into Mass Effect 3. It will be included as part of the next Mass Effect 3 patch, " said community manager Chris Priestly.

"The not completely good news is that I do not yet have a confirmed date for when the patch will be available. A new patch gets heavily tested by BioWare, EA, Microsoft and Sony before it can be released to the public. We all want to be sure that it fixes the issues it is supposed to fix and doesn't start any new issues (this is called testing or certification testing ). If a patch fails during testing, it is sent back, fixed again and retested until it passes. Then it is released to gamers. Until we know that the patch has passed certification testing, I don't want to give even a rough idea of the date, to prevent disappointment should it need further testing.

So I'm sorry I don't have the full answer you all want and are waiting for yet. When I can give you the date when the patch will be available I will."



[Discuss this on the forums.]

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BioWare Co-Founder Addresses Mass Effect 3 Ending

First, Casey Hudson made a statement about the ending of Mass Effect 3, now BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has also addressed the situation.

Muzyka has expressed his feelings with the amount of criticism him and the Mass Effect development team has heard of, he also states that there will not be any changing to the ending but instead there will be add-ons to the game that will give fans more closure, which most likely means we will have to pay for DLC that has content we were promised to receive in the actual game.

Here is Muzyka's full statement:

To Mass Effect 3 players, from Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare

As co-founder and GM of BioWare, I’m very proud of the ME3 team; I personally believe Mass Effect 3 is the best work we’ve yet created. So, it’s incredibly painful to receive feedback from our core fans that the game’s endings were not up to their expectations. Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics – but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility.

I believe passionately that games are an art form, and that the power of our medium flows from our audience, who are deeply involved in how the story unfolds, and who have the uncontested right to provide constructive criticism. At the same time, I also believe in and support the artistic choices made by the development team.  The team and I have been thinking hard about how to best address the comments on ME3’s endings from players, while still maintaining the artistic integrity of the game.

Mass Effect 3 concludes a trilogy with so much player control and ownership of the story that it was hard for us to predict the range of emotions players would feel when they finished playing through it.  The journey you undertake in Mass Effect provokes an intense range of highly personal emotions in the player; even so, the passionate reaction of some of our most loyal players to the current endings in Mass Effect 3 is something that has genuinely surprised us. This is an issue we care about deeply, and we will respond to it in a fair and timely way. We’re already working hard to do that.

To that end, since the game launched, the team has been poring over everything they can find about reactions to the game – industry press, forums, Facebook, and Twitter, just to name a few. The Mass Effect team, like other teams across the BioWare Label within EA, consists of passionate people who work hard for the love of creating experiences that excite and delight our fans.  I’m honored to work with them because they have the courage and strength to respond to constructive feedback.

Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You’ll hear more on this in April.  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.  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.

The reaction to the release of Mass Effect 3 has been unprecedented. On one hand, some of our loyal fans are passionately expressing their displeasure about how their game concluded; we care about this feedback, and we’re planning to directly address it. However, most folks appear to agree that the game as a whole is exceptional, with more than 75 critics giving it a perfect review score and a review average in the mid-90s. Net, I’m proud of the team, but we can and must always strive to do better.

Some of the criticism that has been delivered in the heat of passion by our most ardent fans, even if founded on valid principles, such as seeking more clarity to questions or looking for more closure, for example – has unfortunately become destructive rather than constructive. We listen and will respond to constructive criticism, but much as we will not tolerate individual attacks on our team members, we will not support or respond to destructive commentary.

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. I urge you to do your own research: play the game, finish it and tell us what you think. Tell your friends if you feel it’s a good game as a whole. Trust that we are doing our damndest, as always, to address your feedback.  As artists, we care about our fans deeply and we appreciate your support.

Thank you for your feedback – we are listening.

Ray

[Discuss this on the forums.]

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BioWare Has No Plans To Changing Mass Effect 3 Ending

Some time last night BioWare stated on their Facebook page that they have no plans on changing the ending of Mass Effect 3 at all but they are taking feedback from fans seriously.

"We are aware that there are concerns about a recent post from this account regarding the ending of the game. In this post it was stated that at this time we do not have plans to change the ending.

We would like to clarify that we are actively and seriously taking all player feedback into consideration and have ruled nothing out. At this time we are still collecting and considering your feedback and have not made a decision regarding requests to change the ending.

Your feedback and opinions are of the utmost importance to us. We apologize for any confusion this has caused. Our top priority regarding this discussion is to keep communication with you, our loyal fans, open and productive."

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Casey Hudson Talks About Mass Effect 3 Ending

Earlier BioWare said they were going to address the ending of Mass Effect 3, the ending that fans are not happy with. Casey Hudson, executive producer for Mass Effect 3 gave the following statement:

"There’s been a lot of discussion and debate about the conclusion of Mass Effect 3, so I thought I’d share my perspective with you here. I’ll avoid outright spoilers, but I’d still recommend finishing the game and experiencing it for yourself before reading this.

For the last eight years, Mass Effect has been a labor of love for our team; love for the characters we’ve created, for the medium of video games, and for the fans that have supported us. For us and for you, Mass Effect 3 had to live up to a lot of expectations, not only for a great gaming experience, but for a resolution to the countless storylines and decisions you’ve made as a player since the journey began in 2007. So we designed Mass Effect 3 to be a series of endings to key plots and storylines, each culminating in scenes that show you the consequences of your actions. You then carry the knowledge of these consequences with you as you complete the final moments of your journey.

We always intended that the scale of the conflict and the underlying theme of sacrifice would lead to a bittersweet ending—to do otherwise would betray the agonizing decisions Shepard had to make along the way. Still, we wanted to give players the chance to experience an inspiring and uplifting ending; in a story where you face a hopeless struggle for basic survival, we see the final moments and imagery as offering victory and hope in the context of sacrifice and reflection.

We've had some incredibly positive reactions to Mass Effect 3, from the New York Times declaring it “a gripping, coherent triumph”, to Penny Arcade calling it “an amazing accomplishment”, to emails and tweets from players who have given us the most profound words of appreciation we've ever received.

But we also recognize that some of our most passionate fans needed more closure, more answers, and more time to say goodbye to their stories—and these comments are equally valid. Player feedback such as this has always been an essential ingredient in the development of the series.

I am extremely proud of what this team has accomplished, from the first art concepts for the Mass Effect universe to the final moments of Mass Effect 3. But we didn't do it on our own. Over the course of the series, Mass Effect has been a shared experience between the development team and our fans—not just a shared experience in playing the games, but in designing and developing them. An outpouring of love for Garrus and Tali led to their inclusion as love interests in Mass Effect 2. A request for deeper RPG systems led to key design changes in Mass Effect 3. Your feedback has always mattered. Mass Effect is a collaboration between developers and players, and we continue to listen.

So where do we go from here? Throughout the next year, we will support Mass Effect 3 by working on new content. And we’ll keep listening, because your insights and constructive feedback will help determine what that content should be. This is not the last you’ll hear of Commander Shepard.

We look forward to your continued support and involvement as we work together to shape the remaining experiences in the story of the Mass Effect trilogy.Thanks for taking this journey with us.

Casey Hudson"

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BioWare Will Talk About The Mass Effect 3 Ending

The ending to Mass Effect 3 has been causing tons of uproar, in a bad way. It's so bad that there is even a petition for it with there goal being that they are hoping BioWare will change the ending. Later today, BioWare will address the ending of Mass Effect 3.

"We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening," says BioWare's Community Coordinator, Chris Priestly. "Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can.

Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game. In the meantime, we’d like to ask that you keep the non-spoiler areas of our forums and our social media channels spoiler free.

We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game. We are listening to all of your feedback.

In the meantime, let's give appreciation to Commander Shepard. Whether you loved the ME3 ending or didn't or you just have a lot of questions, he/she has given many of us some of the best adventures we have had while playing games."

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A New Mass Effect 3 Peition Raises 40k in Just One day

Many fans of Mass Effect were appalled at the ending of the final installment, so appalled that they even created a petition to have it changed.


The petition dubbed "Retake Mass Effect" is being sponsored by the Child's Play Donation drive hoping that Bioware will take affirmative action to makes these changes to the game:

-A more detailed explanation of the stories events.
-An explanation of the outcome based on the decisions made
-A heroic ending with a better sense of accomplishment

In its first day, the petition have already received over $40,000 dollars in donations and they will continue to receive them until April 11th. If you're interested in making a donation or learning more about this controversy you can follow the link here.

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Mass Effect 3 Getting Multiplaer DLC

First off I'd like to say sorry for not making any posts in the past couple of weeks, my computer broke and I had t get a new one, but anyway back to business as usual.

Some leaked photos from reddit have revealed new characters for the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, including Batarians, geth, Asari Justicars and even a Krogan Battlemaster (that one sounds awesome.)


Some have speculated that these will be DLC codes that will be found in the future series of Mass Effect action figures, hey you got your Skylanders in my Mass Effect. Even if this is true, I wouldn't mind having a action figure of Wrex by my side. Expect BioWare to reveal more on this in the upcoming month.

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Post Release Mass Effect 3 Trailer

A post release trailer has been released for Mass Effect 3 in order to commemorate the success of the game considering that over 3.5 million copies have already been shipped.

If you are already playing Mass Effect 3 then some of the footage in this new trailer should be familiar for you. If you aren't playing Mass Effect 3 then this is probably EA's last chance at getting people pumped up for it.

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Customers Buy Mass Effect, They Receive Madden 12 Instead

Newegg seems to have made a major mistake for those who pre-ordered a Xbox 360 copy of Mass Effect 3 from them for they didn't receive what they asked for in the mail.

Unexpected customsers were in for a treat when they found out that they didn't receive Mass Effect 3 from Newegg, but instead they had Madden 12.

Newegg is currently aware of the situation and has contacted customers who might have been affected by the mix-up through an e-mail:

"We're contacting you today regarding your recent purchase of the Mass Effect 3 Xbox 360 game. It appears there may have been an error when fulfilling and shipping your order. We've received reports that some customers may have received Madden NFL 2012 Xbox 360 instead of the intended product.

To correct this error, a Customer Service Representative will be contacting you at the phone number provided by you within your account to arrange an advanced replacement, if necessary. The Representative will also arrange an RMA with a prepaid return shipping label. Please note that when arranging advanced returns, we do require a credit card number to be on file in the event the originally-shipped product is not returned. Please expect this call within the next 2 to 3 business days; of course, you may contact Newegg customer support earlier as well if you wish.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. As a courtesy, your advanced replacement game will be shipped via overnight delivery at no additional cost to you in the hope that you receive your game as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

Newegg Customer Support"

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Tali Unmasked Causing Tons Of Hatred [Spoiler]

It seems like BioWare is getting some hate over what Tali looks like unmasked considering all BioWare did was get a picture from a photographer and barely editing it.

Seeing Tali's revealed face requires you to go to your cabin and look at a picture of her, which is just a photo from Getty Images taken by Metthew Leete in which BioWare edited the picture a bit.

This is apparently enraging tons of Mass Effect fans as they are saying this is just lazy work and a ridiculous look for Tali and her people. Take a look at the picture below and tell me what you think.

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