"It’s been more than six months since “Mass Effect” was released on Xbox 360 and BioWare was picked up by Electronic Arts. We haven’t heard much from the studio since, outside of talking up the recently released PC version of “Mass Effect.”

Their PC epic “Dragon Age” looms on the horizon and rumors continue to swirl about their long-anticipated entry into the world of MMOs. But announcements on those and the inevitable sequel to “Mass Effect” aren’t yet here.

But we managed to corner Bio..."

DRM makes some people angry...and it makes some people REALLY, REALLY, REALLY angry.

Here is a video posted on youtube a guy made of himself, ranting about DRM. There are two good reasons to listen: first off, this guy is a huge gamer, so he has a right to speak (he has mountains of PC games in the background); and second, he is sort of funny, and really angry, but he makes some good points as well.

Warning: The guy uses plenty of bad words. If you get offended or annoyed by bad words,...

"Nothing's perfect. Stare closely enough at anything - even a masterpiece - and you're bound to find flaws sooner or later. They might be small. They might be insignificant. They might not detract from the overall quality of the piece at all...

Except when they really, really do. With these seven games, in fact, you don't need to stare. Their flaws are so huge, so obvious, so frustrating and so effing obnoxious that you can't help but notice them, despise them and wonder how the damn things..."

"Shack: I'm sure this is a sticky issue, but I want to touch on the copy-protection thing. First of all, how involved are you typically with copy-protection?

Albert Reed: Very little. It's a publisher thing.

Shack: What is your take on the PC piracy issue?

Albert Reed: I think it's a big problem at the sort of financial investment side, how much companies are willing to invest in the PC versions of their game when they're worried that it's just gonna be downloaded for free. It's a pr..."

""BioWare’s space hamsters are running as fast as they can in their orbital wheels to bring you your free "Bring Down the Sky" downloadable content for Mass Effect PC.""

"PC
Bus Driver, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition, Mass Effect, Stronghold Crusader Extreme

PS3
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Xbox 360
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition

Wii
Death Jr. Root of Evil, Emergency Heroes, Kawasaki Snowmobiles, The Monkey King: The Legend Begins

DS
Metallic Rose Nintendo DS Lite, Super Dodgeball Brawlers, USA Today Crosswords Challenge (GameStop Exclusive)

PSP
World Championship Cards"

"In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would "see extension" in the publisher's fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn't specify whether the extensions would come in the form of proper sequels, side products (such as Burnout Legends and Burnout Dominator), or some other form.

In contrast to Burnout, Skate is a relatively new property. The series debuted last September as part of EA..."

"What was behind the decision to lead on the Xbox 360 with Mass Effect rather than releasing then two versions simultaneously?

Ray Muzyka: Well, it was nice to focus on one system, and obviously our publisher Microsoft had an impact in the decision as well. We were working with them, so we announced it and developed it as an Xbox 360 exclusive right from the start.

We've always had a goal of releasing multiple iterations on the 360 during its lifetime, so we're excited about that opportu..."

"After revealing yesterday that Mass Effect PC would employ an online activation system that requires users to re-authenticate their game every ten days, BioWare and EA have decided to back down and listen to those who actually purchase their games. In other words, the community.

BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk confirmed today that Mass Effect PC will not make use of SecuROM’s ten day re-authentication. Instead, owners of the game will be prompted to activate their copy when the ga..."

"PC GAMERS WHO have had their fill of online activation headaches with Windows will be pretty miffed to hear the latest anti-piracy scheme being dreamed up by top games publishers.

In a post on Bioware's forums, producer Derek French has confirmed that two of the biggest PC titles of the year - Will Wright's Spore and the Xbox 360 conversion of Mass Effect - will require ongoing, rolling 10-day activation over the internet.

"Mass Effect uses SecuROM and requires an online activation for ..."

"BioWare has revealed the North American pre-order details for Mass Effect on the PC (also available on the Xbox 360)

According to the press release, those who order from various video game retailers will be getting a discount. Meanwhile those who order from the Electronic Arts Online store will be getting some swag.

According to the press release, gamers who pre-order the game from specialty and online retailers such as GameStop, Amazon.com, and GoGamer.com will be getting US$ 10 off th..."

""Whenever we bring a game to a new platform, we always look at it with reverence and respect. The conversion to PC was something we only thought of doing late in the 360 development," he revealed, although the decision came before Bioware's acquisition by EA last year. "Right now that's it, that's all we've got in development for Mass Effect, just the PC version and the 360," he added, quashing the persistent speculation about a PS3 version."

"Game-industry critics object to any overt or implied elements of sex or racism that crop up in the course of play. Often, the gaming community's knee-jerk defense against these critics is to contend that they don't know what they're talking about. In many cases, this is true. But in their haste to polish their pet medium's reputation, gamers ignore the other side of the coin — namely that, in some instances, the bluenoses have a point.
The truth is that some games are irresponsible in regar..."

"Bring Down the Sky adds about 90 minutes of new content, but fans have been less than enamoured with it thus far. Still, a least its free on the PC.

The new PC version of Mass Effect promises improved controls and a slightly slicker experience all-in-all. More soon."

"Minimum System Requirements for Mass Effect on the PC

Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista

Processor:
2.4+GHZ Intel or 2.0+GHZ AMD

Memory:
1 Gigabyte Ram (XP)
2 Gigabyte Ram (Vista)

Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6 series(6800GT or better)
ATI 1300XT or better (X1550, X1600 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)

Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes

Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers
----------

Recommended System Requirements for Mass..."

"- The BBC reckons sony has an amazing secret game in the works for 2009

- Capcom is developing Dead Rising 2 for mulitple platforms including PS3

- Team ICO's new game has links to Norse myths

- Mass Effect and its Sequels will come to PS3

- Sony already has a in-game version of PS3's XMB up and running

- Netflix will soon offer movie downloads straight to your PS3"

"The winners of the 2nd annual ELANS Awards have been announced and with five awards, this years big winner is BioWare. Their sci-fi RPG Mass Effect walked away with the Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Game Design, Best Writing for a Game Production, and Best Character (Commander Shepard) awards."

"Electronic Arts' open-world racing game Burnout Paradise still has that new-car smell, and the broken bones of Skate have barely had time to knit, but the publisher is already looking ahead to the next installments in those franchises.

In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would "see extension" in the publisher's fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn't specify whether the extensio..."

"BioWare recently announced the coming of Mass Effect to the PC, but they have also released eight new screenshots from the new version as well. They appear crisper and of higher resolution than their Xbox 360 brethren.

(Two additional screens at source due to upload limitations)"

"Not satisfied with making an utter fool of itself over the Mass Effect "controversy," Fox's pathetic attempts to discredit the games industry have reached new levels of ridiculous as it jumps on a recent hypocritical news piece for its site. The "news" source's Web site has published a story (with a stupid headline) that claims research is now blaming videogames for the eventual decline of Mother Nature herself. It only briefly acknowledged the fact that televisions and computers are actually..."

"Today, Microsoft has announced that the first piece of DLC for Mass Effect will be released on March 10th, for 400 Points ($5). Titled “Bring Down the Sky”, Commander Shepard and crew visit a new uncharted planet, where a Batarian extremist group has hijacked an asteroid station and plans on crashing it into the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. “Bring Down the Sky” presents a new achievement worth 50 points, and supposedly will give us “90 minutes of heart-pounding action” (we’ll see how mu..."

""

"I got on to the topic of the Mass Effect controversy and was shocked, literally out of my socks, to find him defending the game... sort of. Apparently, even anti-gaming crusader Jack Thompson found self-help author Cooper Lawrence (who he refers to as a man), uninformed and the entire controversy contrived. Hellooooo kettle.

To: Jack
From: Brian
I'm surprised you haven't been looking into Mass Effect.

To: Brian
From: Jack
Why would you be surprised. I don't see any problem with it. ..."

"With the announcement last week by the NPD that the video game industry has vastly surpassed the movie industry in overall revenue growth, rising by 28.4% compared to the movies meager 1.8% in the U.S., the dawn of a new era is upon us. Video games can no longer be considered children’s toys or a passing fad, like the slinky. It seems that the games with which we grew up and still enjoy today are entering the mainstream of American culture. And kicking a little ass in the process.

The fina..."

"

G4 host Adama Sessler gives his opinion on the whole Fox News/Mass Effect imbroglio in this clip from a recent episode of X-Play. He presents the facts with much more aplomb and fairness than Fox did, but in the end turns the tables to give the network and author Cooper Lawrence a taste of their own medicine. Although Lawrence has since apologized for her missteps, it's still fun to watch Sessler take her and the dubious Fox News to task."

"While you frequently hear about people (”experts”) bashing videogames, it isn’t common when one of them actually admits they were wrong. Yesterday, I made a post about the Cooper Lawrence/Fox News/Geoff Keighley incident, where Mass Effect was described as depicting “full digital nudity and sex” amongst other inaccuracies. Well, it seems that Cooper Lawrence has admitted she was wrong in the New York Times, saying

“I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve..."

"In a single line text message sent from her Blackberry, Teri VanHorn, producer of Fox News' Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, blew off Electronic Arts' detailed call for correction over the error strewn report the show did on Mass Effect earlier in the week.

Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts' vice president of communication, told Kotaku that the producer told him to contact Fox News' public relations department, which apparently now deals with factual errors in their stories.

Brown told me he ..."

"Keighley, who appeared on the Live Desk segment to defend Mass Effect, was wholly outnumbered and cut short by host Martha MacCallum and a panel of ‘expert’ critics, whose venomous attacks against the Xbox 360 game were only matched by their obvious ignorance regarding the complexities of Mass Effect, the videogame industry, and the ESRB’s software ratings system."

"While Electronic Arts has dispatched a fervent letter to FOX News regarding its claims that sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect contains full frontal nudity and acts of graphic sex, members of the gaming community have opted to pursue more direct and damaging action against contributing psychologist and writer Cooper Lawrence.

Specifically, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk has recently seen a sudden influx of reader reviews on product pages attributed to Lawrence’s book ‘The Cult of Perfection..."

""As the parent company of BioWare, the studio which created the game, EA would like you to set the record straight on a number of errors and misstatements which incorrectly characterise the story and character interactions in Mass Effect." The letter starts and then proceeds to outline their very strong case.

Your headline above the televised story read: "New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex." Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-inte..."

"

"Fair and balanced" FOX News completely misrepresents the sex scene in Mass Effect."

"Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that it has completed its acquisition of VG Holding Corp. and has officially welcomed BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios to the EA Games Label. The addition of these studios vaults EA into a competitive position in the RPG, action and adventure genres. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry and will bring ten new franchises to EA, based on six wholly-owned IP...

(Full Press Release at Source)"

"Although Halo 3 has thus far missed out on any notable ‘Game of the Year’ awards, Microsoft now reveals that Bungie’s phenomenally popular FPS finale has sold in excess of 8.1 million copies worldwide since the game was released on Sept. 25 of 2007."

"Following a wave of reader reaction helpfully outlining exactly where he had gone wrong during his review, Takahashi has duly offered up a lengthy apology to his readers (and creators BioWare) regarding the initial damning assessment of Mass Effect.

Some of Takahashi’s readers have applauded the critical retraction, while some have suggested he should have ignored criticism and remained true to his subjective viewpoint. The bottom line in this case, however, is that professional reviewers ..."

"While some readers may deride the respectability of certain review sources listed on Metacritics pages, there’s little arguing with contributing numbers provided by IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy, Game Informer, Edge, 1UP, Play, and Games Radar.

Bearing that in mind, Metacritic has unveiled various "Best" and "Dud" games spread across a host of categories, which are as follows..."

"A little lesbianism goes a long way as the New York Times names Mass Effect its game of the year for 2007. The NYT bestowed Mass Effect with the honor for its "focus on character development, personal growth and moral tension, all fueled by a graphics system created to evoke emotional empathy." Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was honored for being the shining star on the PS3 and BioShock was named the "best newcomer." There's also digs at Halo 3 and Super Mario Galaxy for being "..."

"sonycowboy

Many thanks to NPD

Hardware Unit Sales

PlayStation 2 496K
PlayStation 3 466K
PSP 567K
Xbox 360 770K
Wii 981K
Nintendo DS 1.53 million

November 2007 Top 10 Video Games Rank # Units
360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 1 1.57 million
WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY NINTENDO OF AMERICA NOV 2007 EVERYONE (E) 2 1.12 million
360 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 3 980K
PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION (CORP..."

"In a special Ad Watch column on the Xbox 360 marketing strategy this holiday season, Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Xbox 360, has revealed to GameDaily BIZ that sales for BioWare's blockbuster role-playing game Mass Effect are better than perhaps many industry watchers were expecting.

Prediction market the simExchange pegged Mass Effect at around 328,000 units for November (the title released on Nov. 20). That said, in less than three weeks on the market, t..."

"Now, far be it from me to disagree with Time...I have to call shenanigans on a few things here. First: Halo 3, while a great game, is not as good as BioShock. Halo 3 is still plagued by problems seen in previous games where both level design and gameplay are concerned. BioShock, on the other hand, was a superb gaming experience and should have easily been the top of the bunch on the list."

"

Just because Singapore is strict doesn't mean its dull and conservative. Take Mass Effect, for example. The country's Media Development Authority banned Mass Effect for alien lesbian sex, but then the MDA retracted its ban. See, they're open minded! But what kind of governing body is the MDA? Is it a bunch of stiff, dull Singaporeans in business suits. Yes. Yes, it is. However! They are stiff, dull folks who enjoy making rap videos about how creative they are. Click on the above 4 minute ..."

"Xbox 360:

Rock Band

Mass Effect

College Hoops 2K8

Avatar: The Burning Earth

Final Fantasy XI Online: Wings of the Goddess

Final Fantasy XI Online: Vana'diel Collection 08

PS3:

Rock Band

Medal of Honor Airborne

College Hoops 2K8

Time Crisis 4

Timeshift

Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Nintendo Wii:

Nintendo Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training

Ghost Squad

AMF Bowling Pinbusters

Soul Calibur Legends

Trauma...

"

"CAGs Score Mass Effect Early at Kmart

CAGs uberczar915 and Viper22 have both been able to purchase Mass Effect at Kmart (Viper22 got his in Crofton, MD), almost two weeks early. Click the thumbnail on the left for a bigger picture and check the CAG forums for more details and updates.

In addition, some online retailers such as Toys R Us and Walmart are listing Mass Effect as in-stock."

"Finally a reason to be thankful in November. Forget the coming cold and use these reason to stay inside the entire month. We all know this year has one of the best holiday line-ups ever, but we didn’t know how good. Here is an entire top 7 list of games just coming out in November. And below, I have all the awesome games that didn’t make it on the list. Obviously game release dates are subject to game publishers dart boards, so all games are what I at least think is coming out in November."

"BIZ: So you wouldn't rule out the possibility of it appearing on PS3?


Muzyka: We have no plans currently to pursue that. Our focus is pure and simple; it's to deliver the best game possible for our fans with Mass Effect, and that's an Xbox 360 exclusive. Microsoft's a great partner... and they've really helped build the value of the product and we're proud to work with them."

"Alright, unfortunately, I don't have a link, or even a scan to share with you guys. So you're welcome to call BS on this if you want. I admit it's second hand information, but it comes from someone I consider very reliable.

They got the latest copy of Game Informer early, with a Mass Effect review.

Some gems from the review (paraphrased):

"Best science fiction story since Star Wars, and best story in a video game, ever"

"They said they actually felt a strong sense of guilt when th..."

"There’s something about Mass Effect that has grabbed my attention from the start. Maybe it’s the alien lesbians, the fact the game looks absolutely magnificent, or just that I’m a sci-fi nut and been wanting a massive sci-fi masterpiece of a game for a long time."

"The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has given a "12" rating to Mass Effect on the ground that it "contains moderate violence and one moderate sex scene." Wait, what? What exactly does "one moderate sex scene" mean?"

"BioWare has released Part One of the Character Spotlight videos for their upcoming sci-fi RPG Mass Effect and if this video is any indication then the voice acting in this game is seriously going to rock."

"As development finishes up on the project, at least 20 former members of the Mass Effect development team have quit BioWare, a tipster has told CVG.

According to our reliable source, a chunk of the 100-strong team have left to "pursue other opportunities" in the games industry.

Usually the loss of a few staff members is common place at the end of a big project like Mass Effect - BioWare's most ambitious game to date - but it's not usual at the Alberta, Canada-based studio, which is famo..."

"The time has come, Mass Effect has finally been given a release date. From the team that brought us Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, one of the Xbox 360’s most anticipated games of the year, Mass Effect has finally been given a release date after all it’s delays."

"The fact that this year's E3 video game conference was supposed to be a lower-budget affair than years past was a point seemingly lost on Microsoft, which rented out an entire (big, nice, fancy, expensive) hotel in Santa Monica to show off its wares. While the entire lineup consisted of more than a dozen titles spanning both Xbox 360 and PC, three in particular caught our eye: 'Fable 2,' 'Mass Effect' and 'Halo 3.'

'Fable 2'
The earliest along of the lot was 'Fable 2,' from gaming legend ..."

"The tone from Microsoft tonight was one of celebration and anticipation, as they ran down their successes since the 360 launched and hyped their lineup between now and the end of the year. Peter Moore framed the discussing by recalling the blockbuster holiday season of 2004, which was driven by the Grand Theft Auto, Madden, and Halo franchises.

Moore stated that 'the only place to play all three games' this year is the 360. In addition to showing off other heavyweight titles like Mass Eff..."

"During Microsoft's E3 conference Tuesday evening, Mass Effect was given a launch date of November 2007. The highly anticipated game was originally speculated to launch this summer."

Mass Effect is coming sometime later this year according to some reports, and in the mean-time, Bioware have released some new screenshots to keep us amazed by the game, graphics-wise. They are fit for wallpapers, as well.

"This morning, CVG posted a news story claiming that at a European Microsoft event, Mass Effect was given a release date of September. Fans, of course, immediately began to panic. Before you get in a tizzy, know two things: Firstly, this date may only refer to the European release (so if you live in Europe, perhaps you should set yourself on fire and run around screaming); secondly, a release date has not been confirmed for any region.

On the official Mass Effect message boards, BioWare its..."

"Infiltrator

BioWare says: Infiltrators combine combat and tech abilities, and specialize in killing or disabling enemies at long range. Infiltrators are trained to use OmniTools, but the focus is on decryption and offensive abilities rather than healing. They can train with pistols or sniper rifles, and can learn to wear medium armor.

Vanguard

BioWare says: Vanguards are biotic warriors. They combine offensive biotic abilities and weapons training to quickly take down opponents, and ..."

Some behind the scenes stuff from mass effect, it's shaping up to be a great game!

Some footage from the upcoming XBOX360 title, Mass effect.