Just a snippet about something that was more or less a given, but I think it’s worth stating and knowing for the record that the next Mass Effect will entirely and definitely steer clear of Commander Shephard. The controversial outcomes of Mass Effect 3 do leave some room for ‘what happened next?’ investigations, but the three-game plot had tied itself in so many knots by that point that a totally clean break for the next set of Meffects is only sensible. (more…)

Aw. I know not everyone was as charmed as I was by Mass Effect 2 and 3′s scarfaced, cockney mercenary Zaeed Massani, but I found his no-nonsense, surly, partially malevolent geezerishness made him an essential part of my ME2 squad. His voice actor did great things in terms of turning, essentially, Dirty Den into a hard-bitten space bruiser, so I’m sad to hear that the chap behind those beyond-gravelly tones, Robin Sachs, sadly passed away on the first of February this year. (more…)

We’re still waiting for Call of Duty Black Ops 2 wot-I-think code here on RPS, but some punters who’ve already lain hands on the PC version of Activision’s latest Manshooter Titan have found themselves equally unable to play the thing. But why? Had it been tampered with by the fugitive head of an anti-virus company? Had wolves eaten it? Would it not install until Mason told them what the numbers meant? No, none of those. Something for more eerie. Some purchasers have discovered that the second disc of their brand new foreigner-killing game was a copy of Mass Effect 2, that 2010 guns’n'conversation title from Activision’s arch-rival EA. Conversation in the best-selling game of guns? Scandalous! (more…)

I tend to lose my sense of connection to science fictional narratives once they get into the realm of prophecies and pseudo-deities, so the idea of a return to the Mass Effect universe that’s only about the neat spaceshippy stuff and none of the Circle Of Destiny soapboxing appeals enormously. Frinstance, this unofficial mod for the TIGHT space strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire which plans to recreate the Normandy and its multi-species chums’ war against the Geth, Collectors and Reapers. (more…)

Jim’s done singleplayer, I’ve done the From Ashes DLC, and now I take on Mass Effect 3′s vaguely controversial four players vs AI-controlled enemy waves co-op multiplayer mode. I’ve been playing it what might be said to be a little too much over the last week, having taken several characters to level 20 and gotten righteously indignant that I keep unlocking pistols rather than sniper rifles. Allow me to explain.>

I lay there, dying and enraged. My last surviving team-mate, a Salarian Infilitrator, stood right next to me. Actually, that’s a lie, intended to cover my indignity – he was standing right on top of me, feet stomping on my face, taking wild potshots at a Cerberus Centurion hiding behind a nearby wall. All he had to do was press one button for a couple of seconds, and I’d be back in the fight, at his side, helping him to win this war and go home with the spoils of victory. I hadn’t wired up a mic for this match, so I couldn’t scream and beg at him. Still, what was required was beyond obvious – yet he would not do it. The seconds ticked away. My blood trickled away. (more…)

Tomorrow (or Friday in blighted Blighty) is Mass Effect O’Clock, and the day when we discover whether or not the purported conclusion of Shepherd’s adventures can live up to over a year of having enough marketing to make twenty Daikatanas a success fired continually at our exhausted eyes and ears.

Which means we have scant hours/days to ensure we get the ME3 we want. I’m in a tricky situation whereby the crew I wound up with at the end of ME2 is not the crew I’d want in ME3: is endlessly replaying the climactic ME2 suicide mission until the right folk make it out alive my only hope of rewriting my destiny? Nope! Mass Effect 2 spoilers and savegame-fiddling below. (more…)

So I am busy playing through Mass Effect 3 at the moment, with my collected thoughts on the events, happenings, and systems therein to appear on Tuesday. I’ve been doing a bit of retrospective browsing over the first two games, too, and comparing events in those to the events in the third game. This process led me to wonder this: what has been your> favourite event in the games so far? And why?

As a follow up question: who is your favoured character? Garrus seems like the obvious choice for acerbic/murderous sidekick, and I generally take him on missions for the sound of his voice, but I think Thane was the highlight of Mass Effect 2. Anyway: speak your brains, show your working>.

God forbid we’d post yet another Mass Effect 3 trailer, but… well, here’s another Mass Effect 3 trailer. It stars, at long, long last, the female version of Shepard, finally getting just a tiny fraction of the official marketing acknowledgment she deserves. You will, I trust, understand. (more…)

It’s going to be Mass Effect trailers from here until March I reckon, at which point we can finally play the game and enjoy the conversation as well as the guns. This new’un resolutely focuses on the latter, or more specifically giant space beasts at war as tiny ManShep legs it around a collapsing cityscape in their wake. Spectacular stuff, but scripted from here to eternity and all a bit Gears of Warsy. (more…)

Bioware are releasing a whole new game after Mass Effect 3 is sent out into the big wide world. All we know, though, is that it’s a new franchise, and this is the first screenshot of it, as bestowed upon the industry’s number one chum GameInformer. We don’t know a name, we don’t know if the inclusion of buggies and deserts is a red herring (as was the Mass Effect 3 image they released for last year’s VGAs), and we don’t even know if it’s an RPG, guns & conversation, shooter, or what. We’ll find out just what it is at the VGA awards on Saturday.

ACTIVATE SPECULATOTRON.