The intergalactic hunt for minerals may not be Mass Effect 2's most marketable feature, but BioWare's latest update to the Xbox 360 version of the sci-fi role-playing game has "optimized" its mundane planet scanning, resulting in many happy players.

"Scanning for minerals has been optimized" may sound vague, but the small change has been met with glee at the official BioWare forums, where the latest update was announced. Scan bigger, scan faster, experience less regret on your deathbed wasting hours looking for Element Zero deposits. And read the full change list after this.

• Scanning for minerals has been optimized
• Fixed an issue with marking all entries as viewed in the Journal
• Fixed an issue relating to text and the menu screen
• Fixed an issue relating to players starting a new game and loading a save
• Fixed multiple issues when loading a save containing DLC when DLC isn't present
• Fixed an issue with ammo flashing when it can't be picked up
• Fixed an issue with crosshairs
• Fixed an issue with Grunt's Fortification power
• Fixed an issue with enemies and cover
• Fixed an issue where players could receive additional talent points
• Fixed an issue where squad members would overwrite ammo powers the player had assigned them

May 17 - Xbox 360 Mass Effect 2 Patch [BioWare Social Network - thanks, HoMan!]

In Mass Effect 2, your space-faring hero can wear a helmet. It's not mandatory. I choose to have my character not wear a helmet. What's that signify?

Wearing a helmet provides statistical advantages which can make a tough fight easier or a resistant conversationalist pliable. Should Commander Shepard don the Breather Helmet, she'll enjoy 5% improvement to her health. Wearing the Death Mask, she has a 10% boost in negotiating power.

But wearing any helmet obscures Shepard's face. This leaves her incapable of visibly emoting during Mass Effect 2's many close-up interactive conversation scenes. It also makes her look over-armored and as coolly detached as someone who talks to you indoors without removing their sunglasses. With her helmet on, I can't see Shepard frown or smile. I just see her metal-encased cranium nod or shake, her voice muffled.

When I started Mass Effect 2, I had Shepard wear a helmet. I wanted the statistical advantages that came with any one of them. That's a choice of math over aesthetics, of course, my standard priorities while playing a game. That's a sound strategy for success in a virtual world: Be better at something; don't care how you look doing it.

But not seeing Shepard's face bothered me more with each muffled conversation. I realized that I valued emotional expression in Mass Effect 2 over a 5% health bonus.

By Mass Effect 2's third hour I removed Shepard's helmet. I haven't put it on her in the 26 hours I've played of the game since then.

Some games don't bother you with these choices. The creators of Gears of War have already made the functionally illogical decision for us. They portray their games' heroic super-soldiers in heavy armor suits that have no accompanying helmets. The Gears people must know it makes no sense for Marcus Fenix to fight a war with his head shielded only by a do-rag. But they must also know that a helmet-free Fenix is a character with whom I can better empathize. Leave the stoic coolness to the eternally strange Master Chief, whose Halo helmet disguises any and all emotion. As a friend of mine recently observed, there's a reason Iron Man movies tend to include shots of Robert Downey, Jr. in his suit but without his helmet.

Mass Effect 2 is, like many Bioware games, celebrated for the choices it offers its players. Those choices reveal something about those who play the game, illuminating a gamer's decision to plumb their darkest desires or walk a path of virtue.

I had not expected this game to also test whether I cared about numbers more than I do faces, about survival advantages more than I do facial expressions.

I've learned where I stand. More importantly, I've learned that I stand without a helmet on my space-hero's head.

Well, according to Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, it is...

Sci-fi role-playing franchise Mass Effect. Here's the quote — from an interview with website Gamasutra:

The thing that was cool was that Mass Effect is kind of an RPG for me, with the cover-based shooting. I think there's a reason why it's been successful. Because gamers love Gears.

It's like well, here's something that's like Gears, but even has more depth, and a different setting. It's Star Wars for this new generation, right? Well, and the addition of the potential for having sex in a video game is also very powerful.

That could be a throw away quote, sure, but I'd say that the Star Wars for "this new generation" is, wait for it, Star Wars. Nothing against Mass Effect, nothing against Dude Huge. Star Wars, as much as George Lucas continues to mangle it, still has wide appeal with younger generations.

More in the link below.

Cliff Bleszinski: Creativity, Design, and Reality [Gamasutra via IndustryGamers]

There's more "premium" downloadable content on the way for EA's Mass Effect 2, and while this newest pack doesn't introduce a new character, it does have you playing John Connor over five missions.

The pack is called "Overlord", the entire thing set on a single planet as you try to shut down a dangerous enemy AI, who looks like the lovechild of Tron and SHODAN. Hope you like shooting at robots!

Despite the DLC being set in one place, you'll again be given access to the Hammerhead hovertank, with promises that you'll be able to explore the planet between indoor sections.

Overlord will be out next month. No word yet on pricing.

Mass Effect 2 Overlord DLC coming in June [Gamerzines]

On Sunday, May 2, at 11am Eastern Time, I was playing Mass Effect 2. My wife took a photo. At the same time (15:00 U.T.C.), around the world, more than 10,000 other people snapped photos too. This is what they were doing while I played:

In Hawley, Pennsylvania, one person was solving a Lost jigsaw puzzle:

In Las Vegas, Nevada, a homeless man stood with his possessions:

In Santa Barbara, people prepared a makeshift beach memorial for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan:

In Hanoi, Vietnam, men were breakdancing:

In Kaski, Nepal, a Toyota SUV went on sale:

In South Africa, the sun was about to set:

And there I was, in Brooklyn, playing Mass Effect 2:

These shots were all taken on the same minute as part of a project commissioned by the New York Times Lens blog. Today, the Times launched an interactive globe that allows you to find all the photos taken in that minute, including the ones you see above.

Launch the Times' globe and start looking at images. You can find my photo in the "play" section, amid the stack of photos taken in New York.

The Moment You've Waited For [New York Times Lens Blog]

This is no video game. This is an image of a gigantic baby star inside a galactic bubble 4,300 light-years from Earth, captured by Europe's Herschel space telescope. Has video game space ever been so beautiful?

The small white spot on the bottom edge of the ethereal-looking galactic bubble RCW 120 is actually an infant star, only tens of thousands of years old, before its nuclear furnace ignites. Even as an infant, the star is 8 to 10 times the size of our sun.

Interesting statistics, but what drew me to this story was how advances in astronomy help shape the way our games depict outer space. Granted, the Herschel space telescope works in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter range, so the picture isn't an accurate visual representation of what we're looking at, but it's pictures like these that shape the way game creators shape their universes.

Here are a few examples of how outer space is depicted in video games.

Wing Commander

We've sure come a long way, haven't we?

Homeworld

Homeworld is one of the first games I played that made outer space look truly appealing. There isn't much in the way of detail, but the color palette brightened up the normally inky depths considerably.

EVE Online

If there's one thing EVE Online has always done right, it's gripping, edge-of-your-seat adventure.

No, of course not. It's the game's depiction of outer space that lures many unsuspecting future EVE addicts into the fold, promising countless colorful star systems to explore, mine, and eventually die within. Graphic updates in recent years have made the universe of EVE Online more beautiful than ever.

Mass Effect 2

You don't really spend too much time freely exploring space in the Mass Effect series, but the few free-roaming space faring moments you do enjoy take place on colorful star fields filled with various nebulae and gas pockets. Not bad for what is essentially point and click space exploration.

Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online is another game that nails space, presenting distinctive and colorful spatial phenomena at every turn. Some would even say it outdoes the television shows and movies in terms of capturing the alien beauty of the airless void.

It's interesting to see how scientific advances color the way we experience the final frontier. As telescope technology advances and we push further out beyond the bounds of our tiny solar system, our view of outer space will grow more complete, allowing us to experience more of the beauty of the universe in real life and the games we play.

Herschel space telescope pierces giant star bubble [BBC]

Tomorrow, two bucks will get you a set of tricked out armor for Mass Effect 2, that turns Commander Shepard into "The Equalizer," and we don't mean this guy.

Billing the loadout as turning Shep into a one-man army, The Equalizer delivers the "Capacitor Helmet," the "Archon Visor," and the "Inferno Armor" to your armor locker. They aren't just for looks, either. Says BioWare:

• "The Capacitor Helmet stores power for kinetic barriers, allowing Shepard's shields to recharge faster."
• "The Archon Visor manages omni-tools and biotic amps, reducing the recharge time of Shepard's powers."
• "The powered Inferno Armor speeds up Shepard's movements and increases his tech and biotic power damage, additionally stress analysis software even gives him an edge in negotiations outside of combat."

All yours for 160 Microsoft points, or 160 BioWare points if you've got the PC version. The Equalizer is available tomorrow. The Equalizer was on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS.

Mass Effect: Downloadable Content [BioWare]

It's that time again! Time to watch the clock, solve the clues, and save big on the Xbox 360 titles featured all day long in Amazon's Gold Box. Is BioShock 2 for $40 really a good deal?

Either way, that's what Amazon.com is leading off with today, giving Xbox 360 owners a chance to revisit Rapture at 33% off the asking price. By the time you get done with shipping costs you aren't saving too much, but I suppose it beats not saving anything at all.

Then we have today's timed deals. The first deal, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for $46.49, is about to expire. Next up looks to be Mass Effect, unless I am misinterpreting the clue, "Prepare to journey to the darkest reaches of space in this RPG hit." Why not Mass Effect 2? Wait for it...

Here's how the rest of the day unfolds:
11AM Pacific: BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger...
2PM: Rock out with your Stratocaster.
4PM: A legendary war between two of science-fiction's most popular characters.
6PM: Charge up your Xbox 360 controllers.
8PM: This hit franchise comes to life on Xbox 360.

So I'm guessing Mass Effect 2, some guitar thing, Aliens Vs. Predator, a small duck, and I don't know, Final Fantasy?

See anything you like?

Amazon Gold box Deals [Amazon.com - Thanks everyone!]

Mass Effect 2's first substantial piece of downloadable content since the game's release, "Kasumi - Stolen Memory," does a lot of things right as far as DLC goes. Problem is, it also does a lot of things wrong.

Presenting gamers with the chance to add another member to their crew of galactic misfits, Stolen Memory has you travelling to the Citadel to recruit the titular Kasumi, before heading off-world to break into a vault belonging to a very angry South African man.

Sounds good in theory! The problems come in the execution. And I'll have you know before we go any further, I'll need to bring up some spoilers in relation to this DLC.

Loved
Off-World – Stolen Memory gives you a new planet to explore, Bekenstein, which is the setting for an art heist you're there to help out with. It's a beautiful planet, all blue skies and green trees and water features, and makes for a pleasant change from all the space stations and metal corridors you're used to from Mass Effect 2's main storyline. The actual mission is also refreshingly different. While criminally short, it tasks you with wandering around the home of arms dealer Donovan Hock, undermining his security in an attempt to get into his art vault. It's hardly challenging, but it's nice not to have a mission revolve entirely around gun play.

Hated
Doesn't fit – This entire piece of DLC just feels wrong in its timing and its intent. It's April, and this game came out in January. If you're keen enough to be buying this, you're also probably keen enough to have finished the game. So why am I recruiting somebody for a mission I've already finished? And why am I getting emails about it from a man I've already told in no uncertain terms to piss off, and who probably wants me dead? This would have been fine if, like Zaeed, it was available close to the game's launch. Coming so far after its release just seems disjointed.

Boring– It doesn't help that Kasumi is boring. You'd think that an art thief who looks like a Sith Lord would be an interesting character, but no. Her lines are delivered in a sterile monologue, her story is never properly explained or developed, and her mission isn't long enough to get a feel for the character. Don't go expecting her to contribute much to a full playthrough of the game, either, as like Zaeed she's not available for inter-mission chats.

I appreciate that Stolen Memory is trying something a little different, but for me, coming so long after I'd finished the main storyline it just feels a little pointless. I don't need any more crew for a mission that no longer exists, and even if I did, I'd need someone a lot more interesting than the disappointingly bland, love-sick thief on offer here. Maybe some post-game DLC is in order next time?

Kasumi - Stolen Memory was released on April 6, 2010, as downloadable content for Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360 (version reviewed) and PC. Sells for 560 Microsoft Points. A copy of the DLC was provided for review by the publisher. Played mission to completion, which took around 45 minutes.

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Since Mass Effect 2's newest piece of downloadable content, Kasumi - Stolen Memory, deals with crime in the art world, we're left wondering who was behind this, surely the galaxy's most well-endowed art heist?

After the Mona Lisa's dour face, art's most memorable piece of human anatomy is probably the junk found on Michelangelo's David. It's just...out there. There's even a Simpsons episode devoted to it.

Well, and this isn't really a spoiler, David turns up in Mass Effect 2, during a new downloadable mission involving Kasumi Goto, the newest member of Commander Shepard's crew. With the game being set in 2183, he's looking a little worse for wear. There are large cracks on his face and torso, he's missing an arm, a leg and...something else.

Yes, his junk. In the intervening decades David's most famous asset has been lost. Actually, scratch that, it looks like it's been clawed off in a fit of rage. Leaving us to wonder: have BioWare and/or EA engaged in a spot of artistic self-censorship? Or is this a spot of visual story-telling, hinting at some dire future Earth, where not only is the Italian government incapable of ensuring David's well-being, but future Florence is crawling with master art thieves.

Thieves with large hammers. And somewhere to to stash a giant marble ballsack.