Mass Effect 2 Article Round-up
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We'll start out with the official website, where information about the Cerberus Network and a brand new FAQ is online:
Q: So what exactly is carried over from Mass Effect 1? I had a Level 60 with specter gear?
The decisions, actions, and plot states you created in Mass Effect 1 will persist in Mass Effect 2. Additionally other factors such as your character level will grant you certain bonuses as well. If you acquired a high level of currency you will start Mass Effect 2 with a small boost to your starting income. Additionally if you completed the game as a paragon or renegade, a fraction of that alignment will persist into Mass Effect 2. This is designed to help give players who went the extra mile in Mass Effect 1 a quantitative boost in Mass Effect 2.
Then drop by IGN again for their video review and an article on the disc-swapping that's required on the Xbox 360 version:
The game will make players re-insert disc 1 as they make their way towards the end levels. BioWare producer Jessie Houston explained to IGN just what happens.
"Players will start with Disc 1 for the introduction and early level choices, then go through a funnel level of sorts, where they will need to switch to Disc 2," Houston said. "From there they will play the middle portion of the game, which is mostly on Disc 2. Then after another funnel point in the story they'll go back to Disc 1."
Houston noted this decision had nothing to do with combating potential piracy, and was done to help alleviate breaking up the gameplay during the middle portions of Mass Effect 2.
"The decision was made due to the nature of having to go to two discs for what is a non-linear game and fitting the right amount of content onto each of the discs," he added. "This way players won't have to swap their discs multiple times during the middle of the game."
Before passing by MTV's Movie Blog for word on the "tremendous amount of interest" in developing a Mass Effect film:
As anyone who's played the first game knows, the universe in "Mass Effect" is an extremely well-developed one, a setting ripe for multimedia exploitation. There are already books and a Dark Horse comic book line. Since movies are my beat, I had to ask Hudson if there are any plans to bring BioWare's unique sci-fi universe to screens large or small.
"Obviously we have a tremendous amount of interest from people in Hollywood to make a major motion picture about 'Mass Effect,'" he said. "The most important thing for us is, we don't just want to see a movie get made. We want to see a great movie get made, if it's going to get done at all."
Fair enough. It sounds like there's definitely interest internally -- and there should be, given the depth of the "Mass Effect" setting -- but time is on BioWare's side. So why not wait until the right idea comes along?
And then concluding the tour with visits to GameInformer for a closer look at Mass Effect 2's cast, Games Abyss for 5 obscure facts about Mass Effect, NowGamer for a list of the 10 greatest moments in Mass Effect, and One Last Continue for a conspiracy theory on the Zaeed DLC:
The reason we were so surprised at Mass Effect 2 was due to Simon being able to access the debug menu of the title simply from two face button presses, and on the public show-floor debug unit no less, giving us access to a wide range of information such as a character lists, locations, and weapons. We spoke to EA last August with regards to this information and we came to what you may call a Gentleman's Agreement, promising that we wouldn't divulge the information so far in advance so that (we wouldn't screw) with their plans for promoting the title. Therefore we sat on this information since then, and whilst the game hasn't been released yet we're mere hours away from the worlds first reviews coming via the Internet so it's fairly safe to say that we aren't stepping on as many toes as we could have been.
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One of those names, as you can see, is the recently announced DLC mercenary character Zaeed. Whilst we were browsing the list at Gamescom we knew about Thane, Grunt had been recently revealed, and we were glad to see the return of Garrus and Tali. Slightly disappointed not to see Wrex but as the three of us had different feelings on him we let that one slide. What we did realize is that we were actually looking at the squad roster, as it was set, from May 20th 2009. What's the big deal you ask? Zaeed has been announced as free (day one DLC) for first hand buyers of Mass Effect 2 with access to the Cerberus Network. Sure he'll be available for $15 to those who get a second hand copy of the game but is that really enough?
My main problem lies with whether or not Bioware are merely unlocking a character already present on the disc, or have removed him completely in order to prevent consumers from having an excuse for waiting on the game appearing on the second-hand market. I have no problem with Bioware and Electronic Arts taking precautionary measures with regards to the Cerberus Network in order to make sure that the consumer who gets the most value for money is the first time buyer, as well as maximizing profits of course, more it's the method employed in doing so that gets me. I've emailed EA's press team to try and find out if he's actually DLC, or unlockable content., and if it is indeed the latter should second hand buyers have to pay for content they already own on disc? If you recall Namco faced much anger from the 360 community for the DLC debacle surrounding Beautiful Katamari, and rightly so. On another note, if you're interested in looking at a list of weaponry you can look at, and watch that here. And for those who think this information may just be fake then here's an incredibly short in-game video taken that shows the debug menu, albeit in slightly blurry format.
