“I wouldn’t say one genre is winning out over another. We just want to tell the best story within the context of an amazing shooter,” producer Michael Gamble told CVG in response to a challenge over Mass Effect’s genre.

Gamle said the return of more RPG-like features, a major feature of the first game but diminished in the second, would help span the genre divide.

“I think in Mass Effect 3 we’ve actually brought back a lot of the customisation elements that were missing in Mass Effect 2: Weapons, armour, powers – each power now has nine possible ways of evolution,” he said.

“Like any transition between games, we want to polish everything.”

Mass Effect 3 is due in March on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[image]

Via EG.

Speaking to BioWare community manager Mike Gamble at gamescom, NowGamer asked if it were possible for Shepard to fail to stop the Reapers, a race of sentient machines, from destroying all biological life throughout the universe.

Gamble said “Yes”. Twice.

BioWare has indicated that Shepard’s success against the Reapers will vary depending on how united the disparate species are – clearly there’s room for epic failure.

In Mass Effect 2, it was possible for Commander Shepard to succeed against the Collectors but die in the process, leaving players to try again or start a fresh save in the third title.

Mass Effect 3 is due in March on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Thanks, Gamefront.

“We had the ability to mod weapons in Mass Effect 1 and somewhat in Mass Effect 2, but it never felt as real or as physical as it should be, and there weren’t enough interesting decisions to make,” producer Casey Hudson told RipTen.

“We had a tremendous response to Mass Effect 2, but one of the things people wanted to see was more intelligent decision making in terms of roleplaying progression, so [the new weapons mod system] one of the things we did to address that.”

Hudson allowed that criticism of Mass Effect 2′s linearity of gameplay was fair, and said games need not just character progression, but the ability to make choices suitable to the player’s own style.

“There’s so much stuff that we’ve added for Mass Effect 3, in terms of the number of different weapon types, the different mods, you character progression, the way Shepard is able to move around the environment, new weapons like the omniblade or hand grenades… When you add all that stuff up and you can start naturally choosing how you play,” he said of the upcoming sequel.

“Then when you get to the point of progressing your character – levelling up, or modifying your weapons – you really know how you want to choose.”

See the full interview below.

Mass Effect 3 releases for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March.

All four issues of both Redemption and Evolution are available. Redemption outlines events leading into Mass Effect 2, and fills in the adventures of Liara T’Soni – some compensation, and explanation, for her absence as a squad member in-game. Evolution explores the history of the Cerberus organisation, telling the origin story of the Illusive Man.

There’s also a seven-page preview of the upcoming series, Invasion, which as you’ve probably guess by the name, ties in with the upcoming Mass Effect 3.

You need a Dark Horse digital log-in if you want to save the free content to your account and thereby access it after today. Dark Horse Digital offers browser-based access to comics; you won’t be able to download them.

Unfortunately, in the four or so hours since the deal was announced, interest has been so high that getting onto Dark Horse’s digital portal is nearly impossible.

“We apologize for all the issues people are encountering with getting the Mass Effect comics from digital.darkhorse.com. We have had overwhelming response to our giveaway, and it is causing some extreme lag in accessing the site, as well as the comics. If you are having issues getting through, please keep trying and have patience,” Dark Horse commented. That site’s struggling, too.

This makes it difficult to verify whether the comics will be available for free outside the US, but if we learn anything we’ll let you know. Trust me, I’ll be trying all day.

Mass Effect 3 is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March 2012.

Thanks, Joystiq.

• Ms Splosion Man is landing on XBL July 13 but you already knew that. We think.
• The digital comics update is live for PSP.
• The first screens for Saint Seiya Senki on PS3 have been released.
• China will finally get the WoW expansion Cataclysm next month.
• A Cabela’s hunting game for Kinect has been announced. Yeehaw, etc.
• The League of Legends championship had nearly 1.7 million viewers.
• Some screens for Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime are here.
• It’s EA week on D2D. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are 60 percent off today.
• A roundtable transcription with Aksys chats about 999, Anime Expo, more.
• PopCap games are 50 percent off on XBL.
• Watch this Star Fox 64 3D control introduction video.
• Def Jam Rapstar, Dinosaurs and Pirates are heading to PS Home today.
• Some hi-res E3 screens of Dead Island are here. Three featuring Logan are here.
• Hitman Absolution Avatar items have hit XBL.
• Some screens for Ace Combat Assault Horizon are available to ogle.
• A Prototype 2 Facebook tie-in game is headed your way.
• That Pottermore thing? A leaked document says it’s an online game.
• Kotaku has a list of games announced at E3 as having a 2012 release date.
• A free-to-play version of Infinity Blade will be released in Japan via Mobage.

The comic allows players to make major decisions from the first Mass Effect game to create an appropriate save file for Mass Effect 2. It was created in collaboration with Dark Horse, and allows for a handful of key decisions to deviate from the “canonical” course.

Genesis is available via the Mass Effect DLC page on BioWare’s site. It was also recently released for Xbox 360.

As the first game is avilable on both PC and X360, but not PS3, the former two versions come at a premium of 320 BioWare or MS Points respectively, while PS3 owners can nab it for free from the PSN.

Thanks, Blue’s News.

The BioWare title also won three other awards for: Best Game Design, Best Writing, and Console Game of the Year,.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood won for Best Audio and Best Visual Arts, ModNation Racers won the Innovation Award, and DeatSpank won for Best Downloadable Game.

The full list of nominees and winners can be found below, courtesy of GamePolitics.

Game of the Year – Mass Effect 2 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Dead Rising 2
• FIFA 11
• Mass Effect 2
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Console Game – Mass Effect 2 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Dead Rising 2
• FIFA 11
• Mass Effect 2
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Game on the Go – Osmos for iPad (Hemisphere Games)

• Lil’ Pirates
• Osmos for iPad
• Scrabble for iPad
• A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks
• Trainyard

Best Downloadable Game – Deathspank (Hothead Games/Electronic Arts)

• Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
• Deathspank
• HOARD
• Shank
• A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks

Best Audio – Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
• Mass Effect 2
• SpiderMan: Shattered Dimensions
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Social/Casual Game – Pocket God on Facebook (Frima Studio/Bolt Creative)

• Dex Hamilton: Bug Quest
• GardenMind
• Mercenaries of War
• Pocket God on Facebook
• Pot Farm

Best Game Design – Mass Effect 2 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Deathspank
• Mass Effect 2
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
• Trainyard

Best Technology – Kinect for XBOX 360 (Big Park Game Studio/Microsoft)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Kinect for XBOX 360
• Mass Effect 2
• Scrabble for iPad
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved

Best Visual Arts – Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Mass Effect 2
• SpiderMan: Shattered Dimensions
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
• Tron: Evolution

Best Writing – Mass Effect 2 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)

• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
• Mass Effect 2
• Prince of Persia – The Forgotten Sands
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Student Game – WOMP! (XnEh?/Centre for Digital Media)

• Codex
• Ginkgo
• Hootlin
• WOMP!

Innovation Award ModNation Racers (United Front Games/SCE)

• Kinect Joy Ride
• ModNation Racers
• Scrabble for iPad
• SpiderMan: Shattered Dimensions
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved

The comic was included in the PS3 release of Mass Effect 2 to explain the story and make key choices from events in the first game of the series, which was then published by Microsoft Game Studios as a 360 exclusive before developer BioWare was taken over by EA.

Unlike PS3 owners, who got it free, 360 owners will have to fork out 320 MS points to own the comic as well as own a copy of Mass Effect 2. You can queue it up here.

Thanks, Joystiq.

“Happy to confirm Mass Effect 3 supports wider options for love interests including same-sex for male and female characters, reactive to how you interact with them in-game,” Hudson tweeted.

In an interview with PC Gamer, the producer commented that there may be no new core romance characters in Mass Effect 3, but that the mix of crews from the two earlier games could have interesting results.

“We’re not introducing any new characters that are going to be love interests. There’s some new characters, but generally it’s going to be the interplay between the characters from 2 and the returning ones from 1, and then Liara as the one that’s… either asexual or omnisexual, depends on how you look at it,” he said.

This could cause anxiety for those lonely heroes who sought solace elsewhere while their original paramour was otherwise engaged – as subtly hinted at in Mass Effect 2.

“So even something like: if you had a Mass Effect 1 romance and you didn’t have a Mass Effect 2 romance, so you stay true to the character from the first game, there’s a scene where you look at the picture of that character, and that’s essentially the romance scene in Mass Effect 2,” Hudson explained.

“I think when people realised that we were thinking about that kind of thing, and that we were going to reflect those kinds of decisions, then it’s like ‘Wow, the game actually knows that I didn’t cheat on my Mass Effect 1 love interest. So if it knows that, then it probably knows other stuff that it will reflect. Then that means I need to think about that stuff [when] talking to characters and making decisions and the like.’”

Mass Effect offered three romance options, while Mass Effect 2 featured at least six (arguably eight). Mass Effect 3 is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012.

Thanks, GayGamer.

Scylla Costa and Brenon Holmes of BioWare will give a lecture on production of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 titled: “From Boxes to Life! How to Prototype and Develop Creatures: Mass Effect 2 and 3 Case Study”.

Slant Six’s Paul Martin will also provide a lecture on how to “Supersize Your Production Pipe!”, where he will provide insight on how to create new, or enhance existing content with authoring tools and data transformation pipelines.

More sessions are to be announced over the coming weeks.

Last week, lectures for Brink, Oregon Trail, and Crysis 2 were announced.

GDC Europe takes place alongside gamescom from August 15-17 in Cologne.

Canada is set to celebrate its position as the world’s third largest videogame developer – in terms of number of people employed – with an evening of glitz, glamour and the bestowing of accolades at next month’s 2nd annual Canadian Videogame Awards.

Alongside the EA and Ubisoft headliners in Mass Effect 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood with seven nominations each, FIFA 11, Dead Rising 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction have each picked up two nominations in the Game of the Year and Best Console Game categories, whilst Ron Gilbert’s DeathSpank has secured a nomination in the Best Game Design category.

The full list of nominations are:

Game of the Year

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Dead Rising 2
FIFA 11
Mass Effect 2
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Console Game

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Dead Rising 2
FIFA 11
Mass Effect 2
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Game on the Go

Lil’ Pirates
Osmos for iPad
Scrabble for iPad
A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks
Trainyard

Best Downloadable Game

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
Deathspank
HOARD
Shank
A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks

Best Audio

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
Mass Effect 2
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Social/Casual Game

Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist
GardenMind
Mercenaries of War
Pocket God on Facebook
Pot Farm

Best Game Design

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Deathspank
Mass Effect 2
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
Trainyard

Best Technology

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Kinect for XBOX 360
Mass Effect 2
Scrabble for iPad
Your Shape Fitness Evolved

Best Visual Arts

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Mass Effect 2
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
Tron: Evolution

Best Writing

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
Mass Effect 2
Prince of Persia – The Forgotten Sands
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Best Student Game

Codex
Ginkgo
Hootlin
WOMP!

Innovation Award

Kinect Joy Ride
ModNation Racers
Scrabble for iPad
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Your Shape Fitness Evolved

Thanks, Gamasutra.

“We’ve been trying to think of a way that makes sense for people to experience Mass Effect with their friends,” the series executive producer told Game Informer as part of the latest issue’s coverage.

“We haven’t yet come up with a way to do that, so we don’t have anything to announce at this time. But, obviously, multiplayer is something we want to do more of in the future as a company.”

Asked about the possibility of an MMO, Hudson admitted he feels the franchise is a good match.

“A lot of people say that they want to see an MMO, I think that kind of makes sense for this universe,” he said.

“Part of what you’re trying to do is save the universe so you can live in it. That’s part of the promise, I think, for any great IP. It has to be a world worth saving…

“I think Mass Effect has that quality to it. If you get rid of the Reapers and win that, wouldn’t it be amazing to just live on the Citadel or just take a ship to Omega? That makes sense.”

Mass Effect 3 is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 before the end of the year.

IGN reports the RPG passed the sales milestone in just two weeks, faster than the best-selling original.

BioWare has announced that anyone who buys Dragon Age 2 between now and April 30 will get a download code that can be used to get a free PC copy of Mass Effect 2.

Better, anyone who purchased Dragon Age 2 in any form – PC, Xbox 360 or PS3 – gets the same deal. Console gamers won’t be able to get a free console version of Mass Effect 2, obviously: it’s PC or nothing.

BioWare’s site has the instructions on how to get the code. Get to it.

IGN had the trailer, which is embedded below.

The titular arrival refers to the long-feared invasion by the series’ overarching protagonist, a race of beings known as the Reapers, and as we know from early promos of Mass Effect 3, shit’s about to get real for Earth.

The DLC was first referenced via the Cerberus Network, leaked in a patch, teased by a Facebook campaign and celebrated by a Dragon Age 2 leaflet inclusion. It’s been marketed more heavily than some full releases.

Arrival launches on March 29, which is today we’re I’m sitting. Are you excited? I’m excited.

Thanks, Ray.

Speaking in a live chat session, Walters commented on a recently announced Dark Horse series.

Walters said current series Evolution, which delves into the past of enigmatic Mass Effect 2 character The Illusive Man, filled in backstory while the new series would return to the franchise’s current events.

“One of the things we want to do, like we did with Redemption where it was very closely tied to the game itself … We are going back into the time line of the games with this instalment,” he said.

Redemption acted as a prequel to Mass Effect 2, explaining much of Liara T’soni’s story which wasn’t covered in the game, and setting the scene for DLC pack Lair of the Shadow Broker.

Walters comments suggest the new series, which will be detailed in a few days, may bridge the gaps between Arrival, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Pressed for a release date, Walters said the series would “maybe” release in Northern autumn, but added that he couldn’t be quoted.

Mass Effect 3 is due at the end of the year on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The latest and suspected final DLC, The Arrival, was detailed today.

Art from Mass Effect: Evolution.

Joystiq has gone hands-on with the new DLC pack and says that Shepard will be travelling alone in the final piece of story in ME2.

“Shepard’s alone, through the whole thing, and that adds a layer of complexity,” Jesse Houston, producer at Bioware, tells the site.

The full preview of the DLC reveals that it can be accessed at any point after completing the ‘Horizon’ mission in-game and offers instances of stealth where fights can be side-stepped entirely by avoiding contact with the enemy.

The final set of Cerberus News Network updates have also leaked – they’ll be appearing in Mass Effect 2 over the next week in the run up to the DLC, and tease big changes ahead for the Mass Effect universe.

We’re not going to post those here because they contain spoilers, but you can find them over on NeoGAF. ‘Arrival’ will be available for Mass Effect 2 on PS3, 360 and PC this coming Tuesday.

EG.de first reported on the news, but EA UK has now confirmed it.

The DLC, which will launch on PC, 360 and PS3, sees Shepard being sent to the “border of the galaxy” to rescue a female undercover agent that might have evidence for an upcoming Reaper invasion.

Sound familiar?

Admiral Hackett, who is voiced by Lance Henriksen, will also return to play a “major” role.

“All year, we have been extremely honored and humbled by the reception we have received for Mass Effect 2 from players around the world, including our post release DLC,” said series producer, Casey Hudson.

“Mass Effect: Arrival is an exciting extension to Mass Effect 2 and will show players just how close the Reapers are to returning and completing their deadly harvest.”

The DLC is the final pack for Mass Effect 2 before this holiday’s release of Mass Effect 3. It’ll launch for 560 BioWare/MS points on PC and 360. It’ll be £5.49 on PSN.

There’s two new screens below. BioWare’s been teasing the screens all week on its Facebook page, the most recent coming last night.

Right. We get the point. BioWare want us to be gagging over it. Well, we are. Hopefully they are pleased.

Check out the picture below.

The countdown in the picture says: 2 days 3 hours 25 minutes 26 seconds.

Or is it going by the week? We’re unsure. And whether the countdown pertains to the release or the announcement is unknown. It could also signify when the next screen is coming out.

Teasers.

Thanks, Mike.

It was released on the developer’s Facebook page last night.

The content hasn’t been formally announced yet by EA, but has been teased recently with a single leaflet in copies of Dragon Age II.

It’s thought the DLC will bridge the gap between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 ahead of its upcoming holiday release.

BioWare’s promised to release a new screen tomorrow” if the current shot reaches certain targets.

Speaking at last week’s Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, as reported by IGN, Riccitiello said the percentage of Mass Effect 2 PS3 sales through the PlayStation Store was a “meaningful”, double-digit amount, despite EA doing “absolutely nothing” to promote it.

“An unmarketed game,” he emphasised, “One year after the original was done on the Xbox and the PC, we released the PS3 and managed to do very, very well with it.”

Sony offers less than a dozen retail titles for downloads through its US PlayStation Network, and Ricitiello says the release of Mass Effect 2 was “more about proving it can be done than it was proving what the opportunity would be”.

“Sony had never done a day and day release,” he explained.

“They were very cautious about their infrastructure so it was mostly a technology test.”

Riccitiello also commented on why Sony and Microsoft are cautious in their approach to digital distribution of major releases.

“They have got to manage both selling boxes at retail, and it’s generally a pretty thin margin business. And so they basically negotiate and leverage shelf space on the promise of making retail margin on software.”

A leaflet that is Mass Effect-based says:

“The Arrival has begun. Invasion a commence.”

Details on the DLC, known as The Arrival, leaked out a couple of weeks ago. It’s thought this will be the pack that will bridge Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 before it releases this holiday season. It should explain how the Reapers end up on Earth.

Other than that bit of story, December’s teaser trailer and that the composer of Black Swan, Clint Mansell, will score the soundtrack, not much else has been heard of the game since it was announced.

That, hopefully, should all change in the run-in to E3.

Dragon Age II releases next Friday in the UK for PS3, 360 and PC. Mass Effect 3 launches this holiday season for the same platforms.

Thanks, PALGN.

The Rockstar San Diego western won four awards on the night, including the main one for Game of the Year.

But others including Cut the Rope, Limbo, Mass Effect 2 and Minecraft were also honoured, the latter of the lot picking up two awards,

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux also picked up his Lifetime Achievement award, while Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki got his Pioneer Award.

At the IGFs, meanwhile, Frictional’s Amnesia won in the Direct2Drive Vision, Technical Excellence, and probably most memorably, Excellence in Audio categories, taking home $15,000 in prize money as a result.

Minecraft scored both the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Audience Award, to take home $22,500 for Mojang.

The beautiful pixel adventure Nidhogg took the Nuovo, and was joined by Bit.Trip Runner in the Excellence in Visual Art category. Excellence in Design was awarded to the glorious time sink Desktop Dungeons.

This year marked the thirteenth annual IGF Awards, and saw a record-breaking number of entrants.

See a full list of winners and prize details from the IGFAs and the GDCAs below.

Thanks, GoNintendo and GameSpot.

Game Developers Choice Awards

• Best Game – Red Dead Redemption
• Best Game Design – Red Dead Redemption
• Innovation – Minecraft
• Best Technology – Red Dead Redemption
• Best Handheld Game – Cut the Rope
• Best Audio – Red Dead Redemption
• Best Downloadable Game – Minecraft
• Best Writing – Mass Effect 2
• Best Debut Game – Minecraft
• Best Visual Arts – Limbo
• Pioneer Award – Yu Suzuki
• Lifetime Achievement – Peter Molyneux

Independent Games Festival Awards

• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($20,000)
  - Minecraft, by Mojang
• Nuovo Award ($5,000)
  - Nidhogg, by Messhof
• Excellence in Visual Art ($2,500)
  - BIT.TRIP RUNNER, by Gaijin Games
• Excellence in Audio ($2,500)
  - Amnesia: The Dark Descent, by Frictional Games
• Excellence in Design ($2,500)
  - Desktop Dungeons, by QCF Design
• Best Student Game ($2,500)
  - FRACT, by University of Montreal
• Technical Excellence ($2,500)
  - Amnesia: The Dark Descent, by Frictional Games
• Best Mobile Game ($2,500)
  - Helsing’s Fire, Ratloop
• Audience Award ($2,500)
  - Minecraft, by Mojang
• Direct2Drive Vision Award ($10,000)
  - Amnesia: The Dark Descent, by Frictional Games

“We responded to the fan feedback for Mass Effect 2, a lot of that came directly from listening to the fans and trying to address the comments they had to make the game even better,” Muzyka said in an interview with IGN.

“And we’re gonna take all that feedback from Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 and apply it to Mass Effect 3 … I think the best is yet to come”

“We were actually more than happy to do small directional changes along the way,” Zeshuk chimed in. “As Ray said largely for feedback reasons.

“It’s actually great to get feedback to improve what you’ve made.

“I think we never really had to compromise on anything,” he added.

Zeshuk outlined some expected changes for Mass Effect 3 based on fan responses.

“Some of the elements that we’ve talked about is ‘Hey, look, we’re gonna re-explore some of the whole research and inventory and all that kind of stuff’ … that’s probably one of the areas.

“And hey, I’ll say it for the camera, I love the planet scanning. But apparently other people don’t like it as much. There’s always something to work on.”

As a special, can’t-justify-headlining-this bonus, Muzyka pretty much confirmed again that the series will continue beyond Mass Effect 3, referring to the trilogy as “the initial three games”, and at another point, mentioning all three games by title and adding “and moving on from there”.

Watch the full interview below.

This week’s selection are after the break.

The Beatles: Rock Band, PS3/Xbox 360/Wii – £5 delivered

For a while, Rock Band was bigger than bigger than God. I guess it wasn’t to last, but the fact that The Beatles collaborated on a version of Rock Band is still a huge achievement. I think it’s brilliant too, and Helter Skelter is probably the best song on any version of any music game. For a fiver, if you’ve already got the plastic instruments required, this is a must have.

Thief: The Complete Collection, PC‚ £3.98 delivered

Eidos are going to be talking about ThiFOURf at GDC next week, but if you’re in the mood for revisiting the earlier games in the series, well here you can get all three for just under £4. That’s £1.33 a pop. You could always try breaking in Amazon’s warehouse and robbing a copy, but I don’t think the risk is worth it for £4 worth of goods.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Xbox Original, 600 MS points
(Xbox Live Gold subscribers only)

This is actually only a good deal if you are impatient and/or have a phobia of plastic circles, since you can get the disc version (which is entirely the same as the Xbox Originals version) for just £1.50 delivered. You may also want to hold out for the upcoming HD Splinter Cell Trilogy, which is only confirmed for the PS3 so far. For the Price of Persia HD Trilogy on the PS3, Ubisoft used the PS2 versions, and if they do the same for Splinter Cell, it would be a shame (the PS2 version of Chaos Theory was extremely cut down compared to the Xbox version).

Gears of War: Triple Pack, Xbox 360, £25.56 delivered

Before you get too excited, this triple pack includes Gears 1, Gears 2 and the All Fronts Collection DLC for Gears 2, no Gears of War 3 in sight. This isn’t getting a UK release at all, for some reason, so this is the USA version, imported by Play-Asia, but is confirmed as being totally region free, and is in English. I reckon they missed a trick by not including access to the GoW3 beta with this, and it’s actually cheaper to get all the component parts individually:
Gears of War, Xbox 360, £7.85 delivered
Gears of War 2, £5.99 delivered
Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection, 800 MS Points

So unless you want to have it all collected in one box, I’d say get them separately.

Deal of the week
Dead Space 2 [Collector's Edition], PS3, £32.99 delivered

This PS3-only Collector’s Edition includes Extraction (just like the Limited Edition), a Dead Space 2 soundtrack, a Necromorph lithograph, some in game tat and shiny pretty packaging. If you don’t care about the bonus stuff, and if you just want Dead Space 2 and Extraction, the Limited Edition is available for £23.99 delivered. It’s a bloody great game, it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and give you lots baddies to shoot and fun toys to play with. Mirror’s Edge sequel next please, EA.

Also of note:
The UnderGarden, PC, £2.80
Mass Effect 2, PS3, £21.99 delivered
Play TV, PS3, £26.16 delivered (Be sure to pick from Amazon.co.uk on the right).

Remember to keep your eye on SavyGamer.co.uk for gaming discounts throughout the week, and you can hassle me on Twitter if there’s ever a specific game you’re after for cheap.

Possible spoilers through the jump – you’ve been warned.

The trophies were reportedly spotted on the BioWare forums before being reported on NeoGaf, and reveal the title of the next DLC as “The Arrival”.

Mention is made of Dr Amanda Kenson, a name RPG Site put together with the final Cerberus Network news broadcast, which you can read below.

The three trophies are as follows:

• The Ultimate Sacrifice
  Complete the Arrival DLC
• Last Stand
  Survive all five waves in the battle for Object Rho
• Covert Action
  Rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson without attracting hostile attention.

Thanks, Ripten.

“Historians and astronomers alike are abuzz tonight over a new paper published by Dr. Amanda Kenson of the University of Arcturus. Her team claims that by testing the dust trapped in the gravity wells around a mass relay, and comparing its composition to that of dust clouds in the same system, scientists can create a timeline of when the relay passed through the dust. Her conclusion? “Only a small fraction of the mass effect relays date back 50,000 years,” she writes, “The majority are far older, indicating they were created by a species predating even the Protheans.” Dr. Aurana T’Meles of the University of Serrice met the information with skepticism: “While Dr. Kenson’s methods appear sound, the asari tried a similar procedure centuries ago and discounted it. What civilization could have spanned the galaxy for not thousands, but millions of years? If this were the case, we should have found mountains of evidence of their passing. Where is this species now?”

Bleeding Cool reports a BioWare Store representative made the following now-deleted comment on the figures’ continued delays:

“It looks like the first series is again delayed. We are all, including Treehouse, BioWare, and yourselves extremely frustrated with DC Direct. Their handling of this issue has been extremely unprofessional and disrespectful to fans. Once we get the ME2 Action Figure shipped we will not be working with DC Direct again. I’ll update again if we have more news, but it looks like April is correct.”

The first series of four Mass Effect figures was originally set for release in August 2010 before being pushed back to February – and has now been rescheduled for April 27.

A second series seems to have dropped off DC Direct’s schedule altogether.

Thanks, Big Download.

According to Zeschuk, BioWare had to do this so the company could become the major player in the industry it is today, and he suggests other firms take some risks as well.

“Stay entrepreneurial,” he said. “Obviously in the past that’s where we came from. We started our own company and it grew to where it is today. We’ve always been conscious of trying to strive for opportunities and growth.

“You have to be willing to take risks. Certainly on an entrepreneurial basis there were times when we bet the company. Over the years we paid for the entire Neverwinter Nights game ourselves. If it didn’t work we probably would have crashed and burned, we came very, very close.

“We actually bet the company when we joined Elevation Partners and when we joined EA. These are all calculated bets that we made to try and get us to be more successful.

“There were points when we thought we have to do this, to take action and make that bet. You’ve got to be aggressive. Today’s a time of great disruption but it’s also a time to make opportunity.”

Zeschuk and Muzyka were both inducted into the AIAS Interactive Entertainment Hall of Fame this week, while Mass Effect 2 took home a Game of the Year Award at the ceremony as well as RPG of the Year, and Best Story.

The next game on slate for BioWare is Dragon Age 2,which was just announced as going gold.

Thanks, GI.biz.