Tag Archives: Preston Watamaniuk

No more running, gunning and relying on your squad mates to pick the right powers in Mass Effect 3.

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BioWare’s teasing some sort of gameplay feature for Mass Effect 3 called “Secret Feature X.” Staffers Billy Buskell and Preston Watamaniuk made note on the feature during separate tweets. It’s not multiplayer, according to ME3News, though. Other than that, guess away.

Game’s out on March 6 for PS3, 360 and PC. Thanks, Gamefront.

BioWare’s a forward-thinking company, which is why you won’t be able to take a character through Mass Effect 2 then start the game again with your experienced chap, equipment at all. You could do this in the first game.

Continuity’s the key. Mass Effect lead designer Preston Watamaniuk talking on the official forums:

“After finishing ME2 can I take my character and restart a new playthrough preserving that characters gear and abilities.”

The short answer is no.

The reason is progression. We have been working very hard to make sure we design the abilities system to offer smooth progression into ME3 from ME2. Allowing double progression on characters makes that almost impossible. We have to have reasonable knowledge about where a character could end up finishing all content on a playthrough. We also want to offer choice of character build within specific classes.

We replaced that feature with playing after you were done because it preserves progression and allows for smoother downloading of PRC.

Mass Effect 2 ships early next year.

Speaking in a video documentary on Mass Effect – watch it after the break – principal lead designer Preston Watamaniuk has apparently dropped the first proper piece of information on the next piece of Mass Effect DLC.

“Things we’re working on right now, for the Mass Effect universe next … we had something in Mass Effect 1 that again, we weren’t able to pull off just because we didn’t have the time and we didn’t think we’d be able to do it well enough, which was a fight club or an arena. So we’re actually working on that for our next downloadable content piece and we’re hoping it’ll be really special.”

Project director Casey Hudson then expands, saying, “So we wanted to be able to give people a much more combat-oriented, lighter-story experience. You’re going to go to a kind of casino gaming fight club space station.”

There’s no date on any more Mass Effect DLC as yet, and no official announcement of anything as yet.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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