I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I just can’t get enough of Mass Effect 2. Fortunately for us, BioWare also apparently can’t get enough, as they announced today via Twitter the release dates for the next two pieces of DLC. It’s almost scary how remarkably efficient they have been at releasing these things, and I personally welcome any and all attempts to keep me buried in this wonderful game.

As you’ve probably already heard, the release of Obsidian Entertainment’s spy RPG, Alpha Protocol, has been pushed back to June 1, 2010.  To satiate those gamers who were interested in the title, Obsidian has released a series of Developer Diary videos related to the story of the game. The short of it is Alpha Protocol aims to put players in the shoes of super-spy, Michael Thornton, who must assassinate a high-level terrorist in the Middle East in order to prevent World War III from breaking out. While on his mission, he is cut off from his chain of command and must follow the “Alpha Protocol” in order to survive. Throughout, gamers will have to make judgment calls as to who can be trusted, so that Thornton can complete his mission.

Apparently building on the experience from its developing stint on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Obsidian appears to be mixing Bioware-like drama with the ally system from Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Rather than sticking with the ”good vs. evil” paradigm from KOTOR II, however, Obsidian is pushing a “shades of gray” choice tree. To see the gameplay in action, check out the preview video below:

Mass Effect 2’s lead gameplay designer, Christina Norman, recently put up a neat little slideshow discussing the gameplay evolution from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 and further talked about what the goals were for the highly-anticipated Mass Effect 3.

Norman illustrated that Mass Effect looked like a shooter but didn’t play as one very well – so, the design team took major steps in order to rebuilt the combat for Mass Effect 2.

The result? A very well designed and playable shooter-RPG.

However, fans still did their share of nay-saying – likening the combat in the Mass Effect sequel to “Gears of War with interactive dialogue” and Norman and her team are definitely taking steps to ensure the final game in the Mass Effect trilogy will continue to refine the format as well as awe fans.

I’m sure many of you who have played Mass Effect 2 were fortunate enough to have a complete save to import from Mass Effect 1. In addition, you may have seen a lot of your old decisions come back in the form of dialogue options or NPCs to interact with. What you didn’t see was the exact number of plot points carried over; A whopping 700 plot points were imported from ME2 according to BioWare lead cinematic designer, Armando Troisi, saying the “small things” mattered when you imported data from ME1.

While Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network has provided gamers (who purchased the game new) with free DLC (including the upcoming Firewalker pack featuring the Hammerhead vehicle), Bioware has now announced the game’s first downloadable content that all gamers will have to pay for.

On April 6th, “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory” will be available for the Xbox 360 and PC.

The content, which can be played in the midst of saving the world or after the main story is completed, adds a new character to your team.

Via Gametrailers, Bioware has released new footage of the anticipated vehicle missions for Mass Effect 2. Scheduled tentatively for late March, the trailer shows the Hammerhead hovercraft in action. Now gamers will be able to strafe their enemies rather than constantly circling them. The combat also appears to be much more fluid than when gamers were forced to use the Mako, a heavily-armored, but awkward, moon buggy. Reportedly, there will be five new missions involving the Hammerhead.

I was never too crazy about the vehicle missions in the original Mass Effect, but you can’t complain about free DLC.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to play my favorite game of 2010 (so far), then I have a hell of a deal for you. Amazon’s video game deal of the day is peddling Mass Effect 2 for up to 40% off. You can acquire the 360 version for $40, or the PC version for $30, saving $20 off of the full price for each version. The games also qualify for free shipping. For comparisons sake, you can currently purchase a used copy of Mass Effect 2 for $50 from Gamestop.

Our review of Mass Effect 2 scored a healthy 4 out of 5 and I heartily recommend reading it if you are still trying to decide whether to make the purchase. Over on Metacritic the game is sitting at an average review score of 96. Make no mistake, this is a great game.

Certain games of generations past hold special meaning to gamers. Like a classic movie, a classic video game is an interactive body of work that is held in high esteem amongst those who experience it. Also, like a classic movie, studios may be tempted to remake, re-release, or add a sequel to the franchise in an attempt to cash-in on nostalgia or introduce a whole new generation to the experience.

Through the Wii Virtual Console, the Playstation Network, and Xbox Live (with the upcoming Game Room), we are allowed to relive games of yesterday on the systems of today.

In 2010, we will see Mega Man 10, Perfect Dark, Tecmo Bowl Throwback, and Sonic The Hedgehog 4.

Remakes and sequels are dangerous because decisions must be made. What do you add to the game? Should you change anything about the basic structure? How do you reach a new audience without alienating the current fans of the franchise? To some gamers, old-school graphics are unappealing while others delight in the throwback nature of the visuals.

If you were bummed that Mass Effect 2 didn’t include vehicle missions, then I’ve got some good news.  According to Bioware’s website, members of the Cerberus Network will receive a free content pack in late March.  But what will it include?  The details are as follows:

Download the Firewalker pack and gain access to 5 new missions featuring the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a heavy assault vehicle that hovers over the battlefield at up to 120 kilometers per hour and features a guided missile system ensuring accuracy even during aggressive maneuvering.

When you walk into my old bedroom, the first thing you will see is the side of a white dresser with black knobs and a black top. If you walk around to the front, you will quickly notice that the wood on the front is dented in several places and the paint is heavily chipped, revealing the wood underneath. How did this happen? Would it help if I mentioned my television and all my gaming systems that used to sit on top?

The front of that dresser bears the scars of years of video game frustration. It has played host to three systems’ worth of curse words, elevated blood pressure, and the occasional almost-kicking of a small animal. A veteran of aggression, it has witnessed the infuriating A.I. of Tecmo Super Bowl, the laughable difficulty of Battletoads, those stupid floating barrels in Donkey Kong Country, and the immeasurable real-life threat to friendships posed by Goldeneye and NFL Blitz. More controllers have hit the front of that dresser than all of the Wiimotes without wrist straps in the world. And that’s a fact.

After reading the title to this article, I know what you’re all thinking: “How can that be true?” Well, SCEA’s Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer seems to think that it’s a pretty solid fact. It is true that the Xbox 360 had a year lead time in its console release and that certainly put Sony in a position where they not only had to play “catch-up ball” as Dyer puts it. Though, with the recent $299 price drop for the PS3 and more people picking up the system since it became a bit more affordable, there are more systems in more homes. It is because of this growing number that Dyer says the PS3 is a better platform for publishers over the 360.

During a trip to my local comic book store, I was searching for Mass Effect: Redemption #1. The first issue came out prior to the game and I was initially on the fence about buying a video game comic book.

However, just a few hours into Mass Effect 2, my enjoyment of the Mass Effect world had grown into an intense love. So, obviously, I wanted anything that would expand my knowledge of the universe.

I casually searched…and searched…and searched.

Nothing.

“I know I saw it in here the other week.” I said to myself. I’m sure I did.

Unfortunately, I had underestimated how popular the comic would become.

Are you a fan of Mass Effect 2 but felt as though the title was short on hip-hop influence?

Enter Kabuto the Python with his tribute to planet scanning titled “Those Minerals” (WARNING: some explicit content):

Here’s an excerpt from the lyrics – for those of you at work:

“Peep it, I’ll break it down so you can absorb it (okay)
You need to mind planets’ minerals and do it from orbit (yo)
Some good advice, and you’re too much of a noob to ignore it (ay)
You’ll get stranded with no fuel if you foolishly floor it
I used to rock microphones rhyming in a stadium (okay)
These days i launch probes mining for palladium (no doubt)”

One month out from the hotly anticipated PS3 exclusive God Of War III and Sony Computer Entertainment America is inviting gamers to the game’s official website.

The site is packed with GOWIII news and gives visitors the chance to sign up for the Spartan Army. Sony promises that those who join will gain access to “exclusive content such as News, Artwork, Screenshots, Wallpaper, Behind the Scenes, Developer Commentary, Community Q&A’s, and many more ‘vengeful’ updates that are truly worthy of the Gods.”

The website is just one of many promotions Sony is running for God of War III.  Those who still haven’t played the original games should know that the God Of War Collection has recently received a price drop – down to $29.99.

Sitting here looking at my shelf, I count no less than 15 games I currently want to play. My collection edges over 100 games, but those 15 I’ve identified as to-play (and, in some cases, to-play-again). This isn’t even counting games coming out in the next couple of weeks. Is there an overabundance of video games? You bet there is.

I can’t count on one hand the games I’ve started but just haven’t had the time to finish; there’s just too many of them. The game industry continues to produce at a breakneck pace, and games are just getting better and better. Recently finishing stellar titles like Mass Effect 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 showed me that.

Let’s look at some of the games I’m having a hard time finding time to play:

NPD just released their monthly North America numbers for January 2010 and there were definitely a few surprises. On the software side, the Nintendo Wii continued its sales supremacy by taking five of the top ten spots. Leading the way was New Super Mario Bros.Wii, which sold over 650,000 copies, despite being released in November 2009. Mass Effect 2 also made an impressive debut by selling 572,100 copies in only six days, and Army of Two: The 40th Day made a better than expected debut, selling 246,500 copies for the Xbox 360. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continued its strong performance as well on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Somewhat disappointing, however, was that both MAG and Bayonetta did not rank in the top ten in sales, even though both had received a lot of buzz before their release.

On the hardware side, the Wii and the DS continued their dominance by taking the top two sales spots, selling 465,800 and 422,200 units respectively. The Xbox 360 sold 332,800 units and nudged out a win over the PS3, which sold 276,900 for the month. Overall sales for the month, however, were disappointing. Software sales declined 13% over last year and hardware sales were down 21%. With so many big titles slated for release in 2010, though, the gaming industry’s fortunes may improve as the year progresses.

Rejoice, indeed. It seems the guys over at EA have dropped some juicy tidbits in a company earnings call by saying that there will be something “far-reaching” for Mass Effect in Q4 of fiscal 2010 (which translates to early 2011, don’t ask me why).

What the heat-sink? Now, this is obviously open to interpretation, as they didn’t go into anything specific. It could be anything from another iPhone game, to a full expansion for Mass Effect 2, or even a large chunk of DLC. I will go on record here and guess that it’s not Mass Effect 3. Unless it is, in which case I would simultaneously curse BioWare for their disregard for my personal life and worship their deification with an N7 alter in my closet.

Tomorrow marks the two-week anniversary of Mass Effect 2 and you may be thinking, “who the hell cares?’ Well, I only bring this up because by now, assuming you’re a gamer and a fan of Mass Effect or BioWare’s high quality RPGs, you must have at least given this game a shot.

Several of us here at Game Rant have already beaten the game, some more than once, so we want to start a discussion about the characters of Mass Effect 2. In a spoiler-filled manner, tell us what characters you liked to use, which characters you didn’t and perhaps, who didn’t make it till the end.

On launch day of Mass Effect 2, several downloadable items were made available free of charge. Although many had issues getting them to download and work because of the requirement of going through the BioWare site first, they were pretty cool and added some fun to the game.

On that note, new Mass Effect 2 DLC will be arriving tomorrow, specifically, a new set armor and a shotgun will be available through the games’ Cerberus network, and will be free of charge.

Cerberus Assault Armor

Description:

Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops, who are expected to turn the tide of battle against creatures or forces that would decimate normal soldiers. The troops demanded three things in its design: shields, armor thick enough to last against a superior foe, and a rechargeable pack to extend a heavy weapon power cell. The only drawback of the armor is its weight, which the troops carry as a point of pride. They have a saying: “Out of shape going in, in shape coming out.”

Attributes:

• Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
• Increases shields by +10%
• Increases health by +10%

M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun

Description:

The M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads. This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries.

I don’t know about you, but a longer-range shotgun sounds pretty awesome to me.  Also, it should be fun to have the option to suit up in armor from everyone’s favorite organization!

Sources: BioWare, BioWare Forums

Apparently the interwebs are up in arms about BioWare’s deliberate “self-censorship.” Mass Effect 1 made some controversial headlines when it was first released, especially with FOX News who reported that you had full control of your character during several very graphic sex scenes.

Nothing could of been further from the truth. However with the revelation that both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins feature less graphic lovemaking, there has been a backlash from the fans – the polar opposite reaction as the media two years ago.

Mass Effect 2 hasn’t even been on retail shelves for two solid weeks but has managed to sell over 2 million copies as well as rack up a hefty amount of critical acclaim.

Sure, the sequel isn’t perfect, but there’s one point we can all agree upon – the Mass Effect premise, and its relative universe, is one of the best stories out there – and by “out there” we don’t just mean within the video-game market.

The rumor mongers were unleashed when earlier this week nerds found some lines of code referencing the Playstation 3 deep within Mass Effect 2’s source. PS3 console owners quickly took up their flags and proclaimed they had finally won the war!

After all, who could argue this indisputable proof:

If you have been able to tear yourself away from Mass Effect 2 long enough, you’ll be very happy to know that BioWare is not even close to putting out their best work.

In an interview with Computer and Videogames, BioWare co-CEO, Dr. Ray Muzyka, said the developer’s best work is “still ahead” of them.

“The way we approach it is that each game has to be better than the last one. That’s always been true for the last 20 years we’ve been doing this, that’s just what we do. It’s kind of in our culture now.

Short version: Mass Effect 2 is a must-play game for its story but it may not live up to expectations of RPG players or hardcore fans of the first Mass Effect.

Game Rant reviews Mass Effect 2

Before it even released, the hype surrounding the long-awaiting sequel to BioWare’s 2007 hit game Mass Effect suggested that Mass Effect 2 would easily be a game of the year contender for 2010. Although many reviewers may already have it in that category with its incredibly high critical acclaim, I do not.

Mass Effect is one of my favorite games on the Xbox 360 to date. It brought something completely new to the table and offered countless hours of gameplay from RPG style character progression through experience, stats, powers, weapons, armor to 3rd person team-based combat, and even vehicular exploration and combat. It took what was amazing about Knights of the Old Republic in terms of storytelling and character development in a sci-fi space adventure and shattered the conventions and limitations set before it.

Instead of clicking a button and watching an attack, you were in full control of the combat with a built-in cover system included. There were tons of new worlds to explore, your own ship to fool around with and countless new weapons, mods, upgrades and armor pieces to loot and purchase around the galaxy.

Mass Effect 2 sets out to continue the story of Commander Shepard in his/her quest to hinder the impending threat known as the Reapers but doesn’t offer as much of a main story as its predecessor. It also drops some of the important gameplay elements of the first game, substituting them with a limited and simpler mechanic or in some cases, dropping it entirely.

EA have announced that their science fiction epic Mass Effect 2 has already sold a staggering 2 million units worldwide. This is an amazing number considering that the game was only released this week.

Here is the official press release:

An interesting article came up on Kotaku this week regarding game companies and spoilers in their marketing strategies and it brought about a very interesting point: Are developers giving away too much information prior to the game’s release?

Do yourself a favor and read their story on the matter in addition to the one I’m presenting here. Kotaku cited Mass Effect 2 as the most recent example – and it might be the most justified case for the argument.

First-day purchasers of Mass Effect 2 may notice something amiss from the first-day free downloadable content. Bioware representative, Michael Gamble, has posted in the Bioware forums that the DLC for Zaeed Massani, the ruthless bounty hunter, will not be available until Wednesday or Thursday this week. For those who might need a refresher as to who exactly Mr. Massani is, the following video will give you an idea of what you are currently missing:

From Screen Rant:

With one of this year’s biggest video game releases in Mass Effect 2 finally debuting today to amazing reviews and fan reception, there’s no doubt a burning interest for getting a feature film made from this property as soon as possible.

What’s the hitch? Well, video game movies suck and Hollywood tend not to respect the source material enough to bring it to the silver screen properly. We’ve seen this again and again but we know this trend is coming to an end sooner or later. As we enjoy the peak of the comic book movie era, the next genre to hit it big will be video game movies. With practically every single major video game having sold film rights to their properties, we will see every video game come to cinematic life eventually.

The good news for the fans of these games are that developers/publishers are finally taking a stand and don’t want low-quality films made of their hardwork, damaging the property’s reputation. We saw this very recently with the halt in production of the Metal Gear Solid movie, and now we’re seeing it from BioWare and their Mass Effect franchise.

Almost 2 hours in and all I can say is my first impressions of Mass Effect 2 are great. From the start you get an option to start fresh with a new character or load up your character from the original Mass Effect. I went with the later option and loaded up Zac Shepard. Doing this gave me extra cash and an extra ability, which was a nice surprise. I also got a little reminder of what I did in the previous game in terms of the key choices I made and how they impact the current game, which impressed me. This is the first game that I can think of where choices I made in a previous game drastically effect how the sequel plays and what characters are in the game. Well done BioWare.

The game opens with a short cinematic. Two people (which you learn to be Miranda and the head of Cerberus) are conversing about you, commander Shepard. They believe your skills would be put to better use if you took on the Reapers as opposed to the Geth. They think this would better serve the Human Race and plan on acquiring your aid. These two don’t look like they are to be trusted or at least that’s the impression they left with me.

[Spoiler Warning: I discuss what I see in the first few hours of the game]

Very early this morning, IGN.com reported that nine pre-order bonuses for Bioware’s heavily-anticipated game, Mass Effect 2, were inadvertently placed on Xbox Live’s Marketplace website for free. This included the following content: