With Mass Effect 2 winning plenty of 2010 video game awards and Mass Effect 3 placing high on most gaming outlet anticipated lists of 2011, it's no surprise that the franchise is branching out onto other mediums. We've long heard the talk of a Live-Action film but that's not coming anytime soon.

What we do have though are Mass Effect novels and soon, an anime film!

Del Rey has announced that they are working on a fourth Mass Effect book, titled Mass Effect: Deception, which is being written by William C. Dietz for release this fall (just in time for the next game!). The novel continues the story from the first three books, written by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation, Ascension and Retribution.

Here's the official description which  tells the tale of a biotic who was experimented on:

Gillian was once the subject of horrifying scientific experiments, but now, after her rescue, she is beginning to master her amazing powers. When she falls under the sway of a radical group who believe their powers make them superior to ordinary humans, she finds herself faced with a choice between her destiny… and her humanity.

Change gears to the animated side of things, BioWare has teamed with distributor FUNimation Entertainment and production company T.O Entertainment to create an anime film based on the Mass Effect video games. BioWare's Casey Hudson will exec produce the movie and had this to say about the agreement:

"Over the last few years, we have revealed different pieces of the Mass Effect world through different media. Extending the story through an anime medium is another amazing opportunity for us. Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we will bring this rich universe to life with the utmost quality and the same attention to detail that the Mass Effect games are known for."

Production has already begun and the anime feature will release next summer on home video and digital download.

If they stay true to what we know and love about the Mass Effect mythology, this could be something special. We still haven't seen any movement on a Mass Effect live-action movie so at least there's something in animated form to look forward to.

I'm more interested in seeing BioWare focus on the story and RPG elements of Mass Effect 3 and see if they improve upon the last game's weaknesses. We should be getting our first look at Mass Effect 3 later this month.

Mass Effect 3 releases Q4 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

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Sources: Random House, SystemLink