mass-effect-2-pc posts

For a few hours this afternoon, folks who paid their $10 to download the latest PC Mass Effect 2 DLC mini-expansion Lair of the Shadow Broker got 1.5 gigs worth of zeros instead. Developer BioWare pulled that file from its DLC downloads page a few hours later.

Now it seems everything is back to normal. While there was no explanation as to what happened earlier this afternoon, BioWare's Chris Priestly has now posted word on the Mass Effect 2 message boards that the mini-expansion, " ... should now be fixed for the PC and should be able to be downloaded now." You can now purchase and grab it from the game's DLC web site. People who purchased the earlier faulty file should be able to download the correct one with no penalty.

When BioWare announced plans to release a new DLC expansion for its sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2 earlier this week, it also released some screenshots to the expansion, titled Lair of the Power Broker. One of them is the one you see above and some observant Mass Effect 2 fans made mention on the game's official message board that the weapons seen in the shot haven't appeared in the game yet.

Yes, that does mean that BioWare plans to release a new weapons pack for the game before Lair of the Power Broker is made available. BioWare's Jarrett Lee made a post on the message board saying more info on the weapons pack DLC will be announced "very soon." Oh and there's some interesting stuff coming up for Lair of the Power Broker as well. Lee states, " ... the very coolest part of the DLC (imho) will be something we absolutely won't reveal in the marketing or PR, to avoid spoiling it. I think most of you will find it to be our most satisfying DLC release yet for ME2." Works for us.

BioWare has already released a number of downloadable content, both free and paid, for its hit sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2. However most of that content were basically expansions, story wise, for the main game. However it looks like at least some of the future DLC for Mass Effect 2 will serve as a transition for the events that will happen in Mass Effect 3.

In a chat with Videogamer.com, BioWare's Casey Hudson admitted the developer has plans for lots of Mass Effect 2 downloadable content and he added, "We'll start to have packs that'll tell the story between Mass Effect 2 and 3." There's no word on when they will be released or exactly what kind of story they will tell.

BioWare's next free addition to Mass Effect 2 now has a release date. A "tweet" from the developer confirmed that the free Firewalker DLC will be available to download for players on March 23. As we have previously reported the download will add a Hammerhead hovercraft assault vehicle to the sci-fi RPG along with five new missions centering on that vehicle.

But that's not all. BioWare will also release a small paid downloadable DLC on the same day. The Alternate Apperance Pack will let you dress up Thane, Jack and Garrus in some different outfits. You can get the outfits for 160 BioWare Points (about $2)

While Mass Effect 2 fans are still waiting for their free downloadable vehicle to add to the hit sci-fi RPG, the team at developer BioWare is already working on their first paid downloadable mini-expansion. Reporting from GDC, our comrades at Joystiq report that Kasumi's Stolen Memory will be available on April 6 for the PC version (pricing has yet to be revealed).

The mini-expansion will add Kasumi, a new female thief, to the game. Shepard has to help out Kasumi on a particular mission that Joystiq reports will take about 90 minutes to complete. The DLC will also add a new achievement and some other new content like a "Locust" SMG and a flash-bang grenade loyalty power.

BioWare keeps presenting fans of Mass Effect 2 with new downloadable content to play with. Players of the recent sci-fi RPG will be getting some new content in late March. The Firewalker pack, which will be delivered via the game's Cerberus Network, will give players five new missions centered around the new Hammerhead assault vehicle.

The Hammerhead, which you can see above, has a guided missile system to defend itself and can travel at a solid clip of 120 kilometers an hour. BioWare is also hinting that a new heavy weapon will also be released in the near future but details about that item are begin kept to themselves.

During Electronic Arts' financial conference call with analysts, EA execs mentioned something in passing; they had "far reaching" plans for their just released sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2 in their fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 (January-March 2011). While this may mean some kind of downloadable content for the game, the suggestion seems to be something more is in the works?

Is it a big expansion pack? Is it a full-fledged sequel to BioWare' acclaimed game (although that seems unlikely)? At the moment, EA is not saying what that "far reaching" statement means. An EA spokesperson would not comment to our sister site Joystiq on the matter, saying only, "Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect are referenced in the FY11 SKU plan." Hmmmm.....

BioWare's cool way that they incorporate save games from the original Mass Effect into the new Mass Effect 2 will continue when BioWare comes out with Mass Effect 3 in two year's time. But Game Informer points out that not all Mass Effect 2 save games will work with the third game in the sci-fi RPG trilogy.

The reason? If the main character Shepard gets killed at the end of Mass Effect 2, well, that's a problem. BioWare's Casey Hudson states, "If you have a dead Shepard at the end of Mass Effect 2, that saved game won't import into Mass Effect 3. You can play Mass Effect 3 if you died in Mass Effect 2 of course, but you'll have to create a new Shepard." That means Shepard is supposed to appear in all three games so players should not be cavalier about using him in Mass Effect 2.

BioWare promised last week that some free downloads would be coming for Mass Effect 2 players and today they revealed that a new armor and a new weapon will be made available via the game's Cerberus Network sometime on Tuesday. The first item, the Cerberus assault armor, increase health, sheilds and heavy weapon ammo by 10 percent for the player character that uses it.

The new weapon that will be included in the update is the M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun which uses armor-piercing rounds and has a longer range than normal shotguns. If you use it be aware that this weapon "violates several intergalactic weapons treaties." Which of course makes us want this even more.

Mass Effect 2 is a terrific game on the PC. Let's get that out of the way. But for folks who own PCs with multi-core CPUs, there's an issue with very long load times when the player goes through decks of the Normandy space ship. There is a workaround for this issue; simply shut off one of your CPUs and then put it back to two cores. However that's clearly annoying if you have to run BioWare's sci-fi RPG more than once (and that's most of you).

A software developer has created a utility called MassAffinity that, after a brief set up, fixes the issue automatically when you run the app with Mass Effect 2. Obviously this is a third party program not made by BioWare so download and use at your own risk. However if you are experiencing these long Normandy load times and don't want to wait for the developer to issue a patch this is better than nothing.