mass-effect posts

It's not exactly a shock, but tonight at the Video Game Awards it was officially announced that developer BioWare will indeed be releasing Mass Effect 3, the third game in its acclaimed sci-fi RPG series. The announcement and brief teaser trailer also came with a "holiday 2011" release date.

BioWare already has two games due out in 2011; the fantasy RPG Dragon Age 2 and the MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic from the developer's Austin,Texas studio. There are rumors that Mass Effect 3 will feature a multiplayer component but so far there's no word on that feature. In the meantime you can check out the teaser trailer after the jump.

It looks like online gremlins, or maybe supporters of WikiLeaks, are on the prowl at Electronic Arts' online store. As our sister site Joystiq reports, a listing and even a description for Mass Effect 3 showed up briefly on EA's store site before disappearing very quickly.

This would seem to all but confirm that the official announcement for BioWare's third game in the sci-fi RPG series is about to happen, most likely on Saturday night during Spike TV's Video Game Awards broadcast. There was no release date mentioned on the site before it was yanked but we imagine that info is coming soon. You can check out the description from the now deleted page after the jump:

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but already folks are starting to buy their holiday gifts (or at the very least thinking about creating their lists really hard). There have been a lot of PC games to choose from in the past 12 months and today Big Download wants to offer a few suggestions for the person who has a PC gamer on his or her list.

The games listed below are what we feel are good gift choices that should please any hardcore or even casual PC gamer that you have to buy for this year. We have even thrown in some indie titles and some games that are priced a bit cheaper than the norm for those of you on a budget. Check out our 2010 holiday list after the jump:

Editor's Note: Steven Wong contributed to this article

BioWare's next game announcement is coming soon and today the acclaimed developer released a mystery screenshot from that title. You can see that image above this post. What in the world is it? We think a lot of people will think it's perhaps a shot from Mass Effect 3, the promised conclusion to the game's trilogy but perhaps its from an all new game franchise.

Whatever game this screenshot is from we will learn where it comes from at next month's Video Game Awards on Spike TV. Its organizer Geoff Keighley "tweeted" that BioWare's next game, along with more revealed of Batman Arkham City, will be shown at the awards.

Update: There's a very brief teaser video for the VGA Awards which you can see after the jump:

Update 2: BioWare has posted not one but two links to some smartphone enabled bard codes.

The launch of Call of Duty Black Ops hasn't stopped some sites from offering up some nice sales deals on other PC games today. If you can keep away from shooting up Cold War enemies you might want to check out these deals:

• Steam has cut the price of its WWII multiplayer shooter Day of Defeat Source to just $2.50 from now until Thursday.
• Direct2Drive will cut 15 percent off the cost of all its adventure games from now until Friday when you put in the code "wildd2d" at checkout.
  
• EA's online store is offering 25 percent off four BioWare games (Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age Origins Awakening) if you buy 800 in BioWare points which can be used to download future DLC from the developer. There's also a 50 percent price cut for those same games if you purchase 1600 BioWare points.
  

Electronic Arts is breaking the bank this Halloween weekend with a bunch of big 50 percent price cuts for four of its big PC game titles. From now until the end of the day on Halloween you can get either Mass Effect 1 or 2 for $9.97 each.

Also the 2008 sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space is priced at just $9.947 for this weekend as well which should be perfect timing for those of you who want get January's sequel Dead Space 2. Finally the hit first person shooter Battlefield Bad Company 2 is just $14.97 this weekend only at EA's download store.

[Via Joystiq]

It was yet another busy new day here at Big Download, where every week is We Love PC Games Week :)

• Microsoft will officially shut down its Massive in-game ad service by the end of the year.
• Blizzard reveals its next gen MMO at BlizzCon 2010 (Ok, not really but it's funny).
• Steam has a new Worms Reloaded patch update available for download.
• Dark Horse Comics has release an original Mass Effect comic book online at the USA Today web site.
• The third and final behind-the-scenes video for the upcoming Back to the Future game is now on YouTube.

If you have yet to download the newly released Mass Effect 2 DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker, you might want to hold off for a bit. Some folks who have tried to install the downloadable expansion to the BioWare developed sci-fi RPG title that have Windows 7 64-bit operating systems installed have been hit with compatibility errors.

Our own reviewer for the DLC encountered this error when he tried to install it on his PC and the Mass Effect 2 message boards are now filled with posts from PC gamers who have encountered the same error. We will update this post when we get some info from BioWare on this issue.

Update: BioWare's Chris Priestly has made a message board post basically saying the dev team is aware of the issue and is working on fixing it.

Update 2: Priestly has written another message board post stating that the incorrect PC DLC file has been removed from the download section. People who downloaded the faulty file (which is 1.5 Gigs of zeros; no, we are not kidding) will not be charged again when the correct file is back up. Priestly states, "We do not have a more accurate eta for the correct PC DLC, but when we do I will let you know."

If you have been playing Mass Effect 2, you may not be aware that developer BioWare has been gathering info about your activities while you are playing the sci-fi RPG sequel. Don't worry; the info is strictly anonymous. BioWare sees you as just a number. However the stats collected by the developer do help the team make future games.

IGN has an article on this particular case of data mining with some interesting info. For one over half of Mass Effect 2's players used save games from the original Mass Effect which is much higher than what BioWare expected. Average play time for Mass Effect 2 was 33 hours and PC gamers averaged an hour longer. About half of all of the game's players got through to the end of the game. Two PC players actually played Mass Effect 2 all the way through 28 times.

The weekend is here. What will you be doing to rest and relax? Or will you be working hard?

• Bethesda Softworks has launched its own official podcast called (natch) The Bethesda Podcast.
• A new patch for Blacklight: Tango Down has been released via the game's auto-updater. The patch is mostly for bug fixes but does add support for Steam achievements.
• New Steam updates for Global Agenda, Puzzle Dimension and The Guild II Renaissance are now available.
• Ubisoft has officially launched its browser-based MMO Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms.
• The 10th "issue" of the Star Wars: The Old Republic comic Blood Of the Empire is now online.
• Check out this cool replica of Mass Effect's M8 Avenger rifle.