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After Mass Effect 2 lead gameplay designer Christina Norman walked us through the Engineer class and it's sanguinary droid last week, we were wondering how BioWare could possibly appeal to our inner tactician any more. It appears that the developer sought to do just that with this week's introduction to the Sentinel.

Skilled in both biotic skills (thats space magic, folks) and tech abilities, Norman says the Sentinel is "the only class that can blast through any enemy's defenses ... with or without your squad backing you up." With only a handful of weeks left before the game's January 26 release date, it won't be long before we get to find out exactly how adept the Sentinel is for ourselves.

Okay, you've probably heard by now that Mass Effect 2 has a lot of big-name voice talent. But have you SEEN them? This video trailer for BioWare's upcoming space opera features the all-star cast talking about their roles, and what it is about sci-fi (and not SyFy) that gets them so excited.

Mass Effect 2 is bound to have some recognizable actors, what with 90 actors voicing 546 characters with 31,000 lines of dialogue. EA revealed today that the cast includes ... oh, by Grabthar's hammer, here's the list:

• Martin Sheen (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez's dad) -- Illusive Man commanding Cerberus
• Shohreh Adhdashloo (sexy voice lady from FlashForward) -- Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay
• Seth Green (hand in your geek card if you don't know) -- Joker
• Yvonne Strahovski (wiener lady, lust of Chuck) -- Miranda Lawson
• Adam Baldwin (a man named Jayne... or the man they call Jayne) -- Kal 'Reegar
• David Keith Keith David (Halo's Arbiter) -- Admiral David Anderson
• Michael Dorn (Star Trek TNG's Worf) -- Gatatog Uvenk
• Tricia Helfer (2020 Oscar winner after people stop treating her like meat) -- EDI, voice of the "new Normandy"
• Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh) -- Captain Bailey
• Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from The Matrix, singular, no sequels exist -- especially not Revolutions) -- Aria T'Loak

We also can't forget Jennifer Hale, who is reprising her role as the real Commander Shepard, nor Mark Meer, the male Shepard and known expert at cutting the council off at weird times.

BioWare has just released a new trailer for Mass Effect 2, featuring the exploits of strategic tactician "Commander Shepard the Engineer" and his murderous robot. Much like the first game, engineer class players will rely more heavily on strategery and tech management than direct confrontation.

Lead gameplay designer Christina Norman guides us through some combat-heavy gameplay, which depicts the aforementioned android aggressor along with some cool abilities, like freezing enemies on the spot and hacking mechanized enemies. Oh, Mass Effect 2, you had us at killer 'bot.

Expanding upon statements from BioWare's Casey Hudson earlier this year, associate programmer Thomas Roy took to the developer's forums (requires login) recently to explain how Mass Effect 2 would be handling the promised lack of elevators (used in place of loading screens). As it turns out, rather than executing on BioWares's promise of "a completely new system" that's "part of the game experience," the studio will be implementing "loading screens and movies."

Though the game will still ask players to walk into an elevator, it will apparently cue up a loading screen that offers "interesting visuals and information." We'd like to point out that before Mr. Roy explains any of this, he says that the first game used elevators "so we [BioWare] didn't have to show boring loading screens" and they only made it into the second due to "a lot of complaints."

We're so broken up here -- on one hand, the developer is caving to the demands of the fans and critics. Score! On the other hand, Mr. Roy is telling us that loading screens are totally boring. If we demanded it, does that mean we're boring? Great, now we've got a total complex.

[Via Kotaku]

How awesome is Mass Effect 2? Well, if BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly is to be believed, it is about twice as awesome. "You cannot fit this much awesome on one disc," Priestly stated on the BioWare forums, after revealing the game content will span two discs.

The necessity of two discs may mean a staggering amount of content for the RPG sequel -- the original was certainly no slouch in content. While some may lament the necessity of having to get up at least once during Mass Effect 2, Priestly promises that the disc swap happens at a dramatically appropriate point in the story. "Even though there is a disc swap, it occurs at a carefully planned place in the game (that does not interfere with gameplay) and is done once. You do not swap back and forth. 1 swap and then done."

We're going to fathom a guess as to when the swap will occur: immediately after the "suicide mission" revealed in the game's initial teaser.

[Thanks, Darth B.; Via Kotaku]

For such a dark adventure, BioWare's first Mass Effect provided a surprisingly optimistic viewpoint on universal unity. Sure, an occasional crinkled forehead or an extra filongidler might visually separate the denizens of the galaxy, but it's nice to know that in all the unrestrained hugeness of space, we all still come from completely identical, prefabricated installations. Well, we did until Mass Effect 2 decided to terraform its sidequest planets with some variety.

"Now when you find mission[s] out there in the uncharted worlds, there are always missions where something special happens, and you get really good handcrafted gameplay and art that you can't see elsewhere in the game," project director Casey Hudson told VideoGamer.com. "I think people will find them to be really rewarding, really rich, because there's something different around every corner."

Even the process of discovering planets has been made more interesting, Hudson explained, with space-faring explorers sending out probes and expending fuel to make new discoveries. It's nice to know the shooter RPG still allows you to go boldly -- and not just go badass.

With Dragon Age: Origins out the door and making friends, BioWare has switched the Mass Effect 2 hype machine into full gear, inviting us to play the game and provide a peek at some of the new squad mates who'll be joining Commander Shepard on his/her most dangerous mission yet. The latest cast member to make a debut, Samara, should have absolutely no problem taking care of herself -- as well as anything (or anyone) that gets in her way.

Samara is an elite Asari warrior who controls some incredibly potent biotic powers. Forget simply tossing enemies around -- she manipulates dark energy in order to levitate herself, as evidenced in the above video. The footage also confirms that there are still five potential party members yet to be introduced before the game ships for PC and Xbox 360 on January 26 (not March 23 as originally noted by Randy, who's clearly met his recommended daily allowance of paste.)

Here's a Thanksgiving treat from the vault – we've dug out the following interview with BioWare co-founder (and Group Creative Officer of EA's newly formed RPG/MMO Group) Greg Zeschuk from earlier this year at PAX. But don't let the date fool you! Our discussion of multiplatform console development, DLC strategies on future BioWare titles like Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, and Greg's recommendation that everyone buy two copies of the game (one on console and one on PC) defies time. Read on!


Joystiq: Dragon Age is the first PS3 game that BioWare's developed. Can you talk about that process?

Greg Zeschuk: We did partner with Edge of Reality, so we partnered with folks who have had the experience, and that was a good process where we actually had some folks that knew how to do it but also, in general, just worked together with them. A lot of it ended up being like we needed a lot of work to get done and a lot of stuff very fast and everyone was very busy on Dragon Age itself. Collectively, on the console, I would say it was very interesting and challenging to take the richness of the PC game of Dragon Age, with all these different powers and everything else, and actually try to transpose it to the consoles. And the interesting thing about that, or where it worked out really well, is that we literally set ourselves a goal: We didn't want console players to fell like we ripped them off by taking anything away, by minimizing or simplifying. We want them to feel they have all the power at their fingertips, but it's very accessible. It's got the multiple rings that sort of have subsets to them, and you can actually pretty much access any power just a couple little joystick twiddles and button presses. And so with that experience, I think we succeeded there.

Another place where we succeeded on both the PS3 and 360 versions: it feels very different from the PC. Where the PC has got the traditional Baldur's Gate top-down [perspective], the PS3 and 360 are over-the-shoulder and they do have that kind of, very KOTOR feel and that's probably what I play, and that's what I feel most familiar with is KOTOR -- and it actually feels more action-y than the PC does, so I think people will find a very different experience. I recommend both platforms actually, PC and console versions.

EA's online store is running an exciting Black Friday sale, with downloadable PC games getting 30 percent off from now until Monday. We're talking about discounts on a bunch of games here, with standouts such as Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box for a cool $21 and Mass Effect for a very reasonable $14.

Not everything is on sale, however -- some of the newer titles like Left 4 Dead 2 and the Dragon Age Collector's Edition don't qualify (though the regular version of the latter is on sale for $35). If you're determined to get good deals on some of these newer games, we have a feeling you'll be able to find 'em somewhere.

[Via Big Download]

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We've got good news and great news for PC gaming space opera enthusiasts -- we'll start with the former and work our way up, building a beautiful good news crescendo. So, here's the good: EA recently announced the system requirements for Mass Effect 2, which we've posted after the jump. Now you can start fine-tuning your rig, making sure it plays host to all the necessary components required to play the title -- for instance, you'll need something called a "video card." Sadly, we don't think they're referring to our Blockbuster rental pass.

Now, for the great: The retail version of Mass Effect 2 won't include the restrictive, pestering DRM featured in the franchise's first installment. Rather, the game will simply do a disc check upon boot-up -- the same piracy-preventing measure exercised by Dragon Age: Origins. Activate, dear friends! Activate your game to your heart's content.

Were you one of the seven people on the planet who managed to resist Mass Effect's "possible alien nudity" siren call? Prepare for your steely resolve to buckle: The game's only $9.99 this weekend on Steam. Despite any qualms we may have had with the game's completely broken inventory system, or the frequent appearance of three-toed sloth-powered elevators, we find it hard not to suggest dropping a Hammy to add this to your collection.

It might even help you decide whether you want to drop six Hammies on the upcoming sequel. Or a Grant and a Hammy, we guess, though that sounds like Denny's menu item. (Great, now we want some Denny's. Thanks for nothing, Valve!)

Update: Due to a faulty interstellar communications array (read: a misunderstanding), EA has asked us to jettison the footage.

Original post:

We get the feeling someone at BioWare has proclaimed this "Epic Week," what with the release of its fantasy RPG stunner Dragon Age: Origins and now an epic new video from its next big game, Mass Effect 2. This isn't a trailer or developer diary -- you're in for nine minutes of unedited, uninterrupted gameplay footage from the most recent build of ME2. In fact, it's the same mission -- set inside Omega's "Inferno" nightclub -- that we ourselves got to play earlier this week. (And yes, we can confirm it looks that good.)

You'll get a sense of the sequel's leap in environmental detail, character modeling and dialog scene camerawork in this clip, along with loads of intense combat. There's even an appearance by returning character (and total badass) Garrus from the first Mass Effect, plus a joke that manages to poke fun at rumors of Commander Shepard's death and the fact players can make him/her look like anyone they choose. Again -- nine minutes.

Here are some of the creatures that will be wiping out humanity in Mass Effect 2:

• Collectors – an insect-like race, controlled by a single leader, that has access to the technology that "no one else in the galaxy" has. They can paralyze humans, and according to the video dev diary above, can abduct entire colonies. Oh, and they have beam weapons.
• Abominations – Husks from the first Mass Effect, but now on fire and 100-percent more suicide bomber-y.
• Scions – Three transformed human beings that have been grafted together onto a weapon. Essentially, super-zombies. With guns.
• Batorians – A "flying suit of armor" apparently made of thirty Husks that can "obliterate everything."

The Geth will also make a return in Mass Effect 2. Legion, a Geth that has gained sentience, will hunt the player through the adventure, and it'll be up to you to figure out why. Provided your Commander Shepard, um, doesn't die first.