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"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel." - English

"Jestem dowódcą Shepard, a to jest mój ulubiony sklep na cytadeli." - Polish (machine translation)

In a GDC 2010 session entitled "Localizing Large RPGs," which forms part of an ongoing localization summit, BioWare localization project manager Ryan Warden eloquently explored the revered developer's process of adapting a huge, dialogue-driven game like Mass Effect 2 for alternative markets and languages. It may surprise you to learn that BioWare's processes are significantly more elegant than hiring an army of workers to copy and paste lines of text into Google Translate.

With 450,000 words and 30,000 lines of voice-over in the English version, Mass Effect 2 demanded an active approach in its translation to eight languages, including Russian, Czech and Spanish. "Trying to manage this scope is almost unfathomable," said Warden. "For BioWare titles, we don't have the luxury of waiting for the title to be fully complete before starting localization."

The concurrent process was designed to provide as much information and context to translators as possible, allowing them to focus on the job without having to request further information for each new conversation. BioWare compiled a complete localization kit, complete with a pronunciation guide (that's crow-guhn, not kroggin!), an IP glossary, a collection of translator Q&A documents and an extensive character database. "Any time that a translator spends time asking questions and waiting for feedback ... that's wasted time," Warden added. The goal, he said, was to "eliminate any doubt in the confidence of the translator."

Commander's Log:

Well, whaddya know? I get up this morning and ride down to Deck 2, and the first thing outta Kelly's mouth is that I have a new message at my Private Terminal. About time -- things have been hella boring around here since beating up the Collectors! Anyway, it's from Illusive Man -- who else -- with a tantalizing subject line: "Arc Projector."

So, get this: Mr. Smokey says Cerberus has passed off a new "advanced electrical attack device" to me. It was recently tested on some geth during a "highly successful" skirmish in the Skyllian Verge. (I won't tell Legion that part, but "they" probably already know.)

Well, I'd sure like to test it myself, but the galaxy's awfully quiet these days -- still waiting on that Hammerhead delivery. I guess I'd better just start up that New Game+ ...


P.S. I've been feeling really homesick for Cali lately. That's where I grew up before enlisting in N7, fool.

Game Informer's latest "TidBits" column features a a glorious list of "inside baseball" stats from Dragon Age: Origins. Some of the numbers are simply cute, while others are positively frightening: "QA analyst Bruce Venne played 1,957.55 hours of Dragon Age PC in 5,352 games." Consequently, "The Bruce" was awarded to staff that played more than Venne in any given month -- the honor was bestowed only once.

While the list is mostly packed with numbers, there are some notable non-numerical did-you-knows, like the staff's affectionate nickname for the Ogre, "Fluffy," and, unsurprisingly, the revelation that one of the BioWare crew makes chain mail "from scratch."

Check out the full list of Dragon Age tidbits on Game Informer.

BioWare's space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon's "Deal of the Day." The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is $10 cheaper than you'd pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag.

At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi soapy and their shooters refined, this is a deal worth going through the Omega 4 Relay for -- see, if you play the game, you'll know what that means.

[Thanks, Russ P!]

We know that some of you are less than excited about the return of vehicular gameplay to the Mass Effect franchise -- we still have vivid nightmares about our time behind the wheel of the Mako from the original game. However, your position will probably be reversed by last night's episode of GameTrailers TV, which showed off the Hammerhead vehicle which will arrive in the upcoming "Firewalker" DLC for Mass Effect 2. It is, in a word, rad. In two words? Totally rad.

Check out Chapter Four of the episode to see the Normandy SR-2 crew's new toy in action.

The sixth developer diary for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released and it features a new (yet familiar) location players will be able to visit when the MMO finally goes live. Devastated by the sinister Sith Lord Darth Malak in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the post-apocalyptic world of Taris will be a "major world" in the upcoming Bioware MMO. While the original vision for the ruined planet was to be a giant swamp-like crater, Bioware smartly decided to shape the environment as a vertical wasteland that both the Republic and Imperial factions are attempting to reshape.

If you're anything like us, you simply weren't impressed enough by the already overabundant amount of content available in Dragon Age: Origins. No sir! You wanted -- nay! -- demanded more content. Luckily for you, you immovable demander, EA is offering a deal in its online store for the first Dragon Age expansion where pre-orders of the new content can snag the original game on PC for 40 percent off its normal $50 asking price (now just under $30).

That means you could get both Awakening and the game it's based on for a combined $70 -- just $10 more than the Game of the Year edition that's sure to come out in a year's time! It's like an early reward for being hesitant ... almost like you paused the action and arranged the tactics ahead of time. Is there something we should know? Hmmm?

We wouldn't blame PS3 owners for losing interest in the Return to Ostagar DLC for Dragon Age: Origins -- after all, once a game expansion is delayed, delayed again, put on the 360 marketplace, pulled from the 360 marketplace, and then only re-added to the 360 marketplace but not the PlayStation Store, a person's hopes of ever seeing that DLC tend to vanish.

However, a BioWare community manager has confirmed that Ostagar will finally be added to the PlayStation Store on March 11 for $4.99. That should give you exactly one week to poopsock your way through the bite-sized addition before Dragon Age: Awakening gets released. Then again, those two might present more role-playing than your brain can handle. We suggest consulting your family physician before attempting such a marathon.

Update: It seems there's been a mix up somewhere between BioWare and IDW, as a recent tweet from BioWare's account claims that the Dragon Age comic is still scheduled to release in March.

It looks like Dragon Age fans hoping to delve further into its fantasy realm will have to wait a little bit longer. IDW Publishing editor-in-chief Chris Rydall tells Big Download that the planned March release of its Dragon Age comic has been pushed to April. Furthermore, the second issue will release in June.

The comic was announced last year, and is slated to feature a story written by Orson Scott Card. The plot itself focuses around a band of rogue mages that "will defy the rules of the Templars and change the course of the world forever."

BioWare recently released a handful of videos promoting the upcoming expansion to its humongous RPG Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. In the first, posted above, we meet dwarven legionnaire Sigrun, tasked with returning to the old fortress of Kal'hirol. There's talking Darkspawn, those merry band of adventurers known as the "Legion of the Dead," and even a cameo from our old friend Oghren.

The additional two videos (which come to us via IGN) are simply B-roll, but that means gameplay footage. You'll get a look at some of the new characters in action and even some vistas of the new environments. We get it, it's not much, but you've got less than a month until this old-school expansion pack (remember those?) slays its way to retailers.

click to awaken the gallery
BioWare revealed one of the new venues being added for the Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening. Kal'hirol was once a dwarven keep, a center of learning and culture for dwarf society. At some point, however, the dwarves were driven out.

BioWare won't say what horror resulted in "the fortress's elite one day [showing] up at Orzammar's great doors, exhausted and in despair over the loss of their home," but we have a theory: a Subway opened up next door, and the dwarves couldn't stand its constant weird baking-bread smell. Either that or some kind of monsters. You can scour our new gallery for any evidence of $5 footlongs.

We frequently tried to find ways to keep ourselves occupied during the days we spent probing planets for precious, precious minerals in Mass Effect 2, but largely came up empty-handed. You can only scan Uranus so many times before it loses its comedic value, you know? If only we'd followed the cue of YouTube rap sensation Kabuto the Python, who spent his mining moments crafting rhymes and beats, then combining the two into a single package which we feel comfortable calling a rap song. Check the NSFW track after the jump.

We've been big supporters of BioWare and EA's approach to churning out lots of DLC for its new releases, but it seems to have hit a serious snag this morning. Due apparently to some scheduled downtime for BioWare's social site, players have been unable to download DLC from Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network (unfortunate, but understandable) and some have been completely unable to play Dragon Age: Origins -- kind of a big issue for a single-player game.

Near as we can figure with our limited staff testing, the Dragon Age issue might involve whether or not you chose to submit your feedback and character profile data to Bioware.com. We'll keep up with the situation and let you know when it's resolved. The server maintenance was scheduled to end at 9 a.m. EST, so here's hoping it'll pass soon.

[Update: Judging by those same forum threads, things seem to be up and running now.]

[Thanks, requiemvalorum]

Mass Effect 2's reign in the UK has come to an end, with a return trip to Rapture replacing BioWare's journey across the stars in first place. The latest Chart-Track data shows that Bioshock 2 is now the Big Daddy on the block, besting the hypnotic gyrations of Just Dance, Ubisoft's successful bust-a-mover. With that in second place, FIFA 10 slid into third.

Bioshock 2, which bested Mass Effect 2's UK debut numbers, is the first Take-Two title to be in the top spot since 2008, when GTA IV managed to jack its way into first place.

Source - Guess Who's The Daddy? [GFK Chart-Track]
Source - Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]

We usually think we're too smart for FAQs, preferring the sort of random, only moderately relevant questions that no one ever asks. But the FAQ for Dragon Age: Origins Awakening does provide some pretty useful insight. For instance, we learned that the expansion won't appear on disc for PS3 owners living in Europe. It seems like an odd decision to make, but perhaps you European PS3 fans can enlighten us. Do you guys just hate discs without us knowing it? If so, why did you let us keep buying you all those discs for Christmas without saying anything? [Update: We just heard back from an EA spokesperson, who told us "Apparently this is a Sony Europe rule – you cannot have expansion packs be available on PSN and at retail. You can in North America, which is why we have both here." Huh, who knew?]

Less perplexingly, we saw that lovably grouchy dwarf Oghren plays a "large role" in the expansion, which is great news for all thinking people.