Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Dark tidings from Camp Bioware, in this seemingly rather ill-judged trailer for the new Mass Effect 2 character Subject Zero. Bitch. Shoots for Strong Vengeful Joss Whedon Villain-Type, but comes off like an insipid, low-rent exploitation movie. Bitch. Hopefully this is simply an unfortunate marketing misfire, as with those very silly Marilyn Manson/low-budget porno trailers for Dragon Age, and not representative of the tone of the game itself. Bitch. But I must say, they’re going to have to fight to win back my anticipation for the game at this stage. Bitch.

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First there was Mass Effect, and soon there will be two of it. And yet, to be quite honest, I’ve not really be tracking said sequel, despite quite enjoying the first part of Bioware’s big space adventure. With 2 being bumped back to continue in early in 2010 (no concrete date yet), I’ve lost ever more focus on it. However, I just spotted this dude shown (above) – who was apparently revealed a bit earlier in the year – and interest has once again glimmered. He’s a beautifully blank-faced alien assassin character, Thane, and I can see him being rather popular in my ME2 team, made up from “the galaxy’s most powerful mystics, geniuses, and convicts”, as we make adventures and deign to save the human race. Of course what has nudged me into looking into all this is some information from GamesCom, where those extraneous plot details and a grunt, called, er Grunt, have been revealed.

Oh, and there’s a trailer illustrating Mr Grunt too, straight from the convention and posted below. Game footage, a-lovely. But why does every possible future have an ’80s pole-dancing club?
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This contains major spoilers. It’s also a moderate amount of awesome. The Mass Effect 2 demo from E3 has been done up as a slick development video diary (below) explaining what the Bioware team is aiming to do with the game. It contains quite a bit of footage, and seems to encapsulate all the significant changes to combat, conversation, and storyline. I can’t say much more that that, other than to suggest you hold back if you’re trying to avoid learning too much about the game before you play it.
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Spoilers are a weird thing when it comes to sequels. Especially sequels which promote themselves by throwing out mysteries and sly hints about the deaths of major characters. BioWare told us some answers today regarding the very beginning of Mass Effect 2. The very beginning. I’m going to share them, okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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The fragments of dialogue in this gives a way a fair bit of what’s going to happen in the game, so if you’re allergic to spoilers you might want to avoid it. A rather classy little trailer for Mass Effect 2, anyway, and I’m loving the super-detailed science fiction cities. Falling-to-death dude looks remarkably like the zombo-drones from Dark Athena, too. Hmm. More on this soon, as John gets to see it at E3.
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Bioware are getting busying hyping up the major unveiling of Mass Effect 2 at E3, discussing the aim of “intensity” in the game, the amping up of combat, and the darker “Wild West” storyline. The trailer mostly focuses on the devs talking about what they’re excited about, but does include a fair bit of in-game footage. I’ve linked the to the Joystiq version of the video because there seems to be something funny going on with the main site.
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Bioware have released a bunch more information about Mass Effect 2 while talking to GameTrailers. Apparently, importing your saved game from the original Mass Effect will have some profound consequences for your experience. ““The first moment will be different,” claims project director Casey Hudson. That sounds intriguing. Perhaps even more intriguing is that Mr Casey says the team intends to have space combat “in the trilogy” but there’s none in Mass Effect 2. Sounds like the third time is the charm for spaceship shooting. That shakycam footage – which is developmental work-in-progress stuff from GDC – is after the jump.

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Rather out of nowhere, along with two artwork desktops, Bioware have posted the first teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2. As you might expect for a barely announced game, there’s no gameplay footage here, but instead a rather worrying implication. Well, it’s an interesting surprise so I’ll not spoil it. It’s below.

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