character classes confirmed
After being mentioned at GDC, Bioware has confirmed that there are 6 character classes for you to customize your Commander Shepard as you play Mass Effect.
They are
- Soldier – Soldiers are Combat specific characters.
- Engineer – Engineers are Technology centered characters.
- Adept – Adepts are characters especially skilled with Biotic abilities.
- Infiltrator – Characters who blend their Combat and Technical abilities.
- Sentinel – Characters who balance using Biotic abilities and Technology.
- Vanguard – Characters who mix their skills at Combat with their Biotic abilities.
We'll be updating you on each of the different classes once the information becomes available.
February 28, 2007
Gamespy: Saren, Pt.2
Last month Gamespy revealed information on the Saren, one of the significant characters in Mass Effect. Yesturday they brought us more details right from Drew Karpyshyn, the game’s Principle Writer.
Drew Karpyshyn: Turians hail from the planet Palaven. Palaven is largely Earth-like in nature, being what is known as a Garden Planet. Lush greenery and oceans are the primary geographic features to be found there, and the planet is ideal for supporting life. Turians are a tough, raptor-like humanoid species. The turians are one of the three races with a seat on the Citadel Council. Their autocratic society values discipline, but is tempered by a strong personal and collective sense of honor. Turians fill the role of peacekeepers for the Council, using their large military to preserve peace and order in the face of piracy and external threats.
Read Full Q&A Here
February 22, 2007
Take A Galactic Role
“Intel from an anonymous informant on 72-1-8-CUC indicates that a leading commander of Saren Arterius, (Spectre agent gone rogue) controller of a large amount of mercenaries, and inter-systems fugitive from C-Sec and Spectre is on the Citadel to assassinate a human diplomat. The diplomat's survival is critical to a political stage of humanity's uprising. Cicerius must be stopped. He is dangerous to warrant the use of assassination if need be...”
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February 15, 2007
Shack Interview
Shacknew’s David Craddock spoke with Casey Hudson, to learn more about what Mass Effect is set to offer Xbox 360 gamers.
Shack: What sort of character development system has been crafted in order to make Mass Effect's characters unique?
Casey Hudson: Mass Effect has a similar depth of character development as [seen in] Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but ... gives you more direct control over your character's progression. Things are expressed in a more intuitive [way], so you can see the results of improving your character in more concrete, immediate ways.
February 12, 2007
Team Xbox at D.I.C.E pt.2
Team Xbox yesterday posted the second part of their interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka at D.I.C.E.
Team Xbox: Demos are a pretty big part of Xbox Live Marketplace right now, and we know that you probably can’t say anything about whether or not there will be a Mass Effect demo. Is this one of those types of games with features that would be tough to show off during a 20 minute demo?
Ray Muzyka: Well, we haven’t revealed any details on unveiling that yet, but I can say that what we’re planning for pre-release to give fans a taste of the experience is unique. It’s never been done before, and if we can pull it off, fans will be very intrigued.
February 11, 2007
Team Xbox at D.I.C.E
Team Xbox had the chance to sit down with Dr. Ray Muzyka at D.I.C.E., where he was happy to tell them all about Mass Effect. Be sure to check back with Team Xbox as they post the rest of their interview Monday morning.
Team Xbox: How is working with Microsoft? You’ve worked with them before, and you’ve done a lot of different projects with different groups.
Ray Muzyka: I have nothing but good thing to say about them. They really do care about the games developed for the system that they want to be showcases. They want them to be stand-out titles, and they’re doing everything they can to support us.They contribute resources on the dev side to help us get the max out of the hardware. The marketing and PR folks are working hard to maximize the outreach, and that’s going to ramp up really big in just a short period. The fans are going to start seeing more assets and cool stuff. I think they’re a great publisher. The good thing about being first-party is that you have the commitment from the hardware manufacturer themselves to maximize the return on the game.
You look at what they did for Gears of War last year, and they’re planning a sort of similar thing for Mass Effect this year, and it’s great to be part of that.
February 5, 2007
Galactic Nomads 
Earlier today Bioware gave us our first bit of information about the Quarians:
"Some believe quarians are cybernetic, a blend of machine and biology that can survive for a time in the cold vacuum of space. Others believe they are so used to living on their substandard, makeshift ships that they never remove their survival suits. Regardless, most societies condemn them for unleashing a dangerous, synthetic life form on the galaxy."
Read Full Codex entry Here
February 2, 2007
Mass Effect update Monday
Thanks to Chris we can confirm that on Monday there will be a Mass Effect update, which includes an update to the Galactic Codex, some hints about the Geth and a half a dozen or so screenshots.
He also hinted at a new race of aliens, the update should be up before noon BST (Bioware Standard Time) Feb 5th.
Click here, To read the thread
January 29, 2007
Web Rumor
Recently there has been a rumor spreading around the web about Mass Effect, finding its way onto the Playstation 3 thanks to this article by CVG.
“Should BioWare be developing for PS3, would it be its shooter-RPG Mass Effect that's to grace the console as well as Xbox 360? Or does the developer have plans to release its yet-to-be-fully-announced MMORPG on the machine? Or would it be an entirely new IP? Answers on a postcard too...”
But don’t worry 360 fans; Microsoft Game Studio is publishing Mass Effect, so chances of Mass Effect being ported to the Ps3 are slim to none.
*We’ll update you, with any news of a Bioware ps3 title if/when they become available.
January 27, 2007
Sounds From The Future
Casey Hudson reveals how the music came to be.
"So what are we up to? Well, you probably know the basics: “Mass Effect” puts you in the role of Commander Shepard, best of the best of the human military around 200 years in the future. As Shepard, you’ll scour the far reaches of space to prevent a race of ancient, super-intelligent machines from harvesting all life in the galaxy. It’s a contrast between a beautiful future and its extremely dark secret"
Read Full Post Here
GameSpy Presents: Mass Effect's Saren
After profiling Mass Effect in their "Most Wanted Games of 2007" Gamespy brings us our first details on the game's main villain, Saren.
In recent years Saren has become an outspoken opponent of human expansion. Like many other non-humans, he believes the Alliance has become overly aggressive in its efforts to establish the people of Earth as a dominant species in Citadel space.
Read Full Details Here
January 23, 2007
Boxart
January 19, 2007
IGN Interview
Casey Hudson, Project Director for Mass Effect, was kind enough to take a break from working to sit down with ign and shed some light on Biowares highly anticipated title
IGN: I just wanted to start by thanking you for taking the time to do this. I know how busy you guys can get.
Casey Hudson: Oh, no problem. My pleasure.
IGN: So let's start from the beginning with the storyline. BioWare is always known for their great stories, so where did the inspiration come for the universe and characters of Mass Effect?
Casey Hudson: Oh, well really we were able to start from first principles because we were faced with creating our own universe for this game. So knowing that we were able to really do whatever we wanted with it, it kind of comes down to what do you want to do? What do you most want to do in a science fiction story? That was really the beginning of it is just thinking about what do you really want to do? You want to be able to have a starship and walk around inside it and all these really great moments. Reasons to, not just the ability to travel across the galaxy, but reasons to scour the galaxy and go out there and look for stuff.
Click here to read the full interview by ign.
- 4 New screenshots added
January 19, 2007
Bioware plans episodic content
It is presently known that BioWare plans to release episodic content for its highly anticipated Xbox 360 game Mass Effect, Bioware has now revealed it's expanding episodic release plans to cover additional projects.
"...we have big plans afoot at BioWare for post-release and episodic content for upcoming cool BioWare games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Jade Empire: Special Edition and other upcoming BioWare titles, both on console and PC", Says Ray Muzyka in an interview with CVG.
With little to no information being releases on mass effect. We’ve taken this time to update the race page with the sites current layout. The page looks a little into each of the races we know of:
