TGR - "It's no secret that Activision loves milking the Guitar Hero franchise. Those fake plastic instruments and scrolling note charts have made the publisher a boatload of money, and they aren't about to stop making content while consumers are still walking around with cash in their pockets. Therefore, it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise that rumors are swirling that the publisher is hard at work on a Jimi Hendrix-themed Guitar Hero game.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this rumor is the source. This particular juicy tidbit comes not from some "industry insider" or loose-lipped developer, but rather from Slash."
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Console Monster writes: "It's a short Xbox Live Marketplace update today but its pretty sweet for Frontlines: Fuel of War fans as the fourth map pack for the game has been released. Here is the full update for Friday 19th September 2008:

Name: Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Allied Trailer Game Trailer
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions

Name: Mass Effect: Places of Mass Effect
Price: 150 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions

Name: Frontlines: Fuel of War - 4 Map Pack
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions..."
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Mass Effect" has started its journey to the big screen. Numerous sources have confirmed that producer Avi Arad has optioned the rights to Bioware's sci-fi RPG from the developer's parent publisher Electronic Arts.
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For a limited time only (well, until the end of October) the Xbox Live Marketplace is running an 'Extended Play Download Days' promotion which is offering some pretty good savings on some of the more popular DLC.

Games include:
Mass Effect
Lost Odyssey
Forza Motorsport 2
Oblivion
Guitar Hero 3
Beautiful Katamari
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Bungie's Halo 3 took top Game of the Year honors during the G-Phoria awards last night, broadcast by game-oriented cable television network G4.

Xbox 360 was named the station's favorite system -- which falls in line with the award distribution. Of the show's 18 game awards, only four went to titles not available on Microsoft's system: Best Graphics and Best Voice Acting for Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Best Racing Game for Nintendo EAD's Mario Kart Wii, and, by default, Best Handheld Game for Ready at Dawn's God of War: Chains of Olympus.
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In the just released September issue of Australian 360, comes the commitment of Bioware CEO Ray Muzyka "to bring the Mass Effect trilogy exclusively to the Xbox 360."

Speaking exclusively to Australian 360 at EA's European Showcase, Muzyka also stated "we said we were committed to supporting Mass Effect as a franchise and have the trilogy on the Xbox 360, and that's still our goal", before adding to the question of the trilogy staying exclusive with what appears to be a subtle jibe at Sony, saying "we're always very ambitious in our goals and the most important thing is quality, so we're never going to compromise that."

Not only will the trilogy stay exclusive to the 360, but it will be released entirely on the 360 platform. And for our gaming colleagues who enjoy their PS3's and Wii's there's still hope that they may yet get to experience the wonderful world of Mass Effect, albeit not within the Commander Shepard based trilogy.

But beyond all the console positioning and future IP speculation are some juicy details for the current trilogy that should get fans excited for what appears to be a 2009 release for Mass Effect 2...
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Gamers will be getting their Japanese role-playing game fix on the Xbox 360 soon. Japanese Xbox 360 gamers will also be getting a taste of US and European developed RPGs. At the "Xbox 360 RPG Premiere 2008" event in Shibuya, Tokyo today, release dates on upcoming Xbox 360 RPGs from Square Enix, Namco Bandai and Microsoft Game Studios were revealed.
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Mass Effect PC players will soon have a chance to "Bring Down the Sky" (did you see what we did there?), as BioWare has announced that the free downloadable content will be available very soon for the PC version of the giant space epic.
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BioWare bossman Ray Muzyka has said the studio will be creating more games based on the works of others in the future.
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Remember all that fuss over the Mass Effect sex scene that was spawned by Fox News not really having a clue about what its 'experts' were talking about? Looking back CEO of BioWare, Ray Muzyka, says it was all "an interesting experience."Speaking to CVG at a recent EA press event, he explained, "At the end of the day, we're proud of the content in the game. It's all appropriate for the rating that's been assigned, the Mature ... » Read More

Pc gamers who have had their fill of online activation headaches with Windows will be pretty miffed to hear the latest anti-piracy scheme being dreamed up by top games publishers.
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Kombo writes, "Not only is CEO Ray Muzyka Bioaware of DLC, he embraces it with open arms. "We did a lot of post-release content with Neverwinter Nights, we're planning to do more on Dragon Age in the future as well and Mass Effect and other products we have in development", he noted in a chat with CVG. "We just want to make sure we're satisfying what the fans want first, so often it's good to get their feedback and say, 'What kinds of things would really be exciting to you?', and how can we put those in the game."

Unfortunately, my exuberance was tempered by another tidbit from Muzyka -- one concerning Mass Effect's forthcoming second round of DLC. When CVG threw a 'So when's it coming out?' at the good doctor, he nimbly dodged the question."
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BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka says that the developer has major plans for the next batch of download content for Mass Effect. Trouble is don't expect to see the second wave any time soon."We have big plans for post-release content with the franchise for both Xbox 360 and PC," Muzyka said when we caught up with him recently. "We haven't released any details on that yet, but it's something we want to actively support."When questioned ... » Read More

Speaking to videogaming247 at yesterday's EA Games Studio Showcase in London, BioWare boss Ray Muzyka said the studio was "happy" and "proud" of the sexual content of Mass Effect, saying its inclusion was tasteful and showed the RPG was an innovator in the field of games as an emergent art form.

"It's the same content, just in higher resolution," he said of the alien sex scene in the PC version of Mass Effect. "So it looks really good, right? We're happy and we're proud of the content that's in the game. We think it's appropriate for the rating the game has ¿ it's a 'mature' rated game. It's tasteful and it's not gratuitous. It's actually adult-themed content of relationships, mature relationships that are very realistically depicted and actually very appropriate as well, and very emotionally impactful."
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BioWare still has a number of vitally important questions to be answered in regards to Mass Effect 2, the developer's revealed to us. "How do we make what you did in the first game affect what's happening in the second game?... Who is the main character? Who will re-appear in the game?" senior PR manager Matt Atwood said of the follow-up to its critically acclaimed sci-fi RPG during an interview last week. ... » Read More

The first piece of Xbox 360 Mass Effect downloadable content, the hour-long Bring Down the Sky pack, has just gone live.The pack includes a new mission on a renegade asteroid, that introduces the elusive Batarian race talked about in the prequel book (not that we've read it, cough).A Batarian extremist group has hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, the story goes, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world ... » Read More

BioWare just released the content for their sci-fi RPG, Mass Effect. Here's what you need to know:

Content: Bring Down the Sky
Price: 400 Microsoft Points Size: 253.40 MB
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: [ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD,LANGUAGE,PARTIAL NUDITY,SEXUAL THEMES,VIOLENCE] Batarian extremists have hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. Only you can save the human hostages on the asteroid and reroute it before it crashes into the world, killing millions of innocent civilians.
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The content Pack which is titled Bring Down the Sky, will cost 400 MS points ($5), and offer you 90 minutes of all new gameplay, and also includes the introduction of a new race to the galactic stage, the Batarians. The Batarians are isolationists who rarely leave the borders of the Terminus system. That is until a Batarian extremist group hijacks a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. So make sure you have the Normandy ready to go, you'll be needing it.
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Gamershell reports that the Demiurge Studios today confirmed that they are co-developing with BioWare the PC version of Mass Effect. Demiurge began working with BioWare during the final stretch of development for the Xbox 360 version, allowing the studios to collaborate closely throughout the co-development process.

Demiurge worked closely with the BioWare team to enhance gameplay with new additions, such as a third command wheel to allow players to direct their squad members separately, a completely reworked inventory system, fully customized key mapping and hot keys, and an entirely new minigame. Substantial attention was also paid to visuals and game flow, featuring higher resolution environments and characters.
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Mass Effect, which was developed by an Edmonton company, won the game of the year award at a glitzy award ceremony Friday evening honouring the best in film animation and video games. The science fiction game that portends of coming trends in the gaming industry stole the show at the second annual Elan awards held in Vancouver.

Drew Karpyshyn, the lead writer on the game, said in an interview it had a script similar to what you would find in a major movie, only much longer.

In fact, with 22,000 spoken lines and 30 hours of animation, the script is the equivalent of 20 movies. The difference between this and a regular movie is that the game player decides what twists and turns he or she wants the characters to take. "The player controls the direction of the story," said Karpyshyn, who predicts this type of plot-driven action will be the wave of the future.

He said the concept for the game was developed about four years ago. It took about 2 1/2 years to make and involved the work of about 140 people, with four to five writers working at any given time.
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