Mass Effect 2 Message Board

#masseffect Mods can make Skyrim look better. They can make Grand Theft Auto look better. They can make, well, just about any PC game look better. Including Mass Effect. More »

#deadendthrills Since we ran a feature on Duncan Harris, the groovy "video game photographer" behind the website DeadEndThrills, I've been sharing some of his work each week here. More »

Sculptor Kerry Dyer seems to be a purveyor of adorable sculptures and 3D art, and her latest conquest is the turian race from Mass Effect. Kerry created a few super-cute, sassy turian figurines like a pro, with a full rundown of the process on her blog.

#masseffect Here's a treat for Mass Effect fans. If you've played Mass Effect 2, you'll know that at some point, you run into an old friend from Mass Effect 1 on the colony of Horizon, who depending on how things play out, leaves you a heartfelt letter upon your departure. More »

#masseffect The folks at The Sneaky Zebra are making a short film based on the Mass Effect universe, and have sent along three new character trailers for the game. The one up top is for a renegade character named "Hale," which I would imagine (or at least hope!) is a reference to voice actor Jennifer Hale, who plays the female version of the game's protagonist Commander Shepard. (You may recall I had an opportunity to interview Hale at PAX this year). More »

#masseffect Prop builder Zander Brandt figured the world was short on replica M-29 Incisor rifles from Mass Effect 2. So he went and made one. More »

#fancypants To help give their Mass Effect cosplay a little more professional edge, the team at Crabcat Industries commissioned master craftsman Neil Gambini to make this Garrus mask. It's terrifying. In an awesome way. More »

#thisweekincomics Each Wednesday brings new comics worth reading. Some of them are about video games. This month, a lot of them are new DC super-hero comics, since that company is re-launching everything. Read on for recommendations of this week's best stuff and for my capsule reviews of DC's second wave of new books... More »

#speakuponkotaku Commenter Supra5mge spends a great many hours squeezing ever ounce of enjoyment out of his role-playing games. How do your numbers compare to his? Show him up in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »

Major Nelson has posted the Xbox Live Marketplace schedule for the next few weeks, including some good deals and one strange one. This week's Deal of the Week is for Mass Effect 2 DLC. Gold members can snag "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and "Kasumi -- Stolen Memory" for $3.50 each, half the usual price. "Arrival" is also half-price at $5.

DLC for several Microsoft-published titles is also on sale, including content for Halo: Reach, Gears of War 2, Forza 3, Fable 3 and Alan Wake. This sale is not part of the Deal of the Week promotion, and appears to be open to both Gold and Silver members of Xbox Live.

As for next week's deal, well, it's a bit strange. Microsoft is offering the ability to change your Gamertag at a discount. It normally costs $10 to change an Xbox Live moniker, but next week's "deal" drops the price to just $7. So, if you hate your Gamertag but not quite enough to justify ten bucks, next week's deal is for you.

#toybox For a series with such great characters and great visual design, Mass Effect has sadly been neglected on the action figure front, DC Unlimited only just releasing its first line of Mass Effect 2 figures in April 2011. More »

#fanart With a follow up to his incredible Boba Fett creation, Theo Stylianides throws down a wild redesign of the Mass Effect leader Commander Shepard. More »

#handmade Kotaku reader Shockwaver (not his real name)[1] wrote, letting Kotaku know that his wife is big Mass Effect. Proof isn't in the pudding, but this Mordin Solus statue. More »

#adyingbreed Were this a 3D render of Mass Effect 2's Thane, it would be impressive. Thing is, it's not. This is a tangible, old-fashioned sculpt. Get a load of the detail! More »

#skipafew Because the PS3 will most likely never see the first Mass Effect, when Mass Effect 2 hit Sony's console developers BioWare had to include an interactive comic to help players make the choices that defined their character's actions. More »

We're not usually excited to be writing about motion comics when there are actual, you know, games out there, but Mass Effect 2: Genesis is a little more interesting than the usual offering. In this BioWare/Dark Horse collabo, you can relive some of the key decisions from Mass Effect (assuming you haven't played it) and then apply those choices to Mass Effect 2.

Keep in mind that this $4 (320 MSP) download, which served to introduce PS3 players to the universe of Mass Effect, functions as a game add-on. That means you'll need Mass Effect 2 -- but we assume you've already taken care of that part.
[Thanks, Lafu]

#killedbydeath You might think Mass Effect is all about the chit-chat, but it's not. The talking and running and sexy times are just filler between lots and lots of shooting. Really, then, it's all about the guns. So let's take a look at them. More »

Much like Dragon Age: Origins before it, EA and BioWare are teaming up with FUNimation Entertainment to create an anime feature film based on the Mass Effect series. Production has begun, with digital and home releases planned for 2012. More »

Still don’t have Mass Effect 2? Here’s an expensive way to get a free copy of the oft-acclaimed sequel: buy Dragon Age II. In a celebration ending April 30, past and present owners of any version of Dragon Age II can sign up to receive a free digital copy of Mass Effect 2 for the PC. Just head on over to Dragon Age II’s official Web site, hit the rectangular “Get Mass Effect 2 Code” link in the middle of the page, and follow the directions to claim your own.

This is all an obvious marketing stunt that trades exposure for a free game, but to hear Mass Effect and Dragon Age series creator BioWare tell it, this Mass Effect 2 giveaway is simply an effort to reward fans of Dragon Age II since the game has sold over one million copies to date. 

  

BioWare heard you liked BioWare sequels, so it put a free BioWare sequel in your BioWare sequel, so you can role play while you role play. To celebrate the success of Dragon Age 2 (the game passed "the 1 million mark in less than two weeks and faster than Dragon Age: Origins," BioWare said), it's offering free downloads of the PC version of Mass Effect 2 to people who purchased Dragon Age 2 on any platform.

According to the email sent out to lucky recipients, you must activate the "Black Emporium" Online Pass content by April 30, log into the site set up for the offer, and enter the Online Pass code to initiate the download.

The trailer after the break is also free to Dragon Age 2 owners (and everyone else!)

#fanappreciation BioWare celebrates the success of Dragon Age II by giving fans that purchase and register a copy of the game online before April 30 a free copy of the PC version of Mass Effect 2. How does the offer work? More »

Hmm, I’m not hearing great things about the Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2, which turned up last night. The add-on is supposed to set things up for the third game, and is a mission in which you rescue a missing agent, who has news about the reapers. Doesn’t sound like people are enjoying it that much – but maybe it’s fine. Just fine.

So is anyone getting this? Or able to comment, having got it? Moreover, how many of you have actually gone back to ME2 to play all this extra stuff? I picked up the first few months of DLC, but I’ve not been back. (more…)

In addition to setting standards for games' capacity to generate pure human joy, Mass Effect 2 has also mounted a pretty high bar in terms of post-release support. In the months since the game's January 2010 retail launch, BioWare has continued to deliver on mini-episodes that feel fresh, vital and fully realized.

Imagine my disappointment to find that the game's final episode, "Arrival," not only fails to top them all and send the DLC series out with a bang, but whimpers into its position as the weakest add-on of the bunch.

#video Tomorrow, March 29 brings Mass Effect 2's final batch of downloadable content, Arrival, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Whip yourself into an anticipation lather by watching its launch trailer right here, right now. More »

We've seen a lot of things at stake in the intergalactic drama of Mass Effect 2 -- but nothing quite as costly as, well, our planet. Check out the trailer for tomorrow's "Arrival" DLC to see the ugly, ugly faces of Earth's conquerors and the steps you'll be taking to foil their nefarious plan.

How does Earth come to be under siege in Mass Effect 3? Brad and Vinny hope this DLC will explain.

Next Tuesday, a sad and wonderful thing will happen. Mass Effect 2 will receive its last DLC, "Arrival," which sees Commander Shepard on a rescue mission to save a doctor kidnapped by batarians. As the nature of the mission is quite sensitive -- the doctor is part of a team that has found a Reaper artifact -- Admiral Hackett calls for Shepard to go it alone.

"Arrival is a side-quest, ultimately," explains Jesse Houston, producer at BioWare, "but it's also kind of an epilogue," he adds, reiterating that it's the final Mass Effect 2 update. Within the context of the game's plot, players can access Arrival at any point after the mid-game Horizon mission. Depending on when players choose to undertake the mission, Houston notes, they could experience some "small differences," though he describes these as "aesthetic" changes only.

Though a side-quest, Arrival is different from other such missions in Mass Effect 2 in that it's strictly a solo operation. Shepard is on his (or her) own throughout the entirety of Arrival.

#rpg I understand that role-playing video games owe their existence to role-playing tabletop games, and as a result, share many of their predecessor's customs and traditions. After all, if tabletop games need to simulate action via numeric values, then it was natural for the first video game RPGs to do the same. More »

#speakuponkotaku Kotaku commenter Jezuz feels that games set in outer space have become too cold and sterile. He shares his idea on how to liven up the airless void in today's Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »

#opinion I have a dream. That when a big shooter is released, at least some of its downloadable content caters to the crowd that prefers to game alone. More »