Grave Gamer News & Views — mass effect

Mass Effect 3’s ‘Leviathan’ DLC Incoming This Summer (Wii U Release…Er, Later)

The first story-based DLC to drop for Mass Effect 3 since the Extended Cut, EA and Bioware have confirmed that Shepard’s the universe over will be able to download the Leviathan DLC sometime this Summer.

Given the somewhat final nature of the game’s closing, Leviathan is a side-story taking place during the Commander’s last minute shuffle to prepare the galaxy for (hopeless, one-sided) war against the Reapers.  In his/her travels, rumors circulate around tales of an entity or creature of immense power; maybe powerful enough to stop the Reapers.  On the hunt for this supposed Leviathan (a being that may just be a Reaper itself), Shepard will visit new systems, tread unseen ground on the Citadel, befriend new characters, and learn more about our sentient doom-bringers than ever before.

Leviathan, to be made available at either $10 or 800 MS on PC, PSN, and Xbox Live, also comes packing new arsenal: the AT-12 Shotgun and the M-55 Argus Assault Rifle.  If that’s not enough for you to take on the cosmos at large (and you’d be right), August 7th brings the Firefight Pack, a weapons payload for single-player campaign use that features two brand new guns as well as an additional five space heaters to the tune of $2.  In case you want to be…thorough.

If you’re one of the few holding out for the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 (…anyone?  Anyone out there?  I literally hear cobwebs), your bewildering patience will pay off as Bioware is bundling most of the game’s current DLC as on-disc content, including both the Extended Cut and Leviathan.  An interactive recap of the first two ME titles will also be thrown in so you Nintendo faithful can catch up on all the sci-fi goodness without being bogged down by all that unnecessarily fun gameplay.  Like the Wii U itself, no date was placed on the ME3 port.

Catch a glimpse of Leviathan hereabouts.

Phantom vs Vorcha by DroidsBane

motherfuckinscifi:

Subject Zero by Mihai Radu

Mass Effect 3’s Extended Finale Free to Download on Tuesday

The PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions of Bioware’s third space odyssey will be receiving the extended ending in the form of a free download starting Tuesday, June 26th.

Bioware claims the Extended Cut will not fundamentally change the endings already present in the game.  Whether or not you found the resolution to your Shepard’s storyline satisfying, that conclusion is there to stay.  However, through additional dialogue and scenes spotlighting how your choices affected the galaxy at large, Bioware hopes players can find deeper meaning in the supplemented finale.

“It provides more of the answers and closure that players have been asking for. It gives a sense of what the future holds as a result of the decisions made throughout the series. And it shows greater detail in the successes or failures based on how players achieved their endings,” says Bioware.

That’s right about within the ballpark of my initial complaints towards the ending(s).  Thematically, I was actually pretty okay with the outcome.  But three games worth of decisions amounted to a static conclusion that disregarded them all.  Not so okay.  Altering the ending is tricky business and still probably won’t be enough to assuage fans – the Extended Cut may only prove to irk the fan base even more but…You just can’t beat free.

Mass Effect: Invasion # 4 by Paul Renaud