BioWare also details what DLC will be included in the package.
We reported recently about the upcoming release of the Mass Effect Trilogy as part of BioWare’s new “N7 Day” celebration. At the time, we knew that the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game would be available on November 6, but the company was mum about the PS3 version of the game. We now know that the PS3 release will be in December, as well as some more information about what will be included on those discs.
The issue with Mass Effect coming to other platforms like the PS3 is the fact that the original game was designed from the ground up as an Xbox 360 game. The game eventually saw a port to the PC, but between the original licensing agreement (Mass Effect was published by Microsoft) and the game’s architecture it prevented a PlayStation 3 port.
According to Ryan Warden, External Producer for Mass Effect Trilogy, the first game is running well on the PS3, although it took a lot of work to get it moved over. “The original Mass Effect game was built completely differently than its successors, as we’ve learned a lot of lessons since then about how-to and how-not-to build a game,” says Warden on the BioWare blog. “To be completely honest, I thought that it was unlikely that we could port Mass Effect in less than a year.”
BioWare worked with an outside studio, Edge of Reality, to bring the original Mass Effect to the PS3. It wasn’t an easy task, with things like the audio technology no longer being supported by its developer, and issues with getting the art assets streaming from the disc in a way that would work on the PS3 architecture. Warden says that the game runs “pretty damn well” on the PS3, and it will be available on December 4.
As to what you’ll actually get on the disc, things get a little hazy. The PS3 owners get the best deal when it comes to the DLC, with Mass Effect 1 including Bring Down the Sky (Pinnacle Station will be an additional cost), and Mass Effect 2 featuring everything on the disc that the original PS3 release had. For those not aware, the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 contained the Cerberus Network, Kasumi, Overlord, and Lair of the Shadow Broker.
The 360 version of the game includes “all the DLC that came with the original games”. What that means for Xbox owners is that Mass Effect 1 is the stand alone game, while Mass Effect 2 includes the Cerberus Network. PC owners get basically the same deal as the 360 users, but will be able to download Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station for free. Mass Effect 3 is the same release that came out on all three platforms in March.
Mass Effect 3 has been announced as a launch game for the Wii U, but there is still no word as to a Wii U version of the Mass Effect Trilogy.
I'm really surprised that all the DLC for the first two games isn't included on the disc. I can understand not including the Mass Effect 3 DLC since it's still so new, but I can't help but feel a little bad for PC and Xbox 360 owners.
That being said, I'll probably end up picking up the PS3 version, because I'm an idiotic Mass Effect fanboy. And I'm curious to see how the first game plays on the PS3.
As I was moving into the end game of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, I was tasked with finding three power couplings to unlock a door. It was a simple enough job, but in a game that had been almost entirely a linear affair, I was glad to have the rails taken off if even for a small section. It turned out that this wasn’t the case; any time I got remotely close to one of the power couplings Doktor would chime in on my codec to inform me that I was near my objective. Frowning, I destroyed the coupling and repeated the task with Doktor telling me exactly where to go and what to do. It made me realize just how much game design has changed in recent years, and what needs to be done to combat the need for constant hand holding that game designers have developed.
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