PlayStation 3 owners are understandably excited about the impending opportunity to play one of the best games of the year just passed: Mass Effect 2. But details have been somewhat thin on the ground. Many have questioned exactly how the branching storyline will be handled, given that the original Mass Effect isn’t available for Sony’s console.
The most recent issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine tackles a few of these weighty issues. Perhaps most interestingly, the interactive comic which was revealed to be part of the PS3 package has been described by executive producer Casey Hudson as a “save game generator”. This presumably means that the decisions made throughout the course of the original Mass Effect game are present and correct in the interactive comic. By extension, we can assume that this is how the import of a character from a non-existent prequel will work. This is a neat way of handling it without having to port the previous game too.
Predictably, the PS3 release will include all the currently-available DLC. This equates to about $100 of additional content, apparently, as well as a somewhat optimistic estimation of “approximately 20 hours” of additional gameplay. It also includes “3 years worth of engine updates and every patch release for the game”. Quite how there are three years of engine updates to a game which has only been out a year is anyone’s guess—presumably this refers to updates to the Unreal engine generally, not just Mass Effect 2. And patches to be listed as a main feature of this new version? Well, it’s good that they’re porting an up-to-date version, but this should be taken for granted, really.
Notably, the developers promise that they are “not taking any shortcuts”. Producer Jesse Houston cites a number of Xbox-to-PS3 ports (without naming names) and accuses them of techniques such as downscaling and using sub-720p resolutions to keep the frame rate up. No such problem with the PS3 version, apparently, as Houston claims that “we really wanted to try to make it as good, if not better than the Xbox version”.
Good to hear. PS3 owners don’t have too long to wait now, as the game is out in January, a full year after the Xbox version won the hearts of so many gamers. Those who haven’t had the story spoiled for them yet would do well to pick up one of the best games in recent memory.
Does this mean it’ll be in the running for Game of the Year for 2011 too, though?
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