Posted 08/26/09 at 03:56:59 AM by Nathan Grayson

BioWare recently released some spankin’ new Mass Effect DLC, but, uh, it seems like they forgot to tell everyone. Titled “Pinnacle Station,” the Mass Effect DLC made a minimal impact upon landing, mostly because there was little-to-no pre-release hype associated with its launch. Oh sure, there were some hints – a wink, a nudge, and even a leak – but not a(n official) word from Microsoft or BioWare.

You’d think it’d be in your best interest to promote a new addition to your two year-old game, seeing as how most people have probably shelved it at this point. But then, we’re not marketing experts, so what do we know?

Anyway, the DLC costs five Washingtons – or one Lincoln – and gets Shepard and co. back in shape for Mass Effect 2 with 13 brand new combat missions.

Go grab it here, if you’re interested.

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Posted 02/21/09 at 03:23:29 AM by Nathan Grayson

The original Mass Effect may still be priming the DLC buffet for one or two more bites, but that isn’t stopping BioWare from slipping gamers a small dose of its sequel.

The trailer in question can be seen here, and – for those who are deathly afraid of even the remote possibility of a Rickroll and would rather not click that link – not-so-vaguely suggests that Commander Shepard (your main guy or gal in Mass Effect) suffered a quick and clean off-screen death. And a permanent one at that – not simply due to bad camera angles.
 
But, to be honest, we’re thinking the rumors of Shepard’s death have been greatly exaggerated, mostly because the only other tidbit BioWare’s dropped concerning 2Mass2Furious involves reusing save files from Mass Effect – probably for stat boosts, character profiles, and other such pieces of space bling. Otherwise, BioWare could’ve tossed in a few “So, how about that one guy who saved the universe that one time?” questions, ala Knights of the Old Republic 2, and called it a day.

So, what do you think?

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Posted 12/22/08 at 09:25:35 PM by Nathan Grayson

“Let’s see… I’ll take one copy of Spore – hold the SecuROM DRM, please.”
 
“Oh, er, sorry. Your order’s already slathered in DRM and, well, we can’t remove it. If you come back in a couple weeks, though, we might be able to scrape off a bit of it. Sound good?”
 
“…”

Has something like this ever happened to you? A pleasant Sunday afternoon installation spoiled by SecuROM’s goon squad? Well, no more. At least, if you ride under Steam’s banner.

“EA is one of the industry’s largest publishers,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year’s top PC titles.”

He’s not kidding, either. Titles like Spore, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Mass Effect, Need for Speed Undercover, and FIFA Manager 2009 are already available, with Mirror’s Edge, Red Alert 3, and Dead Space moving in with the Freeman family in the “coming weeks.” And, of course, these games will conform to Steam’s standards; in other words, no SecuROM whatsoever.

So, does this mean we can all finally kiss and make up with EA, and notice that it’s released some damn good games over the past year? C’mon now; it’s Christmas.     

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Posted 07/16/08 at 07:23:06 PM by Norman Chan

Fans of Star Wars and Star Trek finally have a role-playing game that’s worthy of their love. Mass Effect takes the most compelling themes and ideas of both franchises and mind-melds them into one of the best science fiction games we’ve ever played.

The full review of this stellar science-fiction epic is after the jump!

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Posted 05/16/08 at 09:40:25 AM by Tom Edwards

Earlier this week, Tom, Will, and Dave had hands-on time with a load of upcoming PC titles. Unfortunately, Andy did not, so we clue him--and you--in on what games should be making a splash this year. As part of our gaming coverage, we also interview BioWare cofounder Ray Muzyka and get his thoughts on both PC gaming and how to handle software piracy.

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Posted 05/13/08 at 05:36:56 PM by David Murphy

We got some hands-on time with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the PC port of Mass Effect -- our full impressions inside!

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Posted 05/06/08 at 08:56:46 PM by Tom Edwards

Dave, Will, and Andy accomplish an amazing feat on the 66th Maximum PC Podcast: we actually keep our rambling under 40 minutes in length! Even with the clock running, we still manage to get in some chit-chat about:

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