Mass Effect 2 Announced For Early 2010

Bioware has confirmed rumors that development for the sequel to Mass Effect is well under way, and they're planning on a release in early 2010. They mentioned PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game, but no information was given about a possible PS3 version. CVG has a write-up of what we know about Mass Effect 2 so far. Quoting: "In the shooting department the developer's official announcement promises 'intensified combat' and 'expanded weapon options.' We're hoping some of the work goes on improving the game's shooting mechanics, which were solid enough but could certainly do with some polishing to meet 2010 standards — especially in the cover system department. As for 'expanded weapon options,' we can only assume this refers to the in-depth gun tweaking and customisation options available in Mass Effect 1."

Comments

Sequels

[Dyinobal]

Because nothing that was "decent" can exist with out a sequel.

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I'll agree that some of these games should just stop with the first. Sometimes you get it too damned right to risk messing with it again.

Re:Sequels

[theArtificial]

Or trilogy in this case...

Re:Sequels

[zombietangelo]

Agree with your sentiment, generally, but Mass Effect has been planned to be a trilogy since its conception.

Re:Sequels

[JB19000]

Mass Effect was a game I enjoyed enough to deserve a sequel. So the fighting was mediocre. The dialog system was incredible. If anything I want more talking missions.

Re:Sequels

[celnick]

Wow, props for the immediately ignorant first post.

Mass Effect was ALWAYS planned as the first in a trilogy telling a larger story.

Good to know that you actually pay attention before spouting off ignorance.

Re:Sequels

[Dyinobal]

Thank you all those who posted but I'm aware it was planned to be a trilogy. I was just trying to point out that so few things that are good in media these days can ever simply stand on their own as being "Excellent". There must always be a sequel, prequel quadrilogy etc to milk it until it's not worth even recommending to friends. That or your recommendation goes like this "Ya the first one was excellent but don't bother with the others."

Re:Sequels

[broken_chaos]

...Uh. So your reasoning is that anything that isn't stand-alone is automatically crap, even if it was planned out as a trilogy in the beginning? That sounds very flawed to me.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Perhaps the combat wasn't amazing in Mass Effect, but the story and overall *fun* made up for it, to me.

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

There must always be a sequel, prequel quadrilogy etc to milk it until it's not worth even recommending to friends.

Other way around: if it's worth recommending to your friends, there's money in a sequel.

Bioware have an excellent track record and Mass Effect was really good. Even if it was just more of the same I'll buy it and enjoy it.

Re:Sequels

[Trahloc]

I wish I had mod points to bring you up from -1. The game is part of a story arch, it wasn't artificially expanded because sales were good, it was designed that way.

Re:Sequels

[Trahloc]

Don't play then. The rest of us are looking forward to part 2 and 3.

Re:Sequels

[enderjsv]

True, but sometimes the sequel get's it even more right. Can you imagine a world without Zelda: Ocarina of time? Or Half life 2?

I'm not opposed to well thought out sequels. It's the Electronic-Arts-sequel-every-year-regardless-of-need-or-quality that I'm opposed to.

(To EA - Keep developing games like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge and I'll stop making you the brunt of all my gripes)

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, Warcraft, Quake, Final Fantasy, Doom, Grand Theft Auto, Elite, Civilization, etc. Just terrible follow-ups.

Re:Sequels

[im_thatoneguy]

For instance:

Maybe this time around we can get an inventory screen that actually works.

Sorts by Name.
Groups identical items.
Allows easy comparison of items.
Generally makes it possible to open your inventory and not feel like dieing.

-

I love sequels. If it's a game I like I want 100 more of them. Another fallout game? Yes please. Another star trek movie? Hell yes.

Down with sequels! Down with adaptations! George Lucas should have stopped at a new hope! Peter Jackson should never have made LOTR! Hamlet should never be performed again! It was good enough in 1590 why make another production of it!? Why oh why did valve ever make Team Fortress 2!

Re:Sequels

[Kagura]

Mass Effect 2 will be a great success if they only do one thing differently:

FIX THE DUNGEONS. That's all they need to do to make their blockbuster even more bockblustery.

Re:Sequels

[Yaur]

The real question in my mind is do we get a typical EA sequel or a typical Bioware sequel.

Re:Sequels

[travbrad]

You should have said "Mass Effect and Microsoft suck", then you would have been +5.

Re:Sequels

[nothing2seehere]

If people modded your post as a troll simply because they disagreed with you, I sympathize with you - that would make Slashdot no better than (shudder) Digg.

However, if people modded you down because the quality of your post was poor, which it was, then more power to them.

Re:Sequels

[elrous0]

A modern game as complex as Mass Effect (ME) costs a *LOT* of money to develop (the time and effort it took just to write such a complex backstory and create such an in-depth "world" of ME must have been staggering). If a developer is going to put that kind of money and effort into a game (not to mention the incredible *risk* that it might fail or have mediocre sales), they need to know that they're not just doing it as a "one off" game. If ME had no possibility of a sequel and no further possibility for using its intellectual property (IP) in anything else, it would never have justified the development money that was put into it. No one is going to make a videogame that can cost $30-$50 million just to develop and market if they can't at least hope for an ongoing valuable IP.

I get what you're saying, especially in regards to modern movies. But, unlike with movies, it's a lot more difficult to make a truly great modern videogame "on the cheap." Sure, you can do some minigame or something cool like "Braid" without too much cost. But a full-fledged modern game like ME, that costs big bucks--no getting around it.

Re:Sequels

[ControversialMatt]

They could do a best (or worst) of both worlds: Madden Effect 2010

Re:Sequels

[Dr. Hellno]

Actually the dialogue system kind of bothered me. I appreciate that they wanted to save screen real-estate, but I like to be in control of what my character is going to say, or at least to know it before hand. In Mass Effect, I often found myself misreading the tone of the 2 or 3 word summaries of dialogue choices. It made it much harder for me to relate to Sheppard, since he was always adding emotions or inferences to the dialogue that I didn't expect or see as appropriate.

Re:Sequels

[jgtg32a]

I thought that the Dialog system was nice I just hated the dialog in the game, I'm not sure I just had the feeling that everyone was acting like they were 15 y/o.

That's been my impression so far, I was about 7-9 hours in and then I upgraded to Vista and didn't backup my save. So I need to start over again.

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the dialogue system was rather mediocre. Never had I felt that the dialogue option I chose really made much of an effect, except for the few times when you were giving advice to some random alien.

Additionally, to get to the more interesting dialogue options, you needed to have a proper karma level (or whatever it was), preventing me from playing a generic Space Marine asshole guy right from the start. :(

Now, if only it had dialogue options such as "Hey, space is a tough place where wimps eat flaming plasma death"...

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

You were moderated a troll, because posting that was the act of a troll. Your statement is not an stated as an opinion, but is stated as a fact. If, for instance, you would have said, "I didn't like Mass Effect", and then stated reasons as to why you think it "sucked" then it would have been an opinion. Lastly, there is nothing about stating that "it sucks" that contributes anything to the topic at hand. Again, If you wish to give specifics into areas where the game could have been improved, that would at least add to the general discussion.

To recap, stating an opinion as fact, giving no reason to support you statement, and not adding anything to actual discussion makes you a troll.

- Your friendly neighborhood AC moderator.

Re:Sequels

[Hellpop]

This Troll also shows that they know absolutely nothing about the game, since when ME was first announced BioWare stated that it was intended to be a trilogy. Way to impress us, d00d!

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but the timing of this release seems to me to indicate that EA isn't totally convinced of the quality of the game. Big name games get released in the Sept/Oct - December frame. Games that become late get released in January, and maybe february. I don't think they know they're going to be late already, so, I think this probably falls in the march-may set of "nothing new/had to get it out at some point."

If it's halfway decent, i'll probably pick it up, but man that game got boring at the end.

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, enjoyed the occasional surprise.

Although "renegade" choices really need better writing. Guess somebody decided "chaotic" = "jackass."

Moar hot blue lesbian action, too! Can't go wrong with that :D

(I know, I know, asari weren't. Looked female to me, though, so pfft.)

Re:Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh, HL2 was a hideous tech demo.

How about more variety?

[g0del]

I guess a new cover system might be nice, but I'd much rather they spent time designing side-quests that didn't all take place on identical ships/outposts etc.

Re:How about more variety?

[NeutronCowboy]

True. After a while, I knew where the mobs would be and where the target would be without ever having set foot in that particular facility. All it took was identifying what the first room looked like, and everything was identical after that.

Other than that, the game was damn near perfect.

Re:How about more variety?

[Doctor_Jest]

I'd like if they decide to use the Mako again, they'll patch the console version with the updated and less twitchy controls they put in the PC version of the first one. I'd also like there to be more sidequests than "outpost X is overrun" or "no one's heard from outpost Y" as well.

But fix the bloody Mako controls. :) That was the only part of the game that frustrated the hell out of me. The rest was pretty good.

Re:How about more variety?

[Gulthek]

The mako controls were awesome. I could make that thing turn on a dime and run circles around those giant serpents. I've never felt more connected to a game vehicle except for the warthogs from Halo. I explored so much of each planet it's just not even funny. I spent literally hours navigating mountain ridges just for the hell of it. It's like they took lunar lander and made it 3d and awesome.

Thank goodness they didn't borrow control schemes from Half-Life 2 eh?

Re:How about more variety?

[hansamurai]

They hired 30 more artists and designers back in February pretty much for this point I'm guessing. I agree with you though.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22530

Re:How about more variety?

[skeletor935]

PREPARE TO DIE!

Re:How about more variety?

[Zemrec]

The landing and Mako driving parts always reminded me of Star Control 2 and driving around searching for minerals and biological samples and such. God I loved that game! I wish they'd make something similiar with Mass Effect.

How about instead of buying your gear and upgrades, you only got the blueprints, and you needed to gather the raw materials on the planets you land on? That'd give me incentive to explore, and there'd be more valuable or rare materials on the dangerous worlds.

Re:How about more variety?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, totally different experience here. I reviled the planet-driving parts to the point where I would rather take a break from my gaming session than be forced to land and navigate.

Why? Because it was nothing but a huge worthless painful time sink. The damn Mako is excruciatingly poor for navigating steep slopes, which they NEVER fail to randomly generate large amounts of. So you can waste time taking the scenic route, or waste time trying the direct route and failing and being diverted to the scenic route. Which, if you aren't interested in picking up minerals, is a complete waste of time, did I mention? Why do I have to do nothing but hold down an arrow key, not gaining resources or exp, not having fun, for 5 real-time minutes if all I want is to get to the location marked on the map? This is how games artificially extend their length, by making you participate in pointless activities. They could just let us choose a landing point, kinda like it would be in reality.

Ship Dude: "Commander Sheppard, we've pinpointed the exact location of the Cerberus facility. Shall we land in a nearby concealed location?"

CS: "Naw, Dude, don't even bother setting coordinates. Haven't you ever had the thrill of wondering if you'll land in a 300-foot-deep methane pit? Shit, now THAT's a rush. Now, randomly deploy the Mako!"

Ship Dude [muttering]: "Yeah maybe we'll all get lucky this time..."

Re:How about more variety?

[Doctor_Jest]

Exactly! when the controls weren't sluggish enough, the Normandy ALWAYS put us down on the planet on the OTHER HEMISPHERE from where we needed to be. :) It's like a cheesy version of Star Trek's "away" team, without the green alien chick to bang. And forget the hot lava navigation or the rock spires that reached out of the atmosphere (meaning there was usually only one or two ways to get to each location, and depending upon which you chose, you would be stuck with a certain amount of Geth or Maws to contend with It was a crapshoot to determine which way wasn't more treacherous). To each his own, I suppose. I am glad to know the Mako wasn't universally panned. :) Of course that means we're more than likely going to get the original control scheme back "because of user requests"... all 3 of them.

It was always supposed to be a trilogy

[grapeape]

Bioware announced Mass Effect as the first part of a Trilogy at the 2006 E3.

Weapon variety please!

[Elrond, Duke of URL]

One of my biggest complaints with the first game were the entirely generic weapons and mods. There were differences between types of weapons, but that was it. The routine eventually comes down to:

1. Kill and collect everything until inventory is full.
2. Equip best X for each party member.
3. Sell entire inventory except for best anti-personnel and anti-armor mods.
4. Repeat.

There was never any reason to break from this pattern and this essentially made the weapons generic "loot" to collect. If that was all they were intended to be, just automatically give the player credits instead.

Named and unique weapons would go a long way towards fixing this. I think only few times during the whole game did I actually scavenge a useful weapon. All of the others were bought in stores. The situation is almost identical for mods, except that I did acquire more useful mods via scavenging.

The weapon mods also had the addition problem of being almost entirely useless. All enemies fit into two categories: organic or mechanical. Simply equip the appropriate mod to boost your organic or mechanical damage bonus and fire away. I rarely had to stray from this model. When you get the ability to equip two weapon mods things open a little, but that happens rather late in the game.

Armor mods fared slightly better, but only a little. In general, I found the best way to operate was to equip most part members with the best shield boosting mods available. Makes everybody much harder to kill.

Re:Weapon variety please!

[viperblades]

the higher level guns (and higher quality) equip 2 weapon mods and an ammo mod. the lower level ones equip an ammo mod what you described and a weapon mod (no idea how you cant count more accuracy as not useful.

example setups ive used

shotgun
heatsink to prevent overheat
knockback rounds

rifle
heatsink to fire longer
stability to stay more accurate
poison rounds (they arent called that but its basically what they do. they lower enemies abilites.)

sniper rifle
accuracy mod
explosive rounds

Re:Weapon variety please!

[Elrond, Duke of URL]

Yes, I'm aware of the mod amounts. When I said 2, I meant the ability to equip two weapon mods instead of just one. And more accuracy *is* useful, I simply meant that once you find a useful setup there is almost no need to change it ever.

I suppose variety is good in that it gives different players different load outs, but it would be much more useful if any given player had reason to occasionally change mods. But, in the end, there are just too many mods of dubious value which most players will almost never have need to equip. So they become generic "baubles" whose only purpose is to be collected and sold for cash.

Re:Weapon variety please!

[Tuidjy]

Mods were useless? Heh. I remember my sister taking a look at me
playing, and wondering "Where did you get a rocket launcher, I never
saw one!" It was just a sniper rifle with two damage mods and
some explosive bullets that had splash damage. One shot would
overheat it (three or four times over) but the damage was enough
to take out everything but the big walking tanks in one shot.

Re:Weapon variety please!

[Aladrin]

Indeed. I spent a lot of time turning mediocre weapons into fearsome tools of destruction. There were definitely combinations that were a lot better than others.

Re:Weapon variety please!

[hansamurai]

For the first two thirds of the game, the best weapons were typically found in the field, after that, you usually had enough money to start buying Spectre class weapons and then that was pretty much over with.

There were also a lot more mods then just organic/geth, but those are extremely helpful once you start getting them.

So, elevators again?

[Anenome]

We can only pray that ME2 is blissfully elevator free (and therefore without 20 min. of load-time between scenes) ;P

Re:So, elevators again?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do beg your pardon, but I actually enjoyed the in-elevator exchanges enough to spend literally hours with different team members simply to enjoy the witticism.

God bless the voice actors (outside of male Shepard, ugh).

skinsuits...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all about the skinsuits in the game. Hope they bring those back. :P

Piloting

[jlebrech]

Would love to be able to pilot the ship.

Maybe some turret missions would be great, asteroid dodging too.

And would like more choice when it comes to planetary drops, the mako got boring.
would like planets you finished quests on to be revisited and maybe more quest done for that planet.

Re:Piloting

[TheDarkMaster]

I agree. And if possible, the option to command space battles between spaceships too

Re:Piloting

[JSBiff]

I would like to see a smaller 'aerial/space fighter' type ship which can be launched from the main ship, a la the Mako, and some missions/maps which bring an element of an old school 'shoot-em-up' to the game. The mako missions, to some extent, did that a little bit, but I have an immersion problem with a deep future, high-tech game where any time you are on a planet, you are moving in a slow tank - that makes no sense most of the time; I can see that certain missions could require a tank (like a mission where you have to go into some sort of cave/tunnel system, or there are too many SAM turrets guarding an area so it would be suicide to fly through) - but the simple truth is that almost all of the maps in the original Mass Effect would have made sense to use a small fighter craft to fly to one of the bases, shoot the small number of rocket launchers with your air craft, then land (I'm assuming VTOL capabilities here - not unreasonable since we already have VTOL in real life) and enter the building.

But, as with you, I would also like to see your main ship actually become part of the gameplay as well. I was rather disappointed it never was. Would even be cool if the Mako, Fighter, and Main Ship were upgradeable over the course of the game (for example - the Mako had some vertical thrusters, but there were many times I wish it had some horizontal thrusters which would give you a small 'forward' boost (where 'forward' is the direction along the axis from the rear of the mako to the nose of the mako, so for example, if you are climbing a steep hill and the mako 'stalls' it's upward/forward motion, you could get a little boost to help you finish climbing; the downward boosters were almost useless most of the time because they would just launch you off of the mountain and you'd proceed to fall all the way down to the bottom).

The final few couple of things I would have liked to have changed in the game are, 1) inventory management: it would be nice if I could quickly find and turn all the true low-value junk into gel quickly; 2) Sell off all the medium-value stuff quickly without much hassle, and spend my inventory management time considering which higher-value stuff I want to keep, and which stuff I want to sell. Inventory management is the one thing that just *killed* my enjoyment of that game. I had fun, until I had to stop playing for 1/2 an hour at a time to deal with inventory.

Re:Piloting

[flitty]

Piloting the ship would also make sense for the exploration/barren planet garbage of the first game. If you give me a destination planet, it damn well better have more than a single outpost with 20 people in it. However, if I'm flying though space and find an uncharted planet in some backwater galaxy, having a few people there makes sense in the lore.

I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[AbRASiON]

I enjoyed Mass Effect, I would give it a comfortable 7.5/10 and 3 of that is for the amazing, moody music.
(Admitedly I was 'emo' at that time of my life myself)
None the less, lovely music, incredible graphics, not a bad story and gameplay, well... I don't know, people seem to rave about Biowares stuff but Kotor and Mass Effect did not do it for me, they sit in the action RPG area but the action is a bit well lame for choice of a better word and the RPG elements just didn't feel fully fleshed out.

Oblivion is a 'proper' RPG I would say (although they are dying out) and Fable makes for a good action RPG, heavy on the action (not a Fable 2 fan though)

I'd buy Mass Effect 2 but I will say, I would not buy another 360 for it, if it's not available for my PS3 or PC, well, no sale.

Re:I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[timftbf]

Oblivion is an FPS with RPG trappings. If success in combat depends more on *my* ability to manipulate twin thumb-sticks and buttons quickly than *my character's* supposed combat abilities (driven by my decision-making), the game is a shooter, not an RPG.

I've just picked up Mass Effect cheaply, but haven't played yet. I'm hoping it's better in this regard; some previous forum trawling suggests that I'll be able to steer the gameplay in the direction of tactical combat decisions over twitch shooting.

Re:I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[elrous0]

You should play Fallout 3. IMHO, it's even more RPG-like than Oblivion (thanks the the V.A.T.S. system, which gives it more of a turn-based feel--though this is optional for the player). The only thing it's missing is a "magic" or "biotics" type equivalent.

Re:I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. Twitch shooting. Good luck!

Re:I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[TrekkieTechie]

I acquired Mass Effect and Coldplay's Viva la Vida within a few days of each other. I desperately wanted to play the game and listen to the album, but didn't want to give up one for the other... so I muted Mass Effect's music and put Viva la Vida on the stereo.

Long after getting my fill of Viva la Vida, I was still playing Mass Effect. It took a few months to realize that I'd been playing the whole time with the in-game music still muted.

Re:I played it on my 360 (then sold both)

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a pretty stupid definition of "RPG" you have there. I mean, go back to the name for a second and think before you claim that any game in which the gameplay doesn't consist entirely of boring turn-based snorefests isn't an RPG. If you are playing a "role" it is a "role"-playing game. How the gameplay is setup in terms of combat has zero effect on this.

I find it pathetic that RPG has come to be redefined to ONLY refer to games in which all outcomes are determined by randomness and character stats.

I would argue instead that games that force you into a narrowly defined role with only 100% linear decision paths is far less an RPG than are games that give you some amount of freedom to express what your character is actually like (Oblivion versus, say, Final Fantasy, for instance).

Granted, Oblivion's storyline was decidedly linear for the main quest, but you still had much more freedom to do *other things* and thereby express the implied personality of your character than in typical J"RPG" (I use "RPG" here loosely) fare. Those games could more accurately be described as turn-based strategy games tacked onto a movie-style storyline. Personally I feel they give you much less freedom to play a "role" (even that of the character imposed upon you) than something like Oblivion.

Love the original

[hansamurai]

Mass Effect is definitely my favorite game of the current generation. Beat it three times in February alone.

The only thing I think that really needs fixing is the Mako. It just drove so crappily. Or maybe it was the way they designed the worlds. 75% of them had gigantic mountains and crags every five feet.

Anyways, can't wait for the game, but yet I will patiently wait. Bring it on.

let's hope it's a simultaneous release

[DragonTHC]

they waited a good year and a half to release on PC.

I bought it for PC. It kicked much ass. I played it in full 1080p. Ran like butter.

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that to play "bring down the sky", you had to play through the whole game again. I had already finished it before BDTS came out for PC.

anyway, it was a true masterpiece and I look forward to seeing what bioware comes up with.

Re:let's hope it's a simultaneous release

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, they released Mass Effect PC about 6 months after the 360 version. Hell, the 360 version hasn't even been out for a year and a half yet.

Re:let's hope it's a simultaneous release

[whiplashx]

Lol dude... the game only came out 15 months ago.

Re:let's hope it's a simultaneous release

[DragonTHC]

it feels like a year and a half then!

The MACO

[elrous0]

And for God's sake, make that damn thing easier to drive! I played that game through three times (incl. on insanity) and after all those many hours, I still couldn't drive that thing worth a damn by the end.

Re:The MACO

[Fishbulb]

That's "Mako" - it's a type of shark.
(and a concept car that influenced the Corvette)

And I thought the Mako was fun to drive! It was like a little R/C dune buggy with jets. You just never flipped it. :)

Re:The MACO

[MemoryDragon]

depends on the platform the thing was pretty easy to drive on the PC...
The entire game was way better on the PC than on the xbox, and cheaper as well

REALLY Looking Forward to This

[Logical Zebra]

I already owned a PS3, but I bought an XBOX 360 pretty much just so I could play the original Mass Effect.

I'm a die-hard RPG fan, and I'm actually looking forward to Mass Effect 2 more than Final Fantasy XIII. (Which is probably a good thing, since I'm pretty sure Duke Nukem Forever will come out before FF13 does.

Re:REALLY Looking Forward to This

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that's because Square-Enix hasn't made anything decent except remakes ever since they became Square-Enix? I mean, The World Ends with You was pretty good, but FF12's combat system was a pain in the ass, the story wasn't engaging at all, and the fake accents and over the top voice acting made the game painful to play much of the time. Even the people that left Square to form Mistwalker haven't put out a game I've been willing to play to the very end. Blue Dragon was just boring and predictable, and I didn't care enough about the characters in Lost Odyssey enough to beat it - I got to the point just before the end and said "screw it, I have better games to play." Now Tales of the Abyss, *that* is a good game. A good combat system that gets more nuanced and fun as the game goes on, fun characters with very distinct personalities, a good story, pretty decent graphics for a PS2 game, and a whopping 80 hours of play time. I thought I was almost at the end of the game at least 10 times, and each time it wasn't I was happy because it meant I'd get to play it more. Tales of Vesperia was good too, but shorter and the story wasn't as good. Still, Judith was hilarious.

Shepard is alive?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know if is this an alrady addressed thread...but is was wondering if Shepard will be part of Mass Effect 2 ( or of the trilogy if is that way that the game will evolve in the next future ) or not.
According to this teaser:
http://yuppiegamers.blogspot.com/2009/03/bioware-announces-mass-effect-2.html
looks like Shepard's uniform has been used as armor by a get!
Any hints out there?
thanks