Bioware said that the game was co-created with the fans. There will also be a collectors edition and you can watch the launch trailer below.
Casey Hudson, the executive producer from Bioware'S upcoming game, said that he and his team created Mass Effect 3 with the fans. The consideration of fan-feedback was very important during the development, according to Hudson.
“When we started the Mass Effect series, we had no way to tell how compelling our characters would be in terms of the emotions… Especially with the aliens, we didn’t know if they would be able to portray compelling human emotion,” the developer said. “We didn’t build the love interests into some of the alien characters like Garrus… He has the exoskeleton face and stuff like that. But because a character like Garrus just has great voice acting and animation, and a personality that’s really well-written, a lot of people wanted romances with him and with some of the other alien characters.
“So we decided to try that with Mass Effect 2 and that was very successful. They’re some of the most popular romances, people love those characters. That was a surprise to us, but we kind of had to finish Mass Effect one and then listen to some feedback before we tried incorporating that.”
Hudson also talked about the day-one DLC which will be released alongside Mass Effect 3.
“As a fan, some people fear the worst, and they put their own spin on what they think is happening. As a fan, if I believed those things I’d be worried too, because what some people are saying is that we’ve taken all of the lore of Mass Effect out of Mass Effect 3 and it’s only in the DLC, stuff like that. Of course that’s not true. In fact, Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end. The DLC, whether it’s day one or not, is always going to be sugar on top, the extra… You know, the extra little bits of content that tell side stories.”
“Even though the character we’re releasing on day one is a Prothean, which is part of a race that’s important to the lore of Mass Effect, his story is still an interesting kind of side thing, and then you get this character that’s good if you want to have him for your first playthrough. But it’s always optional. We would never take stuff out of the core game and only have it in DLC.”
Hudson also announced that the team will be creating DLC for Mass Effect 3.
“When we get towards the end of the project, we get into the certification phase, and everything that we’ve ever wanted to do with the core game is actually finished,” he explained. “And now we just need to get it certified and put on the trucks and manufactured on discs and stuff. That takes three months or more. Three months or more for a team of 150 people, that equates to millions of dollars of development time. But we know that people really enjoyed the DLC for Mass Effect 2. So we wanted to start working on DLC [for Mass Effect 3].”
There will also be a Mass Effect 3 Collector’s Edition named Vault with bonus items and DLCs. The edition includes the Reinforcement Pack upgrade and customisation system which was also shown in the multiplayer demo. The DLC will feature Commander Shepard’s chest piece with the ‘N7 logo’ that comes with a code for the bonus items.
The Vault’s Reinforcement Packs contain “a variety of character race and class unlocks, weapons and weapon modifications, ammo, power and health consumables, and more”. The players can earn those packs via in-game credits earned by completing objectives in the demo co-op missions or by participation in the Mass Effect 3 Recruitment Program.
The CE also includes a controller/headset cradle and a light up N7 logo. It costs £69.99 and releases on March 9 for PS3 and Xbox 360. Take a look at the box here.
Here's the official launch trailer. You can watch a trailer with Lady Shepard over here.
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