A few words from a professional procrastinator

Recap comic book

One year after Xbox and PC gamers got their hands on the best game of 2010, it’s finally coming to the PS3. For my review of the Xbox version of the game it can be found here.

But why only Mass Effect 2? What about Mass Effect 1? How will Bioware have decisions from the first game carry over to the second game if there is no first game for the PS3?

In a recent podcast , PS3 Mass Effect producer Jesse Houston was interviewed by the Bioware Blog on the challenges and changes with the PS3 version.

Bioware has employed an interactive comic book type prologue to explain the events of Mass Effect. Dark Horse comics, who also published Mass Effect: Redemption, which narrates the events in between the opening events of the game to the present. During these comic book sequences, the player then has a chance to decide the path of the story that their Commander Shepard experiences in the first game.

I just recently completed a playthrough of the PS3 version and there are differences. Though it’s still the same game, the PS3 is graphically superior. The shading is not as vivid as the Xbox but there’s a lot more detail. I can the weathering of the uniforms and the difference between the armor that Shepard wears and the fabric of the Cerberus uniforms of Miranda and Jacob. Though there were a few sound issues during the demo it’s still fairly the same. Button layout was initially a bit confusing. On the Xbox, the Right Bumper was used to bring up the abilities menu and the Right Trigger is to fire the selected weapon. The PS3 is the opposite, R1 will fire and R2 will choose the abilities. I kept forgetting that and ended up either firing weapons I didn’t want to or abilities. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon enough. The interrupt triggers for paragon and renegade decisions are still there and so far I haven’t made a mistake just yet.

Judging from the demo, I’m definitely buying this and playing this again. The PS3 version also comes out with the 3 DLCs (Overlord, Kasumi, and Lair of the Shadow Broker).

One can also infer from the podcast that the holiday 2011 release date for Mass Effect 3 will be simultaneous for the PC, Xbox and PS3.

Mass Effect 2 for the PS3 lands on January 18.

PS3 version