Mass Effect fans were blessed with a windfall of new information today courtesy of BioWare. Chief among the announcements: players hungry for another chapter in Commander Shepard’s adventures should keep their eyes peeled for Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, an upcoming single-player story-driven DLC announced today by Bioware. But that’s not all- there were also details about the upcoming Wii U release of Mass Effect 3.

Due later this summer, Leviathan concerns the ancient history of the galaxy-consuming Reapers – and the search for a weapon rumored to be powerful enough to fell one of the ancient spacegoing horrors. Leviathan takes place during the main storyline of Mass Effect 3. Screenshots suggest a somber, oceanic atmosphere, including what seems to be a modified Atlas piloted by Commander Shepard walking upon an ocean floor. How, if at all, it will effect the events of the now-infamous ending remain a mystery.

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After three months, Mass Effect 3 actually has an adequate ending.

Those of you who’ve actually kept up with my articles may recall that my reaction to the original ending was less than pleased. And technically, my acceptance of the Extended Cut (perhaps we should call it the Completed Cut?) is conditional. But as many reservations as I continue to hold, I can at last consider my Shepard’s journey satisfactorily over.

It’s not easy to talk about how BioWare’s Extended Cut changes things without spoilers, and the game’s three months old and is the subject of one of the largest controversies in gaming history, so consider yourself warned.

First, the Extended Cut is both a retcon and a clarification. Was it enough of a retcon for your tastes? That’ll depend on your reading of things.

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Seldom has a game infuriated me so as Mass Effect 3, and it’s not even because the majority of the game is bad. If anything, the remarkable quality of the rest of the game is just the salt in the wound.

Mass Effect 3 is around twenty-five to thirty hours of positively inspired gameplay, evocative storytelling, sparkling characterization and meaningful payoff for story developments and choices spanning years. Things get dark, and choices painful, but there’s still hope. There’s even a very clear moment when the game could have ended Shepard’s story on a melancholy, but satisfying note. You did good, Commander. Roll epilogue.

Then the last five minutes override the whole thing. You might think I’m exaggerating. I’m not. I have felt repulsed by many games before, but I have never been this angry, this disappointed, to see one fail.

The last thing you see in Mass Effect 3’s storyline, after what amounts to a kick between the legs, is an exhortation by BioWare to look forward to downloadable content to continue the adventure of Commander Shepard. Heaven help me, against all my scruples I would pay for it if it’d fix that ending.

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Mass Effect 3‘s marketing is getting downright meta. Now we have a short (just shy of a minute) trailer for another trailer, which in turn is (presumably) a trailer for the game proper. We’re going deeper!

The full trailer will be shown on February 19th during AMC’s The Walking Dead. It’s hard to say much more about it, so check it out courtesy of MachinimaTrailer on YouTube.

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Seth Green, Freddy Prinze Jr, Tricia Helfer, and Martin Sheen. What do they all have in common?

They will all be joining you on your adventures in Mass Effect 3 coming on March 6, 2012.

While some of these actors, like Green and Sheen, have appeared in past Mass Effect games, others, like Jessica Chobot (playing a character named Diana Allers), are newcomers. Nonetheless, most of the cast of Mass Effect 2 are retained – unless you decided to remove the characters they play from your crew in the prior titles.

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With Mass Effect 3’s release only a couple months away, BioWare held a private hands-on demonstration of the game’s Kinect support during the Consumer Electronics Show.

Mass Effect 3 uses the Kinect to allow players to interact with the game through vocal commands. This neatly avoids the potential difficulty of adapting a conventional third-person shooter to a format more suitable to the Kinect, while still capitalizing on the Kinect’s hardware. Players can issue commands to main character Commander Shepard or allied characters in combat sequences, interact with the environment, or select dialogue options by voice.

Mass Effect 3 for the Xbox 360 will support voice command in English (British, American, and Australian), French, Italian and German.

A trailer for Mass Effect 3‘s Kinect support has been released.

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Bioware FUNimation, and Tokyo-based T.O Entertainment are working in concert to produce an animated Mass Effect feature film due for release next summer.

“Over the last few years, we have revealed different pieces of the Mass Effect world through different media,” said Bioware executive producer Casey Hudson. “Extending the story through an anime medium is another amazing opportunity for us… Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we will bring this rich universe to life with the utmost quality and the same attention to detail that the Mass Effect games are known for.”

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The new year is upon us, and that means we have a whole year to game before the Mayans return from outer space to harvest us for batteries to power their space dance parties.  And what a year we have to look forward to!  2011 looks like it is going to have an impressive slate of games for us to devour.  With that in mind, it is time to look ahead to what should be the best titles of the year.  So here are my Top 5 Games of 2011.

5) Little Big Planet 2

Little Big Planet is fun on a disc.  The original introduced us to Sackboy, undeniably one of the most identifiable mascots Sony has ever created.  The game play was also no slouch, transporting us to a whimsical world full of fun challenges and colorful settings.  Evil sumos and skeleton bridesmaids are just some of the fun characters you can find in Little Big Planet.  Little Big Planet 2 looks like it is going to be even more fun making everything bigger and better than the original.  Plus, I hear there are evil cupcakes.  Now that is something I can relate to.

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