BioWare: Mass Effect 2 PS3 “much more solid” than 360

BioWare: Mass Effect 2 PS3 “much more solid” than 360
Martin Gaston Updated on by

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BioWare has started fanning the flames of the inevitable fanboy wars ahead of Mass Effect 2’s 21 January 2011 release on the PS3 – by declaring the game “much more solid on PS3”.

Speaking on the BioWare podcast, PS3 producer Jesse Houston details some of the advantages of playing the game on Sony’s monolithic black box.

“Being that the PS3 is coming out over a year later, we wanted to make sure that we added a lot of benefit to the people who waited,” he said.

“One of the first things you’ve going to see is improved graphics. We actually created the engine for Mass Effect 3 and used that to make Mass Effect 2 PS3. So we took the content, the story and all the other assets that made up Mass Effect 2 and put it into the Mass Effect 3 engine. And that’s what we’re actually delivering”

BioWare is also adapting their controls to the PS3. “The controls are geared towards the PS3 controller,” says Houston, but “you can switch it back to the old-style Xbox controls if you’d like”.

Other improvements also include planet scanning, general bug fixes and the entire wodge of DLC – such as the 8/10 Lair of the Shadow Broker – included as standard. The PS3’s Blu-ray drive also means “you no longer have to swap discs”. Which is nice.

Of course, PS3 owners will never be able to get their hands on Mass Effect 1 – the game was published by Microsoft. But in order to bridge the gap, Houston also explains how BioWare has added “an interactive comic that helps tell the backstory of Mass Effect 1, as well as helps you set the stage for your Mass Effect 2 universe. It helps you make decisions on things like whether or not Wrex lives or dies, or whether Ashley or Kaiden lives or dies” – and these decisions can then be imported into Mass Effect 2, similar to how the save games work on the 360 version of the game.

VideoGamer.com awarded Mass Effect 2 10/10, so PS3 owners will probably be delighted they’ve not spent just over a year waiting around for nothing.

The PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 is released in Europe on 21 January 2011.