So, uh, apparently, Bioware’s not beating around the bush, informing the world via their blog that they’re unleashing the much-ballyhooed extended ending DLC for Mass Effect 3 upon the populace this coming Tuesday, June 26th. The quick and dirty of it all is this:
- Yes, it’s free.
- Europe, sorry, you gotta wait a week.
- The full download’s about 2 gigs. Clear some space.
- If you wanna get right to the goods, the new content begins right before you assault the Cerberus Base. You *have* been keeping multiple saves, right?
In addition to the announcements, Casey Hudson and Mac Walters from Bioware released a special podcast to elaborate a lot more on their decisions in the original ending, and how the new one really came about. It’s a quick, interesting listen, and even with these guys still in a little bit of damage control mode, the passion these guys have for this story and its ideas is still glaringly obvious. Not that it has a Prince’s chance at a Klan rally of stopping douchebags from raking them over the coals no matter what they do, but still. Scroll a little further down for that.
Personally, if nothing else, I like that they hammer home again and again that they did not change our choices, just that we see how the last choices affect the universe and the characters. There’s a line in terms of how much bang for our buck we should get here–a layer of ambiguity here is a good thing–but I’m feeling pretty good that whatever we’re getting Tuesday, it won’t be something they half-assed. This will officially be the end of the story we remember, and one worth remembering. I was happy already. They do their job, and deliver a new denouement that hits me as just as hard as that final Shepard/Anderson scene did, we can all rest our collective sphincters about the greatness Mass Effect legacy being assured.