Polygamia: Some time ago you said that Mass Effect 2 will come on two DVDs. Will we have to swap them, or will the game just install from one and play from the other?
Adrien Cho: I don't know the specifics of how you can install one disc or the second disc, and this might be more of a Microsoft kind of question, but the game is huge. We realized that we can't put it on one disc so we put it on two discs. But we also figured out the most logical way to do it so it wouldn't be inconvenient to players.
P: Like a dramatic cut, and "to be continued, insert dics 2"?
AC: No, it will be at logical chapter stops. We don't want people flipping back and forth, like every time they go to a planet. We try to keep those contained. The game is divided into chapters, but there is a free branching aspect as well, where you can go wherever you want.
P: Will you release any DLC linking the first and second game? It was two years, so some people might not remember everything.
AC: I can't talk about the details yet, but there's definitely some DLC that will tie the two together.
And will we see it before the release of Mass Effect 2?
P: And will we see it before the release of Mass Effect 2?
AC: After, very soon after.
P: Will we have any day 1 DLC, like with Dragon Age?
AC: Yes, we will have content available. We can't say yet what it is, though.
P: Will the DLC be more like Dragon Age? Will we hear a signal coming from outer space saying "If you want to help me, please buy some stuff from us"?
AC: Again, the DLC plan hasn't been fully announced yet. But there is a lot more variety, from new weapons, new armor, new sidequests to big expansion packs. So there will be a wide variety of things. And we really want to reward fans of Mass Effect, so there will be a lot of bonus content provided in the form of DLC.
P: Will I be able to play new DLC if I finish the game? In Mass Effect 1, I had to come back to the previous save.
AC: I can't comment on that. You asked lots of good questions that I can't talk about for now.
P: Will the loading be quicker in the retail version? It was quite long in the debug version.
AC: There's actually a lot of loading that we don't see. But any time we're transitioning from a major area to another, we see some a bit longer loads. But it's still a developer build. We've shorted the time of disc loading in general.
P: You said that we'll get some bonuses if we transfer our character from Mass Effect 1. But our statistics won't be transferred, so what will the bonuses be?
AC: The new skill tree doesn't match one to one with the old one. Basically, if you level up completely to level 60, we definitely want to give you a reward. There will be a kind of a tactical advantage. But beyond that, we can't say for now.
P: You said that Mass Effect 2 is the best game that BioWare ever did. What about Dragon Age? What did it lack?
AC: Dragon Age was a very good game that took a long time to produce. The reason we thing that Mass Effect 2 is actually the best game that we've made is that our best games are always ahead of us, and we're able to take all that we've learned from one game and put it in the next title. So of course when Mass Effect shipped, the developers of Dragon Age were able to see what we did well and what we did wrong and factor it in the development. When Dragon Age shipped, we were able to use that experience when working on Mass Effect 2. The great thing about Mass Effect 2 is that we've tried to take the best stuff we've done and cut all the excessive stuff that we don't need. It is much more of a polished experience than Mass Effect 1. I'm sure that by the time Dragon Age 2 comes out, they will be able to take all that we've learned from the first one and make that game so much better.
P: What did the inspiration for the Illusive Man come from?
AC: For all those shadowy characters in thrillers, there is always someone behind the scenes who knows a lot, is a broker of intelligence, is a few steps ahead. Like in Blade Runner, in terms of chess, is able to anticipate his moves a few steps ahead.
P: Like the Cigarette Smoking Man from X-Files?
AC: Yes. We definitely wanted to have a feel of Mad Men, some of it was inspired by Anderson Cooper, a CNN correspondent, and the personality was taken from all of these Hitchcock movies, from The X-Files. It's a mixture of all those different elements.
P: Dragon Age had this advertising campaign focused on sex and violence. Are you planning on something similar for Mass Effect 2? Any rockstar, any songs?
AC: Dragon Age was a very different piece altogether. People are already familiar with the Mass Effect brand so the message is very different. I think some of the DLC, we have an incredible marketing campaign, and I think they'll be releasing something very exciting this week. Then you'll get a sense of the marketing campaign. Maybe less Marilyn Manson or whatever, but it will blow you away.
P: Mass Effect is a very cinematic game. Ubisoft has made the Assassin's Creed: Lineage film, are you thinking of making something similar, a short Mass Effect movie?
AC: We're always exploring different media for expanding the Mass Effect universe. So far the games have focused on the story of Commander Shepard, but in other media, like comics or novels, it might be different. In terms of animated movies or something even bigger, we're always looking at the options. I'd definitely like to see that happening.
P: When you look at the work of other studios, is there anything that catches your interest, as a developer of Mass Effect?
AC: We were actually inspired by some of the old 80s PC games. There were lots of good ideas there we were inspired by. As for current games, we looked a lot at first-person shooters. Not so much for RPG elements, but to help us tune and tweak the feel of Mass Effect. But there was nothing quite like it on the market. There is a shooter aspect to it, but also the RPG aspect and a fantastic science fiction setting. If you combine all of that together, you can see a bit from here and a bit from there, but as a whole it's something new. The biggest inspiration for Mass Effect 2 was actually Mass Effect 1. We tried to improve upon it in every way.
P: Mass Effect had a very Star Trek-like feel. Will Mass Effect 2 continue this, or will it have more of a Star Wars: Episode II feel?
AC: It's interesting you make that Star Trek connection. At least for the planet side quests, we wanted them to feel like Star Trek away team missions. You explore the planet, go down, sometimes you meet interesting cultures and species, sometimes you just blow stuff up. So in a way there are some aspects to it that are similar to Star Trek. I think thematically too, there is a lot of interesting things that the original Star Trek did when it was airing back in the 60s, the idea of having a multicultural society.
P: Does Mass Effect 2 have a similar vibe or are you adding more darker stuff?
AC: You don't really lose that, but I'd say it's a deeper experience. And there are elements that remind me of Blade Runner or Aliens. The experience is richer, I guess. You don't lose the away team missions from Star Trek, but everything on top of it is so different, just like the new Star Trek movie is different, but the core idea is the same.
P: When looking at the new build of Mass Effect 2, I managed to see a message "Log in to Cerberus Network", press Y. What is Cerberus Network?
AC: Can't talk about it, sorry.
P: The social.bioware.com site is linked with Dragon Age. Will we see similar social networking features in ME2?
AC: Can't talk about this either, I'm sorry.
P: When will we learn more about Cerberus Network and the whole social network integration? This year, next year?
AC: Hopefully soon.
P: Will we get any Xbox Dashboard avatar awards for playing Mass Effect 2? Like a costume, a helmet, Normandy?
AC: Again, I can't talk about that, but I can say that we plan to support a lot of the online stuff. Whatever we had in Mass Effect 1 in terms of this kind of integration, we are definitely going to support in the second game.
P: There is one more thing I have to ask you. Jay Watamaniuk said during PGA that Mass Effect 2 is coming out for the 360, PC and probably PS3. So, how probable is it?
AC: Well, we've spent the past 2 years working just on the 360 and PC versions.
P: But if BioWare and EA want to release Mass Effect 2 on PS3, there wouldn't be any legal problems, in terms of IP rights? Microsoft cannot do anything about it?
AC: We definitely want to give as many people as possible a chance to play the game. The Unreal engine is cross-platform. I think maybe the only platform it doesn't work on is the Wii.
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