BioWare knows there were a few technical issues with Mass Effect. Rather than putting the blinders on and forging ahead, the team took a step back and looked at what in the development process caused those problems to exist and then came up with a new process for the sequel. As Corey Andruko, project manager for Mass Effect 2 summed it up at the close of BioWare's talk on its iterative level design process at the Game Developers Conference, "We had a little bit of a hitching on the Citadel…maybe the loading on the elevators was a little long…We definitely feel we would have been able to resolve these problems."

So what has been changed this time around and how will that make Mass Effect 2 a technically superior process? Dusty Everman, lead level designer, and Andruko explained just that with the help of some work-in-progress gameplay footage of the upcoming game.

First, the juicy details. The two videos that were shown offered a montage of the phases of production Mass Effect 2 has gone through. The first video was all combat and began with just a blocked out level, before cycling through various levels of production until a near-final version was shown. Since everything was still a work-in-progress, it is hard to speculate too much about what was seen, but I will anyway. The heads-up-display looked different from Mass Effect, but the combat was largely the same. The player could be seen attacking a few enemies on the far side of a room with a gun and taking cover up against a few crates.

BioWare conveniently didn't use the traditional Shepard model in the combat video and the teasing got even worse in the next video. This one featured dialog, but never directly addressed the hero or offered the hero himself actually talking. The generic player character was wearing an N7 set of armor, though. The only talking came from a female Asari character named Seryna. The squad was in a flying car, moving on an air-highway through a crowded city. Seryna was giving a briefing on the upcoming combat mission which would involve storming a penthouse where mercs were sure to be waiting for some action. The scene ended with the hover car landing outside of the penthouse building and the group climbing out of the car. Perhaps more extensive planets and cities will be included in Mass Effect 2 that feature multiple locations to explore instead of just one main hub.

Now you may be wondering what these work-in-progress videos were used to showcase. To get there, we'll have to take a step back to the beginning. Mass Effect was created with a work-flow that began with the writer who would create both the plot and basic 2D level design. From there, production would extend to blocked out levels and then on to full production. At the end, each level would be optimized for performance.

You can probably see where the issues cropped up.

With everyone working in closed vacuums, or silos as BioWare described them, it forced people to focus on disciplines rather than the levels as a whole. This meant that iterations in one "silo" could produce extra work in others. This forced unplanned work to crop up, late reviews of content and sometimes caused content to be cut entirely. And as Everman explained, "...you would have intractable performance issues. It wasn't because we didn't try to fix those framerate drops... the way to do it would have been recreating entire swaths of content." As an example, Everman mentioned that the Caleston level of Mass Effect was originally supposed to be much bigger. Unfortunately, the production process caused level layout and story problems which forced major sections to be cut.

With Mass Effect 2, each level moves through phases of creation. The basic premises the team is working under include having every level always be playable, always built on a foundation and always be at performance. This means technical hitches cannot persist. "When the framerate starts dipping," said Everman, you must "fix them then and there."

In case you were wondering how well Left 4 Dead would stack up to the success of The Orange Box, Valve announced today (via Edge) that their zombie survival shooter has achieved over 2.5 million units sold at retail between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game. Not too bad for a generally multiplayer focused horror game, eh?

As impressive as that figure is already, it doesn't even begin to take into account the untold mountains of the game that have been sold over Steam. Valve tends to keep the sales numbers on their digital distribution network close to their chests, but they did mention earlier this year that the sales of Left 4 Dead during their recent 50 percent off weekend far exceeded the game's initial launch numbers.

One thing's for certain: Left 4 Dead is a hit. Precisely how big of a hit will likely remain a mystery until Valve becomes less protective of their sales figures on Steam.

Operation Burnout brings an exclusive first look at new images of the upcoming Island and the Cops & Robbers pack. The images were discovered and compiled into a video
by Steven-Jan (AKA S-J).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4BWNVup-sU&feature=player_embedded

A small blurb in the May issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine reveals that Square Enix is currently working on an unannounced new action game.

Want more information than that? Well too bad, because there wasn't any given. There's no title, no platform details, no hint of a release date -- just a promise that the game will be revealed in next month's issue. There is, however, one screenshot provided, which shows a man from behind, as he's standing on what looks like a wooden platform. The man seems to have white hair, is dressed in black, has a long, blue scarf around his waist, and a huge, ornate broadsword slung on his back (kind of looks like Cloud's Buster sword from Final Fantasy VII... not that there's any connection). Further into the distance and to the man's left, there's some sort of natural structure, with what seems like train or mining cart tracks circling around it.

When more info on this mysterious new game pops up, we'll pass it along.

The second chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy takes you to the darkest reaches of space, where you must uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of humans across many worlds. Prepare yourself for a suicide mission to save mankind. Travel the galaxy to assemble a team of soldiers and combat specialists, and launch an all-out assault on the heart of enemy territory.

• The second act of BioWare's epic sci-fi trilogy continues the story of Commander Shepard and humanity's first steps onto the galactic stage
• Success - or failure - depends heavily on the crew you assemble and their loyalty to you and the mission
• Stunning graphics and a refined dialog system will draw you into the story like never before
• Numerous improvements to the intense, third-person shooter combat
• Deep character customization options let you create your own vision of Commander Shepard