Whatever the reasoning, BioWare’s Mike Gamble said in a recent interview with GamerZines that players should hold onto their Mass Effect 3 save files. How intriguing.

“Obviously I can’t say anything, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Gamble said mysteriously.

Mass Effect 3 would mark the end of Commander Shepard’s story, but that doesn’t mean Mass Effect can’t live on without him. Perhaps another hero will step into the limelight? Whatever happens though, Gamble said that the ending will satisfy players. Whether you’ll end up tossing your controller at the TV out of sheer anger or exhibiting some other emotions, we won’t know.

“We want the outcomes to be satisfying to the player,” said Gamble. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all going to be happy or positive, but they have to be satisfying. Players have to understand that the choices they’ve been making in this game and in previous have had an impact, and that they’re an architect in what happens.”

Mass Effect 3 launches on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 6th in North America and March 9th in Europe.

Via CVG.

So, if you want to get in on the action, we kindly suggest that you login to your account right now and check it, just in case. Blizzard has also warned users, since trolls on the internet know about everything, to be careful of phishing scams. Before clicking on any links within any message, be sure that it’s straight from Blizzard and not some knock-off spammer pretending to be Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard has said that there will be more beta invites after this round coming. No solid time frame has been given.

Via VG 24/7.

The financial year hasn’t been kind to anybody, with major companies posting huge losses across the board. Konami reported a loss in physical retail sales, whereas they saw a profit in social gaming. THQ continues to attempt to plug all the holes in their rapidly sinking ship, and even Nintendo wasn’t exempt from losses, posting that the embarrassment of the 3DS launches were downright “unsatisfactory.” Go ahead and toss Sony’s name into that lot, because the company said that it expects to post a 220 billion yen (or $1.8 billion USD) loss for the financial year that began in April 2011. This will be the fourth year of annual losses in a row for the Tokyo-based company, and it’s a huge losing streak.

So what’s a man to do when thrust onto a sinking ship and told to try and save the damn thing? For one thing, Hirai says Sony can’t continue to rely on its past glories. The world has moved on, and the company has to follow suit if it wants to survive. “We can’t just continue to be a great purveyor of hardware products, even though some people expect us to do that,” said Hirai in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We really need to buckle down and be realistic. I don’t think everybody is on board, but I think people are coming around to the idea that if we don’t turn this around, we could be sitting in some serious trouble.”

Taking over in April, Hirai says that the first plan of action is to cut costs and to make changes to the corporate structure. This will certainly be anything but easy, and Hirai knows it. “I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not,” said Hirai. “It’s one issue after another. I feel like ‘Holy s***, now what?’”

It’s going to be an uphill battle for Sony from this point, and any sensible person would up and quit with all the challenges the company faces. However, Mr. Hirai already has his sights set on a new future. “Sony is a very large organization,” he said, “Not only do we need to bring a team together within the core electronics business, it’s about bringing a core team of senior management and making one team with the entire Sony group of companies, and I think I can bring a lot to making sure that we have that team that’s pulling in one direction with one focus and with one objective.”

Via IGN, Wall Street Journal.

All jokes (and gripes) about the difficulty aside, the game itself is a masterpiece in many ways. For one, areas of the game run into each other in one giant, seamless, sprawling world. The natural flow of directionality is quite awesome in every aspect of the word, and even more astonishing is the change of style from place to place.

“Because the entire world in Dark Souls is connected, it had to look natural as players walk from one area of the map to the next,” said Miyazaki in an interview with Edge. “However, we didn’t want to bore players by having everything just look the same, so our design process this time was executed with emphasis on providing variation in the map within a reasonable scope and introducing changes naturally.”

Well, the scenery may have been natural, but we really don’t have to say what wasn’t. In a game whose very gameplay encourages an unnaturally extreme form of reward and punishment, it’s necessary for players to learn from their mistakes. However, Miyazaki admitted that there was a time when he thought even the team went overboard. You remember those sweet little lizards with giant eyeballs that blew mist at you? Yeah, of course you do. You got cursed, and then your health was permanently reduced by one half, and then another half, and so on so forth until you were able to find a cure.

“We may have gone a bit overboard with the curse,” said Miyazaki. “Once you reach a quarter of your health bar, we didn’t think that anybody would be cursed further than that, and they’d be able to cure themselves. We expected very few people to reach 1/8th or 1/16th of their health, but it turns out a lot of people found themselves in that situation.”

Cute basilisks with giant bug eyes and a deadly poison that will kill you and permanently reduce your health weren’t just some of the problems that players faced. The sudden drop in frame rate in areas such as Blighttown and New Londo Ruins caused issues. Such technical issues, said Miyazaki, may be something unforgivable by fans.

“Yes, there were technical difficulties,” said Miyazaki. “I don’t believe that it’s okay to have them, but realistically speaking, it was quite a large-scale game — even in terms of budget and expectations. So we’re very sorry for the trouble we’ve caused by our processing errors and bugs from Japan.

“We have the confidence that we can improve from our mistakes this time and create an even better Dark world, but we don’t know if the users will forgive us for the mistakes, so I cannot give an exact answer.”

Okay, so some of us may not have forgiven From Software for the difficulty level, even though we knew exactly what we were getting into when we popped the game in. Maybe you can forgive Miyazaki for his tastes in RPGs, because he said that Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past is one of his top three RPGs of all time.

Via Edge.

Not familiar with The Last of Us, the latest post-apocalyptic survival game? For one, it’s not your typical zombie game. Naughty Dog was inspired by an actual naturally occurring fungus called the Codyceps fungi, a species of fungus that causes zombie-like behavior in its hosts, which are mostly insects and crabs. While no humans have been reported as infected with this fungus, that didn’t stop the Uncharted studio from…well, going into unknown territory.

Missed the debut trailer? Intrigued? Get ready for some pulse-pounding action. It’s a fight to the death this time, and nobody’s taking any prisoners.

Via Gamespot.

Both BioWare and EA know that in order to keep an MMO from becoming derelict in a matter of months, they’ve got to listen to the right people. Whether it’s a question about the latest patch not doing what it’s supposed to do, or the re-balancing tweaks were simply off, BioWare is giving select Guild Leaders the chance to talk to the devs directly.

From March 4th to March 6th, BioWare are going to have these guild leaders fly into Austin, Texas. Attendees, either guild leaders or those who have been designated as the representative for a guild, will then have a chance to chat with the team in person. Pretty cool huh? There’s going to be an extensive Q&A session and also a roundtable discussion.

It won’t be all criticism, as lucky attendees will also get a sneak peek of upcoming content for the game and learn about what the devs have in store for SWTOR‘s future.

Haven’t gotten your golden invitation yet? If you’re 21 or older and are leading a guild in the game, you must fill out this survey in order to be considered. All applications will be accepted through February 10th.

Via Game Informer.

THQ told Kotaku that instead of sending the hugely underselling game to the scrap-heap, we would be likely seeing it in “non-traditional game retailers and discount stores”.

THQ recently announced they were hoarding 1.4 million copies of the unsold game, after hugely disappointing sales. So disappointing, the company lost around $100 million, landing THQ in a bit of financial bother.

They best dig up a patch in the desert next to the E.T Video Game burial site. Ya know, just in case.

SOurce: Kotaku

The piece is obviously going to last a very long time and is a great tribute to the series. This is a rather fitting monument according to Namco Bandai Marketing Director, Lee Kirton, who gave the reasoning behind this venture by saying “the Soulcalibur characters are among the hardest fighters in gaming – so we’ve decided to immortalise them in granite for thousands of years”.

The work was carried out by expert Stone Engraver, Göran Andersson, the last remaining engraver on Sweden’s west coast doing work out in nature. Andersson said that “this is the by far most complex and detailed engraving I have ever performed. But it was very fun to do.”

It seems you should have plenty of time to go see this somewhat legendary piece of advertising if you’re ever in Sweden! Don’t forget also that SoulCalibur V is out right now in the US and tomorrow in Europe!

Worms Ultimate Mayhem includes a selection of the best from Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem all in HD. Ultimate Mayhem brags 60 missions, even more challenges and backgrounds and 38 weapons including plenty of your old favourites. There’s a plethora of options for customising your worm for four player online so join the fun that PC and 360 owners have been having since last year and blow up your Valentine this February.

The previous release date for the title, the much-anticipated follow-up to Metro 2033, was originally scheduled to be at the back end of 2012. The delay has been caused as a result of the games developer, 4A Games, wanting more time to refine the title.

The news comes during a time of mounting problems for THQ, including the possibility of being delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Metro 2033 scored well with reviewers, earning a rating of 81% on Metacritic. The game is held in high regard especially by PC gamers, who find their computers pushed to the limit by the game over three years after the games initial launch.

Here’s hoping the world doesn’t end in 2012 then. Stay with GGS for the latest.