Once you “like” Mass Effect 2, you can look at this album and decide which of the female Shepards you like most. The winner will be the official FemShep portrayed in marketing materials.

Right now, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed version you see here is in the lead. I’d almost hope for something a little different…or at least something that doesn’t look like Samus Aran with a new haircut.

I’m personally a big fan of #4. Which one is your favorite?

In this case, that something is “making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations.”

Well, according to the series’ Executive Producer, Casey Hudson. He also promised the game within the first three months of 2012 (that’s Q1, if you were wondering).

Does this, like, totally ruin your holiday plans? I personally don’t have much of a stake in it since I have yet to experience enough of the series to make this a life-ruining announcement, but I’m sure that a few of you are pretty upset.

We’re back down to two-thirds AGAIN, so Tiffany and Elizabeth cover the week’s best news along with the question of the week, what we’ve been playing (yes, Portal 2 is in there), and more. Full show notes are below the player.

Download the file here.

The question of the week: What game excited us the most, but ended up being the biggest letdown for us? (Thanks, Brian!)

• The critics and fans are disagreeing a little bit about Portal 2. What’s up with that?
• Revisiting Kinect in Netflix — it’s no Minority Report, that’s for sure.
• The ESRB is using robots to rate downloadable titles. Basically. No one’s going to abuse that, ever.
• Someone at the New York Times seems to think that gamers falling in love in MMOs is some odd phenomenon, because really. Like gamers are ever going to find love IRL.
• And hey! The PSN is down again. (And Tiffany is not bitter about it at all. AT. ALL.)

As always, we encourage you to check out our partners in GamingAngels Presents: The Married Gamers, Game Dames and PrincessCast.

If you want to contact us, you’ve got tons of options!

Twitter: @GamingAngels

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RENT

Mass Effect 2 was released for Xbox 360 and PC back in the beginning of 2010. It is getting pretty tired that it takes games like this another whole year to come out on the PS3. Why they have to continue with the annoying exclusivity rights and other delays that make PS3 releases take forever is beyond me. The focus should be on the consumer experience, and that would mean good customer service. If we don’t have a game for a year, then that is literally not serving the customer. That may all be in the past if Mass Effect 3 which is said to be dropping this fall, becomes cross platform.

This game had the distinction of winning several Game of the Year Awards, which did not make not getting it on time any less irritating. But does it truly live up to all the Microsoftian praise? After playing Fallout 3: New Vegas, which was an excellent game, it’s futuristic cousin Mass Effect 2 would have a long way to go to defeat comparison.

The first thing I did in Mass Effect 2 that I could not do in the other game, was to get my character and, the whole party in fact, stuck in a wall. Later I also got them inextricably stuck in a floor plane in between a ramp and a rooftop. I don’t know if it was the programming or the Playstation to blame. Being sent back to the beginning of a level repeatedly is not fun. It takes away from the immersion.  Ultimately it was frustration due to these glitches that made me stop playing the game, and move on to the next one. It doesn’t matter how pretty or elaborate a game is, if simple navigation is a problem. There are numerous reports of glitches and crashes online. It will stick, freeze and leave you frustrated and always at the most intense moments.

Porting a game onto Playstation 3 often causes glitches. In Mass Effect 2 the frame rates slow down. And even some menial things will cause a lag or stutter. Sometimes it picks back up, other times you have to get up and restart it. If you have a three restarts and you are out rule, then you won’t be with this one long. You will need lots of patience to play this game. What it lacks in engineering may be forgiven by having loads of content.

You play the game as Commander Shepard who you can customize including selecting a female avatar to be your Shepard. The game has a fairly rudimentary personality system and questions and answers while being transported suffice for characterization. It isn’t very complete and it doesn’t seem to effect the outcome much. It will slightly change the conversations and reactions to the other characters. You can pick a Soldier or an Engineer for example, and the weapons you’ll get to use are different. The Soldier being the most flexible.

The other part of the game that doesn’t seem to effect much is the conversation system. If you don’t quickly select a response it will pick a standard reply for you. Answering one way or another doesn’t change much. The game is entirely linear. The is only one way to accomplish the missions, so having the talk wheel there is just a glossy, useless device that stalls the game to make it longer and drags things out for no reason.

You can choose from three back stories, similarly of abuse and hardship in a futuristic colonized galaxy. You can also select a class specification for weapons and fighting preferences. It isn’t very imaginative. There were many choices for armor colors and finishes which were actually pretty. It wasn’t easy to make my version of Shepard look attractive either. But it could be done, which was a plus above the notoriously bad looking Fallout Females.

If you played the first Mass Effect and have the game saved on the same one you played on, then it will take elements of the character’s personality into account. Those players will get the most personalized experience that the game offers. For a game that is a planned trilogy the story is very rough and left many fans questions unanswered. Apparently Shepard’s crew doesn’t notice her sex change operation, resurrection and defection to the enemy that they were fighting against in the first game. Other characters generally seemed shocked that Shepard is with Cerberus. It almost could be argued that they re-engineered Shepard, who was their former enemy to become a double agent.

Then there is a character named The Illusive Man. Yes, they were serious. It is sort of Maitrix-ish. In fact movie and TV tropes are loosley woven together in a generic attempt to make a range of Sci-fi fans see something that they can recognize and connect with. Those that find the story ‘gripping’ and ‘amazing’, have they ever read a Sci-fi book? Or seen an episode of Farscape?

The story line itself is standard science fiction fare. No better than an old episode of [name your favorite series here]. And Reapers – Reavers, Firefly perhaps? There are plenty of cutscenes and cinematics that will make fans happy, and bore others who just want to get through the game, and shoot through the next sequence. Why does this game remind me so much of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Sega Genesis? You may call Mass Effect 2 a timeless and classic saga. It is really going to depend on where you are coming from and what you bring to the game. if you come to Mass Effect 2 from JRPG’s, MMORPG’s then those elements here will seem lacking. If you are coming for a shooter, then you could be impatient with it. Considering how many of these games sold, they found a happy medium, at least for Xbox360 customers who bought zillions of them.

Objectively, I’d have to base the review on what I saw in front of me. Not what others have said or felt about it. Here’s an analogy, back when Modern Warfare came out a few years ago, even though it was not a game I would play if it weren’t for a review, I had to credit it as being amazingly well done. The quality of the game engine, the attention to detail, and the functions of everything in the game were flawless. That was a game of the year kind of game. Functionality in a game has to work well enough that you never notice it. Which it did, and it converted me. Mass Effect 2 wasn’t able to do that.

Mass Effect 2 succeeds best as a third person shooter. There is more emphasis on the action. The RPG elements are lacking compared to others. Perhaps over simplified to keep the activity and the shooting flowing as fast as possible. That leaves it shallow.

You’d have to be a Mass Effect fan or a science fiction enthusiast to appreciate this game. If you are then the graphics are going to impress you. They are very bright, with plenty of lighting effects. There are contemporary interiors in the Normandy ship. All the computerized gadgets, and equipment is laced with Tron-like neon. There are expansive visuals of outer space and planets. There is space exploration offered along with star spanning missions. The environmental graphics cannot be faulted.

There are biotic weapons that your character, or the other team members may fire. They blow up nicely, making good explosion effects. In one of the first sequences in the single player game, you have to engage your partner’s abilities against the targets. The selection wheel was cumbersome to work with, and didn’t respond quickly enough while underfire to be effective. Are enemies really going to stop shooting while this big circular menu comes up? Or shouldn’t your character get shot up while strategizing? It would have been better to map the controls needed directly to the keys, perhaps with icons or an interface like in an MMO. Loosing sight of the battlefield doesn’t flow right. In this one aspect Enslaved had a more intuitive user interface in a futuristic setting using multiple characters.

Side missions give you the chance to find some better gear and equipment. To get your upgrades in the game you us credits. Once you have a scientist on your ship you can craft things. Items can be gathered in small amounts around. Planets can be scanned (Yep, Sega Genesis) for mining elements to exchange for credits.

Each planet is a different experience, they all have a unique atmosphere. From a predictably apocalyptic – looking planet, with solar rays can overload your shields. Or the leisure planet Omega with drugged-out dancers, and other nefarious doings.

Seth Green returned to play Joker, and Martin Sheen of all people, plays the Illusive Man. From Battlestar Galactica is the voice of Tricia Helfer, who plays the role of EDI, the Normandy’s computer. Other voice actors in Mass Effect 2 include Shohreh Aghdashloo (24, Flash Forward), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix, Memento) and Chuck actors Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda, and Adam Baldwin. They really pulled out all the stops on voice acting. Mass Effect 2 is said to have roughly 31,000 lines of dialogue from 90 actors playing 546 characters.

There is a much welcome presence of many female characters in this game. It passes the female gamer Bechdel test. The female voice actress, for the female Shepard is Jennifer Hale, who gives an outstanding performance. The male and female Shepard seem to be evenly matched. With emphasis on the female version due to the pithy voice she was given life with. There are strong women characters in the game who aren’t insipid, or scantily dressed. The women’s roles in the game also seem to have evolved in a future space with gender equality. It is worth mentioning that the women in the game are generally represented with dignity, as far as the ones I saw. Although the game is mature and meant for adults the violence is somewhat measured compared to its contemporaries.

For value the Playstation 3 version does have all of the DLC since the game’s initial release on other consoles. Including Lair of the Shadow Broker, Project Overlord, and Kasumi: Stolen Memory. The Cerberus Network is also acessible so that new DLC packs can be purchased. More DLC for Mass Effect 2 has come out as of the end of March, Arrival is the new update.

This was a good game but not a great one. It was far from perfect and it wasn’t as complete or deep as New Vegas after all. Hopefully Mass Effect 3 will be less buggy. For PS3 owners this was a little too late to make it worth buying it for now. It would be nice to get the game and play it at the same time as everyone one else and that is something to save up for. At the end of the day this iteration of the Mass Effect franchise may be only a RENT, since a new and improved volume is coming out this fall. However, if the tradition of uploading a saved game applies, you could find yourself renting to buy.

But hey! If you activated your copy online, you’re halfway to getting a PC copy of a game that most people DID love — Mass Effect 2. Sure, it’s a year old, and it lacks DLC (including the Cerberus Network), but at least it made it onto some Game of the Year lists. (If I had to guess, DAII might not get that sort of love.)

The offer only lasts until April 30, so the two-for-one price doesn’t have that much longer to go.

Here’s the full list of redemption instructions:

To qualify and get your Mass Effect 2 PC download code, please follow these steps before April 30, 2011 at 11:59pm PDT:

1. Purchase your copy of Dragon Age II (if you do not already own one).
2. Activate the Online Pass content that came with your copy of Dragon Age II (The Black Emporium).
3. Start the game and log in using your EA Account or create a new EA Account.
4. Visit http://social.bioware.com/me2offer/ and log in with that EA Account.
5. Enter your Online Pass code and click “Submit”. You will then be provided the code for Mass Effect 2.
6. Open the EA Download Manager and enter the code to commence download (if you don’t have the EA Download Manager installed, it can be found here: http://www.ea.com/1/download-manager)

NOTE: Please allow 72 hours between time of online pass activation and submitting your online pass code on http://social.bioware.com/me2offer/.

Note the “please allow 72 hours” bit there at the bottom. If you haven’t bought Dragon Age yet and you want in on this, might be best to do that before April 27. For more information, check BioWare’s site.

Wonder how many copies of the game this little promotion is going to sell?

In Mass Effect: Arrival, Commander Shepard is sent to the edge of the galaxy to rescue an undercover operative who may have evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion that has been looming since the very beginning of the series. Returning and playing a prominent role in Mass Effect: Arrival is fan favorite Admiral Hackett, who is voiced by legendary science-fiction actor Lance Henriksen (Alien, Terminator).

“All year, we have been extremely honored and humbled by the reception we have received for Mass Effect 2 from players around the world, including our post release DLC”, said Casey Hudson, who is the Executive Producer for the Mass Effect series. “Mass Effect: Arrival is an exciting extension to Mass Effect 2 and will show players just how close the Reapers are to returning and completing their deadly harvest.”

Mass Effect 2 recently won the video game BAFTA for “Best Game.”

Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain took home three awards, however – the BAFTAs for Original Music, Technical Innovation and Story.

The only publicly-voted award of the night, the GAME Award, went to Call of Duty: Black Ops. This marks the third consecutive Call of Duty win in this category.

Other winners include Kinect Sports, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and a ton(ne) more. See the complete list at the BAFTAs site.

Sandbox title Minecraft was also quite successful, taking home three awards during the GDCA. Earlier in the day, Minecraft also won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards, making it the first title recognized by both awards committees during the same year.

Special awards were also presented to Peter Molyneux, Tim Brengle and Ian McKenzie and Yu Suzuki.

A full list of award recipients is below.

Also, “The Doctors” behind Bioware, Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, were inducted into the Hall of Fame, with Bing Gordon making it home with a Lifetime Achievement award.

I’ll stop with the running commentary and just give you a list to pore over.

Game of the Year

Mass Effect 2

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: BioWare
• Creative Director: Casey Hudson

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

Red Dead Redemption

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar San Diego
• Lead Designer: Christian Cantamessa

Casual Game of the Year

Angry Birds

• Publisher: Chillingo
• Developer: Rovio
• Executive Producers: Niklas Hed, Mikael Hed
• Producer: Harro Gronberg
• Lead Designers: Jaakko Iisalo, Markus Tuppurainen

Portable Game of the Year

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Ready at Dawn/SCE Santa Monica Studio
• Producer: Marc Turndorf
• Creative Director: Ru Weerasuriya
• Game Director: Dana Jan

Fighting Game of the Year

Super Street Fighter IV

• Publisher: Capcom
• Developer: Capcom/Dimps
• Producer: Yoshinori Ono
• Creative Director: Daisuke Aoki
• Game Director: Takashi Tsukamoto

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year

Mass Effect 2

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: BioWare
• Creative Director: Casey Hudson

Sports Game of the Year

FIFA Soccer 11

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: EA Canada
• Producer: David Rutter
• Creative Director: Gary Peterson

Racing Game of the Year

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: Criterion
• Executive Producer: Fiona Sperry
• Creative Director: Craig Sullivan

Adventure Game of the Year

LIMBO

• Publisher: Playdead
• Developer: Playdead
• Producers: Dino Patti, Mads Wibroe
• Creative Director: Arnt Jensen
• Game Director: Arnt Jensen

Social Networking Game of the Year

CityVille

• Publisher: Zynga
• Developer: Zynga
• Producers: David Gray, Alex Le
• Creative Director: Sean Kelly
• Game Director: Mark Skaggs

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

• Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Production Director: Chris Sigaty
• Senior Art Director: Sam Didier
• Game Director: Dustin Browder

Action Game of the Year

Red Dead Redemption

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar San Diego
• Producers: Steve Martin, David Kunkler
• Lead Designer: Christian Cantamessa

Family Game of the Year

Dance Central

• Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios/MTV Games
• Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
• Producer: Naoko Takamoto
• Game Director: Kasson Crooker

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming

Heavy Rain

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Quantic Dream
• Producer: Guillaume de Fondaumiere
• Creative Director: David Cage
• Game Director: David Cage

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

God of War III

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: SCE Santa Monica Studio
• Lead Animator: Bruno Velazquez

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

Heavy Rain

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Quantic Dream
• Technology Director: Damien Castelltort

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

Red Dead Redemption

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar San Diego
• Art Director: Daren Bader

Outstanding Achievement in Story

Mass Effect 2

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: BioWare
• Writers: Mac Walters, Drew Karpyshyn

Outstanding Character Performance

Red Dead Redemption – John Marston

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar San Diego
• Writers: Christian Cantamessa, Dan Houser, Michael Unsworth
• Voice Actor: Rob Wiethoff

Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack

Rock Band 3

• Publisher: MTV Games
• Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
• Music Supervisor: Eric Brosius

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

LIMBO

• Publisher: Playdead
• Developer: Playdead
• Sound Design/Audio Lead: Martin Stig Andersen

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

• Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Executive VP Game Design: Rob Pardo
• Project Director Battle.net: Greg Canessa
• Battle.net Designer: Alex Sun
• Technical Director Battle.net: Matthew Versluys

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

Heavy Rain

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Quantic Dream
• Composer: Norman Corbeil

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering

Red Dead Redemption

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar San Diego
• Lead Designer: Christian Cantamessa

This year’s IAAs will be broadcasted on G4 with a one-hour special on Saturday, February 12th at 4pm ET / PT.