Here Commander Steve, Play Video Back:

Which did you choose? The 240p, 360p, 480p or 720p version? Were you satisfied with the diversity of choices or enraged at the fact that you got the exact same video regardless of your choice? Should we sue Avemagnadude and YouTube for making the video that way?

[via Kotaku]

The N7 logo is upside down in this particular pair, but since the leggings are custom made I’m sure Alexandra can fix it for your order.

Here’s an Ass Effect shot of the leggings. For some reason, this view reminds me of the ridiculous butt pads on some of the leg armor parts in Mass Effect 3.

Tell Joker to fly to Etsy and prepare $75 (USD) to order your own pair of N7 Mass Effect leggings.

[via Kotaku]

While playing the game, I’ve found that it is much more rewarding to always take the super aggressive, sometimes cynical route. It makes gameplay more interesting, because of the sometimes explosive reactions that you get, and often opens up better conversation options later in the game. Earning Renegade points is awesome, but what do Paragon points give you? More chances to be nice to people? Renegade is where it’s at. Also, McDonald’s, because their prices are fantastic.

These pendant necklaces are both $12(USD) and are made from laser cut acrylic, and you can get the Paragon Pendant and Renegade Pendant on Etsy from Licketycut, who has an awesome username. Wouldn’t want to be the poor lollipop that that guy decides to lick – he must have a tongue like a razor.

If you love Mass Effect, then you’ll want to go check out the Omni-Tool Replica and the Mass Effect 3 Console Vaults. If you don’t love Mass Effect, then you’ve obviously never played the game. Or you’ve played it too much and it ended up ruining your life and estranging all of your friends. Curse you, single-player game.

Jack Kieffer owns Cool Gizmo Toys, a site that loves all things geeky.

We know how skilled Myles is when it comes to creating videogame replicas because of the ones he made based on Portal. For the Omni-tool he used 2.5mm sheet acrylic, which he laser cut, heated and then bent by hand.

Where are the hardware parts of the Omni-tool anyway? Are they in the user’s glove? And how can a hologram be used for stabbing?

[Chris Myles' Flickr Page via Rampaged Reality]

These officially-licensed console vaults are available for the slim versions of the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Sorry PC users, you’ll have to mod your case. As you can see in the pictures the console vaults sport Shepard’s now iconic armor with LEDs embedded in the N7 logo. Calibur 11 says that the LEDs have two modes (no, not on and off, smartass) and are battery operated, but they didn’t elaborate. The vaults also have headset and controller cradles at the back and will come with codes for DLC.

North American customers can place their pre-order for the console vaults on Bioware’s store for $90 (USD), while European customers should head to Calibur 11′s online store where they once again are screwed because the vaults are priced at €90 each. Be sure to have some money left for the actual game, which came out today.

The next installment in the series is coming before you know it and if you want the game, you can now pre-order Mass Effect 3 game from GameStop and get some cool extras. If you pre-order the game now you will get a special weapon called the N7 Valkyrie rifle and a special set of Defender Armor.

When you purchase the pre-order you will get a card with unlock codes for the hardware in the game. Buyers will also get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle. The game is up for pre-order on all platforms with pricing ranging from $59.99 to $79.99 depending on the edition of the game and platform. Mass Effect 3 hits stores on March 6th.

LeRoy didn’t include the house and hotel pieces he used, so I don’t know if he made custom ones as well, but as you’ll see in the gallery below the game has its own property cards, bills – that are not convertible to Omni-gel – and player tokens, although the latter are just palette-swaps of Shepard’s helmet. A Normandy token would’ve been awesome, or an Omni-Tool, or a Mako – actually no, screw that vehicle.

The graphic on the center of the board is mesmerizing. Fire up your starship and take a mass relay to deviantART to browse the pictures of the board game in high-res. See this Hasbro? I’m throwing credits on the screen and nothing’s happening. Make it happen. With all due respect to Trekkies, this board is way more awesome than the official Star Trek Monopoly.

[via Rampaged Reality]

The cosplay gun was created by prop-maker Zander Brandt of ZPROPS, and it’s a dead-ringer for the M-29 sniper rifle from the game, including all the little details, and a perfect paintjob.

It was created for a client who is working on a matching costume to go with. I’d think it would look quite perfect at the side of Garrus Vakarian – though I actually don’t know what the costume will be.

The only thing missing is the ability for this thing to actually fire rounds. There’s nothing quite like a weapon with the accuracy of a sniper rifle that can fire bursts of multiple bullets in a fraction of a second, and I wish it was standard issue in every FPS.

He built the prop rifle from MDF and PVC tube and used styrene to cover up the rough edges and seams so he wouldn’t have to use Bondo.

Check out Zander’s full work log and more photos of this outstanding build over at the ZPROPS blog. Part one is here, and the finished weapon can be found here.

The N7 was used in the marketing push for the new video game at Comic-Con. It’s hard to believe when you look at the finished product that these shots aren’t renders made in some 3D application. The photos are of the real thing made from rubber and wood. Krix used wood, clay, and a bunch of other stuff to make the weapon and then cast molds for the prototype.

He then used some sort of modeling rubber to make the finished weapon. The results are so impressive it’s hard to imagine one dude made this in just 14 working days. I hope that having molds for these things means Krix might make more of them and sell them to geeks that can’t live without them.

[via VolpinProps]

You can download the podcast from BioWare’s blog, but for those who don’t have the time, here’s the meaty part, as quoted by Exophase:

“One of the first things you’re going to see is improved graphics. We actually created the engine for Mass Effect 3 and used that to make Mass Effect 2 PS3. So we took the content, the story and all of the other assets that made up Mass Effect 2 and we put it into the Mass Effect 3 engine.

We’ve also gone ahead and made the experience much more solid on PS3. So for example the controls are geared towards the PS3 controller [although] you can switch it back to the old Xbox control style if you like. Other things like planet scanning have been improved; we’ve rolled up all of the patches; done a whole bunch of bug fixing.”

Mass Effect 2 for the PS3 drops on January 31, 2011. You can pre-order it at Amazon for $60 (USD).

The guy made his own replica of the M8 Avenger Assault rifle from the Mass Effect video game. Krix points out that his replica is a bit different from what you see in the game because it is a mash up of the two different versions that can be found in the game artwork.

On the Volpin Props site, Harrison walks us through the entire build process and the finished product looks like a real weapon. It’s made from wood, paint, and lots of geeky elbow grease. I wish I had the skills to make something like this.

Poor Zaeed. Check out the whole pic at Unreality.

Based on Mass Effect 2′s Suicide Mission, we have before us The Illusive Man, followed by the female version of Commander Shepherd decked out in all her glory, and standing along side her, Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. But the real star of the cosplay show has to be the Grunt, complete with functional animatronic head and glowing eyes. Check out the amazing costume in the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Here’s a great close-up of the Grunt head before it headed off to Comic-Con:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Incredibly, these guys didn’t win Best in Show at the Comic-Con Masquerade contest (these guys won). But at least the judges had the good sense to award the Mass Effect guys the Judges’ Choice award.

On second thought, the Commander Shepherd costume ain’t half bad either:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Evil Avatar]

The new game was leaked by a Joystiq reader, and according to the info the game’s protagonist, Jacob Taylor, is “a biotic-powered super-soldier who stumbles across a plot to terrorize civilization’s greatest beacon of hope.” For a second there I thought the enemy was after the bacon of hope. That would have been a better idea, because we’re all willing to fight for ordinary bacon, what more for the bacon of hope.

As you can see the game will be a top-down shooter ala GTA II. It’s supposedly a short game, clocking in at just 2 hours, half of which consists of elevator rides. Kidding. Marc DeAngelis over at thebbps thinks that the tactical aspect of Mass Effect will still be there, i.e. pausing the game to give orders or use tech abilities, as evidenced by those icons in the image above. And judging from the image below, yours truly thinks that the Paragon/Renegade aspect of the game will be there as well.

Mass Effect: Jacob’s Story will reportedly cost $3 USD, no word on release date yet. If this game becomes a hit, EA and BioWare might expand the Mass Effect story further, and may even release additional mobile games based on another franchise, Dragon Age. Trust me EA: Bacon of hope = $$$.

*Update: BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly has clarified that the game is not a prequel but a side story of one of the characters in the upcoming Mass Effect 2, and he says that it’s not crucial to the lore of Mass Effect: “Consider it a “fun optional ‘extra’ game.” So should we still buy it? I definitely won’t, because I don’t have an iPhone.*