Accidental Beta Leak Has Massive Effect
Man, this kind of thing could only happen nowadays, in the era of always-on broadband internet and complex gaming infrastructure. Somehow, an internal beta client for BioWare’s much-anticipated console RPG/shooter Mass Effect 3 was accidentally released to the public on Xbox Live. And it’s not just the multiplayer, which was slated to have a public beta in January — it’s the singleplayer campaign too. BioWare appears to have taken down the download page from XBL, but there are already videos of the highly-unfinished singleplayer campaign and its companion multiplayer mode as well. In the videos, you can see options for a few different singleplayer modes, such as “Action Mode,” “RPG Mode,” and “Story Mode,” which BioWare says are some sort of variable difficulty level to make sure everyone gets the play experience that suits them best. Hey, I’m trying to avoid spoilers for the game, so congratulations to those who got the chance to download the beta before it disappeared. Enjoy it in my stead.
Michael Sacco is a freelance editor and writer.