People are upset over Mass Effect 3’s controversial ending, and the game’s developer BioWare has been listening. In fact, they’re doing more than just listening: they’re actually going to be fixing the issue.

In a sincere open letter to ME 3 players earlier this week, BioWare’s co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka expressed how much he and his team cared about the issue at hand, while also mourning over the reaction to ME 3’s ending.

“As co-founder and GM of BioWare, I’m very proud of the ME3 team; I personally believe Mass Effect 3 is the best work we’ve yet created,” said Muzyka. “So, it’s incredibly painful to receive feedback from our core fans that the game’s endings were not up to their expectations. Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics – but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility.”

The reaction “genuinely surprised us,” continued Muzyka, adding that “this is an issue we care about deeply, and we will respond to it in a fair and timely way.”

As such, some “game content initiatives” are in the works that will “help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. … We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received.“

More details will be revealed in April.

Muzyake also took the time to address how they’ve been receiving “destructive” criticism rather than constructive ones, saying, “We listen and will respond to constructive criticism, but much as we will not tolerate individual attacks on our team members, we will not support or respond to destructive commentary.”

On a brighter note, Muzyka ended his letter by reassuring fans that BioWare is listening and are addressing issues as best they can. “Trust [italics from Muzyka, not me] that we are doing our damndest, as always, to address your feedback. As artists, we care about our fans deeply and we appreciate your support. Thank you for your feedback – we are listening.”

Kudos to BioWare for not only listening and addressing the problem, but actually doing something about it. I’m sure any other developer would have either ignored/downplayed this, or simply let the outrage die down until no one really cared anymore. It just goes to show you that there are at least some companies out there that actually give a damn about their consumers and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

To Mass Effect 3 players, from Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare [BioWare Blog, via Yahoo! Games]

Earth is about to get stomped into the dust. Families are fleeing the destruction as best they can. Children are crying because of all the destruction around them. There is but one hope left for the planet: Commander Shepard and his team of whatever allies he can gather.

Mass Effect 3 is coming out soon, March 6th to be exact, so in usual Bioware fashion they released an official launch trailer to go with the games upcoming release. Also in typical Bioware fashion is how awesome the trailer turned out to be. It starts off showing Earth being invaded by the sentient ships known as the Reapers, complete with ships being destroyed out in orbit and people in all sorts of panic. Laser beams fly, and Shepard stands contemplating what to do about all the chaos. From there Shepard goes to see the Citadel Council, and the trailer takes off from there. I won’t spoil the rest of it, so watch it for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments section. Personally I can’t wait for this game to be released, and I’ve already practiced my fake cough in an effort to stay home all day with it.

They're like the A-Team but in space. And some are hot aliens.

When people think of February, specifically the 14th, one thought usually comes to mind: Valentine’s Day. Images of flowers, chocolates, cards, and romanticism fill the head, for better or for worse. This year though, Bioware is adding some new thoughts to people’s heads: gunning down hostiles, mass invasion of Earth, and blue-skinned alien boobs.

Bioware’s popular space RPG/FPS hybrid has the third installment coming out on March 6th, but if you’re either too impatient to wait until then or aren’t sure if you want to get in on the adventures of Commander Shepard and his spunky bunch of companions from across the galaxy, then you’ll be delighted to see the demo of Mass Effect 3 appear on Valentine’s Day. The demo shows off both single-player and multi-player gameplay, although if you didn’t get Battlefield 3 you’ll be having to wait until the 17th to dive into the multi-player portion, allowing players to get a taste of both types of play before the game is available on shelves. You’ll also gain access to additional content if you played the Kingdoms of Alamur demo that debuted a few days ago.

In a time when video games are being bought more on a trust basis than if you tried a demo and enjoyed it, it’s nice to see EA and Bioware bringing in a demo to both reassure gamers that their money will be well spent and whet their appetite for more Mass Effect goodness. I’m sure it will also help after the massive backlash that happened when multi-player was first confirmed to be included in the game as well. As for me, you’ll probably find me on my PC playing the demo on V-Day, then immediately running out to Gamestop to throw a wad of cash in their face to pay off the cool Collector’s Edition of the game.

Mass Effect 3 is rated M and will be available on X-Box 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Even with limited early access to the game for around a week, it seems players of the hotly-anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic are having to deal with long wait times for access to the game’s servers.

CVG reports that server wait times are ranging from 45 minutes, which seems to be the most common, to as long as two hours, despite Bioware’s efforts for a smooth game launch by letting pre-order customers gain early access to their MMORPG on a wave-by-wave basis.

“In order to ensure that the service would be smooth and stable, we staged how we brought people into the Early Game Access program, adding people in waves,” wrote Bioware’s Live Services executive producer Jeff Hickman on The Old Republic’s official forums. “As you know, there are a lot of folks who want to play the game right now and we want to make sure they have lots of people to play with. Balancing this with figuring out when to bring new servers online to help alleviate the size of the queues is part art and part science.”

“On one hand, you do not want people to wait too long – on the other hand, you want to make sure that people have a dynamic, engaging community to play with for long after launch. Either way, we have one clear objective – to make sure folks have fun.”

Continuing, Hickman added, “While we can’t promise that there won’t ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable.”

That’s reassuring to hear, but if server wait times are this long during the early access period, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like tomorrow when the game is available to all customers. Yikes!

Mass Effect fans out there you may want to tune in to the VGA’s this time around. According to a VGA’s trailer the good folks over at Bioware will be announcing what could be the end to Mass Effect or a game that could take the series to a new direction. As you may know there is a new Bioware studio and just knowing that there will be a first look at what might be in the works just keeps us all hyped. Take a look at the trailer below and tune in to the VGA’s this December 10, 2011. In case you do not catch the VGA’s we will be doing some coverage of the event as it happens, so keep checking with as updates come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjvCeKcVMR4

A closed beta for Mass Effect 3 was recently leaked on Xbox Live to those testing the Xbox Live dashboard update. While it’s now offline, the speedy folks who downloaded and played the beta still managed to videotape its single-player campaign.

Above is the first 14 minutes of that in action, showing off a Reaper invasion as well as three gameplay mode options: “Action Mode,” “Story Mode,” and “RPG Mode.” Apparently, these adjust the game’s difficulty and dialogue inputs, giving the player the option to have an experience that’s either more action-oriented, story-driven, or both.

Note that what you’re seeing in the above video is a ME 3′s non-final build, so there are some technical anomalies.

“We’d like to stress that the leaked code is in a rough, unfinished state and was not meant for public release,” BioWare’s Jesse Houston wrote on BioWare’s forums in response to the accidental leak of ME 3’s beta. “The content is not final, and is not reflective of the quality of the finished, polished game due for release on March 6, 2012 (March 9 in Europe).”