UPDATE: Check out these brand new screenshots!

Electronic Arts and BioWare have released the latest trailer for their upcoming game Mass Effect 3. Returning are the likes of Martin Sheen (The Illusive Man), Jennifer Hale (FemShep), Seth Green (Joker), and Keith David (Admiral Anderson). While Freddy Prince Jr. (James Vega) and Jessica Chobot (Diana Allers) both make their debuts.

The inclusion of Jessica Chobot was stunning for long time Mass Effect fans. The decision is likely to cause even more controversy than the inclusion of Yvonne Strahovski (Miranda Lawson) in the most recent installment in the franchise. Diana bares a vague resemblance to Chobot, and hopefully she fits in well, although the trailer doesn’t appear to be too promising, our Editor In Chief felt as if she looked out of place already.

Draw your own conclusions and share what you though in the comment box below!

This week, BioWare Pulse sat down with Mac Walters, lead writer on Mass Effect 3, and talked with him about how the team has gone about writing the conclusion to the trilogy.

He details their approach the beginning of writing the end. ”One of the goals we set out for the beginning of Mass Effect 3 was to treat this like it was a movie and it was the movie. . .We really want people who are just picking this up for the first time to be able to jump in, and then for the players who have played Mass Effect 1 and 2, they can dig deeper, they can find out what their choices did,” Walters began.

Walters also speaks in regards to the open minds of the studio, “[The story and levels] go through a lot of iteration. That’s one of the keys, I think, that makes BioWare great, especially the writing, is that iterative process, we actually go in and we’re not afraid to change it.”

The manpower working on the game has also increased exponentially, “We’re up to eight writers, we’ve got two editors, and I think we’ve actually just borrowed a third. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

BioWare has also changed their approach on Commander Shepard, as the team looks to flesh him out some more. “[We really wanted] to deepen Shepard as a character. So you really get to express what you’re Shepard is feeling and going through, throughout the war.”

The lead writer concludes his interview by giving the team’s final goals, discussing their emphasis on story and emotion. “We set out to create an amazing, epic experience, a story like no other, and that next level story telling. . .There is a human side to the story. . .why shouldn’t [Shepard] have an emotional component. . .I think the emotion, the depth of writing that we have in there, has also gone up another level.”

For even more info, check out the interview below!

The teams over at Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software have released the first behind the scenes trailer for the 2012 content season for Call of Duty ELITE. “I mean with [all these teams] all contributing to this season of content, the possibilities are limitless,” said Robert Bowling, creative strategist at Infinity Ward.

The content is set to debut first on Xbox 360 to those with premium ELITE subscriptions on January 24. At which point owners will be treated to two new multiplayer maps Piazza and Liberation. Check out the trailer below!

This week BioWare Pulse sat down with Rob Blake, audio lead, and Caroline Livingstone, voiceover director, to discuss the process of voice over recording.

The duo discuss the process and difficulties surrounding voice over recording and the technology behind it. “We developed this system called IVM…” started Blake, when Livingstone interjected.

“Intensity volume matrix. The writers were on board with it, they kinda created this drop-down tool where you can decide how you want your line read. It’s just added this layer of texture to the game which is super cool.”

She then continued to explain their approach with Mass Effect 3, “So stepping into Mass Effect 3, we knew we wanted to tap into Shepard’s humanity. We need to find his vulnerability, we need to know that he’s not confident the whole time, that he is going to win this battle.”

After demonstrating how the team records voice actors remotely, Livingstone continued, “Thanks to all of this work we’ve been doing . . .we’ve got this emotionally engaging experience, beyond what we had in Mass Effect one and two, it’s so much more immersive.”

Check out the video below for even more details!

Take a quick peek at the new and returning characters in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Check out the new heroes Serah and Noel, the new rivals Lightning and Caius, and the returning characters, Hope and Snow.

On the latest episode of BioWare Pulse, the team shows off some of the new animations in Mass Effect 3. Corey Gaspur, gameplay designer, commented, “So in Mass Effect 3, Shepard is a lot more dynamic . . . he can roll out of cover, he can 90 degree cover turn, [and] move elegantly around the battlefield.”

The duo, including Eric Fagnan, gameplay designer, also discuss the animations involving the Omniblade. “One of the things we really wanted to improve in Mass Effect 3 was the reactivity of the enemies. So how they react to your attacks, their animated reactions when you hit them from the side, the front, so you can feel like everything that you do to enemies is really causing a realistic impact on them.”

Check out the interview below.

Every week, on BioWare Pulse, the team typically discusses one aspect of the upcoming Mass Effect 3. Eric Fagnan, gameplay designer and Corey Gaspur, combat designer sat down to talk about combat. The team has worked on improving the powers that the next installment in the franchise will offer, “We’ve put a lot of effort into improving our powers, every class gets a new unique power,” said Fagnan.

One such power is the Engineers, sentry turret power which allows the player to spawn a turret to flank the enemy or play defense. Overload has been upgraded to be able to transition to multiple enemies in close proximity. The Vanguard still has their Charge ability, but now they also have the option of using Nova, which also consumes the players barrier but sends a shockwave around the player causing a high amount of damage.

A new Krogan shotgun, one of the most accurate in the game, was also discussed which shoots spikes at the enemy causing them to slowly bleed out over time.

“[One] of the big things we wanted to improve was the melee combat, giving the player more options…” said Gaspur as they demonstrated some of the new melee attacks. “For instance . . . the Adept’s heavy melee will send a guy flying through the air with high force. The engineers heavy melee is completely different, it’s high damage, very little force, and it’s all fire based,” continued Fagnan.

Those who want to see the interview themselves can check out the video below.

Epic Games has released a flythrough of the remade Bulletmarsh map for Gears of War 3. The previously announced downloadable content will be released as part of the Versus Booster Map Pack for free on November 24.

Bullet Marsh is a reimagining of Gears 1’s foreboding, swampy stomping grounds where shooting out an old generator extinguishes the lights above and unleashes the bat-like, bloodthirsty Kryll, putting at danger anyone left standing in the dark.

Don’t stray too far from lit areas, and be sure navigate the low-lying marsh areas with caution as you trudge through rain and lightning. Beware of the map’s darkest corners, where the Kryll are waiting to swarm and devour unsuspecting combatants with their dense fangs.

Freshly broken out of Arkham Asylum Joker is still running rampant, and now has even more of the Dark Knight’s rogue gallery as backup in the streets of Gotham.

Batman: Arkham City is based on DC Comics’ core Batman license. Fans can visit www.batmanarkhamcity.com to sign up to receive updates regarding the game.