The Mercury News has dished up
their own preview of Mass Effect, which includes commentary from BioWare's Casey Hudson and Greg Zeschuk. An excerpt to follow:
In the game, you play a human Specter, a sworn defender of galactic peace. You have to pursue a legendary agent gone rogue across the galaxy. As you lead an elite team across hostile alien worlds, you discover much bigger problems. That's the beginning of what BioWare calls a rich and engaging storyline. (They're known for that kind of thing). You make choices about where you go, and the consequences of your actions follow you. As a player, you can pursue different sorts of careers than the purely good or evil, such as profiteering. You can customize your appearance in a lot of ways and explore uncharted planets. You can explore those worlds in elite squads in a nonlinear way. Your squads can take advantage of bionics and technological skills.
"The player will have ethical issues like cybernetic parties and AI races," Hudson said.
Mass Effect Preview 
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