Well, the Mass Effect Trilogy was released for PlayStation 3 last week, after a bit of a delay. The Trilogy features an tweaked version of the original Mass Effect (still my favourite game in the series) that incorporates various audio and graphical enhancements from the later games in the trilogy.

Also, there would appear to be another piece of single-player DLC on the way for the game, one which evidently has BioWare Edmonton in “all hands on deck” mode. The new DLC apparently concerns the Citadel in some way, and has the potential to be just massive in scope and scale…especially since it’s the Edmonton studio, rather than Montreal, that is leading development. Yes, that’s all speculation, but still…what early signs exist point toward “something big”. And that could be a very good thing, considering that the Omega DLC seems to have underwhelmed more than a few people.

Mass Effect 3 has done well in award season, however. It was named “Game of the Year” by GameInformer, is nominated for both “Game of the Year” and “Best RPG” at PC Gamer, and won “Best RPG” at the recent VGAs.

Dragon Age 3 also made a few headlines over the last week, when news broke that BioWare was in fact taking a few queues from Skyrim in crafting the game. EA also made a bunch of Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 promo items (in-game content, mind) available for free.

The free-to-play restrictions in Star Wars: The Old Republic will evidently be relaxed somewhat, at least for “Preferred Status” players. Player feedback is encouraged, apparently, so…if there’s still an issue with the game’s free-to-play option in your eyes, I guess let BioWare Austin know.

The version 1.6 update that is coming soon for the game should improve the endgame PvP experience, by the way, and then not just by adding a new warzone.

Finally, this was the week for BioWare-themed retrospectives: Rowan Kaiser praised Knights of the Old Republic’s influence on modern RPGs over at Joystiq, while Paul Dean wrote at length about Neverwinter Nights. A cancelled BioWare game was also brought to light by Overhaul Games’ Trent Oster. Described as “James Bond meets Jason Bourne”, it was evidently cancelled in part due to the recession.