BioWare Austin released a shiny new trailer last week for the now-live version 2.0 update for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion went live a few days later. And the developers also gave us a look at macrobinoculars in the game.

Kotaku’s “Mass Effect Week” continued for all of last week, as expected, and the site looked at a truly mind-boggling amount of Mass Effect-related content and subjects. The series’ art design, its most iconic moments, its companions, more art, some of the more hilarious aspects of the game, the way the series changed over time, some stuff about the rumoured movie, some of the mods released for it, more silly moments, its commentary on corporations, the comic books and what they added to the series’ story, how awesome its bad guys were, the elevators in the first Mass Effect, where the series failed, the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy, and the dilemas it throws at the player; all come up for analysis and discussion.

As well, Rowan Kaiser — who contributed some writing to the Ultima 6 Project, by the way — is currently attempting to crowdfund a lengthy critical analysis of the Mass Effect series, and is asking for your support. An excerpt from the book concerning the Mako vehicle from the first Mass Effect was published by Kotaku last week.

Some Mass Effect developers will also be appearing at the upcoming Full Indie Summit.

Oh, and have a read of this GamesIndustry interview with Greg Zeschuk, in which the former BioWare Doctor discusses many of the studio’s games and its relationship with EA.