Mass Effect 3 Beta Releases Details Early Due to “Human Error”

You may or may not be aware of the fact that recently, certain members of Xbox Live were able to experience the new Xbox 360 dashboard preview program; but these gamers actually got a bit more than they expected to.

It would seem that these members of Xbox Live were able to download a beta of Mass Effect 3, one that according, to members of NeoGaf, contained not only multiplayer portions of the game, but also a chunk of the single-player campaign that revealed some previously unknown details.

Some of the most interesting details included three never before seen modes of single player:
– Action Mode: Greater emphasis on action and combat, with minimal story management. Action mode seemed to set automatic replies in conversation and a normal difficulty.
– Story Mode: Greater emphasis on story immersion with minimal combat pressure. Conversational choices are decided by the player, while having lower combat difficulty.
– RPG Mode: Contains both realms of story and combat. RPG mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a normal combat difficulty.

Now, BioWare released a statement regarding these new modes and the leak of the beta:

“As most of you know by now, this evening an accidental leak occurred of some early Mass Effect 3 beta code. Microsoft has advised us that through human error at their end, content which was meant for internal beta testing was flagged incorrectly and released to individuals who had signed up for the beta of the Xbox Live dashboard update. It has since been taken down and deactivated.

We’d like to stress that the leaked code is in a rough, unfinished state and was not meant for public release. 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).

One feature that was present in this early build is a set of game play modes that are in development. In the beta code they are referred to as ‘action mode’, ‘story mode’ and ‘RPG mode’. We want to stress that these features are still in the early stages of development and will receive considerable iteration and refinement. These modes are designed to give players an even finer degree of control over their game experience than ever before. Whether it be someone who finds the combat difficult but wants to experience the amazing story, someone who wants to focus on the action and combat game play, or fans who want the rich, story-driven RPG Mass Effect experience they’ve come to love – Mass Effect 3 will support all of these options. We’ll have more info in the days ahead!”

So according to this statement, we can’t even be sure if any of these modes will actually make it to the retail game, if they will be additional downloadable content, or if these modes will actually be available on March 6th with the release of the actual game. Only time will tell.