It's a bit of a no-brainer that BioWare are working on Mass Effect 3, but just how deep will the story be given the complexities of the first two games? BioWare's Casey Hudson reckons it'll be really deep, as he disclosed to the UK's PC Zone Magazine (via CVG).

"We plan out the larger plot points of the story from one game to the next, but it would be impossible to plan it all in advance," he said in the interview. "More importantly, we'd never be able to plan as many creative opportunities if we'd do it all up front. Instead, we record what a player has done in a play-through, and then we have all of those choices available that writers can refer to as they build storylines. Numerically, it's over 1,000 variables that we'll have access to for shaping the Mass Effect 3 experience for people who've played the previous games."

That's awesome news for those of us a little obsessed with the game's rich narrative and myriad characters. And for those of you who were on the fence about the game's change to a more action-focused RPG, don't go expecting any major changes with the third release.

"In Mass Effect 2 we focused on what we love about RPGs," he said. "An awesome sense of exploration, intense combat, a deep and non-linear story that's affected by your actions, and rich customisation of your armour, weapons and appearance. We had an overwhelmingly positive response to this approach, and while we'll make further adjustments to it for Mass Effect 3, we're really happy with how it's been received so far."

There's still no word of a release window for the game, but punters like myself are suggesting we'll see it later 2011, early 2012.