Mass Effect 3 comes out in a few hours. Now my only problem is sneaking out enough time to actually play this thing. It would be nice if the game had a Dr. Oz-type character to keep my girlfriend occupied so I could level up my Shep while spending time with her.

News Blips:

Ubisoft plans to release Assassin’s Creed 3 on Wii U alongside Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. While fans of the mind-traveling parkour simulator are happy to be getting info about the new character (a half Mohawk Indian chopping the Worcestershire sauce out of some red coats!), Nintendo is happy to get some third-party support. This beckons the questions: What will Ubi put on the controller’s large screen? I bet they’ll just show a video stream of Desmond looking all sad because no one likes him.  

Electronic Arts creates EA Gothenburg Studio to work on a “new generation of games” using the Battlefield 3 engine. The publisher has invited talent interested in working for the new team to join them for a “happy hour” during this week’s Game Developer Conference. That invite says that the new studio will be “focused on making a new generation of games using the Frostbite 2 engine.” A disclaimer near the bottoms notes that the game franchise and its genre will only be revealed to candidates who sign a non-disclosure agreement. The word “franchise” suggests that Gothenburg will be taking the reins of a previously established intellectual property. If you’re interested in applying to work with this new developer, then head to jobs.ea.com. If you’re in San Francisco for GDC and you want to attend the happy hour, email taevents@ea.com.

Valve removes cross-platform play from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Thanks to the magic of Steamworks, Valve’s suite of online tools, the developer successfully integrated multiplayer in Portal 2 that crossed the divide between PC and the PS3. Unfortunately, Sony’s cumbersome update process has convinced the Counter-Strike: GO team to separate each version of the game. “The beta has proved we want to update not just the beta, but the game itself post-launch frequently on the PC,” said Valve Office Occupier Chet Faliszek. “We have removed the idea of cross-platform play -- essentially making all platforms stronger by not mixing them.” Stronger by not mixing? I thought that kind of bigotry was a relic of the past. [Joystiq]

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