BioWare has already launched one story-driven DLC pack for Mass Effect 2 (Kasumi’s Stolen Memory), and they have another one on the way in June. And according to lead producer Casey Hudson, there will be a lot more DLC on the way, which will eventually begin to bridge the story gap between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

“We have a bunch of packs that are in the works right now,” Hudson said to Videogamer in an interview. “So, for the time being there’s going to be a continued stream of DLC for people. We’ll start to have packs that’ll tell the story between Mass Effect 2 and 3. But beyond that we kind of have to see how people are responding to what we have and go from there.”

Kasumi’s Stolen Memory added eponymous new character Kasumi as a party member, but BioWare has already confirmed the upcoming Overlord DLC in June won’t add any more party members — nor will any other Mass Effect 2 DLC in the future. So whatever story BioWare fills in leading up to Mass Effect 3, it’ll revolve around the same companion characters already in Mass Effect 2.

Like any fighting game after its initial release, extensive play of Super Street Fighter 4 has uncovered a few exploitable balance issues that can rob matches of their competitiveness. But Capcom’s already on the case as they’re planning to release a patch for the game on June 15.

The patch will be rolled into the previously revealed free Tournament Mode DLC that’s releasing June 15, and as you’d expect, it fixes various exploitable moves and reconfigures more finer issues like counter damage. The fixes in the patch were detailed on Capcom’s Japanese SSF4 blog, which Andriasang (via Event Hubs) has translated.

Here is a detailed (and fighting-game-jargon filled) listing of the fixes:

I like games with rich, branching narrative paths, and opportunities for character growth and change. Games that give you an open world to explore, or have a single driving narrative. Super Mario Galaxy 2 does none of those things. It’s a game that makes no assumptions about being anything other than a colorful romp through surreal worlds with bright, nonsensical characters. And this sequel to Super Mario Galaxy takes everything its predecessor did and maintains that urgent sense of wonder and discovery, creating a world that copies its past self, yet keeps the freshness that made it so exciting when the first game debuted two years ago.

Most sequels, especially those that follow their source material with so little time in between (we usually only get one new, major Mario game per Nintendo console) fall into the trap of either adding too much new material, or not providing enough of what made the original a hit. But Galaxy 2 strikes a rare balance: the additions (Yoshi, Cloud Mario, Rock Mario) expand the devious obstacles you must overcome to collect level-unlocking stars, but the underlying design is just as solid as anything from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64. You won’t have these additions in every level (though I’d argue that at least giving you the ability to start any stage with Yoshi or a power-up you previously collected would make things even more fun). In fact, you spend more stages without any special abilities whatsoever. But that just shows the strength of Nintendo’s design: they don’t rely on these abilities as a crutch. Your new powers are an occasional tool to let you marvel at your own ability to traverse the world, but your primary powers are no more than simple jumps and your own hand-eye coordination.

Twitter is growing in Japan. What was the hot buzzword of 2008 in the United States is only now becoming commonplace on the other side of the Pacific. Each week, we’ll be scanning the Tweets of various Japanese industry figures and translating the best of them for you. Don’t worry if you don’t recognize the names. We’ll include some of each creator’s most famous games next to their tweets.

Another week, another round of tweets from Japanese game makers. Parties seem to be the order of the day during the pre-E3 lull. Q Entertainment’s Mizuguchi promoted a Genki Rockets, while Kojima and Suda 51 partied in Tokyo. Before that, Square’s Yoichi Wada talked about innovation, and Hideki Kamiya seemed a little weirded out by his fans.

A new cancer trecash machineent center in Kyoto opened its doors on May 18 thanks to former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who contributed nearly all of the 7.5 billion yen (about £83 million) used to build the 101 foot structure, which required special dispensation from the city to avoid violating building height regulations.

The eight floor, 82,000 square foot facility will have radiation oncology, internal medicine oncology, respiratory surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, and urology departments. Patients will begin trecash machineent at the center at the end of this month.

Sonic 4: Episode 1 has been delayed, but in return it looks like fans will be getting a couple more platform options.

Sega revealed earlier today that the down-loadable sequel has been moved back from the summer to “late 2010.”

“The additional time will allow the development team to focus on ensuring overall high-quality throughout the game by continuing to tune, balance, and maintain the kind of polish that an important title like this demands,” the release reads, “and ultimately providing fans with an unrivalled classic Sonic feel.”

Valve has renewed their criticism of the PlayStation 3, saying that they would like to see Sony’s console be more “open like a Mac.”

In a recent interview with 5BY5, Valve CEO Gabe Newell explained, “Platform investments, like the Mac, are difficult because you have to be aware of what direction that platform is moving. We need to target platforms that do a better job of looking like where we want to be in a few years.”

“We would love to see the PS3 be more open like a Mac than more closed like a Gamecube. It makes it easier to justify those investments if that were the case.”

After recording a slight decrease in revenues over the holiday season, GameStop is back on pace.

In their earnings call today (via Gamasutra), GameStop reported that year over year sales have risen 5.1 percent to £2.08 billion in the first quarter. The retailer raked in roughly £75.2 million in profit, up 6.8 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

GameStop recorded a slight dip in hardware sales, which they blamed on prices as well as continued shortages of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Feature

Valve and Prima have today launched the first set of in-game guides on Steam, with the initial launch including guides for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dragon Age: Origins (and Dragon Age: Origins ? Awakening,) Left 4 Dead 2, Just Cause 2, and Splinter Cell Conviction.

The guides are readable in game via Steam’s user interface overlay functionality, and are also readable outside of the game. The guides are “100% developer approved” and are navigated using a wiki-like interface.