Mass Effect

Another project in Unreal Engine 3, this is an original IP in development from Bioware; the creators of the Neverwinter Nights franchise.

Set in the year 2183, it tells the story of a human who has the potential to save everything we and other races hold dear; when the arrival of a dangerous race of machines every 50,000 years return to extinguish all life. Belonging to a group known only as the Spectres, this organisation's mandate is to be peacekeepers between the various alien races in the galaxy.

Mass Effect is currently exclusive to Xbox360, but they have stated there are plans to later develop it for the PC -- probably Windows Vista -- and it is the first RPG/FPS-Hybrid in a trilogy. Since its announcement back at the X05 Conference last year there have been the release of several videos for the game (you can find those here), however, it might be best to simply watch the demo that was shown at this year's E3:

http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_masseffect_walkthrough_1_e36_h264.mov (Quicktime MOV)
http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_masseffect_walkthrough_1_e36_h264.wmv (Windows Media WMV)

For all other information, its official site can be found at the following address:

http://masseffect.bioware.com

 

Well when they first announced the game there was a lot of talk of its design being based on an improved codebase from Jade Empire, so I would assume this is a much better example of the party-system than KOTOR was...

KOTOR was more "the father" of party-system gameplay

 

A few days prior to the release of the E3 Demo this week, the Official Xbox Magazine did a podcast-interview with Casey Hudson; the Project Lead for Mass Effect.

You can download it here.