In an interview featured in the latest issue of Xbox World 360 and posted on CVG, Environment Artists Don Arceta and Nick Lukasewich have discussed the importance of making Mass Effect 3's locations feel more authentic and functional before, with cover seamlessly integrated into the environment, making it less obvious than before.

"We have a lot more integrated cover, so you don't walk into a room and immediately know there's going to be a combat there. It's about making these spaces feel natural and not forced," said Arceta. "It shouldn't ever feel forced, by gameplay or art - it really should be this perfect marriage."

Lukasewich echoed Arceta's comments: "Yeah, you don't want to walk through a room and go, 'okay nothing's going to happen here. There's no cover for me here,' and then you walk around the next corner and you just see a sea of these chest-high things - you basically see the fight ahead."

Arceta reinforced the importance of Mass Effect 3's rooms feeling functional first and foremost, so that exploration and combat feels seamless rather than obviously compartmentalised. "We're really pushing the variety within the levels, so you're not walking into the same room just decorated differently," Arceta explained. "We're really trying to push each room as a functional space. A hallway has a function for people working there, and we're just trying to really make sense of it in the game."

BioWare is also sharing development knowledge back and forth with fellow EA studio DICE, with audio reverberation effects and environmental interactions being shared and implemented into Mass Effect 3. Best Mass Effect game yet then? Could well be... Check out Dan's preview from E3 2011 for more. Mass Effect 3 is out in March 2012. Oh, and why not take a look at the alternate costumes for Kaidan, Ashley and co. below?

[Via NeoGAF]