Posts Tagged ‘bioware’
Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads coming to a browser near you
It seems that BioWare and a browser-based development offset of EA called EA 2D have teamed up to produce Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. This game is a browser-based tactical RPG set in the same universe as Dragon Age: Origins.
There haven’t been many details regarding the game other than that it will be a 3-chapter title with talent trees, classes, sound effects, music and user interfaces taken straight from its console counterpart.
via bioware
Steam gets Dragon Age: Origins pre-order bonus
It was recently announced that Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam, will be getting its own exclusive pre-order bonus for Dragon Age: Origins. Said pre-order bonus will be the in-game item called the Wicked Oath ring which will boost your character’s combat and damage abilities.
Make note that this ring is in addition to the Memory Band in-game item that all retailers will be giving out to pre-orders of Dragon Age: Origins.
BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins will be out for the Xbox 360 and PC on November 3rd and for the PS3 on November 17th.
Dragon Age: Origins launch trailer hits the web
The above launch trailer for BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins has just hit the internet and boy does it make the game look good. Of course it doesn’t show any actual game play but the Lord of the Rings style cinematics really make me want to check this game out.
Despite being a launch trailer, we aren’t going to be able to get our hands on Dragon Age: Origins until November 3rd.
Mass Effect 2 boxart revealed
Electronic Arts has revealed the official boxart of the upcoming action RPG Mass Effect 2. The version you’re seeing above is for the Xbox 360, but the PC art is exactly the same.
Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 will be out in stores sometime early next year.
Mass Effect comic book coming next year
BioWare and Dark Horse Comics are teaming up to bring a Mass Effect comic book. Titled Mass Effect: Redemption, the story will take place after the events of the first game and lead up to the sequel. The comic “opens with galactic hero Commander Shepard having mysteriously gone missing and left to fight for survival. What unfolds next will expose readers to new locations, aliens and extended storyline in the Mass Effect universe.” Marc Walters will be writing the comic.
“Fans of Mass Effect are going to be pleasantly shocked by the events in these comics,” said Walters. “We worked very closely with Dark Horse to make sure this story was built in to the Mass Effect 2 arc, right from the ground up. Reading the series won’t just add to your experience of the universe, it will change the way you look at Mass Effect 2… and beyond.”
Mass Effect: Redemption will be out in stores on January 6th, 2010.
Read (ActionTrip)
BioWare: Mass Effect is more than a trilogy
The second Mass Effect is still undergoing development, but that isn’t stopping BioWare from making plans for a trilogy and beyond. In an interview with GamerZines, BioWare vice president Greg Zeschuk revealed that Mass Effect could be seeing more sequels than originally intended.
“We’ve said Mass Effect is supposed to be a trilogy,” said Zeshuck, “so you’re going to see at least a third Mass Effect, and even more if everything goes well.”
The Mass Effect universe is a pretty expandable one, so we could be seeing spin-offs and other types of installments to the franchise. At least we know now that the series is here for good.
Mass Effect 2 is slated for a first quarter 2010 release for the PC and Xbox 360.
Read (GamerZines)
Dragon Age To Be “Massively Single Player” Game
Go to the website for any video game and along the base of the screen you’ll see logos for anyone and everyone involved from the publisher to the system(s) it’s being released on. Trailers also feature these helpful little reminders at the end and apparently in a trailer for Bioware’s upcoming Dragon Age: Origins two of the logos featured were somewhat unusual for a game: Twitter and Facebook.
It seems that as with Spore the overall aim is to blur the line between single player and multiplayer. With Spore you created creatures who existed in a universe populated by the creations of others. The developers are looking for some method of connecting the community of Dragon Age players through a ‘network of manually and automatically shared content’.
Some of that will be more passive, similar to the stat-tracking features of games like Halo 3 where you can nip over to Bungie’s and check out lifetime game stats for yourself and others. Given that they’ll be including a suite of content creation tools though there could be some other aspects to it. In-game merchants selling weapons and armor others have created is a possibility, as well as other people’s characters being used for NPCs or hirelings.
Bioware Founder Defends Sex Scenes In Games
While the self-appointed cultural crusaders raise an eyebrow at excessive violence, nothing gets them more frothed up and ready to bust heads than sexual content. Recently video games have begun to take the romantic component that some RPG makers have been including to the next level in a more visual format. This stirred up a mildly ricidulous hornets’ nest of controversy when Mass Effect was released, though most of those complaining hadn’t actually played the game.
Bioware’s newest RPG, Dragon Age Origins reportedly contains similarly racy content at some point as well and one can only assume that Mass Effect 2 will allow more boffing of sexy blue aliens (or aliens of some other hue). In an interview Bioware co-founder Greg Zeschuck defended his company’s decision, citing that that they’re doing this to reflect real human relationships in a “sophisticated mature experience”. He admitted that they’re not necessary for every game but “in certain types of games it makes sense to have them.”
Do digital recreations of sex scenes, no matter how tasteful, really improve the immersiveness of a video game’s romantic subplots? Public opinion still seems to be split on the matter, so what do you think?
EA merges Mythic with BioWare, forms new RPG/MMO group
EA is really taking out the big guns in an attempt to take down Blizzard and their World of Warcraft — Recently announced is the merger of Warhammer Online developer Mythic and Mass Effect developer, BioWare.
These two merged studios will form a new RPG/MMO studio group with most all of the executives from both studios staying onboard. However, Mark Jacobs, co-found of Mythic, has left EA yesterday June 23rd, 2009.
Both of these studios have come up with some great stuff, now let’s just see if they can pump out a game that will be enough to send Blizzard packin’.
Mass Effect DLC announcement this week?
First announced back at E3, BioWare has some Mass Effect DLC cookin’ but details are scarce. Luckily, a developer by the name of Evil Chris has tweeted about an impending announcement:
Getting the feeling some news about the next ME1 DLC may be coming this week. Keep your eyes peeled. – Evil Chris
So what does this exactly mean? Are we definitly going to hear about some Mass Effect DLC this week or is this just a mean joke being played by BioWare.
Chances are, we’ll see an announcement so continue to check back as the story unfolds.
Shepard Will Be In Mass Effect 3
Video games are in some ways are starting to resemble the auto industry. We’re hearing more and more details about future titles in a series that hasn’t even released a sequel yet. Eventually developers will leak details of sequels to games that have yet to hit the shelves. Regardless of how early this news is, it’s still interesting to hear. In the first trailers for Mass Effect 2 we saw little more than a robotic geth wearing the protagonists armor, leading many to assume that he’d died in the ambiguous ending of the original.
Later though it was revealed that he had survived and would be present for at least some of the sequel. Now BioWare’s Casey Hudson, the executive producer on the title has revealed that not only has Shepard survived to the sequel, he may even make it to the final chapter of the trilogy. I say ‘may’ however not out of any ambiguity on the part of the developer- the choice rests on the player. Mass Effect 2 will have certain events or differences based on choices you made in the original (assuming you played it and still have your save file). As you’ve probably heard, depending on your actions characters can die in this game. Hopefully it won’t simply be due to the rigors of everyday combat, because in the original I generally found myself the only one standing at the end of nearly every encounter. Not only can your teammates die, but Shepard himself can be offed.
Of course if you fail to keep him alive, he’ll be replaced by a stand-in character in Mass Effect 3 so as to not force the developers to create two different plotlines, but if you play your cards right the hero can survive the supposed suicide mission he embarks on in #2 and head out for another attempt at defeating overwhelming odds.
BioWare confirms new Mass Effect DLC
Speaking to Joystiq, BioWare developers Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka confirmed that a new Mass Effect DLC is in the works and will be announced soon. The first DLC, titled “Bring Down The Sky”, was released back in February 2008.
Mass Effect 2 was showcased at this year’s E3, and will be released in almost a year, in March 2010.
BioWare says Mass Effect 2 to be “darker”
BioWare has gone on the record and said that the second installment in the Mass Effect trilogy will be the dark installment — much the The Empire Strikes Back was for the Star Wars trilogy (the original, that is). Producer Casey Hudson said:
“As a trilogy we have our three acts. So Mass Effect 2 is the dark act. It’s an opportunity to really explore the tougher, more brutal parts of the universe.”
Expect a lot more details at E3. Mass Effect 2 is slated for release later this year.
Dragon Age Origins Getting Low-Tech Version
The world is often bizarrely cyclical. In its earliest incarnation Bioware’s fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins was based off the Neverwinter Nights engine and seemed more of a total conversion mod project than an actual independent title. Neverwinter Nights of course is one of many games to be based on the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper (and more on occasion) tabletop roleplaying game.
Now Dragon Age: Origins is coming back to, well, its origins. Green Ronin Publishing will be releasing a pen and paper version of the game to accompany the digital adventure this summer. “We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way – a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA.
The initial release will be a boxed set with more boxed sets and expansion books to be released later. An interesting possibility given that Bioware is including the suite of adventure creation tools is the possibility of user-created adventures being purchased and put out for the tabletop version.
Mass Effect iPhone Bound
A survey revealed the existence of a new marketing device for Mass Effect 2: an iPhone game. It’s a stand-alone title called Mass Effect: Jacob’s Story and it’s intended to set up both the plot line and customer lines for the sequel. It’s a top-down shooter with a cartoon based art style and should take about two hours of play time.
The protagonist Jacob Taylor is of course a “biotic powered super soldier” who stumbles across an evil plot to terrorize galactic civilization. Of course he’s probably not going to have much of a chance to stop this plot, because to do so would doom your character in Mass Effect 2 to be stuck on guard duty for the whole game. Jacob’s Story will cost a mere $2.99 and though no release date has been announced a good guess places it at anywhere from a month to a week before the release of Mass Effect 2, since it’s quite obviously set up as a marketing device. The survey however suggests that this title could just be the first, with others set in the Mass Effect universe and possibly even Dragon Age games for the iPhone as well.