BioWare still isn't ready to reveal what the mysterious new Mass Effect game is, who it'll star, when it's set, or any of that, but has chatted a little about possible spin-offs. It did cram the fictional world full of an awful lot of detail, after all. Sadly, the mere fact that PR didn't forbid people from musing about their fanciful ideas means that no, we probably shan't get to play a private investigator on the Citadel.
Going free-to-play has paid off for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We knew that it had seen an influx of new players since adopting the model, but all those new players are just a drain on resources if they aren't spending money. According to EA's earnings call, they are.
They may have blue skin or scales, but many of the alien species in Mass Effect are essentially humans with a palette swap. Apparently, BioWare considered having a non-humanoid squadmate join Shepard, but discovered that it would have taken away from the rest of the game.
"All party members needed to use a humanoid skeleton," BioWare's Dusty Everman said. "If we'd ever tried to use a non-humanoid, the cost would have been huge. Instead, we took all the development effort that we could have put towards an odd squad mate and made a larger, more polished game."
At this time last year, Mass Effect 3 was still overshadowed by the backlash to its ending, with the Extended Cut announced but not yet available. A year removed, BioWare says it has learned some hard lessons from that, and doesn't intend to repeat them in future games.
Read more: 'A bitter-sweet ending is much easier to watch in a movie' »
Playable catfolk are coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic with update 2.1, BioWare has proudly revealed. As well as introducing the Cathar race, who look an awful like humans wearing bad facepaint, the 'Customization' update will let players redesign their character's looks and recolour their armour.
Big Huge Games hasn't been able to catch a break. After the studio was shuttered due to the collapse of 38 Studios, many members of that team moved onto Impossible Studios--which was closed after Infinity Blade: Dungeons was put on hold. Members for that team are now making their way to BioWare Montreal, to work on the next Mass Effect game.
Greg Zeschuk's career path has been a bit bizarre, by his own admission. He's gone from successful doctor to prominent videogame developer to beer connoisseur. But after he left BioWare, Zeschuk said he didn't realize "how much of my identity was tied up in my career."
Read more: Detailed questions on difficulty, layout, and more »
Star Wars: The Old Republic started losing subscribers fairly quickly after launch. At a Game Developers Conference talk, BioWare creative director James Ohlen explained that the studio was inexperienced in MMOs, and therefore underestimated the speed with which customers would plow through the content.
If you want to boldly go and tease those husky Hutt, or simply spark a non-heterosexual romance, draw a big red ring around April 14 on your calendar (floating hearts optional). That's when Star Wars: The Old Republic's digital expansion Rise of the Hutt Cartel will launch, EA announced today.
It's been nearly half a year since Star Wars: The Old Republic transitioned into a free-to-play game. So, how did it go? Pretty darn great, if you asked Jeff Hickman, executive producer on the game.
In a new blog post, Hickman owns up to the shortcomings of SWTOR's rapid decline at launch. "Last spring, there was some uncertainty surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic as we were starting to lose subscribers and players were growing frustrated," he said. "In fairness, many of the complaints and worries were justified."
"Citadel" is a send-off for Commander Shepard and her crew. The final DLC for Mass Effect 3 "offers an entirely different kind of closure for the trilogy" and, according to our review, is a "wholly welcome farewell" for the franchise.
While the DLC isn't free (it costs $15), BioWare is still giving away a gratis gift to fans. The "Citadel" soundtrack is free to download, including twenty new tracks for fans to listen to.
Field Reports provide our first-hand experience with the latest games and expansion packs.
The past year's been tumultuous for Commander Shepard and the crew of the SR2 Normandy. With this last Mass Effect 3 downloadable content pack, "Citadel," the current Mass Effect saga comes to a close, giving the heroes we've grown to love some much deserved rest and relaxation. Like the add-on missions before it, Citadel takes place an undefined time before the assault on The Illusive Man's base. The key difference between this mission and the preceding add-on packs is it doesn't feel at all like something left on the cutting room floor, it's miles above Mass Effect 2's lauded "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and every other piece of downloadable content released before it.
In an effort to upgrade security, BioWare is changing the way that players will be able to login to their account for Star Wars: The Old Republic. As of April 2, instead of using your email address to access your characters, you will need to login with your screen name instead.
BioWare San Francisco has been shut down. Originally known as EA2D, the mobile and social studio was known for games like Dragon Age: Legends and Mirror's Edge 2D. It was eventually brought into the BioWare umbrella in August of 2011.
"Following Garrus around as a C-Sec officer would be interesting, but I think it makes more sense ..."
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