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."
BioWare president Greg Zeschuk said that the Wii is less like a game console and more akin to a toy, citing Nintendo's emphasis on casual gaming experiences.
"[Wii] experiences are much more like a toy experience," Zeschuk told GameDaily. [People] are playing, together or not, but you're not 'gaming' anymore...If gaming is defined by story, then generally Wii may not be." Read more »
Electronic Arts has completed its $860 million acquisition of VG Holding Corp., owner of renowned development studios BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios.
With BioWare and Pandemic now officially part of the EA family, the two studios will produce ten new franchises based on six EA-owned properties. BioWare is currently known to be working on Dragon Age (PC), a Sonic the Hedgehog DS RPG, an untitled MMO strongly rumored to be set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe, with reports indicating that the other two entries in the planned Mass Effect (X360) trilogy and a sequel to Jade Empire (PC, Xbox) are on the wayas well. Read more »
LucasArts and BioWare today announced that they have signed an agreement to develop an "interactive entertainment product". Literally nothing else of note is mentioned in the press release, except that specifics will be unveiled at a later date and a website can be found at LucasArtsBioWare.com. However, this announcement comes a week after reports hit the internet that claimed BioWare Austin is working on an MMO set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe. At the time, a LucasArts representative would neither confirm or deny the existence of such a project. "BioWare's mission is to deliver the best story and character-driven games in the world, delivering powerful emotional experiences to our fans," said BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka. Added president Greg Zeschuk, "The collaboration with LucasArts allows us to combine our passion for creating high quality and innovative experiences with those of a company dedicated to bringing only the finest games to market."
Read more »Computer & Video Games has been updated with a Mass Effect Q&A, asking BioWare's Greg Zeschuk about the sci-fi RPG. Topics include development of the game, DLC, and demo plans.
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Saren's installation has to be destroyed. There are no two ways about it. The rogue Spectre's base contains the antidote to the genophage, a disease that is wiping out the entire Krogan race--and Saren is amassing an army of Krogan warriors for his own dangerous purposes. Leaving the base intact ensures galactic devastation, while destroying it condemns a race to eventual extinction.
We also happen to have a Krogan in our party. He's working through some issues several yards away, cursing and firing his rifle into the ocean. It's a little awkward.
This is the kind of emotionally conflicted scenario that BioWare president Greg Zeschuk and project director Casey Hudson hope will leave an impression on players of the company's epic upcoming space-set roleplaying game Mass Effect. Even after only having been familiar with honorable Krogan bounty hunter Wrex for a few short moments, the journalists watching Zeschuk and Hudson demonstrate the game in a closed-doors session were themselves visibly resistant to seeing the BioWare developers take the hard line approach and screw over protagonist Shepard's buddy.
The dilemma can resolve--or not--in different ways, depending on how the player handles the situation, but in the interest of keeping the crucial plot points under wraps before the game is released, we were asked not to write about the particular route taken during the demo session.
Of course, in addition to the various resolutions available once Wrex is faced with the nearly impossible decision of saving the world or saving his own race, it may well work out that during your playthrough you never bring Wrex into your party to begin with, bypassing that uncomfortable exchange.
Earlier in the demo, Commander Shepard arrived at the space station and attempted to sneak by Wrex to get to an elevator. He had killed one of Wrex's bounty contracts--and Wrex is infamously fastidious when it comes to finishing what he starts. The BioWare folks failed at sneaking Shepard past--surely deliberately, for the purposes of the demo--and Wrex confronted him. Like the later Wrex situation, it can be handled in different ways. Wrex is a bit of a hardass, but he also respects integrity, and standing your ground when dealing with him can yield positive results. After a bit of back-and-forth, Wrex joined Shepard's party.
Mass Effect's conversation engine, which is at the center of these encounters, is one of the game's strengths. As in most dialogue-infused games, conversations are fundamentally built around a dialogue tree, but here are presented in a more cinematic fashions. Rather than simply staying focused on one talking head, or switching between two, conversations are shown through a variety of cycling camera angles, sometimes pulling back to a groupshot, sometimes focusing in on a closeup, sometimes in between. Well-implemented depth of field effects put the spotlight on the speaking characters while retaining a view of the gorgeous surrounding environments.
Conversation options are presented as soon as the NPC begins talking, and as you select choices the game will assemble them into a conversation--alternatively, a double dap of the button interjects the response. This actually affects the conversation, as your character comes off as rude. Certain additional dialogue options--beyond the standard three-tiered range--may appear depending on both the situation and on relevant skills your character may have.
All in all, Mass Effect is a gorgeous game, with clearly a great deal of effort expended on both its locales and its characters. The level of detail extends far and wide: during a trip to a planet from which a static-obscured distress call had been sent out, the team dropped a six-wheeled personnel transport into a shallow body of water on the surface, and after zooming in it was possible to see droplets of water cascading off the vehicle's armor.
Unfortunately, the dreaded "uncanny valley" makes an appearance from time to time, largely in characters' eyes--despite well animated body language and facial movement, characters often appear to be in a fixed gaze, which detracts from the otherwise extremely convincing presentation.
Though the presentational elements were the focus of the E3 demo, Zeschuk and Hudson were also sure to show off the game's scale, via its galactic map. From your ship, you can manipulate a map that begins at the planetary level and can be zoomed out to a solar system scale, then again to a star cluster scale, and finally to encompass the entire galaxy. The developers were quick to point out that players can visit any planet, some of which are crucial to the story but many of which are entirely optional, offering subplots and additional exploration for players who want it.
Meanwhile, a refreshingly retro synthesizer-tinged musical score permeates the world, evoking the kind of desolate but subtly epic old-school sci-fi that is more in line with Metroid than with Halo. Mass Effect's score has more of a 1970s flair than does Metroid, however, bringing to mind the early ages of synthesizers. The effect is completed by the light film grain effect applied over the game's visuals, creating strong, coherent atmosphere.
Gameplay videos released on the internet in recent days suggest that not every scene in Mass Effect may be up to the same standard of writing and narrative impact as the standout Wrex incident, which might be an issue inherent to making a game on this scale. That said, the company has demonstrated plenty of top-notch material already created, built around what appears to be an extremely solid core. With BioWare's existing track record, it seems likely the studio will deliver.
Get the Flash Player to see this player. Download the full HD Mass Effect footage @ FileShack
Read more »Over at GameSpot you can find the latest Mass Effect interview. BioWare project director Casey Hudson, CEO Ray Muzyka, and president Greg Zeschuk all have their say about the company's upcoming sci-fi RPG.
Read more »Wired's Game|Life blog is carrying a Sonic RPG Q&A, asking Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk of BioWare about the Sonic franchise and the company's plans for this Nintendo DS RPG.
Read more »BioWare Chats Up the Hedgehog on IGN offers a Q&A with BioWare CEOs Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, as well as Sega's Simon Jeffrey about plans for a Sonic RPG on the Nintendo DS.
Read more »New at FiringSquad today is this Q&A with BioWare joint-CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. The two are asked about the collaboration with Pandemic Studios, BioWare's MMORPG plans, the future of Jade Empire, downloadable content, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and other upcoming projects.
Read more »The news is pretty sparse today after yesterday's Nintendo news explosion. Them's the breaks, I guess!
Well, like Steve said, it's the weekend!
GameCloud is the latest site with a Q&A about the recently announced BioWare / Pandemic partnership. BioWare joint-CEOs Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka and Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman talk about the idea behind te merger, former EA president John Riccitiello leading the new holding compan, plans to self-publish and a few other things.
Read more »IGN has posted their own Q&A about the BioWare/Pandemic Studios partnership which was announced yesterday. BioWare joint CEO Greg Zeschuk and Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman answer the questions.
Read more »Gamasutra has a panel from GDC by Dr. Greg Zeschuk, joint CEO and co-executive producer for Bioware. He offers his perspective with an address called "Storytelling Across Genres: BioWare's Perspective". It's in video form and requires free registration.
Read more »As soon as I heard of Nintendo's idea of "three pillars," stating that the Nintendo DS would not replace the Game Boy Advance but reside alongside it and the GameCube, I knew it was a crock of shit. Looking back at E3 and my time spent inside the Nintendo booth, every single stellar portable title I played was for the Nintendo DS. All of the GBA's best series has migrated to the DS: Mario & Luigi, Mario Kart, Metroid, and Advance Wars. All the great new games are for the DS: New Super Mario Bros., Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Animal Crossing DS, Meteos, Sonic Rush, Age of Empires... what does the GBA have? Mario Tennis Advance, Yoshi Topsy-Turvy, and Fire Emblem. That's about it unless you're really excited for yet another Donkey Kong or Mega Man Battle Network. Nintendo believes it will sell 13 million units of the Nintendo DS this fiscal year. At the same time, they believe GBA hardware sales will plunge 34%. Sounds like they've already made the switch over in Kyoto.
I have a sad, sad confession to make. I haven't tried Halo 2 multiplayer. *sob* Don't look at me! Okay, look at me. Ever since the dog chewed through the network cable, I've been too lazy to replace it. Actually, I did try once, but I screwed up crimping the connector and gave up. However, I plan to set up a wireless network this weekend to accommodate the arrival of my PSP, so that may be a good time to fix that cable problem. What online PSP titles are you guys picking up?
I was incredibly disappointed that I could not attend the Final Fantasy concert back in May. It was the day before my plane left for Los Angeles for E3 and it made no sense to me to hold a gaming concert days before people were arriving for the world's largest gaming expo. From everything I read, it was a fantastic event and Nobuo Uematsu was really taken aback by the amount of fans and supporters he had in the US. I say if you're in Chicago, don't miss it.
 | Phantom Dust Again Coming to US Phantom Dust is once again slated for a release stateside. Despite being developed by Microsoft Game Studios Japan, Microsoft dropped the title from its North American line-up many months ago. After receiving good press in Japan, Majesco has decided to pick it up. "Phantom Dust is one of the great new titles we have scheduled to kick-off our 2005 product lineup," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing for Majesco. It'll launch this winter in 2005. |
 | American Final Fantasy Concert Tour Fans were given a treat last year in May with the Final Fantasy orchestral show in Los Angeles. The success of that event has lead to the decision of a countrywide concert tour. That's right, Square Enix will be taking the concert on tour across the U.S., starting with Chicago on February 19. Tickets are on sale now. Square Enix has yet to reveal any other locations or dates, but more are coming. |
 | Capcom Seeking Fan Input for PSP Line-up On its Japanese website, Capcom is asking gamers to offer feedback on what they would like to see on the PSP. They listed over a dozen franchises that they may be willing to revive based on the input. They're also interested in finding out what kind of wireless features are most appealing to gamers and what genres mesh the best with wireless play. |
| | Dynasty Warriors 5 in Development Koei is continuing their popular strategy action series with Dynasty Warriors 5. Their internal team Omega Force is behind the development and it's slated for a February/March release in the US and Japan while it's looking like a summer release for Europe. |
 | Atari Announces Retro Atari Classics for DS Atari pours on the nostalgia with their announcement of Retro Atari Classics, a new compilation for the Nintendo DS. Planned for release in March, the game will pack ten classic Atari games that are reinvented with modern graphics. The kick is the artists are "world renowned graffiti artists." The ten games are: Pong, Missile Command, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Tempest, Warlords, Gravitar, Lunar Lander and Sprint. |
| | Misc. Q&As/Features GameSpots talks with the producer of Lumines, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. GameSpy speaks with the two in charge of BioWare and Jade Empire, Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
| | The Magic Box tosses our way some images of Kingdom Hearts II. IGN has new media for Shadow of Rome. |
| | The Jade Empire goodness rolls on at Game Informer. TeamXbox has some stuff too! |
 | GameSpot offers up plenty of new shots for Yoshi's Touch & Go (NDS). GamesAreFun has a way to add sub-titles to the new FF7: Advent Children (PSP) trailers. |
 | GameSpot spotlights the factions in Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox) and posts plenty of new shots for Killer 7 (PS2, GCN). |
GameSpot has a story about BioWare's new online store, which will sell official modules for the company's RPG Neverwinter Nights. A Q&A with Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk is included.
Read more »Voodoo Extreme has posted a BioWare Q&A today, asking BioWare joint-CEOs Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk about use of the Unreal engine for an upcoming game, the development of game sequels at Obsidian Entertainment and the upcoming Jade Empire and Dragon Age.
Read more »HomeLAN Fed has posted this Q&A with BioWare's joint CEOs Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, asking them about the recent announcement that BioWare is licensing the Unreal Engine 3. Don't expect any details on the game they're licensing it for though, the only thing divulged is that it is an RPG.
All of our games are quite different yet they're very similar in many respects - there is a core RPG layer which permits strong storytelling, character interactions, exploration and character progression. We're currently building an RPG layer for Unreal Engine 3 to ensure that this title will have all of the great features that BioWare games are known for: a compelling story, entertaining character interactions and exploration, and strong character development aspects, and Epic has actually expressed interest in talking with us about the licensure of that RPG layer, which we own. Licensing the Unreal Engine 3 really allows one of our internal development teams to focus on creating a highly cinematic and immersive RPG in a relatively short amount of time, while our other teams continue work in parallel on future projects and on the next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engine.Update: PC.IGN has posted their own Q&A on the subject. Read more »
Neverwinter Nights 2 First Details is a PC.IGN article format interview with the people at Obsidian Entertainment and BioWare, asking them everything they're willing to share on Neverwinter Nights 2. The RPG sequel was announced the other day. There's also a Q&A with BioWare joint CEOs Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka about the game on Neverwinter Vault.
Read more »From IGN comes the news that Neverwinter Nights 2 is in development. Already working on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Obsidian Entertainment will be the developer of this RPG sequel as well. The game is scheduled for a 2006 release.
BioWare will still be involved, however. The company will offer assets from the original Neverwinter Nights, as well as offer suggestions and oversight of the sequel's general design and development. "From our development of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights to our engine licensure on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, we've been working collaboratively with Feargus [Urquhart] and other members of the Obsidian Entertainment team for years," said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, BioWare's Joint CEO.Read more »
To touch upon a topic from a few nights ago, the DRIV3R review score conspiracy has prompted a reaction from a few members of the gaming press and I thought I'd link you to one. It's written by Chris Johnston, an ex-editor of EGM, and he reveals the process members of the press go through when reviewing incomplete code. Informative stuff and it had me thinking twice about the "exclusive first review" I was reading of Madden NFL 2005 in this month's OPM.
| | EA Picks Up A Stranger Electronic Arts announced today they have decided to publish Oddworld Stranger under their EA GAMES brand. If you recall, Microsoft Games Studios initially decided to drop the title which was then picked up by Atari, who also ditched it. It was then rumored to be picked up by EA, which today they officially revealed. The game, obviously, was originally an Xbox exclusive but it will land on both the Xbox and PS2 sometime in the spring of 2005. |
| | ESPN NFL 2K5 in July? It was EBgames who broke the $20 story and now they have a new surprise; gamers will be getting their twenty-buck football sim on July 20th, a full three weeks before Madden. GameSpot tried to get official confirmation through both Visual Concepts and Take-Two, but they both said to wait till tomorrow for an announcement. This whole date game has been pretty funny; first 2K5 was a week after Madden, then a week before, then they both bumped it up another week, now this. True competitors. |
 | E-Reader Killed for Europe Nintendo Europe revealed today that despite reports to the contrary, they have abandoned plans to release the E-Reader peripheral for the European market. Shelly Pearce, head of public relations, commented, "We won't launch E-Reader in Europe. We don't think the market potential is great enough to launch the product in Europe - however we will make the downloadable elements that cards provided available via different routes." |
 | More Phantasy Star Online for the US? Online rumor mill Game Gossip revealed today they have come across an image of box art for a U.S. version of Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus. Recently released in Japan, the PSO Plus added new features such as extra missions and GBA downloadable content. Nothing else was unearthed; the box art could be from a cancelled product, but seeing as the game was only recently released, a US launch could be possible. |
| | Misc. Q&As/Interviews TeamXbox speaks with the doctors of BioWare, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk about Jade Empire. IGN speaks with WWE's Kendall Boyd about WWE: Day of Reckoning. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
| | IGN goes total exclusive with screens, movies, and impressions of Ghosthunter. They also have a tiny video of Gungrave OD. Game Informer does the hands-on dealie with Astro Boy (movies included). GameSpot has their own look at Phantom Brave this evening as well as shots of Silent Hill 4: The Room. |
| | GameSpot shows off the new premium content of Project Gotham Racing 2 with these images. |
| | GamerFeed thumps their collective chests to this preview of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. GF also takes a look at SEGA's Amazing Island. GameSpy knocks back a few images of Killer 7. (Can you believe it? No media for Tales of Symphonia tonight!) |
| | IGN cues up this footage of Hardcore Pool. Game Informer clues us in on Astro Boy: Omega Factor in this hands-on impression packed with footage. |
| | GameSpot goes hands-on with The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (PS2, Xbox). They also go Madden-crazy with these movies of Madden NFL 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). TeamXbox contributes with a look at the civil and family-orientated Outlaw Golf 2 (PS2, Xbox). GameSpy has the latest dev diaries of Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox) and Darkwatch (PS2, Xbox). CVG swings us footage of Rocky Legends (PS2, Xbox). IGN has images of people bleeding in Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox). They also preview Street Racing Syndicate (PS2, Xbox, GCN) with included media. |
The guys at the Firing Squad have a Q&A with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, joint-CEOs of everyone's favorite Canadian developer BioWare. The interview isn't really focused on any games, but more on the company itself.
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"When I was in high school, I went down to BioWare (which was right behind my school) to check ..."
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