Mulling Ideas

Allow me to indulge in a passage of considerably poor journalism, please? I loved Jade Empire. It was really good. I much enjoyed. Whereas last generation, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic won most of the plaudits, I feel Jade Empire was the true testament of Bioware's once unparallelled mastery of the RPG genre. We've long hoped for a sequel, replete with next-generation features like Bioware's advances in facial animation tech, but it's been almost half a decade, and we've heard little to nothing. Until now, that is. Speaking at Eurogamer Expo, Bioware's co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk revealed the developer is  "looking for the right way to deploy it".

Free 30-Day Subscription At Launch

Star Wars fans, prepare to have your minds blown. Bioware and LucasArts have finally announced that much-anticipated MMO, The Old Republic, is set to be released December 22nd, 2011. "This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game," Dr. Muzyka told fans in a post on the game's official site. "We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release."

Each copy of Star Wars The Old Republic will grant you access to a thirty day subscription, free of charge. You can join or form guilds and clans, embark on epic quests together or just muck about with a lightsaber. However, when those thirty days come to an end, to continue playing you must purchase either a one month subscription - £8.99 - a 3 month subscription - £25.17 - or a six month subscription - £46.14. Check out Matt's preview to fill you in. [Bioware]

Mark of the Assassin

We're not the biggest fans of Dragon Age 2 here at Dealspwn. While we absolutely adored the original, its sequel seemed intent on ruining that which we loved so dearly. Bioware know this, and have promised big things for future Dragon Age content. Well, it just so happens that they have announced the first round of Dragon Age 2 DLC, with Mark of the Assassin tasking Hawke and his new companion, the elf Tallis - voiced by Felicia Day - with retrieving an ancient relic from an Orlesian baron's fortified estate. Promising new items, weapons and monsters to do battle with, Mark of the Assassin also represents a return to the stealth gaming largely ignored in Dragon Age 2.

• What: Mass Effect 2
• Where: HMV
• Current Price: £6.99
• Mass Effect 2 Price Comparison
• Mass Effect 2 Review

As a diehard BioWare fan, I found Mass Effect 2 to be uniquely disappointing. Shafting the main story in favour of largely stereotypical characters who don't have quite enough backstory to be interesting really pissed me off... but I still know an incredible game when I see one. Solid action, great dialogue and some epic set pieces make Mass Effect 2 extremely addictive and well worth a purchase even at the full RRP. HMV are shifting the PC version for £6.99, which I believe to be a £2 saving.

Bad news here for Star Wars The Old Republic fans in Europe, as Bioware have postponed beta invites for prospective testers to a later unspecified date. Community chief Chris Collins broke the news to European followers on the official Star Wars The Old Republic forum, promising to bring news of a revised beta date very soon. He did, however, move to assure fans that nothing was wrong with the game, citing an imminent improved build tailored to the European market as the main reason behind the delay.

Mass Effect 2, which I've been playing through again in  large amounts of late, has a bewitching effect on me. I know the story isn't as good as that of the first game. I realise that I don't really care about half of the characters in the second game, that there are no 'Virmire moments' that have me yelling exclamations at the screen. It's plain to see that this game quite literally phones in the plot twist. But, when I play it, I don't care. Genuinely. I've gone through it three times now (just started round four), and for all of the gripes that I have with the game on reflection, for all of the inadequacies that the RPG fan in me cries at, I cannot get away from the intense feeling of excitement that swarms over me every time I play the damn thing.

It's causing major ambivalence as I sit through this Mass Effect 3 presentation. On the one hand, buzzwords like 'accessiblity' and 'self-contained narrative' are freaking me out ever so slightly. On the other hand, Shepard's just jumped into a massive mech, the powers menu has three times the number of options Mass Effect 2 had, and the music is making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Yes, as the demo progresses and Shepard offers to rescue a vent-dwelling young urchin, I begin to realise that BioWare has ransacked every butchers' shop for all of the ham in the entire world, but even so I can feel a little squeak of excitement bubbling up inside me that threatens to override all of my journalistic principles.

While out  in Germany a couple of weeks back, we sat down for a brief chat with Mass Effect 3's Associate Producer, Mike Gamble, to grill him on a few things about the upcoming finale to BioWare's space opera trilogy. Expect details on how the third game will welcome new players into the fold, how BioWare is ramping up the customisation options for this game and whether or not the studio feels constrained by rigid genre distinctions.

Matt Gardner (Dealspwn): We heard in the presentation that Mass Effect 3 will offer a really good entry point into the series for new players. In a series where story matters so much and emotional connections have been made with a number of characters, how are you hoping to pull that off?

Mike Gamble: Well what you just said lends credence to what I'm about to say. Having played both of the first two games, you feel that it's important to play through those games before this one because of the emotional connections that you've made with the characters through that experience. Players who haven't gone through those games don't have those connections. But what we've tried to do with Mass Effect 3 is make it so that players can form those emotional attachments just by playing this game, they don't need a backstory to go on.

There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the culmination of one's relationship with Tali in Mass Effect 2, because the whole thing teased us with the inferred promise of revealing the Quarian's face for the first time...only that didn't happen at all.

Understandably, following BioWare's teasing tweet a few weeks back, we asked several BioWare reps point blank a couple of weeks ago whether or not we'd finally get to gaze upon the face of  Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.

We'll save the arguments of sexism regarding BioWare's beauty pageant to determine the appearance of Female Shepard on Mass Effect 3's boxart for another day, but know this: After a second round of voting - the first vote was thrown out because too many people complained that Fem Shep was to be blonde...no, really...this f*cking happened - the public, that's you and me, have settled on a fiery look for the galaxy's saviour.

Fem Shep is to be a redhead, now that's sorted hopefully BioWare can get back to ensuring that the game is really freaking good.

That'd be lovely.

Be you FemShep or not, Commander Shepard's adventures in Mass Effect 3 will be his last. That's according to producer Michael Gamble, who broke the news to PC Gamer gently over the weekend, suggesting a fatal finale is in store for all Mass Effect 3 players come March 6th, next year. However, don't fret; this isn't the end of the Mass Effect universe, with CEO Ray Muzyka dubbing it the Mass Effect trilogy conclusion a "brand new beginning".

After a few days of wandering round the ridiculously crowded entertainment floor of Gamescom, taking small quiet appointments with a couple of developers and a few journalists whilst sometimes getting hands on with certain games in the comfortable business centre booths, and generally casting my beady little eyes over any intriguing presentations that were going on, I'd pretty much seen everything I wanted to at Gamescom 2011. Unfortunately though the games that I had yet to see were fairly high profile, which meant that I faced the daunting prospect of wasting hours of my life stuck in a horribly long queue. As a result I started moaning to some of the other writers on the team at the press centre and we began comparing notes as to what we still needed to take a look at.

Fortunately for me, I struck up a conversation with another British journalist, we got nattering away, and I mentioned in passing that I wouldn't have minded taking a look at The Old Republic. Once the words had left my mouth, he quickly began rumaging around in his bag and to my surprise produced a couple of VIP passes, which he handed over without a care in the world, thus going down as a legend amongst men in my opinion. Shortly after that, Brendan and I fought our way through the masses on our way to gaze in awe at BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. When we finally arrived, the reps guarding the barriers spotted our passes almost immediately and we were quickly ushered inside to a couple of computers in the blink of on eye. Then the real fun began!

BioWare have talked a lot about how they're bringing back the customisation and turning the action up to eleven for Mass Effect 3...and we really hope that they deliver. The latest trailer from Gamescom impressed, but then most shiny things do when the sound system and bass boost is turned up so high that you can literally feel explosions in your waters.

We have a release date now, with the game landing here in the UK on March 9th and the US three days earlier.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception of Mass Effect 2 (generally reckoned to be one of 2010's best games), many gamers felt that it simply didn't offer enough choice at a gameplay or character development level. BioWare believe that Mass Effect 3's new weapon modification system will add an extra layer of depth to the proceedings - and that the third part of the trilogy will provide players with meaningful and "interesting decisions" every step of the way.

Good.

According to US Analyst

If you're inclined to believe rumors, Star Wars The Old Republic is the most expensive game EA has ever made. Bioware's MMO is a huge investment for the company, so it's a good thing its analysts have it pipped for whistling past three million copies in just over a year. US analyst Cowen & Company now expect The Old Republic to double their initial year-one sales forecast of 1.5 million copies.

Bioware is facing its toughest challenge yet; convincing fans that Dragon Age 2 was just a bump in the road towards further RPG glory. Long considered one of the finest proponents of the Western role-playing model, their acquisition by EA prompted many fears the quality of their output would decline, and Dragon Age 2's mixed reception did nothing to quell such concerns. In a chat with OXM today, Bioware explained their vision for Dragon Age 3, and how they'd like to strike a "nice balance" between Origins and its much-maligned sequel.

There have been a few changes at EA in the last twenty four hours. Former EA Games head honcho Frank Gibeau will now take up a new position as head of EA Labels, and Peter Moore, who previously headed up the EA Sports label, has been promoted to COO, a position that's been vacant since John Schappert jumped ship to Zynga earlier this year.

We were a little miffed with Dragon Age 2, Bioware's first sort of bad game. 'Bad' isn't quite the right word, but its a close approximation to how we felt stumbling through the disappointing story and into identical cave after identical room. Whereas the first game felt like a labor of love Bioware finally relinquished their grip on, Dragon Age 2 reeked of a rushed, business-minded venture, no doubt influenced by Bioware's new owners, EA. However, according to the developers themselves, they weren't quite prepared for the negative reception.

• What: Dragon Age II
• Where: ShopTo
• Current Price: £15.85
• Dragon Age II Xbox 360 Price Comparison
• Dragon Age II Review

Dragon Age II isn't BioWare's greatest game and chances are you'll either love it, or hate it. There's plenty of content to keep you coming back for more, plus the combat's satisfying and brilliantly bloody. Unfortunately though, the game's a little bit linear, so there might not be enough exploration on the cards for you. ShopTo are parting with Xbox 360 copies of the game for £15.85, which'll make you a saving of over £7 on the next best offers out there.

• What: Dragon Age: Origins
• Where: Zavvi
• Current Price: £7.85
• Dragon Age: Origins Xbox 360 price comparison
• Dragon Age: Origins Review

There has been a fair bit of discussion on the boards recently concerning Bioware, and while many feel its sequel was not up to the standards they were expecting, Dragon Age: Origins was a hark back to the yesteryear of role playing games, and was all the better for it. If the PS3 owners among you all have yet to experience the story of the Grey Warden, Zavvi are offering the base game for under £8, which is £2 cheaper than the next best offer coming from ShopTo. So why is it considered the superior instalment? Its RPG elements are deep, there are some grand challenges to overcome, and its story was dark, intensive, and downright bloody from start to finish. If you’re not overly fussed with the DLC, it’s a great price to jump into Fereldan. Thanks to goonertillidie @ HUKD!

• What: Mass Effect 2
• Where: Zavvi
• Current Price: £6.85
• Mass Effect 2 Price Comparison
• Mass Effect 2 Review

Mass Effect 2 is a brilliant game by anyone's standards, but as a diehard BioWare fan, I found it to be uniquely disappointing. Shafting the main story in favour of largely stereotypical characters who don't have quite enough backstory to be interesting really got my hackles up... but I still know a good game when I see one. Solid action, great dialogue and some epic set pieces make Mass Effect 2 extremely addictive, and an essential purchase if (and only if) you've played the original.