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Bioware Considering Mass Effect DS

Zach Lott — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:07:17 -0500

Are you interested in a DS version of Mass Effect? So is Bioware, as Miles Holmes, lead designer for Sonic Chronicles, has spoken to Eurogamer about the possibility of new iterations of several of Bioware's key IPs hitting the DS, stating that the company is interested in "basically anything that reinforces the franchises."

Holmes also said that Bioware has "a lot of big plans for Mass Effect" and that "a DS version would be an awesome way to keep interest alive." He also pointed out that Bioware's handheld division's current role is to reinforce major title releases and that they plan to have the capacity to work on three projects at once in the future. That should lead to plenty of interesting announcements once Bioware decides what they want to work on.

Xbox 360 Kills Candles, Tops Charts at 17.7 Million Units Sold

Shiva Stella — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:56:16 -0600

While I have no idea why you'd want to stick a candle next to your Xbox 360, MyGEN has discovered that the unit has surpassed its baby-killing predecessor and moved into the realm of candle devastation. See above.

As if to bask in its latest evil accomplishment, Microsoft has confirmed that it has sold 17.7 million Xbox 360 units since launch; Halo 3 has sold more than 8.1 million copies, followed by BioWare's Mass Effect at 1.6 million units.

Keep your candles away from you videogame consoles, kiddies.

[GOTY] Best RPG/Strategy Game of 07: World of Warcraft : Burning Crusade

Akshay Masand — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:50:16 -0600

Why It Won: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the expansion to the award-winning, life-absorbing MMORPG World of Warcraft. It adds new battlegrounds, items, lands, races, and much more to the original game. This expansion bumps up the content of the original game tremendously and makes sure that there's never mindless killing to get the huge number of experience points needed to level-up. While most of the content is for post level 60 players, there are also two new races, the Blood Elf and the Draenei, alongside with two classes: the Shaman for the alliance and the Paladin for the Horde, available to new players as well as old-timers who'd like to experience the lower levels again but from a new angle.

Before the expansion pack, World of Warcraft sort of "ends" once you reach level 60. With the addition of the expansion those who were already 60 now had the challenge of getting to the new level cap which is 70. New areas and quests were released to interest people to level-up alongside with all the player-versus-player action. New items encouraged many to farm for gold, PvP for honor points, and raid for goods to make their character all the more powerful. The new major PvP part of the expansion included an area known as "Eye of the Storm" which is a mixed capture bases and capture the flag type of game where whichever team gets 2,000 points first wins. It is exclusive to higher level players with two brackets, one for those who are levels 60-69 and another which is only for level 70 players. This all combined together proved to be a huge success for the WoW community.

The expansion added a rich new taste to the already great World of Warcraft which proved to be "The MMO to end all other MMO's". It's easy for any person to pick it up and enjoy it. It's well balanced and receives updates every so often as well. The decisions you make here are going to affect your character in the long run -- but you always have the option to change your mind. Overall, Blizzard did an excellent job and further enhanced the experience for older addicts and for those who are soon to become them. If you haven't tried this MMORPG, you need to head over to the site and check out the trial version to see what all the hype is about.

Why You May Disagree: World of Warcraft being a few years old, it's hard to believe that an expansion pack could be better than any original RPG or strategy game released this year. MMOs only appeal to a certain type of person. Most of the content is for level 60 players anyway.

But We Say: Burning crusade adds so much to the game that you could spend a whole year ignoring other RPGs just to hit 70. RPGs only appeal to a certain type of person too... RPG fans. And yes, the bulk of the new content is for people already at level 60, as the point of an expansion pack is to "expand" the game beyond its previous limit. The fact that there are two new classes and other treats for beginners/lower-levelers is a bit of a bonus.

Runner Up:

Mass Effect: The dialog and narrative system in Mass Effect is pretty innovative, but after hours and hours of listening to people talk, I'm not sure if there's anything else to do here. For a self-titled "Action-RPG," there's not a lot of action and the RPG elements become tedious after a while. It's beautiful and deep, but not a whole lot of fun. To be honest, if BioWare hadn't let it "slip" that there would be sex in this game I'm not sure if nearly as many people would have bothered.

Mass Effect Effects Mass Sales, Over 1m Sold

Aaron Dunlap — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:07:34 -0600

You people sure love you your Mass Effect. Although analysts predicted the game's November sales to be in the 300,000-range, Microsoft has confirmed that the BioWare action/RPG/time-suck game has sold over a million (with an 'm') copies worldwide in just over three weeks.

For a game that isn't Halo, that's huge.

The blue alien doin'-it scene probably spurred the massive sales figures.

Spike VGA 2007 Award Winners

Tim Grube — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 10:47:04 -0600

The 5th annual Spike Video Game Awards show doesn't air till tonight at 9pm EST, but the winners have "somehow" made its way into my inbox this morning. The show is being held in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Resort and Casino. I honestly thought Halo 3 would hit the Game of the Year, but I never expected Skate to be in the best Sports game category.

But anywho, check out the full list below!

GAME OF THE YEAR
BioShock

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Harmonix

BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision/ Infinity Ward)

BEST RPG
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios/ BioWare)

BEST MILITARY GAME
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision/ Infinity Ward)

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
Skate (Electronic Arts/ EA Black Box)

BEST HANDHELD GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo/ Nintendo)

BEST GRAPHICS
Crysis (Electronic Arts/ Crytek)

BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOW
The Simpsons Game (Electronic Arts/ EA Redwood Shores)

BEST RHYTHM GAME
Rock Band (MTV Games/ Harmonix)

BEST DRIVING GAME
DiRT (Codemasters/ Codemasters)

BEST ACTION GAME
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo/ Nintendo)

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
Madden NFL 08 (Electronic Arts/ EA Tiburon)

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Rock Band (MTV Games/ Harmonix)

BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY
The Orange Box/ Portal (Valve/ Valve)

BEST XBOX 360 GAME
BioShock

BEST WII GAME
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo/ Nintendo)

BEST PS3 GAME
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Sony Computer Entertainment/
Insomniac Games)

BEST PC GAME
The Orange Box (Valve/ Valve)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
BioShock

BEST MULTI-PLAYER GAME
Halo 3 (Microsoft Game Studios/ Bungie Studios)

MOST ADDICTIVE VIDEO GAME FUELED BY DEW
Halo 3 (Microsoft Game Studios/ Bungie Studios)

Mass Effect Now Available

Solomon Lee — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:57:47 -0600

Microsoft Game Studios has announced today that Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 has shipped to North American retail stores. The game is rated "M" for "Mature" and is available in both standard and limited edition for MSRP of $59.99 and $69.99 respectively. The Limited Edition includes the following extras:

Fiction book titled Galactic Codex: Essentials
Art book titled A Future Imagined
Bonus DVD featuring four exclusive documentaries about the creation of this epic game titled Inside BioWare
Ten songs from the games soundtrack.

Hit the link to visit the official site.

GB Preview: Mass Effect (360)

Eric Jonathan Smith — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:40:01 -0600

It's hard enough to stand out amongst the flood of new releases that deluges the end of every year, but something even harder to do is meet expectations when your game just happens to be made by BioWare. The game in question is Mass Effect, BioWare's galaxy-spanning action RPG. Hype is no stranger to Mass Effect, but with the BioWare pedigree from titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights, most would agree the attention is justified.

In Mass Effect you play as Commander Shepard, a character you can fully customize in terms of gender, appearance, and abilities. In true RPG form, Abilities come from your chosen class, from standards like the gun-toting Soldier to the Biotic-dabbling Adept. Mastery of classes will naturally open up more complex options. General combat revolves around a squad-based mechanic where you only have complete control of Shepard. The complete customization of Shepard from the aforementioned abilities to even his/her morality may prove to be quite a timesinker.

What is Biotics? Biotics is, simply put, the game's magic and refers to the game's title. "Mass effect" within the game universe is tied to a discovery of an invisible matter along the lines of the real-life scientific hypothesis of "dark energy" which is said to be, among other things, accelerating the expansion of the universe. Certain beings can manipulate this dark energy and voila - you have Biotics. Combat is only one side of Mass Effect's attraction. Interaction with NPCs through complex dialogue choices is a BioWare staple thanks to Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire and Mass Effect has promised to up the ante in this area. In lieu of choosing from a list of responses, you choose your general attitude from a wheel and your character will respond thusly. You can also interrupt NPCs while they are speaking and they will emote appropriately. Players looking for replay value need look no further from the gaggle of options from these interactions alone.

In short, Mass Effect's appeal to the hardcore gamer may be as wide a span as the adventure it contains. BioWare has also confirmed that it is the first of a series, though EA's recent acquisition of BioWare has raised questions as to whether the series will remain an Xbox 360 exclusive as it is now. Regardless, Mass Effect ships to the Xbox 360 in North America on November 20 and in Europe on November 23.

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: BioWare
Release: Nov 20, 2007
MSRP: $59.99
Live | Limited Edition | Mature

Lucasarts and Bioware Team Up, KOTR MMO in the Works?

Tim Grube — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:08:18 -0500

Two massive videogame companies, Lucasarts and Bioware, announced today the creation to take over the world. Well, not really - but they did announce they have teamed up to create a whole brand new videogame for next-generation platforms.

Considering their collaborations in the past (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, anyone?) and the fact that this is LucasArts, which means that whatever the project is there's a high chance that it's related to the Star Wars brand, those old KoTR MMORPG rumors have once again hit the Web. Click the jump for more info.

Excerpted material follows:

"LucasArts has a deep commitment to developing compelling stories and characters for the unique medium of interactive entertainment, and we have been searching for a developer that shares this value. We found this in BioWare, said Jim Ward, president of LucasArts. "Through our previous collaborations, we know that BioWare has an impressive ability to blend gripping stories with technological advancements, and we believe that our upcoming product will deliver an experience that will span the traditional boundaries of video game entertainment.

"BioWare's mission is to deliver the best story and character-driven games in the world, delivering powerful emotional experiences to our fans, said Ray Muzyka, chief executive officer, BioWare Corp. Added Greg Zeschuk, president of BioWare Corp., "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.

Essentially the buzz is high for whatever BioWare has been working on, but what's even more interesting is that BioWare/Pandemic was recently purchased by Electronic Arts this month for a cool $860 million and one of the reasons given by EA for the purchase was an un-listed MMORPG. Whatever the title is, it's expected to launch sometime in 2009.

In the meantime, BioWare's Mass Effect is set to release on November 20 for the Xbox 360. Only one review is in at the moment, but Game Informer has given it a 98 (view the summation here).

X05: BioWare Announces Mass Effect

The Gaming Horizon Archive — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:13:00 -0500

All the rumors can be laid to rest now that Bioware is developing a new IP for the Xbox 360. Its true and the official title is, Mass Effect. The RPG will be utilizing the Unreal 3 Engine. BioWare also revealed the game was in development for PC and an unspecified next-generation console.

Expect screenshots and more information soon.

Originally written by Tim Grube

New Mass Effect screens from Bio-Ware

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:32:48 -0600

We haven't seen any new footage from Bio-Ware's Mass Effect since X06, but at long-last here they are: 6 all new screenshots, as pretty as can be.

Massive Assault Network 2 Announced

The Gaming Horizon Archive — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:48:00 -0500

Wargaming.net today announced plans to develop Massive Assault Network 2 (MAN 2). The game is now being finalized and the beta test sign up is scheduled for November 15th.

"It's not a game for everyone." - says Victor Kislyi, Wargaming.net's CEO. "You will have to outdo, outwit and outmaneuver your opponents. But what can be more rewarding than brain-fighting your way into the elite club of the world's smartest strategy players?"

MAN 2 will include the refined battle maps (planets) from all its predecessors, as well as a bunch of brand new planets, totaling 24. The game will be available for download and the trial version will offer unlimited number of games on classic Beotorum planet for free.

Originally written by Tim Grube