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Mass Effect 2 ditching elevators for ... load screens
by Ben Gilbert 
{ Dec 6th 2009 at 9:00PM } 
Though the game will still ask players to walk into an elevator, it will apparently cue up a loading screen that offers "interesting visuals and information." We'd like to point out that before Mr. Roy explains any of this, he says that the first game used elevators "so we [BioWare] didn't have to show boring loading screens" and they only made it into the second due to "a lot of complaints."
We're so broken up here -- on one hand, the developer is caving to the demands of the fans and critics. Score! On the other hand, Mr. Roy is telling us that loading screens are totally boring. If we demanded it, does that mean we're boring? Great, now we've got a total complex.
[Via Kotaku]
Gallery: Mass Effect 2
BioWare's Facebook game gives to charity, takes $10 off Dragon Age for PC
by Randy Nelson { Dec 4th 2009 at 6:28PM }
BioWare has launched a browser-based game on Facebook that benefits charity ... and gamers looking to save some scratch on the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins. Called Gift of the Yeti, it's a simple yet surprisingly fun arcade-style dash to deliver presents ... as a yeti subbing for Santa Clause.
Outside of the game, BioWare is playing the part of old St. Nick for hospitalized children, donating $10,000 to the Child's Play charity. And by simply loading up the game, players are presented with a link to the EA Store, where they're automagically given a $10 discount off of Dragon Age for Windows.
The press release announcing the game indicates that it's just the tip of the iceberg for the company's foray into social gaming. BioWare co-founder, Dr. Ray Mazuyka, said of the endeavor, "Gift of the Yeti is a fun, engaging holiday present from BioWare to our fans, the first in a series of compelling social experiences from BioWare Labs." Sure, they likely won't be for consoles -- but who are we to look a gift yeti in the mouth?
Outside of the game, BioWare is playing the part of old St. Nick for hospitalized children, donating $10,000 to the Child's Play charity. And by simply loading up the game, players are presented with a link to the EA Store, where they're automagically given a $10 discount off of Dragon Age for Windows.
The press release announcing the game indicates that it's just the tip of the iceberg for the company's foray into social gaming. BioWare co-founder, Dr. Ray Mazuyka, said of the endeavor, "Gift of the Yeti is a fun, engaging holiday present from BioWare to our fans, the first in a series of compelling social experiences from BioWare Labs." Sure, they likely won't be for consoles -- but who are we to look a gift yeti in the mouth?
Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering
by Xav de Matos { Dec 4th 2009 at 5:30PM }
Using the brutally difficult From Software title Demon's Souls as an example, Cho says hardcore players today want to earn progress in games. "I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don't want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through." According to Cho, Mass Effect 2 aims to give players a healthy dose of challenge and sophistication when it launches early next year. We're all for hard work and challenge, but our idea of sophistication doesn't include the ancient mechanic of trial and error.
Mass Effect 2 to span two discs
by Andrew Yoon { Dec 4th 2009 at 12:10AM }
The necessity of two discs may mean a staggering amount of content for the RPG sequel -- the original was certainly no slouch in content. While some may lament the necessity of having to get up at least once during Mass Effect 2, Priestly promises that the disc swap happens at a dramatically appropriate point in the story. "Even though there is a disc swap, it occurs at a carefully planned place in the game (that does not interfere with gameplay) and is done once. You do not swap back and forth. 1 swap and then done."
We're going to fathom a guess as to when the swap will occur: immediately after the "suicide mission" revealed in the game's initial teaser.
[Thanks, Darth B.; Via Kotaku]
Star Wars: The Old Republic universe expanded with tie-in books
by JC Fletcher { Dec 3rd 2009 at 1:30PM }
Star Wars: The Old Republic Volume 1: Threat of Peace, out this April from Dark Horse, is a collection of Threat of Peace webcomics originally posted on The Old Republic's website. It'll be followed in July by a hardcover novel (of the non-graphic variety), Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams. Paul Kemp is planning another novel.
If the game turns out to be a hit, this "Star Wars" storyline invented for it could turn into a big multimedia franchise! With its sci-fi action and "light sabers," we could see this turning into a decent movie series.
[Via Big Download]
Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic
by Randy Nelson { Dec 3rd 2009 at 8:00AM } 
Click to give in to the Dark Size
If you're a Star Wars fan, you've no doubt read about the recently revealed, final two classes in BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic: the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor. The latter is a powerful Sith warrior who harnesses the dark side of The Force to perform a range of powered-up attacks, such as Force Lightning. We recently paid a visit to LucasArts HQ at San Francisco's Presidio, where we got a chance to zap a few dozen enemies while playing as the new class.
The Inquisitor should be thought of as the uber-Sith, beyond the likes of Darth Vader and Darth Maul, and more in line with Darth Sidious / Emperor Palpatine from the films. This isn't a character whose strength lies primarily in mastery of lightsaber dueling; the Inquisitor likes to let others get their hands dirty while they turn the tide of battles in more grandiose ways through Force manipulation. Still, like all the classes in SW:TOR, they have to start out somewhere. In their case -- as with the Sith Warrior -- it happens to be the Sith's homeworld of Korriban. Instead of fighting Jedi during our (all-too-brief) demo, we went ... tomb raiding.
The Inquisitor should be thought of as the uber-Sith, beyond the likes of Darth Vader and Darth Maul, and more in line with Darth Sidious / Emperor Palpatine from the films. This isn't a character whose strength lies primarily in mastery of lightsaber dueling; the Inquisitor likes to let others get their hands dirty while they turn the tide of battles in more grandiose ways through Force manipulation. Still, like all the classes in SW:TOR, they have to start out somewhere. In their case -- as with the Sith Warrior -- it happens to be the Sith's homeworld of Korriban. Instead of fighting Jedi during our (all-too-brief) demo, we went ... tomb raiding.
Mass Effect 2 sidequests to benefit from 'handcrafted gameplay'
by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 2nd 2009 at 4:00PM }
"Now when you find mission[s] out there in the uncharted worlds, there are always missions where something special happens, and you get really good handcrafted gameplay and art that you can't see elsewhere in the game," project director Casey Hudson told VideoGamer.com. "I think people will find them to be really rewarding, really rich, because there's something different around every corner."
Even the process of discovering planets has been made more interesting, Hudson explained, with space-faring explorers sending out probes and expending fuel to make new discoveries. It's nice to know the shooter RPG still allows you to go boldly -- and not just go badass.
BioWare reveals Samara, Mass Effect 2's biotic bombshell
by Randy Nelson { Dec 1st 2009 at 12:00PM }
Samara is an elite Asari warrior who controls some incredibly potent biotic powers. Forget simply tossing enemies around -- she manipulates dark energy in order to levitate herself, as evidenced in the above video. The footage also confirms that there are still five potential party members yet to be introduced before the game ships for PC and Xbox 360 on January 26 (not March 23 as originally noted by Randy, who's clearly met his recommended daily allowance of paste.)
Gallery: Mass Effect 2 - Samara
Return to Alderaan in Star Wars: The Old Republic
by Xav de Matos { Nov 28th 2009 at 11:30AM }
Honestly, while we're excited to see the planet again, we also can't help but be a little sad. Like watching the movie Titanic or Lindsay Lohan's career, it just doesn't feel right when you know the whole thing will end in tragedy. For those of you looking to practice epic MMO-clicking, Bioware's official site houses more media and information on the doomed planet.
Mass Effect 2 vids profile Tali and Adept class
by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 27th 2009 at 11:30AM }
Head past the break to see a video of the Adept class, which has been granted some flashy new tricks.
Gallery: Mass Effect 2 (11-06-09)
Interview: BioWare's Greg Zeschuk on Dragon Age, DLC, and more
by Christopher Grant { Nov 26th 2009 at 3:00PM } 
Joystiq: Dragon Age is the first PS3 game that BioWare's developed. Can you talk about that process?
Greg Zeschuk: We did partner with Edge of Reality, so we partnered with folks who have had the experience, and that was a good process where we actually had some folks that knew how to do it but also, in general, just worked together with them. A lot of it ended up being like we needed a lot of work to get done and a lot of stuff very fast and everyone was very busy on Dragon Age itself. Collectively, on the console, I would say it was very interesting and challenging to take the richness of the PC game of Dragon Age, with all these different powers and everything else, and actually try to transpose it to the consoles. And the interesting thing about that, or where it worked out really well, is that we literally set ourselves a goal: We didn't want console players to fell like we ripped them off by taking anything away, by minimizing or simplifying. We want them to feel they have all the power at their fingertips, but it's very accessible. It's got the multiple rings that sort of have subsets to them, and you can actually pretty much access any power just a couple little joystick twiddles and button presses. And so with that experience, I think we succeeded there.
Another place where we succeeded on both the PS3 and 360 versions: it feels very different from the PC. Where the PC has got the traditional Baldur's Gate top-down [perspective], the PS3 and 360 are over-the-shoulder and they do have that kind of, very KOTOR feel and that's probably what I play, and that's what I feel most familiar with is KOTOR -- and it actually feels more action-y than the PC does, so I think people will find a very different experience. I recommend both platforms actually, PC and console versions.
Gallery: Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect 2 system requirements revealed, restrictive DRM removed
by Griffin McElroy { Nov 25th 2009 at 12:30PM }
Now, for the great: The retail version of Mass Effect 2 won't include the restrictive, pestering DRM featured in the franchise's first installment. Rather, the game will simply do a disc check upon boot-up -- the same piracy-preventing measure exercised by Dragon Age: Origins. Activate, dear friends! Activate your game to your heart's content.
Final two Star Wars: The Old Republic classes revealed
by Griffin McElroy { Nov 24th 2009 at 9:45AM }
These two join the six other previously announced classes for the game: Trooper, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior. Tragically, it seems the Fashion Designer class from Star Wars Galaxies won't make a reappearance in Old Republic. As a result, we expect everyone's characters to be dressed in the drabbest of duds.
[Via Shacknews]
Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Direct2Drive offering $10 off Dragon Age: Origins through Nov. 30
by Xav de Matos { Nov 24th 2009 at 2:00AM }
The standard edition is priced at $39.95, while the Deluxe edition is priced at $54.95 for the promotion. With the savings we recommend you look into purchasing the (somewhat controversial) downloadable content already available for the title. If paying for storage space is your thing, that is.
Dragon Age: Origins DLC to 'Return to Ostagar' this holiday
by Justin McElroy { Nov 19th 2009 at 12:58PM } 
Listen, we're as big of fans of Dragon Age: Origins as you're likely to meet, but we have to question the scheduling of this DLC release. It's not that we don't want it, but who out there has played so much DA:O that they're bored of what's on the disc? Seriously, the thing's like 340 hours long!
