All Entries Tagged With: "Bioware"

Lair of the Shadow Broker Trailer Looks Hot

In what is looking to be the best bit of Mass Effect 2 DLC to date, “Lair of the Shadow Broker” becomes available for download next week, on September 7, 2010. This DLC focuses heavily on Liara T’Soni, Shepherd’s old friend, and the lengths she’s gone through to help Shepherd throughout the years of their friendship. Watching the video, I was reminded how the story of ME2 barely touched on Liara’s involvement in Shepherd’s resurgence (sorry, didn’t want to spoil anything for the PS3 guys who haven’t played this yet, so had to come up with an idiotically vague word). I guess that is what they’re looking to cover in this lore-rich story.

Anyway, Bioware released the trailer for this bit of DLC today, which you’ll find after the break. It will retail for 800 Microsoft/Bioware points (or $10). It will also come on the Mass Effect 2 PS3 game disc come January.

New Dragon Age: Origins DLC Coming Soon

Today Bioware announced that some new DLC for Dragon Age: Origins is coming down the pipeline. This story is called “Witch Hunt”, and will focus on your playing chasing down and attempting to find Morrigan. To me it seems that this actually happens post-game, so it may be somewhat of a conclusion to the Dragon Age: Origins story. Needless to say, it seems like another character-heavy chunk of DLC, which is a great thing considering how much “Leliana’s Song” fleshed out more details about that character. You’ll be able to import your Dragon Age: Origins or Awakening characters, as well as earn rewards that transfer between all the games and expansions.

“Witch Hunt” will be available on September 7, 2010, which happens to be the same day as the “Lair of the Shadow Broker” DLC will be released for Mass Effect 2. I guess they figure they might as well release them all in one fell swoop. It’ll be available for $6.99, or 560 Microsoft/Bioware points. You can check out more info on the new content at Bioware’s official site for the DLC.

New Mass Effect 2 DLC Drops on September 7th

The latest in a string of DLC missions for Mass Effect 2 – “Lair of the Shadow Broker” – has been confirmed by Bioware to be releasing on September 7th, just two short weeks away. If you’ve been clamoring for some lore to go along with the hints at the Shadow Broker from the main game, your prayers have been answered.

Also, fan favorite character Liara T’Soni will return in force in this content, helping Shepherd weave through all the layers of  the Shadow Broker’s web. Look for five more achievements to come along with the DLC, as well. It will be priced at 800 Microsoft/Bioware points.

Of special note will be that, when Mass Effect 2 releases on the PS3 in January, all the DLC released to date, including “Lair of the Shadow Broker”, will be included on the disc, so fear not PS3 owners, you will be getting this as well, without paying a cent more.

Dragon Age: Origins – Leliana’s Song Review

With this exception of the launch-day DLC, this is the first extra content I’ve played for Dragon Age: Origins. Why did this one appeal to me so much? I’m a big fan of extra content that explores the back-story of various characters, especially ones that were focused on to some extent in the main story. Leliana’s background was hinted at during the quest to quell the Blight during the main game’s story, but it was always shrouded in mystery. She was actually one of my favorite characters throughout the game because of this. I was pretty stoked, then, to find out that Bioware had worked up a DLC story just to flesh out her life before the events of the main game.

Leliana was a thief (or bard, depending on how you look at things), who worked with a group of people headed up by Marjolene. Her and Marjolene were close to some extent – as friends or lovers, the story hints at both. The events that transpire during this story take place several years before the main game’s event, and are what eventually lead Leliana to join the Chantry, which is where we find her during Dragon Age: Origins.

GamesCom 2010: Mass Effect 2 PS3 Trailer

We mentioned earlier in the day that Mass Effect 2 would be coming to the PS3 in January 2011. What we didn’t have at the time was this snazzy PS3 trailer for the game, which was also shown off today at GamesCom. The original Mass Effect was one of the reasons I bought an Xbox 360 back in the day, and now it’s interesting to see the franchise taking the leap out of console exclusivity and moving over to Sony’s platform. Now I must decide which system to purchase Mass Effect 3 on, since there is a good chance it will be multi-platform. Hit up the trailer below and check out Mass Effect 2 on the PS3!

GamesCom 2010: Dragon Age 2 Concept Art Shows Four Races

Along with the announcement of a release date and the new trailer for Dragon Age 2, EA and Bioware also sent out a new piece of concept art for the title. Interestingly, it includes male and female versions of four different races. This begs the question – how will these fit into the game? Will they be playable party members? Can we make characters of these various races for certain reasons? How are things going to work? I guess we’ll have to wait a bit to find out for sure, but for now you can scrutinize the concept art above.

GamesCom 2010: Dragon Age 2 Release Date Announced

We’ve known about Dragon Age 2 for a while now, even as early as the release of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening earlier this year. Bioware wasn’t kidding when they were aiming for an early 2011 release date, because that is what was announced today at EA’s GamesCom conference. Dragon Age 2 will see a release date of March 8, 2011 in North America and March 11, 2011 in Europe.

It was also announced that if you fancy to sign up on the game’s official site, you’ll get yourself a free weapon download when the game launches. Check below for the new trailer!

GamesCom 2010: Mass Effect 2 Makes its Way to PS3

You heard that right. Other Bioware games have been multi-platform titles from launch, but not Mass Effect, and that will remain true until January 2011. At EA’s GamesCom press conference today it was announced that Mass Effect 2 will be coming to the BluRay medium in January. This is actually great news for both Bioware and PS3 fans. This also opens the way for Mass Effect 3 to be multi-platform at launch, instead of rigidly sticking to the Xbox 360.

Did Bioware and Bethesda Kill the JRPG?

The 1990s seem, to many people’s recollection, to be the hay day of Japanese-style RPGs. During that time we saw the release of many games that gamers today feel are some of the best in the genre. The Final Fantasy franchise in particular moved a lot of units and worked its way into a lot of people’s hearts with the move to 3D visuals in Final Fantasy VII. Even with this graphical change, one thing remained the same – no matter how many Final Fantasies or other JRPGs were released, they were still designed from the ground up with a specific philosophy in mind.

They had pre-defined stories and characters, with the developers asking the player to go on a journey with them, to see these characters interact and tell a story themselves. In very few instances did the genre ever deviate from that design philosophy. But, it got to the point where, apparently, gamers wanted more freedom.

BioWare Helping Maxis In Darkspore Development

BioWare is known for their alluring western RPG games. Without a doubt, they’ve established themselves as respectable folk in this industry by bringing us renown games since the 90’s. It’s why it’s really not a surprise to see Sims developer Maxis Studio receive a helping hand with their upcoming action adventure title, Darkspore, from the Canadian development studio – a game that positively resembles past BioWare games, respectively.

How much help Maxis is receiving from BioWare is unknown. However, if we track BioWare’s success in the genre, we can pretty much determine that they’re lending enough resources to make Darkspore anti-sucky. If you’re familiar with games like Neverwinter Nights, or Baldur’s Gate (two games which somewhat resemble Darkspore visually), then you’ll know why BioWare’s generous “help” can be positively received. Once we get word as to just how much help Maxis is getting from BioWare, we’ll make sure to update this post. Darkspore is already sounding more and more intriguing as nears.

[Gamespot]

An Unlikely Comparison – Mass Effect and Persona 3

As I was playing through Persona 3 Portable recently, something quite interesting dawned on me. I alluded to this in my review, but I’d like to discuss it in more detail and perhaps get a good discussion going around the subject. What I realized was that, in everything that really matters, Persona 3 isn’t so different from Mass Effect. Mass Effect, especially the original, belongs to a sub-genre of RPGs that gamers typically consider to be about as different from Japanese RPGs as you can get, so why am I going and comparing two completely different games within two completely different sub-genres? Think about it a moment, though. Are they really that different in the areas that really matter?

Why do I even bring this up? It is mostly just my convoluted mind playing tricks on me, to be honest. I came up with a crazy thought and, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t too far from the truth. I think the disparity between fans of JRPGs and fans of WRPGs calls for a wake-up call. Every time I see a thread on some random Internet forum about one or the other, there are always haters that place their preferred RPG style up on a pedestal like no one can touch it. But, the truth of the matter is, these sub-genres may not be as different from each other as you think, and comparing these two very different yet oh-so-similar games seemed like the right idea to help make people aware of this.

So, open your mind a bit (I know, it’s difficult) and follow me on a journey as I take a look at various aspects of these games. You may be surprised just how similar they are.

Save the Universe for Less With EA’s New Deal on Mass Effect

Anybody who missed either Mass Effect or its sequel Mass Effect 2 should take this opportunity to catch up on what they missed. I say this because the EA Store has just released details on a summer sale that makes the idea of owning these games much more enticing. The only downside to this deal is that the discounts are only available for the PC edition of the games. These new discounts are almost unbelievable, with the original Mass Effect being discounted a whopping seventy five percent. Mass Effect 2 received similar treatment with the regular version being discounted by about fifty percent and the deluxe edition being discounted by about forty percent. Now don’t stay awestruck for too long because this deal is only good for the next three days or so, with the promotion expiring on the twenty fifth of July. So if you are looking for more information about pricing and the current deal click here or if you want to learn more about the games click here.