Ray Muzyka talks to VG247 at GamesCom

BioWare and Mythic boss Ray Muzyka is a pleasure to interview. Undoubtedly one of the most professional and ambitious execs in the global games trade, Muzyka heads up some of the world’s biggest core games projects in Mass Effect, Warhammer Online, Dragon Age and upcoming MMO behemoth, Star Wars: The Old Republic. He consistently uses words like “humble” and “honour”: not usual in games-boss-ego-land.

We caught up with the Canadian in Cologne last week. Hit the link for the full thing.

VG247: Let’s start off with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Ray Muzyka: Yeah, sure.

It’s the only announced game you’re working on now that doesn’t have a solid release date. Is that correct?

Ray Muzyka: We haven’t dated mass Effect 2 yet either. We’ve said it’s early 2010.

There was a lot of talk recently about the Old Republic coming out in late 2010. Is there any truth in that?

Ray Muzyka: We have a target date in mind that we’re developing towards, but we haven’t announced what it is yet.

You focused mainly in the press conference on Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age. How are you feeling about Dragon Age’s prospects in general?

Ray Muzyka: Great. I love the game. Personally I think it’s one of the best games we’ve ever made. We always try to make our games better than the last. I’m confident the fans are going to be excited about it. I’m really excited by the feedback we’re getting from the press, and also the fan reaction. We’re doing hands-on [here], so it’s great to see that and hear feedback on the game, and also see what’s being posted on the different sites and forums across the internet.

What about the general buzz around Mass Effect 2? How are you feeling about that?

Ray Muzyka: Awesome. A lot of people have told me that Mass Effect 1 was one of their favourite games ever, and it’s a great honour to hear that. But I can tell them that if they liked Mass Effect 1, they’re going to love Mass Effect 2. We’ve got so many improvements across the board. The intensity of the experience has been amped up, there’s precise shooter controls, tactical deployment of your troops on the field, smart AI, cover mechanics… And there’s a whole range of technical improvements too: the frame-rate’s real fast, faster loading, the elevators are faster, smooth texture loading…

One of the things that always comes over when I talk to you is just how hands-on you are with the games. You do appear to have a lot of knowledge about the games themselves. How do you balance having that sort of input with managing what’s now a 500-plus developer?

Ray Muzyka: It’s more than that. There’s three locations with BioWare - Edmonton, Austin and Montreal - and Mythic, of course, is the fourth location.

I mean, I have great trust in the teams, so I’m really not that hands-on in terms of the day-to-day development. There’s too many things going on. But I have great EPs, I have great project directors, I have great development directors and GMs at all the locations. I have a lot of trust in all of them.

For me, I’m involved in the early vision phase, in the ideation. Who’s the target consumer? What are we building? Why’s it going to be fun? What’s exciting? And then the teams build the games and I get regular updates from the managers, and then at the end I play them. My knowledge of the games really comes from me playing the games. To me that’s a really important thing. It’s a key. I have to play the games. I have to know them. And many other people at BioWare take that really seriously too. It’s not just me; I’m just one voice among many. We take it very seriously. You should always have an experience, personally, with the product you’re going to launch. I believe in that strongly.

If you’re going to say Dragon Age is one of the best games you’ve ever played… I’ve finished Dragon Age. I’ve played it extensively on PC and console. I can really stand behind it. I’ve played it a lot. On one of the play-throughs I spent 120 hours. Two hours a day for 60 days, 90 percent of the game, according to the telemetry. And I loved it. Every minute of it. I couldn’t wait to come home. After about ten hours of gameplay, every day I was talking about coming home and I played it for two or three hours, or whatever time I had free, and play it to the early hours. Luckily I don’t sleep as much as my wife. I’d stay up till after midnight and play it after she was asleep.

I take all the games seriously. I want a hands-on experience on all the platforms. You know, to varying degrees: sometimes I’ll focus on one platform more than the other, but I love the games we make. I really have a passion for them. To me, it’s work but it’s also a lot of fun too. I can describe the areas in Dragon Age, and it’s not because I’ve seen them from afar, it’s because I was there. I went there, and I fought this creature, and I had the best party ever. I just love games.

Let’s talk about Mythic for a second. It came as a bit of a shock for a lot of people. It was a hot internet potato for a little minute. Mark Jacobs was a very strong character, and a very passionate man. Can you explain to us what happened? Why did Mark leave? Why are you now in charge of Mythic? Are these questions you can answer, or are you going to be diplomatic?

Ray Muzyka: I think you’d have to ask the folks at EA about the details of his departure. I wasn’t involved in any of that. I’m the manager of Mythic studio now, but that all happened after [Mark] left. I have tremendous respect for the work the entire team have done over the years. They’ve built an amazing studio and it’s a great honour for me to work with those people.

So you’re now managing Mythic’s output, essentially?

Ray Muzyka: Yeah. Well, there’s a GM in place there, Rob Denton, who’s been there a long time along with other senior managers.

How does managing something like Warhammer Online impact what you’re doing with BioWare? Does it impact it at all?

Ray Muzyka: Not really. I’m involved with the Mythic projects in the same way I’m involved with the BioWare projects. I give feedback, I play the games. I love them; I think they’re fun to play and I’m excited to be working with the team there. Mythic’s retaining its strong brand and it’s a real cultural identity that’s distinct from BioWare, and I’m not planning to change that.

The way I like to manage people is to manage very collaboratively. I like to build relationships between the people that I work with, and I like to have things grow organically in terms of technology-sharing, best practices and that. Mythic isn’t working directly on BioWare titles and BioWare isn’t working directly on Mythic titles, but there is cross-pollenation of best ideas and practices. I’m trying to enable that, but I’m not trying to force it.

BioWare’s now a significant part of EA’s core output. How are you planning to expand your IP base? Obviously Dragon Age is a big part of it, but are you planning on introducing new IP in the next few years, or is it going to be Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, and so on?

Ray Muzyka: Well, we like building sequels, and we like building new IP, and we like working with licenses. We have examples of all of those right now in the ones we’ve mentioned. Dragon Age is a new IP, and there’ll probably be future installments, DLC and expansion packs, building out that franchise. But right now it’s first generation IP. Mass Effect 2 is one of the IPs we’ve already built, and we’re building a sequel which I’m really excited about. I can guarantee that people are going to say that Mass Effect 2 is a higher quality than Mass Effect 1. Mass Effect 1 is a great game, but Mass Effect 2 is that much better.

And there’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, in which we’re working in the Star Wars universe. That’s a license, and we’re passionate about that license. We have a great partner in LucasArts, and we’re really excited. We’re building something in an IP we love as much as Dragon Age and Mass Effect. So they’re all good in different ways. Recently we did a DS title in the Sonic universe, one of my favourite IPs. It was aimed at the younger audience, at kids. It’s done really well. All these are good in different ways.

I like having a diverse portfolio, because I know it’s good for our employees. It provides diversity of experience for them about working on different things. We try to enable that. You know, Warhammer Online is an IP Mythic’s working on. There’s Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online: they’ve got good stuff, and there’s new stuff in the pipe as well.

Both Mythic and BioWare have a ton of new things in development. Some are existing IP, some of them are new IP, some of them are future-looking IP.

Are you planning to bring any more triple-A IP out in the next few years? You seem to be incredibly busy, frankly.

Ray Muzyka: Well yeah, we are. We actually have some stuff that hasn’t been announced yet too, that I’m really excited about.

When do you think it’s going to be announced?

Ray Muzyka: [Laughs] Well, it hasn’t been announced when it’s going to be announced. I know when it’s going to be announced, but we haven’t said. We’ll announce it when we feel it’s right and when it’s ready to show.

GC: Interview with BioWare's Ray Muzyka

As the CEO of BioWare, one of the world's top-tier developers, Ray Muzyka knows his games. We caught up with him at last week's Gamescom show in Germany for a lengthy interview about the developer's on-going projects including, of course, Mass Effect 2.

First up, we must say that Mass Effect 2 is looking fantastic.

Muzyka: Yeah, Mass Effect 2 is a really refined evolution of the Mass Effect experience. We've took a lot of feedback from gamers and the press, and internally. I think it's just an awesome game, when you play it feels real tight and tense.

It focuses on deep character development but how do you get players to really care about polygonal characters?

Muzyka: That's a really good question. I think one of our visions is to really create an emotional engagement with the game and that can be done in a variety of ways.

One of them is through characters and story, to get you to make choices that matter and to have characters that feel like real, living characters - digital personas that you actually care about.

With Dragon Age it's a little bit different, but with Mass Effect's Sheppard, it's almost like a third-person authored experience because you're given general directive orders and then you see Sheppard enact it, and that's almost a game in itself - seeing what he's going to do. Be he has a strong personality and it grows on you so you really care about him doing the right things.

But the small things matter. You have to have digital actors that are credible and believable. The small things like the characters' eyes - whether they look right, where they look and if they blink at the right frequency, whether the light reflects off their eyes in the right way, whether their hand movement is right.

In real life you don't even need to speak - you can convey as much by nodding your head or lifting your eyebrow, and that's the same thing that a high-fidelity character can bring. It's with this motional expression that, if you can make players believe in your characters, the possibilities are endless.

Heavy Rain is similar in many ways to Mass Effect in that it focuses on character development, choice-making and open-ended conclusions. What do you think of Quantic Dreams' work?

Muzyka: It sounds really cool. I haven't seen it at the show here yet, I've only read about it online. I don't know enough to comment in detail as I probably should, but I heard they have some broad goals around emotion in games and how that's an important part of their vision and I share that.

Games like Heavy Rain and - going back a bit, Shenmue - take away much of the action and play like interactive stories. Not everyone responds well to this. Do you think these games work?

Muzyka: I was a big fan of Shenmue. But in my opinion I don't think people play games for the mundane. They play them for aspiration.

Our games are more about the heroic journey, or the anti-heroic journey, depending on the character you're playing. They're less about the mundane activities. I think if we make RPGs we always will pursue the heroic or escapist aspect in gameplay.

It could be anything, like a sports RPG. Arguably a lot of sports games nowadays are emerging with RPG elements anyway, with stats and progression and taking on the lifestyles of the sportsmen. Is GTA an RPG?

None of them are mundane, they're all heroic in different ways. They all escape from the every day. And that's kind of why you play games - because you want to be part of something special. I think that's what players want, to do something that you can't do in the every day, because if you can do it in the every day you would do it.

Why has BioWare chosen not to bring Mass Effect to PS3?

Muzyka: I think a more accurate way to frame it is to say we've announced we're developing Mass Effect for 360 and PC. Right from the beginning we said we wanted to deliver Mass Effect on the 360. Right now all we've announced is we're working on 360 and PC.

So a PS3 version could be on the cards?

Muzyka: We haven't announced anything on that front.

But it's not out of the question?

Muzyka: We haven't announced anything on that.

Moving on then, Lionhead announced that it would be re-releasing Fable II episodically via 360's new Games on Demand service. Does the service provide any similar new opportunities for developers like BioWare?

Muzyka: Yeah. Just like when you consider new platforms or new business models, distribution and ways to reach your consumers. It's like how we committed to deliver Mass Effect on 360 - we're making sure the fans on that platform get the experience with the continuity they expect. And we're excited by that.

But if you broaden out the distribution you're going to open the possibility to bring in new fans that may not have considered the purchase before. And that's often a healthy thing to do.

Plus, I like the idea of episodic delivery. I think micro transactions are interesting. It's not a 'one size fits all', so I wouldn't say every game would be improved by being delivered digitally or episodically but some would. It's just a different business model, and we always plan from a consumers' perspective, we review the audience and as if it's what they're looking for.

Do you think digital distribution will completely take over from physical media in the future?

Muzyka: I think it's definitely become more relevant and important and you can see more and more sales occurring digitally. I still like going to a store and seeing a physical product though.

But anything's possible. If consumers decide to pursue digital distribution it could take over. If they choose not to pursue it then it won't. It's almost impossible to predict the future of that.

How do you think Natal will affect games like Mass Effect in the future?

Muzyka: It would depend on what developers like us do with it. I'm excited by the idea that it represents, of a reduced barrier of entry for consumers.

I think that, for them getting immersed in a game, a graphic user interface is always a barrier. Any time you have a barrier it's an opportunity for a player to lose their immersion in it.

If you remove the controller as a barrier then you have one less thing that prevents them from believing in the game and they can immerse themselves fully in the world. I don't think its necessary for every game to use it, but if you can do it right and you can pull it off then it can be really powerful.

Source. Part 2 to follow.

Unannounced 'Pinnacle Station' Mass Effect DLC now available

As we all know, the first and second rules of Fight Club are that you do not talk about Fight Club. Appropriately, Microsoft and BioWare haven't talked much about their Palahniuk-inspired Mass Effect DLC, Pinnacle Station; despite the fact that it hasn't even been formally announced, it's now available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 MSP.

According to the DLC's online description, Pinnacle Station will force you to "test the limits of your combat prowess aboard a remote, top-secret Alliance space station," brawling through 13 new "combat scenarios," and adding 2 to 3 hours of play time to the soon-to-be-sequeled space opera.

Source.

Mass Effect N7 Armour on the marketplace

Finally! Bioware have seen fit to grace us with not only the new premium theme (which i posted the video detailing it yesterday), but also N7 armour for (currently only male) avatars! yay!! i need never buy any more avatar clothing again (unless they do a Mass effect 2 version i suppose, or Colossus armour.....). I'm assuming this will all tie into a DLC announcement for "Pinnacle Station" very shortly.

Mass Effect - Pinnacle Station Premium Theme

available on the LIVE marketplace now.

VG247 talks Mass Effect 2 with associate producer Jesse Houston

Interview by Patrick Garratt.

Mass Effect 2 associate producer Jesse Houston sat down with VG247 during GamesCom to talk a bit about the game that everyone and their kitten is gagging to get their tiny paws on.

Seems the game has double the amount of physical content of the first one, combat is much smoother as everything’s 30FPS, it will ship simultaneously for 360 and PC, and includes a new interrupt system.

There are loads of goodies in the interview, you should read on past the break.

VG247: You just mentioned that the game’s shorter. Is that correct?

Jesse Houston: No, we’re actually trying to make it around the same length as far as the play-time you would have experienced in the first one. That being said, some of our guys stripped through it really quickly, some of them took a lot longer. That being said, we find that you chew through content a little bit more quickly. The physical amount of content in the game is almost double this time round.

You mean in terms of visual assets?

Houston: Visual assets, dialogue, how conversations work: the game itself is absolutely huge.

You’ve obviously done a lot of work on combat. Is the control system more exact?

Absolutely. It’s not just the control system. If you look at most good shooters, they lock down frame-rate at 30FPS: we’ve done the same thing. Bam. Everything’s 30FPS, streaming is fixed up so that… If you remember in Mass 1, if you took a step backwards and you hit a weird stream and it’d pause for a moment. We’ve done a away with that. What you’re seeing here is pulled straight from the game. It’s not E3 Voodoo.

You’ll feel that the controls, the animation and the FPS combine to make for a faster gameplay experience, and a smoother experience.

Some were some pretty significant differences in the controls between the PC and 360 versions last time round. Is it the same with the sequel?

We learned a lot from building the PC version before, and having built it six months later there was a big difference. So we actually took what we learned from PC and put it back into 360. Fundamentally, we want you to have the same gameplay experience, but just with the difference in controls. This time round, doing it at the same time for a sim-ship, we can control the differences much more smoothly because it’s the same team building it now.

Do you enjoy being a in a position where you only have to worry about one console format?

Do you mean developing for just Xbox?

Yeah.

I actually don’t personally. This is purely a personal thing, but I actually like the challenge of multi-SKU shipping. It makes you think more modularly, to think about your features as contained units and how they interact rather than the game as a whole and that’s a better place to be in overall.

Story-telling was obviously a huge part of the first game. How have you advanced for the second game in terms of virtual acting?

Houston laughs

Short answer, then.

It’s a lot more difficult than I originally anticipated. This is my first time round dealing with the digital acting side of Mass Effect, and it’s definitely been one of the hardest things that I’ve personally had to deal with. We had great digital acting before. I believe was had some of the best in the industry, and I’m not trying to brag, or anything like that. We just pushed ourselves very hard to do that. We really had to sit down and take a hard look, and we looked at better facial animation, better integration between cut-scenes, cinematics and conversations… We react to the environment more cleverly.

We’re doing new stuff that we’d never thought about doing before. You know, having conversations in cars, walking, having tons of people in [a conversation]. We’d never thought we were going to be able to do conversations with eight guys in them, but we do. Killing guys mid-way through conversations, this sort of thing. Obviously, there are visual improvements as well. We ripped out the lighting system and put in a new lighting system, and that affects the whole game, not just conversations, but it’s really visible in the conversations, where we have some of our best-looking graphics. Just trying to bring everything up, then add new things. For example, we now have the interrupt system, which is the way we’re trying to let players control the pace of conversations a little more, without having them just mashing the X button and lose the suspension of disbelief. We want to keep them there, but allow them to control the speed still.

What about the camera angles? Do you use people that are used to using physical cameras?

Absolutely. We have a number of departments of cinematic designers and cinematic animators, and all they do is deal with these conversations and the story-telling aspects. We sget a lot of these guys from film backgrounds. Our tools are based around film concepts.

Thanks for your time, Jesse.

Source.

Mass Effect 2 Hands On: Shepard Strikes Back

The extent of my own experience with the original Mass Effect has totaled no more than an hour. After having played Mass Effect 2 at Gamescom, I now feel obligated to remedy that and revisit BioWare's sci-fi RPG.

The Mass Effect 2 demo at Gamescom began with a dialogue tree, a conversation between Commander Shepard and his Asari associate, discussing the upcoming mission he was about to undertake. It was, in the BioWare way, full of choices, packed with well written dialogue and voiced expertly. The scene was lighted beautifully, with a dim glow inside the space car hovering through a city at night. That mood-setting and gum-flapping switched to an action sequence in short order.

Shepard and his squadmates were met with heavy resistance as they attempted to work their way up a towering skyscraper, a dozen or so security bots, Asari bodyguards and missile turrets between them and their rendezvous point.

Fortunately, Mass Effect 2's combat system feels much improved—from what I recall—thanks in part to a more familiar control scheme. The game's gunplay and combat just gives one the impression that they're playing a mechanically sound third-person shooter, less of a role-playing game with some shooting action bolted on. Hopping in and out of cover, sticking to objects with A, felt natural and familiar.

Our squad felt a bit easier to control as well, with the Xbox 360 controller's D-pad remapped to make a bit more sense in that particular situation. According the controller map presented on-screen before our demo, up was set to "group attack," down set to "rally" and left and right set to squadmates one and two respectively, having them move or attack based on the current context.

The control layout is still somewhat complex, with the B button set to deliver a melee "gun butt" when tapped, with Shepard throwing a haymaker when held a bit longer. Still, it worked, after getting used to it.

After wrapping up our battle, we entered another dialogue situation. Again, the digital actors performed admirably among a gorgeous set, with moody retro sci-fi music adding a beautiful tone to the scene. Among the dialogue tree selections was an on-screen indicator that popped up for a fraction of a second, instructing us to react. Unfortunately, I missed that cue and therefore missed out on what that split-second reaction event would have done.

I won't spoil what happened during our scene, but suffice it to say, what occurred during our interaction between Shepard's crew and the individuals they were there to... deal with ended surprisingly. It also introduced one of Mass Effect 2's new characters, an alien who's visual and technical design illustrates just how talented the artists at BioWare are.

Mass Effect 2 definitely looks to improve upon the original with some of the features we saw during Gamescom. Graphically, the game looks even more spectacular. And the story segments we saw definitely had me interested in revisiting the original. I really want to know what the hell is going on.

As I told BioWare's Heather Rabatich and producer Jesse Houston after my hands-on session, it's rare that I can find the time to play the company's epic RPGs. But after my Gamescom demo, I'm finding the time.

Source.

Sadly Bioware only showed the E3 demo section of the game again at Gamescom this year, rather than the newly-revealed Omega, but i guess that keeps the overall spoilers down.

Mass Effect 2 GamesCom 2009 Interview

Source: GTTV.

Mass Effect 2 City View GamesCom 2009

Original Source: Gamersyde

Mass Effect Updated to 1200!

Finally! ...but only 1200? Man, these companies need to just use all their allotted points. What with Fallout 3 ending at 1550, EndWar at 1220, BioShock and Lost Odyssey at 1100 and now this will supposedly be the final Mass Effect content at only 1200. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. But alas, I digress.

The actual announcement of what this content would be was delayed back in June. But one of the most surefire notices of impending DLC is an updated achievement list, so here we are. It appears that like the first DLC, there will be one main mission, but as they previously reported, the content will be set in a gambling/casino/fight club, which is apparently called "Pinnacle Station" and will feature various combat scenarios.

Perhaps these new achievements will come with an announcement soon. Or better yet, the content itself.

Undisputed 50
Complete Ahern's survival mission

New Sheriff in Town 50
Take first place in any combat scenario on Pinnacle Station

Best of the Best 50
Take first place in 12 combat scenarios on Pinnacle Station


Source.

Mass Effect 2 - New Screens posted on the official site and then removed...

I wonder why? could the Batarian be important, or just an npc you can talk to? The cigarette is a nice touch - Batarians smoke? The faction-specific armours for the sequel are cool (going back to the black sun mercs in yellow armour in the E3 videos) - it seems that fancy symbols and colouring will make each unique.

This one shows the new "ammo" indicator on the assault rifle - the weapon's don't use amunition per se but the exuse for mass effect 2 is the cooling sinks have to be changed after a certain amount of firing, which is basically the same thing in practise.

this last one is just a beauty shot of Shepard in the Afterlife club on Omega - the heavy(?) armour he's wearing could be the new Colossus design, juding by the colouring - black/red - very cool if true.

GC 2009 Mass Effect 2 Trailer

GC 2009: Mass Effect 2 Interview with Casey Hudson

Anybody lucky enough to make their way to the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany will be amongst the first to get their hands on a playable demo of Mass Effect 2. For those of us, including yours truly, who can't make the trek, we've gone to Executive Producer Casey Hudson for an update on how the game is coming along, what Gamescom attendees can expect, and much more. There's even a little talk about Project Natal in here. Enjoy the new trailer and then get the latest details here.

IGN: What's the significance of what we're seeing in this latest video?

Casey Hudson: In Mass Effect 2 we're introducing some pretty incredible new locations that will become major parts of the Mass Effect universe. A great example is Omega, an enormous mining station that has become a major crime center in the galaxy. It really is the opposite of the Citadel. Whereas the Citadel represents the height of civilization, on Omega you'll find the dregs of the galaxy. It's dark and dangerous, but with all the crime and heavy industry, a lot of money runs through Omega as well. In the video you'll see that while Omega is a gritty new environment, it has some spectacular and awe-inspiring locations.

The video also gives a first look at one of the new squad members that you can recruit. His name is Grunt, and he's a huge Krogan who makes an excellent bodyguard on a place like Omega. We show some scenes of Grunt in action, which make it pretty clear why he's a lot of fun to have in your team on a combat mission.

IGN: What can fans expect to learn about Mass Effect 2 at Gamescom this year?

Casey Hudson: It's going to be the first time fans can get their hands on the game and try out the new controls and combat for themselves. Players will be able to try out the new heavy weapon system, the real-time power use and the new squad command features. I suspect people will want to replay the demo mission a few times, because the new focus on physics chaos in combat really makes you want to master the new versions of biotic powers and weapons like the Missile Launcher. In the demo you can experiment with launching these powers and weapons in different ways to control how and where you throw enemies around, which gets particularly fun as you cross the bridge between two skyscrapers in the middle of a firefight. Once you realize the angle that Biotic Pull hits an enemy determines what direction they're pulled in, you immediately start having fun with throwing enemies exactly where you want them to go.

IGN: How far along in production is the game? Is it still on track for an early 2010 release?

Casey Hudson: We're at the end stages of production, completing all the content in the game and putting the final polish on new features. There's still a lot of work to do, but we're in great shape to release in early 2010.

IGN: If you had to pick three decisions from the first Mass Effect that most affect the story in the sequel, what would they be?

Casey Hudson: For those who haven't played Mass Effect, I should mention that (a) there are some spoilers ahead, and (b) you really should play Mass Effect. I'd say the top 3 decisions are probably the choice of who lives and dies in the nuclear explosion on Virmire, who you had a romance with (if any), and whether you allowed the Galactic Council to die during the final battle. These things naturally cause some of the longer-lasting effects on your story as Commander Shepard. Another interesting aspect is that the sum of your decisions – your renegade / paragon status – also has an immediate and profound effect that we can't explain without giving away some of the story.

IGN: Since the humans saved the day in Mass Effect, is there a newfound respect for our species across the galaxy?

Casey Hudson: It actually depends on your choices. The galaxy has changed because of what happened in the first game, but how it changed really is dependent on some of the key choices you made.

IGN: Will there be any Achievements in Mass Effect 2 that you can only earn if you made specific decisions in the first game?

Casey Hudson: No. You can accomplish the game's full achievements from within the game itself.

IGN: Will any upcoming Mass Effect 1 downloadable add-ons bridge the gap between the two stories?

Casey Hudson: No. Our upcoming PRC for the original Mass Effect will be a standalone story, and after that we'll be focusing strictly on Mass Effect 2 content. The novel Mass Effect: Ascension introduces some of the key people and places in Mass Effect 2, and there will be a Dark Horse comic that leads directly into the beginning of Mass Effect 2's storyline.

IGN: What changes, if any, are being made to the Mako? Will it get a performance upgrade?

Casey Hudson: We've created a new vehicle for Mass Effect 2 which is a major improvement over the Mako and is an absolute blast to play – especially when combined with our improved level design for uncharted world levels. Improving the vehicle has been a major goal, so we've been very cautious about getting it perfect before we reveal it. But, we'll be able to reveal it soon and I think players are going to really enjoy the way the new vehicle moves and fights.

IGN: Several hardcore RPG fans I've spoken to are worried that the streamlining of item management and skills will water down character customization too much for their liking. What would you say to them?

Casey Hudson: Not to worry - we're not really streamlining or simplifying. What we actually did was we rebuilt the entire inventory system so that it could do more, while being easier to use. The previous system tried to handle all the equipping, customizing, and managing of your entire squad's armor, weapons, and gear in a single screen. The main difference in ME2 is we've separated these functions into different activities, so that each one can offer deeper customization while being more fun and easy to use. An example is the armor personalization system which goes far beyond what players could do in the first game (and that's an understatement), but because it's on its own screen you can manage the deeper level of options more easily.

IGN: Do you think the motion controls and voice recognition offered with Natal will ever be incorporated successfully in games like Mass Effect?

Casey Hudson: There are some fun possibilities for Natal functionality in existing games, but to really make use of it you'd want to design a game from the ground up with Natal in mind. It will take a while to evaluate the technology and find robust ways to apply it, but we are looking at it to see what kinds of meaningful additions it might be able to make to the Mass Effect experience.

Source.

New Mass Effect 2 Screenshots

Bioware has seen fit to grace us with some new Mass Effect 2 shots (and a desktop wallpaper) today. Notable things to be seen are:

1. The new ship - coded SR2.
2. Thane (and seemingly not wearing armour).
3. Grunt - the new krogan party member.
4. The vastly improved lighting/shadowing and overall atmosphere in the shots.
5. New environments - this could be Omega judging by the look/colour scheme.
6. The lovely gun models totally spoiled by the awful dayglo "hologram" add-ons that may designate which upgrades/ammo you have installed.
7. *Sigh* the same old crates/power cores to hide behind/shoot.

The wallpaper (Thane) can be downloaded here.

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Mass Effect 2 E3 "Sizzle" trailer on XBox LIVE

and it looks lovely on a 1080p HDTV.

Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition Contents Revealed

The Collector’s Edition is a premium package available in limited quantities featuring exclusive Dragon Age: Origins collectibles including a unique steel case, a cloth map of the world of Dragon Age, a Making-of documentary DVD, a digital version of the Dragon Age: Origins soundtrack, game trailers, wallpapers, strategy tips and a concept art video, plus three exclusive downloadable items that will provide special advantages to the player.

The Collector’s Edition is available for pre-order today at www.eastore.ea.com for an MSRP of $74.99 (console) and $64.99 (PC) in North America. Check with your local retailers for pricing.

As an added bonus, Dragon Age: Origins (both original and Collector’s Edition) includes two special pieces of downloadable content: The Stone Prisoner, as well as a suit of Dragon Age themed armor that can be used in Dragon Age: Origins as well as in the upcoming BioWare Shooter RPG, Mass Effect™ 2 on all available platforms.

With The Stone Prisoner download pack, players will have access to Shale, the mighty stone golem who can become one of the most powerful party members in the game, and comes with its own personal back-story and unique quests for the player to discover. The Stone Prisoner will also include new environments, items and hours of additional gameplay, further deepening the epic Dragon Age experience. The Stone Prisoner is available to original purchasers of new copies of Dragon Age: Origins at no additional cost. The Stone Prisoner can also be purchased separately for $15.

In addition, players who purchase a new copy of Dragon Age: Origins (original or Collector’s Edition) will receive a code to download the Blood Dragon Armor, an exclusive set of themed armor that will give the player additional protection in combat. This armor will be available for use in both Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2.

All gamers who pre-order Dragon Age: Origins will receive the Memory Band, an in-game item that can be equipped to add +1% to all gained Experience Points and which adds one bonus point that players can use to boost their character’s skill set. In addition to the Memory Band, several leading retailers are also offering a bonus Dragon Age: Origins item for a limited time. Players should check with their favorite retailer for additional pre-order item offerings.

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I'd love the armour for Mass Effect 2, but no way am i paying £50-odd for a game i have no interest in just for that....

Orbus by Neal Asher - Review

Title: Orbus
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Hardback
Pages: 448
Release Date: September 4th 2009

In charge of an old cargo spaceship, the Old Captain Orbus flees a violent and sadistic past, but he doesn’t know that the lethal war drone, Sniper, is a stowaway, and that the past is rapidly catching up with him.

His old enemy the Prador Vrell, mutated by the Spatterjay virus into something powerful and dangerous, has seized control of a Prador dreadnought, murdering its crew, and is now seeking to exact vengeance on those who tried to have him killed.

Their courses inexorably converge in the Graveyard, the border realm lying between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom, a place filled with the ruins left by past genocides and interplanetary war. But this is the home of the Golgoloth, monster to a race of monsters, the place where a centuries-long cold war is being fought.

Meanwhile, the terrifying Prador King is coming, prepared to do anything to ensure Vrell’s death and keep certain deadly secrets buried . . . and somewhere out there something that has annihilated civilizations is stirring from a slumber of five million years.

The cold war is heating up, fast.

Review by Walker of Worlds.

Sounds awesome (as always by Neal) - personally i can't wait!

You're gonna need a bigger sign....

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