The GameShadow Blog

Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins launches in November and is aiming to set a new standard in the RPG genre.

Reportedly boasting over 80 hours of gameplay, the game will also be getting a day 1 DLC pack entitled Warden’s Keep.

Check out GS VIBE: The Dragon Age for a dedicated look.

Electronic Arts has released confirmation news on its action RPG title Mass Effect 2.

The sequel will be launching around the first quarter of 2010 for the PC and XBOX 360 only and aims to bring “intensified combat and expanded weapon options, as well as increased depth of planet exploration.”

A teaser for this second part of the Mass Effect trilogy has already been released.

Bioware’s published the first rock solid details on RPG Dragon Age: Origins since the game’s announcement some years ago. Without further ado:

• Epic Party-Based Combat – Dragon Age: Origins will introduce an innovative, scalable combat system, as players face large-scale battles and use their party’s special abilities to destroy hoardes of enemies and massive creatures.
• Powerful Magic – Raining down awesome destruction on enemies is even more compelling as players apply “spell combos,” a way of combining together different spells to create emergent unique effects.
• Deep Customization – Players will develop their characters and gain powerful special abilities (spells, talents and skills) and discover ever-increasing weapons of destruction.
• Your Story, Your Way – With its emotionally compelling story, players choose with whom they wish to forge alliances or crush under their mighty fist, redefining the world with the choices they make and how they wield their power.
• Origin Stories – Players will select and play a unique prelude that provides the lens through which the player sees the world and how the world sees the player. The player’s choice of Origin will determine who they are and where they begin the adventure, as they play through a customized story opening that profoundly impacts the course of every adventure.

All sounds kinda standard to me, but we’ve got till early next year to guess, and let’s be honest, if this delivers the spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate 2, I think we’ll all be very happy.

After much anticipation, Bioware’s promised Dragon Age reveal has turned out to be… nothing like the Diablo III stuff last week.

We got something, though. The official site is now live, for one, complete with a new moniker, Dragon Age - Origins, and a date for the first footage. Which, given this game’s been in development longer than life itself with barely a flicker of media presence, is at least reassuring.

The first footage is due to appear on gametrailers early Saturday morning, which is pretty cool. The game’s billed as a spiritual sequel to the Baldur’s Gate series, and is bound to draw on the cinematic advances made in titles like Mass Effect in delivering a (non-liscenced) dark, fantasy world to the PC RPG faithful who have been waiting 7 years for it.

Intriguingly, there’s also an open message to modders on the official site, asking:

“Are you a world builder or modder? We have epic news for you but our cruel masters have forbidden us from speaking on pain of death. Shapers of the world – join us!”

Mod tools and user generated content for Dragon Age? Looks  plausible.

As just reported as a part of the LucasArts lay-offs fallout, an ex-employee has revealed details on the previously unspecified Bioware / LucasArts joint project.

It’s Knights of the Old Republic III, and it’s an MMO.

This will mark Bioware’s first true MMO - Neverwinter Nights doesn’t really qualify in my book - and the company’s return to the Star Wars series that it created five years ago - KOTOR 2 was developed by long time collaborator Obsidian.

Kokatu seems to think that Bioware’s ultra-secret collaboration with Lucas Arts will be a third in the Knights of the Old Republic series.

The series was created at Bioware, before being shipped out to Obsidian for a worthy sequel, but no doubt news that the game is returning to roost will excite fans.

Details are scarce as yet but it does mean that, if true, Bioware are now working on further Mass Effect titles (including the PC port), Dragon Age, KOTOR 3 and an unannounced MMO. Here’s hoping at least one part of that line up turns out to be something fresh.

Yep. EA has confirmed that not only will Mass Effect be coming to PC in May, but that they have procured the publishing rights from Microsoft for the PC port, and further titles in the series.

You can expect:

• Optimized controls designed specifically for the PC.
• High resolution visuals – The PC version features “highly detailed textures, characters and environments”. We’re pretty sure the Xbox 360 one did too.
• Fully customizable controls – You’ll be able to re-map the control scheme.
• “Run & Gun Control” – Players can assign biotic powers or skills to “hot keys”.
• New decryption mini-game - No idea what this is.
• New inventory screen GUI and functionality – “The enhanced inventory system makes it easier for players to equip and modify their weapons and armor.”

So just about the bare minimum you’d expect from a half-decent port, then.

Yet another controversy going on in the background during recent weeks, a Fox journalist has publicly apologised for damning Mass Effect without even playing it.

The turmoil began a few days ago when a Fox TV report by Cooper Lawrence claimed Mass Effect featured full digital nudity, allowing the player to participate in graphic sex. In fairness, I can see how a reporter might be confused by the difference between a fully clothed kiss, and pornographic sex. If they had the sound tuned off, and their eyelids nailed to the soles of their feet.

Strange as it may sound, EA was quick to stand up as champion for the interactive arts - it may have something to do with them now owning developer Bioware. The company pointed out, effectively, that though the gaming industry is used to being treated like everyone’s bitch, Fox was just taking the piss.

While Fox still refuse to apologise, Lawrence herself has told the New York Times that she’s sorry for mis-speaking. She admits that her research for the segment did not involve playing the game - rather it involved asking someone what happened in the game, and taking their word as gospel.

Unfortunately, that word was ‘pornographic’.

Sadly, Miss Lawrence’s apology was not timely enough to prevent fans of the game posting hundreds of negative reviews of her book on Amazon.com, despite the fact that many of them admitted to not having read it.

Another one bites the dust.

2K Games, one arm of publishing giant Take 2, has just announced its acquisition of Illusion Softworks, the Czech developer - and owner - of properties like Hidden & Dangerous and Mafia. This news comes moments after EA announces its official acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic.

The deal will bring two studios, and 200 employees under Take 2’s umbrella of AAA producing teams, with Enemy in Sight and Mafia II currently in production at what will be rebranded 2K Czech.

Studio acquisitions are not always a bad thing. They provide financial security to the people that need it, not to mention development support in the form of tools, QA and PR. Illusion itself was already heavily distributed among venture capitalists, rather than the studio founders.

However, the facts speak for themselves, and there’s something distinctly worrying about Take 2’s fascination with ditching well-respected names like Irrational and Illusion, to replace them with the blandness of 2K Boston, 2K Czech etc.

Some studios flourish after acquisition, most sell out and move on.

Tell us, which do you think Illusion will be?