BioWare's space opera Mass Effect blasts off

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      This month, Edmonton's BioWare Corp. will release the highly anticipated Mass Effect video game. Set in a future where humans have conquered the final frontier, Mass Effect is an operatic space epic that sprawls across the Milky Way in a manner that would make George Lucas envious.

      The back catalogue of BioWare, a video- ­game developer founded in 1995 by two University of Alberta medical students, includes a number of role-playing classics such as Never ­winter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Jade Empire, so Mass Effect is in good company.

      BioWare takes game design seriously, as evidenced by its attention to detail. With 2005's Jade Empire, for example, the company wasn't content to use nonsense sounds and vocalizations to mimic language, so it hired linguist Wolf Wikeley to invent languages for the Asian-inspired world.

      At a press event in Edmonton on September 12, Greg Zeschuk–president of BioWare and, with chief executive officer Ray Muzyka, cofounder of the studio–told the Straight that they decided not to create languages for the alien races in Mass Effect because they wanted to create a game that would be like playing a movie: "We didn't want to pull players out of the experience by having them read subtitles," he said.

      The comparison with film is apt for Mass Effect, which takes the graphical capabilities of the Xbox 360 to a new level. This game looks like a film and the characters seem real, from the expressions on their faces as they react to other characters to their eye movements as they respond to the environment. Project director Casey Hudson said that graphics is becoming an antiquated concept. "At this point, you can do anything. It comes down to what you choose to do. It becomes about the artistic choices you make," he said.

      Although playing Mass Effect is a cinematic experience, Hudson insisted that "you never feel as though you are sitting back and watching; you really are interacting." But it's a fine line to walk. Principal writer Drew Karpyshyn explained that the game includes movie sequences that the protagonist does not participate in, but that the game player witnesses: "It [a sequence like this] plays its part and has its impact, and then lets the players resume their game." This kind of omniscience provides key plot points and background information that the game player–not the protagonist–needs to know, clarified Hudson. And since these scenes are informational, the player doesn't feel excluded from the action.

      There's no other game out there like Mass Effect, Zeschuk said. "It's like an RPG merged with an action-shooter," he said. But don't try playing it like a standard run-and-gun game, he warned. "You need to use tactics."

      Zeschuk said that BioWare will remain in Edmonton regardless of the its success, although he did admit that in addition to an Austin, Texas, studio opened in March 2006, the company may open more.

      He went on to say that while BioWare has created games for the PC and Xbox 360, it's also looking to other platforms. "We haven't announced anything for the PlayStation 3," he said, "but at some point you'll see something."

      He may have been foreshadowing a deal announced on October 11, when Electronic Arts stunned the industry with its sudden acquisition of Elevation Partners, the holding company that owns BioWare Corp. The move is strategic for EA, as the company's chief executive officer, John Riccitiello, has explicitly stated that he wants new intellectual properties being developed in his studios, something he gets from BioWare.

      From its perspective, becoming part of EA means that BioWare can "further the careers of the passionate, creative, and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin", said Muzyka in a statement on October 11.

      Link: Mass Effect official site

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