BioWare's new IP is "amazing", EA gave us "complete creative control" - studio founder

OXM UK: "Dr. Greg Zeschuk used to be BioWare's big cheese, but nowadays he writes about beer for a living. Don't know about you, but I'd certainly patronise a real ales bar run by Zeschuk. Just think of the tales you'd hear over a glass of unbearable fluid. Stories about Mass Effect 3's ending. Stories about how BioWare evolved from the pre-eminent RPG company to a somewhat bashful standard bearer for proportional representation in videogame plots. And of course, stories about currently undisclosed projects, such as the next generation Mass Effect sequel or BioWare's new IP, announced the day Zeschuk and co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka announced their resignations."

[LocutusEstBorg]

...will still look and play exactly like their last 10 games. Zero difference in gameplay between Star Wars, Dragon Age I & II and Mass Effect I, II & III.

[dirigiblebill]

"zero difference between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Software_Lover]

I know. The Old Republic has more RPG elements than Mass Effect 2 does. Sad.

[DOMination-]

Mass Effect was never designed to be a deep RPG in the way you are thinking. The first one has just as many combat sections as the sequels, but people overlook it or try to be pretentious about it and say it was more "tactical" when really the word they're looking for is "crap". ME1 did some things better and some things worse than the sequels but imo, it didn't have any more of these fabled "RPG elements" that people on N4G bang on about than the others.

[Baka-akaB]

Indeed , ME1 was everybit an action game like Me2 . What people complained was missing was mostly tedious and useless stuff .

it was no Kotor or even Dragon Age . It just didnt do everything right story wise and lacked look customisations , with Me2 (and 3)

[Captain Qwark 9]

@domination

id be inclined to agree that it had no more or no less rpg elements than the 3rd ME but it def had more than the second installment. also another thing that made ME1 better was the choices mattered more, the class actually mattered and influenced the way you play and lastly the powers functioned slightly different and were more effective. in 2/3 you could literally run and gun your way through with little reason to use the powers. In ME1, esp on the hardest difficulty, you need to use powers, you needed to combo them together with your teammates or you werent going to get through it.

also one more thing, it also had the mako. dont get me wrong, the mako sections were underwhelming and could have been drastically better but it was a step in the right direction. allowing you to freely explore other planets in the mako and on foot would have made it leaps and bounds better and far less linear. that was the worst thing they took out of future title.

all that said, people can disagree all they want with me ME1 9.5/10, ME2 9/10, ME3 9.5/10. one of my fav series of games ever, none disappointed me even if i didnt agree with some of the changes.

[LocutusEstBorg]

Not just that. I meant all their titles. Mass Effect is a reskinned Dragon Age in the future.

[Baka-akaB]

Except it existed before dragon age and doesnt play like mass effect . Its Dragon Age 2 that tried aping ME

[pompombrum]

I guess EA are officially on damage control. Maybe Bioware do now have complete creative control however it's fairly obvious that wasn't the case with games like Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3.

[WitWolfy]

I will first have to pirate it to see if its worth the purchase before I buy into another one of their crappy RPGs franchises this time around...

Sorry BW you brought this upon yourself...

[Baka-akaB]

or you could just avoid the games , especially when they all had demos .
If you wanna pirate just do it , but it certainly in those cases wasnt about trying out the game

[torchic]

do people still use that lame excuse to make themselves feel better for pirating?

I think it's better if people just come out and say "yeah I pirate games" than to use that lame excuse.

[grailly]

true. Realistically, how many people pirate games, finish them, then go out and buy them because it was fun?

[Baka-akaB]

More than usually expected . But thing is those folks dont usually go around bragging about pirating a game , even less so to "punish" a dev whose games still interest them .

They just "try" stuff and if they feel like it reward the games they loved the most

[WitWolfy]

@torchic and grailly

I do, did it with Tomb Raider, Gears of War Judgement, Bioshock 1 and 2, borderlands.. God too many games to mention.. Shocking hey??? To think people like me ACTUALLY exist pirating games then buying it legit if he thinks it warrants a purchase.. I wouldnt be surprised If I own more authentic games then what you've played this whole generation.

[BlaqMagiq24]

Even if it was a good game I higly doubt you would buy it if the game is already sitting in front of you.

And no offense but outright saying you're going to pirate a game makes you look really bad and cheap as hell.

[EditorAtGNG]

So, they didn't have any creative freedom from EA in the past few games? Gee, who would've guessed?

[shotgun_ps3]

What is with all the hate on Bioware???

Okay so they made a few bad games, Dragon Age 2 & Sonic Chronicles being the main offenders, but come on. Mass Effect was one of the franchises that defined this generation and the first Dragon Age was a staple wrpg. Bioware isn't going to be the same because of the departure of the doctors and when they release a game not up to your expectations again, yall have only yourselves to blame.

[despair]

well I actually liked Dragon Age 2, well until I actually played the original Dragon Age, which made the second part look like a joke. But I do agree with you.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

WTF is wrong with sonic Chronicles?!

[Thefreeman012]

Lies! just like Mass effect 2 and 3 had complete creative control right?

[jollygoodchap8]

Yes, because of one bad ending...Let's just forget all the great gaming moments and games they released in the past.

It's not like their games haven't won multiple awards or anything. /s

Let's all jump on the hate train.

[exsturminator01]

So we're just pretending that whole Dragon Age 2 and Old Republic thing never happened, right? This is ALL about the ending, huh?

[grailly]

wasn't TOR supposed to be a great game, but wasn't able to hold people's attention? I only heard good things about the story.

I didn't play it I wouldn't know

[jollygoodchap8]

Yes but when those games were released it was like "Meh, those games are crap" and then disappeared into obscurity. The real hate bandwagon began when the ME3 ending happened.

I never seen THIS much hate for Bioware before then.

[exsturminator01]

@grailly, I honestly can't speak to TOR outside of what others who are fans of the genre have told me, that it was a retread in terms of gameplay and poorly handled in shifting to FTP. Story sounded good, I personally can't stand MMO's so didn't get more than a few hours in.

@jolly, perhaps, but I think that has more to do with that title's visibility really. They marketed and hyped it for months, it has a stronger console presence than Dragon Age ever did, and its the third game in a series of outstanding titles. I think we see more anger now than ever before because more people than ever before have been burnt by Bioware.

[Aloren]

I think you just proved his point and jumped on the hate train.

DA2 was not as good as Origins, but it was still a good game. TOR is also a good game, even if there were some bad decisions.

Calling these games crap is just stupid.

[grailly]

to be fait, I think Mass Effect as a whole never was that great, it's still really good though.
but I agree with you, people who loved ME 1 and 2 should not dismiss Bioware just over the ME3 ending. While not the best in the series, it did manage to correct most of the problems I had with ME2(while still being a lesser game)

[sourav93]

More like EA completely controlled your creativity.

[vega275]

Yeah I bet they did. Last time I heard a dev say this was before and after the tragedy that is simcity.

[Baka-akaB]

Or when the devs tried to pretend Dead Space 3 was still at core a real Dead Space game .

It's even worse if they are telling the truth mind you , you get free reign and still release something that seems hatched from the mind of a PR and marketing executive ? Okaayyy .

[baldulf]

Not interested.

[DarthJay]

If EA told Bioware to go back and add some multiplayer aspect to Mass Effect 3, which, it has pretty much been confirmed they did, then bravo EA. I absolutely LOVED Co-Op in Mass Effect 3, and that was the whole reason the game was delayed and it was because EA told them to add it.

EA may do a lot wrong but that one, they got right.

[Rupee]

Lol I want to agree with you but I can't bring myself to compliment EA.

[medman]

I enjoyed ME1, 2, and 3. Love the trilogy. And I will be buying Mass Effect 4. There are millions of others who feel the same way I do about the series. So despite all the whining from gamers, Bioware is doing something right.

[LAWSON72]

It will not be anything like mass effect 1, by that i mean more rpg and less gears of war, so I will probably stay away. I learned bioware likes to make a good game and then make the sequel be one of the most watered down rpgs.

[MilkMan]

Glad the next Mass Effect will be a prequel.
This is more interesting than picking up the pieces after Mass Effect 3. Besides gives them time to formulate new and interesting stories based on the prequels for the inevitable sequels down the line.

[No_Pantaloons]

I guess winning worst company in America (again) has put them in PR mode. Bioware isn't even the bioware of old, its just got the old label. When the founders left you knew it was all over, this bioware is the spawn of EA and their attempts to pass it off as anything else are in vain.

[Summons75]

You said that about mass effect 3 too and look at it. Sorry Bioware you have lied, cheated and betrayed us to many times.

[Plagasx]

There's nothing like visiting a new Bioware universe for the first time...

I'm truly excited to see what's next.

[shammgod]

I look forward to it!