BioWare Mondays
BioWare are partnering with the University of Alberta, the university in Edmonton, Alberta, to launch a course in game design. Or should I say re-launch? CMPUT 250, as the course will now be known, sounds like a revision and expansion of the CMPUT 299 course that I had the privilege of taking back when I was in computer engineering.
So…the much anticipated version 1.5 update was released recently, and the free-to-play option for the game turns out to have been severely hobbled, worse than most expected. Indeed, from what I’ve read, the game sounds as though it will be effectively unplayable during the later parts of the single-player campaign, unless one subscribes or tosses some money in the kitty to buy more action slots.
You can find out more about the version 1.5 update at Massively. For now, at least, the game will remain firmly uninstalled on my computer. It sounds, however, like BioWare are hearing the disgust fans are heaping on the free-to-play limitations, and if in fact some changes are made to make the game more…well…passable for casual players, I might reconsider removing the game from my computer. For now, though, I’ll stick with other games.
At a talk at the Bradford Animation Festival, a screenshot of Dragon Age 3 was briefly shown. No good pictures of it exist, although what little can be seen in the grainy photos that have surfaced suggest that the gameworld could indeed be rather large, and stuffed with epic-scale features. BioWare, at least, seem highly impressed with the capabilities of the Frostbite 2 engine.
Oh, and this was a hilarious PR move by BioWare: offering free copies of the Mass Effect Trilogy collection to the first 50 or so Black Ops 2 fans who sent in pictures of the Mass Effect 2 disc that was mistakenly bundled with their purchase.
A few screenshots of the upcoming Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3 were released last week, and it was also confirmed that Wii U players won’t be seeing that particular DLC for now.
Still others, meanwhile, are looking toward what Mass Effect games may come; some are even wondering if the series will survive without the enthusiastic backing of the Doctors.
Mass Effect could survive without the enthusiastic backing of the Doctors, but I seriously doubt it will survive without the enthusiastic backing of its (former) fans. Who knows, I could be proven wrong – but as someone who purchased and preordered every Mass Effect Game and DLC (up until I completed ME3 that is) as well as additional merchandise such as shirts and action figures, I can say pretty soundly that talk of a new ME game does not get me excited. I’ll be focusing instead on more interesting titles such as Project Eternity and Star Citizen.
It is a pity that the ending of Mass Effect 3 ruined so much. I’m also kinda luke-warm about the continuation of the series.
So now that they’ve vowed to do everything online, does this mean it’ll be an FPS/RPG hybrid like Tabula Rasa?
Maybe. Or maybe they’ll use the ME3 model again, and totally separate single player and multiplayer apart from some sort of minor game-altering mechanic like Galaxy at War.