The director of art and animation for Dragon Age 3, one Neil Thompson, has nothing but praise for the Frostbite 2 engine that will power the next installment in BioWare’s blood-spattered fantasy RPG series. The game will also not make use of a muted colour palette, contra a trend that even I’ve complained about in modern AAA fantasy games. (Whether they’ll take a page from Big Huge Games and make the game vivid and vibrant is still up in the air, of course.)

There’s also a new mod available for Dragon Age: Origins, which actually sounds quite epic in scope. Oh, and writer David Gaider has updated his blog with some thoughts about the different experiences of writing for games and writing novels.

MSNBC sat down for a short interview with Mass Effect series composer Sam Hulick. A couple of BioWare developers — including series producer Casey Hudson — also tweeted some interesting screenshots today, showing off what one can only assume are promo images for the upcoming, Citadel-focused DLC for Mass Effect 3.

And speaking of Mass Effect, this is some quality cosplay around that theme. I want the replica rifle.

A teaser trailer for the upcoming Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic Was released last week. Details about pre-order bonuses were also released, for those of you interested in ordering the expansion in advance. BioWare Austin also offered us a first look at the new planet, Makeb…which if memory serves is the “gay” planet that everyone was up in arms about a week or two ago.

Oh, and hey…if you’re curious what Greg Zeschuk is up to since leaving BioWare, well…do you like beer? Because he sure does.
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