Games

When Mass Effect 3 was released a year ago, it was known that the game would be expanded by the arrival of extra missions via DLC (downloadable content) . Because the game's (highly controversial) ending made any more missions set after the game nonsensical, these DLC episodes take place earlier during the game's timeframe, and can be accessed via the save the game automatically generates when you finish it (to just before the assault on the Cerberus base). The first of the two story-driven DLCs to appear so far is Leviathan . This episode picks up on a dangling plot thread from Mass Effect 2 , where it was revealed that a Reaper named the Leviathan of Dis had been destroyed by an unknown force of tremendous power. In the DLC Commander Shepard is contacted by a scientist who has discovered what killed Leviathan, but is killed himself before he can impart that knowledge. Shepard has to follow the scientist's trail of research to discover the location of Leviathan's kill...

It's been claimed that Dragon Age III has been upgraded from a PS3/X-Box 360 title and will instead launch on the next-generation versions of both consoles. A date of (financial year) 2014 is given, tentatively giving credence to reports that the new consoles will launch before the end of 2013 and Dragon Age III may be a launch title for them. Not entirely surprising news, especially given the rumours that BioWare may make Dragon Age III much more open and freeform than any of their previous titles (and more like Bethesda's RPGs).

The co-founders of BioWare, Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, today announced that they are retiring from the company they set up almost twenty years ago. Whilst that in itself has sparked a storm of debate online about why they are leaving - some fans citing the arguably declining quality of their games since BioWare was taken over by Electronic Arts - even more interesting is a statement by Aaryn Flynn, the head of the company's Edmonton and Montreal studios. Flynn, in a clearly calming-the-waters move, reveals that BioWare are currently actively developing three projects. One of these is the recently-confirmed Dragon Age III: Inquisition , which looks set to launch in late 2013. Secondly, he confirms that the Mass Effect team is, as expected, working on the long-awaited Omega DLC, which will round off the trilogy's last remaining major unfinished storyline. However, he also unexpectedly confirmed that the team is also starting work on a new, full game set in that universe. B...

Dragon Age III may soon be competing for some kind of award for the most information ever revealed about a formally-unannounced game. This time around, the leak comes from a survey BioWare have been conducting of their fans to test out some early ideas they are discussing for the game. A fanmade logo for the game, nothing official. First up is a bare-bones plot summary: "A portal between the worlds unleashes hordes of demons in the land, civil wars rip apart nations and the corruption is limitless. Someone is behind the shadows, drawing the threads which destroy the world. Time has come for the Inquisition. Take the Inquisitor's cloak and lead the only force able of bringing light into the darkness. Choose the direct method and gather your armies, send spies into the shadows or engage in a political war, make friends and use your connections indirectly: it is up to you how you lead the inquisition. But you'll have to take lead of it from the beginning. Make your player a...

Beamdog have announced that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will be released on PC, iPad and Mac on 18 September this year, with an Android version to follow a few weeks or months later. They have also given more details about what the remake will consist of. As well as being made compatible with modern operating systems and graphics resolutions, the game's user interface has been updated, with many of the improvements from Baldur's Gate II ported back to the original game. The cut scenes have been re-rendered and new cut scenes added. There are three new recruitable characters: a Calishite monk, a half-elf wild mage and an half-orc blackguard. There's also a whole new quest, in which you create six new characters and take on a formidable challenge extending across multiple levels of a dungeon. The game features the original music and voices, but also some new music and voice work. The game's expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast , has also been integrated into th...

With the second Song of Ice and Fire computer game - A Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game - now out in the States and getting somewhat mediocre reviews, there seems to be a growing consensus that Cyanide were perhaps not the best company to develop a game based on the series. One of the most common comments has been that a bigger company should have tackled the project, with Bethesda (makers of the Elder Scrolls fantasy RPG series) and BioWare (the makers of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series) frequently cited. However, what a lot of people don't know is that both of these companies, and others, have considered exactly such a project in the past. Bethesda Softworks Some time between the completion of their fourth Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion (published in 2006) and starting work on the fifth, Skyrim (2011), probably whilst they were still working on Fallout 3 (2008), Bethesda were approached by George R.R. Martin's agent as he believed they were a 'good fit...

The furore over the ending to Mass Effect 3 is one of the biggest Internet controversies of the year, but BioWare and publishers Electronic Arts have moved to try to defuse the situation. In the summer they will be releasing an 'Extended Cut' DLC (downloadable content), for free, for all three formats of the game. The DLC will add additional cut scenes and an 'epilogue' which will clarify and explain elements of the hitherto bizarre ending that has so bewildered fans. "Well, everything makes sense now!" "Really?" "No, but thanks for trying." However, parsing the PRspeak of the announcement, it sounds that those hoping for a 'new' ending, or for the Indoctrination Theory to be proven correct, will be disappointed. It sounds like there will be no new gameplay elements at all, not even extra dialogue during the finale which will better explain just what the heck is going on. This may change as more news is revealed closer to launch...

For the last few weeks the Internet has been ravaged by a controversy remarkable in its virulence and intensity. On 5 March (9 March in the UK), Electronic Arts and BioWare published the computer game Mass Effect 3 , the concluding part of a role-playing trilogy that had been unfolding since 2007. These games have won plaudits for their strong (if generic) space opera setting, well-realised and three-dimensional characters and the way that you, the player, can shape the narrative through making numerous decisions and choices that radically change the story and setting. For approximately 99% of its length, Mass Effect 3 continued this process. Indeed, with numerous major, game-changing moments in which your previous choices in the first two titles came to fruition, it was shaping up to be the best game in the series, and one of the best titles of this generation. Warning: spoilers for Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3 and Knights of the Old Republic. At the last possible minute, the game took a...

The Galaxy has been plunged into war. The Reapers, a race of intelligent machines who cleanse the Milky Way of advanced, organic life every 50,000 years or so, have returned. In their opening salvo they have occupied Earth and attacked dozens of other worlds, including launching a major assault on the turian homeworld. Commander Shepard, who has been warning the various races about the Reapers for the last three years, manages to escape from Earth on his ship, the Normandy , and sets about unifying the Galaxy against the Reapers. But this is easier said than done. Mass Effect 3 concludes BioWare's epic trilogy which began five years ago. Long-term players will have guided their version of Commander Shepard (whose gender and abilities can be adjusted by the player) through three games totalling 65-80 hours (depending on what side-missions you played) to reach the grand finale of the story. As a result Mass Effect 3 has more weight than most computer games. Though assembled from some...

The first information about the rebirth of the Baldur's Gate franchise has been released . As anticipated, the project is an ' Enhanced Edition ' of the existing BioWare games ( Baldur's Gate , Tales of the Sword Coast , Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal ) which will launch later in the summer. The first release will be Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition , which will include the original game and its expansion with enhanced and improved artwork, native high-resolution support and reworked music and voice-overs. There will also be some 'new content' provided by the original writers and creators of the game. Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition , which will include the Throne of Bhaal expansion, will be released at a later date. This is generous, since whilst Tales of the Sword Coast was a fairly minor expansion to the original game (with a couple of dungeons and a few new monsters and magic items), Throne of Bhaal was massive in size,...

An enigmatic website indicates that the veteren Baldur's Gate fantasy RPG series is set to make a comeback. Some digging by EuroGamer confirms that a new development company, Beamdog, is working on the project. What 'the project' might be remains unclear, with level-headed fans suggesting it may just be a high-definition re-release of the existing games to work better with modern-day computers rather than a full sequel (which, given the definitive way the original series ended, would be redundant anyway). More information is expected soon. The original Baldur's Gate series was developed by BioWare and Black Isle (now Obsidian) and comprises Baldur's Gate (1998) and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), along with their respective expansions, Tales of the Sword Coast (1999) and Throne of Bhaal (2001). Set in the Forgotten Realms and using the D&D 2nd Edition rules, the games chart the player character's rise from an anonymous orphan to a hero (or v...