Co-founders of BioWare Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka talk about how they do that voodoo with their RPG titles. BioWare has proved time and again that it has the magic touch when it comes to developing excellent RPGs. The Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect are testaments to this developer’s prowess. 

The article talks in detail about writing for Mass Effect and KotOR. From the character “bibles” to adding revelations about characters, the team continues to utilize the latest technology to create entertaining stories.

“Getting to the same level of quality as film is good,” says Laidlaw, “but just trying to make a film isn’t the right direction. Interactivity gives us something no other medium has.”

Karpyshyn agrees: “We’re finding that the technology is finally reaching the point where it’s starting to feel very realistic – we can actually have interactive conversation where you talk with people rather than them just talking at you.

Zeschuk and Muzyka also talk about the role of the voice acting and sound; one of the last elements to be added to a game. Readers will also glean some more information on the upcoming MMORPG under development. Read the entire “The BioWare Technique” article on CVG.

SOE has updated the Star Wars Galaxies MMO with the latest chapter in the saga; Chapter 9: The Fury of Exar Kun. Players will now face the spirit of this Sith Lord and his minions in the heart of his domain of evil. You must travel to the Aurilia Adventurer’s guildhall to begin your journey to the Temple of Exar Kun.

In addition to the new adventure, there are many bug fixes and tweaks in this update. Check out the full list of changes at Star Wars Galaxies on Station.

I have a problem. It’s not a serious addiction, in fact its much the opposite of an addiction. I can’t commit.

If the subject of my problem were a woman I’d be the very picture of a man who wouldn’t commit – frequent hot dates with a possibility of long term relationships are tossed to the side in search of the next shiny object or attractive game setting. I dawdle between games like a child with free run of a candy store and no oversight. I just can’t seem to find that special game to break me of my wanderlust.

Now you might not think this a serious problem, I mean after all, who doesn’t play multiple games? But my issue goes beyond rotating pastimes to keep from losing interest. I have a staple game I play – Guild Wars – mostly because its free and doesn’t require a huge commitment of time or energy to hop into any of its settings and grind out a few missions or quests. Guild Wars is like the partner who dislikes your wandering habits but lets you come home whenever you feel like it because it knows it’ll always get what it can while you’re around.
Read the full article »

This week I’m going to step back a bit from the reviews and products and talk about the concept of evil. I was reminded of this concept because I was fortunate enough to begin a new tabletop role playing game and the players as a unit decided they wanted to play evil characters. They wanted the freedom to do bad things for the right reasons as well as good things for the wrong ones. This whole discussion got me thinking about the nature of evil in games.

While many games, like Dungeons & Dragons, have a firm moral system that determines the “alignment” on the axis of good or evil there is really little evidence that most games follow this concept closely. We see evidence of evil in most game storylines or scenarios – “the power hungry dictator is trying to conquer the world and you must stop him!” or “The evil wizard has enslaved all the nubile young maidens and made them his love thralls with his magic and only you can liberate them!” These types of stories are rife in games of all kinds – from tabletop to the HDTV set.

When a game approaches the concept a little differently, like by allowing the player to be the “evil” character ,people tend to revel in the novelty but the portrayal of evil is still just the cardboard mustache twirling baddie with no real motivation or drive other than greed or insanity. Most games fail to make the bad guy anywhere near as interesting as I’d like.

The recent Bioware games – dating back to Baldur’s Gate even – often break that trend and show us flawed people with skewed perspectives. Bioware has constantly done a good job in both enabling the player to see villains as more than bullet catching, plan spewing baddies and in allowing some degree of player choice that is less than honorable in their games.

Read the full article »

Star Wars Galaxies US and European servers went down at 4:00 am PDT for maintenance and to deploy the latest game update. Update 2 is in place and Sony has completed testing. All servers are currently up. Complete game update 2 details are listed after the break.

Read the full article »

First we heard this morning that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed had its release date moved to August instead of early summer. If this news was not grim enough for fans who originally thought it was coming out in April and were waiting impatiently for the game, later we heard that this news was not entirely accurate. Once again, hopes started to soar… only later to be shot down in flames.

Activision put the August rumors out to pasture and instead officially confirmed that it will be making its way to North American retailers in September. Gaming Today, along with numerous other gaming sites were well aware that it would be here sometime this summer, yet the news that it was being moved to September (which is late summer) has been the case for a few months now without any exact date given to us. But it is now official, The Force Unleashed will be here sometime around September 9th.

Keep your ears open and eyes peeled though, because when a release date changes this much, you never know when it might change again, but hopefully it won’t.

Via: Videogaming247 with date confirmation from the 1Up site

After a week break, Shawn and Ron return for the 22nd installment of the File-N-Forget podcast. This week the topic is MMOs and the impact that players have on developer decisions. Our hosts discuss the upcoming changes to World of Warcraft and the proposed change Blizzard later reversed to the Warlock Lifetap ability because of player outcry. Star Wars Galaxies of course gets brought into the fray when the discussion turns to examples of where developers chose to ignore the fans and the consequences of that decision.

What impact do you think players have on persistent games and their development? Should players be more or less involved? Post your opinions below.

This week we also introduce the “What are you playing and why?” segment.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

The long awaited Sith Lords KOTOR 2 Restoration Project version 1.0b1 will released to the closed beta team this weekend. As the last step in development before the v. 1.0c1 public release, it looks as this may be the year fans see the official release.

This mod project is very similar to Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines in that the modding team is restoring content to the original game. At this point not all the content slated for restoration is back in, but Dashus has said more will probably be restored by the time the mod is released. For the projected list of what been restored and what’s being ignored, visit Team Gizka: What’s (being) restored.

via Team Gizka: A modder thing…

This has to be one of the best clips to hit the internet recently. If you wonder how the mind of a child works, the above video is a great example. This video certainly brings back memories of the first time I saw Luke Skywalker buy R2 and the shiny guy at a garage sale on the big screen.  What’s really great about this clip is the fact that a movie made in 1977 is still entertaining for people of all ages.  Star Wars will certainly be a timeless film.

Star Wars Galaxies is offering players a preview of the upcoming Chapter 9, which centers around Yavin 4.

“That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.” – Yoda

Players will be pitted against the spirit and twisted minions of a fallen Sith Lord, Exar Kun. This fallen jedi is the very power that started the Sith War. Kun absorbed the lifeforce of the entire Massassi people in his last stand. Although his body and the Brotherhood of the Sith were destroyed, his spirit lingers on, far from powerless. Players will explore unearthed Sith temples and take on the abominations that haunt Yavin 4 as they hunt for Sith artifacts.

Somehow I can’t help but think of the dark lord Sauron from the Lord of the Rings. Still Sith history has been of great interest to Star Wars fans, and is very much the cool thing right now. Just look at the anticipation of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed where the main charcter is by default Vader’s secret apprentice.

Who can really blame people for being fascinated by the bad guy. Awful good characters can become tiresome in their insistence that everybody be good or else. It’s often easier to identify with the villain who is rarely perfect. Besides a character needs a challenge to make them heroic.

via Station