The time is near. They are watching. Your power is rising.
Cologne, Germany. You've Been Chosen.
Bioware has just released a 40-second teaser for their next game: (volume warning)
Welcome to E3 coverage here on ZAM!
Today’s second media briefing (2 of 4) is from EA for 1 hour. We’ll be covering every detail, constantly keeping this page up-to-date. Keep a close eye and keep refreshing!
When: 3:00PM-4:00PM Eastern / 12:00PM-1:00PM Pacific — Watch on Twitch.tv!
All Events: Xbox, EA, Ubisoft, Playstation, Nintendo
Just recently BioWare invited us down to Edmonton to check out their latest foray into the fantasy RPG world - Dragon Age: Origins! While the game itself has no multiplayer to speak of, Dragon Age still manages to really evolve the RPG genre as the team makes its first attempt at blending high fantasy with dark heroic themes. The result is a fantastically immersive game that truly is a spiritual successor to previous blockbusters like Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate II.
ZAM.com managed to sit down with Ray Muzyka And Greg Zeschuk, co-founders of BioWare, and we got their input on inspirations for the game, why they chose to fully omit multiplayer gaming, what they aspired for in creating Dragon Age, and much more!
ZAM: We're here with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeshuk, co-founders of BioWare, to talk about what went into the creation of Dragon Age: Origins. I'll start off with the one question that's been on my mind from the very beginning. You've made it clear that Dragon Age: Origins will not have a multiplayer option on launch; why not? Why did you move away from that?
Ray Muzyka: We wanted to focus on a really strong, emotionally engaging narrative that felt like your personal narrative, and we felt that the best way to do that in Dragon Age: Origins was to focus on the single player experience. We have a ton of online features through player developed content and showing your hero's journey through the social networking pages we're building. In a way, we have a lot of online functionality, but we decided to focus the game play, the storyline, around a really personal, emotionally engaging narrative.
The Star Wars: The Old Republic team at the BioWare Austin studio has released its first Developer Dispatch video, which takes us through the design process for Tython, "the planet where the first Force users assembled and the Jedi Order was established."
While the video only shows some minor clips of gameplay, the information is interesting for any fan. On this starter world, you'll get the chance to focus on your Jedi training. Prepare to go on a vision quest, forge your lightsaber and head out into the universe as a member of the Jedi Order.
There's numerous interviews in the video. Shawn Ketcherside, senior world designer, explains that Tython was mainly unexplored in the Star Wars canon, which gave them a lot of freedom to create a unique world. Alex Freed, managing editor, talks about how the team comes up with fun quest ideas for the world. And Senior Concept Artist Clint Young discusses how Tython will be lush and beautiful to compliment the Jedi way of life.
They'll be more Developer Dispatches in the future, so keep checking back for even more tours through BioWare Austin.
With the current flurry of activity coming out of every major development studio this week, Bioware could not be left behind. Thusly, in light of this, they have decided to release a good chunk of media from Star Wars: The Old Republic to the public.
Unlike Star Wars Galaxies, which is set in a more “modern” era in the Star Wars Universe, The Old Republic takes place roughly four-thousand years prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode One. This gives players the opportunity to enjoy a plethora of Jedi to slaughter, no matter what side of the Force they choose. With new screenshots and wallpaper coming out, we can do nothing but wait and anticipate. This game has the potential to either bring more people into the foray of the massively multiplayer genre, or just maybe rock the world of those already in it. We shall see.
Bioware has released two new articles about Star Wars: The Old Republic, on their website. The article that 
piqued my interest is about how Bioware is planning to capture the Star Wars universe using the "stylized realism" method of art. According to the article Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a "unique" and "instantly recognizable appearance" that will continue to look great, even as it ages. World of Warcraft has done sort of the same thing with their style of art. Coincidence?
The overarching goal of the art for Star Wars: The Old Republic is to bring concept art paintings to life in 3D. This goal has led the artists to forego the use of photographs for surface textures in favor of hand-painting every asset. The concept art also drove the game art to match its heroic and idealized proportions of the characters and environments. Part of remaining true to the classic big screen vision of Star Wars™ is not only to look like it, but also to ensure that the art feels like it on the small screen. There is a fine line to follow in being true to the realistic expectations that we inherit from the movies while making style choices that will play well on the computer screen. This distillation of the Star Wars vision through a painters eye and a fan’s heart forms the core of the visual direction of the game.
Check out both articles: Capturing the Look of STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ and the BioWare Blog: Mark How.
The first video documentary for Star Wars: The Old Republic is now up on the official Web site. It contains new concepts, screenshots, and real-time pre-production gameplay video, so it's definitely worth checking out.
Hear about the approach to storytelling straight from The Old Republic’s Creative Director and Lead Designer James Ohlen and Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, and watch Art Director Jeff Dobson discuss the aesthetic appeal of stylized realism.
The gameplay video, which focuses on combat, is probably the best reason to check out the documentary. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
Bioware has released seven new screenshots for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It seems as if the team is starting to 
move away from releasing concept art to instead show us the real thing. I believe that this is a good indication that some of the earlier concerns about the art (namely the gigantic lightsabers), have been corrected to the point that the team feels confident in showing more to the public. From what I've seen, a majority of the feedback about the new screenshots are positive; we'll see if that continues.
If you missed our interview with SWTOR Community Manager, Sean Dahlberg, I encourage all of you to give it a gander. We used the dark side of the Force to get some interesting information out of Sean; however, the Force is strong with that one.
Head on over to the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website to view the new screenshots. Also, feel free to drop into our SWTOR forums and let us know what you think!
It's been rumored. It's been speculated about. It's been begged for. And now, it's been confirmed: Knights of the Old Republic will be released as an MMO. Portfolio.com reported:
In an interview at E3 this week, Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello said that EA is working on the next version of Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic, and it will most certainly have a massively multiplayer online component to it.
"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. "And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it."
Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.
Check out the whole article here , and start dusting off those lightsabers!
Sure, there are other social networks out there. You can meet new (though sometimes creepy) people through MySpace, or catch up with your college classmates on FaceBook. But what about a community focused on the gamer, and specifically fans of games such as Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: KotOR? Bioware has a fan community site of its own, and has now reached over 4 million members.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (July 9, 2008) - Leading video game developer BioWare®, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that its registered fan community is now over four million user accounts strong and still growing actively. With an average of 38,000 new accounts being created every month, the fan community is thriving with active, vocal members. While sites such as Friendster and Xanga host an audience of 1MM and 2MM respectively, the BioWare community brings together 4MM people to chat, exchange ideas, discuss their favorite games, provide critical feedback to the BioWare development teams and more. BioWare continues to support and nurture its enthusiastic fan base through open communication with BioWare's development team, and by providing exclusive content to registered community members.
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