I haven't played "Baldur's Gate," but I have played BioWare's spiritual successor, "Dragon Age: Origins," and after a 10-minute session (albeit one without a proper tutorial), it planted the idea this style of RPG might not resonate with players who've come to expect differently from BioWare. Read more...

For $10 you can now download and play a new level of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed."

I downloaded the level on Friday and played it on Saturday. What kind of experience did I get for my 10 bucks?

The new level took me about 70 minutes to complete. Read more...

You had to make some tough decision in "Mass Effect" sometimes. Should a character live or die? The choice was often left in your hands.

But even if you didn't like your first choice, you could always boot up an old save and pick a different path. That character never really had to die.

BioWare admits that's a struggle with even their own games. Because "Star Wars: The Old Republic" is a persistent online experience, they see an opportunity to solve that.

"As an attempt to appeal to a broader and broader audience, consequence has left gaming," said BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk to me after unveiling his MMO this week. "Everything is very low impact and there's no real negative result that can occur. We're going to start bringing that back but in a rational way, a way that doesn't punish the player -- but puts them on the spot."

The issue of inconsequential decision-making isn't just something limited to offline experiences, however, argued Zeschuk. Online games are guilty of it, too.

Read more...

One of the worries involved with downloadable content is that developers simply hide the content on the disc and charge you for an unlock code.

Namco Bandai has been a prime offender. All of the "Beautiful Katamari" downloadable content on Xbox Live, for example, is 364 KB each. When you buy it, it just "unlocks" on the disc.

I wondered if the publisher would take the same approach with the Darth Vader and Yoda downloadable characters for "Soul Calibur IV." They never outlined a good reason why the characters were restricted to a single platform -- Yoda on Xbox 360, Darth Vader on PlayStation 3 -- it seemed marketing-driven.

The characters were added to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this morning. I checked, and it looks like the download size for Darth Vader is almost 8 MB on XBL. That suggests it wasn't on the disc. I can't check the file size for Yoda on PSN, but one would assume it's in the same ballpark.

That doesn't explain why the characters needed to be split up in the first place, but at least you're not paying $4.99 for little more than a glorified cheat code.

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There is much we don't know about LucasArts and BioWare's newly announced, currently PC-only MMO "Star Wars: The Old Republic."

This week's announcement didn't explain many important aspects to the game, including how combat works. It is slow? Fast? Turn-based? Action-centric?

I spent time on Tuesday with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk, who attempted to explain -- as much as he could -- what "The Old Republic"'s combat is like, using extreme points of comparison: "World of WarCraft" and "EverQuest" against "Age of Conan" and "The Force Unleashed."

Here's what Zeschuck said.

Read more...

"[After being hired] there [are] over three months after the multiple tests [you take] that you spend before you ever get to touch the game, just training to be a BioWare writer. And if you're writing a class, which is the most sort of sacred thing to be doing, you get stuff written all over your stuff constantly that says…you pitch a plot to me, and you're writing [a] Sith [quest] and I write on the board 'And then Darth Vader…helps a farmer…to save his tractor.' And then I point at it and then we mock you and then that doesn't go in our game."

-- "Star Wars: The Old Republic" lead writer Daniel Erickson on how he wants to avoid the mundane quests players normally find themselves involved in with today's MMOs; if it isn't epic or heroic, he doesn't want it.

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Just a few moments ago, LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez confirmed their rumored collaboration with BioWare for a "Star Wars" PC MMO.

It's called "Star Wars: The Old Republic."

"There's been some rumors recently in the past few months," joked BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka. "We thought about 'Howard the Duck' MMO, but maybe that's a little too crazy, a little too far out there."

Muzyka described "The Old Republic" as a story-based MMO, and they've wanted to make a game like this for over a decade now. He describes "The Old Republic" as the fan-requested "'Knights of the Old Republic' 3, 4, 5, 6 and beyond."

The game is now playable, though we won't be playing the game at LucasArts' event today. Right now, they're focusing on tweaking gameplay at LucasArts, BioWare and Electronic Arts and said we'll be seeing more of the gameplay "soon."

The graphics look stylized. But while not realistic, they're not as extreme as say, the animated "Clone Wars" movie.

BioWare's emphasis is on story. They described story as the "fourth pillar" that has yet to be explored in online games. "The Old Republic" will tell a "powerful" story set thousands of years before the "Star Wars" movies. It's the same setting as the popular "Knights of the Old Republic" games.

But they did show a trailer to set the stage for the game. The video was completely story-centric, but gave away few details and showed no in-game footage from "The Old Republic." The emphasis of the trailer was on the fight between good vs. evil. "Who will you choose?" the teaser asked.

A rep for the game said the developers are only talking about a PC release today, declining to address whether there will be console versions.

We'll be interviewing LucasArts and BioWare today about "The Old Republic." Stay tuned for more details.

If you paid attention to the build-up for the release of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" then you probably saw the image above or one like it. You got the hint that, in the game, a Jedi would tear a Star Destroyer down from the sky.

If you played the game long enough, you reached that part.

I finished the game, and after talking to the game's executive producer, Haden Blackman, about the game's promising DLC offering, I asked him about this section. I had to admit to him that it was far from my favorite part.

Some might find the following exchange nitpicky on my part. I, however, thought people would find it interesting to see one very specific moment discussed between player (me) and creator (Blackman)... Read more...

Who should a game creator listen to?

Which criticisms of their game should they most take to heart?

When I interviewed "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" producer Haden Blackman recently about the game's upcoming downloadable content, I asked if we could chat about the reception that game has received. The game has sold more than 1.5 million copies, so it's popular. It's reviews were okay.

The game's story has been widely praised in reviews and among all the gamers who've played it that I've spoken to. Its gameplay hasn't been as broadly well-received, though it has fans as well.

But with the feedback being so mixed, which responses can you trust? This is what Blackman has decided:

"We're trying to be balanced when we look at the feedback. We're definitely taking everything from the reviews and writing it down -- and talking about how much we might address it. But, at the same time, we're putting great stock and heavy emphasis on the feedback that's coming from the consumers. And where there's overlap there, those are the things we want to focus on if we ever move ahead in the future."

So gamer feedback means as much as critics' does. Fair?

If you're detecting some skepticism on Blackman's part of the reviewers' reactions to the game, you're correct. What would make him so skeptical? Well there's this: Read more...

I spoke with "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" project lead Haden Blackman late last week about the game's newly-announced autumn downloadable content of new player characters and a bonus Jedi Temple level.

A few things came up that hadn't made the press release that I believe are important for gamers to know, since they show how LucasArts is handling its DLC differently than many other publishers and developers: Read more...