Act 30 premieres April 9th 
Daisuke Satō and Shōji Satō’s Highschool of the Dead manga, on hiatus since January 2011, returns to the pages of Dragon Age magazine on April 9th. Yen Press has announced that they will release a digital version of the much new next chapter on the same day that it hits prints in Japan. Get a look Dragon Age’s cover after the jump.
Read more here: Crunchy Roll
Series returns to “Dragon Age” on 4.9.13
Much to the dismay of the many fans of risque undead slaying, Daisuke Satō and Shōji Satō’s Highschool of the Dead manga has been on hiatus since January 2011. Back in February, the color editions promised that the series is coming back, and now, an April 9th date has been pinning to its return to the pages of Dragon Age magazine. More after the jump.
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Source: Crunchy Roll
Electronic Arts has told GamesIndustry International that BioWare San Francisco has closed its doors.It is part of the smaller studios that were closed a couple a weeks ago, along with EA Montreal and EA Los Angeles.
Between 25 and 30 employees have been laid off according to a source speaking with Games Radar. The studio was focused on developing social and mobile games of Electronic Arts franchises. It developed several titles including Dragon Age: Journeys and Mirror’s Edge 2D.
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Source: VG Charts
Electronic Arts digital service Origin has gone live today for the Mac. There are about 50 titles available for the service on Mac, including Batman: Arkham City and Dragon Age 2. The service also includes cloud save storage.
Electronic Arts also announced that the service has nearly reached 40 million registered users for the PC and iOS. This is up from the 30 million users in October 2012. However it is not known how many of these are active users.
Electronic Arts also offers “Dual-Play” for select titles. When you purchase the title on Origin for one platform, the title will be free for the other platforms on Origin.
Source: VG Charts
Greg Zeschuk recalls leaving BioWare to make Web series about craft beer, saying he no longer had passion for making games.
BioWare cofounder Greg Zeschuk has opened up on his departure from the Mass Effect and Dragon Age publisher in September. Speaking to Polygon, he said he simply no longer had the passion necessary to continue on, and so he decided to pursue another passion project: a Web series about craft beer.
“I just felt like my passion was waning,” Zeschuk said. “And I am very much a creature of passion and so I kind of looked at myself and go “OK, If I was to do something else what would I do? What would I really feel engaged in? What would I really enjoy?’”
This turned out to be beer, or more specifically, a show called The Beer Diaries. The first episode will premiere this week at Alamo’s Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. Tickets are available now.
Other BioWare cofounder Ray Muzyka is now involved with social impact endeavors, like charities for education, health care, and animal rights.
Why specifically Zeschuk lost his passion for gaming remains unclear. He left BioWare after Mass Effect 3′s ending drew much criticism and debate and Star Wars: The Old Republic saw its subscriber base dwindle before going free-to-play. Could these have been the reasons to get out?
“It’s challenging. It’s sometimes rewarding and sometimes it’s not. And you just get tired of it after awhile. That is probably the easiest way to for me to describe it. Sometimes you just need to change things.”
“Everything’s a factor,” Zeschuk said. “There’s nothing that’s not a factor, but there’s no single one thing. I think the best way I can describe is: Do the same thing for twenty years and it’s very, very intense. It’s very high pressure. It’s very high stress. It’s challenging. It’s sometimes rewarding and sometimes it’s not. And you just get tired of it after awhile. That is probably the easiest way to for me to describe it. Sometimes you just need to change things.”
Zeschuk also spoke about the fan reaction to his and Muzyka’s departure from BioWare. He said though gamers may be mad at them for leaving, staying on board without a desire to make games would be even worse.
“You know it’s sad I wish I could deliver on that, but I don’t think I would be as good as I was in that space historically. Like I said, the fire wasn’t there,” he said.
Lastly, Zeschuk explained that the reason why
Source: Game Spot News
The Western Role-Playing Game, commonly abbreviated as WRPG, is a genre of epic titles. These games often include enormous worlds filled with cities, people and creatures of all descriptions, with plentiful action and customisation. Traditionally, they were heavy on statistic sheets and randomised attacks, but more and more they have begun to focus on real-time combat and reflexes, like most of the nominees for this year. That does not mean, however, that they have become any less deep.
Here are the Nominees:
And the Winner is…
BioWare are legends of role-playing game development, and unlike Dragon Age, the Mass Effect franchise has never disappointed, but rather gone from strength to strength. Indeed Mass Effect 2 was our Game of the Year for 2010.
Mass Effect 3 combines the precise controls and combat of Mass Effect 2 with the customisability and collection aspects of the original Mass Effect to create arguably the best game in the series so far. An initially weak ending aside, the story, driven by your decisions throughout the series, is absolutely superb, with a few moments that stand out among the greatest pieces of video game writing in history. The characters are as deep as ever, and Shepard’s relationship with them is explored in more detail than ever before, through well-written dialogue performed by talented actors who give every character a unique identity. The wide range of supplementary content assures you several dozen hours of gameplay in the single player campaign alone. The game also boasts some fantastic visual design and an excellent soundtrack by Clint Mansell.
It is all but confirmed that we will see more from this series, and we can only hope that later games match the incredible heights reached by Mass Effect 3 and its predecessors. In practically every way, Mass Effect 3 is an incredible RPG and a game that we can wholeheartedly recommend as the Best Western Role-Playing Game of 2012.
Get a look at new takes on the Arbalest, Sousuke Sagara and Kaname Chidori
While Hiroshi Ueda’s run of Full Metal Panic! Sigma in Dragon Age is soon ending, an interesting new pick has been made for the next entry in the military mech franchise. Tetsuro Kasahara, author of the sports/political mech manga Rideback from alt magazine Ikki, will be bringing the new Full Metal Panic! 0 to Dragon Age. Get a preview after the jump.
Some new details on Dragon Age III have been revealed at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo through producer Cameron Lee’s twitter account.
Cinematic designer John Parry stated that “he’s had a longer pre-production on Dragon Age 3 than any other BioWare project he’s worked on.” He also piques the interest of those who disliked Dragon Age II‘s smaller scale levels by saying “one level in Dragon Age 3 is as big as all of Dragon Age 2‘s levels.” Creative Mike Laidlaw further whet the appetite of the fans by saying “customization is going to be bigger than Dragon Age: Origins.”
There were also three pieces of concept art tweeted which Bioware has since reposted to their blog. Check them out below.
Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, the co-founders of Bioware, have announced today that they will be leaving the studio. Since 1995, Zeschuk and Muzyka have been the leaders behind the company that became famous for titles like Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age.
On his blog, Zeschuk mentions that in his future, he is “going to be spending significant time with family and friends, as well as pursuing some personal passion-driven projects related to craft beer.” This also includes plans for a web-based show about beers and the people who make them.
Muzyka, on his blog, says, “I now desire to take on a brand new entrepreneurial challenge. I believe strongly in the power of free enterprise… I’ll also be spending time getting involved with more charities in education, health care, and animal rights… I am also spending more time learning about the work being done to defend human rights and civil liberty across the world.”
What started as a small video game company borne from their success in the medical field (along with co-founder Augustine Yip) became one of the biggest names in gaming today. This change signals a new era for Bioware, but this day is also a celebration for what Zeschuk, Muzyka, and Bioware were able to achieve in the last 17 years.
Sources: [Greg Zeschuk's Blog, Ray Muzyka's Blog]
Today, BioWare officially announced the latest entry in the Dragon Age series of RPGs, entitled Dragon Age III: Inquisition.
The game has been rumoured for some time, but this marks the first official confirmation of its existence. Inquisition will run on a version of the Frostbite 2 engine used in Battlefield 3, specially optimised for role-playing games.
Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal, says that the game will provide “a great story with choices that matter, a massive world to explore, deep customization and combat that is both tactical and visceral.” He also states that many of the team who made the original Dragon Age game, Origins, are on the development team for Inquisition.
This is all that has been officially announced, but a questionnaire about Dragon Age which was circulating about a month ago suggests that you play as the leader of the Inquisition, the successor to the Chantry and the Templar Order. This idea is supported by the game’s title.
Inquisition is currently set for release in late 2013.
