TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 12,541
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Vigil
Life... is strength. The gears of this world are tuned for a quick death. Doomity-doom-doom! We is all doooooo-oooomed! The Guardian says for me to be cheerful, and to not repeat what he says all the... oh. I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel. You simians may merely refer to me as 'Sir,' if you prefer a less... syllable-intensive workout. I have seen the throne of the Gods, and it was empty. Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honour matters. There are people like you everywhere. It's just that not everyone has the words for it yet. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it. Let's call that finished. You must gather your party before venturing forth.
I'm not even all that much of a BioWare enthusiast. I'm not sure I'm in mourning, exactly. Partly that's because videogame studios are big corporate abstractions, unworthy of our silly human emotions; the story here is that a bunch of people have lost their livelihoods, after their employers triumphantly thrust themselves into unbelievable debt. And partly it's because, as with any studio of over 30 years standing, BioWare was a much-caulked and jury-rigged ship of Theseus – paddling around in the doldrums of 2026, I'm not entirely sure what I should be mourning, any more.
Reportedly, there were around 50 staff left at BioWare, mostly labouring away on Mass Effect 5, when EA closed them this week. A lot of those who worked on the studio's formative games, including the very first Baldur's Gate, are long departed. The past decade especially has seen a steady exodus of BioWare talent, alongside a barrage of "veteran" start-ups and spiritual successor projects, many of which have sadly now faded and folded.
Within that arc, my own appreciation for BioWare has waxed and waned. I honestly can't remember enough of Baldur's Gate 2 to have strong opinions, though I overall acknowledge its brilliance. I probably felt closest to the studio during the heyday of the original Mass Effect trilogy. The original's Vigil scene still gives me shivers, and who could forget the prodigious act of fan service demolition that was Mass Effect 2's opening, to say nothing of its legendary "Suicide Mission" (I left Mordin behind).
I will always carry a candle for Dragon Age: Inquisition – a generous and unwieldy return to save-the-world-dom after Dragon Age 2's leaner city story, which I cherish for its beautiful Tarot art, its bustling hub castle, and its spread of rambunctious and difficult companion characters. I greatly enjoy Ferelden as a setting, all the different yarns the various races spin about the world's becoming. Still, I bounced right off Dragon Age: The Veilguard's on-the-nose, corridor-like design, despite Nic's guarded exhortations.
Anthem? I was keener on that than a lot of you, but I remember it mostly as a conflicted yet promising aviator with nowhere to go – so much BioWare flourish, floundering through a swamp of live service. I thought Mass Effect: Andromeda was a wide, shallow bowl of lukewarm space-gruel lent relish only by its launch bugs. There are other BioWare games I simply haven't played – Neverwinter Nights (well, apart from the five minutes I managed, before it became clear my computer at the time really couldn't run it) and its celebrated modding toolkit, the Orientalised fable Jade Empire and, whisper it, almighty KOTOR.
As for my experience of BioWare as a games journalist, it's pretty brief and polarised. On the one hand, spending three hours with a preview build of Inquisition in a London warehouse, alongside such guiding lights as former PCGamer scribe Chris Thursten, is probably as to heaven as I'll get before my inevitable deathbed recantation. On the other, there was that humiliating interview with co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka, when I was terrified our mic wouldn't record him properly. I resorted to kneeling between Muzyka and the actual interviewer, jerking the ...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?
Life... is strength. The gears of this world are tuned for a quick death. Doomity-doom-doom! We is all doooooo-oooomed! The Guardian says for me to be cheerful, and to not repeat what he says all the... oh. I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel. You simians may merely refer to me as 'Sir,' if you prefer a less... syllable-intensive workout. I have seen the throne of the Gods, and it was empty. Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honour matters. There are people like you everywhere. It's just that not everyone has the words for it yet. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it. Let's call that finished. You must gather your party before venturing forth.
I'm not even all that much of a BioWare enthusiast. I'm not sure I'm in mourning, exactly. Partly that's because videogame studios are big corporate abstractions, unworthy of our silly human emotions; the story here is that a bunch of people have lost their livelihoods, after their employers triumphantly thrust themselves into unbelievable debt. And partly it's because, as with any studio of over 30 years standing, BioWare was a much-caulked and jury-rigged ship of Theseus – paddling around in the doldrums of 2026, I'm not entirely sure what I should be mourning, any more.
Reportedly, there were around 50 staff left at BioWare, mostly labouring away on Mass Effect 5, when EA closed them this week. A lot of those who worked on the studio's formative games, including the very first Baldur's Gate, are long departed. The past decade especially has seen a steady exodus of BioWare talent, alongside a barrage of "veteran" start-ups and spiritual successor projects, many of which have sadly now faded and folded.
Within that arc, my own appreciation for BioWare has waxed and waned. I honestly can't remember enough of Baldur's Gate 2 to have strong opinions, though I overall acknowledge its brilliance. I probably felt closest to the studio during the heyday of the original Mass Effect trilogy. The original's Vigil scene still gives me shivers, and who could forget the prodigious act of fan service demolition that was Mass Effect 2's opening, to say nothing of its legendary "Suicide Mission" (I left Mordin behind).
I will always carry a candle for Dragon Age: Inquisition – a generous and unwieldy return to save-the-world-dom after Dragon Age 2's leaner city story, which I cherish for its beautiful Tarot art, its bustling hub castle, and its spread of rambunctious and difficult companion characters. I greatly enjoy Ferelden as a setting, all the different yarns the various races spin about the world's becoming. Still, I bounced right off Dragon Age: The Veilguard's on-the-nose, corridor-like design, despite Nic's guarded exhortations.
Anthem? I was keener on that than a lot of you, but I remember it mostly as a conflicted yet promising aviator with nowhere to go – so much BioWare flourish, floundering through a swamp of live service. I thought Mass Effect: Andromeda was a wide, shallow bowl of lukewarm space-gruel lent relish only by its launch bugs. There are other BioWare games I simply haven't played – Neverwinter Nights (well, apart from the five minutes I managed, before it became clear my computer at the time really couldn't run it) and its celebrated modding toolkit, the Orientalised fable Jade Empire and, whisper it, almighty KOTOR.
As for my experience of BioWare as a games journalist, it's pretty brief and polarised. On the one hand, spending three hours with a preview build of Inquisition in a London warehouse, alongside such guiding lights as former PCGamer scribe Chris Thursten, is probably as to heaven as I'll get before my inevitable deathbed recantation. On the other, there was that humiliating interview with co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka, when I was terrified our mic wouldn't record him properly. I resorted to kneeling between Muzyka and the actual interviewer, jerking the ...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?