BioWare’s Body Horror?

Plug & Play

      It takes a certain amount of faith to spend several years in medical college, only to leave and set up a fledgling games studio, but that’s precisely what Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk  did back in 1995. The good doctors are now best known as the founders of BioWare, among the most respected developers currently active; with such games as Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age and Mass Effect among their key titles, BioWare’s track record speaks for itself.
      Things have changed a great deal for BioWare’s staff in recent years – its founders retired in 2012, leaving the studio under the ownership of EA. It’s now headed up by Matthew Bromberg, and under his leadership, BioWare’s currently working on an as-yet unnamed Mass Effect sequel, and a similarly unspecified Star Wars game.
      What we weren’t expecting, however, was for the studio – previously best known for its action RPGs to suddenly branch out into the survival horror genre. However, if we’re interpreting a recent teaser trailer correctly, this is precisely the direction BioWare’s newest title is going.
      On the 24th July, games journalists and other industry types were sent an ominous email which read, “The time is near… they are watching. Your power is rising. You’ve been chosen.”Then, at midnight, a live-action trailer appeared online ( youtu.be/32bLpcBoxT8), which promptly assaulted the viewer with a series of nightmarish images and sounds: a hooded figure running down a dark, cluttered alleyway, glancing back at something off-camera. A René Magrite-like shot of a man in a black suit, sitting in an opulent living room, his head obscuredby thick black smoke emanating from his ice-white collar. The same hooded figure, struggling to open a car door, only to see that is doppelganger is already sitting inside, staring back at him. What can it all mean?
      For now, BioWare isn’t saying – at the time of writing, the game’s title hasn’t even been announced yet – and a visit to a website (www.youve-been-chosen.com) doesn’t reveal much either. Only the words, “Cologne, Germany” hint at more details to come: this is the venue for the annual Gamescon conference, so it’s pretty certain there’ll be further announcements later this month.
      There’s some speculation that BioWare’s nightmarish project might be the rumored collaboration between the studio and Failbetter Games, the UK team behind the online adventures Fallen London and Sunless Sea. Whether this is true or not, it certainly looks as though BioWare’s exploring some refreshingly different territory with this new project. A survival horror game with the freedom of choice of Mass Effect? Yes please, BioWare.

Online

      Firefly’s the kind of cult TV show that, had it been cancelled by Fox in 2014 (rather than in 2002), would have probably been snapped up by a company like Netflix, or at least turned into a web series. Unfortunately, time was never on Firefly’s side, and Joss Whedon’s sci-fi adventure was axed after just out after just 11 episodes had reached TV screens. The series’ fans remained unusually devoted, though, which explains why, more than a decade later, it’s getting its own MMO in the shape of Firefly Online.
      To coincide with the San Diego Comic Con in late July, developer Sparkplug Games unveiled the first trailer for the game ( youtu.be/8y98otfH9X8), which will be a space exploration sim where players customise their own ship and blast off for their own Firefly-inspired adventures, which involves gathering your crew, completing missions and trading items. The trailer’s largely given over to a procession of wide-eyed Browncoats, each describing how they’d tailor their chosen ship, but the big reveal comes at the end: series star Nathan Fillion, who played rough-and-ready hero Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds will be making appearances in the game, along with the rest of Firefly’s original cast, including Alan Tudyk, who the developer says will be playing “multiple roles”.
      This will certainly give Firefly Online an air of authenticity, especially with the returning cast being joined by some remarkably familiar ship designs – among them the Kepler, a new ship created by Tim Earls, the designer of the craft from the original series. Cast and ships aside, though, what of the game itself? Given that Firefly Online’s a browser game created in Unity, it’s fair to say that it won’t be as sharp-looking as something like Star Citizen, and if you’re looking for a sheer scale, you might be better off waiting for something like No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous – according to Sparkplug, Firefly Online will have 200 worlds to explore, which is a far cry from the procedurally generated galaxies of those other games. Then again, Firefly Online will be taking a more story-led approach to space trading, rather than a purely open-ended sandbox, so if Sparkplug can make the narrative aspect of the game right, Firefly Online is likely to be a must-have title for fans looking to return to the uiverse Joss Whedon created over a decade ago. Updates on the game's progress will be found at keepflying.com.

Incoming

      The summer months are a bit of a drought for major new games, which then quickly gives way to a tidal wave of releases by autumn. This year’s no exception, with the release of Assassin’s Creed: Unity now mere weeks away. Unity relocates the stalk-and-slash franchise to Revolution-era Paris, a city whose grime and stunning architecture have been lovingly replicated with more fidelity than ever. Behind the graphics, there’s a new, improved control system, which will apparently make for smoother rooftop running antics and more involving combat.
      Unity’s powered by Ubisoft’s new Anvil engine, and as you can see in the latest trailer (youtu.be/Y5tBpPxdZGs), the results appear stunning from a technical standpoint. The developer’s rightly proud of what it’s created: a replica of 18th-century Paris that is so detailed that its most famous landmark, Notre Dame Cathedral, took a year to build all by itself. The most exciting part of this shiny new engine, though, is the addition of a cooperative mode where four players can join together as a quartet of stealthy assassins. Smoother graphics aside, elements like this could bring freshness to Ubisoft’s well established franchise. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is out on the 28th October.