It's unusual for video game studios to have a presence at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, given that they have their own annual E3 convention in Los Angeles in June.
Still, if the release schedules fit, some make the trek to Las Vegas to show off their upcoming games.
Such was the case with Edmonton-based BioWare, which demonstrated its much anticipated Mass Effect 3 for reporters.
The science fiction/action role-playing game, which hits stores on March 6, differs from the first two entries in the series in that it will have voice interaction on the Xbox 360 through Microsoft's Kinect peripheral. The game will also be available for the PlayStation 3 and PCs.
Aaryn Flynn, general manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal — the two studios that developed Mass Effect 3 — discussed the upcoming game with CBCNews.ca.
CBCNews.ca: Why has the Mass Effect series been so successful?
Flynn: It's got a great story and interaction with characters. It's got really great immersion in a science fiction universe.
What's the story synopsis of the third game?
The first two games built to this invasion of the Earth by the Reapers. Mass Effect 3 picks up with the Reapers having invaded and Commander Shepherd having to go off and save the galaxy from the threat. It's the ultimate battle against the Reapers.
Mass Effect 3 has voice control for the Xbox 360 Kinect. How is that going to enhance the game?
It improves the immersion. When we first experimented with it, I thought, 'I wonder how it will turn out,' but what I really like about it is when you're speaking to the game and Kinect is picking up on it, you're focused on different things.
You're using a different modality in games that you're not used to, even as your fingers are controlling other parts of the game. To hear the game respond to that, to give a command to a character and hear the character respond, 'On it!' or 'Let's do it,' you really feel like you're sitting in this battlefield with these guys as a team.
In the demo, there were situations where it seemed like it might be easier to simply push a button on the controller. How did you approach this when designing the voice control?
The decision we made as we started to implement it more and more was to put as many optional Kinect commands in as possible, to give players the choice.
Everything with the Kinect is also available via the controller so every player will find the balance that they're comfortable with.
Beyond that, there's the conversation system so you can actually speak the paraphrases that Mass Effect is famous for and interact with the characters that way.
Then there's the environmental interactions, such as 'Open' and 'Activate' — people will find the right balance. We wanted to make sure we erred on the side of everybody and give as many options as possible.
In your tests, did anyone find it strange that they were talking to a game?
Absolutely. Every player is going to have a bar of where and how they want to control their experience.
Some people will say, 'I don't like to use this command,' while others will say, 'I love this command' and repeat it over and over. That's why we decided to give as many commands as possible. There's dozens and dozens in the game as it is.
What about gesture control, did you not have enough time to look at incorporating it?
Gesture control is quite a bit more complicated to input and beyond that one thing we're really keen on is to find a real authentic experience for gesture control. We didn't think we had that with Mass Effect 3. With voice control, because we naturally had squad and people commands, it seemed to fit much better with the brand.
Aside from Kinect, what else is new in the game?
We've done lots to improve the game play over the past couple of years. We've brought back the deeper and more immersive [role-playing] elements, we've improved graphic fidelity and there are more animations.
There are more modifications to weapons and armour. We've added a multiplayer mode for you to play with your friends. Lots and lots of new stuff overall.
It seems like console makers are heading into the next generation of hardware. Has BioWare become comfortable with the current generation or are you excited about what's next?
I can't comment on anything else that's going on but certainly we're very comfortable with the current systems we work with. We've made quite a few games on them now.
That said, it's always nice to shake things up a bit and have a challenge. You get developers who want to try new things and experiment with more powerful hardware. That's just the way our industry works.
Have developers become too comfortable with the current hardware generation, in that they're releasing franchise games quickly with little that's actually new?
Yeah, certainly as you get comfortable with the current generation of hardware there's the desire to, 'Oh, maybe we can get a game done faster.' That's team by team and studio by studio.
For us at BioWare, we're really keen to get games out there that are really high quality and have the level of polish they need and so we can take feedback from our fans and hear what they liked and didn't like so we can improve the games.
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