Interview BioWare on art, sound and sharing with DICE

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect 3

<p><a href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/310171/interviews/mass-effect-3-bioware-on-art-sound-and-sharing-with-dice/" target="_blank">Part II</a> of the Mass Effect 3 interview over at CVG is up. It contains nothing of interest, but once you've posted part I you kinda want to wrap it up.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What sort of interaction is there between the gameplay guys and your team?</strong><br /><br /> <strong>DA</strong>: It's a lot of back and forth. We let the designers know exactly what's important to us on the art side - maybe the way the sun hits inside a room or something that we just don't want to lose - and design will work with us exactly how to keep that. <br /><br /> We have a lot more integrated cover, so you don't walk into a room and immediately know there's going to be a combat there. It's about making these spaces feel natural and not forced. It shouldn't ever feel forced, by gameplay or art - it really should be this perfect marriage.<br /><br /> <strong>NL</strong>: Yeah, you don't want to walk through a room and go, "okay nothing's going to happen here. There's no cover for me here," and then you walk around the next corner and you just see a sea of these chest-high things - you basically see the fight ahead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103765-mass-effect-3-interview-part-two.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[racofer]

This is just like that thing Skyway was talking about.

 

[G.O.D]

At least you know it will be a good shooter when DICE is involved.

 

[circ]

We have a lot more integrated cover, so you don't walk into a room and immediately know there's going to be a combat there. It's about making these spaces feel natural and not forced. It shouldn't ever feel forced, by gameplay or art - it really should be this perfect marriage.

OH MY FUCKING GAWD. LIKE. OH MY GAWD. YOU DIDN GIRL YOU DIDN. NO YOU DIDN JUST PULL THAT LINE.

Integrated cover? What the fuck does that mean? You replaced popamole boxes where you fucking immediately knew there was going to be another samey encounter, with bathtubs piled on top of another? Is that what you did? YOU PEOPLE WOULDN'T KNOW DESIGN IF IT SUCKED YOU OFF AND THEN ASKED YOU TO CONVERT TO ISLAM.

 

[Sceptic]

Mass Effect is basically a world without denim - there are few things recognisable from the present.

This one made me laugh out loud.

Yeah, you don't want to walk through a room and go, "okay nothing's going to happen here. There's no cover for me here," and then you walk around the next corner and you just see a sea of these chest-high things - you basically see the fight ahead.

OK, so if they know this is a bad thing... why did they design the entirety of ME2 like this?

BioWare tend to build spaces that often feel like they exist only to have a fight in, not to live and work in. How important is it to fix that?

Interesting to see this brought up as a criticism. Now, remind me why no one thought of mentioning this in the past 10 or so years?

 

[Spectacle]

Yeah, you don't want to walk through a room and go, "okay nothing's going to happen here. There's no cover for me here," and then you walk around the next corner and you just see a sea of these chest-high things - you basically see the fight ahead.

OK, so if they know this is a bad thing... why did they design the entirety of ME2 like this?

Except for the areas that start empty but have cover automagically pop up when the shooting starts.

 

[Drakron]

Except for the areas that start empty but have cover automagically pop up when the shooting starts.

I dont recall that ever happening in ME2, there were a few areas that had cover but no combat takes place on those.