Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk Interview
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Q: Has 2003 been a good year for videogames, in your opinion? What have been some of your own personal highlights of the year? And what titles have you/seen played in recent times that you would say have pushed the boundaries of videogames?
Dr. Ray Muzyka: Greg and I (and everyone else at BioWare) try to play almost everything that comes out - we play a variety of games in multiple genres and on all systems. So there are a lot of really good games to talk about in this regard... Having said that, there are some standout titles in recent years (I'm extending the timeframe a bit here from just 2003 to include some games released in the past few years as well).
I think Grand Theft Auto (and also Vice City) was successful as an action game for a number of reasons, among them the degree of perceived freedom that it imparted to players. Halo on Xbox was a brilliant FPS - probably the best FPS I've played on a console, and it was great to see a console FPS finally measure up successfully with the great FPS titles like Half-Life on PC.
A couple years ago I really enjoyed Max Payne with its 'bullet-time' and the original Deus Ex on PC with its freedom in world interactivity. Some recent console platformers like Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter also did some great things.
I'd also hope that fans see that some of BioWare's recent RPG titles are pushing the envelope - for example, Neverwinter Nights was unprecedented in its ability to allow modding and fan-created content (with over 3000 free fan-created mods now available for download and more mods than ever being released following on the release of the Hordes of the Underdark expansion this Christmas it's arguably the most-modded game in existence).
And Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was probably one of the most cinematic/immersive role-playing experiences on console and PC in recent times, what with the full voice over and lip-synching on all characters, and the ability to meaningfully role-play as either a good or evil Jedi and have your choices impact the storyline.
We hope that our upcoming Xbox action-RPG Jade Empire further pushes the envelope as a martial arts role-playing game, providing ability to role-play as either good or evil and an completely unique (for role-playing games that is) combat system.
