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84-461: The Illusive Man is a fictional character in BioWare 's Mass Effect video game franchise . He is the leader of the pro-human group Cerberus. The Illusive Man wears an open suit that connotes both futuristic style and the "casual swagger of a charming billionaire". His eye implants make him appear slightly inhuman. He is normally seen in an empty office with no indication of his living arrangements. He

168-421: A "darker side to some of the great things humanity's discovered", the object of his search. During the course of the games, the writers did not want to reveal too much about him. His character development's "basic idea" was "one of these guys we don't know much about". BioWare considered his backstory and motivations, but could not elaborate in the games due to this narrative technique. A "shadowy puppetmaster", he

252-519: A Collector ship, which turns out to be a trap—one that the Illusive Man knew about. At the end of the game, the Illusive Man sends Shepard to the Collector base, where the player decides whether to disable and turn over the base, or to destroy the base and cut all ties with Cerberus. The character returns in the sequel to Mass Effect , Mass Effect 3 . He is first seen as a hologram on Mars when Shepard

336-407: A dying star reinforces his desire for full control of his environment. Only a small amount of concept art was made for the Illusive Man's room. The Illusive Man is described as believing " the end justifies the means ", and was made to be morally gray . John Jackson Miller , who penned the script for Mass Effect: Evolution , Invasion , and Redemption , personally viewed him as a searcher that saw

420-500: A foil is created between Laertes and Prince Hamlet to elaborate the differences between the two men. In Act V Scene 2, Prince Hamlet tells Laertes that he will fence with him and states, "I'll be your foil , Laertes" (5.2.272). This word play reveals the foil between Hamlet and Laertes that was developed throughout the play. George and Lennie are foils to each other in John Steinbeck's 1937 novella Of Mice and Men . Lennie

504-468: A foil to her sister Elizabeth Bennet 's lively and distracted nature. Similarly, in William Shakespeare 's tragedy Julius Caesar , the character Brutus has foils in the two characters Cassius and Mark Antony . In the play Romeo and Juliet , Romeo and Mercutio serve as character foils for one another, as well as Macbeth and Banquo in the play Macbeth . In the tragedy Hamlet ,

588-463: A new studio in Montreal , Quebec , to assist with existing projects as necessary. During the mid-2000s, BioWare staff developed a number of video game projects which were ultimately canceled. A handheld spin-off for Mass Effect franchise titled Mass Effect: Corsair , inspired by the gameplay of Star Control and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly explored as a potential project for

672-585: A number of changes in BioWare's corporate status. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and Pandemic Studios (itself founded by former Activision employees) would be joining forces (with each maintaining their own branding), with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the newly named VG Holding Corp. partnership. On 11 October 2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp. had been bought by Electronic Arts for US$ 775   million (equivalent to $ 1.14 billion in 2023). BioWare therefore became

756-511: A pro-human group officially regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Citadel Council and the humans' Systems Alliance. The character was voiced by Martin Sheen in both Mass Effect 2 and 3 . According to Casey Hudson , Sheen really got into the role. Sheen has said he would suck on a pen to simulate smoking when recording lines, as he himself did not smoke. At one point, the Illusive Man

840-542: A restructuring of their role-playing and massively multiplayer online games development into a new group that included both Mythic Entertainment and BioWare. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was appointed the group general manager of this newly formed "BioWare Group". BioWare's other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, became the Group Creative Officer for the new MMORPG studio group. BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka. Near

924-474: A ship, crew, and dossiers on potential squadmates. Over the course of the game, he sends Shepard to investigate Freedom's Progress, a recently abducted colony where Shepard discovers that the Collectors, a mysterious and reclusive race of insect-like humanoids, are behind the abductions and the attack that killed Commander Shepard at the beginning of the game, Horizon, a colony in the process of being abducted; and

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1008-412: A subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot. This is especially true in the case of metafiction and the " story within a story " motif. A foil usually either differs dramatically or is an extreme comparison that is made to contrast a difference between two things. Thomas F. Gieryn places these uses of literary foils into three categories, which Tamara A. P. Metze explains as: those that emphasize

1092-480: A unit of EA, but still retained its own branding. In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game Mass Effect . The following year, BioWare released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on the Nintendo DS , its first title for a handheld game console . Later, EA announced that BioWare would merge with Mythic Entertainment , another division of EA who would rename itself as BioWare Mythic after

1176-470: A video game company. To make their first game, they pooled their resources, $ 100,000 CAD each, which resulted in capital of $ 300,000. The company was incorporated on 1 February 1995, though formally launched on 22 May 1995. Their first game, Shattered Steel , began its life as a proof-of-concept demo, similar to the MechWarrior games . This demo was submitted to ten publishers, seven of whom returned to

1260-538: A year after the release. Obsidian Entertainment (successor to Black Isle Studios) used an updated version of BioWare's Aurora, titled "Electron Engine", to produce Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and its three expansion packs (2007–2009). Like the original, the Electron toolset was released with the game. The Polish studio CD Projekt Red used the Aurora Engine to develop The Witcher , the 2007 video game adaptation of

1344-476: Is also a smoker, a womaniser and a drinker, but is very charming. This helps him serve as a foil to the Commander. Adrien Cho, producer for Mass Effect 2 , described him as being both the best and worst traits of humanity rolled into one person. Mass Effect 2 , a 2010 action role-playing video game , marked the Illusive Man's first in-game appearance. The player character and protagonist, Commander Shepard ,

1428-458: Is an instance of "[w]hen celebrity voice-acting goes very right". When reviewing Mass Effect 2 , IGN's Erik Brudvig called Sheen's performance a "high point" in the game's cast. Similarly, Gameplanet 's Aylon Herbet called him a "show-stealing personality". Tom Francis of PC Gamer criticized how the player was forced to work with the Illusive Man and Cerberus in Mass Effect 2 , saying that it

1512-606: Is based on BioWare's previous contribution to the Star Wars franchise, and was announced on 21 October 2008, although BioWare had first mentioned an unspecified new collaboration with LucasArts in October the previous year. The other games were Dragon Age II , the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins , and Mass Effect 3 . Following the release of Mass Effect 3 in March 2012, numerous players complained about its endings failing to fulfill

1596-480: Is huge and strong as a bull but mentally slow, while George is small, skinny and very smart. In Frank Herbert 's 1965 science fiction novel Dune , Feyd-Rautha serves as the narrative foil to Paul Atreides . While both characters are heirs of powerful noble houses, feature in the plans of the Bene Gesserit , and have received extensive combat training, Paul is compassionate and wishes to avoid war while Feyd

1680-555: Is largely symmetrical, and is meant to appear almost "perfect". He smokes, drinks, and is in his fifties but shows no signs of age due to in-universe medical improvements. His eye implants were designed to make him appear slightly inhuman. These implants are explained in Evolution as the result of interaction with a mysterious artifact that huskified those who directly touched it. For his indoctrinated appearance in Mass Effect 3 , numerous facial concepts were drawn to determine just how much

1764-602: Is portrayed as interested solely in the acquisition of power. In the Harry Potter series, Draco Malfoy can be seen as a foil to the Harry Potter character; Professor Snape enables both characters "to experience the essential adventures of self-determination " but they make different choices; Harry chooses to oppose Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters wholeheartedly, whereas Draco struggles with his allegiances through

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1848-459: Is recalled to life by the Illusive Man's Cerberus after being killed by an unknown ship at the beginning of the game. The Illusive Man debriefs and tells Shepard about how someone has been abducting human colonies and may be working with the Reapers, a sentient machine race dedicated to wiping out all advanced intelligent life. To help Shepard put an end to the abductions, he provides the Commander with

1932-409: Is retrieving data to stop the concurrent Reaper invasion of Earth. The Illusive Man tells Shepard his plan to control the Reapers and attempts to foil Shepard when Shepard resists. Over the course of the game, the Illusive Man commands Cerberus to attack the planet Sur'Kesh, homeworld of the salarians, to instigate a war between two allied races and to take control of the allied interspecies forces' base,

2016-459: Is voiced by Martin Sheen . The character first appeared in 2008's novel Ascension , and made his video game debut in Mass Effect 2 as a supporting character. In the game, he arranges to revive Commander Shepard from death, provides Shepard with a ship and crew, and sends Shepard on several missions against the human-abducting Collectors. The Illusive Man later appears in Mass Effect 3 as

2100-602: The Icewind Dale series (2000–2002). When Beamdog sought out a license from BioWare and started engineering enhanced versions of these games in 2012, they created an updated version of the Infinity Engine, referred to as the "Infinity Enhanced Engine" (alternatively Infinity Plus Engine or Infinity Bless Engine). The Aurora Engine was the successor to the Infinity Engine, featuring full 3D environments, real-time lighting and shadows, and surround sound . BioWare used

2184-457: The Mass Effect franchise , Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was announced as well as an all-new entry to the franchise that had just started development. On 3 December 2020, both Hudson and Mark Darrah, the executive producer on the Dragon Age series, announced their departures from the studio. Electronic Arts stated that work on the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games would still continue at

2268-598: The Nintendo DS in 2008. A sequel to Jade Empire was under development at one point. The project transitioned into a spiritual successor codenamed Revolver , which was canceled by 2008. Trent Oster led a team which worked on a spy-themed role-playing game codenamed Agent prior to his second departure from BioWare in 2009. Unused concept art for Agent and Revolver are featured in the art book BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development , published in January 2021. On 24 June 2009, Electronic Arts announced

2352-649: The Polish fantasy novel series , although the rendering module was rewritten from scratch. BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora, titled the Odyssey Engine, to produce Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and their first original intellectual property role-playing game Jade Empire in 2005. The Odyssey Engine was the first BioWare engine to allow developing for video game consoles , with both Knights of

2436-468: The fan community to implement original adventures using the technology of BioWare's games. BioWare created the Infinity Engine to use it as a core component for development of the Baldur's Gate series (1998–2001), which were 2D role-playing video games based on Dungeons & Dragons . The engine was also used by Black Isle Studios to create the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment (1999) and

2520-514: The heightened contrast (this is different because ...), those that operate by exclusion (this is not X because...), and those that assign blame ("due to the slow decision-making procedures of government..."). The word foil comes from the old practice of backing gems with foil to make them shine more brightly. Shakespeare refers directly to the origin of the term "foil" in Henry IV, Part 1 . Prince Hal says that when he starts behaving better,

2604-402: The mass relays . In one incident, Jack leads two other mercenaries, Ben Hislop and Eva Coré, in attacking a group of turians, and captures one as prisoner. The turian, named Desolas Arterius, lead them to an artifact that turns Ben into a zombie-like monster and leaves Jack with strange eyes and the mysterious ability to understand alien languages. After being captured and subsequently released by

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2688-523: The 2000s decade, the Illusive Man placed 27th. Giant Bomb 's 2010 Game of the Year listed the Illusive Man as the character with which they would most like to party. Game Informer ' s Joe Juba listed the Illusive Man's appearance in Mass Effect: Retribution as a reason to read the book. Dan Ryckert, also writing for Game Informer , felt that Bruce Greenwood would best suit the character in

2772-412: The Aurora Engine to produce their 2002 Neverwinter Nights , as well as two expansion packs. The game included the Aurora toolset, a collection of tools allowing users to create their own digital adventure modules to be played either in single-player or in online multiplayer. The toolset enjoyed great popularity among the modding community, with over a thousand fan-made modules produced in it within half

2856-495: The BioWare team, which is already developing for the Star Wars franchise." In November 2013, teaser images from the next instalment of the Mass Effect series were released. At E3 2014 , BioWare Edmonton announced working on a new (unnamed) original intellectual property in addition to continuing their established series. Another new IP, titled Shadow Realms is an episodic 4 vs. 1 story-driven online action role-playing game, and

2940-576: The Citadel. He makes another appearance on the asari home planet, Thessia, where he again tries to convince Shepard that controlling the Reapers is the best solution. Shepard refuses and suggests that the Illusive Man is indoctrinated. In response, the Illusive Man commands the assassin Kai Leng to steal vital information necessary to combat the Reapers. Shepard tracks the VI to Cerberus's headquarters and discovers videos of

3024-489: The Illusive Man becomes obsessed with indoctrination and decides to study it. The 2011 Mass Effect: Evolution comic mini series reveals the Illusive Man's backstory as a mercenary named Jack Harper under the command of General Williams, the grandfather of Ashley Williams . The story opens during the First Contact War, the war between the alien turians and humanity upon the latter's discovery of extraterrestrial life and

3108-463: The Illusive Man having himself implanted with Reaper technology and warning Kai Leng of Shepard. At a control panel in the Citadel, the Illusive Man encounters Shepard as well as David Anderson, who is taken hostage and fatally shot by the Illusive Man. Depending on the player's prior in-game choices, Shepard may convince him that he is indoctrinated, which causes the Illusive Man to shoot himself, with his final words revealing that he attempted to resist

3192-434: The Illusive Man is targeted by an extremist group, The Biotic Underground. The Illusive Man is the main antagonist of Mass Effect: Invasion , a 2012 comic series. The character appears in the fourth issue of the 2012 Mass Effect: Homeworlds , where he monitors Liara for her Prothean research on Reaper-defeating technologies. He sends a Phantom to kill her, which she defeats. He attempts to contact her afterwards. claiming

3276-524: The Odyssey Engine and, among other things, supported PhysX hardware acceleration. It was used to produce Dragon Age: Origins (2009) and its expansion pack Awakening (2010). Like Neverwinter Nights , Origins was released with a toolset to allow the players to run their own adventure modules on the Eclipse Engine. An upgraded version of the Eclipse Engine, internally known as the Lycium Engine,

3360-453: The Old Republic . They proceeded to make several other successful games based on original intellectual property: Jade Empire , the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series. In 2011, BioWare launched their first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Star Wars: The Old Republic . BioWare was founded by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk , and Augustine Yip. Of

3444-616: The Old Republic and Jade Empire originally released for the Xbox before being ported to the PC platform. Obsidian Entertainment used the Odyssey Engine to develop Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004), a sequel to the original Knights of the Old Republic . BioWare maintained limited oversight on Obsidian's development of The Sith Lords , as well as Neverwinter Nights 2 . The Eclipse Engine succeeded

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3528-541: The Old Republic , Jade Empire , and Dragon Age: Origins , as well as the game director of The Old Republic MMO, left the studio after 22 years in July 2018. On 24 September 2019, it was announced that BioWare had moved from their old location on Calgary Trail into 3 stories of the Epcor Tower in downtown Edmonton. On 7 November 2020 or "N7 Day", a date first declared in 2012 by BioWare as an annual "worldwide celebration" of

3612-475: The Reaper indoctrination. If Shepard shoots him instead; he remarks how beautiful Earth is while gazing out through the Citadel arms, wishing Shepard could see it the same way, before succumbing to his wounds. Outside of the video games, the Illusive Man had earlier appeared in the 2008 Mass Effect: Ascension , the 2010 comic series Mass Effect: Redemption , and the 2010 novel Mass Effect: Retribution , wherein

3696-464: The Turians, Jack begins to search for clues about his mysterious visions of destruction. He and Eva were later captured by Desolas and his brother Saren who revealed to have custody of Ben. Jack and Eva are brought to a temple on the turian homeworld of Palaven where Desolas has excavated an artifact. Desolas reveals that he plans to use the artifact to create a new breed of turian soldiers. Jack realizes that

3780-660: The bad guy in the game." Sheen himself was a vocal critic of Trump throughout his tenure as US President . BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton , Alberta . It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka , Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American publisher Electronic Arts . BioWare specializes in role-playing video games , and achieved recognition for developing highly praised and successful licensed franchises: Baldur's Gate , Neverwinter Nights , and Star Wars: Knights of

3864-503: The change will impress people: "And like bright metal on a sullen ground/ My reformation, glittering o'er my fault/ Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes/ Than that which hath no foil to set it off." In Emily Brontë 's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights , Edgar Linton is described as opposite to main character Heathcliff , in looks, money, inheritance and morals, however similar in their love for Catherine. In Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , an 1818 novel by Mary Shelley ,

3948-404: The character had been indoctrinated, with some referencing Saren Arterius (the main antagonist of the first Mass Effect game ). His suit was designed to both be recognizable as a suit and to combine "an impeccable futuristic style" and "the casual swagger of a charming billionaire". While the suit was designed with futuristic style in mind, it also had to not fit into any particular decade. It

4032-401: The company lost the licence of the game to Atari and part of their Dungeons & Dragons licence to BioWare. After selling their D&D licence to Atari, BioWare developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire . It had publishing relationships with Interplay Entertainment, Infogrames , under its new name Atari, LucasArts , and Microsoft . The next few years saw

4116-401: The company with an offer. A publishing deal for Shattered Steel was eventually signed with Interplay Entertainment . Brent Oster and Trent Oster formed Pyrotek Studios, which continued developing Shattered Steel but broke up a year later, with Trent joining BioWare as an early employee to finish the game. BioWare's first game was released the following year. Shattered Steel ' s release

4200-401: The confirmation ( Dragon Age: Inquisition , Mass Effect: Andromeda , Anthem , and Dragon Age: The Veilguard ) were developed using Frostbite 3 as part of the general move towards a unified technology foundation across all of Electronic Arts' development studios. The full list of awards can be found on their web site. In addition to numerous game awards, in October 2008, the company

4284-715: The deal. The growth of the MMORPG group as part of Electronic Arts in 2008 resulted in three additional studios being added to the BioWare group outside BioWare's original home base in Edmonton. The first, located in Austin, Texas , and headed by industry veterans Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel, was created to work on the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG project. Both the studio and the project were announced on 13 March 2006. On 2 March 2009, BioWare announced it had opened

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4368-451: The developer's earlier promises regarding the conclusion of the trilogy. In response to the controversy surrounding the game's ending sequence , BioWare announced on 5 April that they would reschedule their post-release content production and release an "Extended Cut" DLC that would expand the original endings and address the most common points of critique. The Extended Cut was released as a free download on 26 June 2012. On 18 September 2012,

4452-579: The development of Mass Effect: Andromeda , left in December 2015 and February 2016 respectively. Alexis Kennedy , co-founder of Failbetter Games and the creative director of Dragon Age : The Last Court , joined BioWare as its "first ever guest writer" in September 2016. On 13 September 2016, EA announced the formation of EA Worldwide Studios, which would consist of BioWare Studios, EA Mobile , and Maxis , and led by DICE co-founder Patrick Soderlund . At

4536-568: The end of 2009, BioWare released the critically acclaimed fantasy role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins . In January 2010, BioWare released the sequel to Mass Effect , Mass Effect 2 , which would go on to receive critical acclaim and many awards. The company announced that it would be opening up a new customer service office in Galway , Ireland, in 2011. BioWare completed three major games between 2011 and 2012. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic

4620-488: The forthcoming Mass Effect film. When comparing Mass Effect to previous works that may have inspired the series, IGN's Christopher Monfette compared the character to the Smoking Man from The X-Files . GamesRadar praised his moral sense, putting Illusive Man in their 2018 list of the best villains in video game history (which supersedes their 2013 list) at number 23. Martin Sheen was praised for his voice acting. Sheen

4704-475: The founding team, Muzyka, Zeschuk and Yip had recently graduated from medical school at the University of Alberta , and had a background in programming for use in school. Together with Yip, they had created a medical simulation programme. The three also played video games for recreation, eventually deciding to develop their own. Their success in the medical field provided them with the funding they needed to launch

4788-521: The fourth instalment in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard , was released. The game received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for its Windows and PlayStation 5 versions and "universal acclaim" for its Xbox Series X/S version, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic . Dragon Age: The Veilguard was review bombed by users for being " ' woke ,' ' DEI ,' ' propaganda ,' and ' agenda-driven ' " on Metacritic, causing

4872-578: The general manager of BioWare Austin since 2012; after his promotion, Jeff Hickman took over as the general manager in Austin. Aaryn Flynn remained in charge of BioWare Canada (Edmonton and Montreal) and Jon Van Caneghem , the head of Victory Games and Waystone Studio (also parts of the BioWare label). After acquiring and dismantling LucasArts , The Walt Disney Company announced in May 2013 that Electronic Arts will produce future Star Wars games, "in addition to

4956-496: The new game. In July 2017, Aaryn Flynn, general manager of BioWare, announced that he would depart from the company. Hudson returned to BioWare as its new general manager. Lead story developer for Jade Empire and Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw announced his departure from BioWare in October 2017 after 14 years with the company. James Ohlen , the lead designer of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights , Knights of

5040-412: The new turians would be feral and dangerous, but Desolas ignores his warning. Jack manages to convince Saren that converted turians are a threat just as they begin to turn on Desolas. In the end, Jack escapes as the turian military destroy the beacon and the converted turians. However, he loses both Ben and Eva and creates a manifesto for Cerberus in their name. In Mass Effect: Deception , a 2012 novel,

5124-650: The next Mass Effect [game]" in an interview with Rolling Stone . Amazon MGM Studios officially confirmed on 7 November 2024 that a Mass Effect TV series is in development, following negotiations that had started in late 2021. BioWare executive producer Michael Gamble will also act as an executive producer on the TV adaptation. Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare developed a number of in-house video game engines to serve as technical basis for their games. Some of these engines were then licensed to other companies to develop their own games. Others came with modding toolkits , allowing

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5208-450: The next day after the official announcement of the third Dragon Age title , both Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk , two of the remaining co-founders of BioWare, simultaneously announced they would be retiring from the gaming industry. After almost a year without a formal head, EA appointed Matthew Bromberg the group general manager of the BioWare label on 9 September 2013. Former CEO and president of Major League Gaming , Bromberg worked as

5292-402: The phantom to be a rogue agent, and proposes an alliance between the two. Liara is not convinced and cuts him off. The Illusive Man was received well, and gained accolades for his appearance in Mass Effect 2 . IGN called him the best PC character of 2010: "[a]n enigma, a crusader, an agent of calm in a vortex of chaos". In a vote for by Game Informer for their top 30 favorite characters of

5376-499: The platform to respond with a statement and by removing user reviews which had violated their guidelines. Veilguard is the first BioWare game that allows the player character to identify as transgender . On 7 November 2024, or "N7 Day", BioWare released a patch which added several Mass Effect -inspired costumes into the game. In late October 2024, following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard , creative director John Epler stated that BioWare's attention had "shifted entirely to

5460-585: The previous Mass Effect games. Given the circumstances Electronic Arts had reportedly frozen the entire Mass Effect series, downgrading the BioWare Montréal branch from a leading development team to a support team, and later merging it into Motive Studios . During EA's EA Play pre-E3 press conference on 10 June 2017, BioWare revealed Anthem , a new action role-playing game , with BioWare's story writer, Drew Karpyshyn , who previously worked on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 , contributing to

5544-403: The release of Baldur's Gate . Baldur's Gate II sold two million copies, matching the sales of the first game in the series. However, the success of both Baldur's Gate II and MDK2 was not enough to stabilize Interplay financially. Subsequently, BioWare began to work with Infogrames , which was later renamed to Atari . Neverwinter Nights was originally to be published by Interplay, but

5628-431: The same time, Samantha Ryan, head of EA Mobile and Maxis, was appointed the new head of BioWare Studios. Released in March 2017, Andromeda was at the center of controversy of equal proportions, if not higher than that around the third chapter; starting with heavy criticisms that were addressed before the video game was released to the lukewarm response received by the specialized press and the fandom with sales lower than

5712-475: The secondary antagonist, where he works against Shepard's attempts to destroy the Reapers , wishing to control them instead. He appears in several other Mass Effect comics series and novels. Mass Effect: Evolution reveals the character's origin story as a mercenary named Jack Harper , who worked for the Human System Alliance during the First Contact War. The Illusive Man is the leader of Cerberus,

5796-484: The studio. On 10 December 2020, a teaser trailer for the next Mass Effect game was shown at The Game Awards . On 14 May 2021, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was released on Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 , and the Xbox One series. On 23 August 2023, about 50 BioWare developers were laid off. A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following their layoffs. On 31 October 2024,

5880-496: The success of Baldur's Gate , the Infinity Engine was used for the games Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series . The success of Baldur's Gate was followed by an expansion pack for the game: Tales of the Sword Coast . At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre. The company's initial thought was to develop a sequel to Shattered Steel , but eventually a sequel to MDK from Shiny Entertainment

5964-541: The two main characters— Dr. Frankenstein and his "creature"—are literary foils to each other, functioning to compare one to the other. In David Copperfield , an 1850 novel by Charles Dickens , Edward Murdstone's marriage to David's mother Clara, contrasts with David's future marriage to Dora Spenlow, presented with a different outcome if David had endeavored to subdue his wife's caprices, as did Edward Murdstone with Clara's. In Jane Austen 's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice , Mary's absorption in her studies places her as

6048-400: The use of their intellectual property for political campaigns , though the video was still briefly visible on Trump's Twitter account before it was permanently removed. Former BioWare staff member Manveer Heir , who had worked on the video game series, expressed bemusement over the propaganda video and said that he "love[s] the idea that Trump may think he's the Illusive Man, who is verifiably

6132-470: The voice performance of the Illusive Man by Martin Sheen, in an ostensible show of support for the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump . The original video, which was uploaded on YouTube and had stylistic similarities to a promotional trailer for Mass Effect 2 , was liked and shared on Donald Trump's Twitter and Instagram accounts shortly before it was taken down due to copyright infringement claims by publisher EA, with an issued statement condemning

6216-429: Was Baldur's Gate , with a development cycle of three years. During this time, the three doctors continued to practice medicine. The demands of development later prompted Muzyka and Zeschuck to leave medicine and move into full-time development. Augustine Yip decided to continue with his medical practice. Baldur's Gate sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo . Following

6300-405: Was an interesting idea if an option, but "it's just frustrating" if the player was forced to do it. Nic Vargus, writing for GamesRadar, felt similarly and called it "one of the biggest narrative stretches in Mass Effect ". In April 2016, a propaganda video promoted on various social media channels attracted media attention for its appropriation of audio assets from Mass Effect 2 , which included

6384-503: Was announced on Gamescom 2014 . On 9 February 2015, BioWare Austin announced that development on Shadow Realms would not continue. Casey Hudson , the creator of the Mass Effect series, left BioWare in May 2014, while Drew Karpyshyn , writer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the first two Mass Effect games, returned in 2015. Dragon Age ' s writer David Gaider left BioWare in January 2016. Chris Wynn and Chris Schlerf, both of whom had an important role in

6468-406: Was chosen for development. MDK2 was released on PC, Dreamcast , and eventually PlayStation 2 , offering BioWare their first taste of developing games for consoles . MDK2 drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the Baldur's Gate series for their next project. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was released in 2000, two years after

6552-510: Was decided that the Illusive Man's suit should be open, to give the impression he could do whatever he pleased. The Illusive Man's main setting is his spacious and barren office. His personal quarters are never shown. The holographic computer terminals surrounding his office desk serve two functions: to show his connection to "a vast web of information" while decreasing his humanity for only communicating through holograms. He rarely sees actual people, but rather facsimiles of them. His office view of

6636-496: Was described by IGN as a "modest success" with "decent sales". Two noteworthy points were the deformable terrain (player weapon damage caused craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire could shoot mounted weapons off enemies). A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned for 1998 but never realized. BioWare's founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and pen-and-paper variants of role-playing games . Their next development project, therefore,

6720-544: Was determined to be a role-playing game. When Interplay financed "exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called Battleground: Infinity . Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons licence which it had acquired from Strategic Simulations . Accordingly, Infinity was reworked in line with the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. The result

6804-605: Was named one of Alberta's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal . BioWare's co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were named as members of the Order of Canada in December 2018 "for [their] revolutionary contributions to the video game industry as a developer and co-founder of an internationally renowned studio." Foil (literature) In some cases,

6888-597: Was nominated for best male performance at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards . Seth Schiesel from the New York Times singled out Sheen's performance as an example of BioWare's superbly evocative and believable voice acting and direction, alluding to the perceived similarities between the Illusive Man and Sheen's character Captain Benjamin L. Willard from the film Apocalypse Now as a "a wonderful, delicious riff". David Houghton, writing for GamesRadar , said Sheen's involvement

6972-494: Was planned as the boss fight for Mass Effect 3 , having been altered by the Reapers. However, this was changed to avoid a clichéd ending. Additionally, BioWare felt it did not fit the Illusive Man—the Illusive Man's "weapon" being his intelligence, not physical strength—and wanted to let the player fight a character they recognised. His face was based on a catalog model, a decision made early in his development. He

7056-466: Was used to produce Dragon Age II (2011). In September 2004, BioWare acquired a license to use Unreal Engine 3 from developer Epic Games . Unreal Engine 3 would ultimately be used to develop the original Mass Effect trilogy (2007–2012), as well as the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in 2021. In 2013, EA confirmed that all future games developed by BioWare will be made on DICE's Frostbite engine . All of BioWare's games since

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