Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk

(Gamasutra) – The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences is inducting BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk into its hall of fame, and the pair will speak at AIAS’ 2011 D.I.C.E. event.

The BioWare Doctors make the 14th and 15th inductees to the AIAS Hall of Fame, marking the first time the honorees have been a pair rather than an individual. According to AIAS, Muzyka and Zeschuk were chosen for “their emotionally engaging and detailed cinematic games,” which include Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age and other respected titles.

Epic Games president Mike Capps will present the award to the pair at February 10, 2011′s Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas.

Muzyka and Zeschuk attended medical school, where collaborating on education projects like “Acid Base Physiology Simulator” and “Gastroenterology Patient Simulator” led them toward a career in game development; they formed relationships with programmers and game designers and founded BioWare.

Muzyka is described as an “avid poker enthusiast” who won the D.I.C.E. Summit’s traditional poker tournaments in 2006 and 2010, among other distinctions in the game business.

Conversely, Zeschuk is described as being interested in “gourmet food, music and fine beer (in no particular order of importance).” Both are also directors and co-chairmen at interface software company CodeBaby.

“We’re truly honored to represent our teams of passionate, hard-working, creative staff across the BioWare Group within Electronic Arts, and they all share this award with us,” says Muzyka. “Driving BioWare’s success past, present and future are the amazing family of people we have been privileged to work with over the years and our shared core values of quality in our workplace, quality in our products, and entrepreneurship in a context of humility and integrity.”

[Full article at Gamasutra.com]

Demos, Betas and Game Testing; OH MY!

Before games come out, gamers like to test out a game so they can know if they are going to make their $60 purchase a worthy or not worthy choice. Back before this generation of gaming, we used to go to game stores to pick up demo discs but now we down load betas or demos directly to our consoles hard-drive.

DICE earlier this month announced a public PC beta for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but what about the console gamers? Unconfirmed, Game.Co.UK has created a rumor that there will be a demo coming out on February 4th for Xbox Live and Playstation Network. While the game’s original release date was December 31st 2009, the release month is March 2010.

Can this Cinematic Game become Greater than 'Indigo Prophecy'?

Back in 2005, one of the most cinematic games of all-time was released to the Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. This game was Indigo Prophecy, but now the question lairs in possibly legacy:  can this cinematic game attain the mass audience that Indigo Prophecy was unable to achieve on a single platform?

Aimed for an European audience, Heavy Rain will continue the story of the Origami Killer but instead of continue previous character’s stories, Quantic Dream has brought the Origami Killer to new victims. Just announced today via VG247.com, the demo will be released February 11st exclusively to the Playstation Network. While the game is released just two weeks later, this will be perfect timing to give gamers a proper teaser to the title. The game has already recieved a 9/10 review, and a sequel is doubtful.

Quantic Dreams will be relaunching their website a few days before the title is released to the masses. With this being the second title in the ‘Origami Killer’ universe, I have my doubts this will be the last game that you’ll see this infamous and mysterious villian. Until Heavy Rain is released, you can always get your fingers ready by going through the original title.

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