It’s Monday, and I’m both busy and lazy. So instead of making numerous posts out of this I thought I’d cram it all into one. :’)

Bioware is making MMORPGs
The king of D&D RPGs (Icewindale, Baldur’s Gate, Planescape Tourment, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire) is expanding into the world of the MMORPG. The production will come out of a new Austin Texas office (old-school Bioware is located in Edmonton).

BioWare Austin has already begun work on a Massively Multiplayer Online roleplaying game (MMORPG) title; the new game will mark BioWare’s debut in the Massively Multiplayer Online space. BioWare has recruited some of the top talent in MMO and RPG development, both to manage the development efforts at BioWare Austin and to collaborate with the experienced team at BioWare Edmonton, to develop a game that combines the best of BioWare’s great past games with a compelling persistent online experience. Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare’s Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic(TM), Neverwinter Nights(TM), Baldur’s Gate(TM) and Baldur’s Gate II(TM). Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment’s Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online(TM) as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.

The complete press release is here. They have some interesting talent there, including a Sonly Online VP — hopefully he wasn’t kidding the skidmark of a sequel that is EQ2.

Field Ops: A First Person Shooter RTS hybrid
There have been some mods that have attempted the merging of these two game genres, and some pretty lackluster games (Savage). Field Ops seems to be going all out though - bringing a RTS viewpoint onto an environment similar to Battlefield 2. Although BF2 does have a commander role, their vantage point and interaction is done through a pretty static 2D map. Field Ops seems far more colorful and alive.

Game Features:

• 5 Unique locations
• More than 8 different classes per side
• First-Person shooter AAA quality graphics
• True to life Physics engine
• Immersive and exciting multiplayer modes featuring a worldwide ranking system
• Real vehicles and weapons for the most authentic Special Forces experience
• Fight on the ground, in the air and over water
• Motion-captured animations for the most realistic experience ever
• Tactical A.I. allowing for exciting gameplay in both RTS and FPS views

Field Ops has a teaser site with about 7 or so screenshots. Doesn’t look bad, but we’ll defininetly need more news that this before we get too excited over the game. After all, it’s going-up against BF2 expansions and the new UT for Christmas sales. Field Ops is set to ship in November.

God of War 2 coverage
Game informer has some news on the PS2 sequel to one of the best games of last year (that was last year, wasn’t it?). Joystiq.com has some scans of the magazine article which are too small to read, but offer-up some great screenshots.
Enjoy!