Category: Video Games

Mac Walters, the lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3 and production director on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf who had been with BioWare for nearly two decades, has officially left the company as “with a new year comes new adventures.”

Walters took to LinkedIn to share the news, and he described how these past 19 years have been a true “life-changing experience” and that the choice to leave was very tough.

“With a new year comes new adventures,” Walters wrote. “As some of you already know, at the end of last year I decided to leave BioWare. These past 19 years have been a life-changing experience to say the least, and it made the choice to go very difficult. I’ve worked with so many wonderful people and had the privilege to be a part of the most amazing teams and projects. It’s hard to fathom it all, and I know I’ll be reflecting on it for years to come.

“Thank you to everyone I’ve had the joy of working with, and I wish everyone at BioWare the very best in everything you do. It’s truly been a pleasure.”

Walters first joined Bioware in September of 2003 as a writer for Jade Empire and his second position was a senior writer on the original Mass Effect. He would then take on the role of lead writer for Mass Effect 2 and 3 and would move on to Anthem as its narrative director after the Mass Effect trilogy came to an end.

He returned to the world of Mass Effect with Andromeda as its creative director after Anthem, he then served as a creative director for Bioware until June 2019, and then he became the project director for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Most recently, he was working as a production director on Dragon Age Dreadwolf, which still has no release date. We did recently get a new in-game cinematic trailer, however, that sets the stage for the upcoming RPG.

As for what the future holds for Mac? His linked in says he is on a “career break” and a “personal goal pursuit.” After all he’s done for the world of video games, it’s safe to say he deserves it. Thanks, Mac.

For more, check out our review of every BioWare game and see where Mac’s games rank on our list of the top 100 games of all time.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Warning: contains full spoilers for episode 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us.

HBO’s The Last of Us is a mostly faithful adaptation of the hit PlayStation game. But just how close to its source material does it get? We’ve gathered images from episode 2 and put them next to stills from Naughty Dog’s masterpiece to see just how similar some of it is.

For more on The Last of Us, check out our review of Episode 2 or our spoiler-free review of the entirety of season 1. You can also take a look at how The Last of Us makes its opening even more heartbreaking than the game, dig in on who the fireflies are, and then ponder whether or not The Last of Us can bring the zombie genre back to life.