Austin Wintory has shared twenty minutes of music he pitched to BioWare and EA in hopes of joining the Mass Effect 5 development team, following the tragic closure of BioWare last week.
The composer, known for his work on Journey and Sword of the Sea, uploaded the music to his personal YouTube channel. It was made without knowledge of the narrative direction of the new Mass Effect game, but was presented as a surprise to the companies in 2025 as part of years of conversation. Wintory writes in the video that it was a “direct homage” to Mass Effect 1 composers Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, leaning into analog synths and “a more complex integration of the orchestra”, a hybrid approach Wintory compares to The Matrix movies scores.
This collection of music includes a track called The Legacy of Shepard, which includes “deliberate winks” to the original Mass Effect theme. The second track – Sailing the Relays – features the blend of synth and orchestra mentioned earlier quite heavily. All in all, there are eight tracks included in total, with the eighth being a remix of that first Legacy of Shepard composition.
The video’s description contains a sombre message on BioWare’s closure, as well as gratitude towards the music departments involved in the conversations Wintory took part in: “Receiving the news alongside everyone else that EA had decided to not only cancel the project but shutdown BioWare entirely was a deeply felt loss. It’s been hard to see dear friends lose their jobs, and this beloved franchise seemingly vanish forever.
“Thank you nonetheless to everyone at BioWare and EA’s music department for gifting me the chance to dream in your sandbox. It was a privilege to do even that much.”
Wintory is not alone in their sadness. EA’s closure of BioWare, which included the firing of 50 employees and a further 350 across other EA-owned studios, prompted many across the industry to come forward to decry the decision. The decision may even have political ramifications, as one Canadian party leader has expressed a desire to allow BioWare employees to buy back the studio with federal support. This all happened shortly after EA’s $55bn private acquisition from Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Oyunlar Group.
Mentioned in this article
Mass Effect 5
After a period of quiet and a few small updates, Ubisoft has unveiled a massive update coming today to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. This is the game’s last major patch and it includes some long-requested features.
Update 1.0.8 goes live on PC, PS5 and Xbox Seri X/S today (27th October) at 7am PT, 10am ET, 2pm UK. It’s a relatively small download on all platforms – between 2 and 4.5GB – except Xbox, where it’s a whopping 15.5GB.
The new update’s biggest addition is New Game Plus mode, which Ubisoft started working on in July after releasing Resynced. Much of what’s earned and unlocked in your current playthrough carries over to NG+, but not everything does. Here’s what carries over:
- All of Edward’s tools, upgrades, unlocked weapons, and trinkets.
- All the Jackdaw’s upgrades, unlocked officer abilities and pets. Officers will not physically be on ship and need to be recruited again.
- All money, materials and trade goods from inventory. All unlocked customisable outfits and their options.
- Hideout progression, perks, and art collection.
- All Kenway fleet ships.
- Codex items including each treasure map, acquired and completed.
- Items purchased from the store.
While cash and trade goods do carry over, quest-related items do not. Forts also need to be re-taken, as NG+ resets the map’s fog of war.
The NG+ mode has a new exclusive currency – Escudos – earned by completing challenges and looting previously unlocked chests. The currency can be spent on NG+ exclusive outfits and items, and you’ll be able to exchange Reales for Escudos at the General Store, too.
Naturally, the game difficulty increases with each NG+ run. Elite soldiers, for instance, will appear more often, and max rank ships will be a more common sight across the water. You can enter NG+ up to five times, with each further runthrough increasing the challenge.
Patch 1.0.8 also introduces Nightmare Mode, a new brutal difficulty setting. Ubisoft said enemy reaction times and the damage they deal are ramped up. Parry timings are tighter, and ranged enemies will target you more often.
What may be the biggest change, however, is the removal of the one-shot kill safety. In other words, the game won’t prevent you from receiving instant deaths, such as in cases where you take high burst damage from bullets and explosives. In those cases, you’re going to die, even if you have HP left. The goal was to create a harsh experience “where every duel can be your last”.
Elsewhere in the patch, there are new community chests hidden around the game’s world for players to uncover. There’s a set of new cosmetics, new takedown animations, and, of course, a litany of bug fixes. The full change log is on the official Assassin’s Creed website. It’s worth reading if you’re looking to attempt a playthrough on Nightmare to see what it changes.
Though that may be Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced’s last big update, the game is seemingly on its way to Switch 2, and that version should include all previously-released additions, as we’ve come to expect.
Mentioned in this article
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced
Have thoughts, questions, or benchmarks on this topic? Join the discussion on our forums.
Join Discussion ➔
Sohbete katılın