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When we think about BioWare’s top failures, Anthem usually takes center stage. The ill-fated live service game became the poster child for everything wrong with modern game development—from mismanagement to technical difficulties with the much-touted Frostbite engine. But there’s another story that deserves just as much attention.

Some developers checked out, but never checked back in. | Image Credit: BioWare/EA

Before Anthem crashed and burned, another BioWare title had already paved the way for disaster. A game whose development was so troubled, it left countless developers battling depression and anxiety. Some took doctor-mandated “stress leave” for months at a time. Others simply never returned.

And now, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard becoming BioWare’s latest disappointment, it’s time we looked back at the game that started this downward spiral.

The untold story of Mass Effect: Andromeda’s troubled development More than animations were broken during this development.

Battlefield 4 was one of the most iconic games in this popular franchise. It also became one of the fastest-selling games after its release in 2013, but it also had its fair share of problems due to the brand-new Frostbite 3 engine used at that time. Before BF4, this particular game engine was never used.

Battlefield 4 was released on October 29, 2013. | Credit: Dice

But the developers at that time at Dice took the risk of implementing this unsteady gaming engine into their newest title and fortunately, it turned out in their favor. It had initial hiccups, but those were fixed by several patches, and after that Dice never had to look back. But it’s pretty commendable how big that risk was.

Battlefield 4 was the first ever game to try out the Frostbite 3 Engine Battlefield 4 was made on a completely new and untested engine. | Credit: Dice.

Frostbite is visually stunning, and one of this...

2014's Vampire Academy was based on a bestselling young adult novel series, and poised to kick off the next hit YA movie franchise, but Vampire Academy 2 never happened. Directed by Mean Girls' Mark Waters, the Vampire Academy movie adapts the first book in the series by Richelle Mead. It follows best friends Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch), a Dhampir (human-vampire hybrid), and Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry), a Moroi (a breed of peaceful vampires), who run away from their boarding school, St. Vladimir's Academy, only to be caught and forced to return.

The first Vampire Academy novel was published in 2007, a time when young adult book series, particularly those centered around the supernatural, were booming in popularity. This was the same year that both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight Saga, were published. Both of those series went on to become such huge movie...

Quick Links All Status Ailments & What They Do How To Cure All Status Ailments

Metaphor: ReFantazio features a familiar combat system that's made a bit more complicated by myriad status ailments, each with unique effects and cures. Not only do these ailments hinder your performance in battle, but depending on the type, their effects may linger when the fight ends. This puts you at a clear disadvantage moving forward, so you'll need to understand how different ailments work and what you can do to cure them.

Metaphor: ReFantazio takes pages from Smt and Persona, allowing you to inflict or incur status ailments on top of damage and saddling you or your opponents with debuffs to overcome in combat. Whether physical or mental, the effects of ailments can cause severe decreases in any individual status or even push party members to attack one another. Finding the right cure is essential to...

Third edition of the international co-production market focused specifically on genre film production to take place in Brussels in April.

Fantasia International Film Festival’s international co-production market Frontières has unveiled the lineup for its third edition.

Taking place at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifff) from April 10-12, the market will feature 12 Frontières projects and 11 Off-Frontières projects.

Frontières is the first and only co-production market to connect North America with Europe in an environment focused specifically on genre film production.

Among the 12 Frontières projects are new works from the likes of Martin Villeneuve (Aquarica), Borys Lankosz (The Chosen Child), Aj Annila (Don’t Come After Me) and Vincent Lannoo (Robin Hood Vs. Zombies).

Meanwhile, the 11 Off-Frontières projects include Beasts from Resolution directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead and Warg from Frostbite’s Anders Banke.

The full lineup is as follows:

FRONTIÈRESLES AFFAMÉS (Quebec) Dir. Robin Aubert / Prod. Stéphanie MorissetteAQUARICA (Quebec) Dir. Martin VilleneuveCHLOE...

View imageView imageThough Sweden doesn't ever seem to get the same amount of attention on the festival circuit as their Scandinavian neighbors Norway and Denmark the nation is certainly in the thick of things when it comes to producing intelligent genre fare. The nation as a whole may not go there often but when they do, they generally do it well.Producer Magnus Paulsson (Frostbite, Wake Wood) has been around the center of the Swedish indie horror scene for years now and Paulsson's production house Solid Entertainment - along with Erik Magnusson and Anagram Film - have just wrapped production on their latest feature, From The Depth Of My Heart.Written by Måns Fg Thunberg and directed by Magnus Hedberg, From The Depth Of My Heart tracks...

One upcoming foreign flick we've been keeping a close eye on is Swedish horror film Marianne, and thanks to Fantasia 2011, Trembles had a chance to check it out and review it, as only he can, for us. So ... what's the verdict?

Filip Tegstedt's Marianne stars Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), and Tintin Anderzon.

For more check out the official Marianne website and become a fan of Marianne on Facebook.

Blight Terrors!

Discuss Motion Picture Purgatory in the comments section below!

Some more badass artwork for the new Swedish horror film Marianne has come slicing its path of destruction through the Dread Central offices, and we have every pixel of it right here for you to dig on!

Filip Tegstedt's Marianne stars Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), and Tintin Anderzon.

For more check out the official Marianne website and become a fan of Marianne on Facebook. Click on the second one-sheet for an image gallery!

Synopsis

45-year-old Krister's wife, Eva, has just passed away in a car accident, and now he's alone with their 18-year-old daughter, Sandra, who hates his guts and a 6-month-old daughter he doesn't really know how to take care of.

At night he's haunted by bad nightmares about what happened the night Eva died and guilt for the pain he's caused Sandra over the years as an absent father.

And the hype wheel for the new Swedish horror film Marianne keeps right on rolling, this time delivering a second teaser trailer to go along with last week's crop of images!

Filip Tegstedt's Marianne stars Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), and Tintin Anderzon.

For more check out the official Marianne website and become a fan of Marianne on Facebook.

Synopsis

45-year-old Krister's wife, Eva, has just passed away in a car accident, and now he's alone with their 18-year-old daughter, Sandra, who hates his guts and a 6-month-old daughter he doesn't really know how to take care of.

At night he's haunted by bad nightmares about what happened the night Eva died and guilt for the pain he's caused Sandra over the years as an absent father. He experiences visits in his sleep from a woman dressed in green, looking for revenge.

That's right, kids! Head out to Ikea and buy yourself some meatballs because you're gonna be here for a while. We've gotten our filthy little claws into over two dozen new stills from the creepy looking new flick Marianne for you. Time to dig in!

Filip Tegstedt's Marianne stars Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), and Tintin Anderzon.

For more check out the official Marianne website and become a fan of Marianne on Facebook.

Synopsis

45-year-old Krister's wife, Eva, has just passed away in a car accident, and now he's alone with their 18-year-old daughter, Sandra, who hates his guts and a 6-month-old daughter he doesn't really know how to take care of.

At night he's haunted by bad nightmares about what happened the night Eva died and guilt for the pain he's caused Sandra over the years as an absent father.

There was a time one poster or box art alone could get me to watch a movie. Now couple some of the most kick-ass artwork we've seen thus far this year along with a good trailer, and you've really gotten our interest. Speaking of which ...

Below you'll find the first bit of artwork and the trailer for Filip Tegstedt's Marianne. Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), and Tintin Anderzon are all set to star.

For more check out the official Marianne website and become a fan of Marianne on Facebook.

Synopsis

45-year-old Krister's wife, Eva, has just passed away in a car accident, and now he's alone with their 18-year-old daughter, Sandra, who hates his guts and a 6-month-old daughter he doesn't really know how to take care of.

At night he's haunted by bad nightmares about what happened the night Eva...

“Newsmakers” is an interesting case, being a Russian revisiting of a recent Hong Kong hit, helmed by an up and coming young Swedish director. The film is based on Johnny To’s 2004 outing “Breaking News”, and the Swede in question is Anders Banke, who scored a minor hit in 2006 with his vampires in the snow horror comedy “Frostbitten”. Proving that it is not only Hollywood which scours Asia for cinematic shortcuts, the film has nevertheless been garnering positive word of mouth for its hardboiled action and vaguely topical themes. Fans of the original, or indeed newcomers can now judge for themselves, as the film now arrives on region 2 DVD via Showbox Home Entertainment with a sadly bare bones release. The film kicks straight into the action, with a quiet street in the centre of Moscow turning into a warzone as a couple of traffic police accidentally trigger a gun battle between a gang of vicious,...

It’s a scenario nobody could have predicted in advance: Swedish director Anders Banke (Frostbite) directing a Russian remake of Hong Kong action film Breaking News by Johnnie To. But predictable or not it has happened, it’s called Newsmakers, it stars a veritable who’s who of prime Russian actors, it opens in April and the first teaser is on screens now in Russia. And thanks to the kind hearted Banke that teaser is also here on Twitch - in subtitled form, no less. You’ll find it below the break.

How’s this for an odd film pedigree: a remake of a Hong Kong action film, shot in Russian with largely Russian backing with a Swedish director. This is what you’ve got with Newsmakers.

A remake of Johnnie To’s Breaking News with the action transplanted to Russia - reportedly the first ever Russian remake of a Hong Kong film - the film is directed by young Swede Anders Banke, well known is these parts as the director of Swedish vampire film Frostbiten. Banke, it turns out, attended film school in Moscow and is totally Russian fluent, which makes sense of his directing a Russian language film, and the brilliant, period set opening to Frostbiten should put to rest any question as to whether he’s got the technical skills needed to tackle To. He very clearly does.

What Banke also has is a very strong cast. A quick...