Tucked under its development belt is a wealth of fantasy and science-fiction titles that include Star Wars licenses and dice-rolling Dungeons & Dragons rule sets, so it’s hardly a school of conventional cool. Unlike the glitz of some of its Californian contemporaries, BioWare is based in a nondescript office block, in a topographically flat and architecturally uninspired city on the west side of Canada where the temperature hits -40 Celsius on a relatively balmy day in winter. People rarely venture outside for more than a few minutes during that time of year, and there’s not much to see out there anyway, so they have an awful lot of time to spend indoors playing games or in the office creating them. Founders Ray Musyka and Greg Zeschuk have spared no expense on creating a grand façade for this hit factory – that is to say, there is none to speak of. BioWare needs no such statement of grandeur when anyone privileged enough to walk through the plain glass doors is already well aware of its success; and if they aren’t, then a reception area strewn with nearly two decades of accolades should be clue enough.

It’s a similar story with BioWare staff: they’re not the hale and tanned games industry superstars other developers lay claim to. They have the pasty-flesh of a goth, the haggard appearance of a workaholic and the physique of a couch potato. They talk games incessantly, and when we talked Mass Effect 2 with a dozen or so of the staff on the team, a faint, flickering light appeared far, far behind their pupils. These are gaming obsessives. BioWare is full of them and it’s reassuring to know that the folks working on the second part in the trilogy won’t think twice about not spending quality time with loved ones, on their social lives, in the gym exercising, sleeping, eating, drinking and bio breaks, because they’d rather spend that time making Mass Effect 2 even better. These are the people we’d want working on one of our most anticipated games of next year. They’re RPG geeks, but far from being stereotypical, neck-bearded social pariahs, they’re intelligent, amiable and fiercely talented. Project director for Mass Effect 2, Casey Hudson, is the man at the helm of what could be the most important episode in the trilogy. He’s brimming with information about the sequel that would cause a pandemic of temporary bladder dysfunction among Mass Effect fans were he to spill the beans.

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