Dragon Age: Origins Witch Hunt Debut Trailer
The final loose end in the Dragon Age: Origins storyline. Find out the fate of Morrigan next week. I may have to play this twice to see what changes if I agree to Morrigan’s offer or not. I just hope it doesn’t suck.
BioWare | Dragon Age: Origins | Witch Hunt
In what hints to be the last DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, it will attempt to tie up one loose end. Morrigan.
Yes the witch that may have broken your heart and just left without a trace will return. One year after your victory against the darkspawn word reaches you that Morrigan has returned to Ferelden. Or has she?
This has to be the DLC that everyone has been waiting for. This is making me chant “please don’t suck, please don’t suck”. Mainly because this DLC ties directly into Dragon Age and not just a chapter in Dragon Age. It ranks up there with the upcoming DLC for Mass Effect 2 “In the Lair of the Shadow Broker” which ties directly into the storyline of Mass Effect 2 which chronicles on how Cerberus was able to get Shepard’s body.
This is very different. This may even actually tie in events that will happen in Dragon 2! Could it happen? Of course it could!! This is a videogame!
Claudia Black (Farscape) reprises her role as Morrigan. Though it’s not clear of any of your original party will return. One new character will be a Dalish elf named Ariane.
The sad part about this particular DLC that it could be the last until Dragon Age 2 comes out in March. That’s a long time to wait for a game especially when they have been releasing DLCs quite frequent of late. But then it gives us more to look forward to.
“Witch Hunt” will cost $6.99 on PSN, 560 MS Points or 560 Bioware points and will be available on September 7.
Thank you Bioware for making great games such as Star Wars: KOTR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Thank you for listening to fans and making Mass Effect 2 a much better game than the fist one. And now, thank you for bringing it now to the PS3.
Yes, I did say PS3. It’s coming in January 2011 and I will play the game one more time.
Dragon Age 2 Destiny Trailer
EA/ Bioware has released the trailer for their next game, Dragon Age 2 and more details here. Based on the details they have released, it will seem like that we will be playing Mass Effect 2 with swords and magic.
The story is set in Free Marches which lies just north of Ferelden. You will play the character Hawke, you will determine if Hawke will be male or female. You can import your previous save from Dragon Age: Origins which will carry over the decisions you made. It will also determine which characters from your first game you’ll meet. Like in the previous game, You’ll get to romance people on your way to becoming a legend in Kirkwall and will choose missions and quests as you move along.
Though it is not necessary to play the first game (much like Mass Effect 2) but I personally like a resemblance of continuity with my character from Dragon Age: Origins since I did customize her as such. Not being able to play it with her is just sad. Maybe they’ll pull an Atlus Persona 3 PSP that will allow you to play it as a different character.
But you will get a fully voiced character which is great! No more unusual silences when it’s your turn to respond. You’ll actually get to hear what Hawke actually feels. Much like Commander Shepard.
I’m sure this game will be quite an experience but I do fear that Bioware may be getting into a weird situation of fame. Final Fantasy was great and all and we ate it up. We bought their games all up to 14th incarnation of the game. But then sometime around the 10th it seemed to wane on us. How long before the same thing happens to Bioware games? Sure the graphics will improve with every generation but it seems like since they’ve stumbled on a formula that works, they seem to be bent on using it for the next couple of games.
Dear Bioware, I do hope this does not happen. I would like you to continue to innovate and bring great RPGs to our gaming systems for years to come.
Dragon Age 2 will be released in North America for the Xbox, PS3 and PC on March 8, 2011 and Europe on March 11.
BioWare | Dragon Age: Origins | Game Addons
Dragon Age : Origins – Golems of Amgarrak DLC Trailer
So far we’ve returned to Ostagar, listened to Leliana’s Song, became the darkspawn and now we’ll return to the Deep Roads in search of Golems. Unlike the the last 2 DLC, you once again get to use your character as you search for the secrets of the Golems.
I can’t get into more details without spoiling it for those who haven’t completed the original game but it’s quite refreshing that we shall once again get to play our characters either after Awakenings or Origins. If not, you can always create a new character but where’s the fun in that?
DLC to be released for the PC, Xbox360, and PS3 on August 10.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Cinematic Trailer
It’s finally out! The much awaited sequel to Starcraft which came out more than 10 years ago is finally here. It should be declared a holiday in South Korea for the games’ release. I too picked up the game on launch day and after finishing the campaign in two days, it was worth the wait.
We’ve seen the trailers and apparently, all the pre-rendered cutscenes are almost all the cutscenes in the game but that’s for later. Let’s start with the install.
You buy the physical disc from your favorite videogame retailer or download the client online and buy the access code. This is a great feature which allows you to buy a copy of the game without having to line up for the game.
The game takes up 12GB to install. It installs the entire game on the computer so there’s no need for discs after the install. The South East Asian version comes with the game code as well as two guest passes for Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft. Once installed and running, it asks you to log in to battle.net which takes you to the Blizzard website to register your game. This was pretty straightforward and once that’s over, you’re good to go.
Starting the game will launch the updater and will immediately update your game. Once the game starts you can then choose your poison, single player or multi-player. For the purposes of this entry I will refer to the single player experience as my friends pick up the game in weeks to come. I have an aversion to playing online with strangers but that’s a another story.
The single player experience now includes the difficulty of “casual”. This is great for beginners who are new to the RTS (real time strategy) genre and have no idea on how to play. This makes the game more accessible and thus enjoyable. You are bombarded by tutorial after tutorial and a few missions to set you at ease. You can skip the tutorials if you’ve played the previous games. This game will only set you on the path of the Terran campaign. We’ll have to wait hopefully not long for the Zerg and the Protoss expansions which are coming. Once that’s done and over on to the rest.
Blizzard has included “challenges” which tests your RTS skills with short missions designed to make you into a better gamer and hopefully survive the online ranked matches. A new addition to the game is the inclusion of achievements. You can now earn points and brag to your friends how far or how bad ass you are in Starcraft 2 by your achievement points. I learned early on that you cannot earn achievements by playing “casual” on the campaign. You’ll have to start off with “normal” difficulty.
Even though this is the Terran campaign, you can still play all three races in multiplayer mode or against the A.I. The downside of this is that you spent most of the entire game playing terran and when you come face to face with the zerg or protoss controls it’s a brand new learning curve. Not all of the shortcuts are the same for the races or even from the last game so they’ll take some getting used to before I try to test my skills out there.
Speaking of out there, you can now find your friends via Facebook who are also playing this game. This is good but that’s about it. Blizzard promises further integration in the future much like what World of Warcraft has started. Maybe something like posting every time I get an achievement would be nice.
The races are more or less balanced out now. It’s not so much as the all powerful zerg anymore. The nukes are now separate from the command center and pretty much else has stayed the same.
Now for the not so good surprises.
There is no map creator so don’t bother peeking around. I looked. Worst of all, there’s no offline gaming or LAN capability. THIS MEANS YOU CANNOT PLAY THIS GAME WITHOUT IT CALLING HOME TO BLIZZARD. I had to type that last sentence in frustration because it is. I can understand the no LAN capability with trying to keep the game free of cheaters and all but the single player?? Come on!?! I do quite a bit of traveling and I bring my computer along and what do I do on a boring long haul flight? Play stuff on it. Yes, PvZ has become my companion on these flights and I was hoping to replace zombies with some zergs. But the game will not let me. Everytime I start up the game, it wants to call home and make sure that I’m the owner. WHAT!!?
Sure it only needs to call home when the game starts and then afterward you can get disconnected but that won’t help me playing in the middle of nowhere or better yet, 39,000 feet in the air.
I already gave my details, first born child and money to play this game and it still won’t trust me with it? I felt like I bought an MMO. Which I can understand why it needs to always be connected online but this is getting out of hand. I’ve read comments over the internet that it is possible to play offline via “guest” mode. Guess what? It only lets me play with first mission. Maybe it has something to do with the South East Asian version, but I highly doubt that.
Couldn’t they have made the DRM serialized to the computer, dial home, then you can play on or offline and when the system detects a similar serial, the current game is shut down. Isn’t that the way other software makers do it? This online thing is really bothering me.
This is the most expensive Blizzard game I’ve ever paid. Yes this game costs just as much as a current generation console game or even more. I was shocked at the sticker price when I pre-ordered the game and to think this is just 1/3 of the whole game. When Warcraft 3 was released here, it cost half the price to what Starcraft 2 is charging. Even Diablo II didn’t cost this much.
This game is almost everything that it promised to be. But the technical shortcomings prevent it from being a runaway hit. See all the 1 star reviews on Amazon and irate customers to see I’m not the only one disappointed about this one. I really like the game. Although I will not be playing professionally anytime soon. I look forward to the expansion and I just hope that Blizzard fix these shortcomings especially when they still have 2 more Starcraft games coming out and Diablo isn’t that far away.
Yes. What is pictured before you is a Milo Dinosaur. It’s a cold beverage made up of Milo chocolate with evaporated milk and bits of Milo on top. It’s the perfect beverage to order right next to the partially seen Char Kway Teow on the right.
You can try this at Shiok, a small Singaporean restaurant at the Fort.
After being battered by strong winds last night, most of the main island is out of power. Good thing no big damage to my immediate surroundings but a lot of debris to clean up.
I know these updates are coming pretty slow but they’re coming.
The Xbox360 had quite a showing at E3.
Project Natal is now Kinect
I knew there was something weird with the name Natal and apparently audiences did not warm up to the name which was announced to the public a year ago. It’s still pretty much the same and will still use the camera peripheral in order to track your movements. There’s no wand or wii mote to help the camera guide you so setting this up will be quite interesting. With that in mind, I’ll assume you can’t play this in a dimly lit room since the cameras need some light in order to track something it sees. The freedom in movement looks interesting with nothing in your hand to accidentally throw at your very expensive LCD TV. The list of games is pretty much the same as you would expect with motion control. You have your usual sports games but the dancing is a new thing for motion control since there is no floor pad. But is this new?
No, Sony had a similar device to this called the Eye Toy which was originally released on the PS2 and had it’s share of motion detection. Nothing new for Kinect other than the response time and the graphics. We’ll just have to wait and see when Kinect comes out in the fall.
Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360
Kinect Dance Central | E3 trailer XBox 360
There’s a new Xbox design
New XBOX 360 250GB E3 2010 [HD]
The new Xbox finally gets it right. Built in WiFi, 250 GB HD and Kinect ready. All wrapped up in a shiny black box. Doesn’t that remind you of another console?
But for most of us who might be buying this console, we already have one. How on Earth do we transfer all our stuff to the new console. You now can with this hard drive transfer kit for only $15 USD. You’d think they’d at least include it in the box.
Despite all of this the big question remains, has Microsoft fixed their dreaded red ring of death? I for one have gone through at least four consoles. Thankfully fixed by warranty but it’s the first time that a console actually died on me after all my years of gaming. Not to mention that it is the one console that all my friends and I share the same dilemma. It has died on us at least once. It may have the most popular games but it is technically the worst console I have owned. Gone are the days where gaming consoles could take a beating. I try to limit moving the console from one place to another for fear of it getting broken. So have they fixed it? Reports say they have. Only time will tell. It’s available now for $299 USD.
But after all of their announcements, there’s still something missing in my opinion, the handheld. Yes the handheld. I’ve been waiting or clamoring for the Xbox team to come up with a portable gaming device to go up against Nintendo, Sony and of course Apple. It is the once space they haven’t made any inclinations of entering. Is it necessary for them to enter this space? Yes. Handhelds sell. Nintendo has sold more DS units than all the consoles sold by Sony and Microsoft together. I think it’s only a matter of time before they do. Maybe in five years, the same amount of time it took them to fix most of the Xbox 360.
Five Facts About Hawke In Dragon Age II – News – GameInformer.com
As stated in my previous post, Dragon Age 2 is coming! Details are sketchy but details coming from GameInformer.com’s exclusive access to Bioware is on the link above.
Backstory of the main character, you are named HAWKE. Yes that is your name. I assume this is designated to make the voice dialogue the same throughout the game. Hawke is a survivor of the blight, more importantly Lothering. Yes I did write Lothering. Lothering is the town where you meet Leliana and eventually gets decimated by the darkspawn. Hawke flees Ferelden and heads to the Free Marshes where be becomes the the Champion of Kirkwall. How you do that is up to you.
Now on to the dark side of the new game:
You will play an entirely new character in Dragon Age 2 unless this changes in the next few months. But the character that you can create is limited to the human race. Yes, no elves, no dwarves. Only human. Not being able to import your character is already sad, but this is even sadder for those who went through the first game with the other races.
On to the good side:
The main character is voiced. No more blank stares to your party members or to any other denizen on Thedas. No more empty remarks. Think Mass Effect conversations.
You can’t change the race but you can change the gender. Yes! Much like Commander Shepard you can either be female or male Hawke.
The game supposedly runs for 10 in-game years. Instead of the story revolving around a global incident like the Blight, the story is purely character driven. I’m expecting this to become like Mass Effect 2 but much much longer.
So will this be better than the first, it’s very hard to say. But if Mass Effect 2 was any sign, this should be a great game.
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Procrastinating in the Heat 