From the initial site, you will create a new character to survive in Thedas. You start off as a refugee and slowly rise to power to become a hero! The character classes are still the same (warrior, mage, rogue) and the storyline supposedly spans for decades compared to a year in Dragon Age 1. There’s no mention on which characters from the original game will make it to Dragon Age 2. I’m still hoping that I can import my character and equipment from the first game as well as the decisions I made . Please Bioware!!
Pre-orders start today. Main game trailer to be released on August 17. 1up.com says the game will be released on February 1, 2011.
The latest DLC from Dragon Age deals with the bard Leliana’s back story. SPOILER WARNING to those who haven’t completed the main game.
SPOILERSSSS!!!!
I believe it’s safe to assume that this was set way before the blight and the fall of the Grey Wardens but after the war with Orlais. You take the role of Leliana, bard by day and assassin by night. You arrive in Denerim with your mentor, Marjolaine and a small group of a mage and a dwarf to do a job that your were supposedly hired for.
If you have completed the game you would have known by now the events that led Leliana to join the chanrty. That is of course you completed her personal quest in the main game. Much of it is predictable but it’s still interesting to see how she changes through the events that follow.
END SPOILERS
It’s the first DLC which has recorded brand new dialogue. The add-on actually feels like a scene in Awakenings rather than a crappy expansion. But is this for everyone? If you like 100% completion, this adds 3 new trophies to you Playstation account or additional gamer points for the Xbox360. If you like Leliana, this is a good few hours of gameplay. There’s a new body armor for rogues and best of all, more game time with Dragon Age!! But as this places the game definitely in the past, I will still have to create a new game and see if there are any changes to the main game. I assume it does not much like the other DLCs do not carry over to Awakenings.
I think this is a good step for Bioware to release back story DLCs on the main characters as it gives a clearer explanation for their motivations in the main game. Unfortunately in doing so, the story becomes predictable and you just end up following A to B without any serious consequence to the main game. But from all the characters in Dragon Age, I’d like to see Morrigan done next.
So where does this stand among the others? This is much much better than the Darkspawn Chronicles which was just the Battle of Denerim but got the other side. A little longer than Warden’s Keep (but of course we only got that expansion for the storage chest), it’s not as character driven as The Stone Prisoner. I’d say this is on the same level as Return to Ostagar.
Available now on the Playstation Store ($6.99), Xbox Marketplace (560 MS Points) or on the PC (560 Bioware Points).
Not as sour as other yogurts. Paired with strawberry, it tastes like strawberry yogurt ice cream. Additional flavors (such as lychee) available only on weekends.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Back in January, Polyphony announced the delay of Gran Turismo to a later date. This was shortly after a 3D version hit the demo booths at CES. I blogged about the delay stating that 3D gaming must be the cause of the change of releas date. Apparently that is partially true.
I can’t believe they actually pushed the release date of a major franchise by nine months just to put 3D into it even though 98% of the people buying the game will not have necessary hardware to play it in 3D. Aside from 3D, they also added the famous BBC Top Gear test track among other things.
Sony will also be releasing a Collector’s Edition of the game which comes with a 300 page car guide, die-cast model of the 2009 Nissan GT-R, Gran Turismo key chain, voucher of in-game upgrades, certificate of authenticity and special collector’s packaging.
Will the delay be worth it? I think so. Will they earn the $60 Million they spent on developing the game? Over time probably. Have I preordered? Yes. Do I believe it will come out in November? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Everyone wants to live green and clean and the latest incarnation of Endless Ocean just does that. The Endless Ocean series is based on diving into the ocean and literally swimming with the fishes. You set out to discover the ocean and what it has to offer. But this blue ocean is bigger and has lots more to do. In my review of the first game, all you can explore was the immediate water and apparently every living thing in the sea is in that one spot. It’s kinda hard to swallow which made Aquanauts in the PS3 more acceptable to reality.
Jump to 2010 and here comes Blue World. There are now more realistic places to go. You now get to dive in the Artic or Antartic, the Amazon river and various tropical seas all over the world. All the underwater wildlife as well as amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
Endless Ocean: Blue World – Trailer
The biggest difference with this game is that it also brings along the danger of diving. SHARKS!!
Endless Ocean 2: Blue World: Sharks part 2
I really hate sharks. Although the game tells you when danger is near, every hit you take saps more of your air. Once all your air is depleted, you automatically return back to the boat. This makes exploring very difficult and frustrating. In the first game, you get to explore all you want without any danger. Now, you have a pulsar gun to fend off every type of aggressive shark out there.
Endless Ocean 2 Danger Trailer
The pulsar has no effect on piranhas so you’ll need to feed them first in order for them to avoid feeding on you. The main game is as long as the first game and more. You now get to dive with new human diving partners as well as the dolphins you meet and train. Sometimes they may help you with some of the sharks.
There side quests are back such as guiding other divers and taking pictures of the fishes. They’ve added salvage requests along with the task of curating an aquarium. You can now decorate your island base or your coastal reef project. The side quests are actually longer than the main storyline and will certainly keep you busy. This game is about to be the longest game I’ve played on the Wii in a long time. If you missed out on the first game, this is a perfect opportunity to experience diving without getting your feet wet. The graphics are much improved from the last but sadly the music selection is not as free as before.
The first game gave you a chance to pick what music to dive with as the game loaded when you started diving. You also had the opportunity to load your own music into the game via the SD card slot on the Wii and swim to the tune of your choice. Now however, you dive to the preset music and will not get a chance to change the music until you’ve completed a number of side-quests to unlock that feature. Not to mention that the music changes from area to area and also when you are attacked. I wish they kept the music options of the first game. Instead this game has been more stressful.
Sure you get the heart pumping action of zapping sharks, crocs and whales. But the whole point of me buying this game was to relax and music is not helping. The improvements to the game such as the length of the game, storyline and areas to explore is great. The realism is good with “aggressive” aquatic life chasing you. But the only flaw I see here is that the music option should at least still have been optional and that there should be a way to experience it without being attacked. Much akin to the “no-fail” mode in Rock Band.
I doubt that this game will be ported to other consoles. As with all these aquatic games, I wish the characters talked. Bioware has poisoned my gaming experience that all onscreen main characters should have voices attached to them. I hope the creators of Aquanauts come up with a new game. And please, have someone talking, even if it is in Japanese.
I did not go to medical school and for those who dream of being a surgeon, this is probably the closest thing most of us will ever get next to the classic game “Operation”
Operation Commercial from 1989
Trauma Team is the latest incarnation from Atlus. Currently the 5th in the series, two Nintendo DS games and two Wii games. I’ve played them all and this is the most polished one of them all. The first game came out for the DS on 2005 and it was hell to finish. At the easiest level, the game difficulty was set pretty high that once you reached a certain level, your patient will die. Frustration just came over me and I wanted to throw the DS right out the window. I gave up on the game until the Wii version was released.
The Wii version is a direct port of the DS game with some minor changes such an additional playable character and surgeries. The best part about is game is the lowered difficulty. Though it’s still challenging, it now allows you to reach until the last stage. The games focus on a terrorist organization using biochemical warfare to further their means. The first half of these trauma games is pretty straightforward with the usual tumors, gunshot wounds or pacemaker replacement. The second half is where the game starts to pull on reality. The terrorist pathogen does weird things to the patient with scenarios that doesn’t seem plausible. Add to the fact that you are gifted with the “healing touch”, this uncanny gift which slows down time and gives you extra time to work on the patient. But even with these unbelievable scenarios it’s still an enjoyable game.
Trauma Center: Healing Touch
Now comes Trauma Team. You don’t just play 2 characters. You now get to play five different characters with different specialties and brings a new angle to the world of videogame surgery. You get to work on different environments such as diagnostics, emergency, orthopedic surgery, endoscopy, investigation and of course general surgery. All the storylines will eventually unlock the final phase of the game and reveal the dark secret of the story. The wii remote is great especially for the endoscopic surgery due to the mapping of the controls. Orthopedics seems a bit too easy and the ER scenes are absolutely heart pounding where every second counts and patients keep coming. My favorite has to be the Dr. House situation in diagnosing the patients or the CSI situation where I find out what really happened as a forensic doctor. Come to think of it, it’s more Bones than CSI.
My diagnosis? This is the best Trauma Center game Atlus has every made. The story is believable. The surgical procedures is doable. I actually wish that the game was longer. Or at least could be extended with downloadable content. But since the Wii doesn’t have that. Maybe we can expect a port coming to the PlayStation Move? We can always wish for these things.
While I was looking for new books to put on my Kindle, I came across this. Square-Enix hasn’t exactly been exact with their release dates. We just usually just wait and wait and wait and wait until it actually comes out.
But not today! A firm release date of September 29, 2010 has been announced as the release date for the PC version of Final Fantasy XIV, the next MMORPG from Square-Enix.
Sadly for PS3 fans,
Next year!?!?! That’s not a release date, it’s a prison sentence!?! Wait! Wrong analogy. That prison sentence statement should actually be attached to Gran Turismo but that’s for another post. But 6 months after the release date? That’s a long time. I may be forced to buy a PC before that happens. And even sadder for those are used to playing Final Fantasy XI on their Xbox360 for the past four years since there is no mention of the game to appear on the console (yet) but that wait could be even longer.
If only Square-Enix could release their other games sooner but thank you for this pleasant surprise.
Now for a very short review. Because that’s how short this expansion is. It’s heavily based on a “what if?”. What if you died during your joining? What if the darkspawn won the battle in Denerim?
The game puts you in the shoes of a Darkspawn Commander as you charge through the gates and one by one you defeat the heroes of the game. You gain control of various troops and you must fulfill certain objectives before you can advance to the next area.
In one word it’s a zzzzzzzz. I’m serious. If I wasn’t just in it for the trophies, there’s nothing to see here unless you have the perverse need to see all your party members die. Although it is interesting to control the darkspawn and learn their powers.
But all in all it does not add to the total experience of the game. Maybe the next one will give me more hope.
I finally got my hands on my iPad. I only had to wait 6 days from the time I made the reservation at the store. The odd thing about the iPad is that you can’t pay cash with it. Up until recently.
Anyhow I’ve had the iPad for almost two months now and I must say I don’t know how I was doing without it. I’ve used it in class to hold my presentations and videos as well as the books that I’m currently reading. I go everywhere with it.
When I used to go on trips anywhere I would always lug my 15″ Mac Book Pro which makes traveling a pain sometimes especially when you’re traveling in coach. The carry-on luggage restrictions as well as the weight limit is just not suited for the average business traveller. Not to mention I would also carry my DSLR with me and it would just be a game of chance with the flight attendant.
But now on a recent trip to Singapore, I just carried my carry-on luggage (with all my clothes and personal effects) and a small handbag with my iPod and iPad. It was great! I was zipping through the airport and security with ease. No worry of my clothes being transported off to who knows where and going around the city was a breeze. I could walk the streets without being burdened by 7 pounds of aluminum supercomputer. But instead I carried with me less than 1 pound of connectivity needed for a short trip. I still had room for some food stuffs I always buy in Singapore and was home in no time.
But for longer trips I’m afraid that this will not do. I cannot print my documents directly from it. I cannot import files from external devices directly to it. But I’m sure or at least that is coming in the future. I can however import photos to it but I have yet to acquire the photo connectivity kit.
In the end will it replace my Mac Book Pro? No. But it will make journeys much much lighter and just for that I am glad.
It’s been six years since I started playing Final Fantasy XI when it was released for the PS2 and I haven’t looked back. I was a mac user and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to jump on to the MMO bandwagon by getting a PC so I was very excited when Square-Enix announced that they would be releasing their MMO on consoles as well. I find this MMO unique since players from different countries play on the same server but play on different consoles (PS3, PS2, Xbox360, PC). No other game other than WOW (World of Warcraft) does this (PC and Mac compatible).
It was difficult as first as the game was designed largely for people to team up in order to advance to the next level. I inched my way through the game and now it’s time to release another version of the game.
This week at E3 in Los Angeles, Square-Enix has released new videos of the game and a possible release date of Q4 2010 for the PC and PS3.
Procrastinating in the Heat 