Screw your Mystical Sword and its +3 to pedantry

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Dragon Age: Origins – Most enthralling game of 2009

Yes, yes, ok so I know that I’m a bit late with this one, but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due, and after finally completing BioWare’s new epic RPG I must say - I loved it. Some RPG’s can be tediously annoying, some have poor plots and awful characters, whilst some like Morrowind have piss poor combat systems. For me Origins managed to chart a happy medium, the questing was varied and interesting, the usual PC pause-combat system worked well and as with all BioWare games the majority of characters were well written and portrayed. The story isn't hugely original, it’s your standard orphan becomes king fight the evil dark power fantasy plot line. Some may find this story already stale, but the mixture of betrayal and treason by the power hungry Loghain at the start was enough to draw me in and send me off in pursuit of vengeance. Although defeating the Blight and the Archdemon is supposedly the central theme throughout the game, I found that my quest for revenge and the exoneration of the Grey Warden order was much more compelling. The final episode in Denerim against the Darkspawn Horde felt more like an epilogue, but its completion was still satisfactory, especially after I made the noblest of sacrifices and laid down my life so that Alistair could live and fulfil his role as king. After about 6 weeks of play and god knows how many hours I watched the final cut scenes with a sense of loss and lamentation; my heroic character was dead, my motley crew of hardy adventurers disbanded, alas god knows what happened to my faithful hound. Afterwards I found myself back at the main loading screen not knowing what to do. Should I go back and have Morrigan’s demon child and therefore live? And what about my blossoming romance with Leliana? Starting a new character and trawling back through the Deep Roads and other dungeons just didn’t appeal to me, yet the urge to continue playing was strong. Any developer knows that a game that leaves you wanting more is a sure fire winner; Dragon Age Origins certainly accomplished that. Thankfully thou for those of us yearning for a return to Ostagar we won’t have to wait long. BioWare has already announced that the expansion pack – Dragon Age: Awakenings - is due out in the middle of March.

Even thou my dear character Loki might be as dead as the Dodo, something tells me that a remarkable and mysterious comeback is on the cards. To hell with story continuity, I want my battle-mage back!

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Pretty damn sweet....

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Mmmm interactive!

up down up down X X X X X X X X X X X X!

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(via ohhaiannie)

muahahah fish wins!

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Awesome old skool game warning!

Man I love this, people had a sense of humour back then, I imagine that this would never get past moderators nowadays - it would probably be considered unfair and un-PC to cowards and fraidy-cats. Damn pussies...

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More on ToR...

Here's another part of The Old Republic backstory. BioWare certainly put a lot of effort into giving their games a comprehensive and engaging history, previous RPG's like Baldur's Gate and KOTOR have won critical claim due to their vivid settings and intricate stories.

The story of ToR continues after the events of Knights of the Old Republic 2 have been resolved. If you played the first two KOTOR you will remember that after defeating Malak, Revan left charted space and went off in search of a faction known as the 'True Sith'. 300 years later and the Sith have returned more powerful than they were before, seems like Revan may have found what he was looking for.

Hopefully BioWare will provide a few clues later resolving the mystery of Revan's fate....

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Mass Effect 2 & rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO?

Well it's only a few days left until Mass Effect 2 hits the shelves; the first game received massive critical acclaim from the industry and BioWare have put their reputation on the line by stating "If you're going to play one BioWare game ever in your life, this is the one to try." That's a pretty ballsy claim, especially when you're competing with the groundbreaking Knights of the Old Republic and BioWare's seminal masterpiece Baldur's Gate. The CEO even went so far as to announce that ME2 "represents the pinnacle BioWare exeperience". Claims like that are pretty bold and audacious considering BioWare's immensely high standard.

The trailer certainly looks good, a lot of improvements have supposedly gone into the game, including a complete combat rework, traveling changes, side quest improvements and many, many more. Let's hope the story is just as enthralling as the originals was. On a side note I've got to admit getting Martin Sheen to narrate the trailer was a genius idea, the man is awesome.

Also rumours are around that Bethseda are working on a fantasy/WoW style based MMO. Is there really room for more high fantasy MMO's? Personally I'm a little bored with the genre, but if Bethseda were able to work on a MMO which contained a bit more maturity then i would definitely take a peak. For example if anyone came out with a Robert Jordan Wheel of Time MMO I'd be there in a shot.

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Retro Corner

I’ve been feeling pretty retro today so I thought I’d wander back through the mists of time, back into the days of my childhood and satiate myself on nostalgia and the machine that first got me interested in the world of computers. Some memories are so stark and clear that they almost feel like they happened yesterday. I distinctly remember the Xmas morning that my parents bought me an Amiga A600, but funnily enough I can’t recall the day dad brought home the C64. I remember playing on it almost constantly and there are several games, most of which I have stashed away upstairs that continue to call out ‘play me!’ Four in particular hold a very special place in my heart and will be remembered to my dying day. The most vivid without a doubt is ‘Thing on a Spring’. I can still hear the music right now, even while I write this article. Like most C64 games, ToaS was completely incomprehensible and totally bemusing without some form of a manual, but that was irrelevant – it didn’t matter because it was insanely hard, completely crazy and totally off-the-map brilliant. Apparently it was all about defeating some Goblin, but who cares? We played it for hours, jumping around bizarre neon landscapes, avoiding light-bulbs and spray-cans in a tireless effort to pick up oil and wrapped presents for some unknown purpose, but like I said it was brilliant!

The second game that evokes the most memories is White Viper. The game was essentially a love story involving some of the most torturously addictive gameplay known to man. At the beginning of the game several black wraiths fly in and steal all your gear and importantly, your woman. The wraiths would then fly off, escaping to some evil castle of wizardry beyond the marshy wastelands. So with much despair the valiant White Viper had to first capture his trusty steed, navigate his way across the islands - reclaiming his gear in the process and the ultimately fight his way through the castle. All of that sounds relatively simple, but in-fact it was agonisingly difficult.

Saddling the horse was the first major hurdle. It would dash madly about the screen letting you chase it like a Jack Russell after a cat. Eventually after you’d moved enough fencing it would twitch out and get boxed in allowing you to grab it. Next you had to jump across various floating islands, which was nigh-on impossible; the C64 joystick and character-pathing wasn’t exactly known for its responsiveness, at least not compared to modern day twitch gaming controls. Let’s just say getting to the castle was a rare experience and arriving at its lofty heights was an achievement met with much satisfaction.

Next time on retro corner - Impossible Mission (the name is clearly in the title) and Grogs Revenge (a game about a unicycling clam collecting caveman)

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Alien V Predator

My boss sent me this one this morning, it's not really my cup of tea, but the death crescendo is hilarious - there's something almost slapstick about it.

Aliens vs Predator Killmoves Trailer - Watch more Game Trailers

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New Transformers trailer

Looks absolutely fucking l33t. It's the first time I've seen or heard about it, but a quick scan through the net suggests that it's a 3rd person shoot-em-up due towards the end of this year.

I'm liking the old skool look to both sides, but Megatron could do with a few more tweaks to invoke that 1980's feel. Also if Soundwave doesn't make an appearance in the game then it 's an instant FAIL.

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CES 2010 Booth Babe

OM NOM NOM NOM

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The birth pangs of an MMO...

Anyone familiar with MMO's will know that, in the majority of cases, release day never goes 100% according to plan. Unforeseen and unintentional problems often crop up during release, 9 times out of 10 these issues are caused by the d/l and game servers getting hammered from here, there and everywhere. In a few rare instances release day is marred by poor planning and implementation; WoW was notoriously bad on release, the servers were continually plagued by queues, crashes, lag and long periods of downtime. Age of Conan was another prime example of how not to release an MMO - at least finish the game first and patch all the memory leaks before you open it up to the paying public! Today the Star Trek Online open beta went live with all the usual Tribbles and tribulations that come with an MMO release. Although not disastrous, Cryptic clearly haven’t planned this out as well as they should have. Now patience is a virtue one needs to possess, especially when it comes to launch day and the release of STO is no exception. Within minutes of the beta client going up the forums were already getting hammered by whiners and trolls QQ’ing at the slow speeds and having to go to 3rd party sites to get the launcher. Normally I would just chuckle and ignore them, but I’ve got to agree with the majority of detractors and admit that Cryptic were less than forthcoming with information about how the whole open beta system would work. Firstly, information is king. By not giving your prospective customer base adequate information in the first place you are running the risk of alienating paying clients. The majority of MMO’s die within the first few months because population fails to reach a self sustaining critical mass. If you want to get this then pander to your base, tell them wtf is happening and they won’t get so despondent. Secondly, if your beta goes online on day X release an official download client on day Y a few days, or even a week, before day X. Nothing angers nerds more than being told and paying for a release which comprises of a series of ever frustrating delays. There is always going to be a patch prior to release and that’s acceptable, but a 7gig delay is just an unnecessary annoyance that can be avoided through appropriate planning. Thirdly, never ever release your official beta d/l client on a third party site that forces people to register and shoves you into the back of an hour long queue – seriously you’re only make the nerds rage harder. If your official d/l client isn’t up prior to the start date, if it hasn’t been well documented and annotated, if it cannot cope with the instant demand of a thousand geeks hammering it, and finally if it can only give your cash paying customer base, the thing your success as an MMO relies upon, a 5kb download and a 3day wait then don’t bother, go back to making platformers or sack your product implementation team, because you’ve already annoyed people and the last thing you want to do is send your customers running full tilt back into the safe comfortable 8million subscriber-encrusted arms of Blizzard.

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Lego Universe - WTF?

In my last post I was lamenting the fact that Cryptic couldn't come up with a decent enough trailer for their latest MMO - Star Trek Online. Nowadays the industry is so tough you really do have to go all out and make every aspect of your game perfect, and this includes your marketing and PR campaigns. A poor trailer is pointless, it's just going to cost you money and time, without adding any significant benefit to the release.

Here's a prime example of what you can do with a trailer and how it can turn, what is by all rights, a dubious prospect into a potential purchase.

The trailer is original, stylish and action packed, it also has a great comedy twinge to it. Kudos to NetDevil for this one, keep up the good work and get on with Jumpgate Evolution already...

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Dodgy Trek Online trailers...

When it comes to making epic and intense trailers I think Cryptic still has a lot to learn. I spent an hour searching for an OMGWTF trailer, but couldn't find one, this was the best I could come up with. You would have thought they would have made it slightly grander.

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Game on boys....

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Pre-ordering - saving you a pretty penny.

In the midst of a recession, buying luxuries is sometimes hard to justify. However, the lack of hard cash doesn’t often stop the majority of us from overstretching and getting ourselves deeper and deeper into debt. Sometimes you just have to get the latest gadget, or buy that item you’ve been drooling over for so long; plus retail therapy is often a welcome and deserved distraction away from the slavish rigours of 9-5 in the great rat-run of life.

My guilty pleasure, like millions of others, is gaming. You’d think that after 8hours at a computer I would dread the prospect of going home and gluing my face to an LCD monitor, but you’re wrong, I love it. However, with technology moving so fast, things in the gaming world tend to get more expensive. Every time a state of the art game comes out you start to wonder “can my ageing rig actually cope with this?” Games themselves aren’t cheap either; the latest Modern Warfare jumped an extra £10 heralding a new age of console games for £55 – bad times.

But alas all is not lost, for there are many savings to be made as long as you are smart and as long as you look around. When MW2 came out Tesco’s halved the price, causing a firestorm and selling thousands of copies within hours. Pre-ordering is another way of protecting your savings account. Most games are now offered in a variety of pre-order packages, some come with additional content, others come with bonuses and most come at a reduced price. My latest acquisition, Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins was purchased not by pre-order, but via Games website, and rather than buying the game for £45 on the High Street I managed to pick it up for £20 – a complete bargain if I do say so myself.

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Elite...

This is where it all began, back in the day ramping through space on a 486. Jumping from system to system, avoiding the space pigs and nailing traders. Those were the day of stealing cargos and selling narcotics to everyone. Life was so cruel without a docking computer. Oh Elite and Commander Jameson how we do miss you, nothing so far has even come close...