Games Cheats and Reviews

We’ve more or less known BioWare would be releasing Dragon Age 2 some time early next year — Electronic Arts practically announced as much a few months ago, and Awakening teased a new Dragon Age title for February 1, 2011. But today, EA has officially confirmed the existence of Dragon Age 2, and Game Informer has the first few details on the title as well.

The confirmation came nestled in a press release concerning EA taking over control of Warhammer Online in Europe (via VG247), which lists “Dragon Age 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s ‘RPG of the Year’ Dragon Age: Origins,” as one of the titles that BioWare currently has in development. Furthermore, Game Informer’s website is teasing an upcoming cover story for Dragon Age 2, with the tease revealing the new game will feature a “new hero, a different part of the world, and a ton of surprising improvements.”

That’s about all Game Informer is revealing right now, but the promise of a “new hero” already seems to suggests players won’t transfer their character from Dragon Age: Origins into Dragon Age 2, the way players could transfer their version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect into Mass Effect 2. Still, that’s not entirely certain yet, so we’ll see what BioWare has to say when more details are revealed.

Shadowy government agencies, mysterious paramilitary organizations, elaborate schemes that threaten to tip the world into Armageddon, and maybe some gunfights with sexy women with Eurotrash accents… yeah, I like me some spy stuff. More than that, though, I like the chance to really get into a character’s shoes and stomp around a bit, almost as though I were “playing” a “role” or something like that. Weird that spy games don’t often give us a chance to insert ourselves into the fantasy in the way Alpha Protocol does. In fact, I can’t think of any that have even tried, outside of Deus Ex. Certainly not any that pull it off so well.

The dialogue is what does it here. When your secret agent alter ego isn’t shooting people, he’s talking. Thankfully, it’s never the “put the controller down and go make a sandwich” variety of chatter. Think Mass Effect, but without a moral spectrum. The three most common dialogue options (Professional, Aggressive, and Suave) pretty well encapsulate the emotional range of your usual covert operative. Well, except for Suave, which here comes off less like James Bond and more Leisure Suit Larry. A little disappointing, but at least it doesn’t fail to amuse. How every other character reacts to your dialogue decisions, and how this changes their attitude toward you is a high point, but I’m more impressed by the fact that this actually affects the game’s larger plot.

Gamer Limit writes "I’m still somewhat in a state of disbelief at the sort of quality 2010 has imbued upon us. Mass Effect 2, God of War 3, Bioshock 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, Battlefield: Bad Company 2…"

You want more new games? Haven’t you played enough? I know I have a pile of games I haven’t gotten too that sits a mile high. Besides, spring is in the air and its time to go outside.

If you insist on expanding your games, there are a couple of options for you. Mass Effect 2 is getting its first bit of paid DLC on the 360 and PC. For $7 Kasumi’s Stolen Memory will give you a new character, new mission and a couple new achievements. This could be interesting if you haven’t all ready beaten Mass Effect 2, but it is not really worth a run through on its own.

Borderlands will see a retail release of the first two DLC packs, also for 360 and PC. Sadly the Mad Moxxi DLC isn’t particularly interesting, so you might be better off just downloading The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned if you haven’t already.

DLC aside, the best retail release this week is still just a collection of older games. Commandos Complete is a collection of all five games in the classic World War 2 series. Four of the games are predominantly Real Time Strategy with a single First Person Shooter departure. Its a solid collection for any RTS fans who happened to miss the series the first time around.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

A gorgeous cosplay of Mass Effect using body paint. Slightly NSFW.

The Nintendo DS has quite a bit more in common with classic PC gaming than you might realize. There are the remakes of SimCity and Jagged Alliance, but it’s also kind of the new home for first-person dungeon crawlers, which were once indigenous to that platform. Now we have Infinite Space, an RPG that in many ways hearkens back to great space combat simulators like Privateer, even if it’s a trifle more linear than those sprawling, space adventure titles.

Designed by a Japanese developer, Infinite Space naturally pays respect to the great Japanese science fiction of the 1970s. It’s a coming-of-age story starring a young captain named Yuri, who quickly grows to become part Commander Shepard and part Captain Kirk. Yuri’s crew swells to more than a hundred recruitable characters as the game progresses, and the great majority of them are extremely likable. But unlike Mass Effect and other recent science fiction RPGs, the real stars of this game are the ships.

Bioware’s Christina Norman, Senior Technical Designer, has revealed today via twitter that "Project Wombat" has been started for Mass Effect 3. She also gave us a clue that it might have to do with a new system for ME3.

Xbox Live has listed new DLC for Mass Effect 2, now available for download from the Marketplace.

BioWare’s being very helpful to journalists on a relatively slow news day. A couple hours after announcing the release date to Mass Effect 2’s Firewalker DLC, they’ve done the same with Kasumi’s Stolen Memory.

Let me tell you right now: Justice is “that one BioWare NPC” in Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening. You know who I mean; how in every BioWare game one of your party members utterly breaks out to become a bizarre and awesome character. For the Baldur’s Gate franchise, it was Minsc, the insane ranger. For Knights of the Old Republic, it was the sociopathic assassin droid HK-47. For Mass Effect, it was Wrex, the talking dinosaur wielding a shotgun, and for Mass Effect 2, it seems to be Mordin, the singing scientist. For the original Dragon Age: Origins, it was the curious golem Shale, and so for Awakening, it’s definitely the ghost-from-another-dimension-trapped-within-a-medieval-badass’s-body, Justice.

Besides introducing another great character to the Short List of Badass BioWare NPCs, Awakening adds five other party members (two per class total, and only one is a returning character from Origins); an increased level cap; several skills, specializations, and talents for said level cap; additional items (and tiers that indicate quality; Origins stopped at Tier 7, and you can now have Tier 9 items); new enemy types (including monsters that look like a cross between giant spiders and the monsters from Critters); and a 20-25 hour campaign. It’s basically the Dragon Age 1.5 that you knew you’d be getting, as opposed to a, “you expected Dragon Age 2 but actually get Dragon Age 1.5″ situation.