Sony F's up

By now most of you should by know of Sony's great big screw up on how the PSN networked has been hacked. That means all your personal data from your name to your address is ripe for the taking by anybody with hacking skills.

I know this is old news now, but I had finals so sorry for being late on this, but this is something I want to get out anyway.

Lucky for me, I don't own a PS3 but others I know do and they are not happy at all with what's going on. I don't blame them, any sort of information leak is always bad news and leads to problems.

You would think that Sony, a company that has been in the electronic entertainment business for a long time, would have had a better security system set up to protect it's users from any sort of danger. Yet they really fucked up here people and we are all pissed. Even if they do fix this problem, they are going to get backlash for a long time from this single incident.

What is know is that anybody who uses the PSN network has the risk of having their name, email, home address, birthday, and password and login name getting known and used. But what really you guys should be worried about is your credit card info. Sony says that, for the moment, they are sure that is secured but if I was you guys I wouldn't take chances.

If I were you guys I would first cancel any credit or debit cards you have and ask for replacements. Then get new user names and passwords. Hell, I would even not use the network till all this is over and we are told it's 100 percent safe.

Here's hoping your info is safe guys.

We are gamers and we are legion.

Later

P.S. Sony you  had better fix this quick.

The Future: Will Games Ever Be Taken Seriously?

They say the future is always clouded and that nobody can predict it. I happen to agree.

However, some things are clear and for the game industry these are the things I see.

It's the hope of all of us gamers as well as those currently in the industry or trying to get into the industry to one day have the entire world take our jobs seriously. I mean most of us take our video games on a serious level for various reasons. Some of us play because we find some sort of belonging with the game, others are captivated by it and see it as a purpose. There are those who find it like art and those who find it like a way to relax and enjoy ourselves.

We all have our reasons, but we all agree that gaming is serious to us all.

Yet the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. They see us nothing more then a small hobby no different from collecting Matchbox cars or bottle caps. They don't understand that our "hobby" is a worldwide multi-billion dollar phenomenon that has impacted society in various ways. From culture to education to even as a form of expression, games are more then just electronic entertainment systems.

They are a craft for the sake of bringing people and interactive experience, something no other media can do.

Look at the movie industry. It started out small and nobody even fully liked it at first. Some were sure that movies, TV, and even comics would never get to where they are now. But they did and our gaming community is growing fast as well.

It's filled with designers, artists, writers, programmers, technicians, producers, testers, musicians, actors, and more. It's an industry that takes all available time, money, and resources to create a single overall game to be distributed worldwide for people to enjoy and millions of us to be inspired from.

Sure we have some immature people in our group and we do have our problems, who doesn't. But I think it will be awhile before anybody takes us seriously. Still I have hope that one day we'll have our own Hollywood like vision where the world will no that we stood through time and trial and we came up on top.

And maybe finally we can say "I am a member of the gaming world" and those around us will take us seriously.

We are gamers and we are legion.

Later

Nothing to talk about

I've got College projects to work on so I've got nothing to really say this time. I'll try to get a review of Dynasty Warriors 7 in by next week though.

Arcades

(The author does not own any of the pictures or media they represent)

Do you remember being in an arcade when you were a kid? The bright light, the sound of explosions and gunfire, the feel of hundreds of quarters in your pockets, and the difficulty of picking which games to play before your parents told you it was time to go? Those were the greatest days of our youth.

The arcade is an important part of the history of Video Games as it helped bring the games we developed into the world for a very cheap price and in return we got mainstream audiences from all over the country to play these games in underground areas were people of all ages came and played them.

Believe it or not but the first real arcade game was a game developed by Sega in the 1960's called Periscope where you played as a submarine in a simulation while having a light gun to shoot with. Other games by Sega and a few small company's would be developed but it wasn't until then 1972 game Pong that arcades really started to be pushed into light.

Pong is known as the revolutionary game that really brought video games into light. The game was everywhere and everyone wanted to play this game and spend hours (and quarters) on it for their amusement. Throughout the 70's and 80's more and more arcade games would appear such as Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Space Invaders, Centipede, and Missile Command.

As arcade games started becoming more popular. The head of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, though of an idea on how to get kids to play arcades more. He took three things that kids loved: Food, games, and cartoon like animals to combine them into one of his greatest creations. The restaurant known as Chuck E. Cheese. This was the first real kids themed restaurant and I'm sure all of us can remember going to these places either as a kid or an adult. It was perfect for children with tons of pizza, a cool getto looking rat, and tons and tons of arcade games. To day Chuck E. Cheese isn't as popular as it was, but in our memories it still remains as the most popular place to hang out when I was kid.

The 1990's were one of the biggest times in Arcade history, but sadly it would also be the last one. Two new ideas for arcade games grew huge in popularity at the time and were known to be the most popular brands of arcade games at the time. The first was the Arcade Fighting game were you could not only play against a computer but all your best friend in a VS mode. Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and the King of Fighters games were all a huge success and started a list of series that to this day are still popular.

The second popular game was the Rail Shooter. This was when you were given a electronic toy gun and had to fight against waves of enemies and bosses to get the highest score in the fastest time. It made you feel like you were in the game and the quickness of your reflex and the accuracy of your aiming were key into winning the game. This was my favorite type of arcade game to play when I was a kid and I was one of the best in the popular game Time Crises, in fact the last time I went to my favorite arcade before it closed down I still had the highest score. Other famous games I remember were Virtual Cop, House of the Dead, CarnEvil, and Area 51.

However, as the millennium came the number of people who went to arcades didn't. The home consoles were becoming more and more popular and people started going out less to hang out in Arcades and just started hanging out at home with their friends or playing online. Arcades did get some life back with Rhythm type games like Dance Dance Revolution, but even that wasn't enough to save them. Today Arcades are well...dead I guess in a sense, at least in the US.

You will most likely never find another arcade in your area unless you look hard and are lucky. In fact the only place I know of that still has Arcades is Japan where you can find them anywhere. Still we mustn't forget the arcade as they are important to us as Gamers by both history and our earliest memories of gaming.

So never forget the fun you had with them

My list of most disapointing games

 Disclaimer: The pictures shown are not the authors and he does not own any of the licenses or copyrights of the respective media

There are bad games and then there are good games, but then you get those games that you think are going to be the best thing you’ve ever played…only to just thrown your control to the ground and then scream in fury because they’ve made you waste your  money on such crap.

It’s bad enough to have a bad game, but it’s worse when you get pumped up for such a great game only then to see fail right in front of you and utterly disappoint you in such ways that you want to throw your platform out the window and hope it hits somebody you hate on the head.

To me, being disappointed is the worst thing you can feel as a gamer and that’s what this blog is about.

This is my list of the games that I have been most disappointed in and want to burn in a pit of hell fire.

10. Silent Hill 4: The Room

-Now I will say this, Silent Hill 4 is not a bad game. It’s not good either, but it’s still not as bad as I think some people think it is. But it’s still filled with disappointment. First off the game doesn’t really take place in Silent Hill, but the town is mentioned and references to the Silent Hill cult are in here…and that’s it. What I loved about Silent Hill is that it takes psychological aspects of the human mind and turns them into deadly horrific nightmarish like levels. Silent Hill 4 just seems like a horror film like feeling instead of the psychological nightmare that we’re all use too, I mean sure it’s got some good aspects of it but not like Silent Hill 2 and 3. There was a lack of puzzles and while the story wasn’t bad, it didn’t have the spot on stuff we were already use too. This would also be the first of many Silent Hill games, which would be more combat oriented. Combat does play a somewhat part in the series, but it’s not the main focus unlike in this game where you are going to have to fight more than you ever had in any previous Silent Hill game. I’m just saddened that such a great series didn’t’ follow up well with this one and I guess I kind of look to it as the decline of the Silent Hill games.

9. Suikoden IV

-How did this game go so wrong? This game series I loved because it was gripping in story and the characters were all well done and crafted into the game. But in this one the pacing is all wrong and the characters are not really memorable except a few like Snowe. Plus it was too short…I’m serious I beat it in like 20 hours and it wasn’t even that interesting at all which is a shock  because I’ve always found the Suikoden series to be really good at narrative and plot. I it just blew my mind on how boring the game was. The villain is terrible, something like an early Image Comic’s guy, and Gameplay wise it tried to play like the Suikoden series, but it was way too easy and the stupid sailing system…ugh it’s horrendous. And random encounters happen faster than a Megaten game. Meaning your walking around just after a hard battle when 10 seconds later you fight another one. And this wouldn’t be so bad if it actually had some difficulty, but the fights are so easy you can just hit auto play and let it go at it on its own without doing anything.  How could the series like Suikoden just fall on its face like this? If you haven’t heard of it or are curious to play it, don’t bother trying to.

8. Devil May Cry 2

-When I first played the original Devil May Cry game, I was hooked in an instant. Between Dante’s badass style and the awesome hardcore gameplay it became one of my instant classics at once. I was pumped when I saw the trailer for DMC2….only to just shake my head and curse in rage when I actually got the game. The game was so…mediocre. First off the controls were just way harder than they should have been and the camera was…ugh. I died so many times because of it that it pissed me off to no end, especially in the water levels. The action was okay, but there wasn’t the same original hype as the last one and the enemies were sometimes too easy and then mad hard at the worst times. Plot wise it was horrible and the characters, even Dante, were way too underrated. Also Lucia’s was  a joke, I know they tried to make us have two stories to this game with some sort of connection plot, but to be honest Lucia was just a drag to play and a drag to even see in cutscenes. I will admit that her Devil Trigger is a nice touch, with her being an angel and all that, but compared to an awesome person like Trish she has no chance of being likable and to my knowledge isn’t. But the worst was Dante, as Dante turned from a kick ass demon slayer to this…way too serious guy who is like that loner in class who tries to act dark and mysterious but you can tell he just wants attention. The game also had the worst weapons ever, in Devil may cry you had a bunch of kickass demon weapons that were each unique and different while in this game you get only swords and gun (or throwing knives and grenades in Lucia’s case) that you didn’t even use half the time. The two worst weapons were the Submachine Guns which did no damage at all even if you upgraded them and the crossbow which can only be used IN THE THREE TO FOUR WATER LEVELS! Boss fights were too easy, the opposite missions for both Dante and Lucia were pretty much the same so no real reason to play the others except for a few levels, the lack of even having a sense of challenge. Disappointment all around, this game made me feels like I was in hell.

7. Splinter Cell Conviction

-I know I know, you’re shocked to see this right? I know so many people liked the Conviction game, but I didn’t? Know why? Because to me this wasn’t a goddamn Splinter Cell Game! I’ve been a fan of the Splinter Cell series since the beginning and I was never more impressed with a Stealth Game then this one. I loved it more than Metal Gear, I loved it more than Tenchu, and hell I am going to even say I loved it more than Thief. Oh yeah I went there! In all the other Splinter Cell games you were a secret agent that had to always rely on stealth because fighting hand to hand was almost instant death. And the plot was so real that it was totally believable, but then again this is Tom Clancy. The mechanics were better with each game, the atmosphere was nerve breaking, and the missions were always better with each conspiracy getting darker and more dangerous. In this one however we got Sam Fisher turning into Jack Bauer (Not that Jack Bauer isn’t awesome), but I felt that we had gone from saving the US from its enemies using Black Ops tactics to the story of Sam Fisher and a conspiracy that comes out of nowhere that isn’t taken anywhere that’s good. I didn’t like the pace of the game, the story was all over, there were some levels that didn’t really need to be there (That flashback one in Iraq was pointless) and to make matters worse the villain is just…boring with no real antagonism to drive you into killing him, he’s just an stuck up classic asshole unlike the other villains who were interesting (Double Agent being the best). I mean I guess I can understand the whole daughter dying thing for Sam affecting his morality I mean that worked great in Double Agent, but in Conviction? Just doesn’t work well enough. Gameplay was way to frustrating because the AI was just plain stupid and I could just go crazy gunho WHICH IS NOT WHAT YOU DO IN A SPLINTER CELL GAME! I will say the auto killing mode and the mission objectives appearing during gameplay are good things, but it wasn’t enough to save me into like this game.

6. Advent Rising

- Does anybody remember this game? I mean there was a lot of hype when this game was coming out and I think I was about 15 when it finally hit shelves. I bought it and thought it would be awesome…turns out I was more wrong then I could have hoped to be. Advent Rising got so much attention because it was advertise like it was the next Star Wars or something. It looked cool and I later learned a contest was held where if you find a hidden symbol you win, and this is true, one million dollars! Naturally like any greed bastard I went and got the game, later on I would learn that this contest would be abandoned which sucks because if I had the million dollars I wouldn’t have to worry about college loans. Anyway, so I played the opening where I watched a spaceship that I was on just float into space near a cool looking space stations…I waited…and waited….and then crashed and di-wait WTF?! It turns out you have to control the space ship, even though it’s clearly a cut scène and doesn’t even tell you to do so, into a space port. That first crash would be my experience playing this game. It was a pointless thing and there are many more pointless events that will come into this game that you will not enjoy or find funny. So yeah, story is very predictable and the characters are just plain boring. The game tries to find some sort of choice thing for you that affects your gameplay, but it’s useless in the long run. Fighting the enemy is way too easy because you can dodge anything while shooting and reloading like you’re on speed with gravity ignoring moves that make no sense. The game also forces us to use all your skills as much as possible because the more you use them the better they get, but it’s pointless because half the skills you will never use. The game overall seemed like such a good idea, but it really falls short on the promise they said they would give us. This game should remain lost in the stars forever.

5. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

-When Mercenaries one came out I went crazy. A GTA like game where I can summon missiles from anywhere and anything destroyed gives me cash? Where do I sign up for this kind of job?! Mercenaries was a great came for having a simple plot with a gameplay style that gives you a set of missions and objectives and you can do them whenever you want however you want. Mercenaries 2 however…makes you feel that you just got ripped off like in the start of the game. You play as any of the three familiar mercenaries, each with their own advantages, but the game now takes place in Venezuela for the sake of Oil and some coup. Sorry but compared to North Korean’s attempting to launch Nukes everywhere in the world, it kind of seems like a much lower threat. So you got your usual many groups that all want your help in defeating the leader of Venezuela so you can get your revenge on him, but in reality you only need to focus on the UN and China (Why is China in Venezuela? I swear the third game will be in this country). The game tries to be good, but its way to short compared to the first game and at times it feels like it’s rushing a plot that didn’t really need to be there. I missed how the plot was handled in the first game where nothing is really personal, but in this game it’s all personal. The AI is more unintelligent then last time and the air strikes are not as fun as they were by being limited to the amount and effect. But the worst was the bugs. So many goddamn bugs! What the hell was the QA doing that day? I kept getting trapped underground, air strikes not appearing, bullets going through enemies and doing no damage and more. This really downplayed my fun by a milestone. And the voice acting…ugh…some of the new actors were just…horrible. All I say is Mercenaries 3 better be good or else I’ll set the world on fire.

4. Record of the Agarest War

-Many of you most likely don’t know this game and with good reason. This game was a somewhat popular game in Japan and it got moved here to the US to see if it Western audiences would like it more. It’s a visual novel/tactics RPG like game where the premise is that your main character is different with each “Generation Arc” based on the girl you fall in love with and her abilities that are transfused to your descendant leaving a near endless amount of combination. This idea seemed really interesting and I heard some people I knew liked the game so I took a look….to this day I have no interest in finishing even past the first Generation. First of the game is only in Japanese with English subtitles and normally this isn’t a problem with me but I know that this will be a problem for other players so I have to give it a negative. I mean it’s not that hard to hire voice actors, JRPG’s going to America do it all the time. But what really pisses me off personally is how the “random encounters” (if you can even call them that) are portrayed. It takes a certain amount of “steps” let’s say to get to the next plot point, but by traveling through every step you have to fight a certain amount of monsters meaning the game forces you to fight a battle then 10 seconds later you fight another one! There is barely any free roaming in the game at all! Another thing is the plot; I get the gist of it, but I’m told it doesn’t really kick off until the very end of the game and instead builds up all this mystery. Too many questions remain unanswered for a long time and it doesn’t give enough explanation as to why this is happening, but it’s not enough to draw you in. It’s like playing a murder mystery game only without the suspense or clues. But it’s a visual novel like game right? That means there are nice pictures of girl’s half naked and looking sexy right? Oh sure like every five hours. I’m not trying to sound like some sort of pervert, but there are two things most visual novels have that are needed. 1. Good Story. 2. Fan service done right and no that doesn’t mean porno I mean making the cute girls (or boys depending on the game) look cute. This gets both wrong and fails as a visual novel. So besides playing a badly written plot, no character growth or relationships between any of them, bad gameplay, Dragon killing like AI, and no skits that deepen a sense of team effort it’s fair to say that I got board of this really quick.

3. Enter the Matrix

-Oh this takes me back. This was another game that tried to get a lot of hype like Advent Rising did; only while Advent Rising became forgettable this one we can’t forget. I will admit that it was pretty smart to put the game out while the second Matrix movie was coming out in theaters because it would tell a side story in the movie about the crew of the Logos and their actions during the events of Reloaded. At first we thought this was going to be cool with all the kung fu action and bullet time effects in a digital world where you can “Free Your Mind”. But like with the second movie we wish we had taken the blue pill instead. While I will admit the cinematic and the voice acting is pretty good and on par with the likeness of the film, that’s the only good part. All you do in the game is move and fight over and over again. Sometimes you get a driving mission, but those are the worst because the controls are just horrible! I swear I died more time on those levels than any other level in the game and it’s all because a fricken Firebird of all cars can’t turn right. Outside of those levels however you get a control system that takes a long time to get use to, especially when you’re shooting. Shooting in this game is just horrible because despite all the upload’s Ghost and Niobe got during their training you’d think that they can’t shoot anything without the help of Bullet Time mode. I mean I Love bullet time mode and all but there has to be moments where you can fire a gun with normal speed and have some fun. If you don’t use slow mo then you’re going to be jacked out of the game faster thanks to the AI’s ability to have bullets home in on you ever second and the only way you can dodge those is, guess what? Bullet time! The only way you’ll ever stand a chance is to fight in close range combat, but again you’re getting shot at half the fricken time. Terrible controls, horrible camera, some of the worst graphics at that time, and just a unfair challenge design. After playing this game I now welcome our computer overlords.

2. Alpha Protocol

-Chances are you were one of the many who saw such a great potential game like this fall flat on its face in failure. It’s like watching the first Star Wars film, looks like a promise and you feel all geeky inside and then you see Jar Jar and just drop your popcorn in horror. This is another example on how something so cool can just go so bad. Alpha Protocol looked like a game that would take James Bond and 24 together into an awesome spy open narrative RPG. We all heard about it and we were all excited to play it, but when we did all we got was a game that didn’t even play like it was promised. The RPG elements in this game are one of the reasons it failed, targeting was such a hard thing to do that nearly all my shots failed one way or another. The AI is cheap as hell where in one second as soon as you enter a room your hit multiple times and your health is already half gone. The skill development is messed up because only certain skills really work well in most levels while others don’t start getting useful until you’re almost full of the skill bar. Terrible Controls, lack of depth in the levels, and the worst gadgets that pretty much do nothing but fill your space of items make this game one hell of a mission failure. The only thing good about this game as well as the only thing that might make you play this game fully at least once is the narrative. This is just amazing narrative like I have never seen before. Every dialog choice always affect something in the game from what organizations and friends you have to the outcome of a mission that could change the game completely from what you might think may happen. I’m even willing to say that the way the narrative was done could even give Bioware a run for its money. But as well know, narration means nothing without gameplay and this game has none of it.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

-GOD I HATE THIS GAME! I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT!! This is the most disappointing, awful, shitty, godforsaken game that I have ever played in my entire life. I use to be a huge Sonic fan until I played this piece of shit! This game failed in every department! Story, gameplay, controls, AI, mechanics, characters, voice acting, music, graphics it was declared one of the worst games to ever come out and I’m sure everyone out there can agree with me! I never thought a worse Sonic game then Sonic Heroes existed, but then I played this game. And I….I nearly cried because I was let down so much. I saw the promo’s for this game and I was excited as ever, I waited for an hour on a line to play this game and I ran over 15 blocks none stop to put this in my 360 and play it until death took me. I wish death did! In less than 3 hours I was already willing to break the game in half in anger and frustration! But I kept on because there had to be some redeeming feature? But what do I get? Death on every single level more than once because the controls and camera are conspiring to have me waste my time. Voices from the 4kids department that make me want to burn my ears off with hot lava. A storyline that makes an Ed Woods film look like Gone with the Wind. A whinny time traveling psychic hedgehog that has the worst levels ever in any Sonic game and a pot leaf hairdo. And….a human princess who makes me want to strangle to death every time I see here…kissing the dead corpse….of an furry anthro hedgehog…and bringing him back from the dead...WTF!!!!!! And do you know who I blame? A part of it is on Sega, but also from the minority hardcore fans that kept pushing and pushing for the game to be released until Sega couldn’t deal with the pressure and sent out the BETA VERSION OF THE GAME!!

A BETA!!!

….that was me blowing up my computer. Just…the worst and most disappointing game ever…goddamnit…

And that’s all I got to say. Maybe some of you agree with me and maybe some of you don’t. What are your most disappointing games and are they that bad and why?

See you next week.

Later

Trying to find ideas

Trying to find ideas on what to write about. I've been busy with school so much that I've had less time working on the blog.

Review: Dragon Age II (Warning Spoliers)

NOTE: The author owns none of the pictures.

Being the Bioware freak that I am, it's no surprise that I've already played and beaten this game three times since it's release. This means either I'm an awesome gamer or I have no life...or both. Anyway, let's talk about Dragon Age and it's universe. Like most RPG worlds it's got the usual Tolken references like Magic, Elves, Dwarves, a great evil that corrupts the universe etc. However, Dragon Age calls itself a "Dark Fantasy" which is sort of an true and yet not true. There is a lot of dark like themes in the game and there is plenty of signs of blood, evil, demonic creatures and mysterious plots. However I like to call it the "Reversal Fantasy" instead, mostly because it takes the common tropes of all normal fantasy's and twists them around.

For instance, Magic is kind of viewed as the plaque to the common view where mages are forced to live in isolation or else they fear the wraith of the Templers and the Chantry (A Christian like religion that pretty much is the major power in Thedas). Elves are treated like second class citizen (and sometimes worse) and there great lore is all but lost. And while in most RPG's the religion is a good holy like sort, in the game you known that the religion is corrupted and there is a lot of problems.

Dragon Age Origins provided a great story with a unique character creation that effected the game, a fun combat system, interesting mechanics, and well designed world. Now that Dragon Age II is out, only a year and a half  later, does it match well to it's predecessor? Let's see.

1. Graphics

This is one of the more improved aspects of the game. Sometimes the graphics in Dragon age II seemed to be a little off and choppy when I played it, but they have improved a lot here in the squeal. The lighting is much better and the character's textures are much similar to the style of Mass Effect's character which bring out the more realistic approach to the character's looks and likeness. Most of the game takes place in the city Kirkwall and while it's not like it's LOTR's Minas Tirith it;s a somewhat impressive piece of work. Hightown, for the nobles, is all fancy and rich looking while the lower you get the more poorer it it is the atmosphere and setting so points for that. A few times you will look at the background and skybox's and see that it's bland, but not so much. I have to say this is one of the really good improvements for the game.

2. Controls

This is by far my favorite improvement. In the original Dragon Age, the combat system was much like KOTOR's and this I praised because it was a system that most of us knew a lot of and it was easier to understand. A few new features were added such as the Quick Potion option, the ability to lock certain skills or spells in to be used automatically, and the ability to pause the game and plan out your next attack. Dragon Age II follows a more direct approach. While some of the original control schemes still exist, main combat is done by hacking and slashing. If your a melee user you just point in a direction, press A over and over, and your attacking with combo like moves, this is a much more action orianted combat style and I fully welcome it as it allowed me to get inside the fight more and dash from place to place with my giant sword knocking down three to two armed men instead of one by one like the previous one.

The system is also unique for long range users and magic users as well. If you use a crossbow or longbow, the system does an auto lock for you on the nearest opponent and you just press I as fast as possible to fire arrow after arrow. Sometimes you will move your joystick (or mouse) and you will aim at a different target instead. But here is the unique thing, if your aiming at an opponent right next to you, you will physically attack your opponent instead of firing your weapon. Finally, some realism! Seriously, if I'm a bow guy and I see a guy about to attack me with a sword I would kick the guy in the face. Finally, Mages have the honor of having both the long and short range. If you aim at an opponent far range, your character will do a fancy kata of moves with their staffs that send out magical energy while any enemy that gets hit by the staff will also receive damage. You soon see that Mages are going to be the powerhouse in this game very quickly.

Other then these changes, most of the game is the same as the original which is a perfect blend of my opinion of Originality and Orthodoxy.

3. Gameplay

Gameplay has a lot of familiar features while adding a few new ones, but besides the new control system there is not much that actually makes the game feel better then Dragon Age Origins. In all actuality it feels more like Mass Effect. The narration dialog now has the famous Mass Effect wheel where you move your joystick to the correct response and then press A for your character to say it. Believe it or not, I don't like this. The wheel was more of a Mass Effect thing and by bringing it over the game loses it's feel as a Dragon Age game. As usual of Bioware's game the choices you make will effect the overall story and the way your characters react. Except unlike in the original Dragon Age, you don't have the friendly meter and instead now have a "Friendship & Rivalry" meter. With this meter you have the option of having a friendly relationship with a companion or a competitive like one via disagreements or opposite views. It's okay to have either one with any character as they will grow stronger if all the way left or right and you can still have a romance with a character of either character. In fact it's worse to have a companion that's middle because most crisis moments need your character to be mostly one friendly or rival in order for them to still stay in your party.

In terms of level building, it's gotten a lot better. All characters have their own set of "Stat Trees" by which you can choose which paths to follow for each character to your liking. You can have Merill be an Elemental Mage while Bethany follows on Healing or switch them around if you want, the choice is yours. This makes each character's fighting style more unique then the skill building in the first game where all characters of the same class had the same skill list. However, all characters except yours can only have one type of weapon specialization that's already default for them. As for you, you are limited as well. Warriors only get Sword and Shield as well as Two-Handed Weapons. Rouges get Duel Weapons and Archery. And Mages only get staffs. However, this won't be major problem as each style is suited well to their respective class. And don't worry about exp share, the game has gotten rid of it and now you gain exp for all the enemies you kill after each battle for all companions. And if you want to gain a little extra, the game world has a "Night Mode" where by traveling in the city you can grind extra exp by facing down thugs and night gangs as the excuse. Genius.

The crafting feature s not as good as people think. It's nice that you can now make your own potions, grenade, poisons, and enchantments by finding recipes and materials to make them, but they still cost money which I find a bit stupid. Should the point of crafting being less materials then wealth while doing the opposite is reverse? As such I just stop wasting time find craft materials half way in my second game and just sold the stuff to by potions and first aids. Enchantments are back, as is Satchel who is awesome, and they still have their cool abilities.

 But the most worked on is the Side Quests. Side Quests play a much more active role in this game then in the predecessors as the Side Quests grow upon each arc with more details that effect your character and some companions (Fenrir, Isabella, Sebastian) can only be found by achieve side quests. There are also your companion's side quests which will not only help you grow into a more deeper relationship with them, but are vital to do because if you don't do these there maybe a few characters who will leave your party for good. This is good on one hand because it forces the player to do more interaction with the characters and story, but on the other hand some players may not want to be forced to do something they don't want to do and have huge consequences for doing so. It's a risky move, but again it might work or not depending on the player.

So overall much of the mechanics are done right but what about the story?

4. Story

Normally I would stay here and call the story of any Bioware game to be that as if it was written by muses, but this time it's not going to be as much of that. First the good parts of the story, the entire game is told by the narration of the character Varric who tells the ten year story of the rise of the champion, Hawke,to a Chantry Seeker who believes that by understanding the journey of Hawke she might be able to stop a great world war that is happening. Expect to see some the actions you have done in DA:O and Awakening, but not as much as Mass Effect as this story takes place in the Free Marshes, a land outside of Ferelden which is kind of a dissapointment.

But there is one major thing that I have to say about this game's story that I can't find anything more then annoying....there is no main villain. Unlike in the first Dragon Age game where the villains were Loghain and the Blight, a constant enemy through out the game, in this game there role of "villain" is very much changed throughout the story. The final boss is not really a villain as she's only first scene at the end of the third arc. Sure we hear about her sometimes, but not as much and it kind of frustrates me that their is no real antagonistic force behind this game. Some might say the Qunari are one, but they only really are  threat in the last of the third act. So yeah we have  our hero, but we have no consistent antagonistic force through the story and that bugs me.

Theme wise the story is a bit shaky as well. It mostly focus on the relationships between the Circle of Magi and the Chantry, both of whom have had a rocky relationship and as time goes on it gets worse. Through 3/4ths of the story most of the side quests will feature either Templers or Mages as the enemy and it's clear from there that you will have to pick a side in the future. Oh look the Chantry was just blown up, there we go. After a certain not so funny anymore Grey Warden Mage blows up the  Chantry because he wants to start a revolution, the Templers issue the Right of Annulment which allows all the Templers to kill every Mage in their district (this case Kirkwall) even through none of the Circle of Magi was involve. And so you must choose to pick a side to deterimine the fate of Kirkwall, but the ending is just...lame. Either one you choose nothing really changes except the same thing, every Circle decides to revolt against the Templers and soon it becomes a Magic vs. Church war all over the world.

To be fair the game does take place in a smaller environment unlike the last game, but I feel that it kind of wares it down by where the story goes. I know it's suppose to be the rise of the champion, but as you progress further down the story it gets worse and worse. Also, the Idol of Lyrium is a really bad plot device Bioware, really bad.

5. Characters

Oh this is just were I get really bashing. The characters are some of the most forgettable characters ever. Dragon Age Origins had great characters, even though some were really annoying (Alister and Leliana) you still remember them and they had some redeeming qualities about them. In this game, nearly every character is forgettable. Let me list your companions.

1. Bethany: Your little sister who is a mage and pretty much has no personality what so ever other then trying to be...a little sister. Great for the party, very weak personality. So if you don't want her, just be a Mage and see an ogre smash her into pulp.

2. Carver: Your younger brother and Bethany's twin. Unlike Bethany who doesn't stick out, Carver tries to hard to stick out. He's always wining and complaining even worse then Alistair, something I find nearly impossible. He really had no huge storyline significue and can only be a full companion if your a mage. But how does he reward you by letting him live? He joins the Templers who hunt mages. WTF?

3. Aveline: She's basically has the personality of a  Lawful Good character. Other then her love for all things order and just, her only use is being your tank (Which I give points for not being a guy this time) and just killing things. She is very useful in certain side quests and only has one moment of funny in the plot.

4. Varric: This guy is fucking awesome! Screw any elf hero from any other RPG, I want me a fucking crossbow sarcastic dwarf! This guy not only is a great companion (And the only one who will be with you no matter what) but he's got a personality like gold. Every scene with him is just great and the way he lies and deals his way through the story's problems? You'll laugh every time. Pretty much my only favorite companion.

5. Merrill: If you like innocent moe like characters. Merrill is the closest you'll get in an WRPG. She's got an interesting personality and her innocence will get a chuckle out of you once and awhile. But what I really like about her is her story, it's very well tragically made and I that's why I give her more points in character development the others.

6. Anders: .....what have they done to you? How do you take one of the funniest characters in Dragon Age and turn him into a wreck? Anders is no longer funny or cool. All he whines about are "the injustice of Mages" and the "Evils of the Templers" every fucking time. He's like listening to a preacher that never shuts the hell up, only bisexual and depressing. Other then that, he's your main healer. Oh and he also causes the entire world to go to war. Dick.

7. Fenrir: Emo with white hair and a huge sword who use to be a slave and wants revenge against his master. JRPG much Bioware? Next.

8. Isabella: Only there to provide sex jokes, still,.. she fights well.

8. Sebastian: For a guy who was DLC, he's not worth it really. Varric is a much better long range guy and this guy has the personality of a church boy. The guy  has this big revenge plot, but it really doesn't go anywhere special. You won't miss much by losing him.

So yeah, your companions are mostly dull and chances are you'll even lose a few early on in your replays of the game. I'm starting to think Bioware focused to much on mechanics and forgot they had to make the game's narrative interesting.

6. Sound
The sound....is very not notaciable. Nothing special about sound because it's not changed since Dragon Age. Oh and the voices of characters? Need work.

OVERALL: 4/5
So While there are some ups to this game there are also some downs as well. I had fun, but not the same kind of fun I had when playing Dragon Age Origins which is like 5/5 in my book. I believe they were trying to make the game too much like Mass Effect and not enough Dragon Age. I still say you should buy it, but don't expect to play it as much as you did with the original.

Well that's my review. See you next week

We are Gamers and we are Legion.

Later


So you can see, almost every character is