he/she will kill you with cuteness…. thats the name of the dagger hidden in his glove.

Anyway just found out it was released today in time for assassins Creed 2, never played one but want to, i never had a ps3 and i hope to get one soon, its just kinda funny that its this thats the big stand out for me, but you know something i think am just used to cute mascots… i blame sonic the hedgehog, but maybe thats a good thing, if it wasnt for Sonic and Mario we wouldnt have crash….. when he was good but yea now of days it dont seem like there are anything close to a good all around mascot.

I know thats most gamers like I started with Sonic and thats world of gaming, it is not a bad thing what is going on now but the feeling that alot of new game mascots like Felix from Gears of war send a very different message from the norm that i know off……. or maybe am just old…

still F*#king cute thought also its 1.99 in the usa heres the info from official site

]]> http://sbshackd.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/heavy-rain-demo-impressions-nightclub-scene/ Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:23:06 +0000 shackd http://sbshackd.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/heavy-rain-demo-impressions-nightclub-scene/

Developer Quantic Dream only recently started sharing more juicy details about its highly anticipated thriller, Heavy Rain. At Sony’s PlayStation Gamer Day, we were introduced to one of the story’s four main characters, Norman Jayden, as writer and director David Cage walked us through a scene titled, “Mad Jack.” Today, behind closed doors at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Cage once again showed us the same scene with Mad Jack, but this time, the demo ended with Jayden as the one who ends up beneath the heavy crane. For more details on that scenario, please read our hands-on here. What we were looking forward to the most was to see Madison Paige in action–and we definitely saw much more than we were expected. Because Heavy Rain is primarily based on its storytelling, readers should be aware that the following explains the entire sequence of events; be advised that these can be considered spoilers.

The hypnotic Madison was the star of last year’s E3 tech demo, which was created to give us an idea about the gameplay, but the story of the taxidermist had nothing to do with the game itself. Before going further, Cage gave us a bit of backstory on Madison, and we learned that she suffers from severe insomnia and can only sleep at motels for some reason. She’s also a journalist and a photographer with an urge to help the authorities regarding the case of the origami killer. As usual, Cage narrated the presentation and his colleague Guillaume de Fondaumiere controlled the character. It’s easy to be taken by Madison’s slender figure and attractive features. Her short-cropped hair suits the shape of her face, and with her big brown eyes and flawless skin, it’s clear that she was modeled on a very beautiful woman. This scene was titled, “Madison at the Blue Lagoon” and took place at a happening night club, with crazy lights and loud techno music.

We watched as Madison entered the club, dressed in a bright, short-sleeved button-down shirt and a black skirt, weaving her way carefully through the throng of clubbers (and couples making out) so that she could get to the bar on the other side. Cage noted that this area is supposed to contrast the Mad Jack scene, which was dismal and desolate. The goal here was to find Paco Mendes, the owner of the club, and interrogate him because he apparently has information that is critical to the case. After learning that Paco was sitting in a VIP area with no interest in talking to her, Madison walked around the club trying to think of a way to get his attention. The screen split at this point to show that Paco had his eyes on a blond girl who was dancing on a raised platform. We saw him whisper something to his guard, who then obediently went over to fetch the girl. This was when Madison came up with an idea.

Madison walked over to the platform, and we saw the option to dance appear. By pressing L1, you can bring up her thoughts, which gives you a clue as to how you should proceed. After hitting the X button, she got up on the podium to dance. This started a sequence, which seemed like a rhythm game, where a series of buttons would appear and you had be accurate with your timing. Our demonstrator missed a step and had to do the dance routine again. After successfully showing what kind of moves she had, it was clear that Paco still had no interest in her. Madison realized that she needed to be sexier, and she was steered to the women’s restroom to make it happen. While standing in front of the mirror, there were five options that appeared over various parts of her body. Here, we were given the chance to manually apply mascara and lipstick to Madison, and because makeup was not enough, she tore off a portion of her skirt to show more leg. Long legs and cleavage is what this creepy club owner likes, so she unbuttoned her shirt a bit and tousled her hair until she had that “wild” look going.

Once she was satisfied with her transformation, she strutted back to the glowing platform and began her seductive dance again–which Paco definitely noticed. The Blond girl got the boot, and Madison swooped in on Paco. She obviously knew how to play the game because as soon as Paco tried to make a move, she asked that he take her somewhere more private. He led her to his lounge upstairs, which was decorated with white leather couches, tiger-print lamps, and a giant fish tank. We should note that the music playing in the background was like something taken from a really bad porno, with a woman moaning constantly as though she were the vocals. Before entering the room, Madison double checked the gun in her purse and went over a few thoughts in her head. As soon as she entered, he snagged her purse, tossed it on a chair, and led her to the couch. He clearly had only one thing on his mind, and that was for Madison to please him in more ways than one. Options will appear and swirl around your head each time you are faced with a decision. In this case, she hesitated, telling him that this was a misunderstanding. That was not an answer he wanted to hear, so he pulled a gun on her. We saw that there was a lamp behind her, which seemed to be her only weapon within range, but she needed a way to get to it without making it obvious. In order to distract him, we watched as Madison undressed, one article of clothing at a time. Standing in her underwear, she danced seductively for him, bending over and giving him the best view possible. He was obviously very pleased, but before he knew it, she quickly grabbed the lamp and whacked him hard on the head. When he woke up, he was strapped to a chair with duct tape, and now Madison was the one with the gun in her hand.

Paco didn’t seem too worried at first because he didn’t think Madison had the guts to pull the trigger. Using the Sixaxis controls, Madison slapped him across the face repeatedly. When a guard came knocking on the door the see if everything was OK, Madison kept her gun tightly pressed to his forehead and performed a When Harry Met Sally pie scene to convince the goon that everything was most definitely fine. Stunned, Paco sat there with his mouth wide open, and Madison shocked him again by grabbing his testicles, asking about the name of a guy who rented an apartment from him. We weren’t sure how long this scene could be extended, but when he finally gave her what she needed, she walked out nonchalantly and headed down the stairs.

The demo ended abruptly here because the game crashed unexpectedly (it happens), but what we saw was enough to get a good feel for this particular scene. By now, it’s obvious that the focus of the game is not necessarily the gameplay but how the story unfolds and how you interact with everything and everyone around you. This scene didn’t have the kind of quick-time events as the Mad Jack scene had, but whenever you approached someone or were faced with a decision, you had several choices you could make. Icons would appear onscreen if there was a motion you could perform, such as applying makeup, so that you felt like you were controlling this character every step of the way.

There are two more characters that haven’t been unveiled yet, and we were told that one would be disclosed at Cologne and the final member of the cast at the Tokyo Game Show. We look forward to seeing what the others can contribute to the story because we were told that Norman and Madison are supposed to cross paths. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to make it that far, so we’ll have to wait to see what happens next. The game is only 75 percent completed, and Cage said that there are still several areas that will be touched up by the time it is released. Heavy Rain is currently scheduled to come out in early 2010.

Ah some good news for those of us who want to make a return to the world of Assassins Creed 2. And since I pretty much finished the game and did everything I could have possibly done and received the achievements for it, I had no real reason to go back too Assassins Creed 2 until now. Seems Ubisoft has announced two new DLC`s coming next year January and February, the first is titled: “Battle for Forli,” which will launch in January, 2010, followed by “Bonfire of the Vanities” in February. They haven’t announced how much Microsoft Points it will be yet, but they did state that these will need around 1GB of drive space for each a bit bandwidth heavy but worth it hopefully.

Hellgate: Tokyo is the upcoming expansion to Hellgate: London, developed by and slated for release on March 2010. Watch the teaser:

“This month’s download picks offers up a fun mix of retro dirt bikers, monster-battling puzzle wizards, microscopic musical sea life, and peg-busting bouncy balls.”

Check out my monthly downloadable gaming column from Green Pixels now at its new home here at What They Play. This installment was delayed slightly due to technical matters.

Today, EA has fully revealed the official release date to Dante’s Inferno’s Demo . The demo is scheduled to be launched for PSN on December 10th and Xbox Live on December 24.

Hot off the success of part 2 in the Assassin’s Creed Trilogy Ubisoft is making sure to keep all eyes on them. Today they announced two downloadable expansions  will be released early next year for the PS3 and XBOX 360, no news on a PC option just yet.

In January, the “Battle for Forli,” will launch , followed with “Bonfire of the Vanities” sometime in February (or March). Each download is expected to take up about 1GB of space, so start deleting if you’re running packed. Price’s and more info have not been provided just yet.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

Anyone that’s completed the campaign may have noticed that 2 of the MEMORY SYNCH’S were decidedly and ominously missing. It’s a safe bet that this DLC is being provided as a means to fill in that gap — and bilk as much money as possible. But hey – if they’re length enough to justify – why not. The game rocked.

First Published Tuesday 1 December 2009 here at Ace Gamez – Alright I’ll admit it. I genuinely thought Harry Potter was next in line for an extreme plastic makeover, so you can add me to the ranks of gamers who were genuinely surprised when publisher Warner Bros. announced Lego Rock Band earlier this year. It seemed like an odd direction for the series, but after spending some time with the game, the pairing really does feel like a match made in heaven. While the usual Lego charm is cranked up to eleven, there are still a number of flaws that keep this from reaching the same standard of excellence the Rock Band series has become known for, although children and big kids (you know who you are) will still get a kick out of this madcap crossover.

Rather than peddle a lazy Rock Band tie-in with Lego avatars, a lot of work has gone into expanding the template and giving players something new to enjoy. With Activision furiously approving new Guitar Hero games with a rubber stamp, applause is due to Traveller’s Tales and Harmonix for investing a great deal of dedication in making this a worthwhile rhythm-action title in its own right. Take the expansive career mode for example, that follows a Lego guitarist on his quest to form the ultimate rock super group and take them on the road to success. The hilarious opening cutscene shows a series of band try-outs in which a baby octopus with blistering eight-legged drum skills gets rejected due to a ‘No-Octopus’ rule in the terms and conditions. This scene is typical of the humour running through every Lego title and there are plenty of similar rib-tickling moments on offer here.

As Lego is all about creation, the new ‘Build a Band’ mode lets you modify your band members and entourage with a wide range of pieces that can be bought at the Rock Shop. You can also modify you band’s ‘Rock Den’ with a variety of wacky relics unlocked along the course of the campaign. You are offered very little in the way of creation kits to begin with, but as you burn through the massive career mode and earn Lego studs, you will soon have a bustling home for your plastic heralds of rock. Similar to Rock Band 2, you can hire crew members such as a manager, stylist and a video director that looks suspiciously like a young Spielberg. The bigger your entourage, the more money and fans you will rack up after each show. It’s a nice piece of micro-management at a very digestible, streamlined level that adds a little welcome depth to the game.

The career mode itself is a monster, boasting over 40 new tracks and countless individual gigs to tackle. New venues are unlocked whenever you raise enough cash to buy a new mode of transport, ranging from an old second-hand tour bus to a swanky private jet. The venues are also full of character, seeing your team playing to commuters at a train station, rocking the high seas on board a massive pirate ship and entertaining stone golems in a mine buried located at the centre of the earth. It’s big, colourful and incredibly charming; everything you expect a Lego game to be. While the visuals and atmosphere are in check, hard rock aficionados may have a hard time digesting the diverse soundtrack, which aims to capture young fans of Lego and parents by casting an awfully wide net.

That’s not to suggest there is a lack of classics of course, although the game almost falls into the same trap that Guitar Hero 5 did in September, by creating a set list so far-reaching that it felt like a title that wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be anymore. Some of the hits on offer include Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’, Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ and Foo Fighters’ ‘Breakout’, which is so far, so good. However, these are paired with acts like Supergrass, Pink, Jackson 5 and Counting Crows which, while still brilliant, may prove too diverse for hard rock fans. In addition, any downloaded Rock Band tracks on your hard drive will automatically be available for play in all modes from the start. Unfortunately, this only applies to a selection of your DLC, presumably due to licensing issues, significantly lowering your usual track count. Still, it’s a great feature that removes a great deal of song repetition in career mode.

Many of the tracks bundled on the disc serve as background music to new Rock Power Challenges that see your band overcoming epic obstacles with the power of rock. An early challenge sees your bumbling road crew accidentally unleashing a pack of spooky ghosts in an old mansion. Enter Ray Parker JR’s infinitely-awesome ‘Ghostbusters’ theme, accompanied by an incredibly charming sequence that sees the crowd and some of the mansion’s creepier inhabitants putting their differences aside and singing along to the chorus. While these are hands-down the highlight of the game, it can be a tad distracting trying to see what’s going on in these sequences and attempting to play well at the same time.

Throughout the challenges, gold, silver and bronze awards will pop up on screen when your band completes an objective, such as successfully scaring away ghosts during the mansion stage and these depend on how well you are playing. The better your performance, the more ghosts you will defeat and this ultimately affects your final money and fan rewards. Much like the platform Lego titles, there are plenty of goodies to collect through mastering these challenges so there is incentive to go back and improve on your scores from the Rock Den. If you are really having a tough time nailing those high scores, there is a free play area in the Rock Den for new players or children to master the basics without the risk of failure, which is a nice touch to help younger players and big kids with two left hands.

Speaking of which, navigating the Rock Den is a tad clumsy using your guitar or drum peripherals, with an awkward customisation system and far too many loading screens between menus. It often feels like a bit of a slog to actually start playing any music, made worse during Rock Power Challenges due to a painfully long restart time should you wish to try again halfway through a track. Also, should you be unlucky enough not to own any DLC from previous Rock Band titles or the online store, career mode will get annoyingly repetitive way too soon as the same tracks recycle over and over again.

The formula may be starting to show it’s age at this point, but as ever the great team at Traveller’s Tales has worked hard to keep this latest addition to the Rock Band canon fresh and inviting by doing what it does best; deliver a wacky and comedic spin on an existing format, full of unlockables and tweaks that will keep kids entertained for hours. The only real sticking points are the excessive loading, overly-busy Rock Power Challenge screens and the lack of full DLC support, but then again if you are ten years old and a big fan of Lego, are you even going to care?

76%

Expanding, Establishing, and Keeping

There is no hard rule on when to stop inviting people in your MLM business because ultimately the ‘invitation’ process has to continue in order for you and your group to be successful. But what do you do beyond Invitation? What if all you have are just members who signed-up? Do you know what they should do next? Do you know what you should do to help them?

The last 3 stages of Networking are Expanding, Establishing, and Keeping. Here are some tips from the experts:

2. Expanding

• Know and find out the best practices used by your uplines. Networking is about replicating the process because they are effective. Once you know the best practices and or practices that your upline recommend, make it a point to apply/implement them to your downlines. You will be surprised at how everything will multiply with this mindset.
  
• The secret is also paying it forward. Whatever information you received from your upline needs to be passed to your downline. You yourself need to do that.

3. Establishing

• Even with one-on-one sessions, you need to have group discussions or sessions. Ultimately with group discussions/sessions, you are constantly training your downlines. With these training sessions, you can also revisit your goals and share insights on how to reach them.
• Find a common venue, find a common time, and always communicate any accomplishments.

4. Keeping

• The core message in ‘Keeping’ is on maintaining personal and good relationship with your group. You need to see beyond your group/downlines as a source of money but more in a personal level. Treat them. Reward them. Talk to them. Spend time with them. Be happy together with them.

Successful MLM/Networking companies apply these 4 stages. One of the 4 stages alone cannot help you succeed in this business. So regardless if you are new or not in the world of networking, always keep in mind these 4 stages.

La cabinet de recherche Canadien s’est interrogé sur la légitimité de pratiquer des prix premium sur les consoles next-gen.

6eme génération vs 7eme génération

Le cabinet a commencé par dresser un bilan entre les 2 générations. Les jeux de haute qualité de la 6eme génération (PS2/Xbox/GC) ont maintenu une politique de prix premium tout le long du cycle de vie des console, et ce jusqu’à l’arrivée de la 7eme génération. En moyenne, les jeux X360 & PS3 présentent des prix élevés plus longtemps que la 6eme génération. En revanche, les prix baissent plus rapidement pour la Wii, du à sa politique casual et à sa gamme de jeu plus “cheap”, son prix premium étant moins élevé et fixé à $49,99 (même si certains essaient de le tirer vers le haut). Pour finir, les bons gros jeux bien gamer afficheront toujours un prix premium (Quelle surprise !).

Maintenant, la bonne nouvelle. Le cabinet tablerait sur une baisse de prix des jeux de l’ordre de 10$ en 2010 (7€).

La passation à la distribution digitale ?

Dans son rapport, l’analyste soutient que les jeux AAA continueront d’être vendus à un prix premium (donc 70€) et plus longtemps que pour la génération précédente.. en clair, COD modern warfare 2 ne devrait pas baisser prochainement .. (Aaarrghhh)

Autre point, moi je ne vois pas du tout une baisse de 7€. Vu comment les éditeurs se font malmener par le marché d’occaz, ils auront plus intérêts à garder le prix en full price le plus longtps possible pour maximiser les profits.

Pour finir, si la baisse de 7€ est effective, on aura un regain d’éléments à télécharger sur le PSN ou Xbox Live. Et bien entendu, ces nouveaux éléments sauront se montrer tellement indispensable pour que nous les téléchargions. Au final, nous dépenserons autant si ce n’est plus.

La baisse de prix pourrait-elle se faire au profit du DLC ?

http://www.eedar.com/images/expose/2009_November.pdf

Problemi con il DLC in gioco

Di seguito la traduzione in Italiano del articolo, precedentemente postato, che spiega come risolvere il problema della pagina DLC vuota.
Fonte originale.

Se la pagina dei vostri contenuti scaricabili è bianca, come nell’immagine sopra, allora il Dragon Age Updater non sta funzionando come dovrebbe. Il servizio in questione è utilizzato dal gioco per controllare i nuovi contenuti disponibili con il proprio account e poterli quindi scaricare.

Se il Dragon Age Updater non è partito durante l’avvio del sistema operativo, dovete cambiare le impostazioni dei servizi per abilitarlo. Per abilitare il Dragon Age Updater fate quanto segue:

• Avviare services.msc dall’opzione Esegui in Start. In alternativa premere il Tasto Windows + R per visualizzare la finestra. Scrivere “services.msc” nel campo di testo e premere OK.
  • ATTENZIONE: Services.msc controlla tutti i componenti essenziali di Windows. Errori nella configurazione possono compromettere il sistema operativo. Ogni modifica che fate è sotto la vostra responsabilità.
• Trovare il servizio Dragon Age: Origins Updater nella lista.
• Doppio-click sul servizio per aprire le Proprietà.
• Premere Avvia se lo stato del servizio non è attivo.
• Cambiare Tipo d’avvio in Automatico.
• Chiudere le Proprietà e l’interfaccia dei servizi.

Se invece volete disabilitare il Dragon Age Updater:

• Avviare services.msc dall’opzione Esegui in Start. In alternativa premere il Tasto Windows + R per visualizzare la finestra. Scrivere “services.msc” nel campo di testo e premere OK.
  • ATTENZIONE: Services.msc controlla tutti i componenti essenziali di Windows. Errori nella configurazione possono compromettere il sistema operativo. Ogni modifica che fate è sotto la vostra responsabilità.
• Trovare il servizio Dragon Age: Origins Updater nella lista.
• Doppio-click sul servizio per aprire le Proprietà.
• Premere Arresta se lo stato del servizio è attivo.
• Cambiare Tipo d’avvio in Disabilitato.
• Chiudere le Proprietà e l’interfaccia dei servizi.

Se non vedete il servizio nella lista, vuol dire che non è stato installato correttamente durante l’installazione del gioco.

Se state utilizzando Steam, potete avviare l’Updater manualmente con C:\Programmi\Steam\steamapps\common\Dragon age origins\bin_ship\DAUpdaterSvc.Service.exe

Se usate Stardock, scaricate il seguente file e aggiungetelo nella vostra directory Dragon Age\bin_ship.

http://stardock.cachefly.net/zoomba/service.cmd

Quando avete salvato il file nella directory, avviatelo. Dopo l’avvio il programma cercherà di installarvi il servizio Dragon Age: Origins Updater.

Activision et Infinity Ward peuvent se frotter les mains. Les poches ne sont pas prêtes de se désemplir. Et pour cause, après avoir enregistré 500 millions de $ de recettes après 5 jours, Ben Schachter, analyste chez Broadpoint Amtech, estime que le DLC rapporterait au moins entre 100/140 millions de $ en 2010 ($59mil-$85mil pour le résultat d’exploitation, bénéfice par action $0.03-$0.05). Cette estimation est calculée selon les données du premier épisode Call of Duty : World at War, où le ratio est de 0,625 DLC vendu par exemplaire du jeu.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/modern-warfare-2-dlc-to-make-USD140m-analyst

ya se había dado la noticia de que Resident Evil: Alternative Edition saldría a manera de contenido descargable [DLC] para las consolas de Microsoft y Sony, después que siempre no, que este título sandría en formato físico… en lo que se deciden aquí les dejo estas imágenes:

¿Entonces… tu que esperas, la Alternative Edition o la Gold?

Yo espero que se concentren en renovar el sistema de juego de RE porque eso de no poder moverte mientras apuntas me llevo a dejar el juego a las pocas horas.

Fuente | ºvandal.netº

Aproveitando o período do feriado de Ação de Graças, a produtora Naughty Dog reservou uma surpresa especial aos jogadores de “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves”.

Chega nesta sexta-feira (27/11) o primeiro conteúdo extra para o título. A novidade incluirá o mapa The Fort, baseado em um cenário de “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune”, para as partidas multiplayer. A boa notícia: o extra é gratuito.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Além disso, quando o conteúdo estiver no ar, o estúdio prometeu iniciar uma semana especial de experiência dobrada. Ou seja, os jogadores poderão angariar mais pontos de experiência ao eliminar inimigos e cumprir as tarefas do modo multiplayer online.

Os participantes contarão também com dois novos visuais para os personagens: Doughnut Drake para os Heróis e Doughnut Lazarevic pelo lado dos Vilões. São espécies de versões “gordinhas” dos icônicos personagens.

Lançado em 13 de outubro, a continuação de “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” entra novamente no clima de filmes de ação com exploradores, como “Indiana Jones”, mas a produtora afirma que melhorou o sistema de combate, principalmente no de corpo-a-corpo. Se o primeiro jogo era essencialmente single-player, a continuação também investe em modalidades multiplayer, para até dez jogadores na opção competitiva e três na cooperativa.

After an epic 45 hour punctuated session of gaming, my journey in Dragon Age has come to an end … for now. It was a bitter-sweet ending — the Archdemon was slain (this surely can’t be a spoiler if you were paying any attention at all), life goes on, my fellowship of NPC companions split up and everyone went their separate ways. I think I did right by them, mostly, but at the end it was just me and my faithful dog, Bitey, and the long open road.

Was my character still the same self-centred but basically well-meaning casteless Carta bruiser that was introduced in the dwarf commoner origin? I think so, but she’d changed. She’d seen the world above, faced horrors underground, faced her inner demons on a religious pilgrimage, and locked horns with some hard bitten political mavens in the Landsmeet. And killed lots of darkspawn, too. A story where the characters have room to change and grow is a good story. My Dragon Age story could easily have been told from the perspective of any one of the companions too, because they also changed and grew and faced their own inner demons.

I enjoyed reading how other peoples’ stories ended in an rpg.net thread setup for the purpose (link is full of spoilers, you’ve been warned). Because rpg.net was originally a community of pen and paper roleplayers, you’ll see a lot of people describe how they RPed their characters, why they made decisions IC, and where that led.

And although there are good endings and less good endings (depending on your point of view), I don’t get the feeling that this is a game that you win or lose. Either way, you have your own story.  I’ve also felt strongly while playing Dragon Age that I wanted to talk to people about how their stories were going, what choices they made, and to compare experiences. Even though it’s a single player game, it was an experience I very much wanted to share.

And now, I’m already planning on playing through it again:

• I want to try playing on a harder mode now that I understand the mechanics more fully.
• I want to play through as different origins and races.
• I want to  learn more about the lore by playing through the game differently. How does Orzammar treat non-dwarves? Does the Landsmeet treat you differently if you are a human noble?
• I want to tinker around with the storyline by trying different options and seeing what happens.
• I want to get to know different companions. I only had time to strike up in depth relationships with a handful of them.
• My dwarf girl was not the romantic type. (I laughed at Zevran and told him to get lost when he called me a sex goddess.) I’d like to play a more romantic type and see how some of those play out.
• I’d like to do more of the sidequests and dragon slaying. In my play through, I decided that stopping the Blight was my first priority so I didn’t want to waste too much time or take too many risks outside hat.
• I want to try some of the DLC content – I could do that on my main character but it might be more storywise to run through it on a second one.

So there’s plenty of incentive to keep playing the game, although I think I’ll take a break first. One thing I do note though – I have this notion of ‘playing around with the story’. I’ll be able to go back in and try out some ‘what if’s. There’s no other media than games in which you can approach a story in that way. To rewind and try different choices or different approaches and then see what happens. You can’t do that with a book (barring game books) or a film.

The experience players have with the Dragon Age story isn’t just of going through cut scenes and railroaded platform or combat sequences. You engage with the actual story as a gamer. Your choices drive it, your roleplaying decisions guide it,  and although you control the direction, you can’t always predict how the story will go because it drives you too. The story is the keystone of the game, and its emotional heart.

Is it limited? Yes, it’s only a computer game, and what you end up with are variations on a theme rather than radically, utterly different stories. But I think they are different enough and interesting enough to compel me to want to play with the possibilities given.

I dismiss  the complaints about lack of originality. The best parts of the game are the less original sections, and all fantasy relies on using existing mythical threads to weave a story that appeals to people on a very instinctive level.

For example, the section where you search for the Ashes of Andraste is very clearly based on the Arthurian grail quest. There are monsters to fight, hardships, moral dilemmas, puzzles, revelations and a strong sense of religious pilgrimage. But even a story so well known as the quest for the grail feels fresh and different when you are experiencing it alongside your character. If the emotional core of the story is present and is appealing and FUN, it really doesn’t matter if it is original or not.

(Conversely, it’s easy to tell an unusual story in a way that’s confusing or fails to grab people.)

Issues and Pacing

I love Dragon Age but the game isn’t perfect. There are ways in which it could be streamlined and better presented, although I think the game does succeed totally in many ways.

It is a long game. Sections like the Mage Tower and the Deep Roads can drag, especially if you try to play them through in a single session. But it also simulates a long and difficult journey very well. The sense of ‘oh no, not another set of darkspawn’ is part of the story being told.

From a gameplay point of view, it’s open to discussion whether some segments are too drawn out. (It would be slicker to have decided what the optimal length of game session was and to design the sub-quests around that baseline.) But that decision is an artistic storytelling decision on pacing, not a gameplay one on ‘how many mobs should be in that pack to challenge the player?’

I enjoyed the sense of the long and drawn out journeys in my quests so I don’t have an issue with the pacing there. But as I say, that’s a subjective opinion, others may differ or might have wanted an option to let the game know that you wanted things sped up.

The end game doesn’t allow enough time to tie up loose ends emotionally with the rest of the NPC companions. If you’ve gotten very close to any of them, it would have been nice to have some extended conversation options on the night before the last battle, it would have given a better sense of closure. Tamarind discusses his story here (spoilers behind the link) and explains why he really needed to have words with Alistair … if the game had allowed it.

The DLC is handled awkwardly at the end. The problem here with the storytelling is that this game definitely has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The DLC should logistically happen in the middle while your character is out adventuring and before the final battle. But clearly players are going to finish the story and Bioware still wants to sell DLC to them.  So after the final set of cut scenes and ‘this is what happened to your companions afterwards’, you’re left back in camp and told that for the purpose of ‘continuing your adventures’ you can assume you’re back in the midgame.

I don’t have the heart to really complain about this. I’m glad I had my neat ending and wouldn’t have wanted to skip that just to leave my character in a convenient spot storywise for DLC. A story that was designed at the start to have up to two years of optional but available DLC wouldn’t be able to have that neat ending, it would be more MMO like. Maybe in future games, they’ll have better ideas for how to make this gel more neatly.

Anyway, I’m back to Lothering with my new mage-in-search-of-a-husband. Instead of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it’ll be like Pride and Prejudice with Darkspawn.

And thank you Bioware, for restoring my faith in storytelling in computer games.

If you haven’t already, go online with your copy of Tekken 6 console to download and install the spiffy new patch from Namco-Bandai. As previously posted about, the patch is supposed to improve online play, and so far… surprisingly it has! Word from forums is that gamers in Japan and Korea are raving about the improved play. I myself was able to play for quite a bit and I have to say, it’s a nice change to actually have some playable, mostly lag-free matches. I was able to fight matches from 4 to 1 bar connections, and all were far, far better than ever before (although most 1-bar matches are usually refused).

Anyway, this great stuff, and I look forward to actually playing more Tekken 6 online in the days, weeks, months and yes, years ahead. Kudos to Namco-Bandai for pushing through with this crucial after-release service, which may just give T6 a much-needed shot in the arm since the somewhat sluggish opening online performance. Hopefully more good stuff, like the Co-op patch and more will be forthcoming very soon.

Oh, and thanks to Ryuhza for helping me test out some long-distance Tekken 6 play. Good game, dude! Hahaha!

If you haven’t already, go online with your copy of Tekken 6 console to download and install the spiffy new patch from Namco-Bandai. As previously posted about, the patch is supposed to improve online play, and so far… surprisingly it has, apparently. Word from forums is that gamers in Japan and Korea are raving about the improved play. I myself was able to play a couple of matches and I have to say, it’s a nice change to actually have some playable, mostly lag-free matches. I was able to fight matches from 4 to 1 bar connections, and all were markedly more playable than before (although most 1-bar matches are usually refused).

Anyway, this is pretty good stuff, and I look forward to actually playing more Tekken 6 online in the days ahead (and maybe over the weekend). Kudos to Namco-Bandai for pushing through with the after-release service. Hopefully more good stuff, like the Co-op patch and more will be forthcoming.

Oh, and thanks to Ryuhza for helping me test out some long-distance Tekken 6 play. Good game, dude! Hahaha!

The first DLC for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will be released tomorrow (Friday, November 27th). It includes a free multiplayer map called “The Fort”. Watch the trailer:

Naughty Dog ha confirmado la llegada de un nuevo DLC para Uncharted 2: Among Thieves completamente gratuito. Se trata de un mapa llamado “El Fuerte”, y la compañía lo describe como un mapa grande y abierto, perfecto para flanquear. Llegará éste Viernes, junto con un fin de semana de dinero doble por ser el día de acción de gracias, tal y como pasó en Halloween.

El resto de compañías deberían de tomar ejemplo. Nada de contenido de pago que te viene tras haber salido el videojuego. Cosas así siempre serán bienvenidas, y encima los extras para subir más rápido de nivel se agradecen, y ya van dos éste año. Probablemente no se descarte alguno más para Navidad o Año Nuevo.

Actualizado: Éste fin de semana, al igual que los esqueletos Vs zombies del pasado Halloween, el Día de Acción de Gracias se celebrará con solo un personaje héroe y un personaje villano. La gracia es que ambos son la edición obesa. Rosquilla Drake ya estaba incluido en el videojuego, pero aparte, se añadira Rosquilla Lazarevic a la plantilla, siendo de uso obligado en el lado villano en el evento, al igual que Drake como héroe. Sin duda una curiosidad que hará la partida más divertida. A continuación, más fotos.

Fuentes: VicioJuegos, VidaExtra

Saludos

LeviathanDominator