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Introduction

Dragon Age has been called the ’spiritual successor’ to Baldur’s Gate 2, the old Forgotten Realms PC RPG from the 90’s. BG2 was one of the games that launched BioWare to success. Can Dragon Age live up to this fantastic claim or will it fail at establishing a new franchise?

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In a Shacknews interview posted yesterday, Gearbox’s Mikey Neumann addressed issues such as the current looting system, DLC, and firemen.

When asked to address the free-for-all loot system (or as I like to call it, that-which-bitchslaps-WoWheads), Mikey touted the honor system that has not seemed to fail him in his own experiences with the game. He admitted, however, that if there is a large enough demand for it then even this can be addressed. “There’s some technical hurdles there that we’re going to have to look at, but obviously whatever people are clamoring [for], we’re gonna try to make it all better.”

In more gamemaster-friendly news, Bioware gave us a little insight into the Dragon Age: Origins Toolset, and it seems pretty deep. While this may be familiar to those who have played games like Morrowind that came with such an extra disc, Bioware’s teaser video seems to portend the capability to tweak even storyline and voice acting elements. If the company’s boast is true, you really can build your own adventures with the Dragon Age Toolset.

BioWare has just released the Dragon Age: Origins launch trailer.

This trailer takes a look into a quest in search of the Sacred Ashes, where danger
awaits the band of warriors in the glacial, jagged edges of a treacherous
mountainside.  Darkspawn assault the group, and pressed into action, the soldiers
leap into battle.  Using world-class skill, magic, might and outright brute force,
the Darkspawn are being eviscerated; just when the situation appears to be under
control, a massive Dragon - stunning in its size and might - swoops in and crushes
everything in its path, threatening the very survival of the heroes.

These are the obstacles that face a Grey Warden.  Only the brave and strong will
survive. Join us!

“The righteous stand before the darkness - and the Maker shall guide their hand!”

You can download the trailer HERE (R-Click & ‘Save Target As’ - 275MB MOV file).

Game on!

Left 4 Dead 2’s Remaining Campaigns Leaked
Dead Center and Hard Rain will round out L4D2’s five campaigns, according to a Taiwanese site. Dead Center perhaps harkens back to Dawn of the Dead’s shopping mall setting, because that’s where our survivors will be fighting for their lives. In Hard Rain, precipitation will pelt down on a landscape already flooded with water and undead.

Mystery Game Coming to Xbox?
Koei Tecmo has a secret project that they’re going to debut this Wednesday. Check out the site to see if you can figure out what to make of the clues.

Dragon Age Save May Carry Over
According to an interview with Mark Darrah, Dragon Age’s Executive Producer, Dragon Age may feature the ability to carry over your save to an inevitable sequel, much like we should see in Mass Effect 2. I, for one, love little bonuses like this, and this sort of thing is sometimes just enough to convince me to shell out $60 for one game over another.

Gaming Deals
Blast! A little too late for me, but maybe some of you can benefit from this news. Target is going through Amazon.com to offer a preorder of Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition for $39.99. Wow. Amazon is also selling a 12-month Gold subscription to XBL for $39.99 as well. These are great deals in my book. But wait! There’s more! You can preorder Brutal Legend for $56.99 with free shipping and also grab a $10 video game credit…also courtesy of Amazon.

Assassin’s Arsenal
Ezio’s tools of the trade are revealed in this video, showcasing a small number of the toys you’ll be able to play with when Assassin’s Creed 2 releases in America on November 17th. So many shinies!

So You Think You’re a Hero?
Gamespot thinks so, with their hands-on preview. If you’d rather take a different route, try out the Party Play mode on Guitar Hero 5’s XBLA demo that just hit.

A final update on Facebook and Twitter on XBL. It was recently spied on the UK Xbox site that the aforementioned features will launch on November 17th. Will the US also see the popular social networks on their own Xboxes come mid-November? We can only guess, but I hope so!

Going Gold!

Recent news indicates that both Borderlands and Tekken 6 have finished development and have gone gold, making them just about ready for distribution. I just paid off my copies of Borderlands and Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition yesterday, so I’m in there like…well, you know. Mikey better eat his Wheaties, because he’s going to be reeeeally busy pretty soon!

Coming Attractions

Microsoft, you shouldn’t have! MS has been busy with Games on Demand, Avatar eye candy, and XBLM price reduction. Here’s a glimpse at what’s coming up:
Games on Demand:
October 13th – Grand Theft Auto IV
October 20th – Midnight Club Los Angeles, Army of Two, Sonic Unleashed
October 27th – DiRT, Dead Space
Avatar Gear
October 15th – Halloween costumes
October 22nd – GamerchiX outfits
Deals!
October 12th – Hasbro Family Game Night XBLA (Battleship, Connect 4, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Boggle, and Sorry! Sliders reduced to 400 MSP)
October 19th – Resident Evil 5’s “Versus Mode” DLC (Lowered to 240 MSP)
October 26th – Fable II Pub Games (Drops to 400 MSP)

Metal News: Brutal Legend DLC for Rock Band, Way of the Samurai Slashes out with Exclusive DVD

October 13th will see three new songs from the Brutal Legend soundtrack coming to Rock Band! The cost of this little supplement to your repertoire will set you back 440 MS Points, or $5.49; of course, if you get Brutal Legend at Best Buy next week, you’ll get access to these songs for free. For the curious, the songs will be Motorhead’s “(We Are) the Road Crew ‘08”, Tenacious D’s “The Metal,” and Testament’s “More Than Meets the Eye.” In more hack-and-slashery news, Way of the Samurai 3 also hits on October 13th, a year after being released in Japan. Game Stop has the exclusive here in the form of a separately boxed DVD entitled “The Art and Strategy of the Warring States.” While I’m sure it’s no Seven Samurai, maybe it’ll serve as an acceptable consolation prize for the West having to wait so long.

Speaking of DLC, Activision has announced that Carnage will be playable on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 in an upcoming DLC pack. It tugs at the ol’ heartstrings, dredging up memories of Maximum Carnage way back on the SNES. But I digress…

DJ Hero Remixing Soon

Looking to pack your living room with more wannabe rock star paraphernalia? The intro video to DJ Hero is popping up all around the ‘net. What does this mean? Well, it either means you can skip past the intro when you grab the game, or you can visit your local Game Stop this Sunday to demo the title from 10:00am to 6:00pm. If you took more significance from the latter, you’ll have an opportunity to snag a prize! Check the link for the video and prizes.

Videos!

Here’s another video to hold you over until Dragon Age releases. Keep in mind this is probably NSFW for boobage. And not the flattering kind. Meet the Brood Mother. Linky

While the Japanese Gold XBL members got early access to the demo, you can find videos here of the intro movie, tutorial battle, and various segments of gameplay.

Also, a nice lengthy video on Modern Warfare 2 is featured here.

Roving goblin reporter Iggypu is back again (too soon?) with another batch of goings-on in the world of XBox 360. Stop by our forums to let us know which games you’re waiting for out of the upcoming hits such as Dragon Age, Borderlands, and so on. By the way, it’s getting close to JollyBuccaneer’s free Fallout 3 Premium Theme Giveaway…

“AvatArcade”
Resulting from a recent survey administered by Microsoft, rumors have been circulating that Xbox 360 might see a Playstation Home-like arcade in its future. Proposed names include AvatArcade, Classics, Classics LIVE, Game Gallery, Game Preserve, Game Room, RetroCade, RetroGame, Tower of Game(s), and Tower of ROM. Atari and Intellivision titles have appearances in this retro-themed arcade, and it is currently uncertain whether this service will come at a fee. Source

Dragon Age Receiving DLC at Launch
On November 3rd, BioWare’s Dragon Age will take flight. What you might not know is that it won’t be alone. The Warden’s Keep add-on will be released on day one, for a comparably affordable 560 MS Points ($7). Grabbing this content will unlock a dungeon delve as well as six new abilities, new items, and a trading post of sorts. But wait! There’s more! The Stone Prisoner, at a price of 1200 MS Points (or free as a packaged accompaniment to new copies of the game) will add a stone golem character to your starting party. Another bonus for those who buy new copies will be the Blood Armor, which will also be wearable in Mass Effect 2. Talk about making a statement, eh? Source

Forza 3 Promotes Sale of New Copies
Hand-in-hand as far as the new-copy matter goes is Forza 3, set for an October 27th launch. While this game already has a wealth of 400+ cars and 100+ tracks, new packages will also have inserts in the form of 16-digit content codes that will unlock two new tracks and 10 exclusive cars.

Halo to Infinity (or 2015) and Beyond
343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor spilled the beans on a plan to string along Halo canon for the next six years or so. What does this mean, you ask? Well… :inhales:
Next month Tor Books’ Halo: Evolutions will be published. In the upcoming year, Greg Bear’s Halo Trilogy, set in the Forerunner segment of canon, will hit shelves. This set details an ancient civilization behind the artifacts pop up in Halo mythos. On the comics front, Marvel Comics’ Halo: Helljumper is midway through its five-issue span; a new series entitled Halo: Blood Line is due on December 23rd. The Halo Waypoint channel debuts on Xbox Live in 2010, featuring video, audio, podcasts, and screenshots. Halo Legends, a set of seven anime shorts, will grace the video category. And for games, Halo’s prequel Reach is set for next year. Whew!

Left 4 Dead 2 “Scavenge” Mode
Hungry for more zombie news? In a recent article on L4D2’s multiplayer the Scavenge mode was revealed. In this format the survivor team must gather up to 16 gas containers to fuel a generator (and their score), while Team Infected tries to stop Team Mouthbreather from gathering these gas canisters in time. Each retrieved container extends the initial 2 minute timer by 20 seconds, akin to passing checkpoints in many popular racing games. As time runs out or the objective is completed, the teams swap. The best team in two out of three rounds wins.

Trailer for New Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny Due in November
Watching a video of the upcoming Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny here rekindled old memories of liquor-induced sparring in the back yard, striking each other with wooden swords in order to neutralize limbs or finish off our opponents. What…don’t tell me I’m the only one?

Odd Microsoft Open House Statistics
Finally, a little trivia from the recent Open House held by Microsoft. Apparently there have been 150,000,000+ Avatar clothing changes…this means that an average XBL user changes his or her Avatar’s clothes seven times. Hm. I’m pretty sure if it were up to Jolly, he’d wear a pirate hat and nothing else. Good thing there are rules against that! Have you been playing 1 vs. 100? You’re one of the many. Apparently 200,000+ games of 1 vs. 100 are played each weekend. I know I’d contributed a few points to that total back when beta first started. Finally, XBL has 20,000,000+ users. Considering all the usual and upcoming perks you get for going Gold, I’d imagine we’ll see the Silvers slimming out a bit.

Leading video game developer BioWare(tm), a division of Electronic Arts Inc. today officially announced Mass Effect(tm) 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the multi award-winning 2007 hit, Mass Effect. The Mass Effect trilogy is a masterful science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life forms and mysterious uncharted planets. In this dark second chapter, Saren’s evil army of Geth soldiers has just been defeated, and humans, who are still struggling to make their mark on the galactic stage, are now faced with an even greater peril…

“We’re going to surpass the extraordinary gaming experience we brought our fans in Mass Effect by delivering intensified combat and expanded weapon options as well as increased depth of planet exploration, all while delivering a powerful, emotionally engaging story,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “Mass Effect 2 is shaping up to be an unforgettable RPG-shooter experience, taking players on a non-stop roller-coaster ride filled with stunning plot twists and no-holds-barred action.”

Mass Effect 2 is coming to PC and the Xbox 360 video game system in Early 2010. To see the exclusive new Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer check out the website here: www.masseffect.com

Game on!

BioWare announced today plans to expand its development teams for future video game projects. With studios in Edmonton, Canada, and Austin, Texas, this leading developer of electronic entertainment software is actively recruiting for a variety of positions across numerous disciplines. Since 1995, BioWare has enjoyed a steady growth of employees and projects across both its studios in Edmonton, Canada, and Austin, Texas.

From February 18-22, 2008, BioWare will be attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, where hopeful recruits will have the opportunity to learn more about BioWare and its games, as well as the positions available, which include 3D graphics programmers, technical artists, senior writers, and many others. Interested candidates are encouraged to visit the BioWare HR team at Booth #230 in the Career Pavilion at the GDC Expo area in the Moscone Center, or find out more information at the BioWare website: http://jobs.bioware.com.

With a legacy of best-selling hits including Jade Empire™, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ and Neverwinter Nights™, BioWare released Mass Effect™ for the Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system to critical acclaim in November, 2007. This sci-fi action role-playing game has received numerous awards including 2007 Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, and Role-Playing Game of the Year. Other BioWare titles currently in development include the dark heroic fantasy Dragon Age™, and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS™. Unannounced projects include a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, and an additional unannounced title for a next-generation system. BioWare recently became part of Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment company.

“We’re looking for people with a passion for excellence in video game development,” said Derek Sidebottom, BioWare’s Director of Human Resources. “Our core values are Quality in our Products and Quality in our Workplace, and these have been recognized by countless product-specific awards, as well as BioWare being named amongst Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 4 years and Financial Post’s 10 Best Companies to Work For.”

For a listing of available positions, visit the BioWare jobs website at http://jobs.bioware.com.

Game on!