And of course, here is the second episode (which JUST released this morning! … breaking news!)

Looks like this series is off to a fantastic start!  Now, if only there were some way to get MORE Felicia Day involved in my Dragon Age adventures.  Like, maybe a DLC or something?  Wait, no, that’s actually perfect!  Why not just take her Tallis character from this webseries and put her in the game – with like, a cool new adventure?  And of course you need Felicia to do the voice.  Yeah, that sounds like an awesome DLC!

Whoa, no way?  Bioware already did it?  They released it last week to coincide with the new webseries?   A new DLC called Mark of the Assassin?

…man… they are crafty!

Well played, Bioware…. well played.

Planning to play Star Wars: The Old Republic?  Wanna game with other fans of the comic?  Good news!  I decided to take advantage of the Guild Creation tool on the official Bioware site for the game, and created a BlueStar Blues based guild.  Order of the BlueStar will be a Republic (Light Side), casual / socail guild on a PvE (normal) server.  I will be making a Jedi Knight (I think) and a few of my friends are going to join us, and I’d like to offer anyone planning to play the game a guild to call home.

Back when Final Fantasy XI came out I was a part of the Real Life Comics Linkshell and it was a lot of fun.  I’d like to offer that same opportunity and community to you guys, and I can’t think of a better game to play then Star Wars.  (Yes, a huge part of that is because I’ve been going crazy over this game since it was first announced like four years ago.)  I realize not everyone is going to play, but if you are playing and you want to join us (even just an alt you play once in a blue moon) you are more than welcome.  I think this will be a lot of fun.

When I get more information about the server name or anything info wise I’ll be sure to pass it along.  But, for now, if you’ve got an account on the SWTOR site all you need to do is go to the guild’s page and apply to join.  Pretty much that easy.

May the Force be with you.

Anyway, let’s start where everything ended last: the big press conferences.  The only conference left was Nintendo.  It’s the 25th Anniversary of Zelda, so they started off with that.  There’s a new Wii game coming out – but I’m almost willing to guarantee it won’t make it out this year.  Still, if you wanted a re-release of any other old Zelda games it’ll be a good year for you.

The other big part of Nintendo was the new system.  It’s a HD system with a controller that has a large monitor slash touchpad built into the controller.  You can play your games on a big screen or on the controller.  It is NOT a tablet.  All the stuff that you can do in the controller’s monitor is powered by the system.  You can’t pick up the controller, fly to Europe and then play your game on the controller screen.  Not possible.  It’s a monitor.  Just to clarify, because it’s really REALLY apparent people at the press conference (aka G4) didn’t get that.

I don’t know much about the WiiWuu, but here’s what I think.  It’s another casual system with the power to be a hardcore system.  It’s gimmicky just like everything else Nintendo has made.  I will not buy one, just as I did not buy a Wii.  If you love Nintendo first party games (Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Zelda, etc) then you have to buy it.  I don’t know when it comes out, how much it’ll cost, or very many specs.  I just know I don’t want it.

That’s a running theme at E3 this year.  I don’t want it.

I’ll be honest:  I went in only wanting a few games.  That is normal.  Typically I find five to ten more games at E3 that I get interested in and eventually want by the end of the year.  This year, I actually LOST interest in games.  The whole week was like a sponge that had a little water in it.  I wanted it to soak up more water and fill up and get fat like it normally does.  Instead, gaming took my sponge and wrung it out dry.   At the end of this week I feel hollow.

I have lost a hobby.

So, lets start with what I was interested in.

Star Wars: The Old Republic.  It looks great, it sounds great, and it always does.  It’s never going to come out.  Ever.  Every year they have a trailer and a new area to demo.  Every year I hope more and more for a release date and they vehemently refuse to tell me as little as what year it’ll release.  Or expect to release.  My only reasonable option is to think it’ll never release.  So I’ve given in to my fear and the darkside and I’ve decided that this game will never release.

Mass Effect 3.  I didn’t get a 360 until ME2 was already out, so I played the two back to back.  Waiting for three has been tough (not as tough as SWTOR) but I managed because I believed in my core that it would be great.  Then the demo showed Shepard behind a gatling gun on a rail style mini-game.  Then I heard a producer say something that made me think all the amazing decisions you made in the first two games will amount to little more then a few cut scenes at the start of the game.  Suddenly, all my faith in this game is gone.  It just doesn’t matter now.  Sure, I’m going to play it… but, honestly?  What’s the point.  I guess just to finish off the story.  I don’t know now.

Uncharted 3 and Batman are the only games that I went in excited about and then left feeling good about still.  Yay.

The newest Elder Scrolls game Skyrim looks amazing, but to be honest I always buy that series and play it for a day and think “Whoa… to much, to big, to intense, to slow, to lost.  Whew.”  And let out a long sigh and put the game down forever.  I’m sure this one will be the same.

The surprise game is Space Marine.  Based on the Warhammer 40k world, it’s a mix of shooter and melee combat that looks intense and feels powerful and for whatever reason got my blood boiling.  I watched a play demo, looked at Rob and said “Hell yeah.”  We’ll see if that sticks when I get around to reading some early reviews.

Final Fantasy 13-2, Tomb Raider, and Gears of War 3 are all interesting looking but I don’t care one way or the other.  Dead Island had an amazing trailer but the game itself looks awful.  Saint’s Row is not my game so I’ll just say “meh.”

Sorry if this is a bit of a downer, but I really didn’t find much to appreciate this year.  In fact, I’m pretty certain this will be the last year I even take time from work to watch E3.  From now on I’ll just watch online so I can skip all the junk I can’t stand.  No Kinect, no WiiWuu, no Vista.  So, basically, a week of video games news will become a half hour trailer.  Yay!

Final score for E3?  D minus.  Woot.

That might sound harsh, but I’m just relating to you what I saw today after watching all that trite filibustering.  Video games (as we currently know them) are dead.  Well, more accurately, they’re on a life support system because no one (else) is willing to admit they’re dead.

Now, before I get to far ahead of myself – let’s recap the day for you.

XBox 360:  The highlight of the show was a little kid saying “fiiiiiiiist buuuuump” after demoing a Kinect game.  In fact, the entire show was about Kinect.  Guess what?  Every single game you think you’d want to play is now designed for Kinect.  There’s now Kinect Recon, Forza Kinect 4, Mass Kinect 3, and every EA sports game in Kinect 12 version.  There will also be some new games, Disneyland Kinect, Minecraft Kinect, and Rome of War Kinect.  Oh!  And Kinect is glad to destroy solid, beloved franchises too!  Namely Star Wars Kinect and Fable Kinect.  Trust me, they both look indescribably horrid.  The best part is that every single Kinect game is essentially Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Monkey Ball except YOU run around the room flailing your arms and crying like a four year old with a dirty diaper on a sugar rush.  It’s not really gaming.  It’s acting stupid while trying to collect coins or mouse ears or not crash your car – all while the game takes pictures of you in all your stupid looking glory and then automatically loads them to Facebook for you, where your friend’s Sims can mock you.

Oh, that brings us to the EA press conference.

Their big announcements were the Sims on Facebook (complete with a disturbing trailer) and a very long demo of Call of Duty: Tank Field 3.  Of course they also had a thirty minute showing of FIFA and their very new “foobowl club” system.  Yes, the guy said it like that.  “Foobowl Club” about fifteen times.  I guess since the NFL is on lockout and probably won’t play this year they had to settle for soccer.  They also took a little time to completely destroy their Need for Speed franchise – but don’t worry, there’s about sixty other, better racing games out there.

And, no, Driver isn’t one of those.  In fact, Driver is one of the worst driving games of all – which is no surprise since it comes from Ubisoft where they solidly believe in killing every good game they ever make with one hundred and twenty sequels within a three year time span.  Their newest dead series is Assassin’s Creed.  Any time you have to add a gatling-gun flamethrower to your stealth game you should know you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Speaking of the wrong direction: good job Sony!!  What in the world will it take to make you guys realize your handheld system isn’t going to sell?  It’s not enough that the PSP fails, and the PSP Go fails, but now you need to waste time and effort on a third installment that is just barely an upgrade?  Ooooh, it has a creepy touchpad and two thumbsticks.  Neato!  Talk about stubborn.  Well, at least you didn’t do something stupid like give exclusive 3G internet rights to AT&T.  Oh… wait, you DID do that?  Brilliant.  No, really, I can’t tell you how proud I was of the audience for booing you when you announced that, you morons.

Why am I so certain that the Playstation Vista or whatever will fail?  Because it’s not a phone.  Yes, a PHONE.  Or a Tablet, though I’m not sure that’ll be able to kill a phone either.  Bottom line:  people already spend hundreds a month on a handheld computer they can’t live without.  A computer that has a phone, texting, the internet, and dozens and dozens of addictive games that only cost like a buck each.  Why does anyone need your stupid ModRacers port when they can play Angry Birds all day?  Answer:  they don’t.  Your PSV is going to fail just like it’s older brothers did.  Face it, Sony, you blew it.

(PS- the reason the DS works is two fold:  unique games only on DS for a reasonable price and because typical DS players are kids.  Sony is trying to capture teens and adults who are already attached to their phones.  Fail.)

So, in summary, after day one we found out that Microsoft just wants you to bounce around your room and not actually play any games.  Sony has no clue where video games are headed and thus have no intention to make any video games  – but they are happy to repackage old games in HD and 3D for you who like to burn money.  Ubisoft is strangling their games into a slow, steady death and EA has decided that their best games (basically anything made by Bioware) should never be released to see the sunlight.

Well, that’s not fair.  It is true that yet another E3 has gone by without any news on my beloved Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I’m no longer surprised as I’ve now retired this game into the category of games like Beyond Good And Evil 2 and The Last Guardian.  You know, games that will never actually exist.  Ever.  Because their creators know those games are too good for our feeble souls to appreciate.

Still, there are lots of games that will be coming out soon enough.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Tank Field 3, Call of Duty: Space Effect 3, Call of Duty: Future Wasteland 3, Call of Duty: Gears of Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghost Squad, Call of Duty: EVE Online Shooter, and the most anticipated Call of Duty: Master Chief.

Oh, and also a Catwoman game.

So, there you have it.  The end of video games.  Unless you like Kinect or Call of Duty or the third game of a series.  Then it’s a great year or two for you.  Meh.  Maybe there will be good news tomorrow with Nintendo?  I’m not really holding out hope.  Just saying.

But this could be the year.

With games like Mass Effect 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Dragon Age 2 all in the queue, Bioware was ready to steal the show (and my heart).  So, when Dragon Age 2 came out it was with a rabid excitement I dove headlong into Bioware’s comforting arms once more.

Dragon Age: Origins created a world and then let you create a legend.  Leading the tattered remains of the once glorious Grey Wardens, you managed to rally a kingdom in disarray to destroy a demonic invasion known as the Blight and save untold millions.  Dragon Age 2 is a cluster of sidequests from that first game that your original hero wasn’t able to get around to while saving the world.

The hero of DA2 – Hawke – ran from the Blight with his or her family to a port town called Kirkwall.  Over the course of the game you progress from an evacuee and indentured servant to the “Champion of Kirkwall.”  While your Origins hero stops an army of demons, you save a port town from a few minor disasters over the course of a decade.  I would, in fact, suggest that when the game ends you create more problems for the whole of the Dragon Age realms then you solved for Kirkwall.  While that leads to more games in the Dragon Age series, it leaves Dragon Age 2 in an uncomfortable “waste of time” zone.

What makes it worse, and yes it’s worse, is that you’re stuck in Kirkwall.  The story locks you in the city all the way through.  Hawke’s rise to Champion of Kirkwall means he or she must actually stay in Kirkwall.  Still, that might no be so bad except for one painfully glaring issue:  ten hours into the game you’ve seen all Kirkwall has to offer.  Every street.  Every tunnel.  Every house, cave, sewer, beach, alley, and warehouse.  You’ve seen it.  ALL of it.  Many times.  Many MANY times.  Too many times.

There are about ten zones in the city and the outskirt of Kirkwall.  When you’re sent on a mission, for example take out a gang of thugs, you’ll go into a small ‘instance’ zone – maybe a cave.  You’ll kill the thugs and leave.  Ten quests later, you’ll be on an unrelated mission to find a blood mage and go into the exact same cave.   Oh, and to go along with it you’ll probably be fighting the same ten enemies (thugs, mages, skeletons, spiders, qunari, darkspawn, shades/wraths, and drakes) on every single quest.  There are, at best, twenty zones and they are used, at least, forty times each.  You will have these maps memorized better then the most twitchy first person shooters by the time  you’re level twelve.  I suggest giving each map a pet name and pretending like it’s a person and having a fake conversation with “Goobers” every time you raid that map.  That is about the only way you don’t lose your mind.  Or, maybe I did lose it and what I just wrote is proof?

Lack of epic-level substance and the mind-numbing re-zoning are the major complaints about Dragon Age 2, but I do have a couple of minor complaints to tack on as well.  Why is there only one healer in a game that requires a healer?  Companions get no new armor during the game, but instead get small upgrade packets.  That really limits the use of gear in the game as well as hurting the general visual appeal.  While I understand the idea behind the conversation icons (gold heart for flirt, fist for angry, swords for violence, etc.) I really think it takes away from the thought process of conversations.  It’s to easy to flirt or be mean or start fights.  By the end of the game I wasn’t even looking at what I was saying anymore.  It’s a good idea that ends up hurting one of the games most appealing features.

Phew!

Okay, so, if you’re still with me you might think “Wow, this game sucks.”  Well, hold on a moment!  Despite the issues I just mentioned Dragon Age 2 is a solid and powerful game that will draw you in and hold you tight as you barrel through the game.  Every day at work, Brian Sparks and myself would talk about the game and very VERY rarely did we talk about what was wrong with the game.  Glaring issues?  Sure, but only if you can see past the pure AWESOME on the screen.

Visually, the game is amazing.  One of my major complaints in Dragon Age: Origins was how bland and unoriginal the game design was.  Dragon Age 2 has no such problem.  You can tell the staff spent a lot of time on design.  The characters look great, the armor and weapons are bounds above Origins designs, and the city of Kirkwall has the genuine feel of a fantasy world port town.  Along with that, the battle animations and the spells are brilliant – and you’ll never get tired of blowing enemies into tiny bloody chunks.

The gameplay itself, in my opinion, is smoother and faster.  It feels like Diablo to some, but while playing my rogue I honestly kept thinking God of War.  Either way, it’s fast and furious and massive.  Your party doesn’t take on one big enemy very often.  Most of the time you’ll be dealing with swarms of mobs, and as you clear a wave you’ll likely have another group pop out of the ground or drop from the rooftops or run around a corner.  There’s something raw and invigorating about tearing through waves of enemies at high speeds that makes you feel epic.  That said, you’ll still encounter a few ‘boss’ fights where you’ll need to take your time and direct your team – but it’s easy to pause the game with the radial menu, issue a few commands, and jump right back into the fray.

As for the story itself, I’m not going to lie and say it was inspired or even gripping.  It was good.  It had some strong points, and there were a few emotionally moving parts of the game.  However, before I’d gotten very far in the game, I already was able to figure out exactly what was going to eventually happen.  Nothing surprised me, and that might be because I’m a critical thinker but I got the feeling it’s just cause I was paying attention as I played the game.  It certainly kept me entertained, but overall I’d just say it was “alright.”  What I found most interesting was the way Varric relates your tale during the game, and if anything I’d have liked to see that played up more.  It’d be nice if some of your major choices caused a short discussion between Varric and the Inquisitor rather then limited to (mostly) chapter recaps.  Still, the style itself had a nice effect that was unique and fun.

So, what kind of score does DA2 get?  That’s the tricky part.  There are some rather large flaws in the game, and even overlooking those flaws I just didn’t feel Dragon Age 2 was as on the same level as previous Bioware games.  I’ve heard reviews that tore the game apart.  I’ve read a couple that suggested it was an early favorite for Game of the Year.  I don’t know that I agree with either.  While I can’t just overlook the problems I also can’t deny that I was really into the game and it was rare that I didn’t play for several hours at a time and enjoy that time.  That said, it might be the first Bioware game I really have no desire to play through a second time.

Final verdict?  3.5 Dragons.

If you like the RPG genre or need a good action game with a decent story then you really should give Dragon Age 2 a chance, flaws and all.  I think in the end you’ll enjoy it, but you probably won’t fall in love.

The interesting surprise news about Dragon Age 2′s release came in the form of an upcoming webseries created by and starring geek-darling Felicia Day.  For the two of you who don’t know, Felicia has a strong background working on webseries already.  She created, writes, and stars in the internet sensation The Guild and she was one of the stars of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog back in 2008.  There’s also a ton of other stuff she’s done which validate both her acting career and her endearment to the nerd community, but I’ll talk more on all of that later.

Right now I just want to make sure everyone’s aware of this new project.  The series is called Dragon Age: Redemption, and it’s a six-part webseries created by Felicia and taking place in the realm of Bioware’s Dragon Age – around the same time period as the game Dragon Age 2.  The character is an elven assassin named Tallis, and while I have no proof I’m willing to bet the character was created when Felicia played Dragon Age: Origins.  Just a guess.

What I do know is that Felicia has played Origins and at least gotten started on Dragon Age 2.  She said herself, “I’m a huge Dragon Age fan.  Dragon Age: Redemption allows me to tell a fantasy story in a new way, using a universe I really love.”   That makes me pretty confident Dragon Age is in good hands.

Now it’s very likely that you’ve heard about Redemption already, since it’s gotten press from Bioware’s Official Site as well as the gamer blog Kotaku, Gametrailers TV, and a preview on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” amongst others.   Not to mention I saw the trailer linked about 20 times on Twitter the day it was released.  There’s a lot of hype already, despite limited knowledge.  Heck, there hasn’t even been an official release date past “this summer.”

One thing I’m curious about and don’t know:  is the cast going to be caked in blood after every battle?  Will it be weird to see if they’re not?  Is it weird that I think it might be?  I’m honestly worried that if they’re not just smothered in blood after every fight I’ll not be able to take it serious.   Weird but true.

Still, if you haven’t seen the teaser/trailer I’ve got it here for you just because I don’t want anyone to miss out on vital nerdy information.  The trailer itself doesn’t offer a lot to go on, but it does look like it has a lot of promise.  Plus, since it’s coming from someone with nerd-cred I believe in, I’ve got a lot of hope for a good show!  Whenever more information becomes available I’ll make sure to pass it along.

Still, those are just two concerns on a large table of questions.  When is it coming out, what are the playable races, will there be any reason to play in a party or is it all solo play, is there PVP, why are there so few classes, and on and on and on…

Last year we got a taste of the awesome ideas Bioware had cooking for Star Wars: The Old Republic.  We got a wicked trailer, we found out that every line would have voice acting and that the scope of the project was roughly equal to ten full games worth of story content.  That’s pretty intense.

Over the year we learned about the playable classes (Jedi Knight and Consular, Smuggler and Mercenary, Trooper and Imperial Agent, and Sith Warrior and Inquisitor) and that each class will have multiple companions available depending on the choices you make in the story path.  Plus there are a TON of planets to play on too.  All very, very cool.

Yet, with the game nearing it’s intended release date of Spring 2011, a lot of fans were hoping for a force-load of information and some serious gameplay footage.  Instead we found out that there will be PVP zones and everyone gets a ship that will serve as a house type unit.  A few 3-4 minute videos of gameplay surfaced, and an interview or two with developers happened, but that was about it really.

Oh, and a trailer.  A very sweet, but not really informative trailer.

I say this with a lot of love:  Bioware let me down.  I really wanted more information and unlike a year ago when a trailer was enough to send me into throngs of joy this year it left a sour taste in my mouth.

…well, to be fair I still freaked out for like 2 days straight on the trailer alone.  It was after I’d had a chance to process the lack of information that the sourness formed.

HOWEVER- there is still hope.  News has begun to surface that has got me a bit more excited.  A few magazines and blogs have begun sneaking out tidbits of info from their limited hands-on with the game.  Along with that there’s been some cool additions to the official site regarding things like playable races.  So, what have we learned?

Everything I’ve seen and read has suggested that if you like World of Warcraft there’s a very good chance you’ll like Star Wars.  If you thought WoW needed some work, you’ll still probably  like Star Wars.

While there are only a few basic classes, there’s a prestige class system intended to add depth to each class.  For example a Sith Warrior can become a DPS specialist or a tank depending on how you build.  This is done through talent builds or talent trees or whatever they call them in Star Wars lingo.  But, don’t worry about typecasting for a party role too much and losing solo play!  Bioware has made it a point to make every class a viable solo option through class abilities and the use of companions to help cover your weakness.  If you want to make a healer, you can still solo with the help of a few sidekicks willing to take and deal damage for you.  Cool idea huh??

Actual gameplay is real similar to WoW from what I’ve read.  For example: every class has their standard action bar, but Smugglers have the ability to take cover.  When they do a second unique action bar replaces the first.  Think of it like a rogue going in stealth.  Actions have cooldowns, different classes have unique action bars, etc etc.  I’m sure there are a lot of tweaks but I get the feeling Bioware is planning to keep the feel of the established success behind World of Warcraft.

Don’t worry though: it’s not all a new paint job on an old game.  The key difference is Bioware offers a huge story with choices that change your path as you go.  Friends become enemies, quests are gained or lost by choices, they’re promising romance and betrayals, and of course you can count on a ton of plot twists.  Another nice difference is they’re trying to avoid the ‘go get 7 of these’ quests.  I don’t know yet how successful that endeavor will be, but I’m glad they’re going to try.

Rumor has it that the first closed beta for the game will be happening in July.   That’s a good sign.  With some luck more news will trickle along the airwaves, and as I hear significant information I’ll gladly share it with you guys!   There are still a lot of questions.  A -LOT- of questions.  But, right now I’m keeping a high amount of faith in Bioware’s track record and the fact that what I have heard and seen so far has been great.

Here’s hoping.