Dragon Age: Origins Awakening: Mystical boys feeling alright, raggedy wisdom falls from my hand

Peculiar as the word expansion usually coexists with the notion that owning the original is a must, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is one of the very few “stand-alone expansions”.  Brought to us by Bioware, DA:OA builds on the hefty success of its company’s namesake as well as its predecessor.  For those that never played the original, there may be some major elements missing for the player to truly grasp the game’s entirety.  For those that have dived deep into the ideal dungeons of our youth in the first, you may be slightly surprised at DA:OA. 

By tossing around the term “stand-alone expansion,” confusion and jaw dropping anger are just a couple of the mental states that can result not to be mixed up with a Rick roll while cruising around Youtube.  On the one hand DA:OA feels like a large amount of extra downloadable content that’s wrapped into one extra large present you didn’t see coming especially with it’s quick release date after the original (four months apart).  On the other hand it isn’t as obviously advertised and priced as such.  Bioware has been known to be able to keep the drive and gameplay experience felt in an original game willing and able in its sequels.  If Mass Effect is any measure at this momentous achievement then players expect the same level of brilliance in other releases from its parent company.  Expectations run higher as companies show us they can make the high jump into success when others have failed.

The cause and effect of DA:OA is shown in its display and contours.  For a player to understand and begin to enjoy themselves while playing DA:OA, the original needs to have been conquered first.  A player can create a hero from scratch and hop right into DA:OA but the journey will begin at level twenty, the same level cap DA:O left us at.  The abilities available at this point can confuse a new player as well as trying to setting up not just one, but a full party of characters.  By comparison it would be as if a person was invited for the first time over to Bob’s house for a classic D&D pen and paper session and asked to roll a high level character and join in out of the blue.  That person might have a grasp of D&D but Bob’s house rules can be a bit different and everyone else’s eyes in the room are a bit bloodshot and glazed over from the 36 hour session filled with Monster energy drinks and Pop Tarts.  Yes, scary and intimidating just for a pen and paper game.  Much of the same can be said for never playing DA:O and hoping to somehow piece together a joyful experience in DA:OA. 

Sure DA:OA does fulfill the term “stand-alone expansion” in a sensible manner even if they don’t plaster a nice neon sign on this factor.  The story continues on from the end of DA:O as years have past.  An interesting twist on the end of the first as some darkspawn have begun to rise again.  As the darkspawn had been thwarted and driven back, most of the land has become complacent with their time of peace.  A new uprising of darkspawn occurs only this time the mindless zombie routine has been dropped and intelligent spawn leaders have surfaced.  The story references many portions of the first and the gaps in a knowledge base for the second will frustrate a person trying to piece it all together.

Characters from the first are found throughout the game, some joining your quest for glory while others become part of the backdrop.  Choices made before do affect you in this game although most will barely tweak the storyline.  An unbalanced mix of character classes are prevalent in the expansion (I had no tank/sword + board type of character and instead had an over abundance of casters) due to not being able to play all the previous characters or being unable to foresee the classes of upcoming party members.  The significance of some interactions with characters/npcs for a newcomer would add another level of scrambled nonsense as the player would ask themselves, “why do I have five minutes of dialog with someone who has no quests and won’t join my party?”

Controls, visuals, sounds, and almost everything else are identical to the previous game. The difficulty however is on scale with getting lost in the bird’s nest known as Justin Bieber’s hair.  Where the first was a die, respawn, die, respawn, routine of roulette, on the hard and Mountain Dew X-treme settings, DA:OA was quite a breeze.  This may be due to having access to high level abilities from the get go or working strategies already in use from all the dying the first caused.  Either way the only real challenge encountered in this entire expansion was the very last portion giving quite the sigh of relief to an expert of the first but causing a craving for the feel of accomplishment after it’s completed. 

With the very successful franchises Bioware has employed, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is a small blip on the radar that will soon be forgotten unless an odd reference to a highly priced expansion has to be made in conversations of the future.  While fans of the first will somewhat enjoy this extra release, it is by all means an unnecessary whimper of an achievement to play through to the finish (10-15 hours).  Unless my judgment is clouded and narrow minded somehow, after completing DA:OA I found it hard to believe that another sequel will be made to import characters into without the same issue of ease with childlike difficulty. 

Rating: 3.5 {on a scale of –10 to 10} 

Vampire Weekend – Boston (Ladies of Cambridge)

 

------------ Upcoming Reviews still in the works ------------

Splinter Cell: Conviction / King’s Bounty: Armored Princess / Red Dead Redemption / Lost Planet 2 / Alpha Protocol

2009 year end wrap up: With the beating of a tiny heart, hang on to the things you're supposed to say

In like a lamb and out like a lion, 2009 was a big year breaking records in the entertainment industry when others suffered under a brittle economy.  So jumping right into it, here were some of the supernovas and black holes of this year:

360

Having another harrowing year choosing which mulitplatform format to run with, 360 almost trumped all.  Regretting only that programs such as Steam and Xboxlive don't overlap servers, the 360 was quite a workhorse for me this year.

Modern Warfare 2 -  {Rating: 10}  Record-breaking release, living up to the hype, best game of the year, etc, etc.  Really what can I say that hasn’t already been said?  Multiplayer that is more addicting than the first one being free, single player that hits all the major highlights of what a story should be (including the first time ever "If you are offended easily you are allowed to skip one mission"), and the best collector's edition extra to be included with a game.  This game is the first online FPSer since Counterstrike that will keep you occupied for months and months to come.  Stop spending time reading about it and start playing it.  

 

 

Borderlands - {Rating: 8.5}  I knew you were in the mood to go buy some books today and what better place to do it than your local Borders....land's end catalog....  Wait this is nothing like the book store at all.  Instead it's a true MMO take on a FPSer.  Ok maybe just stealing all the great ideas from diablo:  Visible damage numbers, an odd but workable art style, co-op play much like the good old days of diablo (scaling difficulty with additional players), and a bajazillion guns, Borderlands made quite a sleeper hit.  Additional expansion packs are already available and if you're not playing with a buddy, then you're not getting the full run for the border experience. 

 

 

Dragon Age: Origins - {Rating: 7} Stepping back to the direction of Knights of the Old Republic focusing on the RPG portions of its games, Bioware hits it high with Dragon Age.  Slow to start and enough spoken dialogue to rival many books on tape, Dragon Age is the first game where a dialogue decision making system has found the right way to write in a very ambiguous fashion giving a heavy responsibility to what choices are the ones you really want to make.  The combat system is a bit rough at times and the length of the game increases exponentially with scaling the difficulty higher but is rewarding in replayability with the first choice of class/race.  This is another game with additional downloadable content and will probably lead to a few sequels to come.      

 

Wet - {Rating: 3.5} Ewww. That's just icky.  Oh you meant wet work.  But what happened to the work?  And what happened to the amount of fun Max Payne brought me?  You probably won't find a lot of it with Wet.  There are some highlights such as the southwest atmosphere, B-movie presentation, and camera work.  But most of it is lost in the repetition and short story.  [Previous Review]

 

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - {Rating: 4.5} Semper sac' a really ack.  This game was overshadowed by MW2 and the size of that shadow is ginormous.  As far as military simulations goes, OF games are the way to go but in knowing that OF games are a simulation and not your typical FPSer paced game, most will not find pleasure in this game.  Great graphics, and easy control system, and mission openness rivaling a Bethesda game, OF is for the few,the proud, the simulated marines.  [Previous Review]

 

Resident Evil 5 - {Rating: 9.0}  The rest of the world was pretty upset by this game claiming it was not as good as the 4th installment and was terrible when played solo.  Well why the heck would you want to play it solo anyway?  The biggest plus for this game was that it was the only serious release from the beginning of the year until August.  So it's easy to Monday morning quarterback this game now, but this game will always have a special place in my heart, especially since they've improved their voice acting. [Previous Review]

 

 

Rogue Warrior - {Rating: –3}  With only a single highlight for this release (being able to rival Bob Seger for knife moves) this sad excuse for a game was made even worse by the exceptional looking trailer released earlier this year touting direct inspiration from real life Seal Team 6 creator Dick Marcinko.  After creating the hype, the final release waned into oblivion with atrocious AI, voice acting that needed a swear jar of ridiculousness (Yes my opinion was quite the opposite of that reviewer), and a presentation built on a nine year old’s dream. This game isn’t based on a movie so it had no excuse for its lack of quality and was even delivered by Bethesda which twice in one year makes me leery to purchase any more games not created by them directly.

 

 

 

Wheelman - {Rating: –5} Does everyone love the steak necked Vin Diesel for his tour de force acting roles such as Shane Wolf in the Pacifier like I do?  Well Wheelman is another in a fine line of versatile voice acting performances that Shakespeare himself would envy.  And even Vinny can’t be the salvaging saving grace for this disaster.  Midway has been decent with their releases for a few years but an occasional hiccup is bound to occur.  This GTA wannabe is that nagging case of the hiccups that a good scare can’t save you from.  Trying to mesh a GTA style game with Burnout driving sounds like potential is there but after trying it once, repetition and lack of creativeness are what you find.  A storyline that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, an idiotic Tarzan carjacking ability that makes you king of the concrete jungle alright, and a sandbox environment that a cat just got done using, Wheelman is for no one no matter what your IQ or how much of a Diesel fangirl you are.  Maybe the subtitle of this game was actually supposed to be Pacifier 2. 

 

 

Call of Juarez - {Rating 3.5}  Wild Bill sure loves his pistolas.  This spaghetti western game was an improvement from it's predecessor but for most players finding enjoyment would be a challenge.  No Co-op main story, so-so multiplay, and little to nothing to separate this from any other FPSer other than it’s a western setting made Call of Juarez rentable during the summer of no releases but now it’s definitely a skipper.  Hopefully sometime in the future a quality western FPSer will be made.  [Previous Review]

 

Star Ocean: The Last Hope - {Rating 7.5} Many gamers looking to branch to new areas of gameplay could find salvation in Star Ocean as prequels did not need to be played to grasp the storyline.  Few advertisements made availability of this game very minimal and at first glace the game looked difficult to handle but this was not exactly the case.  Good cinematics, plot and gameplay made this RPG one of the first quality RPG released on the 360. [Previous Review]

 

 

Forza 3 - {Rating 8} Vroom Vroom Vroom I want you in my room.  Since the advent of Gran Turismo many great racing games have come and gone and Forza 3 is not only a good racing simulation game but a great one.  Hundreds of tracks, cars, and mods make Forza the first to meet Gran Turismo head on and give it a run for its money.  Visually stunning graphics at very high frames per second make this game not only a fun one to play but also one to watch.  This is also the first racing simulation game where you can breeze through the simulation portions (quick customization, etc) or dive deep into modifying each one of your lovely racing tools appealing to avid car fans as well as your average Sunday driver.  I’m still waiting for the day when racing simulation games make it to driver’s ed classes.   

 

 

 

Wii

 

This year was a bit light on the Wii.  Not many quality releases throughout the entire year were made and the few that would of made some huge highlights are not due out until 2010.  Oh what patience Wii owners must wield. 

 

Wii Resort - {Rating: 7} You and your friends sick of Wii Sports yet?  Want to swordfight with your buddy with all your clothes on and still come up a winner?  Or how about reenact your favorite scene from Robin Hood?  You can do all of this and more in Wii Resort. A nice array of solo or multiplay games with a few different game modes, Wii Resort is a great game to embarrass or humiliate your friends and family as they attempt to become Larry Bird in the 3-point contest.  You also get the opportunity to force man’s best friend to fetch your wild frisbee tosses and slap a newspaper against his head when he doesn’t win it for you.  Ok no slapping is allowed but I’ll bet there’s a real dog laying around somewhere you can take you all your aggression out on.  With all the games to choose from coupled with the original Wii Sports, Wii Resort is a great addition to the entertaining guests library.  Just be patient sitting through the tutorial at the beginning of the game, since Nintendo is showing the world that they feel some sort of responsibility for broken TVs.

 

Tiger Woods 2010 - {Rating: 6.5}  Just like creating a sex tape to boost popularity, Tiger Woods knows the right way to boost his game sales.  With all the controversy and gossip to take up eons of time at work having to listen to Debbie’s (from accounting) opinion on Tiger’s home life and how she’s ‘got it all figured out’, you can go home and take out all your anger driving little white balls 300+ yards into a tiny little hole with the first game to utilize Wii Motion Plus. The putting will begin to help rise your hulk rage, but after a ton of practice, you can actually feel rewarded with a job well done.  [Previous Review]

 

Deblob - {Rating: 4} Music, paint, and oddity surround Deblob.  The game is quite the mystery as to how it came into being but now that it is around us all, slamming paint against your neighborhood walls seems to be an enjoyable hobby to have.  Some usual platforming frustration with camera angles and controls are not missing but tend to be made up by the amazing sounds and music that occur while painting the town red.  Not for everyone, Deblob will probably appeal more to those that care about creativity than destruction so avoid this title if you believe you can sniff the paint through the TV.  (These two I’ll bet spent plenty of days doing just that.) [Previous Review] 

 

 

PC

Picking up the pace from previous years of only notable mentions, the PC titles are starting to become a stronger choice from previous years especially with the small arcade style games.  2010 should also be a strong year with the big upcoming release of Starcraft 2, if it ever really does happen. 

 

Left for Dead 2 - {Rating: 8}  As I said with the release of the first LFD, if you can find 3 buddies that all have this game, and can find a time when all 4 of you can play it, this is a great title and will give you a craving to watch every zombie movie known to man.  But after purchasing this title, I realized the game is still a quality game with only 1 friend to co-op with.  Solo play has some good intentions but will frustrate as AI does not compare to your neighbor that was ate by zombies.  Controls and gameplay are straightforward FPS in nature but what separates this title is the Half-life style of presentation, level design, and overwhelming zombie hordes that feel a better match than the types from Serious Sam.   So grab a chainsaw and start taking down trunks.

 

 

Aion - {Rating: 3.5}  There are a few absolute truths in this world and when you play Aion, the obvious underlying truth is Koreans hate free time.  This beast of a release will attempt to steal every waking hour of your life and give you little reward for your efforts.  The visuals are a step above for MMOs, but the quest line organization and communication windows are lacking.  The quests, which show a level limit, do not show a group necessity but almost are impossible without them and leveling shows suicidal tendencies when calculated to level per hour.  The ability to fly is a great addition but becomes quite a novelty quickly.   Beyond not being WoW, Aion did not strike me to be anything groundbreaking or capable of swooning millions.  Those that already played and enjoyed other NCSoft games may find a new home but for most others, good luck.

 

 

X3: Terran Conflict - {Rating: 2}  The rare space simulation game that’s not actually that new of a release, X3:TC is a game that isn’t self-aware enough to realize just how big of a game it is.  Not focused on solo ship combat, and instead believing in trade routes and mining operations, X3 takes away from what most other space games profit from and makes for a hard game to sell and describe.  A small story, vast amounts of controls to master, and a very high difficulty, X3 is neither for the meek or merry.  The graphics and idea are good but not having a good combat system keeps the appeal to those that really enjoy the Civilization series.  Either that or those who majored in international trade back in college. [Previous Review]

 

Peggle - {Rating: 4.5} The chances of getting a seat on the Price is Right are small and actually becoming a contestant even smaller, so for those that don’t make it to the showcase showdown please enjoy Peggle.  The bleeps, bings and dings are abound when you plop your way through Peggle’s lovely simple physics of bouncing.  It’s a simple game to figure out and can appeal to those of young and old, large and small, illiterate and colorblind.  The only thing that doesn’t work well is the title as it rhymes with words that often accompany clowns and your creepy uncle that always does magic tricks to impress the ladies.  Becoming a master of Peggle would also put you in this category so be careful.  [Previous Review]

 

 

 

Plants vs Zombies – {Rating: 6}  By far the best penny arcade game of the year, Plants vs. Zombies is an easy game to figure out and creates hours of fun by balancing RTS ideas with speed and zombies.  As you protect yourself from a home invasion of brain eaters, your vegetable garden becomes the ultimate defense weapon and is done with simple but great animations and designs.  This game was also the first game to predict the death of Michael Jackson by including his Thriller zombie right into the mix so kudos for hitting the deadpool predictions PopCap.  If you like the constant struggle of the living versus the living dead, fun puzzle/strategy games, or if you are just looking to find another game that anyone and everyone can play, Plants Vs Zombies is a sound choice.  So get planting.  [Previous Review]

 

 

Machinarium - {Rating: 5.5}  If Tim Burton made the movie Wall-E, Machinarium would be the outcome in game form.  A mixture of quirky flash animation puzzles, Machinarium will keep that noodle of yours stirring until it finds just the right shape.  The only issue with Mach was once you play through the game once, there’s no need to play it again.  Some puzzles are a bit on the tough side even for experts at riddles and jumbles so youngin’s might be a bit frustrated but an added feature of a minigame hint book allows for some help from time to time.  The backgrounds and animations were among some of the most creative and brilliant designs for a game on the simpler side of things so if you enjoy not so easy puzzles and the movies of Timmy B, try Machinarium. 

 

 

Empire Total War - {Rating: 8}  The RTS behemoth of 2009, Empire Total War is a reminder what it would take to actually win a game of Risk.  Taking a lot of time to complete an entire campaign, ETW is quite an interesting game as its AI attempts to stay within true historical guidelines as long as you allow it to.  Controls are on par with any RTS and difficulties scale well with world domination, ETW is for those that love RTS games and also for those that want a little more out of their board game night.  Ground battles feel repetitive after a short while but naval battles are something to behold as the graphics, controls and strategies are unlike anything before it. And who can argue with having to battle actual pirates of the world?  Take that Jack Sparrow.  [Previous Review]

 

Hired Guns: Jagged Edge - {Rating: 1.5}  Haunted with former versions of itself, HGJE made me die a little inside.  Loving the genre so much and with the technology of today, I assumed such a great game could of been created but this was not the case.  Extremely hard three dimensional control, bugs, and terrible characters, HGJE will be an eternal reminder that no matter how good a series was, when rights are transferred to a new company great things may not happen.  [Previous Review]

 

2009 memoranda

1. Total new games purchased: 20 (22 in 2008)
2. Best 1st person shooter: Modern Warfare 2
3. Best RPG: Borderlands
4. Best Strategy: Empire Total War
5. Best Multiplayer game with friends in the same room: Wii Resort
6. Best Multiplayer game with friends across the world: Aion
7. Best Penny Arcade type game: Plants vs Zombies
8. Biggest surprise of the year: Borderlands
9. # of new games beat: 13 (8 in 2008)
10. # of unfinished single player games: 4 (7 in 2008)
11. # of controllers broken: 1 mouse
12. System played the most: 360 (not counting time on computers)
13. # of times playing games pissed off the wife: 156 (Modern Warfare 2 is her favorite)
14. Biggest hopeful for 2010: Starcraft 2
15. Other hopefuls: FFXIII, Splinter Cell Conviction, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2

 

Beach House - Norway

     

Favorite video of 2009 –> Ramona Falls - I Say Fever