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Splinter Cell: Conviction getting a fancy pants
CE

post from Destructoid on 03 November 2009 08:20:00 AM. © Destructoid

Splinter Cell: Conviction getting a fancy pants CE screenshot

Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft is putting out a Collector's Edition for Splinter Cell: Conviction. A big-name series alongside a massive publisher? Yep, it was bound to happen.

Besides having genuinely cool box art, the Conviction CE is packed full of digital and real-life goodies:

A credit card–sized 3rd Echelon USB drive filled with a bunch of Splinter Cell media
A hard-bound copy of "Fifth Freedom: The Art of Splinter Cell"
Two in-game items: the MP5-SD3 submachine gun and a 3rd Echelon outfit for multiplayer
"3rd Echelon Logo" and "Iconic Bullet Hole" decals
The "Digging in the Ashes" comic book
The aforementioned rad-looking metallic steel case

All of this together will run you $79.99. Ubisoft says it's supposed to be a "very limited run," which may or may not be one-hundred percent accurate, but it'd be wise to pre-order if you must have this thing.

As with the regular edition of Splinter Cell: Conviction, it's being released on February 23 of next year.

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ChipTuesday Goes West

post from The BBPS on 03 November 2009 08:15:43 AM. © The BBPS

All of you west-coasters that have been jealous of the monthly concerts and chiptune scene here in the east can stop your griping. Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Portland, and Seattle are all stops along the Data Beez Microtour. Music and visual artists representing both NY and CA include Minusbaby, Crashfaster, Trash80, Paris, Daniel Rehn, and starPause.

Two shows are getting things started in LA on November 7. Details and a flyer are after the break.

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http://www.thebbps.com/articles/content/chiptuesday-goes-west.html

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Fight Night Round 4 plus Holyfield, Liston,
Hopkins and Two New Game Modes Headline Pack

post from Gamezplay.org - Video game updates daily on 03 November 2009 08:10:00 AM. © Gamezplay.org - Video game updates daily

Electronic Arts announce that it will be releasing a new Downloadable Content (DLC) pack for Fight Night Round 4 in early December for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The DLC pack retails for 800 MS Points and $9.99 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and[...]

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http://www.gamezplay.org/2009/11/fight-night-round-4-plus-holyfield.html

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Dragon Age: Origins Review: Tripping The Blight
Fantastic [Review]

post from Kotaku on 03 November 2009 08:00:00 AM. © Kotaku

After a successful mission to space, BioWare returns to its fantasy roots with Dragon Age: Origins, an epic tale of good versus evil, right versus wrong, and hot girl-on-elf action.

The country of Ferelden is on the verge of being overwhelmed by the demonic Blight, and only the heroic Grey Wardens can save the land from total destruction. It sounds simple, but the struggle between good and evil is merely the backdrop to a much more twisted tale of intrigue, political maneuvering, and betrayal. Once you play through one of six unique origin stories based on your character's race and caste you're plunged into the thick of it, gathering a party of heroic and not-so-heroic adventurers as you struggle to ensure that Ferelden is ready to take on the Blight once they rise.

BioWare has proven time and time again that it can produce high-caliber fantasy roleplaying games based on existing properties, but can they pull off an original fantasy setting? The Dragon Age is dawning.

Loved
In A World...: As comfortable creating their own worlds as they are dabbling into established fictions, BioWare brings the country of Ferelden to life in Dragon Age: Origins. Rather than a simple game setting, Ferelden feels like a real place with a rich history lurking just outside the corner of the player's vision. The look and feel of the world is almost as impressive as the fiction, with several areas - particularly those in the underground realm of The Deep Road - looking as if they were traditional fantasy artwork come to life.

Tangled Webs: The origins in Dragon Age: Origins are more than just little stories created to move your character into the main story arc. Each gives insight into the major political and societal issues that plague the country of Ferelden, all of which crop up on a larger, more important scale later on in the game. The struggle between good and evil merely serves as a backdrop for a much more complicated tale of political intrigue, racial tension, and moral versus popular choices.

You Gotta Have Friends: Expanding on the excellent character work established in titles like Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur's Gate, BioWare once again provides an amazing cast of characters to fight by your side as you travel the twisted paths of Dragon Age: Origins. Each of your NPC companions has a distinct personality, and while they may seem rather cookie-cutter at first glance, exploring their origins and motivations reveals a truly complex collection of individuals. You'll Travel with them on their own personal quests as you progress through the game, establishing bonds and perhaps even falling in love with one of them. You'll grow attached, and should any of them part ways with you, you'll feel it acutely.

It isn't just your party members, either. Each NPC is handled with great care and attention to detail - even the ones who only have one line of text, spoken over and over again. Enchantment?

So Many Choices: I've played every major BioWare RPG released so far, and while they all deal with making tough decisions, none have seemed to have nearly as profound an impact as those in Dragon Age: Origins do. I regularly found myself making the sort of decisions that had me realizing that I had just completely altered a major portion of the game. Kingdoms rose and fell and important people lived or died based solely on my whims. This is definitely the kind of game you'll want to play through multiple times, just to see how your actions affect the world.

Just Talkin' Bout Dragon Age: An extremely well-written, deviously witty script is only as good as the actors who voice it, and BioWare has pulled together a winning team for Dragon Age. Claudia Black does a fine job of voicing the sardonic witch Morrigan, and Steve Blue does one of the best dwarves I've ever heard in his portrayal of Oghren. All in all, everyone does a spectacular job, but by far my favorite is Steve Valentine as Alistair. Alistair has some of the most amusing lines in the game, most of which would have fallen completely flat if not for Valentine's expert timing. Just remember, "There's nothing like a brush with death to make you...not like death very much."

Swords and Sorcery: Combat in Dragon Age can be as shallow or as deep as the player desires. You can spend the entire game simply controlling your own character and letting your party members go about their business, triggering special moves using the double 3-slot quick bar on the bottom right of the screen, and you'll do just fine. For more depth, you can customize your party's AI behavior by assigning situational tactics for individual characters based on a wide variety of conditions and roles. As satisfying as it is to simply plow right through the enemy, constructing elaborate plans and placing your party in just the right positions to completely decimate your opponents is even more satisfying still.

Hot Micromanagement: I really enjoy micromanaging my role-playing characters, from fine-tuning their equipment to placing each skill point to maximize combat efficiency. Throughout the game you unlock specializations which allow you to tweak your characters even further, focusing on particular aspects of the warrior, mage, and rogue classes. Enchanting weapons, applying poisons, constructing traps; these are the elements of a good RPG that get me all aflutter, and Dragon Age: Origins allows me to indulge myself while still allowing the player who'd rather just wing it to go their own way.

Outside Of The Game: BioWare goes above and beyond with the Dragon Age: Origins community site, where players can communicate, share stories, or browse each other's character profiles to see how far along they've gotten in the game. Once you have an account at the BioWare Social Network website, you can see everything I've done in Dragon Age. Skills, plot points, talent, equipment; it's all there for the world to see. It makes the game feel like more than a game, if that makes any sense, adding a new layer to the experience that keeps it alive long after you've finished playing.

Hated
Bugs Aplenty: My time with the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon Age was not without troubles. In fact, my 60 or so hours in the game were plagued with annoying little glitches that, while not breaking the game completely, did hamper the experience. Some special combat animations were way off, with my character performing finishing blows in the air next to the boss I had just downed. Sound glitched frequently, leaving me watching a character's lips move while no words came. On a few occasions the screen would glitch when a character was speaking, showing broken geometry instead of the person talking. I also had issues with monsters dying and taking up to 30 seconds to register as dead, making me have to wait to loot bodies and in some cases delaying the completion of certain quests.

Perhaps the biggest bug I encountered was during the final battle, when I simply could not progress. BioWare suggested it was due to a monster I needed to kill falling through the world. I wound up having to load a previous save in order to complete the game. Luckily the game had autosaved just before the battle started, but it was definitely more frustration than I needed.

Chugga Chugga Frame Rate: Dragon Age is a pretty game, but when it really starts moving, things get ugly. With only a couple of characters on the screen things aren't too bad, leaning towards the high 20's frame rate-wise, but when you're in a big battle or a crowd scene, things dip into the middle to high teens. Mind you I am guestimating here...it's not like I have some magical PS3 FPS tool, but the dip is definitely noticeable.

BioWare's Ray Muzyka once said that "Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." I'd take that a step further and say that Dragon Age is the evolution of Baldur's Gate, taking the concepts and mechanics established in that classic PC RPG and updating them using today's more powerful technology. While that alone is a recipe for success, the lack of an established license has allowed the developers to craft a unique fantasy setting from the ground up, populating it with fascinating characters and instilling upon it a depth that goes far beyond the simple tale of good versus evil the game initially presents. Much like CD Projekt's The Witcher, Dragon Age overlays modern day politics and social issues onto its fantasy world, creating a richer, more mature atmosphere in the process.

Perhaps the biggest testament to Dragon Age: Origins is the fact that after more than 60 hours of play time, I found myself contemplating my next character as the credits rolled, working out in my head what I would do differently the next time around. During the busy fall video game release season, when my response to completing even the most enjoyable games is "next," it takes an extremely compelling title for me to want to go again. Dragon Age: Origins is exactly that sort of title.

Dragon Age: Origins was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 3. Retails for $59.99 USD ($49.99 PC). A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Reviewed the PlayStation 3 version. Played through the main game on standard difficulty, choosing the City Elf origin and rogue as my character class. Completed main quest, multiple side quests, and The Stone Prisoner downloadable content, which should definitely not be missed.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

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ripping-the-blight-fantastic

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An avalanche of indie: 2010 IGF entries revealed

post from Destructoid on 03 November 2009 08:00:00 AM. © Destructoid

An avalanche of indie: 2010 IGF entries revealed screenshot

The Independent Games Festival's Main Competition received 306 game entries, if you can believe that. I took it upon myself to scan the multi-page list for a few projects I could highlight, and whenever something popped out at me, I opened the game's landing page in a new tab.

Needless to say, by the end of the list Firefox was chugging. Quite a few of the indie games had been discussed here before by either Anthony, Joseph, or in some rare cases me -- those are the ones I won't be giving love to today. These are:

So if you don't have the patience to scroll through the full list of IGF submissions (who can blame you), do your good gaming deed for the day and at least give those four a look.

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Persona 3 Portable: Swag spread is superb

post from Destructoid on 03 November 2009 07:40:00 AM. © Destructoid

Persona 3 Portable: Swag spread is superb screenshot

To get the above swag spread, you'd have to be madly in love with Persona 3. I am, but I don't know that I'd spend the money to get all of the above pictured stuff.

Someone in Japan bought six copies of this PSP RPG to get the bonus goods. There's shirts, calendars, posters, cards and more. There's even an Aigis pillow so that you may play out a perverted version of the Pinocchio story. Buying six copies of a game to get the freebies is excessive, but I understand. It would be better if you could buy the goods separately.

Atlus USA does a pretty good job of packing in the freebies. I wonder if they could fit all of these things in one deluxe box. At least pack in Aigis.

[via Siliconera]

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Sony Announce Magic: The Gathering Tactics

post from Unigamesity on 03 November 2009 07:21:49 AM. © Unigamesity

If you wanted even more content to Magic: The Gathering, then you’re up for a treat since Sony prepare to release Magic: The Gathering ? Tactics, an extension to the turn-based series that will certainly please fans with the amount of content to be[...]

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http://www.unigamesity.com/sony-announce-magic-the-gathering-%e2%80%93-tactics/

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A closer look at Scratch: The Ultimate DJ's
turntable

Although all eyes are currently on Activision's DJ Hero, let's not forget about the other DJ/music contender, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

We had a chance to check out the game and the turntable peripheral ourselves awhile back, but with the game pushed out into 2010, it's time for an updated look. The latest trailer focuses on the authenticity of the controller, designed by Numark. The video compares it to real DJ equipment -- the Numark NS7 and the Akai Pro MPC.

What we don't see is the game in action. We're curious to see what Commotion Interactive, who took over development of the title in August, is up to with the game. Scratch is said to be targeted for an early 2010 release for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so it can't be long until we get a chance to find out.

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Dungeon Fighter Online - A guide to the game's
dungeons.

post from Gamezplay.org - Video game updates daily on 03 November 2009 07:06:00 AM. © Gamezplay.org - Video game updates daily

Mirkwood FrostThe Ice Sorceress Keraha has followed her sister?the Fire Queen Binoche?into the dense forests of Grand Flores, setting up her domain in the chilly thick of Mirkwood Frost. You must find and destroy this frosty femme fatale before she[...]

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http://www.gamezplay.org/2009/11/dungeon-fighter-online-guide-to-games.html

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Rumortoid: Walmart to sell Xbox 360 w/ $100 card
for $200

Rumortoid: Walmart to sell Xbox 360 w/ $100 card for $200 screenshot

If the rumors turn out to be right, you'll be able to waltz run into your local Walmart soon and nab an Xbox 360 and a $100 shopping card for $200.

This rumor came from a retail tipster that sent it in to Kotaku. As always, don't take this as the Gospel, but there is a little screenshot of some kind attached to the article. It says that the Xbox 360 would be an Arcade unit (of course). It also points to a $148 Blu ray player and a $788 46-inch Panasonic Plasma television. All three would make a nice rig. All of these and other items are said to be going on sale this weekend.

If this pans out, I'll go get one. An Xbox 360 would make a good gift. The $100 gift card? Keep in mind that I'm a full-time blogger. A man's got to eat, so I'm keeping that.