So I debated a bit about posting on this based on my disdain of pretty looking trailers and my frustration with the previous Dragon Age support and DLC, but I decided it warranted a quick post.  To recap a little bit, I’m still a big fan of Bioware and absolutely loved Dragon Age Origins.  However my main issues have come from their support and rollout of content which makes me leery  about their ability to support an MMO.  Their decision to push out more DLC as opposed to fixing some major gameplay issues was a big issue for me and concerns me quite a bit for their future games.

With all that being said, I will continue to watch Dragon Age 2 as I really do enjoy single player RPGs as they’re a nice distraction from MMOs or during periods when I’m stuck without a good internet connection.  I am intrigued that they decided to only have one character option as opposed to all the diversity in Origins and Awakenings but that should allow them to focus the story a bit more.

On to the trailer, I certainly recommend checking it out as like other trailers it does look VERY good.  If this is anything like the previous Dragon Age trailers the skills we see here will be similar to the skills available in the game, just not quite as flashy.  So there seems to be lots of fire and summoning ability and this character seems to be a mix of a mage and warrior which could prove interesting.  It strikes me as something along the lines of a Spirit Warrior that wields a huge sword but can utilize some sorts of “magic.”  I’m curious if this is representative of one class or a combination of a couple, as it seems like they might limit some of the re-playability of DA:2.  But there’s still LOTS of time to flush things out as the release date isn’t until March of 2011.

Just like The Old Republic, DA:2 is one of the games I’m eagerly watching but by no means are either of them automatic buys.  Depending on how the next 6 months or so go with their information roll-outs I may decide against them, or at least not buy on launch day.

I figured I’d toss this out to folks and hopefully you can help me fill out my Podcast directory a bit.  I travel quite a bit so I do have lots of time to make it though various shows but I’m finding myself running out of episodes which is just a bad thing.  So, help me figure out what all I’m missing   I do have some other sports related ones that are seasonal (Football and Hockey) but primarily I’m looking for either gaming related or techie stuff.

As of now I’m currently listening to:

1. LOTRO Related
   1. A Casual Stroll to Mordor
   2. LOTRO Reporter
   3. LOTRO Cast
   4. Through the Palantir
   5. The Late Night LOTRO Show
   6. The Tolkien Professor
2. The Old Republic (Might have to take a break from these, or trim it down)
   1. Darth Hater
   2. Mos Eisley Radio
   3. TORO Cast
3. General Gaming
   1. Massively
   2. The Multiverse
   3. Shut up.  We’re Talking
   4. View From the Top
   5. 404 Radio UK
4. Tech Stuff
   1. Buzz out Loud
   2. The 404

So what else do you guys have on your music player of choice?

So I’ve been quiet lately and that’s mainly due to real-life distractions and work getting quite a bit busier for me.  I really haven’t had much time to fully devote to a game so I’ve steered more towards single-player games that I can pause

I’ve got a backload of LOTRO items, and will be getting back into a better blogging routine as I”m really itching to get back to Middle-Earth.  Especially since there’s a new raiding group that I joined so I’ll have a chance to get back into some more of the end-game stuff that I so enjoy!  I’ll be working on my minstrel and as such you’ll probably see some more posts on his progress and how I handle skirmishes as well.

The biggest in-game news for me is that my mule kinship (which was formed with the help of some of the blogging community) reached rank 7 and the kin-house right behind my house was still available.  So I’ve been slowly moving things around and filling that up, and working to re-build my bank account .  Here’s a shot of my minnie out front of my new and sparsely decorated house.  Too bad you can’t mail items across servers as I know Merric and Goldenstar have TONS of household items

I’m sure you can guess the main one single-player distraction, yes that would be Dragon Age: Origins.  I’ve been through the RtO content and then decided I would finish the game on my dual-wielding warrior.  I probably should have upped the difficulty to hard (or whatever’s above normal) as it was pretty easy for me, but then again I was really mainly playing to finish up the storylines and play with some different options.  I’m not real sure if I’m going to play another go-around, we’ll see how RL goes.  And if I do another game, I will up the difficulty and most likely NOT do Orzamar as by far that zone is the longest and least enjoyable for me.  I did find some new spells that I hadn’t used before (the mana-leech line is un-real) so I’ll probably try some other things out too.  I may also try out some more of side-quests as I think I’ve only completed something like 60% of the game (which seems weird).  But I am getting pretty excited for the expansion as they are slowly letting news out on it.  There’s been a video of a new boss, the first announced character Anders (also in the gallery link), and screen-shots of Vigil’s Keep. I’m still waiting to see the other characters, how the skills and such will change, and probably most importantly which character is continuing on with us on our journey.  But we still have 6 weeks before launch, and here’s hoping it is smoother then Ostagar

The other game I’ve picked back up is Mount and Blade which is developed by Taleworlds  There are a number of things I really like about this game, even though it isn’t the best looking or most recent game out there:

• I love the way they’ve done mounted combat – it does take a bit to get used to but I really enjoy it
• I’m a medieval timeframe junky and enjoy building an army, reputation, and trying to acquire/hold land.  Plus who doesn’t have fun storming the castle!
• Even with the as-shipped game there’s multiple factions, lots of armor/weapons, and troop variations that all make lots of differences
• There’s still a pretty active community that’s not only helpful but is releasing custom built content and modifications too

The game isn’t perfect (especially since it likes to overheat my poor GPU for some reason) but it is a nice enjoyable distraction for me at the moment.  So if you like the period and are interested in a game that combines strategy with more dynamic combat you might want to check it out.  The demo allows you to reach level 7 and the full version costs $30.

So the PC and XBox versions of Bioware’s Dragon Age Origins first post launch downloadable content have been released and are available to play after quite a LONG delay.  No word on the PS3 version though.  I have no clue what happened, and really don’t care as it is behind all of us.  I downloaded it last night, and ended up playing through it on my dual-wielding warrior.  Granted, she is level 15 and working through the dwarf area before heading to the Landsmeet so my party is already pretty well decked out.

There’s lots of the information on the DLC already out there, but I’ll try not to spoil too much but you’ll notice the note before my last paragraph where the potential spoilers are.  The content itself isn’t all that long but it was enjoyable to wrap up all the loose ends.  Lots of good dialog and flashbacks mixed  in with the various battles.  I felt the duration and pacing felt about right – as it is about as long as Warden’s keep, possibly a bit shorter.  Some good teasers and hints for what’s coming up in the expansion, so that was a pleasant surprise.  A couple of potentially tricky fights, but I’m still on the medium difficulty on my 3rd play-through, so nothing terribly difficult.  For me, I enjoyed it and it was worth the$5.  Will I be getting more DLC for DA:O?  I’m not sure – but I will be definitely getting the expansion.

(spoilers follow)

Now for a bit of the down-side (and spoiler info) as there a couple of things I didn’t like.  First off, all the items obtained are Tier 5 (best is Tier 7) and the armor only helps from a stamina perspective and coolness factor.  I figured if Alister’s going to be king he should look the part, so I’m sacrificing a bit of his survivability for looks .  But I find it very weird that the king isn’t wearing better armor or that I have a number of weapons better then Duncaan’s swords.  It just struck me as weird that for content geared at level 13/14 ish (just going of the Strength requirement for the armor) that it is so much worse then Wade’s Dragon Plate and the Juggernaut set.  But I think the most disappointing part was they didn’t have anything in there regarding Duncaan as I we should’ve at least been able to bury him.

Anyway, I’m glad I played it and now I’ll finish off this play-through and get ready for Awakenings.

So this will be a bit of a retraction from my previous Bioware rant   I’m still not completely happy with Bioware over their handling of the Return to Ostagar DLC fiasco, but I am VERY excited about this upcoming expansion.  If you haven’t see this article, IGN UK has a 3 page interview/preview of the upcoming expansion with Fernando Melo the online Producer for Dragon Age.  There’s some really great stuff in there (cool pics too) and much of it hits directly at what concerned me with the initial announcement.  Also, check out the trailer if you haven’t seen it – Bioware does some really good videos and this game has had some amazing ones.  Overall, it looks like this will be an amazing expansion and will really bring lots to the game – even if you haven’t finished Origins yet!  To re-cap:

• The time frame for Awakening story is several months after the events of Origins
  • Still lots of chaos from the blight and work to be done to rebuild
• Our player characters role is the Warden Commander rebuilding the Grey Wardens
• You can also start off a new character as an Orlesian Grey Warden commander
  • Or you can load a previous Origins saved character
  • The level of that new toon will be 17-20ish
• New level cap is mid to high 30s
  • This is HUGE – really shows how much new content there will be
• Sounds like ending specifics will carry over from saved games – it isn’t just a generic starting point like the trailer implies (I’m trying not to spoil too much)
• An option is available to re-spec your imported character to take advantage of new attributes, skills, talents, spells, and specializations
  • This is pretty nice as well such that old characters can take advantage of new cool things
  • Plus it is mentioned there’s a story behind it, not just a random option
• The size of the expansion is “bigger then most retail games”
  • This had me concerned initially so I’m glad to hear this comment
• At the end of the interview, there is a discussion about RtO delay
  • Late January is the new “target”
  • The issue was a major bug that effected all platforms, not just one and made it through their internal reviews and one of the external before being caught by the third.
  • Other cool teaser is that different characters will react differently during the RtO storyline.
    • So I’ll probably end up running through that content a few times on my current play-through

Still not real happy with Bioware’s support, but if they keep on putting out such amazing content they will continue to get my money!