Category: PS3

Dragon Age: Origins DLC Info — Coming January and March?

Electronic Arts has announced that the Return to Ostagar downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins will be available on January 5, 2010 for PC and Xbox 360. The PS3 version will be available later in the month. Here’s a snippet from the press release:

Return to Ostagar allows players to exact their revenge and embark on a quest for the mighty arms and armor of the once great King Cailan when they revisit Ostagar, the site of the Grey Wardens’ darkest hour, to reclaim the honor and learn the secrets of Ferelden’s fallen king.

Return to Ostagar summons players to a new quest in which they will return to the fateful battleground in Ostagar where the Grey Wardens were nearly wiped out. Players will discover King Cailan’s top-secret political agenda and go behind enemy lines to revisit a place that many feared had been lost to history.

There was interesting rumor from Big Download, which translated a Eurogamer article. The site claimed that EA and BioWare will be announcing additional DLC that will come out in March 2010. This isn’t a quickie like Return to Ostagar (which should be about an hour of gameplay for $5). The March DLC is rumored to be 15 hours long and come with a raised level cap.

I’m kind of irked that I won’t be home until January 6. I want to be home for the launch of this DLC and the Google Nexus One! I do find it amusing that I’ll be a day late and a dollar short. Ha!

Super Street Fighter IV and Lost Planet 2 Delayed

Capcom has delayed the release of Super Street Fighter IV, Lost Planet 2, and Monster Hunter 3 (Europe and North America) for financial considerations. The games were set to be released in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ends on March 31, 2010. Instead, the games will be released during its next fiscal year to spread out earnings, which is great for shareholders but sucky for gamers.

Idealistically, I hope the additional time allows for more polish and features to creep in. From a financial standpoint, the move makes total sense. I’m actually surprised the industry didn’t see more release manipulation in 2009 considering that the entire world knew that the economy was dire and wasn’t getting better any time soon.

I’m a little bummed that Super Street Fighter IV won’t be available to me in March, but something tells me that I’ll have my hands full with a little game from Square Enix. Any of you disappointed by the delays?

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Big Surprise: Final Fantasy XIII is a PS3 System Seller

Square Enix should give itself a pat on the back for selling more than 1.5-million copies of Final Fantasy XIII in less than a week. Sony should be kissing the company’s ass for the game being responsible for “the highest one week total ever for the system” (in Japan) according to Andriasang. Citing numbers from Famitsu, the site claims that 245,406 were sold between 12/14 and 12/20.

While some American journalists are whining about FFXIII’s gameplay (hi Kohler!), there’s no doubt that this will be a monster hit worldwide. The game has already conquered Japan. The rest of the world is next in March 2010.

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Sony Details Heavy Rain Chronicles Pre-Order Bonus

Heavy Rain Chronicles

Sony Computer Entertainment of America product marketing manager Jefferson Dong (who I want to call The Donger, but probably shouldn’t) has detailed the pre-order bonus for Heavy Rain. Instead of some stupid accessory or dumb goggles, gamers that pre-order Heavy Rain will get more gameplay in the form of Heavy Rain: Chronicle One — The Taxidermist. The Donger Dong dropped the 411:

What exactly are The Heavy Rain Chronicles? Each Chronicle will offer unique, stand-alone, playable short stories featuring one of Heavy Rain’s main characters, and a storyline taking place either before or after Heavy Rain’s original narrative. Similar to Heavy Rain, each episode will offer a unique journey and different outcomes based on the players’ decisions and actions.

To me, additional content is way more of an incentive to pre-order than some stupid statue that will just collect dust in my living room. Heavy Rain is already #2 on my most wanted games of 2010 list and I’m totally down with The Heavy Rain Chronicles. Anything that adds to the characters, world, and story of what should be an outstanding game is awesome. In fact, I might go downstairs to GameStop and pre-order it now!

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Coffee Talk #50: Favorite Games of 2009 #1 Dragon Age: Origins

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the miracle of Manning, whether Operation Chokehold will do some damage to AT&T today, or destroying all Snuggies, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be counting down my five favorite games of 2009 in this week’s Coffee Talk columns and I’d love for you to join me! Let me know what your favorite games of the year were in the comments section. Remember, this isn’t about what games you thought were “best”. I want to know what you had the most fun with in 2009.

Dragon Age Origins 3

What did you think I was going to pick? Halo 3: ODST?!? Ha! For those of you that have have been reading my articles for a while, there should have been no doubt that I was going to pick Dragon Age: Origins. I adore BioWare. RPGs are my favorite genre. Fantasy is my favorite setting. I played the hell out of both Baldur’s Gate games. Of course I was going to go nuts for this game! (And if you’re new to the site, just nod and smile. This all makes sense.)

While the graphics in Dragon Age: Origins aren’t the best, pretty much every other aspect of the game is perfect for me. I love the versatile gameplay — tanking as a warrior, backstabbing as a rogue, and dishing out spells as a mage were all fun experiences that are quite different from one another. The story and writing are brilliant, especially after playing the game multiple times (five completions so far) and noticing how expertly different characters were woven into the game’s tapestry. The music is top notch. With different dialogue branches, multiple outcomes, various companion characters, and variations in gameplay, I wouldn’t be surprised if my play-throughs hit double digits.

Although I’ve logged more hours into Civilization: Revolution for iPhone, I had the most fun — by far — with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009. I swear BioWare made the game just for me.

Borderlands Sells Over Two-Million Copies Worldwide

Borderlands

Take-Two Interactive announced that Borderlands, developed by the excellent Gearbox Software, has sold over two-million copies worldwide. Normally, I don’t like writing about sales announcements, but this one has me particularly giddy. First of all (and most importantly), I’m thrilled for Gearbox. It’s a cool company and I’m so happy for its success.

Secondly (and immaturely), I love when Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is wrong. On Gametrailer’s Bonus Round, Pachter said the game was “sent to die”, implying that there was no way it would sell well. Take that Mikey! Yes, I totally admit that I didn’t think the game would do well either, but I’m not a highly paid financial analyst. Plus, I’m totally happy that I was wrong.

To sum it all up, Gearbox had tremendous success with Borderlands and Michael Pachter was completely wrong. Win!!!

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Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XIII Sweepstakes

FFXIII_Key Ring_Lightning

To prepare for the March 2010 arrival of Final Fantasy XIII in America, Square Enix has announced a contest that will award FFXIII accessories to 13 lucky winners. While they’re not as cool as an RPad.tv refrigerator magnet, they’re definitely more expensive. Here’s a list of the prizes:

  • Lightning pendant
  • L’Cie pendant
  • Snow pendant
  • Serah pendant
  • Lightning keychain
  • L’Cie business card holder

Head on over to the Square Enix members site on December 23 to enter.

Hit the break for six more pictures of these accessories. The business card holder is totally cool.

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