More Dragon Age: Origins Awakening Characters: Mhairi and Sigrun

BioWare has revealed two more characters from the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins Awakening expansion pack: Mhairi and Sigrun. Here are some screens, official bios, and my comments on these new playable characters.

Mhairi

Official description: When Mhairi was a child, she was enraptured by tales of kings and nobles. All she wanted was to be like them, to fight for what she believed. Betrothed to a trader when she turned 16, she saw the life that lay ahead of her and enlisted in the army instead. Her fierce loyalty and devotion to Ferelden earned her the love and respect of her commanders and brothers-in-arms. King Cailan’s betrayal and death hit Mhairi hard, and when she learned of the two Grey Wardens who quelled the Blight almost single-handedly, she vowed to serve the Wardens. When the call came for volunteers to help rebuild the order at Vigil’s Keep, Mhairi jumped at the chance to join.

Raymond’s rant: Dragon Age has a stalker. Awesome! Maybe I’ve seen too many episodes of WWE programming, but Mhairi reminds of Mickie James when she was stalking Trish Stratus. I can totally see her going all fangirl on Alistair. Their interaction should be excellent.

Sigrun

Official description: There is only one way to leave the Legion of the Dead: by fulfilling a vow to die in battle against the enemies of Orzammar, a sacrifice that absolves any guilt. Sigrun craves a chance to prove she is more than a worthless gutter-rat, but it’s hard to rush headlong into a battle you won’t survive. After all, when you grow up casteless, you learn to fight for everything. You learn that you have to watch out for yourself, because no one else will, and the Stone knows no one’s going to miss you when you’re dead. Sigrun’s a survivor, and old habits die hard.

Raymond’s rant: Hmmmm, another casteless dwarf. The Legion of the Dead connection is cool and all, but how many chip-on-their-shoulder little-people does the game need? Then again, the dwarves had the best origin stories by a mile. Perhaps Sigrun’s tale will feature similar writing?

Anyway, let me know what you think of these two Dragon Age characters. I’m definitely going to spend time with Mhairi, but I’ll need more convincing to give Sigrun a good run.

Princeton Review Ranks Top 8 Undergrad Game Design Programs

The Princeton Review has ranked the top eight undergraduate programs in game design, so if you’re looking to be the next Cliffy B (but with better taste in cars) then you’ll want to pay attention to these rankings. Ladies and gentlemen…here are your top eight finalists…I’m Raymond Padilla…and this is American Idol. Sorry, I’ve always wanted to do that. Anyway, here they are:

  1. University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
  2. DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA)
  3. Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)
  4. Becker College (Worcester, MA)
  5. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY)
  6. The Art Institute of Vancouver (Vancouver, British Columbia)
  7. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA)
  8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)

A word of advice — RPI is a great school, but you really don’t want to go to college in upstate New York. The winters are nasty.

Any of you considering these fine institutions?

Source via Game Politics

This Week’s Video Game Releases

There are a few big game releases this week, with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition (PS3, Xbox 360) leading the way. MLB 2K10 is being released for everyone platform known to man, while MLB 10 The Show is a Sony first-party exclusive. I’m super looking forward to The Show (the game, not Paul Wight), but I ain’t touching my PS3 until error 8001050F is resolved.

Other notable releases include Lips: Party Classics for Xbox 360 and Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Limited Edition for PSP.

Any of you guys and gals picking up new games this week? Let me know what you’re buying!

PadCast: Wired’s Chris Kohler Tells You All About Final Fantasy XIII

Wired’s Chris Kohler is the latest RPad.tv PadCast guest and you’ll want to pay attention as he talks about his experience with the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII. Kohler talks about the game’s music, battle system, graphics, linearity, funky “gestalt” system, and more. While he’s a big fan of the music and graphics, he’s not too keen on the “hands off” gameplay. He also compares heavy hand holding in FFXIII to Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain.

As many of you know, the U.S. version of the game comes out next week, but if you’re still not sure if FFXIII is for you then you’ll want to hear Kohler criticize the game. It definitely sounds like the most polarizing Final Fantasy game in years! Oh yeah, Kohler also reveals why you’re on crack if you think you’re expecting a Final Fantasy VII remake with Final Fantasy XIII graphics.

Coffee Talk #96: Can Nintendo Be Stopped?!?

“Can Nintendo be stopped?” That’s the question a lot of game writers have been asking for the last few years. With the ridiculous success of the Nintendo DS and Wii, it seems like a good question. I, however, think it’s a stupid question considering what a lot of these people have been writing about Nintendo for the last 15 years. The story goes a little something like this:

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, your closing thoughts on the Vancouver Winter Olympics, why there isn’t a PSN error 867-5309, or the hotness of Mika Brzezinski, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

“Can Nintendo be stopped?” That’s the question a lot of game writers have been asking for the last few years. With the ridiculous success of the Nintendo DS and Wii, it seems like a good question. I, however, think it’s a stupid question considering what a lot of these people have been writing about Nintendo for the last 15 years. The story goes a little something like this:

  • Nintendo 64: Can Nintendo be restarted?
  • GameCube: Really, can Nintendo be restarted?
  • DS/Wii starting hot: Can Nintendo keep it up?
  • DS/Wii continuing to be hot: Can Nintendo be stopped?
  • DS/Wii in 2010: Will Nintendo remember the people that got them here?

While Nintendo did well with the N64 and GameCube (despite what some people think, the company was highly profitable and cash-rich back then), it was clear to the entire world that it needed to do something different in order to overtake Microsoft and Sony. It did and now the company gets heat from the Nintendo “faithful”. A lot of N64 and GameCube owners were rooting for Nintendo to reclaim the throne, but I guess that was a conditional wish. Funny how it goes….

Anyway, the answer to the question, “Can Nintendo be stopped?” is obviously, “Hell to the no!” — at least for this console generation. As for the next generation…well, the market is constantly changing and there are way too many things that can happen between now and then.

The better question, in my mind anyway, is this: “Will Microsoft and Sony be able to reach as broad an audience as the Wii with their next-gen consoles?” What do you think?

Did PSN Error 8001050F Get Your PS3?

Last night a number of PlayStation 3 owners were hit with PSN error 8001050F. Sony has determined that the problem only hits users of older PS3 models and that users with the newer “slim” hardware appear to be unaffected. Luckily, I spent most of Sunday on my Xbox 360 playing Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement. In the middle of my session I received this message from a developer friend:

Don’t turn your PS3 on — like at all. Seems to be a leap-year firmware bug that corrupts your profile and stops you from using PSN or any PSN purchases. Many offline games won’t start either and it may be wiping Trophies.

Last time I checked, 2010 wasn’t a leap year, so I’m not sure what he meant by that. Then again, he’s way more technical than I am so it might be code speak. What I do know is that several users have reported that their PS3 consoles have — for some unknown reason — reset the date to 12/31/99, which appears to be wreaking havoc with other data.

Scanning my Facebook and Twitter friends, it appears that a lot of my buddies were hit by 8001050F. As of this writing, the support thread on Sony’s forums is 38 pages long. As much as I want to get more Heavy Rain trophies, I’m not even going to look at my PS3 until Sony issues an “all clear” statement.

Any of you get hit by this (seemingly) nasty bug?

Sunday Housekeeping: Help…Needed?

– If you read RPad.tv through Firefox or Internet Explorer and you don’t mind installing a toolbar, please let me know. The site’s ranking has been slipping and I need your help to bring it back up. If you’d like to help out, please shoot me an email at raymond {at} rpad.tv. I’d super appreciate your assistance!

– N8R helped me out with two great interviews: an interview with EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich and an interview with BioWare’s Dr. Greg Zeschcuk. Please check ’em out if you have a chance. The one with Jesse is probably the best PadCast I’ve posted so far.

– After a dip in traffic due to DICE travels, last week was pretty good. I’m schedule to go to GDC next week, but I should be able to post regular updates. Speaking of GDC, if there are any panels you’re interested in, please let me know. I’ll try to hit them up on your behalf and write about them.

– The Amazon links were the best they’ve been since December! A couple of people bought Heavy Rain through my links, while a special someone bought toilet paper, plastic bags, and batteries to support the site. Every little bit helps, so thank you very much!!! I know it’s a pain, but please try to use my links if you buy anything from Amazon.

Blast From the Past: Marc Saltzman and I Talk E3 2007

My friend just sent me this video I did for Comcast’s Game Invasion at E3 2007. It’s funny watching it through the old retroscope. Nintendo just introduced Wii Fit and my co-host, the amazing Marc Saltzman, thought it was neat, but nothing extraordinary. I was mostly indifferent to it. Neither of us had any idea that it would become one of the most popular videogame products in the industry’s history. Ha!

*sigh* I miss having a video crew.

Anyway, check out the video and let me know what you think of our E3 2007 press conference analysis.

Reminder: Interactive Achievement Awards Highlights on IFC

Here’s a reminder that the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Interactive Achievements Awards will be on IFC tonight at 10PM ET/9PM CT. Check it out if you have a chance or set your DVR to record it. Sadly, it’s not the entire program and a lot of Jay Mohr’s excellent roasting will be cut, but 30 minutes of this fine awards show is better than nothing, right?

Gatorade Gives Tiger Woods the Boot

Gatorade is the latest company to sever its ties with golfer/videogame icon/sex addict Tiger Woods. According to ESPN, a Gatorade spokesperson said:

We no longer see a role for Tiger in our marketing efforts and have ended our relationship. We wish him all the best.

AT&T and Accenture have already ended their respective relationships with Woods. Electronic Arts and Nike have indicated that they’re supporting the troubled sex addict.

Any guesses on the next sponsor that will bail on Woods? Could you picture any other athlete on EA’s golf game?

Source