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.

Tnkgrl Mobile’s Exclusive Hands-On of the Google Nexus One

Google Nexus One 2

New details on the Google Nexus One have been revealed by tnkgrl Mobile in an exclusive hands-on preview. Here are some of the site’s observations on this potentially market-changing phone:

  • It’s extremely thin
  • It’s much nicer looking in person than in pictures
  • The screen appears to be OLED (same size/resolution as the Motorola Droid)
  • 3G works on T-Mobile USA :)
  • I can confirm that there’s no 3G on AT&T (EGDE only)
  • It’s definitely unlocked
  • It’s super snappy! Faster than the Droid…
  • There’s no multitouch support in the browser or in Google Maps
  • Low-light performance is decent, but the flash is weak
  • Calls are routed the normal way, not using data (VoIP), and sound fine

Head on over to the exclusive hands-on preview for more opinions and observations on the Google Nexus One. Right now I don’t know what I want more — the Nexus One of the limited edition FFXIII Lightning PS3. Ha!

Source

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!!!

Source

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.

Continue reading “Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XIII Sweepstakes”

The Case for Operation Chokehold: AT&T Make$ More, $pend$ Le$$

AT and T FailAs some of you pointed out, Fake Steve Jobs’ Operation Chokehold could pose a danger to people that actually need their phones in case of an emergency. That’s completely understandable. Having  said that, I think more AT&T customers — specifically iPhone customers — should be pissed off at the company. Fake Steve added up the numbers and found that ever since the iPhone launched, AT&T has been cutting its expenses while its data revenue has soared:

Go look at their financial statements and open up the Financial Operations and Statistics Summary and look at capital expenditures over the past eight quarters. I’m no math whiz, but it looks like capex has gone down by about 30% over the time period. Scroll down a bit to the Wireless section and check out data revenues — they’re up 80% over the same period.

That’s just ridiculous. Where’ the nerd rage?!? Shouldn’t more AT&T customers be pissed off that they’re helping the company reach record numbers while a bare minimum has been done to improve network conditions? Shouldn’t you be up in arms that days after president & CEO of AT&T mobility Darth Vega Ralph de la Vega promised that the network would improve, it gloriously crashed in San Francisco?!?

Hmmmm, I might have to think my happening/not happening percentages on Operation Chokehold. I now believe there’s a 35 percent chance of something going down tomorrow.

Source

How Google Can Disrupt the American Mobile Phone Market with the Nexus One…and Three Reasons Why it Won’t

Google has the opportunity to turn the American phone mobile market on its head with the Nexus One. If it chooses to sell the phone directly to consumers at a price that’s close to cost, it would truly disrupt the current American model. When the iPhone 3GS first came out, iSuppli estimated its manufacturing cost to be about $180. So let’s say Google sold the Nexus One for $199 — that would be killer! American customers would be getting a high-end phone that’s unlocked for a bargain price. Compare that to the costs of other premium unlocked phones, which cost upwards of $500.

Why would Google do this? Well, there are a few reasons. By inflating the installed base, Google could sell more Android apps. The company gets a cut of every app sold through the Android Marketplace. More importantly, it has the opportunity to serve more mobile ads. Remember, at the end of the day Google makes the vast majority of its money selling advertising. If more people are using Android browsers and products that serve mobile ads, the more money Google will make. So in a way, it would selling the Nexus One at cost would be similar to the old razor-and-blade model. Google practically gives away the razor and will make way more money selling the blades.

Having said that (Curb Your Enthusiasm!), there are several reasons why Google will probably not follow this model.

Continue reading “How Google Can Disrupt the American Mobile Phone Market with the Nexus One…and Three Reasons Why it Won’t”

Congrats to Insomniacswaltz!

RPad Magnet Dricknasty teaser

Yeah, I know…I’m totally behind on the Rpad.tv chick magnet giveaway. Getting back to the season of giving, the latest winner is Insomniacswaltz for this comment. Congrats on your prize! Keep an eye on your email so that I send it to you.

Today’s photo comes from Dricknasty. I put a teaser image above, with the full image after the break. Guess which videogame character I’m posing with in the photo!

Continue reading “Congrats to Insomniacswaltz!”

Sony Launches Sodium One “Freemium” MMO for PlayStation Home

Sony has announced the launch of Sodium One, a free-to-play MMO for PlayStation Home with premium features. Here are some deets from the press release:

With the launch of Sodium, PlayStation Home’s first MMO, PlayStation Home further evolves into a true social gaming platform, complete with both snack-size mini games and extended gaming experiences to share with both existing friends and new friends met within PlayStation Home.

Starting on December 17, PlayStation Home users can step into the Sodium “Teleporter” located in the PlayStation Home Central Plaza and be transported to a futuristic, action-packed social gaming environment. In Sodium, a new technological era has dawned bringing with it interstellar travel, rapid colonization of the galaxy, inexhaustible energy, advanced Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and the power to travel between quantum realities. This new age has also brought a host of new challenges where players must battle for harmony with their environment — and sometime survival.

I’m completely uninterested in Sodium One. However, there are millions of people that love Home and I’m sure they’ll give this a spin too. How about you? Are you going to play around in PlayStation Home’s new MMO?