Dragon Age has always been a story where your choices and decisions impact the world. For the third installment of the game, the details on how past decisions will be handled and implemented has just been announced.
Dragon Age Keep will allow players to customize the world of Thedas according to past decisions made. Don’t worry if you’ve lost files or if they’ve become corrupted over time. Past decisions can be implemented by the player within the keep without having to access previous saves. The Keep will exist on the cloud.
Head over to the announcement for more detailed information on the decisions behind the making of the Keep.
Assassin’s Creed III is amazing. No seriously, it is amazing. It is beautiful, the soundtrack is haunting, and the quality of the story telling is equal to that of the best in the industry.
We have burned through the franchise in the last couple of weeks, well ok hubby more than I, and have enjoyed the stories immensely. I’ve skipped finishing Brotherhood and Revelations because I know how Ezio’s story concludes through hubby’s games. I’m sure I will go back and finish them if time permits.
The alternative and imaginative history telling is fascinating. There have been many a sparked conversation around here about whether or not Sam Adams is a Templar or not. I will also admit that there are all kinds of comments and discussions about parallels to modern day issues.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag releases October 29, 2013 in the US and we are both looking forward to it immensely. We will be getting it for the XboxOne. It will be worth the slight wait for the release on the new console.
Now, excuse me, I need to go back to playing Assassin’s Creed III so I can do more homestead missions and find Daniel Boone.
The German gaming site, Game Star, released an article this morning interviewing Matt Firor, General Manager of Zenimax Online. The Elder Scrolls Online will be a subscription based game. The first thirty days of game play are free with the purchase of the game, after that there is a per month fee associated with continued play. The monthly fee will be the standard MMO subscription fee of $14.99/€12.99/£8.99.
DRAGON AGE INQUISITION … I cannot begin to say how much I am looking forward to the release of this game. It is going to be a long year of patient waiting however since it doesn’t release until Fall 2014. I am more than willing to wait for a polished, immersive game in comparison to the huge disappointment that was Dragon Age II.
Exclusive Boss Mode for XboxOne! Boss Mode game play will be available via Kinect or Smartglass and is playable as Crazy Dave or as Dr. Zombot.
Titanfall new game play footage on new map looks engaging.
While I’m not interested in the game, FIFA 14 on XboxOne and PS4 does look bloody fantastic.
Love Fable? Love Multiplayer? Then be prepared to be amazed for Fable Legends was announced this morning with the above stunning trailer. You can play in multiplayer mode or in single campaign mode with three AI companions. So rejoice, your return to Albion will be far more than just the anniversary addition of the original Fable game. Oh did I mention you can play as the hero OR the villain? Our XboxOne will be getting quite the workout in the coming year!
Gamescon started today in Cologne, Germany and the first game that caught my undivided attention was not even on my radar: Lords of the Fallen. The RPG is coming to PC, PS4, and XboxOne in 2014. The video for the game can be seen here and it seriously has my full attention.
Hearthstone is the trading card game from Blizzard which entered closed beta this morning. No, I wasn’t lucky enough to get in the first round of testers. Hearthstone is based on the lore and characters from The Warcraft mythology. The closed beta does not have a Non-disclosure Agreement and thus testers will be able to share their experiences directly. The game will be free to play when it releases but it will have a cash shop.
I have always been an Alliance player, ever since I first picked up the game almost five years ago. Alliance is the natural fit for my personality and general life outlook. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been interested in the other side of the story. Early on I tried playing the Horde but quite honestly, the character models spoiled my immersion in the game immensely. Those early Horde characters have been scrapped and never brought back to life.
Last spring I once again decide to experience the Horde story line and made the above Pandaren priest. She dinged 61 this morning and I’ve got to tell you, there are almost no story differences. Quests so far are all the same, wording changed but otherwise there is no story difference. I am beginning to question long term viability of playing the Horde for story differences when there are none. Now, his may change when my priest hits later expansions but I really doubt that right now.
I don’t know how much play time my Horde priest is going to receive in the future unfortunately.
All I can say is, I’ve never wanted to kill a boss more than I want to repeatedly slaughter Garrosh Hellscream. As everyone knows, I’m not a raider and thank god I can handle raiding in LFR groups.
Today’s gorgeous installment in the story of The Burdens of Shaohao and unfortunately this installment concludes the series.
And the beautiful story telling continues as the Emperor encounters the Sha of Anger.
Burdens of Shaohao: Part 3 Fear has just been released. It is as impressive as the previous installments in the series.
The third beautiful installment in the Burdens of Shaohao series.
World of Warcraft's second installment in the Burdens of Shaohao animated series. Smashing story telling in under five minutes.
World of Warcraft has released a stunning new series further documenting and solidifying the lore for Pandaria. I was blown away by the video. It is stunning in it's simplicity and art direction. It begins the beautiful tale of the last emperor of the Pandarian.
I may not be playing WOW any longer, but the truth is I love the lore behind WOW. Particularly late because of much of the lore is available outside of the game and I can consume it at my own pace. I think this was a wise move on Blizzard's part a couple of years ago. Video games come and go from our lives like waves, some waves we ride a little longer and some waves crash upon the beach violently. I may no longer be interested in the grind of MMO's but the lore and stories Blizzard is telling outside of the game I find fascinating and engaging.
Yesterday, Bethesda and the team working on The Elder Scrolls Online presented actual game play footage at QuakeCon 2013. Here is the link to the footage, I can’t embed it unfortunately. Presentation starts about 41 minutes in and lasts until about 1:10 minutes into the twitch.tv recording.
Highlights of the video:
Overall, completely blown away and it lived up to and exceed my expectations for the game. I and my husband are both looking forward to this game’s release.
Thank you Bethesda, Zenimax, and the entire ESO team for making a game that was true to what ESO games have always been. Now if only our beta invites would arrive!
When I first started playing Everquest II over three years ago, it was with a large tinge of regret that I hadn’t been there from the beginning. Everquest II is my perfect game almost, until you get to the reasons why it isn’t (I’m glaring at you insurmountable, AA grind that I’m unwilling to devote my free time to and to ignore other things in my life for). As a game, Everquest II has amazing stories and collections, a never ending set of quests, tired of leveling in one zone? Then it is possible to hop on over to another zone and level.
Then last year at SOE they announced that the next Everquest game would be ready for unveiling and that SOE Live attendees would get to see the game first. Well, they broke that promise when they showed the game to select media outlets at E3 in Los Angeles in June of this year. Then those same journalists all turned around and awarded Everquest Next the game of the year at E3. Mind you, they couldn’t explain why but hey we were supposed to blindly take them at their word. My “trust” for these “news” outlets and blogs, and in these “journalists” evaporated instantly. I firmly believe that Sony bought and paid for those awards for game of the year.
Yesterday was the long awaited reveal of Everquest Next. I watched, heck so did my husband who took an extended lunch break to do so, and we were bitterly disappointed over all. Upfront I will tell you I wanted to fall in love with what was revealed yesterday, I wanted to be there at the beginning of the next game in the spectacular franchise that is Everquest, and most of all I wanted to see what amazing things had so impressed those so-called game journalists at E3 a month and a half ago.
Instead, what was revealed were some incredibly cool features with a lot of CRAP thrown in the blender and then poured into the Everquest universe. And the cherry on top of that blender of crap? There was no announcement of a target date for release or even beta. In essence, what we got was a “here’s what we’ve been working on the last six years please tell us how amazing we are” presentation.
First the good things I think Sony nailed correctly:
And now where I think Sony just looked around the industry and said “Oh that works, let’s do that!”:
Those are just the first thing that pop into my head and onto the screen as I type this. Then came the announcement of Everquest Next: Landmark which is basically you the player being given the development kit to aid Sony in creating Everquest Next. Landmark will release in Winter 2013. Sounds cool doesn’t it?
And then you realize that you are being given a game to basically be Sony’s unpaid intern staff. Thanks, but no thanks. Want my talent to design, or the top most talented fifty designers out there waiting for a chance to show off what they can do while making a salary and receiving benefits? Then hire the staff needed to complete the damn game! Why not just say hey, we are too lazy to make it ourselves but you the players design whatever you want for lore, quests, building, etc. and we here at Sony will provide the tools, servers, and technical support to back it up? Oh wait, that’s basically what they said.
I don’t want an Everquest world where only the most popular choices make it into the final game. A Norrath where it is possible that Ratonga are not present? Oh did I forget to mention, that only the popular choices made by players in polls and such will make it into the final product of Everquest Next.
Overall, I’m so extremely disappointed in what was presented yesterday. I shouldn’t have been, Sony has already disappointed me twice already this year with Wizardry Online and Dragon’s Prophet. The only positive from the reveal was the announcement that there would be offline stories and that the first book was available for download, The Last Stand of the Teir’Dal by Michael Alexander Drake. I wish that Everquest and Everquest II were provided the same courtesy of e-books and/or real books to flesh out their stories, settings, characters, and lore.
I’m sure the whole team has worked very hard on the game, and will continue to do so, but there was nothing truly new, innovative, or ground breaking revealed yesterday. If I want to go play another cartoonish, high fantasy MMO then I’ll go back to World of Warcraft. At least Blizzard retains control of their game’s direction and doesn’t expect the players to build the world for them.
