David Gaider, author of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne

The language used in the marketing for Dragon Age: Origins has made strides to popularize certain terms such as “low fantasy” and “dark heroic fantasy”, so I made a point of keeping these terms in mind during my reading of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. I don’t think they’re lying; many of the events in this story are messed up. Rebel Queen Moira, the mother of Prince Maric (the book’s main character), is violently murdered on the first page. Within the next eight pages, Maric is smashing the head of one of her attackers into a tree root repeatedly. From that point forward, Maric is on the run for a good portion of the story. He meets new companions along the way and eventually reunites with and takes charge of his mother’s rebel army; their purpose is to remove the Orlesian usurper, King Meghren, from Queen Moira’s former throne, so that Prince Maric may take his place.

Much of what occurs in Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne will likely be used referentially, for the most part, when it comes to the video game. I would surmise that Dragon Age: Origins’ story picks up at least twenty years after the events in The Stolen Throne, based on what’s known about some of the game’s characters. But I can say with confidence that David Gaider, with this prequel novel, has succeeded in crafting, introducing me to and familiarizing me with Ferelden and its history. If you are one of the many who is planning on playing Dragon Age: Origins, I would urge you to do yourself a favor and consider giving Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne a chance.

It’s really too bad that I’ll probably never own an iPhone (or an iPod Touch… or any other piece of Apple hardware, for that matter), because I’d really like to play this game. I can only hope that Carmack’s enthusiasm for the iPhone does not translate to him being exclusionary to other mobile platforms with his games.

This just isn’t that amazing to me, considering that if you have an SOE account for games like EverQuest, Vanguard, PlanetSide or Star Wars Galaxies, you already have the beginnings of a Free Realms account. All you have to do is go to the Free Realms website and log in. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that people seem to be into the game (I like it, though I’ve played very little), but I thought I’d try to put things into perspective.

If you’re aching for new hints at what Guild Wars 2 will be like, look to the blog that’s linked above. These pieces of concept art shed more light on the game’s setting than anything that ArenaNet has said or shown so far.

Herein the controls for Dragon Age: Origin’s Xbox 360 version are detailed. While the gamepad controls sound cumbersome, they also sound like they’ll work fine enough. And although having to pause will probably be off-putting for most console players who aren’t used to RPGs of this type, I’m glad that BioWare doesn’t seem to have compromised on the number of spells and abilities available due to the limits that a gamepad imposes.

This is big news that you’ve probably already heard, but MaxPC gets the link because they’re the one site that I’ve seen properly acknowledge that the next Fallout game will be made, by and large, by the same folks who made the original Fallout game. This is kind of a big deal.

Ah, well. At least it sounds like Dragon Age development is finished except for PC polish and the console port-job. Regardless, Dan Tudge still has the coolest name in the industry.

Though I would have made a couple different component choices, this article did well to illustrate that you can get a solid gaming PC for not a lot of scratch.

Part one of a five-part walk down memory lane that BigDownload ran (walked?) throughout the week. It’s quite a comprehensive look back, they didn’t leave much out. Here’s part two, part three, part four, and part five.

GameTap is going through some major changes, mostly for the better from what I’ve gleaned from these blog posts. The GameTap client can serve as something of a hurdle for people. The ability to use shortcuts or launch from a website will make things much more accessible.

As for the changes, the main link above will give you a high-level description of what will be happening. These supplementary links are to blog posts that give more specific information on how games will download and play, what will happen to your current save states, and new subscription plans. Pay special attention to the subscription post if you’re a current or potential subscriber. I recommend signing up, as I have, for the $60 annual billing so that you lock your account in before the deadline.

I’ve always been more of a Quake man, but I can definitely appreciate what Unreal Tournament has brought to the table. Partly due to its sub-par server browser and interface but mostly due to its lack of a playerbase, I haven’t been able to get into UT3. That all seems to be fixed with Patch 4 and the Titan Pack. They both fix, change, and add a ton of stuff — maybe even an ass-ton. Check the link and decide for yourself. Also check out the new Betrayal mode. It takes one of my favorite things in the world – Instagib – and puts a fun twist on it.

I’ve found that reading these novel tie-ins greatly enhances my experience with the video games. For example, reading Mass Effect: Revelation before playing Mass Effect made me very familiar with the races and key locations in the galaxy, as well as some backstory on the antagonist’s agenda. I also have a greater appreciation for the Halo universe since reading The Fall of Reach. For these reasons, and the reasons mentioned earlier this week, I’m excited to get this Dragon Age fiction into my hands and then into my brain.

It’s about time. For a while there it seemed like EA didn’t want my money, what with the way they didn’t put Burnout on Steam.

My experience in obtaining Spore inspired the message of this post. EA: I want to buy your games. Please make it easier on me.

I didn’t get Spore on release day. Since it came out on a Sunday, my pre-order from a web retailer had no chance of arriving the day-of. I also do not particularly enjoy the experience of buying games from a brick & mortar store. I abhor GameStop (a topic for another time, perhaps) and “big box” stores are a chore to endure for anything less than when you absolutely need to replace a burned out router at 6:00P.M. on a Saturday night or else you won’t get your assignments in on time. Finally, there was no way I was going anywhere near EA’s download service. I refuse to only own my game for six months unless I give them another $5 for an “Extended Download Service”. I don’t have to do that for Steam or Impulse – why would I have to with EA’s service?

The list of games that I am going to have a hard time bringing myself to purchase doesn’t stop with Spore. It isn’t that I’m holding a grudge against EA or that I hold anything against the games themselves. It’s simply a matter of convenience. In a marketplace where services like Steam and Impulse exist and are expanding their marketplaces week by week, it really doesn’t make sense that I’d have to pay extra in order to continue owning a game that I’ve already paid for. There are many EA games that are coming out before the year’s end, and I just don’t know how many boxes, manuals and jewel cases that I’m going to be able to let pile up. To give you an idea of what I am fairly confident is not my own personal dilemma, I’ll name some of the EA games that I want to buy or am going to want to buy:

• Mirror’s Edge
• Dead Space
• Mercenaries 2
• Crysis Warhead
• Battleforge
• Rage
• Burnout Paradise
• Dragon Age: Origins
• The Sims 3
• Mass Effect
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

A few of the games listed above are already out, but most of them are coming out either during Q4 2008 or Q1 2009. If these were available either on Steam, Impulse, or via EA’s service without their ludicrous 6 month expiration date, I’d probably end up purchasing all of them within the first week’s release window. Throw a 10% discount for pre-orders (as is standard practice with most of Steam’s upcoming releases) and I’m yours. While we’re at it, if EA were to make available the Battlefield 2 compilation on Steam that is available at retail, I’d probably jump on it. I don’t even enjoy Battlefield 2 very much, I’m just weak for convenient bundles like that. However, EA virtually forcing me (no pun intended) to purchase a boxed retail version of these games will sadly not guarantee them sales to me until I find them on GoGamer’s 48 hour sale or Amazon New & Used section. I want cheap or convenient. Both would be wonderful, but right now I am willing to compromise.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-EA. Not anymore. John Riccitiello has been good to us gamers. But he has just a few more wrinkles in the convenience department that need to be ironed out before I can be as active a consumer of EA games as I am of Valve, Ubisoft, 2K, Capcom, Atari, THQ, Eidos, and Activision games.

UPDATE (9/13/08):

Thank you, EA and/or Crytek!