Bethesda Announces Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Anniversary Pack | Re-release

This is the box art from the last Collectors Edition, not the super awesome 5th Anniversary Limited Edition.

As if Bethesda doesn't already have enough going on, (they had a pretty impressive booth in the West hall of this year's E3), they're coming up on the 5th Anniversary of their last Elder Scrolls title, Oblivion.  So to get you all hot and bothered on the incredibly looking Skyrim, you can go back to Tamriel and all of their expansion packs starting July 12th.

For a SRP of just $29.99, this is HUGE with a literal WORLD of content and all of the expansion packs including;

• Knights of the Nine
• Shivering Isles

This is all wrapped up in a nice collector's steelbook embossed with Daedric symbols, a behind-the-scenes "making of" documentary, and a full-color map of Cyrodiil and The Shivering Isles.  Lastly, it includes a $10 off coupon for the upcoming Skyrim and strategy guide.  This is truly a collectors piece, it would be awesome if they made these limited edition, and numbered for the true collector, but we're unsure of any "limited" quantities here.  We'll post images as soon as we get some from Bethesda, and look forward to sharing with you!

For fun - we've also posted the original launch trailer for Oblivion after the break, to get your warm and fuzzies all, well, warm and fuzzy.  Nostalgia is awesome!

MashButtons does just that and looting in Dungeon Seige III review

It is time for MashButtons to review another dungeon crawler, this time in the form or a disk based game rather than a download. Obsidian made and Square Enix published action RPG with online coop capabilities, Dungeon Siege III, has just released and we have had a full week with this title on the PS3, so let’s get the basics out of the way before I get to the meat and potatoes of the experience. You pick one of four Legionnaires, protectors of Ehb, similar to the Grey Wardens in Dragon Age, who have been betrayed and almost wiped out to the brink of extinction. Like others in the genre you are able to develop your character to fit your play style, loot, button mash your melee, plan your moves based on your energy, quest, and more loot. With all the Diabl-esque titles recently being released in the form of downloadable on XBLA and PSN, is it worth it now a days to pay full retail price to get what some would call the same content for a quarter of the price?

So far, I am going to have to go with yes. Admittedly, if you are not sure which character you are going to play as, this may be the toughest decision made in this game. I decided to play through as Anjali, you know since she is a vixen, good with a staff, and likes to play with fire. The gameplay was smooth and I do not recall coming across any bugs or glitches in my single player play through. The multiplayer is rather hit or miss, depending who you are playing with. If you are playing with friends that have the same goals and intentions you will really enjoy the coop gameplay. If you do not play online, you will not miss the coop as you can play couch coop, which played really well, and if you are the type that would rather play with yourself, you will get assistance from NPC's throughout the story. The graphics look great and think the environment design along with the character animations, and fluidity when things get hectic is what makes the game play so well in comparison to others out there in the same genre. There really isn't much in the way of load times that I noticed, not enough to deter playing like that which I encountered during another recent review, which may mostly be due to the installation of the game to the hard drive on the PlayStation 3.

Now to the other side of the online coop gameplay and a couple other issues encountered. There are two ways to play online coop, join a match or have others join you game, I have been focusing on having others join me until I have my character build figured out. Playing with strangers runs a huge risk of encountering some...well, for lack of a better word, jerks. Whether speeding through areas they have played through already, messing with your loot stash, or lack of support, it is bound to happen here and there, but as I said before, it is hit or miss. It is a large world in this land of Ehb, but is rather linear in terms of maps, Where in a similar title, Sacred 2, It was an open world environment, not a big issue, just less exploration than I would have thought. Also, this is an Obsidian titles, which means there are decisions to be made, you know, those of us that have played such titles as Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and Knights of the Old Republic Dos, but I felt as if your decisions didn't impact the story as much, making morale questions easier to answer.

I am happy the Dungeon Siege III released on a console. The high def dungeon crawling typically seen on handhelds, has been really trying to breakthrough as of recently, and though most are fun though without multiplayer, or have multiplayer with numerous bugs, this will hopefully bring new life to the genre so we can see Diablo III on consoles. Being a newcomer to the Dungeon Siege series, I didn't feel lost at all playing through the third entry, and had enough fun to go back and start a new character, so there is a lot of replay value here, doubt I will try all four, but will enjoy the looting and multiplayer for as far as I get.

Deus Ex to hit stores this Summer

Square Enix has recently announced that their upcoming sequel to one of their most popular franchises, Deus Ex, will be releasing on August 23, 2011 with Human Revolution. Fans of the series will be able to purchase an Augmented Edition which will include a 44 minute, making of DVD, soundtrack, comic, and art book. Pre orders will also include gameplay enhancements, such as weapons, upgrades, missions, and credits.

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll | Review

Synopsis: Koei has just provided us with their newest title from game developer Omega Force, Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll, and of course we got our hands on a review copy to give our impressions of playthrough. The premise of the game is based on a prophecy that the king will be slain by his offspring and to top it off, the belief that the continent of Vyashion was created by the god Notoon is not shared by all its inhabitants, leading to a failure of a unified society. Your role is to control three characters, a warrior, a wizard, and an assassin on the fly to defeat enemies and ultimately the evil King Balor. Confused yet? Well don’t be as I am here to break it down and see if this story holds up through the course of the game.

Praise: I must admit that I had no idea what I was getting into with this game and turns out it has a strange effect on me and time as I have yet to play it less than two hours at a time, hell, the first night I threw this game in, I spent four hours playing in one sitting, saying just one more quest numerous times. The gameplay is great, being a fast paced hack and slash, you are able to map two sets of three skills that you can change on the fly on top of being able to change your playable character on the fly. What this means is that you can set up some devastating combos once familiar with the controls. Souls of Zill O’ll has some RPG elements that keep you playing, such as a wide array of weapons, upgradeable skills, and more quests than you can shake a stick at. The method to my madness in this game was to take on as many quests as possible then grinding through them all before going back to town and cashing in on my rewards. The graphics are good, but I feel the strongest part behind the visuals is that regardless to the amount of enemies I had on screen, I did not experience any slowdown.

Gripes: The story started out strong and fizzled out just a couple hours into the story. I still focused on the main story, but after a while, I found myself fast forwarding through the text on side missions along with the gossip in taverns. Being that there are three characters, it seems like it would have been possible to make this a three person online coop game for those wanting to play socially, eliminating the ability to switch on the fly. One thing I quickly noticed was that I was backtracking to a lot to places I had previously been to in order complete fetch and rescue missions. The closest comparison in which I can think of is Final Fantasy Tactics, where you take on new quests in places that you have already been to numerous times. The learning curve also takes a while, between two and three hours, to get comfortable with as you actively use every button on the controller, sometimes with little to no opportunity for much thought and the character development is relatively deep, with hundreds of options as to how to upgrade and focus on specific skills.

Overall, I am having a blast with this solid action RPG and don’t see it growing old for a while. I do wish I could play it in smaller amounts to prevent playing through it before the weekend, but is that really a bad thing? Though this is not a full-fledged RPG, the closest game I can relate this to would be what Final Fantasy XIII should have been in terms of action and gameplay along Final Fantasy Tactics in regards to the towns, where you don’t actually move around, but have a list of places to go to for gossip, spells, weapons, and quests. Now please excuse me while I go back to mad questing. Well done Tecmo Koei, as I have gone from not liking your action games, to now looking forward to what is next after Fist of the North Star and now Trinity.

Mashbuttons.com gives Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll an 8 out of 10.

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll is available now for the Playstation 3.

Two World II| Review

Synopsis: Welcome to the sequel of sequels, SouthPeak Games’ Two Worlds II has just released and our good buddies sent us a review copy to do our bidding in the world of Antaloor with the first big RPG of 2011. The story takes place shortly after the final events of the first entry, but this time around you can expect completely revamped combat, new enemies, enhanced AI, along with better voice overs and character animations made possible by a new gaming engine to help make the sequel stand out above and beyond the original. So it is time to break the chains, escape the dungeon with an Orc rescue team, and save your sister from Gandohar’s evil grasp…after you read through the review of course!

Praise: I am sure everyone has their own idea about what makes an RPG fun and sure there are some that just think they are lame, but I like RPG’s mainly for the character development and long play time without growing repetitive. Well, this has character development down in spades on top being able to choose which spells and skills to enhance on your quest to squash Gandohar, on top of breaking down obsolete weapons to improve equipped weapons and armor. The environments look wonderful along with the cutscenes, and load speeds are one of the most forgiving I have seen in a while. I do have to admit that the outlook of my review was bleak for the first hour due to not seeing everything on the screen and little bugs here and there, but after turning the safe area on to see all of the user interface and learning about how to develop my hero, I was hooked and easily distracted with both poaching in the Savannah and trying to complete all my side quests before continuing with the main quest.

Gripes: As much as I am a fan of the RPG genre, there are still many things that get to me every time, starting with the voice acting. It could have used some work as it was lacking depth, but the writing of the story and humor is what kept me from skipping the dialogue sequences to get me back in the action faster. Another issue I had was with the map, it would be a lot easier to navigate if I was able to zoom in further, especially in crowded cities. Some of the missions felt repetitious, but the payoff with experience is rather satisfying making it so that it doesn't take too long to level up and beef up your hero. Lastly, I felt like more of a tutorial was needed or at least better descriptions in the interface as there are a LOT of things that you can do on the fly to your character and even after doing it four and five times an hour, I still felt like is was not doing something right or completely missing out on more stuff to do with my items and equipment.

Overall, it has been a great experience with this title and though I was a bit hesitant to give this title a chance due to the negative stigma behind the first entry. However, this is a great example of a developer listening to what was wrong with the first try and making it completely bad ass to get us to shut up and lose our social lives. Now it is time for me to get back to my quests, side quests, and my daily poop flinging baboon slaying fix. Hey, it is not unethical treatments if those bastards started it, right?

Mashbuttons.com gives Two World II an 8 out of 10.

Two World II is available now for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Fable III | Review

Synopsis: What kind of ruler will you be? Fable III will help you with your little identity crisis whether you are a favored leader or a hated overlord. The third entry in the Fable series takes you back to the kingdom of Albion, fifty years after the events of Fable II. The land is in the middle of an industrial revolution and the citizens are in an uproar regarding how your brother, Logan, is acting as king. To go along with the high production value of this title, such stars as Simon Pegg, Sir Ben Kingsley, and last but certainly not least, John Cleese have lent their voices to the title adding that blockbuster touch. Like Fables past, you will be faced with a number of difficult decisions that will ultimately effect who will be your friends or enemies, but this time around comes online coop, so enough with what this title has to offer and let’s get down to brass tacks.

Praise: To start, the folks at Lionhead did a great job at making Albion a beautiful kingdom, with many sites and environments to take in on your journey. The voice acting is also very fitting to the characters and everyone loves John Cleese advising you on what to do. I had previous tried Fable 1 and 2 and while both were good games, I just couldn’t really get into the games, but with Fable 3 I was hooked just after a couple hours, mostly by the story, choices, and character progression. The choices you have to make is probably the best part of my playthrough as I actually had to put thought into the decisions and try to weigh the outcomes, at times wishing I could go back and do things differently. The online coop is easy to get into allowing the players to do quests together, get married, have children, trade items, and become business partners for more funds.

Gripes: I came across some issues during my playthrough that need to be addressed in the review, starting with the video cut scenes as they seemed to be blurry and choppy at times playing on an HDTV. There is also a number of “filler” quests in which you have to earn guild seals to progress the storyline which tended to be dull and tedious at time. After playing online with a few different people, I had noticed that the online aspect was rather buggy, as my character’s would stop moving, so it seemed like I would just float through Albion without motions and would tend to end up in loading screens at random times. Lastly, I found the story and gameplay encountered amazing on my quest to confront the tyrannical king, but without giving away any spoilers, felt that the rest of the game slowed way down and l just wanted to complete the game.

Overall, Fable III is an engrossing good time, with great replay value as immediately after completing my playthrough, as the do-gooder everyone liked and keeping promises made, I wanted to go back and play as the tyrant to see how the story differs. Whether you are new to the series or a die-hard fan, there is enough background to not be lost as to what is going on in this newest entry. Also, there is a lot of dry and subtle humor to keep you smiling throughout the 20 plus hours it takes to play through the story.

Mashbuttons.com gives Fable III a 8 out of 10.

Fable III is available now for the Xbox 360 and PC.

ArcaniA trailer from GamesCom full of oh so pretty cut scenes

I am new to the mid evil, action RPG genre, but after playing Risen, Divinity II, Dragon Age, and Oblivion, it is easy to see how so many can spend hundreds of hours on these type of game. Well the latest appears to be ArcaniA-Gothic 4. which is due to be released in October, and watching the trailers, I hope the gameplay is as good as the cut scenes, should I be holding my breath on this?

Monster Hunter Tri | Review

Synopsis: The Monster Hunter franchise has just found its way to the Wii with their recent release of Monster Hunter Tri, which has already been available for a while overseas, but now all of us stateside get our chance to become a hunter. Capcom has provided us with a review copy of the title along with the new Classic Pro controller so that you, our devoted viewers will hear exactly what all this hype is really about. Monster Hunter Tri is an action RPG, where gameplay is based on quests where you, the hunter, kill monsters on land and sea to develop your character and rebuild a small island city. Players have the ability to use the remote and nunchuk, classic remote, or the new classic pro controller along with the ability to save their hunter to the remote so that you can take your hunter with you to play on other Wii consoles. To add to the gameplay, available modes are single player with AI controlled characters named ChaCha, two player coop arena battles, and four player online hunting.

Praise: This is not my first experience with the Monster Hunter franchise, however, my experience with the early PSP iterations were rather mediocre in my opinion and hard to get into. It seems Capcom has resolved this issue to newcomers with a user friendly tutorial that is given to the player throughout gameplay rather than an hour of text all at once. The graphics of the monsters and environments are stunning for the Wii and looks like the developer is really trying to push the console to its limits, also the cinematic are stunning, making me forget that I am playing a game on the Wii, especially with the classic pro controller. Character development is rather in depth from creating your own unique hunter when starting a new game to seeing how armor and weapons change using resources from monsters killed to increase your weapon and armor statistics. One thing that made me realize Capcom was not messing around in the development of this title was that as the player progresses through the story, not only do the monsters develop and use strategy by hiding and ganging up on your hunter, but also the city you are helping progresses and grows with the resources you provide.

Gripes: While this game was not without flaws, there were a few issues encountered shortly after starting the story, how much these issues take away from the experience depends on what you focus on, so here comes what I have encountered after ten plus hours of gameplay. My biggest issue was the control while attacking, as you cannot change the direction of your attack mid combo, so if the monster you are attacking moves; you are then just swinging at air. Depending on the weapon used, this could lead to your unfortunate demise. I have not spent any time with the two player arena battles, but was able to play the four player online hunting and experienced the game freezing once out of the handful of times in which I was online. Lastly, playing this title on an HD television, I noticed that the text was blurry. Though the graphics are great for a Wii, I have heard from others with this title that playing on a standard definition TV does not experience this issue.

Overall, fans of the series will like all that this title has to offer and newcomers that are fans of action RPG titles with mass amounts of character development and grinding will feel at home with this title. The ability to save your hunter to your remote will prove to those around you how geek you really are carrying around your remote with you in hopes to get your hunt on the go. Enough of this review, I am now off to get my hunt on until if have to set it aside for my next title to review. Oh and by the way, lots of replay value as you can create multiple characters to master the ten plus weapon classes. Enjoy!

Mashbuttons.com gives Monster Hunter Tri a 9 out of 10.

Monster Hunter Tri is available now for the Nintendo Wii.

Ragnarok DS | Review

Synopsis: The folks over at XSEED wanted to make sure I was nice and busy over the weekend; luckily the title they sent us to review was Ragnarok DS, so I was able to take it with me. Ragnarok DS is based on the MMO title Ragnarok Online and boasts the same gameplay and customization to those who need their fix on the go. You take on the role of Ales, who is looking to make name for himself as an adventurer and eventually starting his own guild. On this path, you encounter dungeons, monsters, heroines in distress, and other party members who help your young adventurer on his unpredictable path. Ragnarok DS introduces a Flexible Character Development System, which allows the player to earn both status and skill points with each level increase to customize character attributes along with skills acquired through the numerous job classes. Weapons and armor are fully customizable and upgradeable by a blacksmith and or effect cards acquired from fallen enemies. Wireless multiplayer is also available via DS Wireless Play or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, allowing you to team up with two other players to take on the 50 floors of the Tower of Mirages.

Praise: Ragnarok has all the features that you would see in what seems to be a saturated RPG genre for the Nintendo DS. So what sets it apart? Well, there are a number of things through the ten plus hours put in so far, that made me feel that this game was less about constant grinding but more about making your character the baddest in the land. First off, the characters have a lot of personality and aren’t the generic NPC’s seen in similar titles and you are able to adjust their passive actions as needed throughout gameplay. Leveling and grinding is not too tedious as leveling up happens at a good steady rate, without having to grind for hours just to go up a level. Various job classes allow you to make your own unique character, focusing on the skills that suit your play style without the difficulty of trying to figure out new skills and compatible equipment. As far as story goes, it is not the best I have encountered but is solid enough to proceed through and see the ultimate fate of your party. While the story is pretty linear, there are a number of side quests to take on should you want to help those in need and level up without the tedious grinding, this also provides you with effect cards to customize weapons which you WILL spend quite a bit of time doing trying to optimize your party’s full potential.

Gripes: Like most RPG titles or any other game for that matter, there are things that take away from the gameplay and this is no exception. The opening dialogue/tutorial for Ragnarok DS is long and slow, taking about an hour to completely get through, but once you get past the first hour, your patience will be rewarded with all the RPG goodness you originally purchased this title for. The actions are controlled strictly by the stylus, with slashing, circling, and taping enemies to attack and unleash spells. Some may prefer this type of gameplay, but it would start to get uncomfortable holding the DS after extended amounts of play time. Lastly, trying to find where I needed to go to complete missions, and trying to go off of the descriptions, such as head west, really wasn’t helpful, but I would eventually find my destination.

Overall, Ragnarok DS is a deep action RPG which does provide a lot of missions, side missions, and character customization to any fan of the genre. I have not played Ragnarok Online for the PC, so unfortunately I cannot compare it to the original, but after playing this version of Ragnarok, it is easy to see how it has over three million users in the United States alone.

Mashbuttons.com gives Ragnarok DS 7.5 out of 10.

Ragnarok DS is available now for the Nintendo DS.

April is NIERly here

Square Enix has announced that their upcoming title, NIER, will be released globally for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 23rd. NIER is an action-RPG, placing the player in the role of protagonist, huge shocker there! Using the obligatory magic, swords, and armor, Nier will take on waves of enemies and huge bosses to discover a cure for his daughter, infected with the Black Scrawl disease. Additional game features are listed as follows:

• The new action RPG from Square Enix: NIER, the newest franchise from RPG masters Square Enix, delivers unique and memorable characters, intense action-packed battles, explosive magic and storytelling..

• Unbelievable Story Twists and Reveals: Immerse in an amazingly intricate storyline set in a world plagued by human anguish, buried secrets and a ravaging disease. With plot twists hiding around every corner, NIER’s story needs to be seen to be believed.

• RPG-Style Gameplay Injected With Action-Packed Combat: Battle ferocious and mysterious enemies by combining proven RPG-style gameplay, such as magic, character development and faithful allies, with action-focused explosive swordplay and combat.

• Powerful Magical Abilities: When his sword isn’t enough, Nier can call on a remarkable array of stylish and powerful spells to augment his combat moves and overcome adversaries. As players progress, upgraded spells will help defeat ever-more-deadly enemies.

• Brutal Combat Moves: Face off against evil creatures and unleash brutal combat moves along with devastating combo attacks. Unlock an arsenal of devastating weapons, each with its own design and attack style.

• Formidable Allies: Travel with a dynamic party of allies and do battle against monstrous giants as a powerful and united party.

• An Imaginative and Stunning World: Travel across an unforgettable world filled with varied landscapes featuring the hauntingly familiar remains of modern society.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers | Review

Synopsis: Square Enix is the latest company to fill our mailbox with a review title, this time for the Wii, in the form of a really, really long title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. The recent entry to the Final Fantasy franchise comes to fans in the form of an Action RPG, taking on the role of Layle, a mercenary that is a crystal bearer, which possesses magical abilities that is looked down on by the public. The Crystal Bearers is the first Final Fantasy game that has been developed exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, incorporating motion-driven gameplay, intuitive controls, and open interactive environments. The crystal bearer powers help the player take on enemies, move objects, and navigate through the interactive world. With an extra remote, spectators can jump in and help out during special areas of the game.

Praise: Finally, a Final Fantasy title I can play on a console rather than on the Nintendo DSi and is not a remake. The Crystal Bearers is different from the previous entries that were predominately turn based but still includes most of the elements that make Final Fantasy stand out from other RPG titles. The game starts with an action sequence and then the game’s story truly takes off, while there is still traveling and fights against familiar and new enemies, the boss fights and interactive story sequences had me hooked. The animated cut scenes looked amazing and were exactly what I would expect from a Final Fantasy game, full of action, airships, and a conflicted main character teamed up with a band of misfits. The gameplay is more of a real time action game, so rather than waiting to attack, you use the remote to aim at, pick up, and throw enemies OR use objects to throw at enemies, which may use less strategy than playing the typical jRPG, but added more of a challenge. While the story is great and the soundtrack being equally good, there are also more than three hundred medals to achieve for those looking to discover and complete all that the game has to offer.

Gripes: The first thing that I noticed missing from this game is the inability to level your character up, learn new abilities, and equip weapons, however there are three accessory slots to equip items made from the loot of your fallen enemies. The camera controls haunt the player throughout the entire game, as the player has to use the directional pad on the remote and it is awkward when you are mid fight using the “B” button to lock onto and throw baddies while trying to adjust the camera. Navigating to the next point of interest can be difficult at times with the map available in the menu screen being of little help, if the map was a little more detailed or an indicator to help guide you to the next location, there would have been a lot less time spent looking for where I had to go next. Lastly, the length of the game was a lot shorter than previous Final Fantasy and Crystal Chronicle titles, being that it took just shy of ten hours to complete, and that was with getting lost and not trying to complete my medal collection.

Overall, The Crystal Bearers was a fun game with a good story, memorable characters, and unique gameplay. Though it was not what I expected from a Final Fantasy title in regards to the style of gameplay, I do not feel that this takes away from the experience, as it is a fresh take on the series. It takes a little bit of time to get used to, but once you get the controls, the game becomes enjoyable and extremely interactive, from navigation and battles to the cut scenes. Though there is not a lot of replay value, but I still felt this title was a solid entry to the Final Fantasy series pleasing both die hard fans and newcomers to the Final Fantasy universe.

Mashbuttons.com gives Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers a 8 out of 10

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is available now on the Nintendo Wii.

Dragon Age Origins | Review

Synopsis: BioWare has recently released their newest RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a review copy to see if it lives up to the hype. You take on the role of a Grey Warden, part of an ancient order of guardians that have defended the lands of Ferelden for centuries. Your mission as one of the last Gray Wardens, is to hunt down the general that betrayed the Wardens and King in battle and bring him to justice. Dragon Age takes place in an enormous world, which BioWare claims takes over 80 hours to fully explore, while your decisions made throughout the game determine the outcome of how the story is to play out. Like Mass Effect and previous entries from this developer, you are able to customize your character before beginning your quest and throughout gameplay and have the ability to choose between multiple races and classes you would like your character to be.

Praise: The story in this title is phenomenal, and how the story plays out based on decisions made is nothing less than expected from anyone that has played any of BioWare’s previous titles. The bond formed between almost all of the NPC’s is immediate, whether you feel they would be a strong asset to your party or you think they should die for their actions. The first couple hours of the game moves at a nice pace to get the player familiar with controls, equipping the right armor and weapons, leveling up your character, and fighting in battle. Enemies and bosses do not feel generic as the first time I encounter a dragon or orc, I played it extremely safe and took the battle slowly, after almost immediately being taken out for rushing into battle. Each enemy type seems unique and sometimes incredibly powerful, and sometimes even join your party if you feel the need to spare them. The ability to choose the members in your party adds to the gameplay, as each character has different abilities and interact differently through the story and the player has the ability to take the role of each character at any time during battle and customize individually to your liking.

Gripes: Unfortunately, as much as I enjoy anything BioWare, I noticed a couple things that bothered me throughout the many, many hours invested to Dragon Age. The first was the graphics, and I know graphics are not normally an issue when there is a solid story and fun gameplay, but at times it seemed like I was playing on the first gen Xbox. Dialogue was another quirk that got to me at times, when you interact with some characters, you don’t realize the amount of time spent in conversation, however, with others, I noticed myself skipping through what was being said at times, hoping to get into the next battle. Lastly, and probably the smallest issue, is probably the interface, mainly because it takes some getting used to, but even after hours of use and practice, I was still stumbling through the “wheel” trying to find that specific potion or spell.

Overall, Dragon Age is a fun game that will get you engrossed into the story, battles, and characters, so well that you won’t realized 15 hours was spent “casually” playing over the weekend. BioWare did a great job targeting fans of the RPG, fantasy, and action genres, leaving few that would not enjoy playing through this title. With the story evolving based on decisions made and the character chosen from the start, this title provides large amounts of replay value.

Mashbuttons.com gives Dragon Age Origins an 8 out of 10.

Dragon Age Origins is available now for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC

Pre order incentives is the new black, this time with Divinity II

It seems like offering exclusive weapons and/or armor is the new thing to do for promoting the pre-order of an upcoming release. This announcement is regarding the new action-RPG from cdv Software Entertainment, Divinity II. Those who pre-order this title will receive the Blood Echelon armor and claymore. Divinity II is a sequel to Divine Divinity, sending the player to a wide open world with the task of becoming a Dragon Knight. Divinity II is scheduled to be released on January 5th, 2010 for the Xbox 360.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 | Review

Synopsis: The sequel to the action-RPG Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is finally here and has some big shoes to fill as its predecessor that was released in 2006 sold four million copies worldwide, making it the best Marvel super hero game of all time. This title’s storyline puts the player in the middle of the popular Marvel civil war conflict, allowing the player to choose between the pro or anti registration sides, which in turn affects the enemies battled, missions accomplished, and characters unlocked throughout the game. Ultimate Alliance 2 sports an impressive roster of 24 playable characters to make up your four person team that can be changed throughout the game. Coop gameplay is available both on and off line, supporting up to four players. Fusing of superhero powers is probably the biggest new feature to the game, allowing the player to combine two character’s powers for a devastating attack, and the large roster of characters, makes for 250 different fusions. So will Ultimate Alliance 2 be able to fill these extraordinarily big shoes?

Praise: Most of the new features fix the little nuances most people had with the original. The best examples of this would have to be the ability to change your team members from the pause menu as opposed to waiting for the next save point. The graphics also appear to be overhauled as there is a lot more detail to the characters and environments. Like the originator, the character line up is amazing, there are some characters I wanted to appear in the sequel that were in the first and some new characters that I did not care for, but the non playable characters brought into the story helped me forget any issues I may have had. Character fusions, the newest and largest feature added to the title, are visually pretty and extremely helpful, when you are vastly outnumbered and the outlook is bleak.

Gripes: The camera control is not so forgiving, with the camera focused closer to the characters, there is more a need to move the camera, but if you are in narrow corridors, the camera is locked without the ability to change views. There are times where there are too many people on the screen at once, in these cases the fusions come in handy, but if you do not have any fusion attacks available, you are stuck mashing buttons in hopes you are attacking the enemy. Lastly, there is a cheat code to unlock the characters and costumes, but be forewarned that you cannot save your game if you chose to enable this cheat, yes, I did learn the hard way.

Overall, Activision did a great job at fixing most of the issues from the original when making this hard hitting sequel and added the right amount of new features without taking away from what worked in the first go round. With the ability to choose between pro or anti registration, I will be going back to play through the game again, but for now, I am hoping for some downloadable characters to quench my superhero gaming itch.

Mashbuttons.com gives Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 an 8 out of 10.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is available now for the Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and 3, DS, PSP, and the Wii.