dragon-age-origins posts

Fans of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins have already been able to download some extra content for the fantasy RPG. Today BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts announced plans to offer up another extra downloadable quest for the game. The DLC, titled Return to Ostagar, is due for release "this holiday season". That most likely means it will be available for download before the end of 2009.

The new quest will return players "to the fateful battleground in Ostagar" where they will "discover King Cailan's top-secret political agenda." Wow. Sounds a little bit like our world has entered into BioWare's fantasy kingdom. The DLC will cost 400 "BioWare points" (about $5) to download. We don't like the idea of purchasing "BioWare points" to download extra content but . . .oh well.

The largest game retailer in the US, GameStop, reported its latest financial results today and they are mostly on the higher side. For its third fiscal quarter that ended on October 31, the retailer had $1.83 billion in revenues, up from $1.70 billion from the same period a year ago. Profits were $52.2 million, up from $46.7 million from the same period a year ago.

Of course those numbers don't include game sales from this month where some of the biggest releases of the year like Dragon Age Origins, Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 will surely increase sales even more at the retailer. Indeed GameStop states in its press release, " . . . we expect a solid fourth quarter in sales and earnings." We would think so, too.

Like it or not, Spike TV's annual telecast of the Video Game Awards is the highest profile award ceremony that the games industry has. Today the cable TV network revealed the nominees for the 2009 edition of the awards with the winners, as voted by the fans on the show's official web site, to be named as part of their live ceremony on Saturday, December 12.

The "Best PC Game" category has four choices this year; EA's people sim sequel The Sims 3, BioWare's RPG Dragon Age: Origins, Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 and . . . Popcap's casual tower defense game Plants vs Zombies which we think is a good if somewhat out of the box choice. Left 4 Dead 2 is also one of the nominees for Game of the Year along with other games released for the PC like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2. Assassin's Creed 2 was also nominated in that category but won't be released for the PC until 2010. You can check out all the nominees in the various categories and vote for your picks now (and by the way, we were scratching our heads about Borderlands being put into the "Best RPG" category, too).

This minor patch for Dragon Age: Origins addresses a number of issues and makes some tweaks to gameplay stats. Continue reading after the jump for a list of changes.

Download Dragon Age: Origins v1.01b Patch (15 MB)
Download Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator (318 MB)
Check out all Dragon Age: Origins downloads

So much for all the talk about boycotts against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's PC port. The Infinity Ward-developed shooter is firmly on top of this week's latest top 10 best selling games (according to revenue) on the Steam download service. Steam is the only place (legally anyway) where one can download and purchase Modern Warfare 2. Other download services like Direct2Drive, Impulse and Gamersgate have decided not to make the game available because they have objected to the game's use of Steamworks's features that are required for the PC version.

Valve's zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2, due to be unlocked at midnight Eastern time tonight on Steam, took the number two sales spot this week. Dragon Age: Origins' regular edition and deluxe edition took the third and fourth spot while Borderlands continues to sell well in fifth position.

1. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
2. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
3. Dragon Age Origins - BioWare/EA
4. Dragon Age Origins Digital Deluxe Edition - BioWare/EA
5. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
6. Overlord Complete Pack - Triumph Studios/Codemasters
7. Torchlight - Runic Games
8. Crysis Maximum Edition - Crytek/EA
9. Football Manager 2010 - Sega
10. Mass Effect - BioWare/EA

Dragon Age: Origins has already made a mark in terms of its official downloadable content with publisher Electronic Arts stating that the new fantasy RPG has already generated over $1 million in revenue from its current DLC offerings. Now comes word that the new issue of PC Gamer magazine, now on newsstands, has an exclusive Dragon Age: Origins level made by the BioWare team on its magazine DVD.

The mini-campaign is titled A Tale Of Orzammer and according to a post on the game's message boards by BioWare's David Sims, " . . . .this is a short stand-alone adventure, not an expansion of the main game." He added, "It's just something put together in collaboration with the magazine as an example of the kind of content that can be made using the toolset." So don't expect this mini-campaign to have a lot of polish but it's still something fairly unique if you are a Dragon Age: Origins completist.

We are just two weeks away from the biggest shopping day of the year but Black Friday sales seem to pop up at GoGamer.com all the time. Their latest (and still misnamed) 48 Hour Madness sale goes on from now until 3 am Eastern time on Tuesday.

Among the games on sale this time are the more recent games like Borderlands for $36.90 and Dragon Age: Origins for $42.90. The summer released game Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is on sale for $19.90 while Blood Bowl can be bought for $27.90. There's also the ultra-cheap games such as Kings Bounty: The Legend for $9.90 and NBA 2K10 for $14.90.

Update: GoGamer.com now has an even bigger selection of games on sale which includes Left 4 Dead 2 for just $39.90

Electronic Arts needs some good news to offset the word that 1,500 of their team members will be laid off by March 2010. They got it with the release of Dragon Age: Origins, the recently released RPG from their BioWare studio. While the game has only been available for just over a week, it looks like their downloadable content has been popular so far.

Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference (the audio replay can be heard at EA's investor site), EA's executive vice president and CFO Eric Brown stated that the game's DLC have generated "well past $1 million" in revenues. BioWare has already stated they have long term plans for more downloadable content for the game.

The newest opus from famed developer BioWare is the dark fantasy role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins. This massive game features a story filled with blood, violence and sex topped with BioWare's signature morality system, where players have the option to become saints or ruthless tyrants. Players take the role a newly recruited Grey Warden, an elite group of individuals charged with the responsibility of protecting the world from a catastrophic event called the Blight, which is when evil darkspawn creatures gather together into a massive army under the direction of an arch-demon to ravage the world. Similar to the Spectres from Mass Effect, BioWare's sci-fi role-playing counterpart, Grey Wardens are highly respected and their jurisdiction stretches across all the lands. Their sole purpose is to recruit from all walks of life and do whatever it takes to stop the Blight.

Check the Dragon Age: Origins downloads

BioWare goes in-depth on the combat system of Dragon Age: Origins. Not only does it offer the breadth of control players need to tactically position and use their characters. Combat also works to help define the game as a visceral, dark and mature fantasy role-playing game.

Download HD Dragon Age: Origins 'Designing Combat' Developer Diary HD (331 MB)
Check out all Dragon Age: Origins downloads