Bioware and Electronic Arts have been tantalizing gamers with vague offers of special bonuses if players pre-order Dragon Age II. First was a new quest and companion if you ordered by January 11. But, if you missed that cut off date, you can still get some free stuff if you order the game between now and its release date of March 8th.
Starcraft II is improved yet again with the latest patch from Blizzard. Protoss players will be quite happy with Starcraft II Version 1.2, as many of the Protoss balancing has been changed in their favor. Specifically, the Observer costs less, and the build times for Phoenixes and Hallucinations are shorter. Protoss aren’t the only ones to miss out, though, as Blizzard has finally included player created chat channels, bringing Starcraft II in line with it’s 1998 predecessor. Besides that, there are the standard bug fixes of course, but there are also two new leagues; the Master and Grand Master League. The Master league has the top players from every region, while the Grand Master league has the top 200 players in the world. Kudos to you if you can make it in there. Here’s the exact list of changes if that’s your thing:
Ragner Tonrquist is highly revered among fans of adventure games. He was the designer behind The Longest Journey; widely regarded as the finest example of the point ‘n’ click adventure genre. Tornquist went on to write for that game’s sequel, Dreamfall; and his next game is the MMO The Secret world, which will be published by Electronic arts. The news about the publisher was just announced, but the existence of The Secret World has been known for close to four years.
The long-delayed adventure game Gray Matter finally has a North American publisher, Viva Media. Although the game has already been released in Europe, until now the possibility of it coming to America was uncertain.
Gray Matter was written and designed by Jane Jensen, the creator of the hugely popular Gabriel Knight series which defined the adventure genre for much of the nineties.
Steampowered.com has so many sales throughout the year that, frankly, it’s news when they DON’T have something on sale. Since January third, we haven’t heard a peep out of Steam regarding any sales. The rest of the online retailers and digital distributors are back to their usual pattern, though, so let’s take a look at what’s on sale for Tuesday January 11th
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was one of the best multiplayer first-person shooter games to be released in 2010. The amazing sound design, the destructible environments and the intense teamwork contributed to a finely polished product that really emulated a living, changing battlefield. The range of tactical options available to each class allowed players to plan tactics and work together as a finely tuned machine. The depth of the replay factor added to the fun of the title, and so when I heard that a legacy of the Battlefield series was being reborn in the framework of Bad Company 2, I was excited and salivating for what could be. Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam was released in mid-December, and while it comes with some quirks that drag the game’s cohesion down a little, it shines as an expertly-crafted expansion that introduces new weapons, maps and a refreshing revisit to the bloody rice paddies of ‘Nam.
THQ has just announced a collector’s edition for it’s upcoming RTS, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II Retribution, as well as six “race packs”. The collector’s edition will allow you to get all the bonus items from each race pack, six race art cards, a poster, and a collector’s box. The more interesting side to this story, though, are the “race packs”. Fans of a race can purchase one of the six race packs, but only through digital retailers and pre-order. Each race pack ha…
Back in the distant past of 2010, Amazon had a non-stop string of sales ranging from mid November’s “Prelude to Black Friday” all the way up to the “Seventeen Days of Christmas” sale. Since the new year started, Amazon hasn’t had many good PC games sales, which spares us the awful themes, but means that we’ve been paying full price for our games. Today (And only today, Sunday the 9th), they’re making up for the tepid sales by selling Toms Clancy’s HAWX for a mere $5.44.
If you’ve grown tired of fantasy and scifi-themed MMOs, you can now try a new strategy MMO about pirates. Picaroon is the latest game by UK Developer Nicetech who previously brought us the long-running space strategy game Time of Defiance. Their new game is set in a Waterworld-esque future where dry land is rare, and humanity battles to control the remaining islands.
For the last month or so, Electronic Arts, and game retailers have been encouraging consumers to pre-order the Dragon Age 2 Signature Edition, by promising “$20 of Additional Value”. The nature of this extra content has been vague, only saying it will include a bonus character and missions. Today EA explained just who this new character will be and what the additional missions will involve.
