Reviews: Dragon Age Origins - DLCs & Expansion Pack

Dragon Age: Origins - All Download Content and Expansion Packs
EA, Bioware
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Dragon Age Origins is probably the best RPG game available on the market right now and while you can play the main disc over and over again for multiple endings and different game play experiences, it’s still nice to know that there is add-on content available for the game. Currently you can download 2 new quests, 1 expansion pack and 2 item packs for the game and I’ve reviewed them all to save you from wasting some good coin on unworthy content.

Dragon Age Origins: The Stone Prisoner
Downloadable Content

This downloadable quest was available as a free extra when you purchased the initial game, so this review is really more for those who buy a used copy of the game. The Stone Prisoner starts with an encounter with a merchant who gives you a control rod for a Golem and information on where he got the rod. Following his information, you arrive in a small town which is under a Darkspawn attack and there you find the rod’s matching broken stone golem, and its former owner’s son in need of much help. Once you complete the son’s mission, you will walk away with the key to a new party member, a stone golem named Shale.

While the main quest of The Stone Prisoner will only take you a couple of hours to complete, the new character and items you gain are quite worth the money spent on the download. Not only do you get a new powerful ally who uses crystals as armor and weapons but you will gain new dialog with this character and eventually a new companion quest which is both funny and enlightening.

Honestly even if this content hadn’t been free with my game purchase, I would have purchased it anyway because Shale alone is worth the spending the all those points. If I had to recommend any download quest as your first, this would be it.

Buy it!

Dragon Age Origins: Return to Ostagar
Downloadable Content

Dragon Age Origins: Return to Ostagar was the first real download made available for purchase after the release of the game. The add-on content was setup as a quest to find the body of King Cailan and Duncan as well as important documents but what the quest really turned out was a poor excuse to get King Cailan’s armor. You end up battling random Darkspawn in the snow for a bunch of armor pieces that aren’t even worth the time unless you decide to download this quest early on in your travels. The rest of the quest is just fluff as far as I’m concerned because even though you manage to find and give final rights to King Cailan, the developers left out finding Duncan’s body which to me should have meant way more to my characters. Sure, you get to slay the ogre that killed him and Cailan but who cares ... I wanted to lay Duncan’s body to rest as well.

The quest is just too short and completely lacking any good items to make it a worthwhile download. Basically this quest was so useless to me when I downloaded it at the end of my main game that I could compare it to the horse armor download for Oblivion, so unless you are really obsessed with having every download available from this game, I would avoid this add-on like the plague.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Awakenings
Downloadable Content or Purchase as Hard Disc

I would think that any game that starts you off naked is probably not a good sign. Dragon Age Origins: Awakening was the first true expansion to Dragon Age Origins. Available both as a download or hard disc purchase, Awakening offered a new story, new characters and a whole new land to go killing in. Playing as either your previous Dragon Age Origins character (possibly resurrected) or as a new Grey Warden from Orlais, you arrive at Virgil’s Keep in Amaranthine as the new Grey Warden commander, just as the keep is being attacked by Darkspawn. Once the stronghold is retaken, you discover the Darkspawn are different than before: they are intelligent and split into two feuding factions. With this new information, you must quickly rebuild the Grey Wardens’ defences and defeat the Darkspawn before they destroy everything.

While I can’t say this expansion was a horrible follow-up to the initial game, I can say that it sure as heck wasn’t worth its sticker price. When I spend cash on my games I expect the dollar value to match the game value and if you compare the value of the first game to the value of this game, they don’t match up in the least bit. The first game took me a week to finish roughly and cost $64.99 while the expansion took me 2 days and cost $44.99, so you can see already this expansion isn’t earning its worth. On top of that, they destroyed my favourite part of the first game which was the great characters and their dialog. You get one character in your party from the first game which is Oghren and the rest are all new plus you don’t get to talk to them whenever you choose, only when the game lets you.

There were a couple of new features that made the game a little bit better than the first like the storage chest which would have been handy in the original game and there were some new skills that allowed characters to built up health, stamina, etc. Ultimately I think the storyline is worth a walkthrough if you want to keep saving the world from Darkspawn but I would honestly wait for the price to come down as I feel the expansion is not long or good enough to paid full sticker price for.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Blood Dragon Armor
Downloadable Content

The Blood Dragon Armor was the first item you could purchase for Dragon Age: Origins and it came as a free item with your game purchase. Again this review would be for people who bought a used copy of the game. This armor purchase had a couple of good and bad points about it which made it a 50/50 either way purchase. On the good side, it was a strong armor that once purchased all components could be found easily for sale at the camp and a couple of components were placed in your inventory for free. Also the DLC came with a bonus armor download for Mass Effect 2 which was good because it was like getting two items for one.

But on bad side of things, the armor isn’t useful until later on the game when your characters were strong enough to wear it, so you have to cart the extra two pieces around in your inventory which took up precious room and the armor could only be worn by strong characters so buying the armor for the first time is only a good idea if you have a fighter as your main character, otherwise expect a companion to sport the new goods.

Ultimately I think this armor is really only good as a freebie and I wouldn’t personally have downloaded it even if I had bought Mass Effect 2. But hey, some people are item buyers and I’m just not one of them so if you want to jazz up your characters with hot looking armor, then go for it.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Feast Day Combo Pack
Downloadable Content

Now I know I said I wasn’t an item buyer on a general basis but I can make exceptions if the items help me rule the world as Queen. The Feast Day Combo Pack was released on April Fool’s Day and it was filled with custom gifts and pranks for your companions plus a bunch of mini gifts and pranks. While the custom pranks aren’t exactly useful in my mind unless you are trying to drive everyone in your party away, the custom gifts are extremely useful as were the mini gifts. The custom gifts will give you a 50 point boost with each companion which is some cases is enough to start a flirtation with a character. Add on the mini gifts and you have a guaranteed flawless relationship with any one as long as you don’t do anything huge to tick them off like defile an urn of sacred ashes.

Now both the custom pranks and the gifts are available in separate download packs but you can’t get the mini gifts without buying the prank pack, so honestly you may as well spend the points and buy the combo pack which is cheaper than the two packs combined. It’s worth it just to see all the funny pranks and their effects but just remember to save before you use them.

Buy it!

Holiday Review Guide: Part 1 - Celebrating Christmas in May

[I know I'm posting this late on my own website but these reviews actually did run in the Pulse Niagara before the Holidays, so I'm not completely behind. Besides it cold enough outside in St. Catharines right now that it could damn well snow, so consider this a good list of games to snuggle up with right now until the real summer weather kicks in.]

Assassin’s Creed 2
Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

The time has come for Desmond Miles to return to the animus and jump into the memories of a new assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, in Italy during the Renaissance era. Experience the gripping story behind the murder of Ezio’s family and his journey to uncover the conspiracy behind it.

Ubisoft has raised the bar with an amazing new combat system which evolves with each new weapon, improved enemy A.I and a whole new in-game economy system for easy money making. The running through the recreation of Italy is almost as good as visiting the city in real life and the game has some of the best voice-over work I’ve heard in long time.

If you want to feel the thrill of the chase from your couch, then grab a copy of Assassin’s Creed 2 today.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy this!

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time
Sony Computer Entertainment, Insomniac Games
Available for Playstation 3

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time continues the story from Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty with Clank being kidnapped by Doctor Nefarious and Ratchet & Qwark continuing to search the galaxy for any clues to Clank and Dr. Nefarious’ location. Both our favourite heroes will learn more about their past then they possible could have ever imagined in this fantastic new adventure from Insomniac Games.

New elements in the game include the ability to fly between planets and complete mini games and seek out hidden objects in order to upgrade your abilities and ship. Also the game has new constructo weapons that allow you to customize various elements and it includes a special time pad puzzle system which records multiple holographic images of Clank and then plays them back.

With tons of mini challenges and an exciting story line, this makes a great game to spend all those long, cold winter nights with.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy this!

Borderlands
2K Games, Gearbox Software
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Borderlands is like the Fallout 3 for people with not a lot of time to play videogames but a lot of friends to play them with. Part RPG, part FPS, Borderlands puts you on the planet of Pandora where the last remains of a society once there to mine has all but disappeared. You and the few inhabitants that still remain scavenge for what you can and cling to the legend of the vault which apparently holds a vast alien treasure. You and your team plan to find the vault though under the instruction of a guardian angel – a mysterious woman who only talks to you.

Choose from 4 playable character types and explore the world of Pandora via the main quest and various side missions. You can choose to play solo or join up with 3 other friends at anytime during your campaign for co-op play. Choose to play in your world or theirs. The world of Pandora holds a vast amount of cool weaponry and gadgets to aid you in your mission and you even get to hop into a cool vehicle or two.

The Holidays are time to get together with friends and family and what better way to spend time with your favourite people then riding around in tanks and blowing up skags.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy this!

Left4Dead2
EA, Valve Corporation
Available for Xbox 360 and PC

The outbreak has happened again and this time you are following 4 new survivors in the Southern United States as they fight their way through hordes of zombies in order to make their way to safety. The game is broken down into chapters which can be played solo with A.I team members or with up to 3 other players with co-op mode. You do also have the option to play 4 vs. 4 multiplayer in various maps.

Fans of the Resident Evil series will be out of their element here as zombies move faster and tend to attack in packs. Even on easy I had trouble surviving this game but thankfully your A.I. teammates are great shots, so if you learn to take backseat to the action, you’ll survive to see the next level. This is definitely a nice change to the normal zombie game though and I enjoyed the movie like cinematic scenes and story line.

Left4Dead2 definitely brings new life to the zombie horror survival genre and this is one game you can’t live or unlive without this Holiday season.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy this!

Dragon Age: Origins - Loving the Official Game Soundtrack

So I've been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins, so much so that I think this is clearly my new favorite game of all time. I recently buy all available downloads for the game from the Xbox marketplace and I've even purchased the newest expansion, Awakening which I am working my way through now.

One thing that makes this game so great is the music especially the tune that plays at the very beginning of the game as you're just starting to load up your last save. I wish developers had found more places to insert this tune because you just don't hear it enough. I believe its called "Ferelden at War" or at least this is the closest piece of music I could find on the soundtrack which sounded like what I keep hearing during that load screen. You can hear it at EA.com in their music section. Here you can also purchase the soundtrack if you like. I wish I had the cash to buy this but funds are low and also I couldn't think of a place to play this that wouldn't seem weird. This really isn't car music but I could possibly clean to this stuff.

Death to the dust bunnies!

Review: Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins
EA, Bioware
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

If you’ve been an active RPG player over the past 20 years, then you have probably played a Bioware game at some point or another. As the creators of such amazing titles like Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, Bioware has been the developing team behind the games that dominate a mass portion of your gaming life and now they have another one for us.

Dragon Age: Origins is new Bioware game that has been dominating my life and probably others for the past few months. This dark fantasy game follows a young recruit of the Grey Wardens into the fight of their life against the Dark Spawn menace that is slowing taking over the land of Ferelden.

You start the game with the task of making your character from scratch: choosing their gender, body types, hair style, etc., as well as their race (dwarf, elf or human) and class type (rogue, mage or warrior). Once you have picked all these details, the game will give you 1 or 2 origin stories to choose from which fits your character type. There are 6 in all to play through, so do check them all out for the fun plus the bonus achievements/trophies. You will also have to add some additional points to your attributes and skills like much like a Dungeons and Dragons character.

Dragon Age is basically an open world which means you are given a set of tasks to perform in order to complete the main quest but you can go anywhere you want once the map is open to you. Of course, if you choose to ignore your main orders, then you must deal with the consequences. Once you get into an area, the game is all dungeon crawler which means you kill everything that attacks and strip it bare for loot, or talk to the village folk for information or to sell your new goodies.



While you’ll start off with one character, the game will introduce you to multiple party members who in some cases, you can choose to add to your party or not. Some party members will only stay for a brief time, while others will actually leave you if you fail to impress them over a certain amount of time. Over all, it’s better to recruit everyone you come across for the achievement/trophy and for the character options in battle.

If you ever played a Bioware game, you’ll know that the developers love to give you mass options in their storylines, rather than have you play out just one linear plot. Usually you have a basic good or evil path, but Dragon Age goes beyond that and really branches out into multiple versions. Depending on how you handle each situation you come into, you can affect how each character in your party reacts to you, how a future situation will play out and ultimately how the game will end. I’ve only played the game through once but I heard several different versions of this game’s story from friends which are pretty darn cool when you think about it.

Same game – several different game play experiences. How often you get that from just one game?

I think what was the probably the coolest part of the game for me was how it made me feel when I turned it off. Believe or not, I actually walked away from this game feeling guilty for the choices I made even though I knew it was just a game.

I chose to play a female city elf on my main play-through and had to play through an origin story where I was taken along with several other female elves to be raped on my wedding day. I managed to help us escape after I brutally slaughtered every human male in the castle but I failed to save my cousin from being raped. After playing through this disturbing situation and downing a bucket of ice cream, I found myself actually wondering if I took too long during the mission and that’s why my cousin was raped. As gamers, we always do what comes naturally which in this case was to kill everyone and loot the castle before I finished saving everyone to end the mission, but I actually wonder if the game was setup to punish me for taking too long. I doubt it did but I couldn’t help but think it.

Later on I had another mission where I had to choose between killing a demon-possessed child and saving the child with the help of a mage. Problem was I released the mage in the dungeon that could help me save him and I hadn’t finished a mission that earned me a mage in my party yet, so I was forced to kill him. This unfortunate turn of events earned me a spot in Alistair’s bad book and also guaranteed that I would never be able to romance his character and earn a special ending. I actually felt mad at myself for this. Could I have left the palace and complete the mage mission in order to save the boy? Did I really do all I could do?


This game was so good I was actually walking around feeling guilty about my choices. Sure, I’ve played moral choice games before but honestly I never felt bad when I was beating a hooker in Grand Theft Auto, so why did I care now? I think it’s because Dragon Age is setup to make us pay for our sins. I knew Alistair wouldn’t forgive me for my choices, and the game actually kept reminding me about my cousin and my delay in saving her. Despite my guilty, I loved this take on the moral path game and I think this is how games should be made - with actually consequences throughout the game for the things we do and not just different prizes or two varied endings based on how good or bad we are.

I’ve laughed, cried and felt a little tingle in my special spot because of video games, but never has a game made me walk away feeling regret or guilt. For this, I salute the developers at Bioware.

On a side note, this game seems to have a lot in common with Lord of the Rings and I’m not talking about the elves and dwarves. Homage to the late J.R.R. Tolkien can be seen everywhere in this game from characters to the cities, but honestly that’s not really a bad thing as I have been waiting for a good RPG Lord of the Rings game for a long time and this is probably the best we fans can hope to get.

The music in this game is pretty sweet especially the opening load screen score which is so epic summer blockbuster. I was a little disappointed that my character didn’t talk especially when you get to choose from a selection of voice tracks in the beginning, but those only cover battle mode sounds. I guess there was just too much dialog to record multiple voices for.

The graphics were pretty impressive especially for such an epic size game. Each character was well modeled, especially Alistair (meow!) and there were enough hair styles, face types and clothing options that you didn’t feel like you were talking to the same 10 villagers over and over again. Your party’s clothes changed with every cut-scene to match what you had put them in which is always a big plus with me and the enemies were quite creepy as were the g-strings people appeared in while nude.

Going out to the movies costs the average person $15 after ticket price and concession stand treats, while a videogame costs $60 on average. This makes purchasing a game all the more difficult because you can’t afford to buy a bad game, especially when resale values are at least half or less. I can honestly say without a doubt that Dragon Age: Origins is not only a great game but it worth the sticker price and more. There are so many choices to this game, you could play it 6 times and still never get the story twice over. If that is not worth $60, then I don’t know what kind of game is.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!

Left4Dead 2 Trailer

I missed out on the first game. Not going to miss out on the 2nd one. Left4Dead 2 was at X'09 and I loved it.

Tim Schafer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

It is so cool that Jimmy Fallon continues to live up to his word and treat the game industry like any other entertainment industry out there. He interviewed the great Tim Schafer recently about the upcoming release of Brutal Legend and it was a pretty funny interview. Watch it above.

Review: Beatles Rock Band

Beatles Rock Band
EA, Harmonix
Available for Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360

The last couple of weeks have been like a dream for this game reviewer as I’ve been able to review childhood memory inducing games like Batman Arkham Asylum and Tales of Monkey Island. Best of all, they didn’t suck which is a huge bonus when you are dealing with subjects so near and dear to your heart. Unfortunately, this week’s review didn’t escape my red pen of doom despite my love for the subject matter.

Beatles Rock Band hit stores on the historical date of 09/09/09 and being the fan that I am, I scooped up a copy in order to rock out to hits like Hey Bulldog, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and more. The game centers solely around the Beatles and their musical career, so don’t expect to find any other band’s music here like in Guitar Hero Aerosmith or Metallica.


Story mode takes you on a journey through the band’s entire career from their humble beginnings playing the Carven Club to their performance atop the Apple building. Rather than playing venues, story mode has you playing moments or albums (chapters) in the Beatles’ career and the songs that were out for them at that time. While this is great for a huge Beatles’ fan to follow all these amazing moments, the difficulties of the songs were all over the place which made story mode the worst place for a new player to start off. Luckily there is a training mode for newbies to learn how to play each instrument which can ease you into the game.

On the other hand, seasoned players will find the difficulty of the songs rather low and can probably finish the story mode in a day if they want to. Actually there’s even an achievement for it, so if you are a seasoned Rock Band or Guitar Hero player I say go for it.

As you progress though story mode, you can unlock photos and secret videos from the Beatles collection with 3 & 5 star performances. Once you clear a chapter, you also unlock a challenge mode that allows you to play through that entire chapter’s song list non-stop and compare scores with your online friends. Other modes include the co-op online story mode and quickplay mode, or the competitive tug of war and score duels modes. There is also a “no-fail” mode which can be turned on for new players, so they can always finish a song no matter how badly they play it.

A new feature exclusive to the game is the 3 person melodies option which allow up to 3 people to sing during a song but there are also some missing features like the freestyle drumming, customizable band members or the whammy bar affect. Apparently, a lot of features were removed to preserve the music and the memory of the artists which in the long run is really okay by me. Besides do we really need another rapping Kurt Cobain? (Note: I don’t listen to Nirvana and even I thought that was wrong, Guitar Hero 5)

Now, I only grabbed the game disc as I have enough band peripherals to start 3 fake bands but for first time buyers, you can pick up two different kits: the Special Edition Beatles Rock Band kit which includes one basic guitar controller, basic drum kit, microphone and Beatles Rock Band game ($159.99CAN for PS3 or Xbox360) or you can pick up the Beatles Rock Band Premium Bundle which includes one Höfner bass controller, Ludwig-branded drum kit, microphone, mic stand, Beatles Rock Band game and additional special content ($249.99CAN for PS3 or Xbox 360).

Unfortunately this does not cover everything you need to fully play the game as a complete band as you still need two more microphones and probably two mic stands, and another guitar. You can pick up a Rickenbacker 325 guitar controller or a Gretsch Duo-Jet guitar controller for $99 each, microphones will run you about $50 each and mic stands probably about $20 each, so by the time you are done you are looking at spending about $500 on all the equipment if you want all the premium quality equipment.

And we haven’t even purchased any downloadable content yet. Yep, after spending all that money on the game and all the peripherals, you still have more money you can dump into this game via the online Beatles music store which at the moment has only one song, All You Need is Love (Proceeds go to charity) but there will be a whole bunch soon as Harmonix plans to release whole albums. And don’t say you won’t buy them either, you devoted fans as the game is missing great songs like Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby and my favourite, Yesterday, so you won’t be able to stop yourselves from buying more music as they purposely kept back the some of the good stuff.


Visually, this game blows all other Rock Band incarnations away and makes you almost want to hand the controller over to someone else so you can focus all attention on the background animations. Like the Yellow Submarine come to life, Beatles Rock Band is a rainbow of colour and music splashed upon the screen in some of the best digital cinematics I have ever seen. Songs like Octopus’ Garden and The End bring the beauty of the music to life on screen with elephants, flowers and fishes.

When reviewing a music game obviously audio is a key component and there was nothing wrong with the sound here. Some songs were rearranged beautifully for the game and everything is a master track – no covers here. Extra features in the game included audio files from the Beatles private collection which still sound pretty darn good for their age. Overall, the music sounded fantastic and they still had this Beatles’ fan singing along with or without a microphone.

Games like these are really hard to review because as a fan you want to scream, “GOD, YES! BUY THIS! 10/10” but as a gamer you see the flaws and can’t in good conscience give a perfect review. I don’t expect uber-fans to listen to my review because if you are a fan, you probably already bought this game and are writing a letter to the editor trying to get me fired for what I’m about to say, so Beatles fans ignore me. Music game fans, listen up though as this is not a good investment unless you like the Beatles. Stick to the main Rock Band games because the store downloads will never be compatible with other Rock Band games and the difficulty of the songs in Beatles Rock Band will have expert players bored to tears.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Brutal Legend Demo on Xbox Live Now!

The Brutal Legend demo is available now on Xbox Live for Gold members only. Hurray up and download it now before everyone gets home from work and the servers crash. I'm downloading mine now as we speak and it is taking forever.

Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: the Videogame

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
EA Games, EA Bright Light
Available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, Playstation 2 and PC

Hit movies and videogames seem to go hand in hand nowadays like clockwork. One would almost be surprised if some gaming company didn’t produce some sort of game to launch along aside each summer blockbuster which is why no one should be surprised that this reviewer is checking out the newest Harry Potter game from EA, especially since the latest instalment in the series hit theatres just a month ago.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the Xbox 360 follows Harry into another year at Hogwarts School for Witch Craft and Wizardry as he deals with learning potions, joining the duelling club, playing Quidditch and fighting against Lord Voldemort .The main part of the game will take you through the storyline from the movie/book and will require you to finish mini games, fetch quests and more in order to progress further into the story. There are tons of side quests for you to take on like collecting badges or joining the duel club, but there is so much already in the main quest that you will have your hands full to begin with.

The game controls will take a bit to get use to as you must learn different button sequences to cast Harry’s spells. Once you get the hang of them, it is quite fun to toss different objects around the room using your levitation spell. Finding your way around Hogwarts School is a challenge in itself, so I suggest everyone take advantage of the in-game guide, Nearly Headless Nick, who will take you to your desired location.

Fans will be quite happy with how accurate EA’s team was at bringing the world of Harry Potter to live. The characters, though a little stiff around the edges, looked exactly like their real world movie counterparts and Hogwarts School was most impressive with its massive size and neat, little details like the moving stairs.

Even the voice acting was pretty good, considering that EA couldn’t secure the real actors to provide the voice-overs for the game. Almost all the characters sounded like the real actor from the movie which made the game, all the more enjoyable to play. Happily the game soundtrack was the same soundtrack from the new movie, so each game moment was enhanced by that magically Harry Potter theme plus a few new tunes.

Playing some of the past Harry Potter, I have to say this game was pretty overwhelming in terms of environment size and number of quests, but the quality is definitely there for your money, so I can certainly say that if you are a big Harry Potter fan, then this is the game for you. The plot leaves a few parts out from the book and the movie but it still gives you enough magic to make you feel like you’re part of Harry’s World.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it!

Official Achievement/Trophy List for Brutal Legend

50 Achievements or 51 Trophies Total

360/PS3 Name
15/Bronze: Got a Car and a Date - Completed "Welcome to the Age of Metal"
15/Bronze: Start a Revolution - Completed "Exploited in the Bowels of Hell"
15/Bronze: Thick as a Baby's Arm - Completed "Lair of the Metal Queen"
15/Bronze: Hair Remover - Completed "Battle for Bladehenge"
15/Bronze: French Kiss Instructor - Completed "Pilgrimage of Screams"
15/Bronze: Chicks n' Booze n' Stuff - Completed "Sanctuary of Sin"
15/Bronze: Ran to the Hills - Completed "It's Raining Death"
15/Bronze: Fistfull of Fog - Completed "Dry Ice, Wet Graves"
15/Bronze: No More Tears - Completed "Sea of Black Tears"
25/Silver: Groupie Completed - Campaign mode on Easy
25/Silver: Roadie Completed - Campaign mode on Normal
25/Silver: Legend Completed - Campaign mode on Brutal
20/Bronze: Overkill Completed - all hunting secondary missions
20/Bronze: Squeal Like a Chicken - Completed all racing secondary missions
20/Bronze: Protector - Completed 20 ambush, outpost defense, or mortar secondary missions
50/Gold: Metal God - Achieved 100% completion on the stats screen
10/Bronze: Serpent Samaritan - Freed 40 Bound Serpents
15/Bronze: Serpent Spanker - Freed 80 Bound Serpents
25/Silver: Serpent Savior - Freed all 120 Bound Serpents
5/Bronze: One Hit Wonder - Purchased 1 upgrade in the Motor Forge
25/Silver: Loyal Customer - Purchased all upgrades in the Motor Forge
20/Bronze: Virtuoso - Learned all guitar solos
20/Bronze: Tourist - Viewed all vistas
20/Bronze: Now You Must Tell the Tale - Viewed all Legends
20/Bronze: Voices From Beyond - Unlocked all songs in the Mouth of Metal
20/Bronze: Flowerslave - Summoned all Motor Forges
10/Bronze: Practice Bloody Practice - Won an AI Stage Battle - any difficulty
20/Bronze: Iron Fist - Won an AI Stage Battle - Brütal difficulty
10/Bronze: Victör - Won a ranked multiplayer match
20/Silver: Subjügator - Won 10 ranked multiplayer matches
50/Gold: Cönquerer - Won 50 ranked multiplayer matches
20/Bronze: Master of the Flame - Double Teamed with every Ironheade unit
20/Bronze: Master of the Tear - Double Teamed with every Drowning Doom unit
20/Bronze: Master of the Blood - Double Teamed with every Tainted Coil unit
20/Bronze: Armchair General - Won a Stage Battle by yourself against the AI without attacking
30/Silver: Favored - Acquired 3,000 Fire Tributes
30/Silver: Sellout - Spent 250,000 fans - any mode
20/Bronze: Some Demon Flesh on your Bumper - Slayed 150 enemies with the Deuce - any mode
30/Silver: I've never touched an axe before - Personally smote 300 enemies - any mode
10/Bronze: Silence, groundwalker! - Gained 5 or more seconds of hang time in a single jump - any mode
15/Bronze: Six Degrees of Schafer*** - Played with or against another player who has this Achievement
15/Bronze: Ringleader - Trapped 15 enemies in one ring of fire with the Fire Baron's Double Team
15/Bronze: Painkiller - Killed 25 enemies with the grinder of one Rock Crusher
15/Bronze: Dollpocalypse - Hit 6 enemies with the explosion from a Brood's Double Team
15/Bronze: Euthanasia - Hit 15 enemies with one Agony Ball using the Pain Lifter's Double Team
15/Bronze: Death From Above - Killed 20 enemies with one Bleeding Death
15/Bronze: Coolest Thing Ever - Jumped over a Hextadon in the Deuce
15/Bronze: Beast Master -Rode every animal in the world
50/Silver: Boar Bather - Rode a Razorfire Boar into the Sea of Black Tears and live to tell the tale.
20/Bronze: Quill Tosser - Killed a Tollusk using only Ground Urchins
N/A/Platinum: Rock God - Got all PS3 trophies

*** The “Six Degrees of Schafer” Achievement/Trophy is rewarded when you play with or against Tim Schafer in Brutal Legend’s epic multiplayer mode. The achievement is also viral, meaning that once you play Tim (or someone who has played Tim), you then have the achievement, and then when you play someone else, they get it, and then when that person plays someone else, they get it, etc etc rinse, repeat…. Think of it like the flu, a heavy metal flu if you will…

Missing Reviews: From Under the Game Pile

As many games as I review there are still plenty of great title that manage to get swept under the review pile over the course of my year and I hate to see them not get the once over that they deserve. While some of these titles have been out for a while I found them to be quite worth the time to check them out.

Too Human
Silicon Knights
Available on Xbox 360

Local St. Catharines game developers, Silicon Knights brought Too Human out last Fall and though it didn’t receive huge praise, I did find it to be an excellent title once you got past everyone else’s opinions on it. Honestly I can’t believe I didn’t review this title sooner but it just seemed to keep getting pushed back for other games and then I never got around to it.

Too Human is based on the Norse mythology and has you playing the role of Baldur, one of the Aesir, cybernetically enhanced humans which are seen as Gods to the humans they rule over. Baldur is tasked with protected his people from the sudden attacks of machine-like creatures that are feeding on human flesh. The game has the usual role-playing genre elements but includes some interest first time combat controls using the analog sticks and an item inventory that no one player could completely collect in just one play through.

I found the combination of technology and Norse mythology to be spectacular and the storyline that combined the various Norse Gods and Beowulf storyline was also gripping. While the combat took a bit of getting use to, I found the new use of the analog sticks for directional fighting moves was much easy for pulling off combo moves than most fighting systems I’ve used. Overall this is a beautiful game with an amazing storyline and since it was created by our hometown gaming studio, I think all local gamers should give it a chance.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Electronic Arts, Pandemic Studios
Available for PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360

It’s been more than 3 years between the Mercenaries games which would make you wonder if that’s too long to go before making a sequel. Luckily for Pandemic Studio, fun never gets old and that is exactly want you get with Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

The game puts in the middle of a rebellion in the country of Venezuela, where oil has become the main focus of the conflict. While the government has tried to maintain control of the situation, there are a number of factions working within the country trying to take control as well. You can work with 5 of those factions: Universal Petroleum, the People's Liberation Army of Venezuela, the Chinese army, the Allied Nations, and the Rastafarian Pirates, each of whom will give you missions in order to get you in better with the main up and comer in the area, Ramon Solano.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was a great “bomb the f@#K out of everything” kind of game. Everything in the world can take damage and best of all; you can run over everything with your vehicles so no more tiny trees stopping your rampage of death. The game sets you up with an A.I. buddy in the game, but playing the game in co-op mode is much better and removes any little glitches you may find with your A.I. pal.

The wide variety of missions and weapons at your disposal make this a sweet game to play through alone or with a friend. Best of all, your choice of 3 different characters to play with makes each time you play through with a different character a new challenge. If you’ve a fan of games like Grand Theft Auto IV, then I definitely suggest checking out this open world game.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Raving Rabbids TV Party
Ubisoft, Ubisoft
Available for Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS

If you’re looking for a goofy party game to play with your friends at your time drunken house party, then may I suggest adding the Rabbids to your guest list? Raving Rabbids TV Party is a goofy mini-game collection that will have you and your friends acting silly for hours on end.

After chasing Rayman to his home, an accident has caused the Rabbids to become trapped inside Rayman’s TV. It’s up to you to keep the new Rabbids TV station full of cool program by choosing from several mini games each day. The mini games range from B movie shooting galleries to American Idol parodied dance shows. All the games featured the classic Rabbids humour which is guaranteed to keep your party amused well into the night.

Unlike previous Rayman Rabbid games, this party game won’t force you to play all the games in the programming schedule, so you can just skip the harder mini games if you like. I found that playing this game with any remote other than your original Nintendo nunchuk and remote will make this game harder to complete, so don’t use any third party brands with it.

The controls are still not precise though even with the proper controllers. I honestly found that 75% of the games were pretty easy to pass but the rest were downright impassable. The Star Wars parody game is one that I remember to really hard and confusing in the controls. All and all, this is a great party game and one that I would recommend for family play and party nights.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it!

Sin to Win: The Future of EA's 7 Deadly Sin Contests

It seems like the public is just never going to let this thing die along with all the other lost souls in the circles of Hell.

So it seems a lot of people weren't happy with EA's Sin to Win contest, but hey, I wasn't one of them. I personally am just mad I wasn't at Comic Con 09 with a giant reason to take pictures of myself with hot costumed girls. I totally missed out. These people didn't and they looked like they had fun with the ladies. I'd also like to note all the lack of sexual harassment in those pictures. Not a tit or butt grab in one of them. There's even a picture with two costumed dudes in it.

Yep, I have no problem with EA and if I had it my way, I would have EA run the next contest at the Fan Expo in Toronto which is coming up in August. They are welcome to party it up in Canada. I even have some ideas for the new 7 deadly sins contest too.

Gluttony: Taking pictures of yourself while eating at the Fan Expo or taking a picture of a videogame costumed person while they eat at Fan Expo.

Wrath: Take angry pictures of costumed people fake fighting at the Fan Expo while you try to break it up. Bonus points if the angry costumed person is beating on you in the picture.

Sloth: Send in pictures of your friends or random people while sleeping in weird places at the Fan Expo. We've all seen one or two people sleeping in a line or in a hallway at these events, so these pictures are possible to get.

Greed: Prizes to the person with the biggest swag collection from Fan Expo or the coolest. Bonus points for all celebrity hair you collect.

Pride: You have to send in a convincing essay on why you are truly the biggest and best convention geek to go to Fan Expo with.

Envy: Just take pictures of all the cool stuff you wish you had and why you deserve that item. Pictures of costumed hotties will be accepted. The winner will be chosen based on the best explanation.

There you go, EA. Those are my ideas for some of your next contests and my offer to hit up the Fan Expo in Toronto, Canada for your next game promotion.

I'm all for any excuse to commit a little sin with you.

Sin to Win: Win a Night With Some Booth Bears?

I love EA. You know why?

Because they are an open-minded company and they proved it today. Putting two and two together, I figured out one of the winners for the Dante's Inferno contest could be the owner and writer for GayGamer.net, Flynn "Fruite Brute" Marco, who trust me isn't interested in a night out on the town with two hot women.

He was another person not happy with the straight male targeted contest, but he decided to take some pictures with his favorite booth bears to see what EA thought. Apparently EA liked it because they are asking Flynn to following them on Twitter in order to be properly entered in the contest. Flynn was one of two people asked to follow EA's contest on Twitter which makes me think he could be one of two people that won this contest.

How cool would it be if Flynn won a night on the town with two booth bears or babes? (he plans to take either to a gay bar for the night) I guess all those people complaining that EA isn't thinking about their entire demographic would be wrong. The contest was open to people of all types, cause Flynn sure as heck didn't send pictures in with female promoters from Comic Con. EA definitely knew what Flynn liked and it wasn't a night out with two hot girls.

Sometimes people forget in all the finger pointing that EA is the company that has probably the most female targeted games on the market that don't insult our sex, not to mention a bunch of games with open sexuality choices. They aren't this evil corporation with no concept of who they market too. They just a company full of human beings that make bad choices sometimes and apparently they heard the people's cries and make up for it.

Sin to Win: Did EA do a bad thing?

During Comic Con this year, EA was promoting their upcoming game, Dante's Inferno with the first of many contests based on the 7 deadly sins. This first "Sin to Win" contest focused on lust, asking contestants to commit acts of lust with either the booth babes at the Dante's booth or ones from convention floor and document the act with a picture. The winner would receive a sinful night on the town with two hot ladies, limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty.

Quite a few different sites have been reacting badly to this poorly worded contest (bad EA) because obviously it looks like the company is telling people to go out and practically rape girls in order to win a night out with a couple of hookers. Not a swift PR move, I admit, but I also understand that EA was trying to make the contest fit with the idea of sin and make it sound lustful, even though it really wasn't. They can't really offer up a lust filled night or tell people that it's okay to grope the booth babes. They know that, I know that and everyone else with a brain should know that, but apparently that's not the case, but people seem to be concerned that there will be idiots out there that will take the contest to be literal and will grab the promoters, or think their getting a night with hookers.

Again, we lay the blame on someone else because someone might be too stupid to think morally and with some common sense. Do I need to bring up the whole violence and videogames arguement?

In EA's official statement, they clarified the common sense answer to why they worded the contest they way they did. The real "acts of lust" they meant were only to be pictures with the booth babes and not actual dirty deeds with them in any way. And of course, the main prize was really a night on the town with the Dante's Inferno's reps, all expenses paid, plus some money, coverage of the event and limo service.

I admit they could have worded things better but claiming that EA's PR reps would suggest that fans sexual harass the promoters is just going to far. Bias opinions aside, I know a couple people that work for EA on the promotion side and they would never promote violence or sexual harassment towards women. They are good guys and I know this was all just a bad choice of words.

I understand that bad things do happen to the promoters at these events and there should be security measures put in place to make theses people safer, but in the long run, if anyone was stupid enough to cause any harm to one of the promoters at Comic Con over this contest, then he or she is just a complete idiot because nothing, not a contest nor a prize, gives anyone the right to treat another human being like less than a person. That's just common sense and no one can hold EA responsible for some pervert's stupid actions.

July’s Downloadable Game Reviews

Kingdom for Keflings
Microsoft Game Studios, Ninja Bee
Available for download via Xbox Live Arcade

Give me the chance to build mini cities or control little tiny people in your game and you’ll have me addicted to it for hours. Kingdom for Keflings not only gives you the opportunity to control mini people in order to build a little kingdom but you can also kick them around while you do it. Bonus!

Playing as a giant or as your XBLA avatar, KfK has you controlling a kingdom of mini people called keflings in order to build their small village into a giant kingdom with a castle. You give these little people orders to collect resources or run buildings as you control the building of structure pieces and building completion. The game does offer a multi-player mode that allows up to 4 players to build the kingdom together.

This game can become mindlessly addicting, almost taunting you to keep going with its promise of another blue print and another building erected, but as you get into the later hours of this game, the process slows down and I found it all to be very empty. The building process became too lengthy and the management of all my keflings became so annoying that I soon tuned out. While the game does have some cute traits, I would honestly suggest that simulator fans stick to games like Sim City or The Sims to feed their sim addictions.

Pass on it!

Trash Panic
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan
Available for download via Playstation Network

If you’re like me when it comes to garbage maintenance, then you probably fill your trash can to the very brim before you finally cave and toss it outside. If so, then you will be an expert at playing Trash Panic, a new game on the Playstation Network that has you compacting trash into a bin much like Tetris pieces.

In Trash Panic, trash pieces like brooms, coffee cups, computer screens and even buildings are moved down a conveyor belt towards a large trash bin and you must move and rotate the pieces into the bin in order to fit them as compact as possible. Using techniques or items, you can break, burn, decompose or even blow up the trash to reduce its size in the bin. There are 6 level s to complete in main mode and 3 difficulty levels to complete them on. You also get an unlimited mode, a versus mode and a mission mode for extra game play, but the main mode is pretty hard even on easy to finish so expect to spend some time it.

I love that this game is fun and environmentally responsible. At the end of each level, you get a score based on how environmental responsible you were disposing of the trash. Plus the added stress relief of smashing pieces of garage is nice too. On the other hand though, some of the boss battles were incredible hard and if you didn’t prep your bin before hand, you were doomed to fail against them. Ultimately though, this is a unique and challenging game and I highly recommend it.

Buy it!

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Square Enix
Available for download via Nintendo WiiWare

Fans of the Final Fantasy series are about take a trip back to their childhood with the newest WiiWare release from Square Enix, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Using 16 bit graphics and the original ATB battle system, FFIV: The After Years will probably have anyone who played FFIV or FFVI instantly in love with it after the first 5 minutes of playing it. I know I wanted to propose to it.

FFIV: The After Years follows the story of Ceodore, the son of Cecil and Rosa as he tries to restore peace to his world after the second moon returns and bring the reign of monster terror back with it. During his journey, he is helped by familiar faces from the FFIV story like Palom, Porom, Rydia and many more.

The main WiiWare game will set you back 800 points which will get you three chapters of the story to play through. Now these are lengthy chapters and they will have you busy for quite a few hours as you transverse through them, but in order to finish the whole story you will have to purchase 8 more add-on storylines. The 7 character based storylines will cost you 300 points each and the final add-on will cost you another 800 points. These add-ons will be released over the next 3 months and can be purchased via the in-game download menu.

While I’m not impressed about forking out another 2900 Wii points on top of the 800 I already spent to download the first game, I can’t help but defend this amazing game. Too be completely frank, Square Enix has been putting out some God awful remakes and sequels lately and this is the first throwback to the retro stuff that I have not only loved how great it looks and plays, but can’t help but smile while playing. This game is like the old Square Soft games I grew up with but new. If I have only one download to suggest this month and for the next 3 months, then I suggest you spend your money on this.

Buy it!


Hasbro Family Game Night
Electronic Arts
Available for download via Xbox Live Arcade

If you lived through the 80s, then there’s a chance you played at least one game of Battleship or Scrabble with your annoying parents or siblings. I remember many childhood fights that started over Scrabble and whether or not something was really a word. The problem with board games is that pieces go missing and the newer generation could care less about them when they have videogame and iPods to keep them entertained.

That’s where Hasbro Family Game Night comes in! Sporting the games you loved as child but now in a shiner videogame form for those easily distracted generation of kids. Hosting by everyone’s favourite spud, Mr. Potato Head, HFGN allows you to download 6 different board games: Scrabble, Battleship, Boggle, Yahtzee, Connect 4, Sorry and Sorry Slider, all which cost 800 marketplace points. Each game comes with various modes that allow you to experience the game the classic way or in new, advanced ways. There are also multiplayer modes, both local and online so you can play with friends and family.

While I was more of a Clue fan growing up, I definitely played most of these games and this is a great trip down memory lane. Mr. Potato Head is quite the little joker in the background during each game and free customizable background themes are a nice touch to your HFGN game lounge. Honestly though, spending 800 points per game is a bit much and I think EA could have dropped the price to maybe 400 instead. I know this game was released on Nintendo Wii as a full priced game in stores, but still it just seems a lot for board games you could pick up at garage sales for 25 cents.

I would suggest as a purchase only if you really like one specific board game and want to play it with your family and friends. Beyond that wait to see if the point price comes down on this before you consider this a purchase.

Pass on it!

E3 2009: Brutal Legend Trailer

The new Brutal Legend trailer from E3 2009 featuring the first list of celebrities in the game: Rob Halford, Lemmy Kilmister, Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne.

I love Jack Black movies and I can't wait to get my hands on this game.

E3 2009: Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer

During the Microsoft press conference, they revealed a list of their console exclusives which included EA's Left 4 Dead 2.

The new trailer revealed the fight against the zombies is far from over.

G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra - New Game play Footage

EA has finally released their first video featuring game play footage for the new G.I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra videogame. I actually watched G.I. Joe when I was a kid and I'm still not sure about this whole movie thing, but I'm holding my opinions until it comes out.

Until then here's a link to the new game play footage and screenshots. You can also check out the official website here.

BattleForge - Shadow Trailer

BattleForge Shadow Trailer

BattleForge is available for the PC and in stores this week.

EA Announces Boom Blox Sequel

EA announced yesterday that a sequel to the game, Boom Blox will be making its way to the Nintendo Wii. Boom Blox Bash Party will include a new level creator feature that will allow players to upload their levels to the Boom Blox server for friends to play and the game's friend lists will still not use the friend code system.

Also included in the new game:

* Over 400 new stages
* Multiple settings that will affect the game physics, like outer space and under water
* Twice as many multiplayer challenges as the original game
* New types of blox, including virus blox and conveyor blox (whatever those are)
* New shapes, including wedges and cylinders
* New tools, such as a slingshot and a paintball gun
* Less focus on guns and shooting levels
* New characters that behave more like blox
* Aside from user created levels, EA will occasionally upload new levels created by the game’s staff, as well as levels from the first Boom Blox

[Via The Tanooki]