Of course, the game is a commercial success for BioWare, and so recently from its other smash RPG, Dragon Age that will see an expansion coming out in March and a sequel already on the cards. Bioware announced this week their intentions to make the Dragon Age sequel more visually attractive – one of the only weak points of the original game:

“I can confirm that we’re doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it – to make it visually super hot.

I think the overall visual style we’re going to continue to evolve in Dragon Age. People are going to see some cool stuff. I can’t really say too much, but I think Dragon Age as a world is interesting. It’s a timeline, and you can go anywhere.”

The company have also stated that their best work is still ahead of them, and talked about their ambitions to make each game better than the last:

“The way we approach it is that each game has to be better than the last one, that’s always been true for the last 20 years we’ve been doing this, that’s just what we do. It’s kind of in our culture now.

If it wasn’t difficult it wouldn’t be worthwhile our best work is still ahead of us. That’s why I’m doing it, because I think our best work is still ahead of us and that’s why our teams are doing it I think."

It’s great to see a company that relies on well written stories and interesting gameplay mechanics doing so well. Here’s to Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2!

Around 20% of women have dumped a partner directly because of the online gaming habits, MyVoucherCodes revealed. The research also suggests that 80% of women believe that their partners spend too much time on the computer in general.

Oddly enough, Call of Duty is the number one game that is likely to break up a relationship.

Research Mark Pearson Commented:

“While men are more likely to spend their time running recon with, scoring goals against or shooting at people from all over the world, women are just as to blame for the time they spend online for relationship breakups according to the study.

I’m no relationship expert, but it seems that as technology improves, our ability to interact with those around us lessens – hopefully these statistics will be the push people need to reassess the way they treat loved ones.”

We’re not so sure about all that, and we agree with Mr. Pearson – it’s hardly like women aren’t often ‘addicted’ to online social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Besides, too much of anything is normally bad for you, and like everything in life, gaming is an activity best enjoyed in moderation.

Still, maybe we’ll think twice next time we want to play a game of Call of Duty online, huh? We’re just surprised the title winning the crown of most common to destroy a relationship wasn’t the huge time sink that is World of Warcraft!

Luckily only a few days later the BioWare team officially announced what they had been suggesting for some time – a full expansion to the original game. We’re not talking about a DLC here – this will be a proper full length expansion like they used to have in the old days. We haven’t seen a proper expansion for a console RPG since Oblivion, so this is exciting news.

The new expansion is called ‘Dragon Age: Awakening” and includes all the usual things you would expect from a proper expansion, new areas, new characters, the ability to import your old character into the game and of course an entirely new story to enjoy.

A Spokesman from BioWare said:

““Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn – and their true motivations!

Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon.”

The official release date for the expansion is March 16^th, although considering BioWare just missed their latest release date for a small DLC pack we’re not entirely convinced we’ll see Awakening arrive exactly on that date. Still, we can always hope!

Co-Founder of BioWare Dr. Ray Muzyka said:

“The vibrant worldwide community of Dragon Age fans will relish uncovering the secret motivations of the darkspawn, revealing how the darkspawn continue to infest the world despite the defeat of the Archdemon.”

This year has been a pretty great year all round for gamers, but the last few months have seen some outstanding titles released. Here’s our list of games you really don’t want to miss out on over Christmas:

Modern Warfare 2: We can’t really say much about Modern Warfare 2 that hasn’t already been said, but if you love multiplayer shooters with lots of action, strategy and fun but without all the Halo related science-fiction stuff, Modern Warfare is a great choice for Christmas. If you’re not into online games, Modern Warfare’s single player campaign is brilliant but will be over by Boxing Day.

Dragon Age – Origins: Dragon Age is just about the opposite of Modern Warfare 2. There’s no online mode but the single player is nearly 60 hours long if you play through properly and with a new introduction for each of the player class and race combinations it’s got some replay value, as well. It’s available for all major consoles and the PC, though we found the game the most enjoyable on the PC.

Assassins’ Creed 2: The original scored highly in many magazines and blogs, but overall it was let down by repetition and a lack of imagination in the later stages of the game. The sequel has none of those problems though, and has turned into the game that everyone wished the original would be. If you liked the original but felt let down, or avoided it due to the problems noted in the reviews, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this one. Plus, the various collectables and bonuses should keep you amused for a long time over Christmas.

Uncharted 2 – Amongst Thieves: It’s our own exclusive on the list so you won’t be playing Uncharted unless you own a PS3. If you do though, and you haven’t already rushed out and purchased this GOTY contender than Christmas is the perfect excuse to spend some time with this one. Its amazing story and beautiful graphics will keep you playing all over the Christmas holidays.

2009 has been a great year for gaming. We’ve seen sequels to some of the most popular games of the last few years including Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Uncharted 2 – and that’s only naming a few.

For those who wanted something new to play we’ve also had the massive success of Borderlands and Dragon Age to enjoy.

There’s even been plenty going on in the indie scene thanks to the continued success of platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network and the huge demand for simple, addictive games such as Plants Vs. Zombies.

But none of those games appear on this list. This is a list of games that we believe many of our readers may not have had a chance to pick up. Perhaps the game was released at about the same time as another big release that got more attention, or perhaps you simply didn’t have enough money this year to buy every single great game.

Either way, here’s our reminder that plenty of great games came out this year that you might want to consider picking up while you wait for the big releases of 2010 to start flying in.

House of the Dead: Overkill 

House of the Dead Overkill was a game that both benefitted and suffered because of its choice of format. Released on the Wii, the game took advantage of the motion sensor controls of the system to provide Sega’s rail shooter with what was essentially a light gun. Players could use the default Wii zapper or any number of other gun themed peripherals in order to play the game.

The game is a straight up action shooter in the style of the arcade games released earlier in the series. It’s not all that long and it’s been criticised for being a little too easy, but it has great replay value and its amazing fun with friends. The game received a lot of press for it’s incredibly strong language – something most gamers certainly don’t associate with the Wii console.

The games overall grind house style and simple but addictive gameplay make It worth picking up if you want a casual game and a Wii title with a bit more ‘kick’ or you’re simply a fan of the original arcade games. It’s even more fun if you can pick up some cool looking guns to hold your Wiimotes in as well.

Metacritic score on release: 79

Month of release: February

Moon

Moon wasn’t the first FPS on Nintendo’s handled game system, nor was it even the best – a title reserved for the Metroid series – but it did do a great job of making the genre work with a control system that many gamers aren’t used to for FPS games. It’s also a visually stunning game that really makes the most of the limited resources available and reminds us that the DS is actually a pretty powerful piece of kit in its own right even if it can’t quite compete with the PSP.

Despite being a first person shooter there are plenty of adventuring elements to Moon that make it a bit more of a thoughtful game than something like Metroid Prime: Hunters. There’s normally always something to shoot when exploring the games corridors for the first time, but there’s also a lot of exploring to do and a clever and well told story hiding behind the shiny graphics and action screenshots.

Moon is a great choice for people who want an action game on the DS with high production values or an immersive story, but it’s certainly not for people who prefer their shooters to be straight forward, ‘run and gun’ style.

Metacritic score on release: 71

Month of release: January (US), July (UK)

Flower

When Flower’s developer Jenova Chen was announcing Flower, we knew it was going to be an interesting concept: “We just had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room, it leads you to somewhere else. I thought; ‘wouldn’t it be nice if it was a portal that would allow you to be embraced by nature’”

What we didn’t know was whether it was going to be a good game, and while it certainly won’t be to everybody’s taste, its well worth checking out. The game sees the player guiding a petal through various fields into other flowers, all set within the ‘dream’ of flowers located in a city apartment. As the player completes level, this cityscape becomes more and more natural, eventually disappearing completely.

We know that might sound like a little bit abstract, but the game is one of the most popular on the PlayStation Network and one of the more original ideas produced this year. It’s won numerous awards this year and has received glowing reviews but many people skipped it for more traditional forms of entertainment. If you want to see what else games can do as a medium, give Flower a go. If you’re not convinced by the whole games as art debate, Flower might not be to your taste.

Metacritic score on release: 88

Month of release: February

Bowser’s Inside Story

What’s known in Japan as ‘Mario & Luigi RPG 3’, Inside Story is a great Nintendo first party RPG based in the Mario universe. The games plot involves Mario and Luigi shrinking in size in and becoming trapped in Bowser’s body – which is certainly a pretty weird idea for an RPG. You might think that a plot heavy game based around previously quite vacant Nintendo characters wouldn’t work, but in fact the game is one of the best RPGs of the year.

The game re-uses the battle system from the earlier titles in the series and includes Bowser as a playable character for the first time in the series. As well as fighting and exploring there’s also a ranking system and a variety of different minigames to complete, making the game great value for money.

The game was highly praised by critics for both gameplay and story, but it’s still often dismissed by fans of JRPG games like Kingdom Hearts as not really being a ‘proper’ entrant into the genre. However, it’s a great choice for RPG fans of all ages and lovers of Nintendo’s vibrant world.

Metacritic score on release: 90

Month of release: September (US), October (Europe)

Red Faction: Guerrilla

  The original red faction was released on the PC and PS2 nearly ten years ago and met with critical success thanks to it’s in depth story and clever use of the ‘geo mod’ system which allowed the player to destroy their environment to gain an advantage of their enemies.

It was followed up by an underwhelming sequel and then left alone until this year – when Guerrilla was released. Luckily, instead of seeing a repeat of Red Faction 2 or a simple remix of the original game, we got an entirely new take on the license which sees the player exploring an open world fighting against oppression and generally having a lot of fun.

The Geo Mod system returned backed by modern technology which makes explosions incredibly satisfying. It’s faced a lot of competition from other sandbox games this year and its environment isn’t as large or as interesting as some of its competitors but it’s still a great looking and entertaining action shooter.

Metacritic score on release: 83

Month of release: June

Afrika

Afrika’s heritage is actually older than most people think. In the game, players assume the role of a photojournalist who has been hired to picture of various animals out in the wild. It’s sort of a wildlife simulator where taking good shots of the animals gains you extra points to spend on new excursions, vehicles and better cameras.

But despite sounding quite original, the game is actually very similar to Nintendo’s Pokémon Snap released for the N64 years earlier, although Snap was set as a shooter on rails rather than an open world game.

Shooting pictures of animals as opposed to simply shooting them (or shooting something at least) might not be to the taste of the hardcore crowd, but it’s actually a quality game. Impressive graphics, extensive unlockable features and a brilliant soundtrack make Afrika worth playing. Unfortunately, Afrika hasn’t yet been released in Europe and due to the niche nature of the game, it may never be.

Metacritic score on release: 63

Month of release: October

Ultimate Genesis Collection

We’re not usually fans of compilation collections for modern consoles. We find that retro gaming is best confined to either PC emulation or the original consoles themselves. The Genesis Collection changed the rules when it comes to compilation packs this year and released an amazing collection of Genesis (Read: Megadrive) games that put previous Sega collections utterly to shame.

With over 40 of the best titles released over the lifespan of Sega’s most popular console, the Genesis Collection includes no filler. All of the important Sonic games are there, and all 3 Streets of Rage titles, as well. Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd, Golden Axe and Vectorman also make an experience.

A further 9 games released in the arcade or on the earlier Master System console are also available via unlocking, providing an extra reason to complete the challenges in each game. Clever features including the option of wide screen view, full screen smoothing and clever game sorting make the Ultimate Genesis Collection unmissable for any gamer who grew up in the decade of the Hedgehog.

Metacritic score on release: 80

Month of release: February

Gratuitous Space Battles

Positech Games have been a mainstay of the PC indie scene for many years and have released some pretty amazing titles ranging from everything from simple arcade shooters to complicated simulations of democratic politics. Space Battles is the latest big game for the company. The game is based on the concept that often, people don’t care much about the plot or characters in science fiction games and would much rather jump straight to the lasers.

That certainly struck a chord with gamers, and the game has received a lot of positive press. It’s been incorrectly thrown into the Real Time Strategy genre despite the fact you don’t actually direct individual ships yourself. Instead, you control tactics and the outfitting of each ship making it much more of a game of clever decisions and planning than a typical RTS game.

However the ships are controlled though, GSB looks simply amazing with top down stylish graphics and, yes, plenty of lasers. GSB is available at a budget price and is worth grabbing to play over Christmas.

Metacritic score on release: 75

Month of release: November

A Boy and His Blob

Remakes of old gaming series tend to fair much better than remakes of old films, but as gamers we do still tend to be a little wary about seeing classic games from or youth being given the next gen treatment. Luckily A Boy and His Blob – a classic NES game for the mid eighties – is a great example of an update where everything has been done right.

In the game, players take on the role of the titular ‘boy’ which can feed the blob jellybeans which allow it to transform into a variety of different objects, such as a hole, ladder and parachute with 15 different variations in total. Players then have to choose the best ‘blob’ for the situation.

Sticking with the feel of the original NES game, A Boy and His Blob has very little in the way of story but still manages to connect with its audience thanks to beautiful art direction, great music and fun gameplay. The original game suffered from being overly complicated and difficult to complete, where as the 2009 version has been streamlined so that while it’s not always easy, it’s rarely frustrating either.

Pick it up if you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s a little bit more stylish and emotionally involving than the usual ‘Match 3’ affair.

Metacritic score on release: 80
Month of release: October (US), November (UK)

Madworld

Another Sega game on the Wii, and another attempt at bringing the Wii some more adult orientated, good old fashioned violence. Mad World is a comic book style ultra violent action game. Players control a man who happens to have a chainsaw built onto his arm as he’s thrust into a violent ‘game show’ based in a city – think the running man but much more violent.

MadWorld was also going to be a niche title on the Wii, but just like Producer Atsushi Inaba’s last project God Hand, it could be well be destined to become a cult classic thanks to its brilliant use of style, colour, violence and Sin City inspired graphical fliar.

The game courted plenty of controversy in this country, mostly because people were so shocked to see such a game released for what was many considered a ‘family’ system, but beyond all that it’s simply just a fun game that made good use of the Wii both graphically and in terms of controls.

Despite the low sales of Madworld, Sega has said it’s not ruled out releasing more mature games for the Wii – something we’ll certainly be looking forward to.

Metacritic score on release: 75

Month of release: November

Gaming has certainly hit the mainstream in the last few years, so let’s take a look at games that should be a sure-fire hit for any family over the festive season:

EyePet: Strangely enough our first choice isn’t for the Wii or DS but the PS3 – a console more typically associated with more hardcore gaming. However, you just can’t get a game like Eye Pet on any other system. It uses the PS3 camera which you can buy in a bundle with the game if you don’t already own one.

The game basically plays like a Tamagotchi but one controlled by the movements of your body towards the screen. You can do things like feeding, playing and scolding the pet but all these actions are determined by how you move around in front of the screen making it great distracting fun for kids.

Lips: Singstar might have started the gaming karaoke craze but Lips has refined it. If you want to have a few hours in front of the TV at Christmas trying (and usually failing) to sing along to your favourite pop songs, Lips is certainly the number one choice. There’s a variety of different package available but the newest Number One Hits package with wireless microphones offers the best value for money and gaming experience, and you can even download new songs online via the XBOX Live Marketplace.

Wii Sports Resort: Nintendo fans probably already remember playing Wii Sports together as a family a few Christmases ago and having a bit of fun, though the limited range of sports available meant the game was quite quickly forgotten in favour of newer, bigger Wii games. Resort brings some new life to the series with a much wider range of sports including fencing and sky diving.

You can buy the game either alone or with the Wii Motion plus controller addon that makes your movements far more refined. However, you’ll need one Wii Motion plus for each controller to make the game fair, so this could end up costing you quite a bit of money!

Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games: Another Wii game and another sport collection, but this one differs from fairly large differences to Wii Sports Resort, even if you probably don’t need to be getting both this Christmas. It’s a great game if you’re going to play with four players and there are plenty of different sports on offer. You can even use the Wii balance board for some of them!

The Game Itself

The game has received rave reviews for the most part and people are absolutely obsessed with the absorbing single player campaign and the huge online aspect.

That hasn’t stopped the game receiving it’s fair share of criticism though – it costs a fair amount more than your typical console game purely because Activision know they can get away with it, which already stretches your pockets.

The real problem is the single player campaign, which while brilliant is only around 5 hours long. This means if you’re not going to be playing online you’re spending nearly £50 for 5 hours of gameplay, which isn’t a lot of fun for your entertainment pound. With that same amount of money you could buy both Oblivion and Fallout 3 and have 200 hours or more of gameplay, so it’s a short event.

Multiplayer might be the main draw here and to some it would seem crazy to buy a Call of Duty game without wanting to take it online but there’s actually a huge, silent majority that don’t even have an XBOX live account or any interest in playing games online that will feel a bit duped by the release.

The Controversy

There’s a scene that got leaked online several weeks before the launch of the game that involves a massacre of civilians at an airport. For a game, it’s quite a brutal scene and as an undercover agent with the bad guys, you get to see it firsthand.

Of course, despite the general intelligence of the series and the overall impression of the futility of war, the mainstream press took it as another reason why games are evil and making our children into violent murderers… all the usual stuff.

What’s less mentioned is that you can opt out of the scene at the beginning of the game or get a reminder later before the mission starts so there’s no reason to ever play the scene if you don’t feel like seeing the material.

It’s not that amazing for a game to cause this much uproar and it’s probably doing Activision’s sales more good than it is harm. What’s weird is that nobody really complained about the original Modern Warfare in which a nuke went off killing potentially millions of people. We can only guess the context of killing millions of innocent civilians isn’t as bad as the graphical rendering of killing a few.

The PC Version

The PC version is where we have the least sympathy for the game.

Everything works fine and unlike some mutliformat releases the single player is smooth and efficient without PC games having to sit through a month of patching, which is great news.

The multiplayer, however, has been stripped down completely to the bare minimums and there are no dedicated servers at all. This has lead to outcry from the PC community who don’t wish to play using a console style matchmaking system that doesn’t always get them decent speeds and can hang when the ‘host’ leaves the game.

There’s also a lot of cheating going on, and piracy groups have released multiplayer cracks as well, so it’s all a bit of a mess right now. We still don’t understand the rationale behind the move to cripple PC multiplayer.

Whatever news stories the game generates and however many people get frustrated with certain aspects, the games sales figures really speak for themselves: $660 million worth of the game have been sold worldwide in its first week of release. That’s pretty impressive!

It’s weird than that despite the huge success of games like Deus Ex, there have been relatively few FPS games that have moved into RPG territory – even Bioshock, one of the best shooters of this generation only lightly scratched the surface.

Borderlands though is a game that jumps right in to the deep end, with full levelling, weapon upgrades, and an entire RPG format backed up by classic FPS shooting action.

The games story isn’t as strong as you’d expect from an FPS with RPG mechanics. You’re looking for a vault full of treasure, and there’s a voice in your head guiding you around to it. Meanwhile you spend a whole lot of time at various quest hubs and the story is delivered through the various in game characters. Almost all of these are fairly boring attempts at humour that doesn’t fall flat on its face but does cheapen the experience somewhat.

The game is basically a series of quests – although almost all of them are about collecting a certain amount of an object, killing a certain amount of enemies, moving something from point A to point B or killing a boss. If you’re familiar with how Diablo worked, or you’ve ever played Warcraft, you should be able to figure out how the stories and quests in Borderlands progress.

The four classes of the game basically put you in the role of a soldier, sniper, magic user and tank, and they’re all different enough to be worthwhile. I played the entire game through as the soldier and found it great fun, while a friend was playing as the ‘magic’ class. The classes complemented each other brilliantly, and the combat just seemed to work. The gameplay isn’t ultra realistic and if you’re playing on the PC you’ll have a dead zone on the mouse to deal with, but overall shooting – the activity you’ll spend the vast part of borderlands taking part in – works very well.

The big problem with Borderlands is that it’s aimed at a single player audience but with multiplayer design. The weak story and fairly repetitive quests don’t serve well for a single gamer looking for an immersive FPS, but they do work brilliantly when playing online. Play Borderlands as it’s truly meant to be played – with other people – and it’s a great game. Play it alone and you’ll still find yourself glued to the screen for a good few hours, but there’s every chance you’ll get bored long before the ending.

Graphically the game adopts a distinct cell shaded look which while a little lazy and sure to turn off people look for hyper realistic graphics at least makes the game look a bit different. You spend the vast majority of the game in a wasteland that all looks very familiar, so having a bit of a change to the overall visual style has helped the game out somewhat.

In summary, if you want a co-op FPS game and a brilliant alternative to something like Left 4 Dead with a lengthy – if weak – story and decent gunplay, check out Borderlands. If you’ve got no intention of ever taking the game online you’d be far better of renting it and seeing if the grind bores you before investing in a full purchase.

Operation Anchorage – The first and by far the most disappointing of all the DLCs, Anchorage is set in a ‘computer simulation’ of the battle of Anchorage. Its virtual reality theme seems like an excuse for Bethesda to just make something different, and while it certainly has a new visual style, it’s far to detached from the original source material to be much fun. A virtually nonexistent story and mediocre rewards make Anchorage only worth playing by completists. 2/5

The Pitt – The Pitt got a hard time from the press at release, and certainly much of it was deserved with a buggy copy being released that had many of the games textures missing. Everything works now though, and while not as fully realised as Broken Steel or Point Lookout, it’s a good little set of missions. It’s quite detached from the main game but unlike Anchorage, it’s still very much related to the fallout world and art direction, fitting in much better. 3/5

Broken Steel – Broken Steel gives Fallout 3 the ending it deserves. Carrying on after the original game rips you from the world at the end of the story missions; Broken Steel raises the level cap to 30 and lets you help out the Brotherhood delivering water to the wastes. It’s still quite combat focused but a nice range of different quests and areas make Broken Steel a much more polished finish to the original storyline. 4/5

Point Lookout – Point Lookout was the biggest DLC in terms of content, and by far the best in terms of quality. Unlike the other packs which all focus on fairly linear story-telling, Point Lookout actually took the open ended exploration of Fallout 3 and applied it on a much smaller scale in a new environment. Running around the swamps of the Point Lookout Island shooting mutated hillbillies is great fun. The missions are very well scripted and you don’t feel like you’re being forced along a predetermined path, either. 5/5

Mothership Zeta – Anyone expecting great things from Zeta after playing through Broken Steel and Point Lookout will be disappointed with the final effort from Bethesda. Once again, it uses a weak explanation to throw the player into a strange environment which has little to do with the world of Fallout and just becomes another combat simulator, albeit with slightly better rewards. 2/5

All was forgiven with Broken Steel however, which raised the level cap to 30 and provided players with a decent ending to the game which was sorely lacking in the original. Now, with the fourth and penultimate DLC, Point Lookout, it seems Bethesda have finally reached the point that they’ve refined the idea to the point where it’s become an experience that can nearly mirror the fun of the original game.

Point Lookout is accessed through a river boat that’s added to the main map near the ruins of DC, and costs 300 caps to access. The boat takes you to a swampland that now exists where the state park used to be. It’s all quite exotic and a big change from even Broken Steel’s ‘more of the same’ antics, even if the quests themselves don’t change as much as the environment has.

What Point Lookout does do is give you another open world to explore, something the other expansion packs – and we presume the last expansion which is set on an alien ship, do not. There’s finally some new exploring to be done in an area that’s maybe around a quarter the size of the original capital wasteland. It’s a great change to the action focused and frustratingly linear style of the previous DLC. and the environment isn’t just large for the sake of it – it’s actually full of little things to do and explore, just like the original game.

The main quest should take around 3-4 hours complete while the side quests and exploration could last you another 3-4 hours making Point Lookout the largest expansion pack yet for pure length of gameplay, although the new additions in terms of items are somewhat unexciting to people that have already done the rounds in the original map. It’s really the world and quests that are the attraction here, rather than new weapons and armour that were emphasised so much in anchorage, and the DLC is better off for it, as well.

Point Lookout is by far the most capable expansion pack yet and while we admit that we couldn’t do without Broken Steel’s ability to raise the level cap and allow us to keep playing after the main quest’s conclusion, it’s Point Lookout that really shines in terms of its fun content and excellent diversion from the typical gameplay.

9/10