© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 7 comments on 07/02/2010.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Opinion, Video Tags: BioWare, Blizzard, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

I want these companions with me in SWTOR.

In thinking about the latest companions update from BioWare I began to ponder the question, “Will companions work in SWTOR”? It is an interesting twist on traditional MMORPG’s for sure. Games like DDO have hirelings and many others have pet classes, but this is likely to be different from those. While being different from other MMORPG’s in that regard, it may be very much like what BioWare has done in previous games like Mass Effect 2. BioWare has even gone as far as to highlight Vette, a companion in the Sith Warrior story.

Some are reserved and some are more accepting of the news. If you’ve played Mass Effect 2 in the last few months, you are likely in the latter group. The questions about how this fits into a classic MMORPG setting are still valid though, and should give us all pause until we can actually see how this plays out when several thousand players are active in an instance/world.

As I understand things, the level 1 though max level experience will be like the World of Warcraft quest style of progression. In that style of play, most people rarely level with another player. Sure, when the server or expansion of the moment is new everyone is out there leveling and there’s alot of interaction and quest partners to engage with. Later in the game though, the experience is different. On a mature server, you might bump into an alt character going through old content and will have a much smaller pool of other players to quest with.

This won’t appear to be as much of a problem with SWTOR. If the leveling up experience is based around their Mass Effect style RPG game play, we have little to worry about. Many of us might not even care if we encounter many other players during this process, as the leveling experience is aiming to be full of story and companions:

You will be introduced to your first Companion Character early in your adventure. But as you become more seasoned, more will rally to your cause. As you travel with your Companions and get to know them better, they will not only become more powerful but they will also introduce you to a unique series of quests and rewards. Furthermore, you will be able to enhance your companions by equipping them with various gear.

One of the big questions still lingering is to wonder if companions are required. Can I opt to do a quest or instance totally alone at a higher difficulty? In typical BioWare RPG style, you’ll be able to choose which of the available companions you want to bring along:

As your team grows and develops, new options, strategies, and tactics will become available. When you’re headed to “The Tomb” on Belsavis, who will you bring to watch your back and help out the rest of your group? Do you bring the hard-as-nails soldier who will help keep your enemies’ attention off of your group, the gifted battlefield medic who can help keep everyone alive, or do you bring your ever-faithful Astromech whose computer skills may be the only hope for completing the mission? These are just some of the choices you will make while you and your Companions roam the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Something tells me that companions are a core game mechanic and will be mandatory, just as they are in Mass Effect. Some people may not like that, but I feel that it will work very well. Maybe I’m just treading that same old dangerous path, where I put faith in the developer to execute well on the system, so here’s to hoping that isn’t the case. I am assuming that the “end game” content will not require companions, this companion system might only affect the leveling experience. PVP and raiding will likely not be impacted. That’s why I think companions will work. They’ll only impact the leveling experience and not much else.

I could be dead wrong, as we just don’t have enough solid information to really know how these systems will work. Which is killing me. We still have another year before we can even think about playing this game. Stay tuned as E3 may bring us some more good info.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 05/28/2010.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Opinion Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqUXOGrHrNs

I suspect we’ll get some extra juicy details next month (days from now) when the E3 machine officially gets cranked up.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 05/28/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Video Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

Click here if you do not see the embedded video.

I’m completely hyped for this game, complete with unrealistic expectations that probably every MMO fan is full of right now. But hey, the game isn’t out yet so it still has a chance to be the game that makes us all forget about that other big MMO.

I don’t know about you guys, but the Bounty hunter and Trooper are looking righteous. What are you gonna play? Check out the new poll and cast your vote for the class you’ll play in SWTOR.

Update: As always, check out Darth Hater’s fantastic breakdown of the video to glean extra info from we’ve been shown.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 04/22/2010.
Posted in: Featured Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

The guys at DC Universe Online reminded us today that they still have a noteworthy MMO in the works by releasing this Little Bohemia Travelogue video. Game Director Chris Cao gives us a tour of the area and talks about some of the factions we’ll encounter in this district of Metropolis:

I look forward to this game as I have a soft spot for super hero MMO’s after playing City of Heroes and Champions Online. I’m really hoping the guys can nail it and give us a surprise MMO this year. It is still slated for release in 2010 right? If so, I think it’s up to DCUO or APB this year otherwise we can continue to hate SWTOR for having to wait till 2011 (or longer) to get our Jedi on with that title.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 03/31/2010.
Posted in: Featured, News, Video Tags: BioWare, DC Universe Online, DCUO, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

With gaming conference season kicking off again, BioWare is all over the gaming blogs due to GDC interviews about it’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m sure PAX will bring more info about the game, as will every other conference on the tour, so we’ll eventually see more details about the game come to light. However, I have a rather dreadful feeling about the game right now. This is a great introduction to the dreadful feeling, but I will of course expand on those thoughts.

EA seems to be throwing all their eggs in the SWTOR basket here, and honestly I think they are setting BioWare up to fail to meet their expectations. The core of the problem is that the scope of this thing is too big. AAA mmo’s are a big enough ordeal without trying the full voiceover/BioWare story approach as well. World of Warcraft’s success already sets a crazy feature scope for any new MMO to compete with, so adding your own innovations to that recipe complicates things even further. It requires huge teams, and truckloads of cash to even try to pull it off on a large scale. I saw a video a while back that showed just their writing team in a meeting, and the team was huge. It appeared that they had 12-15 (going from memory here) people on staff just to write for the game. I don’t even want to think of the money they are sinking in to voice acting either, let alone the other costs of development.

Such a big monetary investment is leading to the kinds of unrealistic expectations that give way to statements like this one that say, “…earnings are somewhat depressed due to ongoing expenses of the Star Wars MMO, management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible”. With all that time and money invested, I guess its no surprise that people are making these statements. They’ve put so much into this project that they probably really do have to achieve these kinds of numbers to recoup the investment.

I don’t see it happening. I don’t think the US MMO market is that big. WoW has what, 2-3 million subs in the US? So SWTOR is going to take ALL of those people away from that game? 1 million would be a big deal and something to be happy about, and keeping those after the first month would be an even bigger deal. Blizzard will not part with it’s subscriber base so easily either. I wouldn’t doubt some huge news about WoW or perhaps even about their next MMO that will keep their customer base loyal despite the new shiny SWTOR game coming out. Just releasing a good game will not be enough to dethrone the juggernaught, and let’s face it…they are talking about not only competing with WoW, but flat out beating it. If SWTOR gets it’s 2 million subs, who will be playing WoW? Not many people in that case.

The chances for any game (even one as good as SWTOR promises to be) to get 2 million subs is just an absolute stretch in my opinion. It’s a big bet to be placing, and one that I’d predict to turn out very badly when expectations are not met. The converse is that the market could grow, however unlikely that seems. I never thought the US MMO market could exceed 2 million for a single game back when EQ was making subscription record news of 400k years ago. Perhaps these 2 million subs EA is planning to get are from an expanded market? Or perhaps they are talking world wide subs? Let’s hope that they have something innovative up their sleeves in regard to pricing and subscription models to help this out, because 2 million subs and crazy expectations are just out in space if you ask me. They’d be better off by planning for the limited success that Warhammer Online had.

Will SWTOR be crushed under it’s own weight? Will EA’s expectations create additional problems for this game? This gamer thinks so, how about you?

~ br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 03/19/2010.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Opinion Tags: BioWare, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft

I have fallen in love with BioWare’s RPG’s. Many of you may have been experiencing the quality games they’ve been putting out for quite a while now, but I was a relative RPG newbie – until recently. I had not played Mass Effect 1, but had ME2 on pre-order, especially after having played Dragon Age: Origins. Nearly 3 weeks after I started the game, I have completely finished the game on Insanity difficulty twice. I did it first as a Sentinel and second as a Vanguard. I also played about half the game as an Adept, and a did a few recruiting missions as an Infiltrator. The moral of the story is that I played ME2 alot; I’ve played it daily since I purchased it and enjoyed it immensely.  I thought it was a bit too short, but I’ll not get into that too much as this isn’t a Mass Effect 2 review except to say that I loved the game.

I dove into ME2 so heavily because I wanted to gain some insight as to what the game play is like and to get a taste for next year’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. It has been stated that it will utilize the conversation wheel like ME2, and that seems to work just fine. However, there are more elements both games will have in common.  One of the first things I wondered upon seeing BioWare’s vision for the planet Coruscant was how Mass Effect 2 might give me an accurate feeling of what this “city world” might feel like. After playing it so much, I think Mass Effect 2 does a great job at clueing us in as to how these modern environments will feel in SWTOR. I also wondered if I might be able to get a feel for the Smuggler/Imperial Agent’s cover mechanic in ME2. It appears to me that ME2 shows pretty clearly what the urban Coruscant environment, cover mechanic and blaster fight style game play will feel like. First, look at the urban city world environment from Mass Effect 2 and then the Coruscant video from BioWare and compare:

Mass Effect 2′s “Thane recruitment” mission city scape:

Coruscant “city world” in Star Wars: The Old Republic:

I just have to believe that seeing ME2′s implementation of space age urban cities are exactly what we’ll experience in SWTOR. I realize that the performace issues will be different however. In ME2, I’m the only player connected to that world, but in SWTOR there will be thousands. But from a graphical rendering perspective, I got no graphical stuttering at all despite all the objects appearing on my screen and immediatly thought that my ME2 experience was probably a good preview of what my SWTOR experience might be like in Coruscant.

Next, check out the Smuggler’s cover mechanic:

Compare that to just about any mission in ME2:

You can jump straight to the combat part of the video above at 05:31 to see the cover mechanic in action during a firefight, or watch the whole thing to see some storyline and dialog wheel action as well. While the ME2 footage looks much better in my opinion, but it still illustrates the similarities. Playing a Smuggler/Imperial Agent in SWTOR will probably feel alot like playing Sheperd Mass Effect 2. You will find yourself pinned down with a hail of blaster fire whizzing around and you’ll likely only be able to get out with special moves and/or help from friends. Let’s just hope SWTOR feels more like ME2 at launch in that regard.

So there you have it. My recent (and very much enjoyed) stint with Mass Effect 2, and a few things that give us indicators of the great things to come in SWTOR.  These things indicated by my time in ME2 lead me to believe that we could be in for the next great MMO in 2011.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 02/16/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Misc, Opinion, Video Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

1.  PVP and PVE balance

Dismiss one play style or the other at your own peril.  There is a reason that games like Call of Duty have single player campaigns, and World of Warcraft has battlegrounds.  Both styles of game play provide a good mix of experiences for the player, and draw a wider range of gamers to a given title.  Having both in an online game seems just about mandatory for today’s games.

2. Apprentice/Sidekick System

For games with level based progression, this is vital.  This has more to do with traditional MMORPG style games than anything, but with a max level will ultimately have an end game to suit that level of player and probably some alternate method of progression to go with it.  For new players that come into a game where the player base is already mature, a sidekick/apprentice system is a godsend.  While you might still be largely left to toil away at your questing and mob killing anyway, you don’t always have to be left out of the fun your higher level friends are having.These systems aren’t perfect, but still very needed.  Even if your level and statistics are bumped up to your friend’s level, your gear or available skills are usually still that of the lowbie that you actually are.  In the end, you are usually a weaker version of those who are actually at the level you’ve been brought up to be.  There’s no developer that has pulled this off flawlessly (yet) but it is much better than not having the option to run that higher level content at all.

3.  Single Realm/World

While it is naive to think that these types of games are actually only supported by a single physical server, some games only offer one world/realm/shard selection.  They do this with with a complex configuration of servers, and it usually necessitates heavy use of instancing.  While some game developers pull it off better than others, there’s no mistaking that dealing with a bunch of instances or “zoning” is a headache for some players.

8. Integrated Voice chat, anti-cheat ware, update management, digital distribution, social networking and game play recording

These are all awesome features by themselves.  I’ve bundled them together here because there are already a few platforms out there that bring every single one of these to the table already.  Every game needs something to help manage player profiles, provide matchmaking capabilities (where applicable), manage their games, and to help players find and play with friends.  I can provide no better example of this than Valve’s Steam.  Blizzard plans to roll out a similar tool with their revamped Battle.net, and Xfire seems to be moving in this direction as well.  Having one place to log in and manage your games, your profile, groups you belong to (and much more) just brings so much value to the gaming experience that it is a must.

You also need tools to fight cheaters.  Blizzard has the controversial Warden.  Valve has VAC.  Others use Punkbuster, Hackshield, Gameguard or something similar.  Every online game needs a security measure built in, otherwise the cheating/hacking twirps of the world will begin running rampant in game.  Wall hacks, teleporting, speed hacks, currency and item duplication exploits are all things that will very quickly send the game into ruination if left unchecked.  Having the game’s launcher or other game management platform (think Steam) manage updates and patches to the game are also so very useful that they should be key parts of the game upon release, especially if you need to quickly distribute a patch to fix an exploit.

Recording game play from within the game is not a tried and true feature for online games.  However, the explosion of video sites and game related videos posted to them makes this something I’d personally like to see every online game provide.  New games like APB are setting themselves apart by adding the capability to record moments of the game and seamlessly add them to YouTube.  How cool is it to catch your guild downing a boss or capping that critical capture point for bragging rights?  Screenshots don’t do justice to the action in most games.

You need a platform to build and supply these services.  Basically, you need Steam or something like it associated with your game.  Not only are many MMO’s sold via Steam, but some new ones are Steam Powered, meaning the game itself is integrated with Steam’s features and benefit from all the platform brings to the table.

9. Game Integrated Web Site and Services and Apps

This probably has alot to do with the item above, as a full platform of tools like Steam would help with this, but not fully.  Features that should be offered like realm transfer (hopefully not necessary, see the single realm/shard paragraphs above), faction transfer, character customization change, name change, and other associated services should be available.  Character, guild, and item look ups should available along with zone, quest, skill/spell abilities, and bestiary.  See everquest2players.com and wowarmory.com for wonderful examples of how to extend an MMO to the web.  Consider a mobile phone app out there too, as Fallen Earth and World of Warcraft have done.

10. Variety of subscription/payment options

Last but certainly not least, flexible payment options are needed. Many people are tired of being tethered to a $15.00 a month subscription fee, as it may limit their ability to play multiple games.  Others like buffet style pricing and don’t want to feel “nickle-and-dimed” by item shops and constant sales pitches.  Modern games need to be flexible enough to provide both, lowering the barrier to entry to everyone yet still proving the stability of established subscription games.  I can find no better example of this than Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Do you agree or disagree with these items?  What features do you want to see in your games?

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 01/26/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion Tags: All Points Bulletin, BioWare, Blizzard, Cataclysm, Global Agenda, Modern Warfare 2, Steam, Valve, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft

As gamers we’ve all experienced the anticipation of a new game that we are really looking forward to playing. With that anticipation, we usually devour all the information we can get about a title. When a game company releases a cinematic intro for our anticipated game, we drool over how awesome the game will be based on how well the cinematic was done. Great cinematics for many games have been released, and I can tell you not one of them gives the average player a decent idea of what the actual game play is like. Game cinematics need to go away.

These cinematic movies are like concept cars at auto shows, they are merely showing you the future that will likely never come to pass. These cinematics often don’t accurately portray game mechanics or visuals, and I get that they usually aren’t intended to. They are there to get people excited for a given game, to raise interest and ultimately sell the game. They may serve that purpose somewhat, but they are misleading. They are the result of classic advertising, like the hamburger you see on TV looking nothing like the one you get served in the restaraunt. These cinematic intros are also expensive to make for the development studio, and are often done by a 3rd party.

I am far from an expert on high end cinematics, but it seems that these clips generally employ large amounts of computing power for high resolution graphics and animation. I also assume that the consumer level gaming rigs that could run a game with cinematic style graphics just doesn’t exist at an affordable price point. At this point, I also assume that it’s still to expensive and time consuming for game studios to even think about creating a game with these kinds of jaw dropping visuals anyway. If all those assumptions are even somewhat correct, it’s safe to say that these movies are unrealistic representations of the games they are made for, and there’s no way the game will come close to the visuals and epic feelings conveyed in most of these movies. For the most part, they are an injustice to the game and tough for the developers to live up to. See Warhammer Online’s first cinematic and gauge that against actualy game play and visuals. That cinematic featured two classes that didn’t even make it into the game at launch. Great cinematic quality, but poorly represented the game.

The most recent uber cinematic of recent memory is that of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m sure everyone under the sun has seen it, but if not you should take a peek at it to see my point:

The video above shows nothing of how the game will actually play or what the game actually looks like. However, the first time I saw this it got my heart racing. It is so well done, so epic feeling, that my fanboy meter shot through the ceiling. For this very reason, cinematics (at least for large AAA productions) are likely here to stay.

I think the perfect middle ground lies with the machinima artists of the world. Using the game’s very own engine and assets to produce a movie is a better bet in my opinion. That way, the graphics are not as misleading, and good story telling can still bring an epic feeling into play. I’ve noticed such a trend with Blizzard entertainment for example. While they have done the high quality cinematics before, they seem to be turning away from that and using their own game engine to produce the movies made for the game, ala Wrath Gate.

Do you agree? Should cinematics go away, or are you ok with them as they are? Should they change? Holla back.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 01/20/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Misc, Video Tags: BioWare, Blizzard, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

So the wait for SWTOR is almost over right? Wrong. It was widely rumored from EA chief John Rittecelo’s recent statement during an EA earnings meeting that SWTOR’s target launch date would be in the spring of 2011. I didn’t know how to feel about that statement as SWTOR wasn’t specifically named in his statement, but it was obvious that he was talking about that game. EA doesn’t have any other MMO with an equal or higher production value to potentially impact EA’s earnings the way SWTOR can, so that had to be it.

Today, BioWare confirmed that target date. Upon reading this I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced:

While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can’t wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details.

This one caught me off guard. I was fully convinced that BioWare had made more progress than they were leading on. They had announced beta sign ups a few months ago, released information on all the classes and most of the planets. I was sure beta would start in Q1 2010 and the game would launch mid to late 2010. To hear that their target date isn’t this year, confirms what many have predicted. SWTOR won’t launch till 2011, and possibly late in 2011 if typical MMO developers have shown us anything. Don’t be surprised to see that target date slip, EA has too much riding on SWTOR for it to be anything less than stellar so I’m sure BioWare has all the time they need to get it right.

Looks like 2010 is Blizzard’s year, again.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 5 comments on 01/12/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

Ah, the fabled quest. That one activity that’s prevalent through many games, both single player RPGs and MMOs. How far the “quest” has come from its early days.

Not to sound like an old man, but in my day we had to trudge across miles in Azeroth with no mount, and the snow weather system wasn’t even invented in the game yet! We had to read the quest log to get our clues! None of these fancy dancy wikis or quest helper mods were around to help us and none of those prissy sparkles to highlight a quest item! And when we finally returned back to the quest giver after running for days, all we got was 32 silver! And we did that hundreds of times because that’s the way it was and we liked it! We loved it!

The chat channels were always pounded by people asking for directions to certain quest areas or screaming for help to kill some elite mobs. There was no LFG interface then either, just the general and trade chat channels.

For any class-specific quests, players usually groaned at having to run around the zones in what inevitably meant hours of playtime devoted to those arduous quests. Need I remind you Shamans about the Call of Water quest chain?

Quest sparklies were not out yet then either. I remember spending hours in the Hinterlands as a herbalist, trying to spot the elusive Sungrass in amongst all the green grass texture. Looking back on that now, I think about all that time wasted. However back then, I willingly accepted that as just part of the game.

Nowadays we’re presented with an overwhelming amount of quest assistance. The quest window interface has gone through several changes as well to make the quest process easier and easier with each patch. The most recent patch 3.3 has adopted the quest map markers taken from many MMOs like Warhammer Online’s Tome of Knowledge and mods like the ever popular QuestHelper.

In addition to in-game assistance, there are now a multitude of game wikis and game databases out there that contain all the secrets and directions for any quest in the game. Have trouble finding a particular mob? In the past, it would mean screaming across the channels in hopes that someone else had found it. Nowadays, if you don’t alt-tab to one of these sites, you’ll get screamed at for being a noob who wastes everyone’s time. Ah, how far we’ve come along.

Why make the game easier?

With each development decision, game developers strive to make the quest process easier and less time consuming. Blizzard is infamous for this by “dumbing down” World of Warcraft by including with each patch quicker ways for people to level up. Whether it be including more and more quest assistance, allowing mounts at earlier levels, or even going as far as reducing the XP requirements per level.

Remember all those elite non-instance mobs you had to kill back in the day? Remember the Ruins of Alterac or Andorhal in the Western Plaguelands? Today, most of those mobs have been normalized and you’d be hard-pressed to see anything elite outside of a dungeon. Even dungeon bosses have had their HP reduced dramatically with each new expansion.

All of this is in response to players wanting their gaming experience to be quicker and easier. Where in the past it would have taken someone months to get a character to 60, now people seem to roll new alts to 60 within a matter of days and to 80 within a couple of weeks.

What does all this say about our society and expectations in games these days? Have our attention spans dropped that dramatically that game developers are willing to strip the challenge from their games? Or is it more an issue that the developers, in effort to keep players involved in their games, pave roads to each quest objective with bright neon signs and floating arrows? Personally I think it’s a little of both.

Part of me wonders if games of the future will eliminate quests entirely. If players are so eager to rush through these quests, why not just dump the whole mechanic and do something new? Part of me does worry that this might be the case, but I think we’ll see another evolution to the quest mechanic eventually. One example of this creative thinking is the steps Bioware is taking with SWTOR. By having fully voiced interactions with NPCs, we may just see players wanting to slow down and experience each quest like we did in the old days. Just like the motivation WoW players have for the Wrathgate questline.

In a way, we’re falling back to the roots of RPGs. Bringing back a focus on storyline and lore, rather than XP bonuses and mob kills. Maybe it won’t be so bad to spend hours doing one quest? Maybe it will become the new way and maybe we’ll love it!

- Rackham

© Posted by Rackham for Im Talkin Games with 7 comments on 12/09/2009.
Posted in: Comics, Featured, Funny Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

A few weeks ago I completed my first run through BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins on normal mode.  With Allister, Wynne, Morrigan and my rogue Bushwick grouped up we battled through all the campaigns. After winning the support of the mages, elves, dwarves and humans we descended upon the final battle.  We made our way through ogres and darkspawn to reach the top of the fort tower in Denerim to come face to face with the arch demon.  Everything was stacked against us, including the fact that I was out of lyrium potions for mage mana.  Obstacles be damned, we pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.

Check out the videos (two video play list in one embed) below with my play by play commentary of this epic win: And duh…spoiler warning…just in case you hadn’t figured that out yet.  If you don’t want to know how this fight plays out then don’t watch and have fun when you get there.  If you’d like to see a bit about what awaits you, or just to see the miracle I pulled off after running up to the archdemon rather blindly:

Two mages is key for this fight, and for that matter pretty much every encounter in Dragon Age. Force field and dispel magic are clutch, as well as healing spells, obviously. Remember to check out my previous post about 5 things you should know before playing DAO.  This game pretty much guaranteed EA/BioWare another 60 bucks of my paycheck once Mass Effect 2 launches.

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 12/05/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Video Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. Could it be because I have returned to creating web comics and blogs? Quite possibly.

First, let me make some introductions. I’m Greg Moran, a.k.a. Rackham, the newest addition to the I’m Talkin Games family. To quote Troy McClure, you may remember me from such former blogs as the Warhammer Online web-comic, Tome of Knowledge. During that time I wrote commentaries on the status of WAR with a strong emphasis on the lore and story in the Warhammer world. When I stopped playing WAR back in March I closed down my blog but continued on in other games including the ever popular World of Warcraft, and yes, even Wizards101. Still feeling the itch to write and draw web comics, I jumped at the chance when the ever great, br3ntbr0, offered me a place among his crack team of elite bloggers (team uniforms are sure to follow!).

So here is the first issue of a regular web comic feature I’m calling GRATS! You can expect to see in this comic all things gaming and geek all rendered in digital art form. I’m wanting to poke fun at everything from “Star Trek vs. Star Wars” to MMO gamer culture. I’m hoping to post these up in a regular fashion so be sure to check back often for future issues!

As my first comic suggests, I’m eagerly awaiting several things on the gaming horizon. World of Warcraft takes up my current Triple-A MMO slot at the moment with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion high on my list of things to buy. Keeping within the Blizzard family, Diablo 3, is also looking too good to pass up. Who doesn’t want to lay out some mindless, mouse-clicking frenzy, mayhem as the Monk, Barbarian, Mage, or Witch Doctor?

As my comic also suggests, the Force is strong in me. It must be, because where else would I get the strength to resist marching down to Bioware, crash down those doors, and absorb every ounce of Star Wars: The Old Republic goodness that they are cooking down there? Everything I have seen from this game has caused that young 10 year old in me with star wars bedsheets to squeal in joy. For a time I couldn’t decide between this MMO and Star Trek Online, but lightsabers beat out phasers for this geek. The jury is still out on whether I’ll go Republic or Empire, but I’m looking at everything with heavy anticipation. I still have my doubts though. We have all seen such promise before with other games only to leave disappointed or frustrated. Only time will tell. Only then will we see if Balance returns to the Force.

Until then you can find me mostly in Azeroth, but also playing in Wizards101 with my son. And be sure to keep watch for me here for more web comics!

- Rackham

© Posted by Rackham for Im Talkin Games with 8 comments on 11/30/2009.
Posted in: Comics, Featured, Funny Tags: BioWare, Blizzard, Cataclysm, GRATS!, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

Last night brought me to the completion of the main story line in Dragon Age: Origins.  I had alot of fun with this game, and while some parts seemed a bit drawn out, the end campaign was not.  I’ll post full spoilers and video in another post, but for now I thought I’d take the time to pass along some useful information that I would have liked to have known before getting started.  There’s shouldn’t be much in the way of spoilers below, but if you get satisfaction out of doing it all on your own (even if it means making some mistakes) then you might want to pass on reading the rest.  If you could stand to know 5 things that might help your adventure, then take in the items below:

• You can re-specialize your character, or any character in your party.
  While the core game does not provide a way to easily do it by default, you can download this modification from the BioWare Social Network’s projects area.  In reading up on this topic,  I found that is not recommended to use the console to do it as some have.  I’ve used this mod and it worked flawlessly, so I recommend the mod install route, as it works just like installing DLC does.  It places a Raven at your camp (or by the load in area for the Flemeth’s hut area) that you can talk to for a re-spec.  You select the first dialog option to get a potion of re-specialization that you can use to relearn all those skills and talents, so if you messed up and explored a specialization or talent that you regret, you can correct it.  If you are like me and think Morrigan’s shape-shifting skills are not as useful as the Spirit Healer skills are, you can correct that too.  Just make sure you’ve unlocked a specialization before you unlearn it, or you’ll have Allister unable to learn how to be a Templar like I did.  Luckily the book for that one is at the camp’s vendor!

  Tips:  You can re-spec Ohgren from 2-handers to shields for tanking, since you have to take him to certain fights in the Dwarf campaign.  That way you can sit Allister on the bench, especially useful if you want to keep 2 mages in your group.  Also, there is another download in the projects area that will put a chest in your camp that you can use to store items.

• You only need basic Health and Lyrium potions, and you can have them in unlimited supply.
  With basic herbalism you can make these crucial potions in nearly unlimited supply.  Go to the Elf (Brecilian Forest) and Mage (Circle Tower) campaign areas and talk to the quartermaster/vendor there and buy Lyrium dust and Elfroot in unlimited supply.  In the tavern in Denerim you can buy unlimited flasks.  Buy all the stacks you can afford and crank out as many potions you need to ease the burden of healing, crowd controlling and damage on the Mage(s) in your party.  Your Rogues and Warriors will be able to use the health potions quite regularly as well.  Rinse and repeat as  you run low on potions.  There are areas where you can buy unlimited reagents for the larger potions if you wish to go that route, but that is a more expensive thing to do and you can get by without them.

  
  Tip:  Need room for all those potion materials?  Check the full item list of any vendor you interact with, some of them sell backpacks that will add to the total amount of items you can hold at once.  The Dwarf vendor in your camp has one.

• Two Mages are better than one, so pick up Wynne as soon as you can.
  Wynne is a playable party member you pick up during the Circle of Mages campaign. I recommend going to gather that part of your army first since she is there, and so is your unlimited supply of Lyrium dust for mana potions.  Wynne is already specialized into Spirit Healing, but you can change that (see above) later if you wish.  With Wynne and Morrigan re-specialized in Spirit Healing for group support you will struggle less to get through the tough encounters.  You won’t regret having not one – but two – resurrection spells to cast in some of your fights.  If you don’t mind tripping over traps and leaving many doors and chests unlocked because you don’t have a Rogue, you can play a Mage yourself and have 3 in the party!

  Tip: Get one Mage into cold and one Mage into telekinetic spells and have your mages sustain force and cold weapon buffs for your Rogues and Warriors.

• Crowd control is key, and AOE damage is icing on the cake.
  Mages are pretty much the way to go here (see two mages are better than one above), but which skills you choose for Mages is even more critical.  Force field, Cone of cold, Crushing prison and other spells like Blizzard and Fireball for AOE damage also have crowd control components.  You can light the slippery AOE grease spell on fire with any fire spell for the double whammy.  Blood magic specialization has a great crowd control spell, with quick re-use for creatures that have blood – like Darkspawn.  Its not only Mages that are useful here, as your tank’s shield bash or two handed pummel will knock enemies down for s short period.  Shield bash can also interrupt that Ogre from pounding your healer into the Dust too.

  Tips: When faced with a group of nasties coming at you, one or two of them are usually tougher than the rest.  Look for baddies with a yellow or orange colored name, and use force field or crushing prison to take these guys out of the fight while you kill the rest.  Better yet, when a Mage (or anyone in your party) gets aggro and is about to die, have another mage put a force field on them since you can put it on party members to make them invulnerable as well.  When the mob leaves, have the other mage dispel the force field to put them back in action!

• Learn to use your tactics, and the pause and escape keys are your friends.
  I started using tactics way too late in the game, but these basically allow you to program the behaviors of the party members you aren’t controlling at that moment.  You can set Mages with healing spells to heal anyone under 75% health, and you can have Mages drink potions when under 75% mana – automatically.  Have your characters apply the buffs they have automatically with tactics too.  There is much more you can do to program behavior so that these common things you’ll constantly do will happen without you having to do them.  The fights can get large and hectic with many things happening at once.  Not only will tactics help, but so does pausing.  Use the pause button (space bar by default) to plan out every move you need to make to get through a tough fight.  Also, use the escape key to skip dialog.  While the story is great, there are some parts where you just don’t want to hear it.  When you go to the same vendor 20 times in a game, you probably don’t want to hear his diatribe just to see what he’s got to sell.

  Tip:  You can set the game to automatically pause the game when combat starts.  This will help you visually locate and assess the bad guys.  Preparing for that Mage’s fireball by running other people out of the way or crowd controlling them to prevent it are much easier things to do when you pause first.  Having the game automatically do it for you helps you get a jump on the action.

Well that about wraps up the tips.  I hope these help you on your journey in Fereldon without spoiling too much of the game for you!

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 4 comments on 11/24/2009.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion, Tips Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG

From the land of der wienerschnitzel we get some leaky updatege about BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. Apparently PC Gamer magazine in Germany got the rights to an exclusive on SWTOR’s last two remaining classes, and the latest issue of that magazine tells us (albeit in German) the scoop on what these two new classes are likely to be.

An industrious fan scanned images from the magazine in anonymous style, and posted the scanned images online. I took the liberty to download and provide those here for your viewing pleasure in case those disappear into the void of the internets. The classes by the way are the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor, and this has been confirmed in an interview at Darth Hater with LucasArts producer Jake Nerri. This means that 4 of the 8 classes in SWTOR will be of the force using variety.

As fans tend to be, some are a bit dismayed at this news. Moon Over Endor is contemplating an end to their blog because of the news, while Bio Break is a bit crabby this morning and thinks 50% light sabers are not so good either. I consider myself a fan, but I am not bothered about these classes as announced. I theorized in earlier post comments about what the last 2 classes might be, and figured that in true MMO style that they would either be pet classes or healing classes. Since I don’t read German I can’t be sure, but my guess is that the Templar and Inquisitor are indeed healy types.

I don’t know why I should be bothered that they are force types. Even if BioWare can’t make them stand apart from the Knight and Warrior (unlikely!) it isn’t a big deal to me, the game still looks like it will be great. After logging quite a few hours in Dragon Age: Origins, I have faith that BioWare will provide fantastic voice acting and story for every class no matter which classes we choose to play. For me, this doesn’t ruin a thing.

So what say you? Fail for too many force classes, or are you unshaken by this news?

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 11/23/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

One week ago BioWare announced the Imperial Agent class at a press event in Europe. Today they published an official holonet entry on the swtor web site showing the Imperial Agent in all his glory, complete with stun darts, force fields and air strikes. Check out the 3 short clips showing off these abilities below:

The Imperial Agent appears to be the Empire’s version of the Rebellion’s Smuggler class, as evidenced by the shared cover mechanic. The cover mechanic can be seen in the video clips accompanying the holonet entry, where the green silhouette indicating positions to take cover can be seen. Both classes appear to use cover and ranged combat, while the Imperial Agent uses more conventional attacks and the Smuggler subscribes to a swift kick in the groin.

This reveal is icing on the cake since we already knew of the class but had no details surrounding his combat tactics, outfitting and focus on recon. We have a better understanding of what the Imperial Agent brings to the table (omg air strikes) and can now look forward to the last 2 classes to be revealed. From here, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the next two will be. So, do you like the Imperial Agent? Think you know what the next two classes will be? Sound off in the comments below and let us know!

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 5 comments on 11/13/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News, Video Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

Confessions of an RPG Virgin
I was not interested in playing Dragon Age Origins, even through all the pre-launch hype and marketing blitz. I’m a multiplayer kind of guy, and sadly there is no multiplayer in Dragon Age. It’s a single player only game, and my frame of refernce to these kinds of games have been set by my experiences with games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft. My first RPG was an MMORPG. When I first logged into EverQuest some years ago, I was amazed to see all these other players running around and doing their MMORPG things. They were doing their own quests and slaying their own monsters, and I could join them if we both agreed. I was soon raiding with my newfound online friends, and I brought that love of online gaming with me through everything I’ve played ever since. Playing a single player game like this was a sub par experience as far as I was concerned. The explosion of MMORPG’s on the market really makes that point for me, people like playing with other people.

I love multiplayer games because I enjoy interacting with other people in games, and I feel that scripted NPC’s just don’t do it for me. It’s merely a matter of time and some trial and error before I conquer any type of player versus environment (PVE) content. Against other players however, tactics and play style change. We learn from our mistakes and challenge each other (or work cooperatively) in ways that programmed characters simply cannot. There are some good players that I will never beat, no matter how much trial and error I have fighting them.

MMORPG minus the MMO
Despite my love for multiplayer games, it’s been a great change to take the MMO out of the MMORPG game right now. There are many benefits for a long time MMORPG gamer when playing these kinds of single player RPG games. Need a bathroom break, or want to stop to eat lunch? Pause. There’s no need to tell teammates that you are AFK, making them wait for your return or to find a replacement. My NPC team mates wait as long as I need them to wait. If I made a key decision that I regret, I can simply load up a saved game and try the other path.

While playing with friends is still a key component of gaming for me, I must say that it is quite refreshing to sit down for a gaming session and not see something like “lulz”, “wtf”, “chuck norris pwnz” or any sort of juvenile internet speak flying across my screen. There are no loot ninjas to worry about, no getting ganked in the middle of my quest, and no having to run back for minutes just to pick up where I left off. I know that most of that can be avoided in most games with some effort, but Dragon Age: Origins is just what the doctor ordered for me right now. It’s the RPG without the MMO, and it feels like its just what PC gamers need right now.

As much as I love not having to deal with the sewage of juvenile personalities crowding the virtual space of nearly every MMORPG out there right now, I do  miss being unable to experience with friends playing with me. It would be really nice if those other players in my small band of adventurers were some friends of mine instead of computer controlled artificial intelligence. If only there was a game like this out there right now.  A game that tries to bridge this type of RPG experience with an MMO game, allowing those shared experiences. None exist now, but can SWTOR can be the answer here? If it is, we’ll surely see the next big thing to hit MMO gaming next year.

Putting the MMO back into the RPG
I decided to try Dragon Age Origins for MMO reasons, reasons that have so much to do with my love of multiplayer games and Star Wars. BioWare happens to be launching the most anticipated MMORPG in recent history, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I will be playing that game when it launches, so I wanted to see how well BioWare delivers on the “4th pillar” of story in their games. Not only had I never played a pure RPG game, but I had also never played a BioWare game. It was time to kill two birds with one stone.

I purchased DA:O on launch day and I have not played anything else since then. I’ve put in some late nights and I have been really hooked. I’m not necessarily reviewing the game (yet) but I will say that there is much to like in this game and you’ll likely see it snatch up numerous game of the year awards. I’ve progressed quite a way through the main story arc to this point, the result of a monster (pun intended) session till 2 a.m. Saturday night Sunday morning. I very much like this game, despite the poor lip syncing and ever present long-and-drawn-out voice acting. The space bar (pause) and escape key (skip dialog) are my friends. I have been in single player RPG mode for a week now and have been happy without the MMO part. I’ve been itching to do some battlegrounds in World of Warcraft and to beat a few more zombies with a frying pan in LF4D2′s demo, but I have wanted to explore and progress in Dragon Age: Origins more.

Good news for SWTOR fans
Dragon Age Origins has been a gripping experience for me. It’s taken hold of me and provided me with a whole lot of entertainment, with much more waiting over the horizon. This bodes well for BioWare’s upcoming SWTOR MMORPG. I think that I can safely say that things look even more promising for SWTOR than I had originally imagined. If BioWare takes this style of story driven game play and applies it to the leveling process of SWTOR, they will likely have the next 1 million plus subscriber game on their hands. Its a refreshing change from the standard MMORPG, and I think its becoming very clear that BioWare can indeed apply what they do well to their upcoming MMORPG. Playing Dragon Age: Origins has been extremely enjoyable and further increases my anticipation for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

-br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 4 comments on 11/09/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Impressions, Opinion Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

The web will soon be filled with blogs about the game’s greatness, it’s incredible lore, it’s nostalgic throwback to CRPGs of old, and hot elf-on-girl action (that’s right, Bioware got dirty again).  Pete will likely not come up for air until he’s beaten it.  And I’ve also got the game downloading at home while I work.  Provided my crappy connection stays fit, I should be delving into the world with my dwarven warrior later this evening.

I remember my first days of true PC gaming spent huddled over the keyboard and plugging hour after hour into Black Isle Studios’ original Baldur’s Gate.  I know, I’m the resident tyke here at ITG! but what better games to cut my teeth on than some of the best CRPGs ever made?  And today sees a hopeful return to form for the genre that the early 2000s seemed to have forgotten, and if all goes well, we’re bound to see more quality epic RPGs released in the future.

So let’s use this post as a place to geek-gasm about Bioware’s latest opus.  What are you playing as first?  What system are you playing on?  What do you think of the naked elf women?  And for those of us stuck at work, if you’re home playing it, stop by and make us more jealous by reveling in the game’s glory via text, won’t you?

- JoBildo

© Posted by JoBildo for Im Talkin Games with 8 comments on 11/03/2009.
Posted in: Misc Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG

I don’t know that I can recall a web site that has been probed, combed over, and generally watched like a hawk as much as swtor.com has been.  It definitely rivals what Blizzard’s fans have done with the worldofwarcraft.com site at least, if not exceeding the fanatic expectation of updates even further.  In my opinion, this type of anticipation only proves to show that BioWare has to face the crushing weight of fan expectation every step of the way in this game’s development.  Here’s to hoping they can hold up.

Speaking of fan anticipation, DarthHater is reporting that an investigative fan’s snooping around of BioWare’s Drupal based swtor.com web site yielded a few interesting images and also uncovered a flash animation of a Jedi Knight.  This style of animation is consistent with the other class pages on the site and definitively signals that BioWare is going to announce the Jedi Knight as a playable class (duh) at some point. 

*Update* The flash animation was removed and since I didn’t download it to my computer and host it elsewhere, now that they’ve removed it I can’t show you any more.  The image above is a screen shot of the flash animation file, where the Jedi was doing flips and swinging his saber.  I make the bold prediction that these files will be back in an official update on the swtor site this Friday, because I’m psyco psychic like that.

I would ask if you are looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I think I already know the answer to that.  I think a few of us at ITG are soundly in the SWTOR fanboy club already.

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 10/28/2009.
Posted in: News, Opinion Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

BioWare appears to really be bringin’ it with Dragon Age Origins.  Not to be outdone by Torchlight, Dragon Age Origins is offering an advanced software tool to download which will enable the average Joe like you and me to create “cut scenes, audio/visual effects, conversations, level creation and much more.”  Perhaps you need to be a little more technically savvy than the average Joe, but hopefully you get the point.  The tool set has documentation online here, and really looks to tap into the player generated content that made games like Neverwinter nights so popular.  Check out the clip below which showcases the tools:

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 10/26/2009.
Posted in: Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Runic Games, Torchlight