© 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

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

The 1st Annual 2009 Golden Noob Awards

In the same vein as every ceremony that awards a trophy to an actor or musician we bring you ITG’s 1st annual game awards: The Golden Noob Awards! The Golden Noob is a virtual trophy awarded by ITG staff every year as a way to bestow praise (or disdain) upon the games that have crossed our paths in the year that was. Getting a Golden Noob trophy is an honor (or disgrace, depending on why it is awarded) to receive because we are all gamers as well as writers.

Without further delay, here are the ITG staff picks for game of the year, as well as our picks in other categories that we formulated to cover our 2009 gaming experiences. Keep in mind that some of us own consoles, some don’t. Some of us have played certain titles, and some of us didn’t have it in our budgets to play everything out there. We all own PC’s, but please understand that there are many games we haven’t played. These picks cover the things we experienced, and some really good (or bad) games might be left out. Not all games were necessarily launched in 2009, but had an impact on us enough to warrant them finding an award in this post. That said, let’s begin!

Category: Let down of the year. The nominees:

Br3ntbr0 – Aion
Aion was so predictable to me. Flashy graphics with metro-sexual, emo-styled characters and an over abundance of grind. A few gimmicks were there to keep a few hundred thousand around for a while, but that will be crushed under Blizzard’s Cataclysm boot and be in the same boat as Warhammer. I knew it wasn’t the game for me, and that it was very likely to contain all the MMO things that Koreans like and Americans don’t. After reading story after story about boredom, grind fests, PVP problems and the like…no other game can claim this title. I’m glad I resisted the urge to buy this game, simply because it was the popular game to jump to in September. Honorable mentions go out to Warhammer Online, Fallout 3 and Champions Online.

Rackham – Warhammer Online
For me it was Warhammer Online. We all believed the hype and drooled at the IP, but at the end of the day, technical issues and lack of end game draw was enough for me to leave it. It was a gorgeous game and the PVP mechanics are unmatched, but it just was lacking that special something.

Oakstout – Champions Online
Champions Online was a fun and enjoyable game, but overall it felt like a game rushed out the door. It felt like City of Heroes 2, not that this is a bad thing, but it wasn’t going to pull people away from an already well established game, which would have been their core player. It had quest progression issues that left people grinding mobs just to level up without anything substantial for them to do at end game. It was pretty and there were nice effects, but if you don’t have the content to keep people interested your going to lose players. To be honest, it seemed more like a game to generate money while Cryptic worked on bringing Star Trek Online to the masses.

Kaldeem – Warhammer Online
I’d have to agree on this one, as I pre-ordered WAR only to play for 3 months and cancel my subscription. While yes War was fun and a bit different, I think there was more hype then potential in this game, and I hate to see something with so much potential go to such a waste.

Carlosjuero – Aion
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at how disappointed I was with Aion – it was truly over hyped for a game that already was released and doing ‘well’ in Asia. That said I did jump in hoping to be proved wrong – sadly, the anticipation I felt for the game for years died out within a few weeks into Beta. While some of the ideas are interesting (Flight), it just has this feel of… well.. mediocrity. Top it off with a community that can, at times, but ‘The Barrens Chat’ to shame – this game definitely is the Bomb of the Year. (Close second: Champions Online)

JoBildo – Champions Online
I wanted to love this game so badly. Part of me still does. The character creator is amazing, the combat can be a lot of fun, and the Crisis Zones are a good way to do story-driven content. But the bugs, the lack of documentation, the rubber-banding, the lack of content in the mid-levels, and of course the infamous launch day patch made this a game I’ll probably check in on from time to time, but never really dig into the way I’d once hoped to.

Genda – Aion
What can I say. Not really surprised here as this was obviously the Flavor of the Month from the get-go. I’m sure it has a lot to recommend it, but I stand by my original call on The Grouchy Gamer. The two biggest things going against it are the Asian influence (the grind) and the PVP-dependency. I still don’t think you can have a persistent world that is based around PVP because of balancing (classes and factions) and lack of actual content. Not hard to see this one coming, obviously if I did.

Winner: Aion.

Category: Surprise of the year. The nominees:

Br3ntbr0 – Dragon Age: Origins
There were a few things I didn’t think were all that great about dragon age, but let me stress the word few. I know its hard to believe that I was surprised by a game so highly hyped and advertised before its launch, but I was someone who wasn’t even really looking forward to playing the game. Maybe I was so surprised because I had never played a BioWare RPG game before, but I was really sucked into this game. I enjoyed the story lines and played through the entire campaign twice. I was really surprised at how much I liked the combat. It was very tactical, but didn’t make me feel like there was more going on than I could handle. It came very close to being my game of the year, and the only reason I didn’t make it my game of the year was that it was such a surprise that I liked it so much. So, I made the surprise of the year category and it fit here just perfect for me. Honorable mentions go out to Modern Warfare 2, Dungeons and Dragons Online (post f2p change), and Torchlight.

Rackham – Wizards 101
Yes, you heard me right! My son was getting bored of his “kids’ MMO”, Fusion Fall, when I decided to look into this game as a possible alternate. I found myself enjoying this game so much that I signed up for two accounts right away. One for my son, and one for me. After showing the game to my (very non-gamer) wife, she was immediately drawn in. Not long after, I found my current Wizards101 account hijacked by my wife and we ended up buying the family subscription to the game. Any MMO that has my ENTIRE family playing together online is something short of miraculous. For those enticed by that story, Wizards 101 is definitely a kids game, but works on a card-combat mechanic. If you’ve ever longingly looked at all those old Magic: the Gathering cards collecting dust on your shelf, then be sure to check this game out. You’ll be hooked during the first tutorial mission!

Oakstout – Torchlight
I can’t say enough about this little game. It is everything a Diablo successor should be and more. So many great innovative features from having a pet that will run to town and sell items out of your inventory to being able to have an account bank that lets you trade items among your different toons. The graphics are superb and don’t require a massive machine to run. It is a great hack and slash game that is easy to get into and out of without too much trouble and for $20.00 it’s a steal.

Kaldeem – Dungeons and Dragons Online:Eberron Unlimited
While I haven’t gotten far in DDO, this is by far the most fun I’ve had in a MMO in a while. The graphics are grade A even comparable to Wow/War. Huge player base from what I can tell and is just really well done. WELL DONE!

Carlosjuero – Torchlight
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by this game considering the development team (creative minds behind Mythos, and many Diablo development vets) – I was blown away at how fun it was to just dive into and go around chopping things up. Sure, long term-playability (vanilla) isn’t great – but it is an awesome game for a low budget indie title. With a toolset released that is the same as used to develop the game, this game has a ton of potential.

Jobildo – Batman: Arkham Asylum
So many comic book games are utter garbage. Batman has never had a hit, and the closest I’d say he’s come was the movie tie-in of Batman Returns back on the SNES. So I was admittedly skeptical that an unknown studio could make a stellar game based on the Caped Crusader. But the blend of stealth, action, puzzle solving, and story-telling (not to mention a really well done focus on Bruce Wayne’s gadgetry) made this one of my favorite games of this and recent years.

Genda – Torchlight
OK it’s not Diablo, and it’s kinda smallish. But for $20 you can’t find more bang for your gaming buck. Hack and slash your way to the bottom of the dungeon and collect your phat lewts. If this had multiplayer it would probably be my GOTY.

Winner: Torchlight

Category: Best game I didn’t play. The nominees:

Br3ntbr0 – Borderlands
Borderlands looked like a unique game. Cooperative games like Left 4 Dead scratched my small group itch very well, and this game appeared to be in the same mold. I watched plenty of footage, read many articles and followed this game closely. Alas, my budget didn’t allow me to grab this one as it launched in a period when many games were coming to market. Honorable mention goes out to Fallen Earth, but my lack of enthusiasm for post apocalyptic games is very low. However, I have yet to hear any knowledgeable gamer say anything very bad about it.

Rackham – Dragon Age: Origins
I’m breaking from my standard mold by not being one of the millions out there playing this game. If that response sparks the “Aww man! You REALLY gotta try this game!” response in you, then fret not. I may give the game a go around Christmas. Nobody can top Bioware in storytelling, and eventually I’ll cave in and experience this game to the fullest.

Oakstout – Dawn of War 2
Dawn of War 2 is at heart a RTS game that is trying really hard to break into the RPG genre. You can level up your main character, adjust stats, load in and out different squad mates for specific missions and there lots of great loot to be shuffled around. But like all things, I purchased it at the beginning of the year right around the time I got back into World of Warcraft so its been sitting on the hard drive collecting virtual dust, but it is a great game and well worth picking up.

Kaldeem – Tie: Dragon Age/Torchlight/L4D2
Here are three titles that I really want but didn’t get to buy (so far) and have plans on picking them up in the next few months. Not much more to say about these titles but I can ogle a bit for visual effect?

Carlosjuero – Left 4 Dead 2
This iteration of Left 4 Dead seems to build on the promise that the first one just hinted at, with more ‘long term’ love available I think. With all of the hoopla about the ‘Boycott’ the gaming world certainly turned around quick and L4D2 is one of the top played games on Steam (at least in my friends list) from what I have noticed.

Jobilido – Borderlands
I didn’t completely avoid Borderlands. I own it, in fact. But I’ve yet to really dig into it, despite my friends’ begging and pleading that I do. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to see why a game that blends the loot and leveling addiction of the Diablo series with the run and gun action of Gearbox’s other titles might make for one hell of a co-op experience. I’ll get around to enjoying this one in 2010… maybe.

Genda – Dragon Age: Origins
Just didn’t have time to play it right now. From the looks of the blogosphere and the outrageous amount of attention this got in my Twitter circle, this was an amazing release. I’ll probably give this a look down the line although single-player RPG’s haven’t ever really been my cup of tea. I’ve been able to avoid spoilers thanks to most of the bloggers being really good about posting spoiler alerts. Thanks guys!

Winner: Dragon Age: Origins

Category: 2009 overall game of the year. The nominees:

Br3ntbr0 – Left 4 Dead 2
I’m a huge fan of valve games. Team fortress 1 and 2 will make the top of my all time favorite games lists, and so will Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. Valve continued their great game making by taking a fantastic game and improving and expanding on it in some very good ways. The characters are funny and likeable (Coach’s “one man cheeseburger apocalypse” makes me laugh every time I hear it), the new game play modes add strategic twists to already fun game play, the weapons are just flat out better, and the new special infected shake things up in new, fun and challenging ways. The upcoming Midnight Riders DLC already gives more to look forward to in this game. There’s just not been anything better in 2009 than finding 3 strangers to battle zombie hordes with. If only more on the ITG staff played, we’d have our own regular squad! While some might argue against this game citing “more of the same” I’d just say to each his own. These are opinions we are each entitled to have, and this was – in my opinion – the best game I played in 2009.

Rackham – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Any game that can keep me returning back to the running treadmills for 5 years must have something going for it. The game has grown to such a degree that it is the benchmark by which other MMOs are measured, whether they intend to or not. Eventually the ivory tower may crack as eventually others games with much more creative thinking behind it will eventually chip away at it. Either that or Blizzard employees will drown to death in their massive stacks of money.

Oakstout – Dragon Age: Origins
This game wasn’t even on my radar. Sure, Pete would blog about it every other day, but still, nothing I would really see myself playing. I’d tried Mass Effect and wasn’t into the whole dialog tree of gaming. If I wanted to read, I would pick up a good book, not play a video game. However, this game is awesome. The dialog is fun and helps propel the story forward as opposed to bogging it down. There are a number of different characters you can play and each story is unique. The best part of the story telling is that it is a doorway to the best part of the game, the fighting. The game is full of the best action I’ve seen in a game in a very long time and it gets pretty tense and hairy at times. Although the game is available for many console systems, I chose the PC version because it gives you the ability to pause the action anytime to reassign melee attacks and spell casting so you can best protect your little adventuring group. The game is full of surprise and it looks fantastic. They did a very good job on the graphics and sound for this game. I can’t think of any other game that I would even consider for game of the year.

Kaldeem- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Yeah, I would have to agree with Rackham here. I like Wow, and had HIGH hopes for Wotlk upon rushing to Walmart and spending my last $50 on this, I mean it was freaking great the first time I hit 80, and yeah…treadmills suck in real life, and that carries over in game also! Still my GOTY vote!

Carlosjuero – Dragon Age: Origins
I am a complete ‘fanboi’ when it comes to this game, and I am not afraid to admit it! I haven’t played an RPG in many years that drew me in as much as this one has – from the choices that have to be made (some of which may not be your particular cup of tea) to the in depth characters and story… Dragon Age delivers on all levels for me.

Jobildo – Dragon Age: Origins
BioWare has consistently made the best and most engaging role-playing experiences since 1990s and this trend doesn’t change with the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate. I’d even be bold enough to say that Dragon Age bests the classic Black Isle Studios series to the point where I won’t go back every couple years to play them, and instead I’ll be taking a trip down memory lane by diving into Ferelden once in a blue moon. BioWare’s at the top of their game these past few years, and if Mass Effect 2 is as good as Dragon Age is, I’ll be even more excited to see what the Canucks bring to the MMOG table with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Genda – Borderlands
I haven’t played this as much as I’d like but the multiplayer is a freaking blast. Good story, good music, fun gameplay. All in all a good run at a console game. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to next year to see what rises up. Some really good games this year, but I’m hoping for greatness in 2010. Especially if Bioware comes through and if Cataclysm is as big an improvement over WOTLK as Wrath was over TBC.

Winner: Dragon Age: Origins

So there you have it. The gamers have spoken, and BioWare’s RPG comes out huge with 2 Golden Noob awards and positive mentions in other categories. Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, Torchlight and World of Warcraft come away with positive mentions as well.

What do you think? Agree or disagree with these nominations and the chosen winners? Let us know!

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 12/07/2009.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion Tags: All Points Bulletin, Awards, BioShock 2, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, Global Agenda, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, Torchlight, World of Warcraft, WoW

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

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

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