Yes, after much waiting and anticipation, I finally got my hands on the game of the season - Dragon Age Origins, thanks to one kind vendor who had managed to ship it down. I started the game and yesterday and it's been 10 hours of game now. What do I think of it? Well, so far it's not quite the game the hype made it to be.

The game universe is quite large, not very different from the Oblivion or Fallout games. It's the basic fantasy role playing game, with all it's machinery. The storyline is darker and more engaging than Oblivion and the game seems more story driven than Oblivion... In a way, I think it's a good thing, since I can enjoy the storyline and not be distracted to hell, like I got in both Oblivion and Fallout 3. The combat system is much better than Oblivion and allows for more satisfying battles, rather than the half hearted attempts in Oblivion. Also, the inventory management and Quest/Information management feels more comfortable.

On the flip side however, the game scales much less. Frames rates dropped at 1280x1024 resolution with no bells and whistles and it still looked worse than CoD 4 at the same setting. I could even crank up CoD4's setting with x2 AA and x2 AF and still enjoy a stutterless experience. The textures were incosistent - there was smooth texturing for most part, but there were places where the bad texturing became an eyesore.

The game is also pretty glitchy. The character would get caught on the edges of obstacles, like logs or rocks. You wouldn't even notice that there is an obstacle there and yet find your character stuck. I found the other obvious glitch when I was fighting a large monster. The monster would strike the ground long after I had moved away from the spot and yet I would lose HP... or it would do a headbutt and I'd easily dodge it; the monster would ram into the wall, but still my character took the toll. Pretty irritating that.

Overall, except for the combat system and a more streamlined storyline, I find little that stands out in the hype fest. Of course, it is not bad... in fact far from it, but then it's not all that revolutionary or stands-out-of-the-crowd kinda game, either.

I'd give it somewhere between 8 and 9. However, I have to play the game more to actually find out how good it. Storylines are an important factor for such games, and a good one can surely sway my opinion... just the way Mass Effect did(having little novelty and not a very deep gameplay, but an incredibly awesome storyline)

How did you find the game?

See you next time... probably with the review.

My vacation's begun. Actually it began a week ago, but my net decided to give me the run when it went bust on the second day of my vacation. Took a week to get it ready and here I am. I've been playing a few games at this time, especially revisiting older titles, that were gathering dust in the shelves. And I finished Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts(which I started exactly a year ago, right down to give or take two days last year)

And here's the review of CoH: OF. Read and comment. Rec it if you like:

Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts review

More news soon!

I've decided to make a weekly blog... just to keep my blog updated. Actually I had planned to do it yesterday but forgot, as I was busy writing a review for Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords which you can read here. Read and reccomend it if you like it. It is quite long and objective but I've quite a lot of info into it.

Games

I've been playing Dead Space for about a week now and I'm nearing the end. And what a game! It surely takes the top honours of its genre.

Books

Got the Inheritance trilogy(Eragon series) the day before yesterday and have started reading the first book Eragon. The plot's delving deeper but I've hardly grazed the surface. I also bought another book 'One Night at a Call Centre' by Chetan Bhagat... an Indian author. It's supposedly a good book but I don't know how many ppl have heard of it.

Movies

Now what did I watch last week... ah yes! I watched Departed. Great movie. Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon literally smoked the scenes with their great acting. Even though Di Caprio was good, I felt he could have done better as he is capable of more.

Gamespot and E3

No, this is not a detailed E3 analysis, so don't cringe. I watched the Microsoft and Nintendo press conferences. Nintendo's wasn't very interesting(God, some of their presenters looked lioke they were in terrible pain) but MS sizzled. I've got high hopes for Modern Warfare 2 and I'm also intrigued by Project Natal. Good going MS, but get your consoles fixed first before you go for new ventures.
Accursed GS has not given me the Nintendo emblem yet and I wonder if they're even gonna give it. Maybe they'll eat it just as they did for my Best of Gamespot 2008 emblem.

In other things, my college has begun as I said in my previous blog and is taking a toll on my time. I also joined a new union... Bookspot(and they've already made me an officer. Not good news, is it? )

See ya, next week