More news on Tor

Sorry this is a little late ive been somewhat busy.

So more news on the old republic front. Bioware has held a detailed interview on what their instances or "flashpoints" will be like here.

Im not entirely sure what to think of these instances. On the one hand im certainly liking what they will claim to be including such as fast moving events within the instance and a unique story for each one. However i still get the feeling they are just trying to gloss up a traditional wow instance for advertising purposes.

But anyway feel free to read the interview and tell me what you think these flashpoints will turn out like.

And on a different note...

So moving on from skyrim id like to cover my next game (which is actually out). Mount and blade: Warband is the sequel to the original mount and blade released several years ago. To best describe it, it is an fps rpg with tactical elements. More specifically you play as a character in a medieval age scenario in a made up land (so no guns or cars.) with several warring factions.

As you level up fighting people (in real time) you can gather companions (strong warriors of which there are about 10) and build an army from any of the 5 factions units (which are made up of lots of unique unit types). You can then either join a faction and attempt to eliminate the other factions or set out on your own to forge your own kingdom. The wide range of options are what makes Warband such a good game you can effectively replay the game several times in entirely different ways.

The best part about Warband however is the battles. Since each faction also fields its own nobles who raise their own armies and fight each other you can get battles of 1000 aside. Since this would most likely break your computer the developers limited it to 20 aside....however this did the opposite and made battles very very long. So there is a mod that will allow you to go up to 200 or 300 aside. As you can imagine this makes for some great battles as for example a force of 100 men attempts to hold off against several hundred enemies.

For £20 on steam you really cant beat this game for its quality and the huge range of mods available (which further expands the game almost endlessly.

Not quite as expected...

Well since i cant actually find that much information on mass effect 3 I've decided to move onto another good developer. Treyarc...had you worried there didn't I?. Elder scrolls : Skyrim is set to be released in mid November of this year. Bethesda has promised a rather interesting regeneration of the previous oblivion model including some features that had me quite excited. For a start you can now dual wield spells so for instance if you had a fireball and a whirlwind in each hand you could combine them to create a flaming whirlwind which would cause a lot of havoc.

They have also entirely redesigned the story and dialogue aspect of the previous game. One small change is that when speaking to NPC's the world around you continues to move and npcs will still walk past you (and presumably attack you if your in combat). However you can now also initiate dialogue with people you are fighting which presumably will add some interesting room for negotiation.

Personally i think this shows a refreshing change in Bethesda's plans as opposed to bringing out the same old rehashed games like some companies. Feel free to post on what you think the latest elder scrolls will be like and whether you preferred morrowind over oblivion.

SW:TOR fast approach....oh well nevermind

With dragon age covered i feel i should move on to my next bioware related topic. The old republic mmo is set to be coming out some time in the future and i was wondering what everyone thinks it will end up as. Personally i think that the title "wow killer" is often overused and abit silly really...after all alot of people have invested alot of time into wow they are hardly going to give that up just because another game comes out (they may however play both games).

On the game itself as far as i can gather there is alot of focus on the storyline of the player (as you can expect from bioware) and a huge amount of dailogue (all conversations are voiced). The storyline allows you to make different choices while playing your character including what are effectively good and bad (light and dark side) choices. I believe this will add a whole new perespective to mmo's as the player has alot more control over the characters actions as compared to the usual do what i say or dont play.

Feel free to comment on how you think TOR will turn out.

Dragon Age 2 fast approaching (sorta)

So to continue on the bioware theme heres a topic about DA:2. Im a huge fan of the original (never played the expansion) and to be honest i have mixed feelings about the new game. From what people have managed to piece together the game has been streamlined (which can be good and bad) and removed some of the customisation present in the previous game.

The biggest criticism leveld against it is that it's essentially mass effect 2 with swords. This comparison isnt far from the truth as dailogue wheels and a persistent main character (Hawke) are new features of Da:2.

While personally i dont mind the concept of another mass effect game i dont really see the point since we already have the mass effect series releasing a game every year or so. But i guess thats just my opinion.

Feel free to comment on what you think the new dragon age game will be like and if you think it will be a day one purchase?

So down to business....

As this is my first blog entry i figured i would cover a game i personally feel is right up there on the big list of games that are good (some would say perhaps a chart but whatever). Black ops is.....nah just kidding.

Knights of the old republic is a star wars themed game based on a time approximtely 4000 years before the scenes done in the three movies (episodes 1, 2 and 3 naturely). Incidentally if you havent played this game already i suggest you go and do so now before i ruin the plot later on in my next post. You could literally pick it up for a fiver no doubt and youl get atleast 60 hours out of it so you may aswell.

The game is immense fun as it gives you many ways to complete a series of potential encounters. For example early on in the game you have to enter an enemy base and capture a module for a race (yes this game even has racing) you have the option of going in guns blazing which, while relatively easy is hardly the most fun method. Alternatively you can sneak into the base and rewire the robot guards inside to eliminate the human portion of the defence. You can then sneak into the base headquarters and steal the module. When you are discovered the ensuing conversation actually has many diverse options again. You can even join the "bad" guys and screw over the honest man you were preiousely in the employ of. Such actions would contribute towards your "dark side" points during the game. This is essentially a morale system (with some added effects) which determines wether your character is good....or evil. This system further adds to replayability as you can do atleast 2 playthroughd as alternative sides of the force.

But thats enough reading for now. In my next post ill cover more of the intricate storyline present in kotor along with the characters you play alongside in the battle to decide the fate of the galaxy (or something like that).