Dragon Age: Origins

Some do it for gold. Some do it for love. Some do it for patriotism. Some do it because the developers decided they needed an arbitrary twist. Whatever their reasons, there are few ways to make a previously loved character universally despised faster than having them turn traitor.

While some betrayals you can see coming a mile away, and some just make no sense, this list is a tribute to the traitors who really hit home. Whether they shook us to our core, or were just so sympathetic that we couldn’t harbor any resentment; these characters did more than break our bodies…they broke our hearts...

Before you get started with this article, we’d like to begin with a very sincere, simple statement: we love BioWare a whole squishy huggy bunch. Their narratives are usually awesome and we’ve spent an embarrassing number of hours playing their games.

That said… with the recent release of Dragon Age 2, it dawned on us how many similarities there are in their recent games. It’s gotten to a point where we can immediately recognize an NPC archetype after only spending a couple minutes with the new character; we took some time to jot down a detailed guide of each of these copy-paste characters so you’ll know precisely how to act the moment they open their easily written mouths...

Whatever your opinion about sex in videogames, the simple fact is this: games won’t really be taken seriously as an art form until they can get certain things right, and one of those things is sex. It’s an essential component of film, music, books, paintings and even television, and yet gaming lags sadly behind.

Part of this is because games still haven’t quite shaken their kiddie-toys stigma, but mostly it’s because the rare games that try to get sex right almost never do. The results of their endless efforts tend to range from mildly off-putting to outright mortifying, with varying levels of ugliness and hilarity in between. Maybe someday, we’ll see an in-game love scene that doesn’t make us recoil in horror – but in the meantime, here are 13 that did...

He’s got a name that less sensitive types could make terrible puns out of, but you won’t catch us attempting such a thing when in the presence of Ray Muzyka. We strapped him to a table, injected him with truth serum and got him to divulge as many of the game’s mucky secrets, including why having three wizards in your party is a really good idea and why Fox News doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to reporting on games...

 It’s not unusual for game companies to taunt gamers with future titles inside the boxes for their newest games. God of War II teased the PSP title that came to be known as Chains of Olympus, and the instructions for GTA: Episodes from Liberty City gave clues to whatever is next for that series. So guess what caught our eye when opening our copy of Dragon Age: Awakenings?

We liked the new expansion for Dragon Age: Origins. That’s why we gave it a nine-out-of-ten. Unfortunately, there are no romance options in Awakening, which makes us rather sad because there’s a ton of great new characters for your party. Check out some of the new cast members you won’t be getting cozy with next to the campfire in the epic expansion for one of the finest fantasy RPGs of all time.

The Darkspawn Blight was blotted out at the conclusion of Dragon Age: Origins, thereby ending your Grey Warden’s reason for existing. So what’s left to do? Rebuild and move on, apparently, and those are the dominant themes of Awakening. Many RPGs have been set in worlds under siege by diabolical forces, but few have explored the devastating aftermath of their wars.

Dragon Age: Origins is massive. Of course, you knew that already. Doing a guide that covers every sidequest, item location, and available dialogue option for every class, race, and gender combination would be tantamount to creating an encyclopedia. But what if you’re just stuck at a particular point in the main story and you don’t want to sift through the mountains of text covering every little side detail? Read our guide.

THE INFO BOX
Post date: November 6, 2009
T-Dar 75 length: 2:38:00
Intro song by: Anamanaguchi
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The end of summer means the beginning of the game season, and today is the last Friday before the game industry’s big holiday push. Publishers jam the fall with games to challenge the true worth of your credit card – a double dog dare in the uncertain economy of 2009.