Bioware reveals all six Dragon Age origin stories

BioWare's Spiritual Successor to Baldur's Gate Weaves an Epic Tale that Begins in One of Six Different Ways

Leading video game developer BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts announced today the highly anticipated details of all six Origin Stories featured in the upcoming dark, heroic fantasy Dragon Age - Origins. Each Origin Story starts the player off with a unique series of locations, characters and events that establish their motivations and lay the groundwork for the adventure to come.

With each Origin Story boasting several hours of unique game play, as well as challenging strategic combat and exploration, these 6 distinct preludes make Dragon Age: Origins the first BioWare game to offer not only multiple endings, but also multiple beginnings. Players will start their adventure in one of the following roles:

Dalish Elf
As one of the last "true elves", you were content to spend your life wandering with your clan... until a chance encounter with a relic of your people's past threatens to tear you away from everything you've known.

City Elf
You have always lived under the heavy thumb of your human overlords, but when a local lord claiming his “privilege” with the bride shatters your wedding day, the simmering racial tensions explode in a rain of vengeance.

Dwarf Commoner
Born casteless in a land where rank is everything, bound as the lackey and thug of a local crime lord, you have spent your life invisible... until chance thrusts you into the spotlight, where you can finally prove whether you will be defined by your actions or your birth.

Dwarf Noble
The favored child of the dwarven king, you proudly take up your first military command... only to learn that the deadly intrigues of dwarven politics pose an even greater danger than that faced on the battlefield.

Mage
Gifted with a power considered a dangerous curse by most, you have spent most of your life secluded in the remote tower of the Circle of Magi to be trained and watched closely by the dreaded templars. Now your final test is upon you -- succeed and prove your strength, fail and you will perish.

Human Noble
Born to wealth and power second only to royalty, you find your training in both diplomacy and war put to the test when your father's castle is betrayed from within on the very night your elder brother is to lead the family's forces to war.

The player’s choice of Origin Story lays the foundation for a profound journey based on the character’s past experiences, establishing how they perceive the world and how the world perceives them. The choices you made during an Origin Story will influence the way the game unfolds, including different story elements, dialogue options and even plot branches, providing a wealth of replayability.

Dragon Age: Origins offers an immersive, beautiful and often threatening world in which the player will live out a fantasy of epic proportions. With six unique paths to choose from, the choice of Origin Story will be the first of many important decisions players will face in Dragon Age: Origins.

Virtua Tennis 2009 will use Wii MotionPlus

Whereas the press release of Sega let plane the mystery, there are not now more reasons to doubt: Virtua Tennis will indeed use the future accessory of Nintendo.

It is the jacket revealed by the site of Sega off America which confirms it via the small news pelletizes blue in bottom on the left. One will thus have to expect to see this magic pastille applied to the plays using Wii MotionPlus, as that is done already for the plays compatible with Wii Balance Board.

Thanks to the use of this extension, the movements will be calculated much more precisely than with Wiimote only and it will be even possible of retransmettre your gestures in real-times, in 1:1. From there to think that Virtua Tennis 2009 announces from the start like the best representing kind on the console, there is only one size of tennis.

With a poster of players and players which will not make shame with formats HD, a large variety of courts and a online mode, the play of Sega can right now make tremble the future Grand Slam Tennis from Electronic Arts of which we for the time being do not have still any detail.

My DoItAll video game on Nintendo DS

The all-in-one, tons-of-fun gizmo!

My DoItAll is a toy chest jam-packed with mini-games and mini-tools. Stay close with friends by exchanging Friend Cards, play wicked tricks using the Voice Changer and Sound Effects machine, become a whiz kid with all its amazing reference tools, and even create your own, unique miniature you!

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Features:

• Stay in touch with all your friends by sharing Friend Cards with your info, or even share your schedule!
  
• Features a cool Voice Changer that records with the DS microphone, and the Sound Effects machine packed with over 30 sounds!
  
• Create your own "mini-you" character with your personal look and style!
  
• Customize your game interface by applying different color and sound schemes.
  
• Have fun playing wireless multiplayer games and custom polls that you can take with your friends!
  
• Use reference tools like the Calculator or World Map so you've always got the right answers!
  

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Nintendo DS video game

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords delivers classic puzzle-game action with an epic story of good v evil.

Enter the world of Etheria, a land quickly becoming over-run with evil.

Help protect the kingdom of Bartonia from the undead invasion and seek out the source of these vile creatures to ensure the safety of your countrymen.

• Unique and addictive gameplay that builds upon classic puzzle gameplay (i.e. Bejewelled) with the addition of RPG-style character and story elements
  
• Incredibly simple to learn for casual players, with seasoned gamers able to utilise deeper strategies
  
• Embark on an epic single-player campaign comprising more than 150 challenging quests
  
• Quick-play mode allows players to immediately jump into puzzle battles
  
• Create and build a hero; who gains skills, spells, weapons and more throughout the game
  
• Customisable characters gives players the ability to fight battles with unique strategies
  
• Build your empire as you capture cities, build castles and gain a party of companions to aid you in battle
  
• Battle other Warlords for supremacy via wireless multiplayer
  

Onechanbara - Bikini Samurai Squad Play as sexy samurai sisters - Unique Dress-Up mode

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad lets players take on the role of Aya or Saki, sexy samurai sisters who are earth’s last hope against a killer zombie legion.

Watch the video on my YouTube channel here... please subscribe Armed with only their swords and their hotness, this deadly pair will stop at nothing to solve the mystery of the horde’s origin. Everyone they meet – who doesn’t get killed in the crossfire – brings them closer to understanding who or what is behind the catastrophic monster outbreak.

Aya puts her legendary samurai skills to the test, battling legions of zombies terrorizing the city in order to unearth the meaning of her mysterious IMICHI ancestors. With her sexy younger sister Saki and armed with only their swords and their ball-busting beauty, these two face bondage, blood and nonstop battle, to rid their home of the zombie threat. Every person they meet and enemy they defeat brings the sisters closer to putting an end to who, or what is behind this zombie outbreak.

Unique Dress-Up mode unlocks costumes, accessories, and more
Deep combat system on the ground and in the air with combos, upgrades and an adrenaline-filled rage mode
Exploration across a vast city complete with cinematic storytelling and killer boss battles
Multiple playable characters, including 2-player split-screen multiplayer

Eat Lead - The Return of Matt Hazard video game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

An action hero emerges from the pixels as D3Publisher announced plans for Eat Lead - The Return of Matt Hazard, a third-person shooter with a sense of humour, for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Offering an original storyline and an off-the-wall cast of characters, Eat Lead is written by 2008 Writer’s Guild Award winner, Dave Ellis, and features the return of imaginary 80’s videogame action hero, Matt Hazard, and parodies some of the most beloved genres of games and pop culture. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is anticipated for release in Q1 2009.

In Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, videogame action hero Matt Hazard gets his chance to prove once and for all that he is the king of shooters when the new owner of mega game publisher, Marathon Megasoft, gives Matt his comeback role starring in a new title for next-gen consoles that pits him against all of his memorable foes from videogames past. In the world of Eat Lead, however, everything stops being a game and becomes reality when it is clear that someone is using the new game to bring about Matt’s death once and for all. With only the mysterious “QA” to help him, Matt must fight against a legion of Marathon Megasoft catalogue of videogame characters to keep it from being “Game Over” forever.

“Eat Lead parodies some of our fondest memories in classic gaming and pop culture, so gamers will have a laugh out loud experience every time they pick-up the controller,” said, Pete Andrew, vice president, product development, North America, D3P. “With an original storyline, Eat Lead perfectly blends action and humour with rock solid gameplay for an experience like no other.”




Eat Lead pays homage to the games of yesteryear with a menagerie of classic enemies such as zombies, space marines, cowboys, genetically mutated super snipers, and more in an expansive level environment design that reflects videogame history in a next-gen package. The game fires on all cylinders with explosive artillery and combat moves to help gamers escape from a variety of predicaments including radically-changing environments during gameplay via the “hack effects” Hazard’s nemesis uses by altering the game’s code on the fly. Throughout the adventure, players will utilize a strategic cover system dubbed “point and cover”, upgradeable weapons and different interactive melee moves to attack and outsmart foes. 

• Ingenious storyline and setting that’s never been explored before in a video game
  
• Top notch, 3rd person shooter with polished next-gen graphics
  
• With celebrity voice talents Neil Patrick Harris and Will Arnett
  
• Hilarious script written by WGA Award winning writer David Elis
  
• Unique visuals that will transform what’s typically seen in video games
  
• Take on video game clichés all at once –cowboys, space marines, wizards, and karate masters
  
• Point-and-cover system -a new innovation in the cover gameplay mechanic that advances the genre
  

Puzzle Quest - Galactrix video game on Nintendo DS and PC

The original puzzle addiction is back with its signature RPG hybrid style gameplay in an epic journey that takes you into the depths of the universe in over 100 quests.
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Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is an exciting new addition to the Puzzle Quest universe, incorporating a compelling blend of casual and hardcore game elements similar to those adored by fans of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords into a futuristic, science-fiction setting.

In Puzzle Quest: Galactrix a horrifying scientific accident has provoked another race to attempt extermination of humankind. Each player creates a heroic pilot who gains skills, crafts items, manoeuvres among the universe’s political factions, and upgrades the ultimate space fleet as they attempt to end the genocide.

An all-new hexagonal puzzle board allows for deeper strategy as it reacts to gravity according to a player’s location in the universe.

This, along with new gameplay elements like hacking leapgates, negotiating with factions, trading commodities and collecting blueprints make Puzzle Quest: Galactrix a captivating new adventure to explore and conquer.

• Over 150 battles within story mode
  
• Re-designed puzzle board that’s easier for new players, but adds incredible
  
• Collect over 50 different customisable spaceships which enhance your strategy
  
• Colonise planets and trade commodities to increase the size of your empire
  
• Battle across the galaxy in multiplayer battles
  
• Exclusive features for each platform
  
• Original Sci-Fi storyline that will blast you through battles across the universe
  
• Signature addictive gameplay returns
  

Relax, Play and improve your mind. Challenge Me: Maths Workout on Nintendo DS

The next in a new range of games designed to relax and stimulate your mind; Challenge Me: Maths Workout!

Relax, Play and improve your mind. 

Challenge Me: Maths Workout, with its extended gameplay and variety of features, gives you the chance to test yourself while having fun. 

Guaranteed to stimulate and surprise with hours of gameplay to keep you entertained, Challenge Me: Maths Workout is a relaxing and entertaining way to keep your mind challenged and stimulated.

In Formulate! you need to complete equations to win points! You receive numbers ranging from 1-9 on a series of cards. Each card also has a mathematical symbol associated with it such as +, -, x or ÷. The aim is to rearrange the cards and solve the equations! Formulate is a great way to train your brain and improve your maths ability whilst also having fun and relaxing.

As with all other Challenge Me! titles there is a Challenge Me! mode in which you can play set games against the clock to test how much your maths abilities have improved. The puzzles start off quite easy before increasing in difficulty to really test your abilities. Can you rise to the challenge?

Formulate! is an entertaining and enjoyable way to relax, learn about maths and improve your powers of logical reasoning!

Challenge Me: Maths Workout – Relax, Play and Improve Your Mind!

Halo Wars demo passes the 2million downloads mark

The demo version of Ensemble Studios' Halo Wars has reached 2 million downloads in its first week.

Achieving double platinum status immediately after its release, the title is one of the most popular Xbox 360 demos since the console's launch.

Microsoft also revealed that January 2009 saw more new Xbox Live newcomers than any other month, attributing this to the system's sales boost over Christmas. The company also announced that Fallout 3 downloadable content Project Anchorage was in high demand during this time period.

Halo Wars is due for release in Europe on February 27 and North America on March 3.

Rygar - The Battle of Argus Nintendo Wii exclusive

Classic action-adventurer returns to the home console with new play mechanics, techniques and game modes.

Let loose your inner gladiator and swing into action as Rising Star Games announces the return of the legendary warrior in Rygar: The Battle of Argus, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii.
Featuring updated gameplay mechanics with the legendary Diskarmour shield as well as new techniques, enemies and game modes, this latest version brings the classic action-adventure gameplay back to gaming purists. Rygar: The Battle of Argus is set to swing back into action throughout PAL territories in June 2009.

In Rygar: The Battle of Argus, intuitive use of the Wii Remote™ allows players to effectively control the powerful weapon to destroy enemies and manoeuvre on, around, over and under obstacles. Players will challenge themselves in the all-new Gladiator Mode by rapidly swinging and slashing their way through non-stop waves of foes.


Key features:

• Innovative gameplay mechanics - the legendary Diskarmour shield can be used for attack, defence or transportation
• Not the same Rygar - conquer new enemies, techniques and game modes
• Gladiator Mode - play the new Gladiator Mode specially equipped for the versatile swinging movement of the Wii Remote
• Action packed adventure - this action-adventure title spans various unique zones and requires vanquishing multiple enemies and puzzle solving
• Intense combo attacks - multiple Diskarmour weapons are available to be found and upgraded with elemental power-ups such as fire, ice and lightening. Engage the enemy with over 40 different devastating combo attacks