Dragon Age 2: Legacy Review
Dragon Age 2: Legacy takes you into a section of the Deep Roads, where you uncover dark secrets of both the Hawke Family and the Grey Wardens!
Release Date: 26/07/2011
Platforms: Pc, Xbox 360, PS3
Price: $9.99 for PS3, 800 BW pts/ MS pts for PC and 360
Total run time: 2h, 30m (Blood/Force Mage Hawke, Aveline, Anders, Varric)
Difficulty: Moderate (there are a few hard encounters, but nothing a DA veteran can't handle; even on hard/nightmare)
Accessibility: Act 2, statue in your estate's library
Summary: Legacy takes a turn for the better, in terms of story, gameplay, visuals, and BANTER (Aveline actually has a sense of humor now)!
Visuals/Audio:
You'll all be glad to hear that they didn't reuse any areas at all, giving us several environment changes as we progress through the game. They've also improved on various environmental effects, allowing the area you're in to really set the mood of the game.
Nothing new in terms of audio, it’s the same old DA2 audio files at work here. 9/10
Story:
Not much can be said about the story, without giving away spoilers. Though I can say that the story of Legacy gives you an in-depth view on the history of the Hawke family, making the ever-so-bland character of Hawke a whole lot more bearable (It's just sad that Carver is still dull as fuck); more so if you rolled a mage. You'll also get to read several codex entries that bring more flavor to the world of Dragon Age. 8/10
Gameplay
The fights are a lot more fun this time around. You get more chances to interact with traps, and there are a few changes with the fight mechanics used on the darkspawn, but what really takes the cake is the final boss. The final boss encounter in Legacy is a whole lot of fun! It's highly interactive, it involves a decent amount of planning, has a lot of movement, and it's not too hard (unlike The Harvester)! If you've seen the cartoon "Avatar: The Last Airbender", you'll see that the final encounter is reminiscent of an Avatar going ape...which is a good thing.
The DLC offers a several items that are pretty neat.
1. Class-specific weapon for Hawke: You get to "customize" this as you go further into the game.
2. Armor set for Hawke: I'm not 100% on what the set bonus is (because I failed to get all the pieces in my run), but there is a set bonus! You get the four different pieces in four different locations as you progress in the game.
3. Jewelry and upgrades for your party members.
8/10
Total Score: 8.33/10
This DLC is definitely worth every single penny I spent on it. Sure, there may be a few things that could have been done better, but at this price, it'd be tough to complain.
Reggie Films-Aime comments on 3DS price cut
"Why don't we have this game yet?"
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has this to say about recent announcement regarding the Nintendo 3DS price cut.
via [DTOID]
Old Spice Guy joints the cast of Gears of War 3
Isaiah Mustafa, better known as the "Old Spice Guy" will be bringing his 'the man your man could smell like' smell to the chainsaw bayonett toting Gears in Gears of War 3.
"The cast just keeps getting sexier and sexier," joked Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski as he revealed the news at the San Diego Comic Con. Mustafa joins the likes of John DiMaggio, Ice T, and Claudia Black. His character is listed as "COG Gear," which makes it sound like he's not going to have a particularly big role in the game. It doesn't help that he's wearing a helmet either. Perhaps we could be seeing an Old Spice easter egg in the game.
I'm on a horse.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3_qzPe9KOE&w=560&h=349]
Nintendo will 'reward' early 3DS owners
Already bought a Nintendo 3DS? Heard about the $80 price cut? Freaking the hell out? Nintendo will give you free games for your loyalty.
Nintendo is going to give everybody who bought a 3DS prior to the price cut announcement the opportunity to download a collection of 10 NES games for free before they hit the eShop. They'll also be giving out ten Game Boy Advance titles, including Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, before the end of the year. These GBA games are currently expected to be exclusive to early adopters or, as Nintendo calls them, "Ambassadors."
This is all well and good but I don't think these old games make up for the $80 you just got screwed over.
Nintendo 3DS gets a massive price drop
Not much of a surprise really but for it to drop this much so soon is still a bit astounding. Nintendo has instituted one of the swiftest and deepest price cuts for a handheld in recent memory.
The glasses free 3D handheld only went on sale earlier this year costing around $249.99, but as of August 12, 2011, the price will be slashed all the way down to $169.99.
For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now. We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games.
says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.
Via [Kotaku]