Speaking with Famitsu, Ubisoft's Alain Corre has revealed that as part of the company's push into the Japanese market, they'd one day like to release a JRPG.

"We have never made any RPGs, a genre Japanese people love," he told the magazine. "We've made shooters, strategy, sports, action, and adventure games, but not any RPGs yet. Still, we're open to all possibilities. If we can get a quality team of RPG-oriented developers, I'd love to release one. If we have a chance to work with Japanese creators, then I'm sure we can make a game that appeals to the Japanese audience."

Sounds ridiculous, but then...imagine some of Ubisoft's franchises turned into RPGs. And I'm not talking Splinter Cell. I'm thinking more...Beyond Good & Evil.

Ubisoft Hints at Japan Marketplace Push [Famitsu, via 1UP]

Mytheon is an online strategy game in which players collect and trade power stones containing troops and spells to use in battle against their opponents. It sounds a lot like EA's BattleForge, only with rocks instead of cards and a strong focus on mythology. Want to try it early? Participating in next week's stress test could be your best bet.

"We want our players to stress our servers and push our technology to its limits so we can really evaluate things in preparation for our official closed beta in January," said Peter Cesario, Director of New Business and Product Development at True Games. "We invite you to tell your friends and family and really put our servers to the test. And, in return, you will get a first look at the game and a ton of cool exclusives."

What kind of cool exclusives? For starters, participating in the stress test will score you an exclusive forum avatar, which doesn't exactly fall into the category of cool. Once the game launches, however, they'll be passing out in-game items to players who participate, so this is your chance to get in on the ground floor. That, and True Games warns of limited space for the closed beta test, so any leg up you can get on the crowd should come in handy.

Visit the Mytheon website to sign up for an account. The stress test will take place on Monday, December 21st, so join up and give those servers hell for Christmas.

The Mac release of Dragon Age should be fairly identical to the PC release, thanks to TransGaming's software portability technologies. Like the PC game, the Digital Deluxe version of the game comes complete with the Warden's Keep DLC, exclusive in-game items, the digital soundtrack, and a selection of wallpapers, while both releases will include the Blood Dragon armor and Stone Prisoner DLC, free of charge.

"We are very excited to bring this award-winning title to the Mac community," commented Vikas Gupta, President and CEO of TransGaming. "Our Cider technology allows us to rapidly enable and deploy high quality titles like Dragon Age, and we are pleased to be delivering this exceptional caliber of gaming to the ever growing Mac gaming community."

Dragon Age: Origins for the Mac will be available for download on the 21st at GameTree, Direct2Drive, Best Buy, GamersGate, and GameTap.

Doctor Professor, the nom de plume of the writer behind Pixel Poppers, assessed his sense of satisfaction in playing RPGs and found it a bit false. Challenges in RPGs could almost always be overcome with a character of a high enough level, and advancement within this genre is almost a given. Action games, however, required skill to complete successfully; either master the tasks or you'll never advance.

What did he do? He retrained his motivation. As a child, he was often praised for his intelligence, not his hard work, which he felt dovetailed with RPGs system of assured success. He quit RPGs and picked up a Sonic Adventure DX, seeking to improve his skills. And now he says, after a long journey with action games, he's a completely different gamer.

While I don't agree with the blanket depiction of all RPGs offering "false achievements," it is his experience with them, and that's what he's writing about, not mine. But it may explain why people can become so easily fixated with grinding and leveling up. And I do find his insight on performance and mastery orientation to be spot-on. I was the same type of student in school and sort of am to this day, delighted by doing something right the first time and quick to give up when I can't. I'd love to also retrain myself to be a better skilled gamer. Right after I make level 50 in Borderlands.

Awesome By Proxy: Addicted to Fake Achievement [Pixel Poppers, Nov. 23]

RPGs are many things, but they are almost never hard. As I realized in childhood, the vast majority of RPG challenges can be defeated simply by putting in time. RPGs reward patience, not skill. Almost never is the player required to work hard - only the characters need improve. Failing to defeat Zeromus might mean your strategy is flawed, but it also might mean your level is too low. Guess which problem is easier to remedy?

Yet while the player is mostly marking time, the characters are accomplishing epic, heroic deeds, saving lives and defeating evil. Even when the player is not explicitly praised for this, the game makes its attitude clear. "You're awesome!" it says, in essence. "You're so strong and noble and heroic!" The player is showered with praise for non-achievements. It's like porn for the performance oriented.

The characters make all the effort, but the player receives all the accolades. The game doesn't have to say "Wow, you must be smart!" to train the player to value impressiveness that was not hard-won - even when the praise is for effort rather than skill, it is a lie. The player has expended only time.

When I learned about performance and mastery orientations, I realized with growing horror just what I'd been doing for most of my life. Going through school as a "gifted" kid, most of the praise I'd received had been of the "Wow, you must be smart!" variety. I had very little ability to follow through or persevere, and my grades tended to be either A's or F's, as I either understood things right away (such as, say, calculus) or gave up on them completely (trigonometry). I had a serious performance orientation. And I was reinforcing it every time I played an RPG.

I could point to characters and story as much as I liked. But I couldn't lie to myself - not anymore. Most of my enjoyment of Super Mario RPG, of Skies of Arcadia, of Kingdom Hearts - came from illegitimate sources. It came from overidentifying with the heroes and claiming their accomplishments as my own. It came from abusing them for fake achievement. I felt sick.

After panicking for a while, I came up with a plan. There was no point blaming anyone else for the state of things - I was the only one who could turn it around. So I would do so. I would instill a mastery orientation in myself.

The first thing I did was stop playing RPGs. I was addicted and I had to quit. Then, it was time to retrain myself. I started small: I began playing action games. If RPGs had reinforced my bad habits, then action games could reinforce good ones.

Sonic AdventureSonic Adventure DX didn't take long to beat, but I didn't let myself stop there: the game had an achievement system, in which the player was awarded with "emblems" for reaching various goals - like speeding Sonic through stages with impressively quick times. Many of them were very difficult, and I couldn't accomplish them on the first, second, fifth, or tenth attempt. But I kept trying. And when I finally had all 160 emblems the game offered, I knew I'd crossed a milestone. I, not Sonic, had improved until I could pass these challenges. I had developed actual skills, even if they were objectively useless ones. I had done something I could actually be proud of: I had built a habit of not giving up.

It's been a long road since then - it's not easy to reverse a way of thinking so deeply ingrained for so long. And I still have to watch myself, and not let myself be too proud or self-congratulatory when I accomplish something quickly and easily. But I feel good about how far I've come. And Sonic will always have a special place in my heart for the role he played in starting me down the road to recovery.

- Doctor Professor

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

From Software's PlayStation 3 role-playing game sloughs off many of the conventions one typically associates with Japanese RPGs, putting players into a world unlike any other. The real-time action RPG features a heavy focus on hand-to-hand combat, not calculated menu choices. There are no party members to recruit, no love interests to pursue. There are only demon's to slay and souls to collect and a goal—defeat the Old One and free Boletaria from its colorless curse.

Demon's Souls is full of complex challenges and complex concepts, a game with no traditional save point system, no pause option and no coddling of the player who may have become accustomed to simpler, more forgiving fare. it is a hellish place of suffering, where men are routinely crushed by the powerful demonspawn that inhabit it.

So, why, then is Demon's Souls so rewarding, so refreshing and so engrossing? Here's why.

Loved
A New Brand Of Survival Horror: Fear is a constant in Demon's Souls, at least during your first unfamiliar adventure in the kingdom of Boletaria, as death can come to the player at any moment. These frequent deaths—which will become more frequent to the player not mindful of the world around them—are by design. Demon's Souls is meant to be studied, to be carefully considered and for its world to be absorbed. Its inhabitants are meant to be feared, so that the player can learn how to dispatch of them properly. You may die in Demon's Souls dozens, in not a hundred times or more. But you'll become the better player for it, mindful of your fear.

A World In Need Of Mending: Beyond the need for self-preservation, Demon's Souls offers a heavy dose of gloom and doom through its well-realized, beautifully designed lands. From the prisons of the Tower Of Latria, closely guarded by Mind Flayers, to the depths of the Stonefang Tunnel, guarded by fire-spewing beasts, each of Demon's Souls five massive environments offers something new to be awed by, to be afraid of. And each of those five worlds come with their unique inhabitants, their own trappings, new rules for the player to observe and new denizens to dread. The one safe haven for the few unscathed humans, The Nexus, is a gorgeous elaborate structure. But it is soon dwarfed by the massive castles and major demons that the player will face.

Demon's Souls' world is both fantastic and realistic, never patronizing the player. For the most part, the player is free to visit any of its diverse lands in the order of their choosing, letting the player decide how to navigate the world. And thanks to Demon's Souls' fluctuating World and Character Tendency system, which changes Boleteria's populace and environments based on a number of factors, the game world offers plenty to do beyond the first play through. This is a world worth revisiting, death after death after death.

Major Demons: Depending on how you play Demon's Souls, whether your world ventures towards white or black, you'll face over a dozen impressive and diverse bosses. All of them are memorable in some way, from the quiet calm of facing the Old Hero, to the massive scale of tackling the Dragon God, to the shocking tension of facing the Penetrator or Flame Lurker. Or any of Demon's Souls spectacularly designed demons, for that matter. Some can simply be dispatched with hundreds of arrows from a hiding spot, but others will require ample dexterity, a calm demeanor and smart strategy. Some may invoke warm feelings of another PlayStation hallmark, Shadow of the Colossus, due to their impressive magnitude.

Simple Made Complex: Where other role-playing games throw complex upgrade paths and a flood of weapons, armor and items at the player to create the illusion of depth, Demon's Souls offers it genuinely. Strategic trade-offs must be made in your choices of what to equip, how to fight and where to engage your enemy in battle. Demon's Souls offers a simple base upon which to build its system—the ten starting character class templates—then lets the player decide how to progress from there. It's both freeing and rewarding.

Massively Multiplayer Loneliness: Demon's Souls features a rather unique online multiplayer component. Players will see, but not hear or touch, the echo of other Demon's Souls players, each fighting demons in their own instance of the world. Players can also read or leave messages for others, attempting to help strangers (and help themselves) during their adventure. Bloodstains left by fallen comrades in other instances can also be left behind, illustrating how other adventurers died, a warning to first-timers of what awaits them in the next step.

Demon's Souls does have a more traditional multiplayer component to it, letting players summon other warriors to their world as spirits, teaming up to tackle major demons. But other players can also invade your world in Black Phantom form, adding a player versus player gambling element to the experience. There is no voice chat, there is no lobby to join, which may seem like a drawback. But this implementation further entrenches the feeling in Demon's Souls players that the lonely existence of demon slaying is largely theirs alone to do.

The Soul Economy: Demon's Souls soul system adds a fascinating layer of strategy to the game. Souls, which you'll collect from fallen enemies and find scattered about Boletaria's land, serve as currency, experience and materials. You'll need them to upgrade your character and your weapons, resulting in an interesting trade-off. And should you die in one of Demon's Souls worlds, you'll lose your current soul stock—unless you find your own bloodstain—making the decision to soldier on or return to the Nexus for upgrades a constant struggle.

Torchlight: Demon's Souls is dark and it is best played in the dark. And while it might seem odd to highlight the game's lighting, it's expertly crafted. Not so much from a technical sense, but that the player must be mindful of the glowing souls, the deadly exploding Will o' Wisps, the torches, the glowing eyes that populate every dark room. There's much the player can glean from Demon's Souls lights as they cut through the blackness.

After Careful Consideration: This is a hard game. Cruel, punishing, unforgiving, relentless, sadistic... whatever you want to call it, Demon's Souls is a challenge. But you'll learn. You'll adapt. And if you're careful, attentive to the events occurring around you, you'll be fine. That Demon's Souls demands this, making the game feel more like pure horror than the traditional fun one expects of a video game, eventually spellbinding the player, is what makes the game so enjoyable.

Hated
My First Few Hours: This may make me sound like a wimp—and ultimately a crazed Demon's Souls zealot—but you need to know. Demon's Souls was, for me, torture for the first few hours. I didn't "get it." I didn't play games this way. I've played difficult action games, like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and Otogi, and enjoyed them. But Demon's Souls is different, requiring a unique mindset—and, in my case, some help from the Demon's Souls community. Eventually, pain gave way to pleasure as I learned to appreciate the game's strict rule set, ultimately becoming absorbed by the game. You may hate Demon's Souls from start to finish for its difficulty. But I'd wager you'll come to appreciate it as I did.

Faces, Fonts & Frame Rates: There are a handful of presentation issues holding back Demon's Souls, none of them game breaking, but worth mentioning. Despite Demon's Souls' overall beauty, it has some of the ugliest character faces I've seen. Character creation is a turn off, because most options look as monstrous as the demons themselves. The game's interface also has a few quirks, with no easy way to compare items from vendors with current equipment and an icon system for attributes that has its own unnecessary, confusing language. Finally, there are a few moments where Demon's Souls can't keep up with what's happening on screen. Nothing that impairs gameplay, but not pretty.

When I talk about Demon's Souls with some of my fellow players, I feel that we're in danger of sounding like a part of some cult—or, possibly worse, a group of addicts—as if we've gotten over the hurdle of viewing From Software's brilliant, visionary creation just for its sheer difficulty. And it is difficult. But it is also laden with a smart combat system, in which equipment and weapons matter greatly, for so many reasons. But having pushed past the fog of Demon's Souls, which meant spending well over 50 hours with the game, I'm happy to see it for what it is—one of the best PlayStation 3 games of the year and perhaps one of the smartest console role-playing games ever.

To be clear, however, Demon's Souls is not some orgiastic, blissful experience. It is not the type of game one may want to wind down with, less than "fun" in a normal video game sense. But it is a wholly engrossing, enjoyably solitary experience, if you've got the patience and the bravery to look into the fog and face what's inside.

Demon's Souls was developed by From Software and published by Atlus for the PlayStation 3 on October 7. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played single-player game to completion, testing multiple classes, invading other's worlds and summoning them to my own.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

NOTE: Throughout the month of December, Kotaku will review some of the games that we missed earlier in the year. We're catching up.

The International Edition of White Knight Chronicles contains all of the action-RPG gameplay of the original Japanese release, along with a slew of updates and downloadable content, all packaged together in one attractive package. You've got the promised voice chat function; 50 disc-based online quests to complete solo or with a group of three other players; an online village called The Georama, where you can invite friends to quest and buy unique items; and Live Talk, which is added side conversations that give your characters a little more depth, similar to what Namco Bandai does with the Tales of series.

The White Knight Chronicles International Edition will be released on February 2nd, 2010. My big-headed character will begin her adventure soon after.

White Knight Chronicles International Edition Coming to PS3 February 2, 2010 [PlayStation Blog]

The Heracles series started in 1987 with the release of Tōjin Makyō-den Heracles no Eikō for the Famicom, which was loosely based on the Greek myth the Twelve Labors of Heracles. Since then four more installments have hit Japan, each one steep in Greek myth and dripping with RPG goodness. Nintendo announced a North American release for the fifth game at E3 in 2009, where McWhertor got his hands on an early demo. While his calling the game a "My First Role-Playing Game" doesn't exactly give me high hopes, the demo was brief...maybe they just forgot to include all of the good stuff.

Glory of Heracles makes it to American shores on January 18th.

Appearing on the comparatively underpowered iPhone, Ravensword packs a near console-quality presentation. Featuring a large 3D open-world, an awesome variety of mythical beasts to slay, and some fantastic visual and audio tricks, it often rivals a PS2-era production.

Loved
Epic App: Intuitively using the now-common touchscreen directional pad and controlling the camera by swiping anywhere on the screen, adventure-seeking gamers embark on a robust quest to regain the amnesia-stricken protagonist's memory, recover the titular ancient blade and, of course, smite the hell out of evil. Sure, it's standard high-fantasy fare, but the impressive presentation, addictive action, and engaging quests keep things more fresh than familiar. You'll begin by slaying rats the size of puppies, but soon your blade and bow will be introduced to goblins, imps, zombies, sword-swinging skeletons, and ogres whose menacing presence swallow up a good portion of the iPhone's modest display. Your senses will be similarly stung by the screen-stretching environments; vast, diverse areas such as forests, graveyards, dungeons, and lava worlds can be fully explored for treasure when you're not busy hacking your way through the evil-doing hordes. Smaller touches, such as shop signs swinging when you walk into them, show the level of detail at work. The audio presentation is also very good, as a surprisingly rich score is complemented by immersion-amping details like chirping birds, crashing waterfalls, and the satisfying death cries of your freshly slain enemies.

Fun-poking Fantasy:Ravensword's subject matter may be all too familiar, but its light-hearted approach and delivery keep things fresher than a just-poured stein of tavern mead. Similar Tolkien-esque tales get bogged down with self-important characters and yawn-inducing exposition, but Ravensword keeps it simple, to the point, and often funny. The over-sized rats you slay, for example, are part of a quest that sees you replenishing the stock of the village's "Rat Donald's" restaurant-you'll later speak with a clueless villager who can't quite place the taste of Donald's secret rodent recipe. Everything, from NPC interactions to text descriptions of weapons and gear, often sneak in similar tongue-in-cheek references that keep things entertaining without ever becoming so silly that they pull you from the experience.

Hated
RP...Gee, Really?: Despite being advertised as an RPG, Ravensword is actually lacking many of the key ingredients usually associated with the looting-and-leveling genre. While it nails the high-fantasy presentation and hack-happy combat, it doesn't allow for any character customization. When you level-up, attribute points are auto-assigned, there are no skill trees, weapons and gear are stat-less, and magic is all but non-existent. Aside from their prices, there's no way to identify which weapons are better than others; you're left to assume the battle hammer will spill more goblin blood than a sword simply because it siphons more gold coins from your satchel at the blacksmith's shop. The implementation of armor offers a perfect example of Ravensword's style-over-substance approach; while the protective gear is realistically reflected on your in-game character-a nice touch, indeed-it only comes in two varieties, and, like the weapons, offers no comparable stats. Similarly, combat looks and feels great, but essentially boils down to mashing on the "attack" button. Other iPhones titles, such as the recent Diablo-like Dungeon Hunter actually have more character-building depth than this so-called RPG.

Ravensword has a lot going for it, not the least of which is its fantastic audio and visual presentation. It's an easy recommendation for action/adventure fans looking for an involving romp through a richly realized fantasy world. But despite an appearance evocative of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, expect to do more hacking and slashing than character customizing and gear tweaking.

Ravensword was published by Chillingo and developed by Crescent Moon Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch on November 17th. Retails for $6.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

To be honest, Torchlight hadn't originally made it into our fall reviewing schedule, being a budget-priced game in a season filled with blockbuster PC and console titles. Our readers were adamant, however, and after an outpouring of support via our tips email, we decided to give this unapologetic Diablo clone a good hard look.

Set in the mining town of Torchlight, which serves as the player's base of operations, the game sends the player into a twisted underground dungeon network in order to root out a source of corruption that could endanger the entire world. With our trusty pet at our side, we delve into the dark depths of Torchlight.

Loved
Diabloriffic Gameplay: If you are looking for a quick and dirty Diablo alternative, this is it right here. Torchlight is your basic click-to-move isometric dungeon crawler, with fast action, randomly generated dungeons, experience points, red healing and blue mana potions, random named boss monsters, and enough equipment dropping to have you clicking on your Town Portal scroll every 10 minutes or so just to unload and restock on Identify Scrolls. It's so unabashedly a Diablo clone that I'd laugh - if the gameplay weren't so enjoyable.

Customization: Torchlight features a wealth of character customization options, from talent points granted when your character gains an experience or reputation level, to socketed gems that add stats and elements to weapons and armor, to the random enchanter, who can power up your equipment beyond belief or strip it of your favorite features. Each of the three classes has multiple talent skill trees to delve into, meaning going back through the game with the same class could yield you a relatively unique experience. If you're as big a fan of tweaking little details as I am, then there's plenty here to sidetrack you from the main event.

Man's Best Friend: Each character in Torchlight starts off with either a dog or a cat companion, a feature lifted directly from the Fate series of dungeon crawlers. Your pet follows you on your adventure, gaining power as you do, fighting by your side. By pausing in your adventure to do a little fishing, you can catch magical fish that transform your pet into another creature entirely, making an entirely new set of abilities available until the magic wears off. Torchlight may lack multiplayer options, but you're never quite alone with your trusty kitty by your side.

And a Side of Questing: Torchlight allows you to take a break from the main story line to do a little questing on the side. Certain NPCs grant you side quests, which either involve finding objects in the main story dungeons or journeying into levels created specifically for the quest. You can also purchase dungeon maps from certain vendors, which will give you even more new areas to explore.

The Look, The Sound, of DiabloCraft: The presentation of Torchlight is definitely Diablo meets Warcraft, resulting in a world that's definitely lighter than the dark realm of the former, with elements that seem lifted almost directly from the latter - the first time you run into a goblin riding a steampunk mech, you'll feel as if you just ported in from Warcraft's world of Azeroth. Aiding the similarities is a musical score by Diablo composer and sound designer Matt Uelmen, whose string arrangements bring you right back to the unfortunate town of Tristam.

The Random Item Vendor: I love the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armor, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with an epic bow for my Vanquisher character (think rogue / ranger), which had me slaughtering smaller trash mobs with a single shot. It's a gamble, but when it pays off it is definitely worth it.

Hated
Something Vaguely Evil This Way Comes: An evil force is corrupting the magical ember beneath the mining town of Torchlight, and it's up to you to ignore any story points and go back to mindlessly slaughtering anything in your way. The story is simply a thin excuse to keep the player moving, and not much more than that.

The Random Item Vendor: I hate the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armor, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with a set of armor that I could never hope to have my character wear without completely forgoing her main attribute to focus on one she had little need for. It's a gamble, and when it doesn't pay off it really bites.

To really enjoy Torchlight you have to accept it for what it is. It's a Diablo clone with bits of Warcraft and Fate thrown in, sure, but when the development team consists of people directly responsible for those titles you pretty much have to give them a pass. Once you overcome the initial shock of seeing just how much familiar material the team has pulled from previous projects, you can begin to appreciate the high level of polish they've given that material, and the proficiency that comes with their experience.

While it would have benefited greatly from a deeper story and a multiplayer component, Torchlight is one of the best Diablo-style games you're likely to find without the Blizzard logo displayed prominently on the front of it.

Torchlight was developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment, Inc. on October 27th for the PC. Retails for $19.99 USD on Steam, with a retail version coming early next year. A copy of the game was acquired via Steam press pass for reviewing purposes. Played through the entire story as a Vanquisher, dabbling briefly with the Destroyer and Alchemist classes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

This marks the second time leaked footage from CD Projekt's sequel to the hit PC RPG The Witcher has surfaced on the internet, and the second time that the developer has decided to leave the leak be and open up discussions with fans. Speaking to Eurogamer after actually pointing them to the leaked video, CD Projekt's PR boss Pawel Majak explains that the company wants to make a bad thing better. "Let's turn the damage into something good and make [the game] even better."

The video depicts Geralt wandering about a village before fighting what both Eurogamer and I are thinking is a Kraken. It's either that, or a giant cliff octopus. It's definitely an epic encounter, either way.

I sure hope CD Projekt can get a handle on all of these leaks.

New leaked Witcher 2 footage appears [Eurogamer]

Mark November 18th on your calendar, and then set the rest of the week busy. That's the date that Square Enix and Popcap bring the blend of puzzle game and RPG pioneered by Puzzle Quest to the next level, adding collectible monsters to the mix. Gyromancer has you summoning monsters to fight other monsters in Bejeweled Twist flavored puzzle battles. As if that weren't bad enough, your monsters also gain levels as you fight with them, much like they do in Pokémon, and they come on pretty little cards that you'll want to collect until you pass out dead on your couch or in your computer chair.

Maybe it's just me, shaking with anticipation here. If I disappear after November 18th, call the police. Better yet, call Dominos and have them deliver cheesy bread.

Mytheon is an online PC game that combines action RPG gameplay with an element of collectible strategy games. Players take on mythical gods using collectible Power Stones, which transform into creatures, buildings, and spells. Think of it as a collectible card strategy game with the cards replaced with stones, and you get the picture.

Browse the gallery below for background information on some of the game's scenic locales.

The island features a diverse geography; from craggy, impassable cliffs to rolling meadows and gardens. While Amphitrite resides in the peaceful Nereid's Garden where the sparkling ponds and fountains reflect the tranquility of the sea, Triton presides over his namesake cove amidst the foam and crashing surf. Within the Temple of Poseidon, the vengeful sea god prepares his minions for the coming battle with mankind.

The Dominion of Hades is the epicenter of Hades' power in the Underworld. From this dark, luxurious palace, Hades and his queen, Persephone, rule the Underworld without mercy.

Remnants of a city lie just beyond the field's borders, long abandoned by its inhabitants and now overrun with diabolical beasts. What was once a thriving marketplace, surrounded by the homes of the townspeople, now lies uninhabited.

Gloomy corridors and cavernous halls exude an eerie sense of foreboding to those who would risk entry within. Divided into three great regions - the Hall of the Dead, the Garden of the Furies, and the Court of Hades, Stonecasters must embark deep into this fiery stronghold and face perilous legions of undead monsters in order to confront Hades himself, his power enhanced within his own domain.

The Shattered Isle is home to Poseidon, the supreme ruler of oceans and earthquakes. The isle is also home to Amphitrite, Poseidon's beloved wife, and their son, Triton. Together, the family forms a triad symbolic of the ocean's tranquility, treachery, and unrelenting dominion. These qualities are reflected in the domains over which they preside.

Since their victory over the dragon, the sacred grove has become infiltrated with fierce warriors of Ares, the god of war. The dusty furrows of the Fallow Field are dotted with the skeletal remains of dead trees; now home to carrion creatures that prey upon the unwary.

The Dominion of Hades is a monument to death and destruction. Home to the immortal god of earthly wealth - Hades, lord of the dead, rules his realm with an iron fist.

The skeletal remains of past invaders lie half buried in the sands surrounding crumbling columns and scarred boulders. Waterfalls cascade down stone ledges, casting a fine spray that coats the rocky surfaces and foliage.

Players will travel to the distant land of Colchis, once home to the famed Golden Fleece, now protecting Argos. Two distinct regions form the land of Colchis - the cast Fallow Field and the Grove of Ares. Jason and his Argonauts braved many dangers there to claim their prize, including an epic battle against the Colchian Dragon who guarded the fleece.

The country of Ferelden is on the verge of being overwhelmed by the demonic Blight, and only the heroic Grey Wardens can save the land from total destruction. It sounds simple, but the struggle between good and evil is merely the backdrop to a much more twisted tale of intrigue, political maneuvering, and betrayal. Once you play through one of six unique origin stories based on your character's race and caste you're plunged into the thick of it, gathering a party of heroic and not-so-heroic adventurers as you struggle to ensure that Ferelden is ready to take on the Blight once they rise.

BioWare has proven time and time again that it can produce high-caliber fantasy roleplaying games based on existing properties, but can they pull off an original fantasy setting? The Dragon Age is dawning.

Loved
In A World...: As comfortable creating their own worlds as they are dabbling into established fictions, BioWare brings the country of Ferelden to life in Dragon Age: Origins. Rather than a simple game setting, Ferelden feels like a real place with a rich history lurking just outside the corner of the player's vision. The look and feel of the world is almost as impressive as the fiction, with several areas - particularly those in the underground realm of The Deep Road - looking as if they were traditional fantasy artwork come to life.

Tangled Webs: The origins in Dragon Age: Origins are more than just little stories created to move your character into the main story arc. Each gives insight into the major political and societal issues that plague the country of Ferelden, all of which crop up on a larger, more important scale later on in the game. The struggle between good and evil merely serves as a backdrop for a much more complicated tale of political intrigue, racial tension, and moral versus popular choices.

You Gotta Have Friends: Expanding on the excellent character work established in titles like Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur's Gate, BioWare once again provides an amazing cast of characters to fight by your side as you travel the twisted paths of Dragon Age: Origins. Each of your NPC companions has a distinct personality, and while they may seem rather cookie-cutter at first glance, exploring their origins and motivations reveals a truly complex collection of individuals. You'll Travel with them on their own personal quests as you progress through the game, establishing bonds and perhaps even falling in love with one of them. You'll grow attached, and should any of them part ways with you, you'll feel it acutely.

It isn't just your party members, either. Each NPC is handled with great care and attention to detail - even the ones who only have one line of text, spoken over and over again. Enchantment?

So Many Choices: I've played every major BioWare RPG released so far, and while they all deal with making tough decisions, none have seemed to have nearly as profound an impact as those in Dragon Age: Origins do. I regularly found myself making the sort of decisions that had me realizing that I had just completely altered a major portion of the game. Kingdoms rose and fell and important people lived or died based solely on my whims. This is definitely the kind of game you'll want to play through multiple times, just to see how your actions affect the world.

Just Talkin' Bout Dragon Age: An extremely well-written, deviously witty script is only as good as the actors who voice it, and BioWare has pulled together a winning team for Dragon Age. Claudia Black does a fine job of voicing the sardonic witch Morrigan, and Steve Blue does one of the best dwarves I've ever heard in his portrayal of Oghren. All in all, everyone does a spectacular job, but by far my favorite is Steve Valentine as Alistair. Alistair has some of the most amusing lines in the game, most of which would have fallen completely flat if not for Valentine's expert timing. Just remember, "There's nothing like a brush with death to make you...not like death very much."

Swords and Sorcery: Combat in Dragon Age can be as shallow or as deep as the player desires. You can spend the entire game simply controlling your own character and letting your party members go about their business, triggering special moves using the double 3-slot quick bar on the bottom right of the screen, and you'll do just fine. For more depth, you can customize your party's AI behavior by assigning situational tactics for individual characters based on a wide variety of conditions and roles. As satisfying as it is to simply plow right through the enemy, constructing elaborate plans and placing your party in just the right positions to completely decimate your opponents is even more satisfying still.

Hot Micromanagement: I really enjoy micromanaging my role-playing characters, from fine-tuning their equipment to placing each skill point to maximize combat efficiency. Throughout the game you unlock specializations which allow you to tweak your characters even further, focusing on particular aspects of the warrior, mage, and rogue classes. Enchanting weapons, applying poisons, constructing traps; these are the elements of a good RPG that get me all aflutter, and Dragon Age: Origins allows me to indulge myself while still allowing the player who'd rather just wing it to go their own way.

Outside Of The Game: BioWare goes above and beyond with the Dragon Age: Origins community site, where players can communicate, share stories, or browse each other's character profiles to see how far along they've gotten in the game. Once you have an account at the BioWare Social Network website, you can see everything I've done in Dragon Age. Skills, plot points, talent, equipment; it's all there for the world to see. It makes the game feel like more than a game, if that makes any sense, adding a new layer to the experience that keeps it alive long after you've finished playing.

Hated
Bugs Aplenty: My time with the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon Age was not without troubles. In fact, my 40 or so hours in the game were plagued with annoying little glitches that, while not breaking the game completely, did hamper the experience. Some special combat animations were way off, with my character performing finishing blows in the air next to the boss I had just downed. Sound glitched frequently, leaving me watching a character's lips move while no words came. On a few occasions the screen would glitch when a character was speaking, showing broken geometry instead of the person talking. I also had issues with monsters dying and taking up to 30 seconds to register as dead, making me have to wait to loot bodies and in some cases delaying the completion of certain quests.

Perhaps the biggest bug I encountered was during the final battle, when I simply could not progress. BioWare suggested it was due to a monster I needed to kill falling through the world. I wound up having to load a previous save in order to complete the game. Luckily the game had autosaved just before the battle started, but it was definitely more frustration than I needed.

Chugga Chugga Frame Rate: Dragon Age is a pretty game, but when it really starts moving, things get ugly. With only a couple of characters on the screen things aren't too bad, leaning towards the high 20's frame rate-wise, but when you're in a big battle or a crowd scene, things dip into the middle to high teens. Mind you I am guestimating here...it's not like I have some magical PS3 FPS tool, but the dip is definitely noticeable.

BioWare's Ray Muzyka once said that "Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." I'd take that a step further and say that Dragon Age is the evolution of Baldur's Gate, taking the concepts and mechanics established in that classic PC RPG and updating them using today's more powerful technology. While that alone is a recipe for success, the lack of an established license has allowed the developers to craft a unique fantasy setting from the ground up, populating it with fascinating characters and instilling upon it a depth that goes far beyond the simple tale of good versus evil the game initially presents. Much like CD Projekt's The Witcher, Dragon Age overlays modern day politics and social issues onto its fantasy world, creating a richer, more mature atmosphere in the process.

Perhaps the biggest testament to Dragon Age: Origins is the fact that after more than 40 hours of play time, I found myself contemplating my next character as the credits rolled, working out in my head what I would do differently the next time around. During the busy fall video game release season, when my response to completing even the most enjoyable games is "next," it takes an extremely compelling title for me to want to go again. Dragon Age: Origins is exactly that sort of title.

Dragon Age: Origins was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 3. Retails for $59.99 USD ($49.99 PC). A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Reviewed the PlayStation 3 version. Played through the main game on standard difficulty, choosing the City Elf origin and rogue as my character class. Completed main quest, multiple side quests, and The Stone Prisoner downloadable content, which should definitely not be missed.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow is set two years after the original Blue Dragon and a year after the previous DS installment, Blue Dragon Plus. Instead of controlling Shu, the player creates their own character in this game, selecting the look and gender of your avatar before setting off on an adventure to rid the world of a newly-awakened enemy and restore balance.

A customizable character means the player can also change shadows to fit the situation, adding an element of strategy to the game that wasn't there before.

I have to admit, the original Blue Dragon is one of my least favorite RPG games of this console generation, and the first DS follow-up didn't impress me much. However, Awakened Shadow is developed by tri-Crescendo so there might still be hope.

While I love the cut scene graphics, I'm not too sure about the actual in-game shots. They look a little sloppy to me, but it could just be the capturing of frantic action in still form that gives me that impression. The videos on the Japanese website I linked to in my earlier post sure looked fine, so that's probably the case.

Arc Rise Fantasia is a rather lovely little Japanese RPG which tells the story of L'Arc, a mercenary setting out to save the Meridian Empire from monster invasion. The characters in your party share an AP meter, allowing you to strategically queue up your attacks to suit every encounter. You can check out the Japanese website for videos and such to help fill in the blanks there.

"In Arc Rise Fantasia we've implemented a fun and quick paced battle system to give gamers an enjoyable RPG experience," said Hiroyuki Kanemaru of Image Epoch. "Ignition Entertainment has a great track record with bringing established Japanese experiences to new western audiences and we're delighted to be able to team up with them to publish Arc Rise Fantasia."

Last I had heard, XSeed was publishing the game in North America early next year. Ignition previously picked up Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Wii after XSeed dropped the title from it's lineup. Not sure what happened to shake things up, but I'm pleased it will still arrive eventually.

The epic space RPG continues on January 26th in North America, with Europe joining the fray three days later on the 29th. Along with the release date announcement, EA has revealed preorder bonus equipment available via download code once the game hits store shelves.

Most retail outlets will receive codes for Inferno Armor (seen above), which increases your Commander Shepard's negotiation skills, run speed, and combat damage. Those opting to preorder from GameStop will receive the Terminus Assault Armor (seen below), which includes an armor suit that augments run speed, damage, shields, and adds an additional magazine of reserve ammo, and the M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon, which generates a localized gravity well, which sounds painful.

"Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 - the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. "BioWare's fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn't be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!"

I for one am relieved that a release date has finally been nailed down. Now I know which week to request off. Don't tell Crecente.

Steam is unlocking Dragon Age: Origins on November 3rd, and it's got two different flavors of the game to choose form. Both versions come with the preorder exclusive Memory Band experience ring, The Stone Prisoner DLC, and the Mass Effect 2 crossover Blood Dragon Armor, as well as a Steam exclusive ring called The Wicked Oath, which adds 10% to critical strike damage, improves your armor penetration, and helps you regenerate stamina faster in combat.

So what do you get for an extra $15 in the Digital Deluxe Edition?

First off, there's even more new content in the form of Warden's Keep, featuring quests that explore the Grey Wardens' original expulsion from Ferelden, new items and spells, and a base of operations where your character can store his or her stuff. The deluxe edition also comes with a special helmet, a magic staff, and a grimoire that increases your attributes. All that, plus a selection of desktop wallpapers and a collection of music from the soundtrack for only $15 above the normal price. <s?Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.<.s>

Both editions are now available for pre-purchase via Steam.

UPDATE: Steam has corrected the price for the Digital Deluxe version to $64.99, $10 more than it was originally listed for. I have modified the post accordingly.

I've had the game for several days now, thanks to a local store that wasn't aware of any street date, and so far I'm struggling to enjoy it. When your main protagonist's first words involve amnesia, you know you're not going to be breaking any new ground story-wise. The gameplay, however, is rather unique. Just take a look at the magic and ability-fueling Kan system in this video to see what I mean.

It occurs to me that complicated RPG combat manuevers don't translate very well into video tutorial form. I'm a little more confused than I was previously after watching it. I'm sure after I play the game for five minutes I'll be able to explain the combat system in painstaking detail, and I probably will. Until then, however, confusion reigns. Go confusion!