Mongo Nation

Bethesda drums up some excitement for their new action/RPG.

I got a weird, unexpected package from Bethesda today. It was a giant rectangular box that looked like this:

I opened it up and found a weird little tube inside with a keycard USB (as opposed to the laser beam that I half-hoped would be there. Maybe next time…). The tube and key card were fit snugly into the box like top-secret radioactive materials or something. It certainly warranted my attention/concern.

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Sorta like Event Horizon: The Video Game

By Jeremy Azevedo

The latest installment of the popular Shin Megami Tensei series is on it’s way to the states! Like it’s predecessors, it involves making pacts with demons to combat a plague of otherworldly monsters from another dimension.

Unlike its predecessors, it takes place not in a Japanese prep school or a fantasy setting, nor even a steam punk utopia. Instead, it takes place in space (sort of).

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is, stylistically, kind of a cross between Persona and Dead Space. You play as an elite space explorer tasked with investigating a disturbance at the planet’s South Pole. It soon becomes apparent that this disturbance is actually a black hole that opens into a universe of demons. Some of the demons can be negotiated with, while others have a bad attitude for which the only cure is a hail of bullets. This is where you come in.

Strange Journey plays like a first-person dungeon crawler, which, as many of you know, the Nintendo DS was practically made for. All the action takes place on the top screen, while the bottom screen is reserved for maps and stats. While many DS RPGs have been using really shitty, bubble headed 3D graphics that look like a bad PS1 game for some reason, SMT: Strange Journey instead opts to stick with traditional, hand-drawn 2D sprites. A wise decision.

Check out some of the pics here:

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey for Nintendo DS is currently scheduled for release in Spring 2010.

Bioware tips the awesomenisity scale once again!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Bioware has a pretty immaculate record when it comes to providing kick-ass action RPGs with deep character customization and innovative gameplay mechanics. Dragon Age Origins is clearly no exception.  I was able to get hands-on with the game recently and found it to actually exceed my expectations in nearly every way.

The first thing that you’ll notice about Dragon Age Origins is that the game looks simply amazing. The stills don’t really even do it justice. Mass Effect was pretty good looking, but the whole sci-fi theme is sort of limited to clean lines and smooth textures, and Dragon Age is quite a bit more visceral. It’s also a hell of a lot gorier too, with bloody, slow motion dismemberments that would make the Vault Dweller from Fallout 3 puke his guts out. This is clearly not the child-friendly fantasy epic that we’re used to seeing most of the time. There’s even titties in this game and everything. True story. Elf boobs for the win.

The control in Dragon Age is somewhat similar to previous Bioware games, except for the fact that your offensive and defensive powers are mapped to the face buttons, which can be swapped on the fly with the triggers. You can also freeze the action and bring up your ability wheel like in Mass Effect and KOTOR, but I found myself using the live commands significantly more often once I got the hang of it. I was mopping up orcs like the motherf**king Knights of Rohan in no time. (If that last sentence made any sense to you then you are a huge nerd and probably already have this game pre-ordered, amirite?)

At the end of the stage I faced off against a giant demon thing with big-ass horns that was so nasty they even rendered his monster stank-breath. The developer dude that was hanging around told me to use me freezing magic if the monster managed to get a hold of one of my guys or else he’d tear them limb from limb. I told him “Mind your goddamn business man I got this”… as the monster ripped one of my dudes a new asshole. I used my freeze magic from there on in, apologized for my insolence and thanked the developer for his useful advice.

The guy playing next to me had like this huge dog in his party and I was like “Where in the hell is my dog? I want a dog on my team.” And then he was like “Forget the dog, check out this bitchen’ dragon”. He then booted up a scene from later in the game where your party fights an enormous, red, fire-breathing dragon that fills up the whole screen and has like 100 different ways to kill you. He wouldn’t let me fight the dragon because he thought maybe I was some kind of noob or whatever but seeing it was awesome nevertheless. Fighting the little pissant goblins is one thing, but seeing a party taking on an enemy of that size was definitely getting me more into the spirit of things.

If what we’ve already seen is any indication, Dragon Age Origins may very well be the Citizen Kane of D&D inspired adult fantasy elf titty RPG epics to be released in November 2009, no question. Either way, check back then for a full review!

We learn how to take our rightful place alongside the legends of the DC Universe

At Comic Con, we dropped by the DC Universe Online booth to have a look at how the game was coming along. While we were there, we talked to one of DCUO’s reps to learn more about the title’s unique physics engine (the first of it’s kind for an MMO), character customization and mission structure. Check out the video right here, exclusively on CraveOnline!

We speak with Lead Game Designer Mike Laidlaw

BioWare has a long and storied history of providing some of the best action RPG experiences in the business. Dragon Age Origins is shaping up to be another notch on their belt of AAA fantasy titles, with it’s deep, player driven story and unflinchinglty adult themes. We talked to Lead Game Designer Mike Laidlaw about his plans for the series, working without the D&D license and what to expect from Dragon Age Origins this holiday season.

Check back every day for tons more exclusive interviews with the developers behind this year’s hottest games!