In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
Like blood? No… I mean, do you REALLY like blood?
If you answered yes, and also have a fancy for dragons, fantasy, compelling story, in depth character evolution, complete voice acting, and a really really long story that I believe Bioware’s Edmonton office has created the perfect game for you.
Dragon Age: Origins developed by Bioware (the same fine folks who brought us Mass Effect) have taken the next evolutionary step in interactive story telling in both intensity, depth, and fantasy. Moving back to their Baulder’s Gate style roots and away from the sci-fi they recently gained fame for, Dragon Age: Origins has you starting out in one of six origin stories (as a noble human, peasant human, wood elf, city elf, noble dwarf, or casteless dwarf) but have you essentially fighting to save all races and creeds against the Archdemon and the Blight. However the story begins, it provides insight and a background to where you came from, how you became a Grey Warden (a group of soldiers whom can sense evil and are tasked with defeating the Blight) and sends you off on your merry adventure where you meet dozens of characters who with a little finesse can become invaluable allies in your battle (letting you control up to four characters at one time) or… with a little fast clicking can have you killing them on the spot (trust me, I’ve killed at least two potential allies so far).
He's right behind me... Isn't he?
The game is all about choices, much like other Bioware favourites, but for this one, they go deep in morality it goes beyond just deciding if you want to be greedy, evil, good, or psychotic. For example, a simple choice in the game is whether you want to call down a massively strong dragon to fight against you or just sneak by… easy enough. How about choosing a side between two equally capable and equally evil dwarfs to take the throne as dwarf king? How do you know you’re making the right choice, how will the story evolve if you make one decision over another? So far the hardest choice I made in Origins beyond deciding how to level up my characters was to kill a young innocent boy harbouring a demon inside him, or find a way to exorcise the demon and save the boy… unfortunately for the boy, I have been on a tight deadline to write this review… so he died. Speaking of tight deadlines, since getting my grubby little paws on this title I’ve pretty much done nothing but play, and with well over 24 hours under my belt, I still feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of this massive game, which touts over 80 hours of gameplay.
Aside from decision making, gameplay within Origins can be utilized in two different ways. Players have the option of setting a basic set of guidelines their AI companions can follow much like the Gambit system in Final Fantasy 12. As your characters get stronger, more rules can be set for them (such as if an ally has 50% less health, use health potion on them), while the player controls the main character from an over the shoulder view in a more action type manner. Alternatively, players can change the view to a top down approach (like Baulder’s Gate), pause the game at any time and assign actions to all characters, unpause and watch the mayhem. Combinations of spells as well as elements also provide a deeper sense of customization (throw grease on a bad guy, then cast a fire spell and see what happens).
Graphically, Dragon Age: Origins uses a new engine called Eclipse, and while I’m not sure exactly what it does better than other engines, I do know this… it makes Origins pretty. With plenty of characters on the screen at once, all doing god knows what in the form of attacks, spells, and other abilities, I was amazed that the detail and effects that would be shown on screen without a lick of slowdown. As well, I was intrigued by the blood system. There is A LOT of blood in this game, and often after a battle, that blood will be left on you and your party until either your wardog cleans it up, or after a good rest. The character and location designs are all extremely unique from the DarkSpawn, to demons, to the dragons themselves; they’re all just as varied and detailed as the forests, cities, and caverns you visit along the way. The only instance where I felt a little cheated was in the Dwarven city that looked a heck of a lot like the Dwarven city in World of Warcraft.
I think my favourite thing about Dragon Age: Origins has to be the voice acting. With tons of dialogue between characters, and multiple decisions about what to respond with I was amazed with the amount of voice acting to be found in this game. Aside from your main character (most of the time) every peice of dialogue in the game is voice acted. Consider for a moment how long this game is, over 80 hours long, and with very busy cities and many people to talk to, the amount of voice acting is at such a high number that I cannot even wager a guess to how much hours of speech are included in the game. Music, slicing, and grunts are all included and play well within the game, however I find that the musical change right before battle takes away from the surprise element of it.
Equal rights.
In terms of lasting appeal, while Origins has no multiplayer, the game itself is ridiculously long, and addictive! In a time where I have Borderlands, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Left 4 Dead 2 sitting on my shelf; I find myself playing this title more than all four of those combined. That being said even if you do complete the story and all side quests, Bioware has guaranteed over 2 years of post launch content. They even tout that they will be providing more post-launch content than all other Bioware titles combined.
So overall, do I think Dragon Age: Origins is worth it? You bet I do! Especially now with gaming sales coming every which way, chances are you may be able to find this title for $40 in the very near future.
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Graphics: 4.5/5
Sound: 5.0/5
Replay: 4.0/5
