The story is a bit of a casualty to the mission structure and game play to start with, though threads emerge and little plot arcs with the various ‘quest givers’ do emerge. The information about Pandora is there to understand its background but you really have to pay attention as you whisk through the missions to really get an idea of what happened.

Pandora was a mining world run by one of the big interstellar corporations until they decided to pull out. In so doing they left behind a bunch of convict workers and everyone who couldn’t afford to get off world. The injured, the perverse and those who simply enjoyed exploiting a frontier planet. Stories about the vault have brought other mercenaries here, along with members of larger mercenary forces, ostensibly there to keep the peace. A job they fail at.

This review is unlikely to be of a great deal of use to most people who will have seen the word ‘Bioware’ associated with it, ignored the EA also associated with it, had a happy accident in their pants and bought it anyway. For those of you who’ve been a little bit slower off the mark or have hung back unsure whether to buy it, without having the money spare or who are curious without being curious enough to spend money, hopefully this will offer something useful.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Dragon Age: Origins is the kick off of a new CRPG franchise for Bioware, divorced from their D&D associations (Baldur’s Gate) and that of their old game engine. Dragon’s Age has been sold as a glorious, sexy, blood-spattered romp that tears down preconceptions about fantasy games and worlds, plays about with them and offers a more mature and visceral entertainment ’sausage’ at the end of it all.

Horror and dark fantasy fans love getting (and giving) gifts just as much as anyone else. However, we certainly can be hard to shop for sometimes.

In this edition of the FlamesRising.com’s Winter Holidays 2009 Gift Guide, we hear from FlamesRising reviewer and horror aficionado Steven Dawes. Steve talks about games, movies and books perfect to give as a gift for the horror fan in your life.

What do you get when you take one of the most popular comedy franchises ever, bring back the original writers and actors who made it so great, and have the original writers come up with a new script tying it all together?

You get Ghostbusters: the Video Game, of course.

Ghostbusters: TVG had been plagued from developmental issues from the start. Passing from publisher to publisher, the game faced cancellation several times despite promising trailers. Eventually managing to be released by Atari, this game features voice acting from the original cast. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson reprise their roles as the classic supernatural investigators and eliminators.

Review by John D. Kennedy

Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS is a sequel to Mistwalker’s console RPG Blue Dragon. This time around, the straight-up RPG action has been replaced with a real-time strategy mechanic but everything else, from the Dragon Ball-esque graphics to the big bad Shadows, has returned.

The original Blue Dragon was a hotly-anticipated title for the Xbox 360. Not only did it have an esteemed pedigree with the creator and composer of the Final Fantasy series onboard but the 360 was going through a bit of an RPG drought. Its release helped scratch an itch a lot of Xboxers had and was a decided “hand across the aisle” to the Japanese market who regarded the 360 as an American machine with American games.

Review by Jason Blair

Wizards of the Coast has released the Beta version of Duels of the Planeswalkers, an arcade-style video game for Xbox LIVE Arcade developed in conjunction with UK company Stainless Games. The game is rated T for Teen and is scheduled for spring release for the Xbox 360.

Duels of the Planeswalkers takes players on a journey through a Multiverse in which they take on the roles of Planeswalkers, powerful wizards who battle others for glory, knowledge and conquest. Throughout their journey, Planeswalkers battle with, or against each other in lush interactive 3D environments. Similar to the Magic: The Gathering trading card game, Planeswalkers are equipped with an arsenal of spells and creatures that if used wisely will help advance the Planeswalker through the game.

Abandon Interactive Entertainment invites families, gamers and Gen Con Indy attendees to catch a sneak peek of their upcoming family-friendly, cross-platform MMO video game Freaky Creatures at the Indiana Convention Center – from Thursday, August 14th to Sunday, August 17th in Indianapolis, IN. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to play the new online game and battle each other with fully customizable creatures prior to the game’s release this fall. Freaky Creatures representatives will be on-hand to demonstrate the game and guide players through its various features.

Gaming Extravaganza Brings Crowds to Indy for the Annual Convention

It’s that time of year again when gamers are gearing up for Gen Con Indy, the original, longest running and best-attended gaming show in North America. With an estimated 27,000 unique attendees converging on the Indianapolis Convention Center, visitors to Gen Con will immerse themselves in the 6,000+ gaming events and more than 250 exhibits over the four day extravaganza that has become the world’s premier game convention. Starting Thursday morning and running round-the-clock attendees can play their hearts out with fellow enthusiasts and by joining in card games, board games, video games, table top and live-action role-playing games, seminars, films, workshops and so much more. Activities range from interactive game play and computer gaming to big money hobby-related tournaments sponsored by industry leaders Upper Deck Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. The event will be held August 14-17, 2008 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

We’re suckers, so we bought the collector’s edition. In this edition you get a nice tall box that you feel bad about throwing away, a six inch or so plastic figurine and… that’s it. *rattles the box, turns it upside down* yes… that’s all you get. No art book, no strategy guide or hint booklet. Just the plastic figurine. They didn’t exactly go all out. To make matters even more annoying they’ve plastered a ‘not for resale’ tag across the front of the game box so you can’t even trade in the game. After the wonderfulness of the Bioshock collector’s edition this was… a little aggravating. If you’re going to have a special edition and charge that much more for it you should really push the boat out a little and this just wasn’t the case with Assassin’s Creed.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Bioshock tells the tale of a fallen utopia, I’ll try not to give too much away but you play jack, a survivor of a plane wreck in the mid-atlantic (actually the North Atlantic near Greenland and Iceland where the main plane route is if the coordinates given for Rapture’s location are right) who discovers this rotting vision and plays a key role in breaking a stalemate between two opposing forces there.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Welcome To Silent Hill.

Director Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) has once again tackled a visually rich project and taken a challenge. Anytime a film is derived from a video game, skeptical thoughts cross my mind. Gans delivers with a mind-blowing product, but contacts a few aspects, which caused me to ask questions.

Review by Jeff Jacobs