Welcome to the 1,200th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Today is Dragon Age: Origins Day! Even though not an official holiday,
it should be. BioWare's biggest RPG hits the shelves today, and Ten Ton
Hammer Executive Editor, Benjamin J. de la Durantaye, has a hard time
deciding which version of the game to buy. With ports for the PC, Xbox,
and PS3, the decision isn't an easy one; but in the end, will it matter?
The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results: href="http://www.gunnars.com/">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft -
Dungeons
& Dragons Online - Lord
of the Rings Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/117">Star
Trek Online (Up 13) - EverQuest
2
Biggest movers today:
- 9/1 -
Champions
Online (release date) - 9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date) - 9/15
- Runes
of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion) - 9/22 -
Fallen
Earth (release date) -
9/22
- Aion
(release date) - 10/8
- Cities
XL (release date) - 11/3
- Dragon Age:
Origins (release date)
Releases
- 12/1
- LotRO:
Siege of Mirkwood (expansion) - 12/1
- EVE
Online: Dominion (expansion)
- 12/2
- DOFUS 2.0
(release date) - 12/15
- EverQuest:
Underfoot (expansion)
- Early 2010
- APB
- Feb. 2010
- href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
Loading... Daily
If you're like me (and several other TTH staff members), today's been
circled on your calendar for a while. Across the nation, gamers are
calling in sick to work and school and rushing out to buy their copy of
BioWare's newest RPG: Dragon Age: Origins.
I'm not going to bother writing today about how cool the game is.
There's no point. You know it, and I know it. And I'm not going to
bother linking
our Dragon Age: Origins page on Ten Ton Hammer either, because you've
already seen it. What I am going to do though, is ask for your
assistance.
This decision is one we, as gamers, face frequently. When a new game
launches, do we buy it for the PC, Xbox, PS3, or Wii? Don't get me
wrong, it's a nice decision to have to face, but sometimes we make the
wrong choice, and regret it later. (I once bought Alone in the Dark for
the Wii, instantly regretted it, bought it again for the PC and then
realized that it's just a game that shouldn't have been bought at all).
So, until someone invents PS-Wii60, we're just going to have to make
this decision from week to week. Even moreso, now that several MMOGs
are planning console ports.
So, back to the topic at hand - Dragon Age: Origins. It's not available
on the Wii, so that takes care of that. To make things a bit easier, I
also don't own an Xbox, so I don't have to make that decision. That
narrows it down to the PC or the PS3.
For myself, I can't play an MMO on a console. I did the whole EverQuest
Online Adventures thing, and it just wasn't the same. It never felt
right. But DA:O isn't an MMO, so that doesn't help me. I started
thinking about things like graphics, and while that should have made
things easier, it really didn't. I have a couple of Radeon 4890 HDs in
Crossfire in my PC, and it's pretty sweet. However, I'm still playing
on a 24 inch monitor, and if I buy it for the PS3, I can enjoy it on my
47" HDTV. Yes, I know I can hook up my PC to the tv, but I'm not going
to. So the route of graphics didn't help resolve my little problem.
Another factor to consider is the game style. Is this the type of game
I can sit upright to play for hours on the PC, entrenched in the story
and game play? Or is it the type of game I'd like to play with my feet
kicked back, with a cold lemonade on the end table? I haven't actually
played it yet, so I can't answer this question, and my decision isn't
made any easier.
So, I think the deciding factor for me is that I just want something I
can enjoy for hours on the PS3. I was a sucker and bought one when it
was still $600 (a pox on those of you who recently picked up the slim
for $299!) and to this date, I still haven't gotten my money's worth
out of it. Not because there aren't good games for it, but because I
haven't personally played a game on it that has kept me involved for
more than 10 hours. Uncharted (the original) was a great
game, but it wasn't that long. DA:O promises to be considerably longer,
so I think I'll finally have a title that will have the $600 price tag
pay me back a little by offering many more hours of enjoyment.
So, that's my decision as it stands. I'm heading out later today to
pick up my copy of DA:O on the PS3. How bout you? How do you decide on
which platform to buy your games? Let us know in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47575">forums.
Shayalyn's Epic
Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142">Articles,
News & Events Discussion forum
style="font-weight: normal;">The Overpull - "Camping or
Questing?"
This
isn't an epic thread...yet. I'm making a prediction that it'll
evolve into an epic conversation. After all, Xerin asked a great
question in our weekly World of Warcraft report, The Overpull: camping
or questing? I'm a camping kind of girl, myself, preferring a nice
comfortable camp to running around completing quest objectives, but I'm
kind of old school. We want to know what you think, and we've got some
other WoW-ish topics for you to discuss, so head over to our WoW forum
to weigh
in.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
No quotes yet.
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47566">Make
one!
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
3 New Ten Ton Hammer MMOG
features today! 8 in November! 2,080
in
2009!
Today's
New Features & Guides
style="font-weight: bold;">
-
In-Depth
Torchlight Q&A with the Runic Games team: Post-Launch and MMO
Plans
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76260
Ten
Ton Hammer spoke with Max Schaefer, Travis Baldree, and a great cast of
Runic developers regarding some of the ins and outs of the
just-released Action RPG Torchlight, plus post-launch plans (including
when we might see the highly anticipated Preditor level editor and the
Mac OSX version) and some initial thoughts about the upcoming
Torchlight MMORPG. It's all in this in-depth post-launch Torchlight
Q&A with the Runic Games team! -
Greenwood the
Great – A Look at what the Siege of Mirkwood Brings to LotRO
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76265
War
is coming. The dark lord Sauron has cast his dark shadow over Mirkwood,
the once lush land known as Greenwood the Great has fallen. War is
building on all sides and it's up to you to help defeat the coming tide
of darkness and aid the peoples of Middle-earth in pushing back the
shadow of Mordor. Will you press on to the dark tower of Dol Guldur, or
will you flee at the sight of the Nazgul flying high above on their
fell beast? This is the decision you must face in The Lord of the Rings
Online's (LotRO) latest expansion Siege of Mirkwood (SoM). This week
Ten Ton Hammer takes a look at what SoM will offer LotRO players and
why skirmish combat will make old areas new again. -
WoW Weekly
Report: The Overpull "Camping or Questing?"
title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue39"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue39">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue39
The Overpull this week brings a heaping helping of news, cool facts,
and a hefty amount of discussion. This week we go over the tanking
changes in Icecrown, camping or questing?, the war between the Alliance
and the Horde, and lots of other cool and exciting things. Check out
the Overpull today! Remember, you can also subscribe online to get it
sent automatically to your email each week.
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-style: italic;"> href="mailto:[email protected]">
Hottest Content:
- Managing
Fan Expectations - An Interview with Vanguard Visionary Brad McQuaid - Star
Trek Online Space Combat Q&A with Craig Zinkievich -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/classes/cleric_healing">The
Cleric's Guide to Healing in Aion - Lord
of the Rings Online - Siege of Mirkwood Live Preview - DOFUS
2.0 Beta Key Giveaway - EVE
Online – Ten Tips to Go From Noob to Noobtastic -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/nemesisbasics">Champions
Online : Nemesis Basics - Sins
of the Solar Spymaster #30 - Dominion Post-FanFest - Global
Agenda: Conquest and Pricing Interview - Recession
Proof Gaming
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dragon Age: Origins Game Page.
