Posted via Major Nelson’s blog is a large round-up of incoming deals and marketplace goodies, some of which look more or less  promising. Hydrophobia, particularly, is an XBLA title that caught my eye and has since held it for quite sometime now. Hydrophobia is a survival adventure game developed by Dark Energy Digital featuring a female heroine, Kate Wilson, defending her ocean vessel utopia from Malthusian terrorists during the Great Population Flood. Just FYI, It’s already made a name for itself and has received multiple awards, including Best Downloadable Game from GameTrailers at E3 2010. According Rob Hewson, it’s all about player versus environment interaction and, well, the imagery featuring Dark Engery Digital’s “HydroEngine” is fairly impressive. Ooh, just look at the pretty, flowing water. Check out the entire list of updates scheduled to hit the Marketplace in the coming weeks.

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Not everyone made the choice at the end of Dragon Age that would allow this DLC to exist, but if you didn’t, you missed out on one of the most interesting choices in Dragon Age: Origins.  Morrigan, a definite fan-favorite character, leaves the protagonist with a cliffhanger of an ending if you choose one way, and it is the next, and potentially final, DLC of the game that will answer this monument of a question: Where did she go?

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BioWare has done a more than fair job so far at releasing DLC.  A few of their packs have been decent, a couple above and beyond what I generally expect of DLC, and now with the release of Golems of Amgarrak we get a new end of the spectrum.  If you don’t want to read the rest of this review, I can tell you how much this DLC is worth in dollar terms right now: one shiny American dollar.  Big Dragon Age fans might be interested in throwing down more.  The measly five dollars they ask for it, however, is overpriced for what it’s worth.  In short, this is Dragon Age’s worst DLC to date, and its shortest, to boot.

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BioWare recently snuck in five new Dragon Age 2 apparel  additions to the BioWare Store. They’ve been shopping around ideas for new shirts that fans would like on their Facebook page for a while now and have finally listed up a few of the main designs. The new shirts are mostly logo-style designs on a few new t-shirts and hoodies. I’m always in season for a new hoodie so I’m being slightly drawn in by the charcoal hoodie with the “II” on front and the blood spatter dragon on the back… But where are those Alistair shirts that were going down on the Facebook page? What gives!? More Alistair! You can check out all of the new designs front and back as well as a close-up of the dragons in the gallery below.

This week’s Xbox Live updates and Deal of the Week include a bit of juiciness. In order to get you ramped up for next week’s newest DLC The Golems of Amgarrak for Dragon Age: Origins, the prices have been slashed for Warden’s Keep putting it at 400 MSP this week (definitely worth it!), Return to Ostagar is stripped down to only 240 MSP, which wasn’t amazing content but certainly not bad either (crucifixions!), especially for $3, and lastly the expansion Awakening is downloadable for $30 (instead of the original $40). Read on for the rest of the updates and additions being added to the Xbox Live marketplace! Plus, Shark Week.

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Dragon Age fans, you have yet another thing to get excited about: Bioware has announced that they are partnering with anime publisher FUNimation to produce an animated movie based on the Dragon Age universe.  Production is already underway with a direct-to-DVD release expected for 2011.

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This is short news, but news nonetheless!  Today on Xbox Press a listing for a Dragon Age: Origins DLC was posted.  It doesn’t say what the “Darkspawn Chronicles” DLC is about, and under the description just gives the original game’s tagline.  However, we can speculate, no?  I’m hoping for something prequel-ish, but that’s wishful fanboyism.  Or maybe the tale of young Scroot?  The Darkspawn who wanted to be a Grey Warden?  Maybe?

The listing is just for Xbox users right now, though that’s obviously going to change as DLC always appears on superior systems as well.  It’s priced at 400 Microsoft Points, which is roughly 5 bucks, and slated for May 18th (smart to compete with Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Red Dead Redemption!).  More on this story as it develops.

Lately we have seen a renaissance of gaming tie-ins.  Tie-ins can include movies, comic books, novels, and even television series.  Big publishers like wringing every cent they can from a popular IP, and thankfully this will often bring fans some extra material about the universes that we’ve fallen in love with.  They aren’t always done well, but I would argue that there is an increasing movement towards hiring quality writers and artists for these projects, and it has made for some fantastic tie-ins.  This will be but a brief overview of a few of the better ones from recent games, with possibly more to come in the future as I expand my own collection. 

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If you are a huge Dragon Age fan, you will probably want to check out the latest pictures of the new Dragon Age: Origins figures.  With the exception of Morrigan, they look pretty good with a fair amount of detail.  I don’t know what happened to Morrigan’s face, but Duncan and Loghain look as though they jumped straight out of the game.  The figures go on sale on September 29th.

If you want one of these figures when they come out, you’ll need to contact your local comic retailer for availability and price.  Each figure stands around 5-6 inches high.  Set one includes Duncan, Loghain, Morrigan and Genlock.  There’s no word on whether we’ll be getting a series two featuring Alistair, Wynne and Oghren yet, but one can only hope.  DC has released video game figures before in the past, and are currently working on God of War figures.

Grey Wardens will be venturing to the land of Amaranthine in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s first expansion to the hit Dragon Age: Origins.  It is in Amaranthine that you will be embarking on a brand new 15-20 hour adventure as the Commander of the Grey, either as an imported character or a brand new Warden from Orlais.  It’s a short stint that offers new side quests, new characters and of course, a new story line.  When I first initially heard that Awakening was $40, I wondered if the price tag was worth it for more Dragon Age.  While Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, I played the game on the Xbox 36o and the review reflects this.

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With the unfortunate last minute release date delay, the Return to Ostagar content had the misfortune of following in the mighty footsteps of Mass Effect 2. Had it come out with time to spare before the wicked began feasting upon their precious space cargo, it may have seen better sales. I’m sure many are more than unwilling to switch back to BioWare’s “other” RPG that players may have pillaged and ransacked several times over by now. As much as I love Mass Effect from the bottom of my heart — I was willing to pop that glorious disc in and find out if it’s worth your valuable time (and money).

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It’s fairly common these days for the epic greats we all know in gaming to receive much more than just the standard game treatment. We receive comics and novels, anime spinoffs, soundtrack releases and figures, to bottom tier relevance such as bubble-breasted mousepads. With such a varied cast of characters whose relationship depends on every decision you make, and an incredibly vast world such as that of Dragon Age: Origins, it is no surprise that we’ve been already given two novels pre-dating the game’s storyline. The later and more recent novel, The Calling, does not require you to have read the first novel at all, nor need to have played the game. Is The Calling for you? (Spoiler-free!)

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For a day, Dragon Age-rs with an Xbox 360 copy of the game and an internet connection were happily downloading the Return to Ostagar DLC.  Unfortunately, they were downloading a broken version of it, and because of that Bioware has pulled it back off Live and they can all wait patiently with the rest of us.

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I know it’s only been a few hours since our recently detailed info went up about Dragon Age’s upcoming epic $40 expansion pack. Just when I thought the way of the expansion was becoming an endangered species, too, with the way DLC has become the new industry way to roll. But alas, BioWare has sent us an official trailer of the Awakening expansion, set for March 16, 2010. It takes place in a post-blight setting, where you must rebuild the Grey Wardens now that the Archdemon has been slain. Darkspawn got you down? Well, it seems like things will be explained in this upcoming expansion.

Also worth mentioning, I am currently reading the recently released Dragon Age prequel novel, The Calling, in which (judging by this new trailer) several characters, such as The Architect darkspawn, and plot points are linked heavily back to what is being revealed thus far for the expansion pack. Check out the trailer below! Doesn’t it just get your blood boiling?

In near record time, BioWare has already announced an expansion for Dragon Age titled, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening.  A bit awkward as far as titles go, but I don’t care.  It’s an expansion.  For Dragon Age.  With DLC for the game scheduled for release this very day being postponed, this comes as more than welcome news to potentially disappointed fans.

Awakening’s story takes place, obviously, after the events of Dragon Age.  Players take control of either their own created protagonist from the original campaign, or an entirely new character, either of which assumes the title of Grey Warden Commander.  They are tasked with reforming the Wardens and finding out just why the darkspawn are refusing to disappear.  One would assume slaying an Archdemon would take care of it, but apparently that’s just not enough for some races!  Awakening takes places in a new land called Amaranthine, and features such cryptic characters as The Architect, a Grey Warden base titled Vigil’s Keep which sounds as though it will be fully upgradeable, and five new non-player characters to interact and bond with.  Apparently an old friend will make an appearance too, but they’re keeping tight-lipped about who that’s going to be.  I’d put my money on Zevran, but my heart would be hoping Morrigan.   Players also gain access to a higher level cap, more skills and spells, and even the ability to respecialize points.

For anyone who has yet to experience the pleasure of a BioWare expansion, I can assure any doubters that this will be well worth the cost.  The expansion to Baldur’s Gate 2, while maybe not as wonderful as the original campaign, was substantial to say the least and definitely closed up the narrative.  Given Bioware’s tendency to go above and beyond, I honestly expect even more out of this despite the quick release.  Yes, it is quick, with an announced release date of March 16th.  This makes Valve’s latest expansion pack release seem long by comparison.

I honestly don’t think the Bioware chaps sleep.  They started out in medical technology or something so my guess is that they’ve developed some kind of bionic method of keeping themselves awake and sustained for years at a time.  It’s the only explanation for their ridiculous workload.

A few precious screenshots from the expansion below for your perusal!