Thursday, October 14, 2010

Gaming Today

Gaming Today

Adventures in Great Advertising Starring DJ Hero 2

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 11:02 PM PDT

Tonight I was doing what I normally do on Wednesday nights this time of year: watching Conference USA football on ESPN. UCF and Marshall were playing, and while the game wasn’t particularly exciting, I did see this one DJ Hero 2 ad several times. At first I was a bit weirded out by it, but it quickly grew on me so much that I now feel obligated to share it with you all. Enjoy.

People Who Own Borderlands on Steam Already Have a Duke Nukem Forever First Access Key

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 09:07 PM PDT

Funny story. There’s this thing called the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club, and being in the club will someday earn you the Duke Nukem Forever demo before before it goes public. So far the only way we knew of getting into it was to use an access code that comes with Borderlands GOTY Edition.

Well that’s not the only way to get into the club no mo’, because folks who own Borderlands: Regular-Ass Edition on Steam discovered, to their great pleasure, probably, that they have First Access Club codes. So if you bought Borderlands on Steam before Tuesday, you should probably check on this. You’ll need to look up Borderlands in your games list and click on “CD Key” in the game pane. And then go here and enter the code, and someday you’ll get the DNF demo. If you bought the non-GOTY edition after Tuesday, though, you’re SOL.

via ShackNews

Guy Who Claims EA is About to Fire Him Says The Old Republic Sucks

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 04:48 PM PDT

Please remember that the entire content of this post is operating under the assumption that this anonymous blogger who calls himself “EA Louse” is in fact who he says he is, even though he absolutely might not be who he says he is.

All right, let’s go. In his own words…

I found out recently that I will be dismissed from Bioware Mythic during the next round of layoffs EA coming this November.

OK, so I guess you’ve got some dirt to spill. Spill away.

They've spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?

And you know what they're most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That's the best they have. The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas,they're panicking , and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalized to work in Austin on it because they can't keep pushing back launch.

Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too.

Oh man, this feels like a real COUGH COUGH moment if there ever was one. I obviously don’t have a clue about how true any of this is, but I think David Jaffe, in his response to this on his blog, probably put it in perspective best: “Everyone thinks they always know better than the people in charge.”

So maybe this guy is right about SWTOR, or maybe he’s just a bitter asshole. I guess we’ll find out early next year when it hits.

“Super Mario” Sepulveda FTW (FileFront EXCLUSIVE)

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 04:46 PM PDT

Happy Humpday everyone. We’re all celebrating the survival of the resiliant Chilean Miners, not least of all because of rescued miner #2, Mario Sepulveda. He instantly became the Antoine Dodson of mining when he emerged as the public face of the trapped miners, offering jokes, commentary and generally keeping the world’s collective spirits up during the 2 month long ordeal. Dubbed “Super Mario” for his charismatic personality, when he emerged unharmed from level 1-2, he offered this insanely memorable account of his experience:

“I was with God and with the devil. And I reached out for God."

As it turns out, Super Mario Sepulveda is lot more super than you think. In a FileFront exclusive, we have recieved the following panoramic shot of the rescue of all trapped miners. I think it’s fair to say that after 8 grueling worlds of danger, their Princess is finally NOT in another castle:

But in all seriousness, in a year filled with horrors, it’s nice to see the good guys win one against nature and industrial decay. Welcome home boys, welcome home.

(Photo found on Tumblr, courtesy of Screenjunkies)

(Related, but not quite as funny.)

Sonic 4 Walkthrough

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 02:47 PM PDT

After years of false starts, warmed-over, poorly-received titles, and SEGA’s complete collapse as a manufacturer of consoles, Sonic is back where he belongs, racing through platformer levels and collecting gold coins. Developed as a downloadable, episodic title for PSN, XBLA, WiiWare, and iOS, Sonic puts a modern, high-resolution sheen on a classic game engine, while keeping some old school touches like low-fi drum and synth samples that resemble the classic music.

This retro sensibility is also apparent in the composition of the design team — there are a lot of returning veterans from Sonic’s glory days. If the sensibility extends to the gameplay, there will be plenty of unforgiving sections, along with lots of secrets to find. Check back soon for a full video walkthrough, which will alleviate the pain of the tough parts, and illuminate the hidden ones!

Check out lists of Sonic 4 Achievements and Trophies, as well as a full Cheats page!

Respect Other’s Feelings in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s Multiplayer (VIDEO)

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 02:12 PM PDT

I miss old-fashioned brown wood paneling inside homes. Back in the day, my apartment had brown wood paneling, but at some point the realty company decided to paint them white. It makes my apartment feel so… boring. There’s personality in brown panels, and there is none in white panels.

I bring this up because the video I’m about to post features a room with exactly that sort of old-style brown walls. It really took me back to my childhood. It also has Rob Corrdry, but nobody cares about that except everyone who isn’t me, so it’s not important.

The clip below is called “Respecting Other’s Feelings,” and it’s part of a viral campaign in promotion of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. The idea is that a couple friends have grown apart after playing the game’s multiplayer portion, and they’ve got to visit Rob Corrdry for counseling. Great plan, guys. The clip is amusing, and more of them are on the way. Here you go.

download it

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Trailer

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 01:21 PM PDT

As much as I bitch about putting zombies in non-zombie games, I think I’m slowly coming on board to this Red Dead Undead Nightmare thing, and this new story trailer kinda sold me on it (unlike the last one). It’s zombies in the Old West, damn it, and it’s Rockstar — who you can count on like a clock — putting out new story content, which I will always accept with a big, goofy grin on my face. So you’ll forgive my hypocrisy. Or don’t; I don’t care. Here’s the new trailer for Undead Nightmare, which comes out on PSN and XBL on October 26.

download

Psyko 5.1 Headset Giveaway

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT

Wednesday is upon us again, and you know what that means. It’s giveaway time! This week, we’ve got a sweet deal for you: We’re giving away a Pskyo 5.1 Gaming Headset!

If you aren’t familiar with the Psyko, you need to stop whatever you’re doing right now and go read our review. Don’t worry, I’ll be right here waiting until you get back.

OK, now do you understand? Great, so let me tell you how you can win it.

Since we’re giving away a headset, we wanted to make sure you know that communication is key to multiplayer gaming. Well, to stress-free multiplayer gaming, anyway. See, not everyone understands this. For those of use that do, it can lead to some really funny videos of gamers losing their minds during games.

This is what we want you to provide us. In celebration of technology like the Psyko 5.1 that helps you have more fun gaming, we want to highlight gamers who are not having any fun at all.

So, post a link to the best video you can find of a gamer absolutely going berserk over a game. You should also make sure you include a valid email address in the designated field, as that’s how we will contact the winner.

Whoever submits the best video will find themselves the proud owner of the Pskyo 5.1 Headset pictured above. You’ve only got until 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, October 19, so get busy posting!

If you want to see lots more info on the headset, check out our review or Psyko Audio’s official website.

Death Of EA Predicted After Medal Of Honor Recieves Good Reviews

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 12:52 PM PDT

Medal of Honor’s presales have been absurdly high, and the game’s October 12 release was accompanied by a string reviews that, while not glowing, were certainly on the high positive side of the critical spectrum. All things considered, it’s likely the rebooted war shooter will be a solid earner for EA and spawn many sequels.

Or so you would assume if you simply paid attention to the facts at hand. Not so Cowen and Company, who as reported by Gamesindustry.biz are saying that MOH’s reviews gave EA a “black eye”, and that this caused their shares to drop precipitously:

“EA’s share price fell by 6 per cent last night, apparently following the release of and critical reception to rebooted shooter Medal of Honour.

The game currently holds a 74 (PS3) and 76 (360) per cent review average on Metacritic – likely to be considered disappointing for a high-profile modern combat title intended to compete with Call of Duty.”

Look, right now MoH has a 76 rating on Metacritic. Our own review largely falls in the same region. No, that’s not a get-into-Harvard GPA, but that’s almost 8 out of 10. That’s a lot of people who like it. Hell, Splinter Cell: Conviction, barely rates more than that and there wasn’t any talk of Ubisoft’s damaged looks.

Yes, a 6 percent drop in price sounds scary. But EA’s stock has risen “some 15 per cent over the last six weeks”, and as GamesIndustry’s article concludes, their “initial share price drop of $1.05 had recovered by $0.09 at the time of writing. ” Considering that NASDAQ closed yesterday at 2402.33 after a high of 2413.03 and a low of 2397.57, sounds to us more like normal stock market fluxuations, and less like ZOMG EA IS IN UR POORHOUSE, EATING YOUR INVESTORZ.

To put things in more perspective: During the previous fiscal year, EA published Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, among others. Before the current one concludes, Mass Effect 3, Rock Band 3 and Dragon Age 2 will all have been released. We think they’ll do ok.

You can make your own decision by following our coverage of the game’s controversies, our walkthrough, and mods.

Valve Announces DotA 2

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:56 AM PDT

We’ve been waiting for this for a while, ever since Valve filed the trademark for Defense of the Ancients. Now, we finally have official confirmation of the game, via a Valve press release.

According to the release,

Coming to the PC & Mac in 2011, Dota 2 promises to take the unique blend of online RTS and RPG action that has made Dota popular with tens of millions of gamers and expand upon it in every way.

Yeah, that’s a release window as well. As is typical for Valve, it’s sometime next year, or more likely, “when it’s ready.”

The folks over at Game Informer have already gotten their hands on the game, played it, and they have a ton of info. Chief among their observations is how Valve is leaving the gameplay essentially exactly as it is. Valve is also bringing in the full roster from DotA Allstars – over 100 heroes.

Of course, Valve brings a lot to the table, including bringing the game to the Source engine, integrating voice chat, and more. Game Informer says, “With a solid backbone of community-enabling systems and Valve’s legendary support and technology behind it, Dota 2 has a chance to turn one of the most popular mods of all time into a full game on PC and Mac that compares favorably to any eight-figure-budget console blockbuster.” That sounds like a pretty solid endorsement to me.

It’s a long article, and totally worth the read. Head on over and check it out on Game Informer’s website. As soon as we get more info on DotA 2, you’ll see it here.

Of F**king Course Gran Turismo 5 Gets Delayed Three Weeks From Release

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:51 AM PDT

Raise your hand if you really thought Gran Turismo 5 would come out on November 2. When the announcement was made at E3, I think I didn’t believe it, particularly since in May they started adding Move support and 3D and crap. But when Yamauchi-san was like “We’re really close to finishing, guys,” I think I started to believe. And then when October arrived, I believed even more.

But we should have known better. Here’s what the US Playstation blog had to say today:

We can confirm that Gran Turismo 5 will not be available this November 2nd, but the game's release will be coming this holiday season.

We sincerely apologize to GT fans for the delay, however, creator Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the perfect racing experience, and we are confident that this ambitious game will exceed expectations when it launches.

We'll have more information for you in the near future.

Should’ve seen that coming. Now we can take bets on if it will actually come out before the end of the year or instead get pushed back to “winter.” It’s a coin flip at this point.

Grab the World of Warcraft 4.0 Patch Right Here

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 09:07 AM PDT

Blizzard has released the final client patch for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. As with previous expansions, the last patch contains all of the updates to prepare for the new expansion.

Speaking of the new expansions, we now know that Cataclysm will launch on December 7. That means you now have less that two months to get yourself ready for the return of Deathwing to Azeroth.

If you can’t stand waiting for the Blizzard downloader to finish the patch, you should grab it from us instead. After all, it’s 4.71 GB!


Download it here!

While it’s downloading, check out these patch notes.

Patch Notes:

Cataclysm Systems Patch

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be in stores on December 7, 2010 and the time has come to prep for the official launch by implementing its first major patch. Players can experience many major game and user interface systems updates in the first official patch for the upcoming third expansion, patch 4.0.1.

General

* Cataclysm Launcher Update

o The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. Please head to the forums here for additional information: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26726066731

* Reforging

o Players can now visit special Reforging NPCs in capital cities located near Enchanting trainers. 40% of any one secondary stat on an item can be allocated to add a new secondary stat to the item. The stat being added cannot already exist on the item. An item cannot have more than one reforged stat at a time, though the Reforging of an item can be undone and changed.

Dungeons & Raids

* Flexible Raid Lock System

o Icecrown Citadel and Ruby Sanctum now use the new Flexible Raid Lock system. This system provides the opportunity for a character to defeat each raid zone's encounters once a week. A character may now complete the encounters during the week with different raids of either 10 or 25 players.
o Learn more about this feature by visiting our official forums here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27026324753&sid=1

* Icecrown Citadel

o The Chill of the Throne effect has been removed.

Currency

* PvE Currency Changes

o All Emblems of Frost and Emblems of Triumph have been converted to new Justice Points.
o Any dungeon or raid which awarded these emblems will reward Justice Points instead. Anything below Emblems of Triumph, including badges from The Burning Crusade dungeon and raid content, have been converted into gold and sent to players via the in-game mail system.
o Any bosses players defeat that are level-appropriate to them award Justice Points.
o All items that previously cost emblems or badges of any type now cost Justice Points.
o Higher-tier Valor Points will be awarded to players who kill dungeon and raid bosses in the latest tier of PvE content after the launch of Cataclysm.

* PvP Currency Changes

o All Arena Points, Honor Points, Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper’s Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards have been converted into new Honor Points.
o Honor Points will be awarded instead of these currencies, with the exception of Arena Points.
o Higher-tier Conquest Points will be awarded to players competing in each of the latest Arena or Rated Battleground seasons after the launch of Cataclysm.

* For more information on the changes to the currencies and conversion rates for each type, please visit our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=26850245012

Classes: General

* Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
* All spell and ability tooltips will now display damage averages rather than minimum and maximum damage potential. This feature is on by default but can be changed via the Display settings under User Interface options.
* Ammo has been removed from the game.
* The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
* Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
* Mastery rating has been added as a new stat which provides unique benefits for characters based on class and talent specialization. Mastery rating does not currently exist on items in the game, however, Reforging can be used to add Mastery rating as a secondary stat to existing items.
* Rage has been normalized.
* Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
* Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.

o Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
o Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
o Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
o Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
o The initial announcement regarding these talent tree changes can be found on our Cataclysm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626290449&sid=1

Death Knights

* A dedicated tanking tree (Blood) has been implemented.
* The effects of Blood Presence and Frost Presence have been exchanged.
* The way in which runes recharge has changed.

Druids

* A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids.

Hunters

* Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
* Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
* Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
* The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Mages

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for mage portals. Clicking on the Teleport or Portal buttons will expand the list of choices available.

Paladins

* Paladins now have a new resource bar.

Warlocks

* There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
* Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Items

* Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent.
* Durability: cloth, leather, and mail now have as many points of durability as plate, making the repair cost on death much closer to equal for all classes.

Professions

* The glyph system has been updated to now feature three different types of glyphs. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.

User Interface

* Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar.
* The Guild Interface has been redesigned to incorporate additional functionality, including new sorting and organizational options.
* The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
* The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
* The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
* A Professions screen has been added to the Spellbook to better display the details of a character's primary and secondary professions.
* Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
* New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
* Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
* New Raid frames are now available. They can also be used in place of the standard 5-player party interface via the User Interface options.
* The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114

Graphics

* Improved water and lava rendering system (Video Options – Liquid Detail on the Graphics Panel)
* Dynamic Sunshafts effect (Video Options – Sunshafts on the Graphics Panel)
* Multi-monitor support (Video Options – Monitor on the Graphics Panel)
* OpenGL Hardware Cursor support for Windows (Video Options – Hardware Cursor on the Advanced Panel)
* Experimental support for DX11 (enabled by passing '-d3d11' on the command line or adding SET gxApi “d3d11″ to the Config.WTF file)

Newest Game Informer Reveals Resistance 3 Details

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 08:31 AM PDT

The new Game Informer magazine has a bunch of details on Resistance 3. If you’ve seen the screenshots that leaked recently, you won’t be surprised that Capelli, who has recently started a family with Nathan Hale’s stepsister Susan, plays the lead role in the game.

Here’s a rundown of some of the things you can expect from Insomniac’s upcoming sequel.

  • Weapon Wheel returns.
  • Capelli has started a family with Susan.
  • Co-op confirmed, but there'll be no alternate story co-op as in Resistance 2.
  • African Prison is one of the included maps.
  • The world is changing in R3; Chimeran plant life explodes when shot.
  • AI will be smarter.
  • Capelli can climb over walls and through windows.
  • Longs Legs will be jumping from roof to roof trying to shoot you down.
  • A new weapon called the Mutator shoots biological mists, causing boils and other injuries to enemies, which makes them explode causing splash damage.
  • Bullseye, Magnum, Shotgun, Auger and Carbine are all coming back.
  • Weapons can be upgraded, and will become better the more you use them.
  • Grenades are shaped like food cans and are full of nails.
  • Vaccine might be able to cure the Chimeran virus.
  • Humans have turned to cannibalism due to lack of food.
  • Capelli is trying to save his son and has some "other" unknown mission.
  • He is joined by Malikov and they go to New York, St Louis and other locales.
  • The team wants to make online play more organized and less clustered than the 60-player matches in R2.
  • Ted Price handed the reigns to Marcus Smith for a lot of the game's work

If you want full details, you’ll have to wait for your copy to hit your mailbox, unless you can snag one from a friendly GameStop store. Until then, you should really check out the first cinematic trailer right here.

Temple of Elemental Evil is Latest GoG.com D&D Game

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 07:38 AM PDT

Temple of Elemental Evil is a last in many categories for D&D RPGs. It was the final retail fantasy game released by Troika Studios and it was the final D&D Turn-Based RPG/Dungeon Crawler. Built around the setting of one of D&D’s most revered mega adventures (aside from maybe the Tomb of Horrors), players build a team of heores and venture to the villiage of Homlett to seek out clues to an assasination.

Temple of Elemental Evil is a fundimentally broken game out of the box, but thanks to a large supportive community the version you get from GoG.com should work far better once you’ve applied the Cirlce of Eight fixes. It’s also a very difficult game, so be prepared for more than a little challenge as you delve into the hidden depths of the temple itself.

GoG.com is offering the game for $6 and including lots of bonus content like desktop screens, the in-game soundtrack and lots of game art. Fans of Dungeons & Dragons should consider adding this to their collection for sure.

How To Install Dragon Age: Origins Mods

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 05:12 AM PDT

If you’re like us, the impending release of Dragon Age 2 has you foaming at the mouth; the end of official DLC packs for Origins only makes the wait even worse. Now would be the perfect time to branch out into user created content, and thank the maker, we’ll make it easy and fast by showing you how to install Dragon Age: Origins Mods.

If you’ve played Dragon Age all the way through, you know it’s a sprawling, wonderful mess of a game, and its mods reflect that. It may seem like a large undertaking, but follow this guide, and you’ll be spicing up your vanilla copy of Dragon Age: Origins in no time. After that, we’ll share some of our favorites with you.

Ready? Set? Let’s go.

Difficulty: Beginner

Table Of Contents

Prerequisites

DA Modder

Installing A Mod

Shapeshifting Mods

Weapons Mods

Alley Of Murders

Additional Resources

Prerequisites

To install Dragon Age mods, you’ll obviously need a copy of Dragon Age: Origins for Mac or PC. Better make sure your computer is up to the job.

System Requirements:

MAC

* OS: Mac OSX 10.6.2 Leopard or higher

* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor

* Memory: 2 GB

* Hard drive space: 17 GB

*Graphics: ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or greater

Windows:

* OS: Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, or Windows 7

* CPU: Minimum – Intel Core 2 Solo 1.6 GHz, (XP) or 1.8 GHz (Vista/Win 7), AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz, (XP) or 2.2 GHz, (Vista/Win 7) processor; Reccomended – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent, AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 2.7 GHz or greater

* Memory: Minimum – 1 GB (XP), 1.5 GB (Vista/Win 7); Reccomended – 2 GB (XP), 3 GB (Vista/Win 7)

* Hard drive space: 20 GB

* Graphics: Minimum – ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater (XP), ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater, Intel x4500HD or greater (Vista/Win 7); Reccomended – ATI Radeon HD 3850 512 MB or greater, NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater.

Now that you’ve got everything settled, (and here’s hoping it didn’t cost you too much), let’s actually learn how to Install Dragon Age: Origin Mods

DA Modder

Unlike some other games we could mention, Bioware hasn’t tried to impede their modders. Subsequently the Dragon Age community has really stepped up in a huge way, and there are a lot of easy options available for you to cram delicious mods into your game. The absolute easiest of them all is the DAmodder.

Released last December, the DA Modder is freeware created to replace the clunky, frequently malfunctioning DAUpdater. It is easy to use, relatively stable, and remains the most frequently recommended option.

DAmodder offers a huge variety of functions for both players and modders, streamlining the process of installing official updates, and making it very easy to install 3rd party mods of any type (and for modders to distribute their original content as widely as possible.)

Download the latest version here.

Got it? Getting started couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is unzip the file (make sure it’s on the same harddrive as your copy of Dragon Age) and click the DAmodder.exe.

Now that you’ve got this out the way, let’s hurry up and install some Dragon Age mods already.

Installing A Mod

So now you’ve successfully added DAmodder. Assuming you’ve already found a mod you like and have downloaded, open DAmodder up. You’ll see something like this:

At this point, you have two options. You can simply drag and drop the mod file directly into the DAmodder window, or click the “Select Mod” button.

If you choose “select”, you’ll likely see something like this:

At this point, you’ll need to account for the type of file you’re attempting to install in order to make sure everything goes smoothly. There are two basic types of Dragon Age mods you’ll be installing:

* A Standard Dragon Age origins mod. These are created using the Dragon Age tool set and saved as a .DAZIP file. This includes not only true, fan created mods, but official “mods”, AKA the numerous DLC expansion packs.

Whether you’ve chosen the .DAZIP file from the “select mod” menu, or you’ve dragged and dropped it into the DAModder window, when you click “Install Mod”, DAModder will “stage” the file (extracting it into a temporary directory). A pop up window will prompt you to enter the name, version, and author information for that particular mod. You’ll also be asked to confirm installation.

(Spoiler alert: Click yes).

* A Core Override mod. Core Overrides differ from standard mods in that they are collections of files that override core game files, thus producing different behavior in game. Since they weren’t created using the Dragon Age tool set, they will be saved as .zip files.

As before, you’ve either clicked “Select Mod” and chosen the .ZIP file, or dragged and dropped it into the DAModder window. As before, the mod will be “staged”, but this time, when you click “Install Mod”, instead of a pop up window prompting you to enter certain information, the mod’s contents will be reviewed.

This is where it’s going to get a little tricky. Because they weren’t created with Dragon Age tools (and technically aren’t true modules), they will only come with name, version, or author information if the mod author created the mod as a DAModder Compatible Package. If they did so, then installation will proceed just like a Standard Mod. Click yes!

If it is not a compatible package, name, version, or author information won’t be provided to DAModder. It will try to evaluate the file and divulge what data it can – typically this will be the mod’s unique identifier. You could OK whatever default values are filled in, but it’s strongly suggested that you take a few minutes to fill in as much information as you can. Doing so will make it easier to do things like, you know, find it later.

Once you’re ready, it’s time, yet again, to click yes.

One last thing to keep in mind when you’re installing Dragon Age: Origin mods: DAModder only works with .ZIP files, and .DAZIP file. If you’re trying to import something else, like .RAR or .7z files, DAModder will not work. This is easy to get around though.

1) Extract the file manually – Mac users can probably rely on Stuffit Expander; PC users can grab WinRAR at this link.

2) Create a temporary file into which you’ll drag the unzipped folder.

3) From your temporary file, drag the mod over to DAModder and proceed as advised above.

That wasn’t so bad, was it? Hell nah. Now all you need to know is which Dragon Age: Origin mods to install and play.

Shapeshifting Mods

Shapeshifting is fun. Really fun. Unfortunately, Dragon Age: Origins limits you to just a few forms. Wouldn’t you like a little variety once in a while? Of course you would, and these mods will help you do it.

Jake Zahn’s Expanded Shapeshifting Mod. This mod vastly increases the number of available forms, giving you a total of 20 different shapes in 5 classes. +1000. There are 4 different packs associated with the mod, and you can get all of them here.

ARCHDEMON SHAPE and other bosses-New Shapeshifter Skilltree, by Oroglove

Just what it says right on the label. You’ll be able to take some drastically amazing forms. For instance, an actual Dragon Age dragon.

THIS. WANT THIS NOW.

Weapons Mods

Just as you can never be too rich, or too thin, you can also never have too much megasuper killing power. That’s where weapons mods come in. Here are some that really ripped our guts out blew our minds.

Jojjo Weapons, by Lord Haun.

Jojjo is a venerated modder who created some remarkable weaponry for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. This package converts them for use in Dragon age. Yes, those are light sabers, and yes, you can get them here.

Enchant Any Weapons Mod, by JWD.

A slightly misleading title, as it doesn’t actually enable the enchantment of all weapons. However, what it does do is really, really useful: you’ll be able to enchant your bows, and staffs. Magical weaponry that doesn’t require you to get up close enough to be killed is too good to pass up. Get it here.

Alley of Murders

Of all the Dragon Age: Origin mods we've shared, this is our favorite. It's the most ambitious, original and mind blowing thing we’ve seen since Super Mario Crossover. Alley Of Murders can only be described as Ye Olde James Ellroy. You’ll leave dark fantasy behind and enter the seedy underbelly of Denerim to investigate a serious of vicious murders. Creator AmstradHero deserves a Barry Award for this, and you’ll see why when you download your own copy.

Happy Darkspawn hunting! Now, go in peace.

Additional Resources:

Dragon Age Nexus member Alexspeed has put together a truly epic guide that’s worth a look, and then 20 more.

Without a doubt, the DAModder ruled like a despot.

Finally, Dragon Age Nexus is a limitless resource and should be your first stop – after this article, of course.

If you somehow haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins, you really should turn back the clock and read our review.
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