Digital City Podcast

One of the holiday season games we're most bullish on is Dragon Age: Origins. While this nerd-tastic tale of dragons and elves and guys wearing chainmail armor isn't for everyone (or even usually our cup of tea), the large chunks of the game we've played have had a mainstream Lord of the Rings epic action movie vibe, rather than rolling a 20-sided die in your parents' basement. Plus, it's one of the only big budget games in recent years developed first for PC gaming, and then ported to living room consoles, rather than the other way around.

We saw two early tastes of the game this morning (one very literally). The first is a browser-based flash game spinoff, called Dragon Age Journeys. Billed as an "EA 2D Production" it's a surprisingly faithful recreation of the full game, from the menus and interfaces to the dialog system -- just recast as cartoonish 2D animation. Combat has a similar feel, with plenty of special attacks and powers to use, but it's more strictly turn-based in the browser version.

Unfortunately, it's not embeddable, but the dragonagejourneys.com Web site does allow you to save your game and even create multiple characters.

Coincidentally, moments after we logged into Dragon Age Journeys, a promotional package for the game hit our desk. The box contained a pile of hay-like material and a small wooden box. Inside the box was a vial of red liquid and a wax-sealed note written in the game's arch-geek style, warning us that "Some master the blood of the darkspawn, some perish."

Our promotional vial of demon blood actually had a handy (and probably legally required) list ingredients attached, which included taurine, caffeine, ginseng, elderberry juice, and, of course, sodium benzoate and FD&C Red #40. We haven't dared touch it...yet.

We're not drinking this stuff...

Update: Our buddy Russ at MTV.com actually drank the stuff, and filmed himself doing it.

(Credit: SCEA)

Making a game exclusively for a single console is a tricky proposition: it's hard to justify the multimillion-dollar budget required for a truly A-list product while limiting your potential audience to owners of only one of the three major living room consoles. Nevertheless, Microsoft has its well-regarded Halo and Gears of War games, Nintendo has a stable of famous franchises, and Sony has Uncharted (while still holding back on God of War and Gran Turismo for PlayStation 3).

Sony's Saturday matinee-style adventure was an early hit for the PS3, and its sequel has built tremendous buzz over the past year, based on carefully constructed sneak peeks and trailers. We've spent this past weekend playing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (out October 13) in order to determine if it lives up to the hype.

The game is tremendous fun and the interactive equivalent of a big, over-the-top summer movie. It's an unashamed mix of influences from Indiana Jones to Tomb Raider, with antihero Nathan Drake playing a mix of treasure hunter and art thief. Drake is rakish and good-natured, so you don't really mind that he's essentially a hardened criminal.

This time around, Drake's pursuing ancient treasures plundered by Marco Polo, which should eventually lead to the mythical city of Shambala. Don't expect much more depth than that from the "Da Vinci Code"-like premise; the story and characters run the gamut from cliched to nonsensical, and no one ever seems to have a particularly well-thought-out reason for anything he does. At least the banter between characters and the voice acting is on par with a decent made-for-cable action movie, which may sound like faint praise, but is still a pretty high bar for most video games.

(Credit: SCEA)

It's to Uncharted 2's credit that the game is such an excellent overall entertainment product despite the lackadaisical storytelling. While it may not break any new ground (unlike, say, Scribblenauts), it's still the purest distillation of globe-trotting action/adventure we've seen in a long time. The incredibly high level of polish on everything from the scenery to the animation to the soundtrack draws the player in, creating a seamless experience that flows easily from set piece to set piece. Put simply: if you're looking for a reason to show off that PlayStation 3 console and massive HDTV, this is it. We'd be hard-pressed to think of a game that simply looks better.

Still, after several hours, a few minor flaws become obvious. ... Read more

Slated to release the same week as the movie is G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, the video game, for all major consoles.

This third-person shooter has an exclusive storyline that picks up where the film leaves off. With 20 levels of game play, three character classifications, (Commando: Does well at close range, Heavy: Possesses extraordinary shooting skills, but does it best from a distance, and Combat Soldier: Balanced between the two) and 16 playable characters to choose from. At certain stages in the game players can board drivable Cobra and G.I. Joe vehicles designed for two-player co-op mode. A total of 75 intelligence cards are scattered throughout the game; once collected they can be used to unlock characters, missions, and four PSAs

The Nintendo DS key features are: Create your own G.I Joe battles vs. Cobra via Wi-Fi. Choose from six Joe characters and five Cobra. The game promises twenty plus missions on this unique shooter for the DS.

We got to do a little hands on with G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and it was an easy pick up. At first it seemed like a new rendition of Commando 2. The control scheme is simple, making the game fun for the casual gamer. The graphics didn't blow us out of the water, but the co-op play makes up for it, especially with power-ups like the accelerator power suit, which allows the player to become invincible and have increased firepower for a short period. During this mode you hear that nostalgic G.I. Joe theme music that just takes you back--if you go that far back.

The one complaint not only with this particular game but all movie games is that they all have a short shelf life. Due to this, we think this game would be great as downloadable content (DLC), Like the Watchman video game. G.I. Joe is priced at $49.99 for the Wii, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation3, $39.99 for the PSP, and $29.99 for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. All games will include a Hasbro action figure from the toy line. The Watchmen game is $29.99 for the new combo of the two episodic parts. "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe!"

Has there ever been a movie-to-video-game title that would stand alone without the movie?

Episode 41 of the Digital City, where we discuss Apple's falling market share, Scott's love affair with the Game Boy Micro, and whether Alienware's $5K laptop means the death of gaming PCs.

Related links:
>>Alienware M17x the fastest gaming laptop ever, but do we still need big PC gaming rigs?
>>Apple drops to No. 5 in laptop sales--are cheaper MacBooks the answer?
>>Retro Gadget: An ode to my Game Boy Micro

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Game Boy Micro, a perfect retro toy.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Oh, GBM, you've been hiding. In a plastic drawer, under some socks and a 60GB iPod, you lay upside down next to your coiled-up charger. I admit I've ignored you in recent years, what with the Nintendo DS Lite and iPhone (and sometimes PSP) vying for my mobile attention. Your little plastic case, and the Game Boy Advance cartridges you played, were overlooked.

Recently, though, I pulled you out again. It all happened because the Nintendo DSi, while an excellent handheld, cannot play GBA cartridges anymore. To play Super Mario Bros. 3, I needed your services. Removing you from the gear drawer, I was impressed that you still seemed small. Smaller, in fact, than any of my other gadgets, except for the iPod Shuffle. You make the iPhone seem bulky. While your screen is miniature, it still looks bright and crisp compared with any other handheld screen. Even more amazingly, the battery still worked when I turned you on. I can't even recall another gadget whose battery has lasted that long in disuse.

The Game Boy Micro was Nintendo's attempt at a Game Boy swan song. ... Read more

Tell me more, tell me more, can you play with a friend?

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

As if movie-to-game licenses weren't already a bizarre enough landscape, Paramount Pictures announced Wednesday that 505 Games will develop "Grease" into a family game for Nintendo systems--meaning the Wii and DS. We already have cooking shows turned games and a game version of "Grey's Anatomy," and now Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta will be getting musical with your Wiimote/stylus. How the game works has not been announced, and the mind boggles with the possibilities.

Paramount promises players will be able to "sing and dance alongside Danny, Sandy, The Pink Ladies, and the T-Birds," taking "full advantage of the Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing controls and microphone, and the DS' touch screen." Well, the Wii doesn't have a microphone, so we assume Grease is including one...unless they meant the DS microphone. Should we expect a sing-along karaoke experience? A '50s-rhythm-high-school-gang-fight game (we hope so)? Or some sort of mutant vaguely misogynistic platformer? Perhaps all three?

"Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance, and have fun with a party-style game," John Kavanagh, senior vice president of video games for Paramount Digital Entertainment, said in a press release.

Is this true? Have gamers out there been secretly hoping for a Grease game all this time, keeping their fervent dreams a secret, lest they be mocked by a legion of Mario and Zelda acolytes? Stand up and be counted.

505 Games' previous and current projects include Cooking Mama and Armored Core, as well as Hotel for Dogs and Discovery Games' Dolphin Discovery, so be sure to keep those summer lovin' dreams in check.

The release date has not yet been announced, but we'd guess it'll slide into stores this holiday.

Now, how long until our Rocky Horror video game?

A bit of consolidation going on in the video game biz today, as ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3), is acquiring id Software, developer of the classic Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein franchises.

While responsible for some of the most important PC games of all time (and essentially creating the first-person shooter with 1992's Wolfenstein 3D), iD has struggled in recent years to find the same relevance among console gamers and develop new properties. The company has also needed to form a more mutually beneficial relationship with a publisher (which is why there are very few marquee standalone game developers today -- most are owned by, or have exclusive deals with, a single publisher).

Good news for iD fans is that co-founder John Carmack (also co-creator of games such as Doom and Quake) is along for the ride, signing a long-term employment contract, according to a press release about the deal. In it, Carmack says, "This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward...We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

A handful of iD projects already in development, including a new Wolfenstein game, will be published by Activision and EA, but Bethesda would publish any new sequels.

Hollywood brains occasionally act in unintended tandem, producing simultaneous movies about, say, dangerous volcano eruptions, or killer meteors threatening to wipe out mankind. It's all completely unintentional, at least according to the lawyers, so we shouldn't be surprised to see the same seemingly cloned concepts come to game consoles.

Two of the most buzzed about current games are the PS3 exclusive Infamous--an open-city game with a superpowered anti-hero--and Prototype--also an open-city game with a superpowered anti-hero. How deeply do the similarities go? We've created a handy chart to sort it all out. ... Read more

New MacBook day in the CNET Labs.

Episode 36 of the Digital City, where Dan reports back from the E3 video game trade show, we check out the new MacBook laptops, and Joey jumps on the Palm Pre bandwagon.

Note that there are two versions of the show available now, the traditional audio stream, and our exciting, new video version -- check out both below.

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Unboxing: It's New MacBook Day