Howdy pardners!  I must admit that when I first heard about one of my favorite games was going to add zombies to it, I shook my head. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some zombies, but the latest influx of zombies has become a bit tiresome.  It’s as if to say that writers have become lazy and that by adding zombies to a game it will magically become better. I think we have all discovered that this isn’t necessarily true, and zombies in the Old West?  C’mon man…  But then again, this is Rockstar, masters at the art of creating interesting sandboxes that I want to play in. And any reason to go back to the Old West world they created for Red Dead Redemption, I was in. What I found is that Rockstar had not only successfully added zombies to a game, but they created a surreal Halloweentown environment that is sure to please fans of that genre.

The game starts off near the end.  Our good friend John Marston is home with his wife and son when Uncle shows up acting strange. He chases them around the home and bites John’s wife and son. In a matter of minutes the two turn into strange creatures and start going after Marston. So what’s a cowboy supposed to do? Well hog tie them up and go searching for a cure, that’s what. You don your steed and make for the nearest town, only to find it’s been overrun with flesh eating monsters as well. This is gonna be a long day, I reckon. 

I must admit that my skepticism about the DLC was almost immediately erased. For Rockstar hasn’t just added in extra missions and such for you to accomplish, but they have essentially changed the entire sandbox. The sky has a eerie orange tint to it and the landscape is riddled with undead creatures. Even the birds that fly overhead have been replaced with bats. This alone would be cool, but gameplay and strategy have changed dramatically as well. Ammo in the game becomes a huge concern as the shops you would normally go and purchase these items are all closed (victims of the zombie plague, I suppose). So looting each undead nasty is essential as you might find a bullet or two to help you out. The scarcity of ammunition adds to the tension of each encounter, and in a good way. You’ll need to be a good shot when fighting the zombie hoard, as only a shot to the head will kill these creatures. Multiple shots to the body will only piss them off and slow them down a tad.  Safe-houses are no longer just available for you to purchase, they have to be liberated. Each town you encounter has been overrun by zombies and must be defended.  If you help the few remaining survivors fend off the attack, you get a place to stay; at least for a little while as return attacks can and do happen. 
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God Bless BioWare; not only do they produce KILLER games, but they are becoming adept at keeping their IPs relavant with timely downloadable content, and good content at that.  So after the early game of the year discussion, I felt the itch to get my Mass Effect 2 groove on and try their DLC.  There are three packs available to you right now.  One is FREE (To Cerberus Network users), one is OK but provides something you will definitely want, and the third is quite simply one of the best DLC adventures I have ever had.  Let’s take a look. 

The first pack that you will want to get is the Firewalker pack.  This pack is FREE to Cerberus Network users and gives you the new Hamerhead fighting vehicle to explore planets with.  One of the omitions from Mass Effect 2 that I truly enjoyed was elimination of the Mako.  I found the Mako missions to be rather clunky and they changed the pace of the game in a way that I didn’t like.  People complained about the controls and how some parts of the map were difficult to reach, even with six wheels.  BioWare told us that they were working on a replacement for the Mako, and here it is. 

The Hammerhead is a hovercraft with one rather large cannon on the front.  It provides fast horizontal and limited vertical movement.  Learning how to navigate with the Hammerhead was pretty intuitive and the first few missions with it flew by rather quickly.  The pack itself gives you five additional vehicle missions and trophy that is viewable in your cabin.  It’s not a ton of content, but it is free and provides those who missed vehicle travel and combat something to play with.  Sadly, I’m not one of those people.  In fact, I LOVED not having to tool around in a vehicle getting from one place to another, it kept my Mass Effect 2 pacing right where I wanted it.  Regardless it seems the Hammerhead is here to stay so you better get used to piloting one.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine vehicle and better than the Mako.  I just wish it had a better indicator when shields were failing.  I found myself in may close firefights with Geth Destroyers only to blow up realizing “hey I musta taken too much damage.”  Here’s a hint…THINK RANGED and you will do fine with the Hammerhead. 
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Back in October, I wrote a rather scathing review of Dragon Age Origins, a game I had hoped to bring me joy in the form of couch cooperative play.  Sadly, the company that made the console version of Baldur’s Gate wasn’t Bioware, so when the spiritual successor to my favorite co-op game was launched it was nothing like what I had hoped for.  Life is funny sometimes, for due to a strange set of circumstances I have found myself completely in love with this game and felt that it deserved some further discussion.  

I had put some time into Dragon Age when I wrote my review.  I was so disappointed in the game that it wasn’t that I never really paid attention to the game that it was.  I went to Craigslist to see what I could get for it as I didn’t believe I was ever really going to spend the 60 or so hours it was going to take to actually finish the game.  It was early November and, thanks to Black Friday madness, the going rate for Dragon Age was $40 or less.  Being recession minded, I didn’t want to take that kind of hit on a newer game.  So out of spite I decided I would play this game as far as I could to get my money’s worth.

What happened next was rather peculiar.  I heard of a level glitch that would help you reach level twenty rather quickly.  (Just ask me on XBL and I’ll tell you how to do it)  You’d get an achievement for each class you would get to level twenty and that would normally take you over five hundred hours to do.  So I tried some of the other origin stories and got a few achievements in the process.  What I found was a very engrossing and deep level of storytelling, something I hadn’t really experienced since Mass Effect.  This shouldn’t have been surprising to me as BioWare has always been good at storytelling; only this time it seemed that the webs that were being weaved by the choices you make were very intricate.  The more I did the quick origin story and level boosting, the more I wanted to go back and finish what I had started.  That and I found that the glitch only worked for classes you hadn’t already gotten to a particular level.  So I went back to my original character and picked up where I left off; unboosted, but savvier of the world around her.  (Yeah, I played a hot chick…  I figure if I have to stare at this character a long time, I might as well enjoy it)

I also did something even stranger, I actually paid for the DLC.  I had received the bonus armor set (which is very bad ass, I must say) for free, but had heard good things about the Warden’s Keep and Stone Prisoner expansions.  I had extra space bucks from Christmas, so what the heck?  For those of you thinking about playing Dragon Age, or if you already have it, I think these DLC packs are must buys.  There is a pretty compelling argument that they should have been placed in the retail version of the game, and while I might agree, I can’t imagine playing without them.  The Warden’s Keep gives you a pretty cool quest that takes about two hours to complete. At the end, I had two new spells, two sets of pretty good armor (at least for the level I was) and most importantly a chest to put stuff in.  Now, inventory in a game like this is always at a premium.  You have to make decisions on what you’re going to keep.  Having a storage chest makes those decisions easier and improves game play.  So I have these Blood Armor pieces but I can’t use them yet; put them away until you can.  It’s a no-brainer, and well worth the five bucks I paid for it.  
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…And a big freaking gun. Or two.

Greetings, mortals.

As you know, I have held a contest.  Winners shall be announced. And the decision…well, that will come later.  I had planned on finishing this saga today, but Bethesda was determined to thwart me with DLC.  Of course we must play through that.  So, at the end of the article I’ll announce the two winning entries, who may send their contact info to me so that I may send them swag.  Or a box of scorpions.  You’ll get something.

Anyway, let’s get back to Stabitha. When we left off she was well-equipped with energy and melee weapons and ready to kick the stuffing out of something while on the way to complete another mission of calculated sadism for Moira.

…You all went down to the end early to see if you won, didn’t you? Suckers. The winners are Delerat and Mitch.

The mirelurk nest was actually pretty easy to get through. My first playthrough it was a terrifying, arduous trip through several stories of mirelurk guards with only a couple stealthboys to see me through the course. This time I found the back door and realized that whole trip was completely unnecessary.

Whoops.

The mirelurk quest over, I head back to Moira and acquire my pile of exp, some stealthboys, and sell of what I’m not going to use from my loot runs. While selling I stop by the nuke for…an errand, then head back outside.  Right into the merchant Crow.

Aside from the brotherhood outcast with a terminal case of pants-explode-itis, this is my best piece of luck yet. Crow has a fantastic repair skill and sells mint combat armor. Hello giant damage reduction.  With that done, we’re going to go out questing and get a couple of locations, then head off to investigate this lovely new radio signal I’m getting that I’m sure has nothing whatsoever to do with the transaction of spacebucks from my account.

First up is Girdershade.  We take the tour, get the quest, and meet the competition. Fortunately Stabitha has the black widow perk, and sends this guy off to meet a horrific end. Following him to the nuka-cola plant I collect the Kneecapper. Not an energy weapon, but I could do worse for a backup gun.  After that we headed to investigate the radio signal. Well, me, not we. Dogmeat still hasn’t returned.  Hopefully he survived his last run for gear.  I’ve leveled up a bit and the wastes are starting to get nastier.
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