You guys ain't gonna believe this... it was posted earlier today at IGN:

"Myself and a group of friends have decided to burn the (Dragon Age 2) DLCs to cheap CD-R media, and distribute them for free near the entrance of major game retailers and shops, for the next few days.

We already contacted a couple friends from local news services, and the matter is expected to get a small news coverage on local channels and the media very soon.

This will be our message to big game companies who, not contented for charging 50 bucks for a game, would also rip young people some more with paid DLCs, including DLCs ready for sale in the same day the game was released."

Dunno about you, but for me this is total awesomeness, I hope they make a big fuss about it, so that those big shot corporate types and their "sale strategies" get themselves a grip, there's only so much to where they can stretch the people's patience, and the people have spoken !

Here is a good review of Elemental - War Of Magic:

http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/09/07/review-elemental/

Informed, impartial, providing good feedback about the game good and bad aspects.

And here is a bad review of the same game:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/elementalwarofmagic/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review

It buries the game in the mud without ever really explaining the reasons properly, it's filled with uninformed comments which denote lack of videogaming knowledge and experience and comes across as a strong bias about game genres.

The question one must pose is, after reading such Gamespot reviews as that of Elemental - War Of Magic, can one still look at the site unquestionably as a reliable, informed and impartial source for game information ?

YOU answer.

Dragon Age: Origins could easily have been the greatest computer role-playing game of recent years. It wouldn't have been too big a task to accomplish to begin with, considering that the days of great computer role-playing games have finished with the turn of the century, since the glorious times of Baldur's Gate II.

Instead of seizing that easy opportunity, however, Bioware decided to lay waste to three years of work in a product that ends up being just another revamped incarnation of their latest console-portable, action-oriented products with flashy visuals and improved sound technology.

All that Bioware needed to do would have been to take notice of what their core public has been writing on their forums and the Internet in general for the past three years. All they needed to do would have been to add a simple turn-based or automatic pause system to the game's battle mechanics. Instead, they decided for yet another product which bases its gameplay on stressful button mashing and player reflexes, like so many other COD's, Resident Evil's, Oblivion's and Turbo Street Fighter VIII's out there. It's a pure action game like those others.

Dragon Age: Origins isn't a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate. It's not even a "spiritual successor" to anything remotely related to the great, fun, intelligent role-playing games of the golden era, which some of us had the privilege of playing ten years ago. It's just another frenetic action game aimed at low-to-average IQ players.

Younger people and players looking for a quick action fix with pretty 3D models might be satisfied with Dragon Age: Origins. Veteran gamers and "serious" role-playing game enthusiasts better go back to what we've been doing in the past ten years: replaying the old top crpgs, or just giving it up on videogame publishers and going back to wooden boards, pens and a piece of paper.

Yes Sir, yes Sir.

Forget it dude... there's no auto pause options.

Bioware failed us.

Oh crap! I even cancelled my order when I read this.

No auto pause options means no Dragon Age for me. :(

Back to Civ 4 mods.

The problem, of course, is that it doesn't matter what you're partial to, because there are virtually no turn based games being made these days.

I like variety, myself. I wish we had more turn based games. Sick and tired of adrenaline rush games tought for the teen crowd. There's also adults playing, damnit, not just dumb kids.

What do you think ???

Do YOU like them bunnies who jump FAST ???

I was born and lived my early years in Harlem, so I guess you could say I'm a non-US citizen.

I think that America would be just fine if only we could find a way of mass producing cheese donuts.

I'd say by the time most people are using Windows 9, and when I can't run anything on XP anymore out of compatibility problems.