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Amazon's Prime Gaming titles for November include 'Control Ultimate Edition'
Expect a lot more goodies for 'LoL,' 'Valorant' and other Riot games over the next year too.
Grab a pint with free Dragon Age: Inquisition tavern songs
The songs that fill the tavern at Skyhold are now yours for the downloading, for free until February 9, when they will be sold on "popular digital platforms," BioWare says. The download includes sheet music, as well. "If you've indulged in the opportunity at Skyhold's tavern to enjoy a break from the demons and Venatori, chances are you've heard some of the bard's lovely songs," BioWare writes. "Although bards do perform to entertain travelers, they also serve a greater purpose: to carry the tales of triumph and tragedy across the land. We've received many inquiries from our fans asking where they can get these songs, and we're thrilled that you're enjoying them as much as we do." The tavern songs from Dragon Age: Inquisition are performed by Elizaveta and written by Hollywood composer Raney Shockne. [Image: BioWare]
Dragon Age: Inquisition gets special recognition from GLAAD
GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has given a special recognition award to Dragon Age: Inquisition. The 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which has a laundry list of award categories, including comics, singled out the BioWare RPG from the video game pack. David Gaider, lead writer for the Dragon Age series at BioWare has spoken in the past about the "hump of assumptions" involved in creating and including lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters in video games. Inquisition featured the first "fully gay" characters in the series. Straight and bisexual characters have been a BioWare standard for over a decade. Bioware parent company, Electronic Arts, has also repeated received a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. The publisher earned the achievement again in 2015. [Image: C. Felichidá]
Dragon Age: Inquisition PC patch 3 notes, 'close' to launch
The third PC patch for Dragon Age: Inquisition is focused on fixing myriad bugs, particularly those that break the game for some players, BioWare writes in a blog post. The patch is "close" to release, Executive Producer Mark Darrah said on Twitter over the weekend. The patch tweaks multiplayer issues, balance issues, and adds requested features such as a key binding that allows walking on PC, armor upgrade menus and a push-to-talk option in the multiplayer end-of-match summary. "Based on feedback from our players, we tweaked the banter system to be less random in order to prevent extra-long periods of silence," BioWare writes. "We fixed quest blockers in the personal quests of Dorian and Sera as well as a spawning issue in Solas's personal quest (I won't elaborate to avoid light spoilers). [...] We continue to listen to feedback from our players, and we thank everyone for working with us to create an even better Dragon Age experience." Information about patches on Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One and PS4 is incoming. See the complete PC patch 3 notes direct from BioWare below. [Image: BioWare]
Dragon Age: Inquisition stats record more than 2 million flying lizards slain
The official Dragon Age: Inquisition Twitter account has some interesting statistics for all the Heralds of Andraste out there. According to tweets made earlier this week, more than 2.6 million dragons have been slain by players of Inquisition. The unfortunate Ferelden Frostback was the most-killed of her species, while the Highland Ravager has been the most successful at evading death. Fifty-eight percent of all dragons were killed in the land of Orlais, so any of our readers who happen to be fire-breathing monsters, take note: this is not a land you want to be traveling to right now. As for who's doing the slaying, the overall majority - 68 percent - of Inquisitors have been male, while 32 percent have been female. While the percentage of female heroes may seem small, it's actually a big step up from BioWare's Mass Effect series; back in 2011, the developer revealed that fewer than 15 percent of players used a female version of Commander Shepard between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. But really, it doesn't matter if you're male, female, Qunari, Dwarf, etc. What matters is that we find the dragon that sounds like Sean Connery and -- oh, wrong thing? Wrong thing. [Image: EA]
2015 DICE Award nominations led by Shadow of Mordor
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year's DICE Awards, recognizing a total of 56 games. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received nine nominations, including the Game of the Year award. The other Game of the Year nominees are Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4 and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Far Cry 4 received seven nominations, one being for Action Game of the Year. Destiny and Hearthstone each had six nominations, whereas Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Monument Valley received five apiece. The 18th Annual DICE Awards ceremony will be held at the The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas following the 2015 DICE Summit, which runs from February 3 through February 5. The event will be livestreamed on DICE's Twitch channel, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT). Head past the break for a partial list of nominees; the full list can be found on AIAS' website.
Metareview: GOTY Edition
Over the weekend the Joystiq hive mind concluded its annual hive dance and deemed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor the top dawg of 2014. Monolith's action-RPG may have hacked and slashed its way to the top of our list, but a glance at The Rest of the Internet makes one thing clear: When it comes to 2014's GOTY awards, there isn't One Game to rule them all. With that in mind, we've taken the Metareview format we use to collate other outlets' reviews and given it a GOTY paint job. As ever, it's just a sampling of all the publications out there and plenty of places have yet to dole out their awards. Nonetheless, here's a wee look at the best games of 2014 according to everyone else.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Dragon Age: Inquisition presents a world on fire; fire formed from the spark of lovers, the friction of politics, and the heat of a dragon's breath. It is a game that gives players everything they could have wanted from another entry in the classic RPG franchise. It satisfied our appetites for combat, beautiful worlds, thought-provoking narrative, memorable characters and challenging scenarios. And then it somehow made us hungry for more.
Origin New Year's sale: Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4
Though all of the calendars here at Joystiq HQ still read "2014" digital retailer Origin is already ringing in the new year with discounts of up to 75 percent off a number of EA's recent and not so recent games. The highlights of Origin's New Year's Sale include epic roleplaying adventure Dragon Age: Inquisition at $40, virtual life hit The Sims 4 at $30 and Battlefield 4 Premium Edition - that's the military shooter plus all of its downloadable additions - at $30. If you'd prefer to rifle through EA's back catalogue, you can find the Mass Effect Trilogy at $15 and the massive Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection, which includes 17 real-time strategy games, at $10. You'll find a full list of current discounts on the sale's Origin page. If anything there catches your eye, you should probably buy it quickly. All of the discounts included in Origin's New Year's Sale disappear on December 27, at 8AM Pacific Time. [Image: EA]
Joystiq Presents: Dragon Age, Dark Souls and dominatrixes
Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) chats with BioWare Creative Director Mike Laidlaw about Dragon Age: Inquisition. They discuss the influence that From Software's Dark Souls series had on Laidlaw when crafting the developer's latest RPG. Listen to the MP3
Dragon Age: Inquisition add-ons expand multiplayer, go Deluxe
Today, Dragon Age: Inquisition gets a piece of free multiplayer content and a $10 upgrade that elevates the Standard Edition of the game to the Deluxe Edition, all across PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. The free multiplayer expansion is titled Destruction and it adds new paths to existing destinations, BioWare writes on the Dragon Age blog: "The conflicts raging throughout the world have upset the balance of nature. Wild creatures now roam the battlefield, introducing chaos as they attack both friend and foe." The $10 Deluxe Upgrade "is ideal for players who purchased the Standard Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition," mostly because it features swag already in the $70 Digital Deluxe Edition, including the Skyhold Throne, Bog Unicorn, Red Hart Halla, Flames of the Inquisition weapons, Inquisitor Armor and an armored mount. Dragon Age: Inquisition received a day-one patch and a second patch released last week that addressed stability and multiplayer issues. BioWare says it's already working on a third patch. These are all tweaks to an already robust, enchanting and "gorgeous" game, as outlined in our five-star review. [Image: BioWare]
Dragon Age: Inquisition stability patch out for all but Xbox One
The first post-launch patch for Dragon Age: Inquisition drops today on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and PC, BioWare says in its blog. The patch will hit Xbox One "as soon as possible," the post says. This is Patch 2, following Inquisition's day-one patch, and it focuses on stability. BioWare breaks down the content as follows: Stability – Various crashes, freezes, audio / voice glitches, and many stability improvements. Gameplay – Conversations, quests, plot states, combat, UI, camera, controls, follower / enemy AI and path finding, exploits, radar, and search. Multiplayer – In addition to some of the gameplay improvements listed above, multiplayer fixes also cover areas such as animations, game mode bugs, stat reporting, and stability / crash fixes. PC – Numerous control and UI fixes, fixes to some hitching, improved Mantle performance, graphical glitches. "Beyond Patch 2 we'll continue to release patches that focus on gameplay improvements," BioWare says. "We've already lined up a number of improvements and fixes we'd like to include in Patch 3, and of course we'll continue listening to you to make sure we're addressing your concerns." The blog post continues, "Patch 2 includes the first range of fixes towards addressing the feedback we've received on the PC controls; it cleans things up so you'll see fewer problems with the current layout."
Dragon Age: Inquisition cut to $45 in Amazon's Cyber Monday sale
Summon the advisers to the war table and plot a course for Amazon, because today's deal of the day has Dragon Age: Inquisition down to $45 on all platforms. The offer ends at midnight PT today (3AM ET tomorrow), and only applies to the extras-less Standard version. As for why Inquisition is worth the inquiry, BioWare's RPG scored the full five stars in our review. In the words of Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski, "This is the sequel fans were hoping for all along, and new adventurers will be eased into this next generation of Dragon Age."
EA Black Friday: Up to 75 percent off 300 games, DLC
Like GameStop, Walmart and Microsoft, EA's digital distribution service Origin will celebrate Black Friday with big discounts on a wide number of items. Though very recent PC games like Dragon Age: Inquisition maintain their $60 launch prices, slightly older games like The Sims 4 and FIFA 15 are available at $40. Likewise discounted is Titanfall, which can be purchased for $15. The biggest discounts are seen on EA's classic games. The normally $15 Mass Effect is now available at $3.74 while Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and SimCity 4 are each available for $10. A full rundown of the discounts can be found on Origin. Though Origin's Black Friday sale is available until December 1, you should keep a close eye on the event once Black Friday rolls around. EA won't commit to anything just yet, but the Origin news feed suggests that even bigger discounts will come on November 28. [Image: EA]
Grand Theft Auto 5 becomes the UK's all-time bestseller
The new king of Britain is Grand Theft Auto 5, after it claimed the crown for the most units sold in the nation in the ever of ever. On the back of hitting PS4 and Xbox One, Rockstar's latest crime circus usurped the former rule of Call of Duty: Black Ops, according to data-bods Chart Track. While Chart Track didn't report specific sales figures, MCV claims GTA 5 was at "almost 4 million" units sold in the UK ahead of its arrival on the newest systems. As per other re-releases, GTA 5 offers enhanced graphics on PS4 and Xbox One. In its case, however, there's also the undoubted showpiece of the new first-person camera. "Rather than lowering the camera and shoving it in the chests of its three protagonists, GTA 5's first-person mode adds detailed animations that give the perspective a feeling more akin to simulation than a shooter," said Joystiq's Xav de Matos in our updated review. GTA 5 isn't the only rock star in this week's UK charts, so head below the break to see how well Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition did, and just how badly Sonic Boom flopped. You'll also find the UK top ten and, as ever, the minimally-beloved customary music video.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Easter egg is The Lord of the Pies
A Dragon Age: Inquisition Easter egg that a BioWare artist is dubbing "The Lord of the Pies" surfaced this week, and occurs when players manage to fall through the floor of the Skyhold area of the game. Shown in a video courtesy of YouTube user LeeCsM after the break, the secret, cavernous room with creepy music discovered under Skyhold houses what LeeCsM calls a "Nug with a top hat." BioWare designers jumped into YouTube's comments to confirm that the Easter egg was placed in the game intentionally, with artist Graham Kelly noting that he "hid it under the level" and that players "weren't meant to fall through it." Kelly added that the hidden figure is "not a bunny either," but rather The Lord of the Pies. "I may or may not have hidden some of his smaller flock around the rest of Skyhold," he wrote. While we didn't find any pie, we enjoyed our time with Dragon Age: Inquisition in our review. [Image: EA, LeeCsM (YouTube)]
Joystiq Streams: Inquisiting together in Dragon Age: Inquisition
The Joystiq that inquisits together, stays together! This maxim is undeniable as a fearless band of adventurers shall prove on today's Joystiq Streams. Last week, Alexander Sliwinski (@sliwinski) gave viewers a guided tour of Dragon Age: Inquisition's first hour, but it was a lonesome affair. This week, he'll have friends with him as Susan Arendt (@susanarendt), Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello), and Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM) join him in exploring Inquisition's standalone multiplayer game. All the Dragon Age: Inquisition glory goes down at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, just as it does every Tuesday and Thursday. If you want to catch all of our streams, like tomorrow's Super Smash Bros. for Wii U stream, make sure to follow us on Twitch. [Images: Electronic Arts]
Holy crap, your wallet is screwed today
November 18 is the new October 7. Last month's $300 day tamed before it began, as the launch of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor moved up a few days while Dragon Age: Inquisition was delayed to the industry's new busy day, today. It's okay, friends, we're here to guide you through today's retail chaos. Dragon Age: Inquisition reached Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC today, and was received well in our five-star review of the game. Joystiq Streams took Dragon Age for a spin earlier this week, so those that want a taste of the game's first hour should watch the archived video. Meanwhile, Ubisoft dished Far Cry 4 out to current-gen, last-gen and PC players, a game deemed the "undisputed king" of open-world shooters that offers a "staggering number of adventures."
Dragon Age: Inquisition's women, and the remarkable ordinary
This article is spoiler-free. There's this scene early in Dragon Age: Inquisition when you, as the Herald of Andraste, gather your advisors around the war table and talk about what the Inquisition's next move should be. Your council is a pretty savvy lot. You've got a Seeker of the Chantry, wise in the ways of the church; a Spymaster, with eyes and ears seemingly everywhere in Thedas; an Ambassador, who understands the necessity of playing politics; and an ex-Templar, training soldiers for those times when diplomacy and manipulation aren't enough. It's not actually that important of a scene, as the war table serves as the menu for choosing side missions that earn you extra goodies like Inquisition perks and coin, so you'll see your posse take their places around the table quite frequently. What struck me, though, is that in my version of the game, four out of the five people at the table are women.
Joystiq Streams: Expect Dragon Age: Inquisition
"Dragon Age: Inquisition is an immense fantasy epic, a sprawling adventure across the many landscapes of Thedas, unapologetically mature in its exploration of politics and brazen in its combat," says Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski in his 5-star review of BioWare's first RPG for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. "Inquisition is also developer BioWare's redemption song. It's everything that a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins should have been, and time will slip by as players enjoy the hundred hours of escapades it delivers." Powerful words about an RPG from a studio that hit a serious rough patch after 2009's Origins, but seeing is believing. Does Dragon Age: Inquisition really deliver all that and more as Alexander says it does? He'll take us on a guided tour of the game starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch. Joystiq.com/Twitch broadcasts every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00PM EST, but sometimes we just get the itch to play. On Friday? We'll be playing the new Mario Kart 8 DLC. At what time? Follow us on Twitch to find out. [Images: Electronic Arts]
