A Viewpoint

    One of the things that I truly admire about Bioware as a developer is that they always try to evolve and re-invent their gameplay in each subsequent entries and whereas other developers are more or less content with only adding minor changes to their previously established moulds, Bioware goes all out to overhaul and improve all of the core mechanics' in the most fundamental of ways. And while it's indeed a gamble that does have a hit-or-miss effect in their games, I personally can't help but respect Bioware's evolutionary approach towards gameplay which aims to elevate not just the game itself but the entire genre as a whole.   And while their last entry in the Dragon Age series of games is one of the few titles that actually suffered from this attempt at re-invention, the upcoming Dragon Age Veilguard seems to get this right again in the most optimistic ways possible. Yes I'm mainly talking about the combat which is where Dragon Age: Inquisition had faltered t...

        Dragon Age Inquisition was never officially released in India and that's why I really didn't have much hope that I'd ever get to play the third iteration of one of my favorite Videogame series of all time. But then something truly unexpected happened a few weeks back as Epic Games Store decided to give away the Game of the Year Edition of Dragon Age Inquisition for free, for a limited time. And with that, they just provided the only legitimate way that someone from India could actually buy and play the game, and that's exactly how I finally got to play Inquisition, the game I had wanted to play since the day it came out back in 2014.    And after spending quite a substantial amount of time with the game (though it's really microscopic in comparison to the total amount of playtime that Inquisition offers) I think I can finally give my honest viewpoint on the game--the things it does well and what it doesn't. But first off, I have to admit that after ...

    Mass Effect Andromeda has long been known as a Black Sheep in the legendary (and rightly so) Mass Effect series of games--centered around a design philosophy that's far removed from most of what made the original trilogy so memorable and endearing, with a lot more focus on exploration and combat than story and characters, Andromeda literally took the series in a direction that no one had expected or even wanted to. And the result is the game being almost unequivocally touted as a massive disappointment among gamers and critics alike, even accused as the sole reason for the series to be put "on ice" by EA.     But after having my fair share of time with Andromeda, I realized that the game is a lot more misunderstood than otherwise, and part of the reason is that it's viewed almost exclusively through the tenets of the original trilogy. Sure it doesn't really have the memorable beats and the emotional hooks of the past 3 titles and all of their hallmarks, but be...

  One of the main reasons for revisiting this game after so many years was to find a completely new way to play a 2 handed Warrior and to basically make the mightiest heavy hitter that I possibly could, something I had always wanted to do since the game first came out (but never quite managed, until now). So after a lot of playing and micromanaging, I finally got to experience the most powerful version of the Warrior class that I have ever played in Dragon Age 2, and this guide will show you how you can too.   And I do know that writing a guide for a game that’s well over a decade old doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but here it is. And as I had already written a Mage guide and a Rogue guide for Dragon Age 2 before (albeit a long time ago), a Warrior guide now just brings it all to a full circle.   Ever since I first saw the Warrior class in action in the ‘Pre-story-Prologue’ in DA2, it instantly became my favourite class to play, although I could never create a b...

      The Mass Effect Trilogy is rightly hailed as one of gaming’s greatest accomplishments that represents pretty much everything that’s phenomenal about Videogames as a medium—fully interactive storytelling that shapes itself based on the choices the player makes, a sprawling and interconnected narrative full of characters you genuinely care about and tops it all off with an all-around satisfying set of rich action-RPG gameplay experience. All of these elements have cemented the trilogy as one of the most memorable and emotionally engaging experience to ever come out of gaming. And while Mass Effect Andromeda didn’t quite reach the astronomical (literally) standards that was the hallmark of the original trilogy, it did improve or should I say, evolved some of the core gameplay elements from the original trilogy like a revamped movement system and increased maneuverability that made combat feel far more fluid and dynamic than anything we'd seen before. While Mass E...

      The Dragon Age games hold a special place in my gaming heart/ library—Dragon Age Origins was a transcendental (and I don’t use that word very often) game that not only pushed the envelope of my pre-existing notions of what a Role Playing Game can be but it’s also the very first game where I felt myself emotionally involved in it’s rich story, world and characters in ways that very few games have managed to made me do. And I did enjoy Dragon Age 2 a lot, too, despite it’s many flaws (most of which stem from it’s short development time). Although it was a far cry from it’s predecessor in terms of world design and scale, the newly added flourishes to it’s combat did balance out things for me. In the end I felt DA2’s gameplay was an evolved version of it’s predecessor and a step in the right direction.   Sadly, I couldn’t get to play Dragon Age: Inquisition cause EA decided not to release the game in my country (India) but after watching tons of gameplay videos an...

    Spoiler Warning: This article contains huge spoilers for the Mass Effect trilogy, so if you haven't experienced these games yet, I strongly recommend you to skip this. All true forms of Art are essentially imitations of Life, in their own uniquely creative ways. And this applies to Videogames too, or at least to those rare, few ones that truly transcend the limitations of it’s medium to deliver an experience that’s as deeply memorable and evokes enough emotionally affecting responses to be called as indeed something of an Art form. But like all forms of Art that’s ever been crafted, they all have the same thing in common—they all imitate one or multiple facets of Life itself, in ways that are unique, memorable and worth revisiting multiple times. And for videogames that focus on specific aspects of Life such as character developments or character driven storytelling, in all of my years of Gaming, I have never found an experience that’s nearly as memorable and engagi...

"It's a ghost, it's a one hit killer, oh no it's the Shadowy Assassin"----Lieutenant That's actually the most apt description I've found for this unbelievably powerful build, believe it or not. The Shadowy Assassin (SA) is simply an unstoppable force of nature. He moves so fast that enemies have a hard time trying to get a bead on him, annihilates weaker foes with one shot (not talking about spike damage)----even after some archers actually manage to focus on him, all they can manage to hit is a rigged decoy ready to blow into smithereens. Meanwhile the SA makes short work of them from behind, and when that Lieutenant is the only one left standing, something beautiful happens----the mage puts a winter's grasp/cone of cold on him, the SA throws something at the Lieutenant & when he thinks he's got it figured, only the cracking sound of bones getting crunched is heard----poetry in motion. The fight is over before it ever had a ch...

Although Dragon age 2 (DA 2) had some glaring flaws but it was also a step forward in some ways----like the exciting combat & the story which was more intricate than origins' typical 'build an army, defeat the big bad evil & save the world' type. The biggest strength of the Dragon age series is it's world & the people who populate it. After the events of DA2, some of the questions like what is going to be the solution to the mages & templars situation, weather the Qunari will plan another invasion & above all, what is Morrigan up to clouds my mind (probably yours, too). There's so many ways Bioware can expand the story and refine the gameplay further. We already know that the next game in the series will not contain the flaws that DA2 did like the copy-paste environments, choices that only give an illusion of choice & limited customizations to the party members. Now as an ardent fan of this epic dark fantasy series, here's s...

Sure, Videogames are amazing, but the general consensus about games are not so positive, in fact quite the opposite. Many point their fingers at videogames as a real factor in criminal behavior, violence or any other social evil they can come up with. What's worse ,gaming is associated in the minds of the many as just another "unproductive" way of killing time. It's really disappointing how people are so quick to pass judgement or blame something which they do not understand. Sure games use violence & generally involves killing people, but that violence is always used within a context to depict something of a greater value. Really, can anyone say after completing a game that it was nothing more than a simulation of manslaughter? The games mentioned in this list are all the reasons to prove those wrong who have such hatred or negative beliefs towards gaming without ever knowing how it feels to play even a single game. So the next time you see one of...

Comparing something as mystifying such as Life with a genre of videogame may seem downright silly & vague at first. But there are indeed some striking similarities between the character development mechanics of a Role-Playing-Game (RPG) & that of Life. In an RPG, you have to create a character first. You can choose race, gender & class. Classes determine the playing style of a character. There are mainly 3 types of classes. One is the Warrior who prefers an head on attack, the Rogue , who likes to sneak on enemies & hit 'em real hard and the Mage --who stays at a distance & controls the battlefield. Now Life is not limited to only 3 classes, there are multitudes of them & each person, whoever they are, belongs to a certain class. In real life, we can indulge ourselves in any activity we want & the more time we spend, we gain experience on that activity. This is remarkably similar to the basic mechanics of an RPG. Take Skyrim, you can cho...

The mage has always been the most powerful class in the dragon age games----dealing devastating area of effect (AOE) spells & single target damages enough to obliterate anyone dare to cross his path...until they start paying attention to him. As soon as his enemies get to him, he's dead meat. The mage is as powerful as he/she is squishy. But all that changes with the Bloodlusted Forcemage (BF mage). Remember the mage from the opening sequence after choosing the class in DA2? The BFmage is similar to that in terms of both raw power & defense. The BFmage do not hide & do not run away at the first sign of threat and can easily go toe-toe toe with his foes alongside the warrior or tanks. It was my second playthrough as a mage when I found this build after much experimenting with the class. And yes, the Bloodlusted Forcemage completely obliterates The Arishok in Nightmare with ease & that's when I know this build really works. Vulgar display of Pow...