Reviews: Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Dragon's Dogma came out about a year ago with its unique style, reminiscent of Dark Souls-meets-Dragon Age. A western style RPG developed in the east. 

And it was great, a breath of fresh air in a somewhat stagnate genre with its sense of adventure and a whole new NPC system, combat feels great and intuitive, though a dodge button would not be out of place. 

Now the game has been re-released with a lot of added content, a complete underground dungeon, a few tweaks to the original game. For returning Arisen's this will be more of a good thing, the new area is both exciting and scary as hell, with the decision to feature more  tight corridors and some great enemy designs. 

Like the Ogre that gets excited with men instead of women or a pitch black dragon what'll make you regret the day you spent that extra gold on a weapon instead of lamp oil. The atmosphere created in Bitterblack isle is really taking all the great things from the original and just mush them together, and it works, its creepy and moody, yet beautiful and suspenseful. 

The writing and voice acting can at times be a little bad with awkward translations but the overall story makes up for it. There is also an option in the main menu to change voice language to Japanese with English subtitles, wich is a far superior solution for those who dont mind reading instead of hearing, the voices just sound more natural. 

Delving deeper into the dungeons reveal new, cursed items wich need to be hauled up to the surface where you can have them purified using Rift Crystals (RC). Our trusty badass female pawn, Toazter, got rented by another player and made us RC, and in this expand-release RC really comes in handy in that you can upgrade a piece of equipment forged in dragonfire to a higher level with it. 

Or you can use them to fix riftcrystals to customize your party layout with hiring and releasing your pawns, but to compliment this higher reliance on RC Dark Arisen present you with more through chests and loot.

Overall

If you have a love for role playing games and are willing to invest many hours into this game, it will certainly reward you. It is an overall great game, and this expansion continues the trend. With a new area to explore and new enemies to fight, new loot to be had, Dark Arisen takes the great formula of the original and just builds on it.

Game score: 4/5

GameViews recommendation score: 70%

This is a great game, it has alot to offer you if you get into it, but it can be hard for non-RPG fans to really appreciate what it is and what it does.

News: Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter 24 hour live stream event press release

"Neverwinter 24 Hour Live Streaming Open Beta Launch and Charity Event - Hosted by MMODen.com April 24th 2013 at Noon PDT.

April 24th 2013 - Free to Play gaming News and Review Blog MMODen is proud to announce a 24 hour Live Streaming Marathon of Perfect World Entertainment's free MMORPG "Neverwinter!" This event shall take place starting April 25th at 12 Noon PDT and run until 12 Noon PDT April 26th 2013. This event will showcase the Open Beta Phase of Neverwinter. Limpy, MMODen.com's founder will Live Stream Neverwinter for 24 hours straight to showcase the game, and celebrate one of the most anticipated titles move to OBT.

During this event MMODen will be giving away prizes to those in attendance at different intervals of the streaming session. Fans who wish to tune into this event can do so by going to MMODen's Twitch.tv channel at (http://www.twitch.tv/mmoden/) those who follow and participate in the stream chat will be eligible for the giveaways.

Players who wish to join Limpy in game can do so by picking up one of the games Heroes of the North founders packs. (http://nw.perfectworld.com/founderspack). All founders packs have recently been given additional items to increase the in game value of each pack.

Additionally, MMODen's 24 Hour Live Stream Event will have a good cause attached to it. The event will support AIDS Lifecycle, a 7 day, 545 mile charity bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Riders put themselves through this grueling event to raise money and awareness in the fight to end AIDS/HIV. This event will support a rider who is taking on the journey for the first time, and can be supported directly before, during and after the event at: (http://www.tofighthiv.org/site/TR?px=2832206&fr_id=1550&pg=personal)"

News: New playable character class revealed in Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter

The highly sought after upcoming free-to-play mmorpg Dungeon & Dragons: Neverwinter has revealed yet another playable class in the game; the Great Weapon Fighter. 

"The Great Weapon Fighter uses no tricks or illusions in combat, only the sharpest two-handed weapon to end an encounter. With a never-ending thirst for combat, the Great Weapon Fighter charges into battle at any given opportunity, even recklessly so at times. 

Similar to other classes like the Trickster Rogue or Guardian Fighter the timing of your attacks are essential for any combat situation. To initiate combat, veterans can lead with Avalanche of Steel or Mighty Leap. 

Combined with Takedown and Slam, the fighter can slow and keep enemies on the ground with ease. And with incredible closing speed, elite warriors can adventageously use sprint, by holding the shift key to close the gap on enemies attempting to escape. 

Used in combination with finishing abilities like Punishing Charge or Come and Get It, enemies do not stand a chance while this class is on the hunt."

This class seems to be a sort of skirmisher, initiater, tank kind of class, maybe an easy solo class or a class for beginners of the game since it has decent crowd control and engage/disengage. 

This Barbarian looking badass will be available for 'Founder' members at the fourth beta weekend starting today (April 12th) and for the rest of the community when the open beta hits the 30th April.