Dragon Age Legends to be recounted on Facebook

Though Dragon Age is firmly ensconced in a medieval fantasy world, the series is in some ways more forward looking than BioWare's futuristic sci-fi role-playing game series, Mass Effect. Last year, the Electronic Arts-owned developer used Dragon Age to explore browser-based gaming with the Dragon Age Journeys spin-off. Next February, the swords-and-sorcery series will expand into more uncharted territory with a new Facebook game called Dragon Age Legends.

Not even Farmville features a world this grim and bloody.

Although Dragon Age was rated M for Mature on account of "intense violence" and "sexual content," EA is developing Legends for "Facebook users of all ages." The game will also be built around casual and social play styles commonly seen on the networking site. Players will enlist the aid of their Facebook friends to work through a storyline's worth of quests, upgrade characters, build their kingdoms, and earn exclusive unlockable items for use in Dragon Age II, which launches March 8.

While BioWare may be new to the world of Facebook gaming, EA has considerable expertise in the subject, thanks to its $275 million acquisition of Playfish last year. Playfish is best known for running Facebook hits like Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Country Story.

In other EA-Facebook news, the publisher has announced a five-year exclusive deal with the social network to streamline the microtransaction experience for customers playing EA games. As part of the deal, EA games on Facebook will only use Facebook Credits as their virtual currency of choice.

Final Fantasy XIII Day One Sales Hit 1 Million in Japan

courtesy of Gamestop

It almost went without saying that Final Fantasy XIII would be a massive success in Japan. Any doubts to that were squelched in April, when Square Enix released a short demo for the game in Japan for the PlayStation 3--the only console that Final Fantasy XIII is available for in the region--and system sales nearly quadrupled on a weekly basis, according to Media Create.

With Final Fantasy XIII officially available on retail shelves in Japan yesterday, the game's selling potential has snapped clearly into focus. Citing internal figures, Square Enix announced today that the Japanese role-playing game has sold more than 1 million units in its first 24 hours. Square Enix noted that the figure does not include units sold as part of hardware bundles, such as the 250GB ceramic-white PS3 with a graphic of protagonist Lightning printed on the top.

Yesterday, Square Enix announced that it had shipped some 1.8 million units to Japanese retailers in advance of the game's launch. The publisher also noted that total worldwide franchise sales stand at 92 million units since the Final Fantasy brand first emerged in 1987. Of its most recent iteration, Square Enix has forecast total sales of 6 million units worldwide.

Final Fantasy XIII will be released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America and Europe on March 9. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

The Game That Everyone is Currently Talking About

Ever heard of From Software? Makers of the King's Field and Armored Core series. Well, they have a new title coming out for PS3 (exclusively) that everyone online is talking about. Here are a couple videos of the game from G4TV and GameTrailers that I found. They describe the game well and also talk about what makes it so "revolutionary". *videos below*

Developer Commentary (G4TV)

Video Games - E3 2009 - Videos

Import Preview from (GameTrailers)

Video Games | Demon's Souls | Import Preview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

BioWare taking Star Wars MMOG beta apps

courtesy of Gamespot.com

BioWare caught some flack from a number of diehard Knights of the Old Republic players when it announced that its next installment in the franchise, Star Wars: The Old Republic, would be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. To assuage complaints, though, BioWare has said on multiple occasions that SW:TOR would be tantamount to 10 or more sequels to its hit action RPG.

The application process can be...demanding.

With all of that content, SW:TOR is going to need a healthy pool of testers to work out any number of unforeseen bugs in the code. As a result, BioWare said today that it has begun accepting applications to participate in the game's closed beta testing phase through the game's official Web site. (As of press time, the SW:TOR Web site is unavailable due to heavy traffic.) The EA-owned studio did not indicate when the beta phase would begin, saying only that it would be "an ongoing process."

SW:TOR takes place approximately 300 years after the events of the original game, but some 3,600 years before the events of LucasArts' quintessential films. Players can choose to align themselves with either side of the Force, taking on professions like the Sith Warrior and Bounty Hunter for the Dark Side and the Trooper and Smuggler for the Galactic Republic.

BioWare has yet to place a firm release date on Star Wars: The Old Republic. For more information, check out GameSpot's extensive previous coverage.

"Fat Princess" Game Causes Controversy

Fat Princess is a new game being released by Titan Studios and published by Sony for the PS3. Of course it isn't without controversy considering the premise of the game is to get your princess as fat as possible so that the enemy players need more men to carry her off.

The goal of the game is to pick 1 of 5 classes which include mage, priest, warrior, worker, and archer. At the beginning of the game, each of the teams will already have their opponent's princess held captive. In order to make their opponent's task in rescuing her more difficult, the player can give more and more food to the princess they have captured, so that she will become fatter and heavier, and the opponent's team will need larger number of players to carry her.^[1]

I don't know about you, but this looks freakin hilarious. We'll have to wait and see if the game play holds up after the initial humor wears off.

Fat Princess is scheduled to be released Summer 2009 in Sony's Playstation Store.