When was the last time you felt totally lost in a fantasy gameworld? When was the last time you played a game with such a well-crafted and enjoyable story that you knew you'd remember it for a long, long time? Dragon Age: Origins is that kind of game, so rich and involving that you are powerless to resist its wiles and whims, so touching and triumphant that your mind and heart will be moved. In the fictional land of Ferelden, you meet memorable characters and fight for a cause you believe in, and it's this backdrop that makes developer BioWare's newest role-playing game so extraordinary. Dragon Age is more than a well-crafted story, however: It's a lengthy, intricate, and thoroughly entertaining adventure that's easy to fall in love with.

Source: GameSpot

Magna Carta 2 is an unapologetically cliched role-playing game that focuses on real-time, team-based combat, which the game translates into a single-player experience rather successfully. Its novel battle system, emphasizing speed and brutal skill chains, is initially fun, but it eventually struggles with hack-and-slash mechanics and aggravating AI, occasionally regressing into repetitive button mashing. Though the game looks superb and is mildly interesting at some points, its substandard plot and unsophisticated gameplay undermine a lot of the excitement.

Source: GameSpot

The previous entries in the Valhalla Knights series were monotonous, unrewarding PSP games that poorly aped the Monster Hunter series. Monster Hunter will be making the leap to the Wii in North America next year, and while Valhalla Knights has beaten it to the punch on this occasion, it hasn't so much leapt onto the console as it has limply flopped onto it. Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is ugly, repetitive, and boring, and it's one of the worst action role-playing games since Valhalla Knights 2.

Source: GameSpot

Omega--which was first glimpsed in the GamesCom trailer released a few weeks ago--is a gigantic space station and seedy den of scum and villainy that is reminiscent of the dingier parts of the Citadel in the first game. The hands-off section of the demo began with Shepard and his crew--who in this scenario were Krell assassin Thane and Krogan fighter Grunt--standing outside the nightclub AfterLife. It was a huge, triangular-shaped building adorned with large video screens displaying bright arcs of fire, and inside, it had a circular layout with a central dance floor similar to Chora's Den in the original (except much, much larger). Here, we were treated to Mass Effect 2's more cinematic approach to story, with Shepard engaging in some not-so-friendly banter with a character named Aria T'Loak, a mysterious female who is apparently the real power behind Omega. The conversation between the two featured some dramatic camera angles that helped amp up the intrigue, focusing on Shepard and Aria's faces and showcasing a good deal of nuance visible in the character models. The voice acting was also excellent and bodes well for another involving storyline in Mass Effect 2.

Source: GameSpot

Demon's Souls harbors many more intricacies as well--nooks and crannies loaded with extra loot, a mechanic known as world tendency that changes the difficulty level depending on certain actions you take, and additional benefits (and risks) should you rescue (or kill) certain non-player characters you encounter on your travels. There's a lot to discover, and the game wants you to figure it all out on your own. But while Demon's Souls doesn't serve the answers to you on a gilded platter, it gives you a number of refined and inspired tools to help you succeed, and its astounding, oppressive world will cast its spell on you. If you crave true innovation, a fair but relentless challenge, and gripping exploration in which every step has consequences, then you crave Demon's Souls.

Source: GameSpot

While the story may be a bit cookie-cutter, the combat system is a little different from combat in most action RPGs and takes some getting used to. Enemies are seen onscreen, and you have the freedom to enter combat mode by pushing the left trigger. Once you're in combat mode, you have a stamina meter at the bottom. You'll have to watch it closely because it's very easy to build it up to enter an overdrive state and then overheat, which will render you useless for several seconds. At first, this can be a bit frustrating because it limits the number of attacks you can do, and you'll have to back off to prevent yourself from overheating. But later in the game, once you have your own party members to swap around, you can use this to your advantage by chaining skills in the overdrive state, which makes battles a lot more fun and interesting.

Source: GameSpot

Most RPGs tie the player to a very explicit code of morality, defining their personal character within varying shades of good or evil. In these situations, saving someone would be considered a good act, while killing someone else is frequently seen as a vile deed. These extreme points of view frequently don't take into account that there could be more to these actions than it would initially seem. For example, players might discover that saving a person allows them to commit heinous crimes that you'll have to deal with later, or that killing a supposedly innocent person prevents the deaths of dozens or hundreds of others. On top of this, aside from agreeing or grousing about a decision, the impact on your party is relatively minimal. As a result of these limitations, you play more to a pre-defined sense of good and evil than making your own path, determining what works for you.

Source: IGN

There's a lot of game packed onto this disc. Not only will the campaign last you around 15 hours or so, but the branching story gives you a good reason to return. Furthermore, there are additional stand-alone missions to take on, most of which are designed well and are enjoyable to tackle; a trivia game that will test your Marvel comics knowledge; and lots of costumes, audio discs, and dossiers to collect. So while Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 may not take the series in a big and bold new direction, or benefit from the kind of refinement you would look for in a sequel, it does deliver the button-mashing, power-flinging, over-the-top action fans of the original would expect. And it's just good fun, even if you don't know Iron Man from Iron Fist.

Source: GameSpot

It's a shame the other elements of Muramasa do not reach the level of its amazing art, but the breathtaking visuals are reason enough to play through this adventure. The stylish combat lacks depth, which makes repetition sink in after just a few hours, but it is still fun to fly across the screen to strike down enemies with flair and test your new blades on your weary foes. And even though the normal battles lack diversity, the boss encounters are unique and memorable, pushing players to learn intricate patterns while honing their skills. Muramasa has its share of problems, but the meticulously crafted 2D art makes it possible to overlook them for long enough to enjoy this engaging experience.

Source: GameSpot

The paradigm shift system is basically a fancy name for changing the way that your party member acts during the battle. The system lets you pick from a number of "roles" that you can set to your party member, such as an offensive role, a defensive role, or a healing role. You can change your character's role freely in the middle of the battle by pressing L1. If that sounds a bit too convenient, it's because the paradigm shift is a core part of FFXIII's battle system, and you'll need to make good use of it to beat your enemies strategically.

Source: GameSpot

Dragon Age: Origins has its roots in the rich, nerdy history of BioWare's cIassic fantasy role-playing games Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate (and that game's sequel, Baldur's Gate II). Not only will the new game attempt to expand on those games by letting you participate in an epic story of a kingdom at war with an unearthly menace, but it will also let you create a character capable of killing your enemies in a variety of nasty ways.

Source: GameSpot

Muramasa is split up between two story modes that work in tandem with each other. Renegade ninja Kisuke and beautiful princess Momohime are both playable from the outset, and each of the story modes will aid slightly in the other, allowing you to work down a forge tree and unlock better swords after playing one of the story modes deep enough. There are 100+ blades to check out, each tiled to a specific set of stats and a single spell.

Source: IGN

Alpha Protocol is a stealth-action RPG full of character and item customization. You awaken confused and without memory of how you arrived in this unusual facility. Your "escape" (in quotes because it's all just a test) gives you a quick primer on the controls. After the first half hour or so, things really open up. You have control over your character's look, adding goofy beards and berets as you see fit. While you can't change every aspect of your face, there's a decent level of customization, though the best are those that lean towards the ridiculous.

Source: IGN

There are two kind of elves in Dragon Age: City Elves and the Daleish. The former are beaten down urban dwellers while the latter are still wild elves who live as nomadic groups in the wilderness. Elves used to be held in slavery, until the prophet Andraste (the creator of the main religion in the game) abolished it 400 years prior to the events of the game. However, the elves are still discriminated against and looked down upon by humans, with city elves as basically indentured servants who live in slums called alienages.

Source: IGN

Like a diseased steak thrown to the wolves, so this travesty of a downloadable add-on has been tossed to hungry Mass Effect fans. Contrary to its high-reaching title, Pinnacle Station is a creative nadir in an otherwise excellent sci-fi universe. By downloading it, you get a simulated battle arena (one of video gaming's most arthritic cliches) and--a gun. There is hardly a smidgen of storytelling or role-playing, and the battle types and maps feel tossed together due to poor level design and problematic combat scenarios. Even at 400 Microsoft points ($5), Pinnacle Station is a condescending insult, the digital equivalent of scraps fed under the table to the family pooch.

Source: GameSpot

Let's go through the facts: White Knight Chronicles has a cool combat system where you can choose different moves from different combat trees and let them play out as your hit meter recharges in battle; you can turn into a building-sized white knight; the CGI cutscenes look amazing; and character creation is suuuuuuper-deep.

Source: IGN

On first glance, the dwarves in Dragon Age are your typical Tolkienseque folk; once a great empire, they now live in one or two cities underground where they busy themselves with mining, crafting, and growing beards. Unlike J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarves, there are definitely female dwarves in Dragon Age (without the beards). But what's really interesting about Dragon Age's stout little folk is the degree of political intrigue.

Source: IGN

The more we've seen Alpha Protocol over the past few months, the more we've been warming to its novel concept of spy-based role-playing. You can level up, build your character, and earn upgrades just like in most role-playing games, but here you're trying to build a perfect spy, rather than a space explorer or dragon slayer.

Source: GameSpot

Split-second decisions and throwing people through a window feed into the overall darker feeling of Mass Effect 2, and BioWare is keen to emphasise that is the Empire Strikes Back of the Mass Effect trilogy. There's an impending sense of doom that will be revealed from the off, and by the end of the game, you'll be leading your team into a suicide mission. How the ending plays out will hinge on the relationships you've forged through the rest of the game, so it's probably not a great idea to screw too many people over.

Source: GameSpot

BioWare has been saying for a while now that Dragon Age: Origins, its upcoming fantasy RPG, is a big game. That might explain why it's taken so long to develop; hard to believe, but Dragon Age was first announced more than five years ago. The game's title takes its name from the fact that there are six distinct prologues that you can choose from, and each can set up repercussions that echo throughout the rest of the game. Many RPGs will let you create different characters, but they all follow the same narrative more or less. In Dragon Age, the choice of prologue is just the first of many choices that will shape the experience.

Source: IGN