Special Guest: Issac Clarke

So Dead Space 2's out all around the world. From the hour or so I've played of it, it's quite a fun game, and if you've got the means to play it - Dead Space Extraction HD is also quite fun. But it's thanks to Dead Space 2 that I've gotta look at EA and question their crossing over ability, because it's something suspect.

For those who purchase a new copy of Dead Space 2 (either of the three versions), you'll get a code that allows you to download the "Ser Issac of Clarke" armour to use in the upcoming Dragon Age II. It's kinda similar to the same type of deal EA pulled with Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, in which you recieved a code in new copies of the latter which allowed you to use the same armour in the former.

But the weird thing about all this, is why Issac Clarke? It's not that the character hasn't got the greatest design out there (the engineering suit has a neat look to it), but EA have this really odd habit of putting the Issac skin in a whole series of games that don't make a lick of sense. Don't believe me?

Here's Issac in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10:

Here's Issac in the PSP version of Army of Two: The 40th Day:

Here's Issac in My Sims Agents:

Here's Issac in Skate 3 :

Here's Issac in Dante's Inferno :

I mean, I can understand EA's strategy here - they're putting Dead Space and Issac out there unlike a lot of their other brands and trying to get the name out. Compared to other EA games, Dead Space has two animated movies, three comic book series, a Wii (now PS3) prequel game, and XBLA and PSN prequel game to the sequel, and even an iOS game. Not even other, and possibly more popular, EA games have this type of additional items.

However, it seems just so random and pointless to do so - and worst of all, the Issac skin is completely out of place for most of those games I mentioned above. You'd have to be mad to justify the costume being in Dante's Inferno, it clashes with the design aesthetic in Dragon Age; but the most jarring is in Skate and Tiger Woods - more so in Tiger, which uses real-life locations and people. It just feels...weird.

For comparison's sake, Sony have it down pretty well on how they let Kratos be used in non-God of War games. Sure, he's made appearances in games like Everybody's Golf (subtitle?), Modnation Racers & Little Big Planet, but at the same time - you look at his use in PSP title Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny and the upcoming Mortal Kombat. Thanks to the God of War games being kinda-fighting games, he's a natural fit in playing, plus his backstory actually makes him fit in with the Soul Calibur storyline better than every guest character not named Link. As for Mortal Kombat, anyone who's played a God of War game can tell you that he's an absolute perfect pick.

I mean, I'm all for EA trying to get Dead Space out there...but putting him in every bloody game ever isn't going to work. What's next, an Issac Clarke driver/car for Shift 2 Unleashed?

Project CRPG #1 - An Introduction, of sorts...

I have a terrible habit of buying a tonne of games that I never get around to beating. Mostly because of lost interest, but there are cases where I've been pissed off with a game, is virtually unbeatable (for whatever reason) and plenty more reasons I can't quite think of at the moment. Point is, I have a problem. For the most part, I've been doing my best to curb that habit this year - most of the games I've attained I've given a fair go and attempted to beat - with more success than actual failure. But rarely do I go back and attempt to finish a game in anticipation for a soon to be released sequel.

Yeah, this requires a bit of backstory.

For the longest time, I've been wanting to finish the original Dragon Age - even with the announcement (and subsequent release) of the Awakenings expansion and the sequel, it was always something that I had meant to do, but was swamped with other things that I had wanted to play. The same goes with the Witcher - a game that I had really dug, but lost interest in.

And almost with the same time frame, I heard Dragon Age being discussed from the perspective of someone who hadn't played the game before on local podcast "GameTaco", and the subsequent announcement of the Witcher 2 release date triggered something within me. The desire to go back into those worlds and see the ends of their stories.

It was perfect timing too - there weren't very many more console games that I had wanted to play through (except through mostly older stuff like the Sly Trilogy or Prince of Persia Trilogy), and I'd all but lost interest in Fallout: New Vegas (which was taking up all my PC time).

I also guess the other trigger was the story incentive. Both Dragon Age II and Witcher 2 take advantage of cleared saves to tell new events in the story, and I didn't want to go into either sequel completely fresh - I wanted my world and my story to continue. That, and Bioware had done a pretty great job of it in Mass Effect 2.

So the goal was set - I've got until March 2010 to finish the original Dragon Age, and May 2010 to finish off the Witcher. No matter what, I'm going to finish both games, because I know I can. Sure, it'll mean juggling my game review commitments, jobs and other fun stuff, but hey, why not? Plus, I want to write about these things for as long as I can keep it interesting (or find something interesting to talk about.

Thus begins "Project Beat CRPGS Before Sequels Come Out", or "Project CRPG", for short. The name comes from Donald, a co-worker on Level 3, whom had a personal project called "Project RPG", in which he attempted to beat as many RPGs this year as he could. At best, he got quite far into Final Fantasy XIII, which is more than what I can say about myself!

Either way, welcome to a wonderful journey. First stop, revisiting Dragon Age: Origins...