Online Games, Game Cheats, Latest Games

Players should expect to take down a dragon or two in “Dragon Age: Origins.”

“Dragon Age: Origins” is an epic, high-fantasy role- playing game and a return to form for developer BioWare, which has concentrated mostly on games with Eastern (”Jade Empire”) and sci-fi (”Mass Effect”) themes in the past few years.

The origins of the game’s title concern the beginnings of the player’s character, whether he or she be a human, dwarf or elf. Each character has one to three possible backgrounds, depending on the race and character class – warrior, mage or rogue – chosen.

For example, all mages start out in their order’s tower, watched over by suspicious templars who stand ready to strike down any magic user who shows signs of possession. By contrast, city elves are a downtrodden underclass in the human city of Denerim, where a local lord’s son crashes a wedding to stir up racial tension. The other origin stories have their own elements, some of which can change depending on the player’s gender and other factors.

But in all origins there is one common factor: the Grey Warden, Duncan.

Duncan is recruiting for the Wardens, a legendary band of fighters who stopped an invasion of darkspawn hundreds of years ago. They can sense the creatures’ presence, and Duncan knows a new horde, or Blight, gathering in the south is led by a powerful Archfiend.

The player makes the grade, of course, but it’s not long before circumstances force this new hero to venture across the land in the hope of forming an army to face the growing threat of the Blight, gathering several interesting companions along the way.

Players can be as altruistic or as cruel as they please, which can have an effect on how some party members behave and respond.

Characters’ abilities and skills can be customized as they level up according to the player’s wishes. Each of the three classes has a set of unique powers, and characters can be further customized with specializations down the line – a mage can become a shape shifter, a warrior can be a berserker and a rogue can train as an assassin, among other possibilities.

Players can directly control one character at a time and issue orders to the others. Combat tactics govern the party’s actions in a manner similar to “Final Fantasy XII’s” Gambit system.

New copies of the game come with voucher codes for an additional character and quest pack, “The Stone Prisoner,” and for a special set of armor that will also appear in the upcoming “Mass Effect 2.”

PICKS AND PANS

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

4 stars

The latest in the always dependable “Ratchet & Clank” series sees the heroic duo still separated after the events of “Tools of Destruction.” The action is just as fun as ever, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

Ratchet scours the galaxy searching for the abducted Clank, collecting new items such as hover boots, and battling robots, monsters and minions with various weapons (several of which can now be customized).

Ratchet can also fly around several star systems, shooting down enemy ships, landing on tiny planetoids to search for items and upgrades, and heading down to larger worlds for more expansive missions.

Meanwhile, Clank is stuck on an enormous machine called the Great Clock, and learns to manipulate time and create temporal copies of himself to solve some brain-twisting puzzles.

PlayStation 3; $59.99 • Age Rating: 10-plus

Rabbids Go Home: A Comedy Adventure

3 stars

Those crazy critters from the “Rayman Raving Rabbids” return, sans Rayman himself. “Rabbids Go Home,” the bug-eyed weirdos’ first game of their own, is just as strange as one might expect from a game starring them: The Rabbids decide they want to go to the moon and start building a pile of stuff so they can reach it.

The player, controlling a pair of Rabbids wielding a shopping cart, is out to collect this stuff – each level is filled with small pieces of stuff and has one large piece, like a big clock or something. It’s kind of like a twisted take on the “Katamari” games – there are many obstacles on the way to the goal, but overcoming them often rewards the Rabbids with more junk.

Collecting enough stuff rewards the player with gifts that can be used to customize the Rabbids and opens up new areas packed with stuff to pile up.

Nintendo Wii; $49.99 • Age Rating: 10-plus

Torchlight

3 1/2 stars

A good dungeon crawler has three things: loot, monsters and skill trees. “Torchlight” has these things and a few extras to sweeten the pot.

Players choose from one of three classes (melée-centric Destroyer, arcane Alchemist or long-range Vanquisher) and venture into the deep, randomly generated mines under the town of Torchlight to find their fortune – or their end. A trio of skill trees per character allows players to customize their abilities as desired.

Players also choose an animal companion – cat or dog – who serves as an ally in battle, changes into different forms by eating captured fish, and hauls excess loot to the surface to sell it off while the player continues to adventure in the deep.

PC (Torchlightgame.com download); $19.95 • No age rating

– Justin Hoeger

Players should expect to take down a dragon or two in “Dragon Age: Origins.”

“Dragon Age: Origins” is an epic, high-fantasy role- playing game and a return to form for developer BioWare, which has concentrated mostly on games with Eastern (”Jade Empire”) and sci-fi (”Mass Effect”) themes in the past few years.

The origins of the game’s title concern the beginnings of the player’s character, whether he or she be a human, dwarf or elf. Each character has one to three possible backgrounds, depending on the race and character class – warrior, mage or rogue – chosen.

For example, all mages start out in their order’s tower, watched over by suspicious templars who stand ready to strike down any magic user who shows signs of possession. By contrast, city elves are a downtrodden underclass in the human city of Denerim, where a local lord’s son crashes a wedding to stir up racial tension. The other origin stories have their own elements, some of which can change depending on the player’s gender and other factors.

But in all origins there is one common factor: the Grey Warden, Duncan.

Duncan is recruiting for the Wardens, a legendary band of fighters who stopped an invasion of darkspawn hundreds of years ago. They can sense the creatures’ presence, and Duncan knows a new horde, or Blight, gathering in the south is led by a powerful Archfiend.

The player makes the grade, of course, but it’s not long before circumstances force this new hero to venture across the land in the hope of forming an army to face the growing threat of the Blight, gathering several interesting companions along the way.

Players can be as altruistic or as cruel as they please, which can have an effect on how some party members behave and respond.

Characters’ abilities and skills can be customized as they level up according to the player’s wishes. Each of the three classes has a set of unique powers, and characters can be further customized with specializations down the line – a mage can become a shape shifter, a warrior can be a berserker and a rogue can train as an assassin, among other possibilities.

Players can directly control one character at a time and issue orders to the others. Combat tactics govern the party’s actions in a manner similar to “Final Fantasy XII’s” Gambit system.

New copies of the game come with voucher codes for an additional character and quest pack, “The Stone Prisoner,” and for a special set of armor that will also appear in the upcoming “Mass Effect 2.”

PICKS AND PANS

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

4 stars

The latest in the always dependable “Ratchet & Clank” series sees the heroic duo still separated after the events of “Tools of Destruction.” The action is just as fun as ever, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

Ratchet scours the galaxy searching for the abducted Clank, collecting new items such as hover boots, and battling robots, monsters and minions with various weapons (several of which can now be customized).

Ratchet can also fly around several star systems, shooting down enemy ships, landing on tiny planetoids to search for items and upgrades, and heading down to larger worlds for more expansive missions.

Meanwhile, Clank is stuck on an enormous machine called the Great Clock, and learns to manipulate time and create temporal copies of himself to solve some brain-twisting puzzles.

PlayStation 3; $59.99 • Age Rating: 10-plus

Rabbids Go Home: A Comedy Adventure

3 stars

Those crazy critters from the “Rayman Raving Rabbids” return, sans Rayman himself. “Rabbids Go Home,” the bug-eyed weirdos’ first game of their own, is just as strange as one might expect from a game starring them: The Rabbids decide they want to go to the moon and start building a pile of stuff so they can reach it.

The player, controlling a pair of Rabbids wielding a shopping cart, is out to collect this stuff – each level is filled with small pieces of stuff and has one large piece, like a big clock or something. It’s kind of like a twisted take on the “Katamari” games – there are many obstacles on the way to the goal, but overcoming them often rewards the Rabbids with more junk.

Collecting enough stuff rewards the player with gifts that can be used to customize the Rabbids and opens up new areas packed with stuff to pile up.

Nintendo Wii; $49.99 • Age Rating: 10-plus

Torchlight

3 1/2 stars

A good dungeon crawler has three things: loot, monsters and skill trees. “Torchlight” has these things and a few extras to sweeten the pot.

Players choose from one of three classes (melée-centric Destroyer, arcane Alchemist or long-range Vanquisher) and venture into the deep, randomly generated mines under the town of Torchlight to find their fortune – or their end. A trio of skill trees per character allows players to customize their abilities as desired.

Players also choose an animal companion – cat or dog – who serves as an ally in battle, changes into different forms by eating captured fish, and hauls excess loot to the surface to sell it off while the player continues to adventure in the deep.

PC (Torchlightgame.com download); $19.95 • No age rating

– Justin Hoeger

Jelly beans allow the blob to take on numerous forms, from a ladder to a hole in the ground, in “A Boy and His Blob.”

When a small, bluish-white blob from outer space crash-lands in a forest, he is found by a young boy who sees the event from his treehouse. So begins “A Boy and His Blob,” the best puzzle game since 2008’s time-twisting “Braid.” “A Boy and His Blob” is a more lighthearted affair than “Braid,” but its puzzles are no less cunning. The blob came to Earth seeking help to overthrow the evil emperor of Blobolonia, who has sent his inky, blobby minions to our planet as well.

The blob does nothing on its own but follow along, but when the boy feeds him jellybeans, his form changes. One kind of bean turns him into a ladder, another into a parachute, a third into a trampoline. He can turn into an anvil, a cannon, a bowling ball, a balloon, even a hole in the ground. And there are more forms as well, each with its own uses.

The boy takes advantage of these changes to make his way through the game’s numerous levels, defeat the emperor’s minions and collect the trio of treasure chests in each stage, which open up challenge stages when found.

“A Boy and His Blob” is friendly: Checkpoints are frequent, so defeat is a brief setback at worst. The challenge usually comes from figuring out how to get past the current obstacle or reach that out-of-the-way chest, though boss fights are a bit more dangerous.

The puzzles are tricky but logical, and the boy is given the beans he needs to solve a particular stage. (He can carry eight kinds at once, easily selected from a radial menu.)

For example, in one stage, there’s an enemy on a high platform with another platform below it. To defeat it, the player has to use the right combination of powers to move the creature to the lower platform so it can be squished with something heavy – not a tough challenge but one that requires the player to think carefully about what beans in the boy’s arsenal have which effects. (In this case, the hole and the anvil forms are key.)

Beyond being friendly, the game is adorable. The blob swallows jellybeans and chests with a pronounced “gulmp”; there’s a button whose only purpose is to make the boy hug his blob with a happy little “oomph.” How many games have a “hug” button? The game’s visuals are in rich, fluidly animated 2-D – there’s not a polygon in sight, nor a need for one – and the music and sound are terrific.

PICKS AND PANS

Space Invaders Extreme 2

3 1/2 stars

“Space Invaders Extreme” transformed an arcade classic into a relevant new form while retaining the core of game play that made it popular in the first place. “Space Invaders Extreme 2″ tweaks the existing “Extreme” formula with some new bells and whistles, and it’s no less entertaining than the first.

Players move a cannon along the bottom of the screen, firing at waves of invading aliens above; the aliens drop special weapons such as a laser and a bomb. There are more kinds of aliens this time, especially in later levels and harder difficulty settings, and there are new gigantic boss enemies to defeat.

The most obvious change is the new bingo grid, which covers the top screen when the player isn’t in bonus scoring mode; filling out rows with the right colors by destroying enemies can grant a chance for tons of bonus points.

Nintendo DS; $19.99 • Age rating: Everyone

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

3 stars

“IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey” is a World War II fighter plane game that can be played as an arcade-style dogfighter or as a much more realistic simulation.

There are numerous missions over Britain, Russia and other countries; the countryside and city visuals are quite detailed, as are those for the planes themselves, inside and out.

The different levels of realism make up the game’s difficulty levels. Arcade mode adjusts automatically to avoid stalls and tailspins, shows where to fire to hit a moving target, features a radar display and is generally a pick-up-and-play mode. The Realistic setting takes away some of these features, and Simulator takes away even more, limits ammo and fuel, and restricts the player to flying with no radar.

Microsoft Xbox 360, also for Sony PlayStation 3; $59.99 • Age rating: Teen

Panzer General: Allied Assault

3 stars

A clever World War II-themed strategy game, “Panzer General: Allied Assault” is a tad cumbersome at times but still quite fun to play. The title’s board-game aesthetic is no coincidence; a tabletop version of the game is due for release early next year.

The game is played on a grid of tiles representing land features: fields, hills, rivers, cities and so on. Each side (Allies and Axis) draws cards representing units and actions, and uses Prestige points to employ them in battle.

In general, vehicles can move and attack each turn, infantry can move or attack, artillery lends support to battles in range, and other cards have various effects on movement and attack, or have special powers of their own.

Combat involves an attack and a counterattack, so skirmishes can drag on a little, but that’s only a minor complaint.

Microsoft Xbox 360; $10 (800 Microsoft Points) • Age rating: Everyone

– Justin Hoeger

Jelly beans allow the blob to take on numerous forms, from a ladder to a hole in the ground, in “A Boy and His Blob.”

When a small, bluish-white blob from outer space crash-lands in a forest, he is found by a young boy who sees the event from his treehouse. So begins “A Boy and His Blob,” the best puzzle game since 2008’s time-twisting “Braid.” “A Boy and His Blob” is a more lighthearted affair than “Braid,” but its puzzles are no less cunning. The blob came to Earth seeking help to overthrow the evil emperor of Blobolonia, who has sent his inky, blobby minions to our planet as well.

The blob does nothing on its own but follow along, but when the boy feeds him jellybeans, his form changes. One kind of bean turns him into a ladder, another into a parachute, a third into a trampoline. He can turn into an anvil, a cannon, a bowling ball, a balloon, even a hole in the ground. And there are more forms as well, each with its own uses.

The boy takes advantage of these changes to make his way through the game’s numerous levels, defeat the emperor’s minions and collect the trio of treasure chests in each stage, which open up challenge stages when found.

“A Boy and His Blob” is friendly: Checkpoints are frequent, so defeat is a brief setback at worst. The challenge usually comes from figuring out how to get past the current obstacle or reach that out-of-the-way chest, though boss fights are a bit more dangerous.

The puzzles are tricky but logical, and the boy is given the beans he needs to solve a particular stage. (He can carry eight kinds at once, easily selected from a radial menu.)

For example, in one stage, there’s an enemy on a high platform with another platform below it. To defeat it, the player has to use the right combination of powers to move the creature to the lower platform so it can be squished with something heavy – not a tough challenge but one that requires the player to think carefully about what beans in the boy’s arsenal have which effects. (In this case, the hole and the anvil forms are key.)

Beyond being friendly, the game is adorable. The blob swallows jellybeans and chests with a pronounced “gulmp”; there’s a button whose only purpose is to make the boy hug his blob with a happy little “oomph.” How many games have a “hug” button? The game’s visuals are in rich, fluidly animated 2-D – there’s not a polygon in sight, nor a need for one – and the music and sound are terrific.

PICKS AND PANS

Space Invaders Extreme 2

3 1/2 stars

“Space Invaders Extreme” transformed an arcade classic into a relevant new form while retaining the core of game play that made it popular in the first place. “Space Invaders Extreme 2″ tweaks the existing “Extreme” formula with some new bells and whistles, and it’s no less entertaining than the first.

Players move a cannon along the bottom of the screen, firing at waves of invading aliens above; the aliens drop special weapons such as a laser and a bomb. There are more kinds of aliens this time, especially in later levels and harder difficulty settings, and there are new gigantic boss enemies to defeat.

The most obvious change is the new bingo grid, which covers the top screen when the player isn’t in bonus scoring mode; filling out rows with the right colors by destroying enemies can grant a chance for tons of bonus points.

Nintendo DS; $19.99 • Age rating: Everyone

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

3 stars

“IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey” is a World War II fighter plane game that can be played as an arcade-style dogfighter or as a much more realistic simulation.

There are numerous missions over Britain, Russia and other countries; the countryside and city visuals are quite detailed, as are those for the planes themselves, inside and out.

The different levels of realism make up the game’s difficulty levels. Arcade mode adjusts automatically to avoid stalls and tailspins, shows where to fire to hit a moving target, features a radar display and is generally a pick-up-and-play mode. The Realistic setting takes away some of these features, and Simulator takes away even more, limits ammo and fuel, and restricts the player to flying with no radar.

Microsoft Xbox 360, also for Sony PlayStation 3; $59.99 • Age rating: Teen

Panzer General: Allied Assault

3 stars

A clever World War II-themed strategy game, “Panzer General: Allied Assault” is a tad cumbersome at times but still quite fun to play. The title’s board-game aesthetic is no coincidence; a tabletop version of the game is due for release early next year.

The game is played on a grid of tiles representing land features: fields, hills, rivers, cities and so on. Each side (Allies and Axis) draws cards representing units and actions, and uses Prestige points to employ them in battle.

In general, vehicles can move and attack each turn, infantry can move or attack, artillery lends support to battles in range, and other cards have various effects on movement and attack, or have special powers of their own.

Combat involves an attack and a counterattack, so skirmishes can drag on a little, but that’s only a minor complaint.

Microsoft Xbox 360; $10 (800 Microsoft Points) • Age rating: Everyone

– Justin Hoeger

Jelly beans allow the blob to take on numerous forms, from a ladder to a hole in the ground, in “A Boy and His Blob.”

When a small, bluish-white blob from outer space crash-lands in a forest, he is found by a young boy who sees the event from his treehouse. So begins “A Boy and His Blob,” the best puzzle game since 2008’s time-twisting “Braid.” “A Boy and His Blob” is a more lighthearted affair than “Braid,” but its puzzles are no less cunning. The blob came to Earth seeking help to overthrow the evil emperor of Blobolonia, who has sent his inky, blobby minions to our planet as well.

The blob does nothing on its own but follow along, but when the boy feeds him jellybeans, his form changes. One kind of bean turns him into a ladder, another into a parachute, a third into a trampoline. He can turn into an anvil, a cannon, a bowling ball, a balloon, even a hole in the ground. And there are more forms as well, each with its own uses.

The boy takes advantage of these changes to make his way through the game’s numerous levels, defeat the emperor’s minions and collect the trio of treasure chests in each stage, which open up challenge stages when found.

“A Boy and His Blob” is friendly: Checkpoints are frequent, so defeat is a brief setback at worst. The challenge usually comes from figuring out how to get past the current obstacle or reach that out-of-the-way chest, though boss fights are a bit more dangerous.

The puzzles are tricky but logical, and the boy is given the beans he needs to solve a particular stage. (He can carry eight kinds at once, easily selected from a radial menu.)

For example, in one stage, there’s an enemy on a high platform with another platform below it. To defeat it, the player has to use the right combination of powers to move the creature to the lower platform so it can be squished with something heavy – not a tough challenge but one that requires the player to think carefully about what beans in the boy’s arsenal have which effects. (In this case, the hole and the anvil forms are key.)

Beyond being friendly, the game is adorable. The blob swallows jellybeans and chests with a pronounced “gulmp”; there’s a button whose only purpose is to make the boy hug his blob with a happy little “oomph.” How many games have a “hug” button? The game’s visuals are in rich, fluidly animated 2-D – there’s not a polygon in sight, nor a need for one – and the music and sound are terrific.

PICKS AND PANS

Space Invaders Extreme 2

3 1/2 stars

“Space Invaders Extreme” transformed an arcade classic into a relevant new form while retaining the core of game play that made it popular in the first place. “Space Invaders Extreme 2″ tweaks the existing “Extreme” formula with some new bells and whistles, and it’s no less entertaining than the first.

Players move a cannon along the bottom of the screen, firing at waves of invading aliens above; the aliens drop special weapons such as a laser and a bomb. There are more kinds of aliens this time, especially in later levels and harder difficulty settings, and there are new gigantic boss enemies to defeat.

The most obvious change is the new bingo grid, which covers the top screen when the player isn’t in bonus scoring mode; filling out rows with the right colors by destroying enemies can grant a chance for tons of bonus points.

Nintendo DS; $19.99 • Age rating: Everyone

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

3 stars

“IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey” is a World War II fighter plane game that can be played as an arcade-style dogfighter or as a much more realistic simulation.

There are numerous missions over Britain, Russia and other countries; the countryside and city visuals are quite detailed, as are those for the planes themselves, inside and out.

The different levels of realism make up the game’s difficulty levels. Arcade mode adjusts automatically to avoid stalls and tailspins, shows where to fire to hit a moving target, features a radar display and is generally a pick-up-and-play mode. The Realistic setting takes away some of these features, and Simulator takes away even more, limits ammo and fuel, and restricts the player to flying with no radar.

Microsoft Xbox 360, also for Sony PlayStation 3; $59.99 • Age rating: Teen

Panzer General: Allied Assault

3 stars

A clever World War II-themed strategy game, “Panzer General: Allied Assault” is a tad cumbersome at times but still quite fun to play. The title’s board-game aesthetic is no coincidence; a tabletop version of the game is due for release early next year.

The game is played on a grid of tiles representing land features: fields, hills, rivers, cities and so on. Each side (Allies and Axis) draws cards representing units and actions, and uses Prestige points to employ them in battle.

In general, vehicles can move and attack each turn, infantry can move or attack, artillery lends support to battles in range, and other cards have various effects on movement and attack, or have special powers of their own.

Combat involves an attack and a counterattack, so skirmishes can drag on a little, but that’s only a minor complaint.

Microsoft Xbox 360; $10 (800 Microsoft Points) • Age rating: Everyone

– Justin Hoeger