Below is the cinematic trailer for Dragon Age 2, developed by Bioware. I’m a huge fan of both Bioware and the Dragon Age games, and I can’t wait for the game’s release date of March 8, 2011. But until then, we’ll have to make do with Dragon Age: Origins, and this epic Dragon Age 2 cinematic trailer.

In a weekly update, Bungie decided to put gamers out of their misery by releasing the complete list of Halo: Reach achievements. All 49 of them are listed.

1. Completed the Campaign on Normal difficulty.
2. Completed the Campaign on Heroic difficulty.
3. Completed the Campaign on Legendary difficulty.
4. Completed every mission in Halo: Reach alone, on Legendary.
5. Completed the 2nd mission on Normal or harder.
6. Completed the 3rd mission on Normal or harder.
7. Completed the 4th mission on Normal or harder.
8. Completed the 5th mission on Normal or harder.
9. Completed the 6th mission on Normal or harder.
10. Completed the 7th mission on Normal or harder.
11. Completed the 8th mission on Normal or harder.
12. Completed the 9th mission on Normal or harder.
13. Completed the 10th mission on Normal or harder.
14. Cleared the 2nd mission without setting foot in a drivable vehicle.
15. Killed 2 vehicles at once with the Target Locator in the 3rd mission.
16. Hijacked a Banshee during the Reach Campaign.
17. Killed the Elite Zealot before he escaped during the 5th mission.
18. Performed an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would’ve been fatal.
19. Destroyed the Corvette’s engines & escort in under 3 minutes in the 6th mission on Heroic or harder.
20. Finished the 9th mission on Legendary with the Scorpion intact.
21. Earned a Triple Kill while Jetpacking in Campaign, Firefight or Matchmaking.
22. Killed 7 Moa during the 2nd mission of the Campaign.
23. Killed 3 of the anti-aircraft batteries during the 8th mission.
24. Used a Health Pack to replenish life after taking body damage.
25. Performed an Assassination on an enemy.
26. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the M6G pistol.
27. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the DMR.
28. Traded weapons with an AI ally in Campaign.
29. Killed 10 enemies in Firefight or Campaign with a supercombine explosion.
30. Let a teammate spawn on you 5 times in an Invasion Matchmaking game.
31. Earned a First Strike Medal in a Matchmaking game.
32. Won a game of Invasion in the 1st phase.
33. Earned a Killing Spree in multiplayer Matchmaking.
34. Earned a Killionaire medal in Firefight.
35. As an Elite, killed 5 Spartan players in Matchmaking.
36. Scored 15,000 points in Score Attack Firefight Matchmaking.
37. Scored 50,000 points in a Firefight game.
38. Scored 200,000 points in a Firefight game.
39. Scored 1,000,000 points in a Firefight game.
40. Completed a Firefight set on Legendary without dying.
41. Purchased an item from the Armory that required the rank of Lt. Colonel.
42. Reached the rank of Corporal in the UNSC.
43. Reached the rank of Captain in the UNSC.
44. Used the File Browser to upload a file to your File Share.
45. Completed all of the Daily Challenges in a given day.
46. Purchased an item from the Armory.
47. Recommended a file to someone.
48. Advanced a Commendation to a Silver state.
49. Completed a Weekly Challenge.

Posted on YouTube today was an amazing video which details the soundtrack behind the hit video game from Rockstar. The video covers in detail the artists who produced the unique sound, and the lengths sound artists go to when trying to create the atmospheric ambience we’ve all come to know and love. Enjoy.

New details emerge today about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. I’m currently playing through the original, and I have to say, it’s not the bestStar Wars game I’ve ever played due to its repetitiveness and unwieldy camera. However, there’s hope for Star Wars button mashers yet with news and details about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (which looks infinitely more polished than its predecessor if video trailers are to be trusted).

So, what can we expect?

• Starkiller is a clone (a failed one). Or is he?
• The player now gets to use dual wielding lightsabers which introduce new force and lightsaber combos.
• The lightsabers have a much larger impact on the surrounding environment.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is scheduled for a 26th October Release Date for gamers in the U.S.

I’m becoming a big fan of RPGs, in particular, those from Bioware – amongst my favorite are Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. There’s just something about the attention to detail put into the gaming environment.

I don’t really participate in a lot of gaming sites or forums, but I do read TeamXbox. I was pleased to see they posted an update on Dragon Age 2, and I have to say, it looks awesome. Some of the details about the game are:

• You play as a single character and not in multiples like the original
• Updated graphics
• Updated battle mechanics

Dragon Age 2 has no scheduled released date, but I would expect it no earlier than 2011.

Head on over to the Bioware Dragon Age 2 page to find out more information, and look out for the debut trailer coming on August 17th!

I haven’t played Modern Warfare 2 in quite a while, but I’ve had some time in the past day or so to get in some serious time on my XBox 360. I got to level 70 a few months ago, and gave up all of my hard earned perks and weapons so that I could go through the Prestige levels. Recently, I bought the Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack to try and add some variety into the online gameplay, and I’ve been trying to get used to the new maps (which is no small feat by the way).

After playing for the best part of today, there are two things that are really starting to tick me off:

• Spawn Points
• Rocket Launchers

Spawn Points

There is no rhyme or reason for some of the spawn points I had today. Sometimes I spawned right in the middle of gunfire, or a player on the other team just happened to be coming by which made me easy pickings. The other thing – when I spawned at a decent point away from enemies, there was normally someone camping right at the spawn point. I mean really, does that seem clever to you? Are these gamers that desperate to get the extra kill that they’ll sit there waiting for a player to spawn? Where’s the talent in that?

Rocket Launchers

Modern Warfare 2 is a game which has had its exploits, no doubt about it, but they’ve been taken care of by the XBox team or by Infinity Ward and updates have been released. What I saw during my gaming today was just outright abuse of rocket launchers. There wasn’t a game that went by which didn’t have rocket launchers being overused, and by overused, I don’t mean using it for its intended purpose like shooting down planes or choppers, I mean gamers carrying them as their main weapon and using them in close proximity. Getting a headshot or knifing someone from behind is somewhat of a skill, but using a rocket launcher from close distance is just crazy. One of the game winning kills from today had a gamer walk up behind someone and within very close proximity fire a rocket launcher at them. Is a shot with a weapon or a stealth kill not enough?

I was so close to picking up and using the rocket launcher in the same fashion, but that defeats the whole point of playing Modern Warfare 2 online in my opinion. Anyone can pick up a rocket launcher and fire it at someone within close range, but the great players of Modern Warfare 2 are the ones who can rack up a winning score by conventional, smart gameplay. Have you experienced this – what’s your opinion?

I’m the XBoxGamerGuy, and that’s my rant for today.

Today was Day 2 at E3 2010 and from all appearances, looks like it was all about the games.

Here’s what was revealed / talked about:

The Old Republic MMO was featured with a brand new cinematic trailer – watch the video at Kotaku. There was more information about Fallout 3: New Vegas.

Nintendo had a huge day – announcing the new 3DS, and lots more. They looked to have owned Day 2. Follow the #NintE3ndo trend on Twitter for more Nintendo goodness.

So, the first day of E3 2010 has arrived, and there have been some great announcements, and some average ones. The big one, Project Natal – now known as Kinect, was given its worldwide debut to the public today, and to be honest, I wasn’t all that excited with what was shown. I was impressed with the technology and the work behind it, but the end product is not suited to me.

On the other hand, the sleek new XBox 360 250GB Elite Console looks pretty sweet – I now have to decide between an iPhone 4 or a new 360. My 360 has been going strong, so I may wait until it RRODs before I put down $300 for a new one.

Other E3 News:

Other E3 announcements I thought were noteworthy:

• EA revealing their new Gun Club
• Exclusive games to the XBox 360
• ESPN integration with XBox Live

What were your highlights of Day 1 at E3?

There’s a pattern I’ve been noticing lately with video games – at least the ones I buy. They’re just not compelling enough for me to want to continue playing them.

My latest video game purchases include:

• Mass Effect 2: I played Mass Effect 1 to death and loved every minute (and purchased the DLC).
• Bioshock: I wanted this one because I wanted to know what all the fuss and hype was about with the intention of purchasing Bioshock 2.
• Borderlands: After listening to Major Nelson’s podcast and how they loved over it so much, I figured that I would pick it up and give it a go.

Out of those three, guess which one I still play? If you guessed Mass Effect 2 you were right. After playing through several hours of Bioshock and Borderlands, I fail to see what all the hype was about. Those games are just not compelling enough for me to want to return to them. I’m sure I’ve still got hours of play left in them, and the storyline may improve as you continue the game, but if I have no interest in the storyline, you’ve lost me.

I bought Modern Warfare 2 when it came out and I still play it. It took me an afternoon to get through the single player campaign, but four to five months later, I’m still playing it online and loving it. But where Borderlands fails for me as a game, Modern Warfare excels because they offer up an incentive for me to continue playing – increasing my level. Borderlands‘ ‘hey guys! guys! look! You can build a better weapon!’ got really old with me really quick, I’m sorry, but it takes more than a large variety of weapons for me to play the game – that’s just not enough. Bioshock is okay, but again, being okay is not going to get me to continue playing the game.

Fallout 3 is a fine example of a compelling game. I was drawn into it like I’m sure many of you were and I bought all five of the DLC’s. You can bet I’ll be ordering Fallout: New Vegas. A more recent game I’m really into right now is Dragon Age: Origins. While not offering up the same compelling gameplay as Fallout 3, there’s enough in it that I spent the vast majority of last weekend playing it (and purchasing DLC). Again, it has a great storyline.

So, all three people who read this blog, is the art of storyline development in the gaming industry waning? Or am I setting my expectations too high? Is it really too much to expect now that a game have a fulfilling storyline? And does a fulfilling storyline equal a compelling gaming experience? I want to know, really I do.

I recently bought a new 60GB HD for my XBox 360 and it came with a headset and a 3 month XBox Live Gold Subscription. Since I already have an XBox Live Gold account, I have no need for the subscription card. So, here’s the deal – I’m going to give it away.

If you want this 3 Month XBox Live Gold subscription all you have to do is write a blog post with a link back to this post (by the end of April 2010), describing why you should get it. I have trackbacks turned on so once your blog is published, it should show up in the comments. I will pick the winner at random and it will then be mailed to them once I receive their address.

Want Proof?

Ok, so I wouldn’t believe some random guy who’s giving away stuff, so here’s a picture of the card.

Note: All decisions are final and this is open to U.S Residents only. The competition is open until the end of April 2010!