You have plenty of time between now and the proposed release date of BioWare's role-playing game Dragon Age to stoke your enthusiasm. What might help are promised new details on the PC-bound RPG, which the official Dragon Age site says is due on July 9. That's just a mere two days from now. Normally, we'd expect to see a Flash-driven countdown clock to ratchet up the anticipation, but sadly we don't get one.

Hopefully, we'll get to play it at E3. Talons crossed!

Dragon Age [BioWare - thanks, Mystery Tipster!]

Hi everybody. Lots of you tipped us off to the countdown at Chrono Trigger's Japanese website. Technical difficulties over here, compounded by the short weekend, meant I couldn't get advance word out to you in time. But there's the screenshot above, with two seconds left, to prove I was watching!!!

The site has now transitioned to a flash movie introducing the various characters in the game. FYI, the North American Chrono Trigger DS site still has the clock ticking, but no countdown yet.

Chrono Trigger [Square Enix]

What the hell, Blizzard? All of that teasing, all of those runes, and here it is, the Diablo III splash page. No fancy transition from the ice to this, just wham, bam, thank you fans. Oh well. At least we can still have fun figuring out what the penguin and Lost numbers signify.

I think the penguin stands for hope!

What Did You Think of Halo 3?
Comment by Lososaurus

I played through the campaign only and played one online match. Judging only on campaign, I'd give it a 8.7/10: Very good overall, however the storytelling elements become annoying towards the end and there's a few glaring issues on difficulty spikes and feeling like one is just running laps around an area rather than progressing. One thing that really bothered me about campaign were my squadmates driving. More than a handful of times, I wound up with my squadmate driving in circles and I had to get out, drive the warthog across a small area, get back into the gun seat in order to progress.

I wasn't grabbed by the story either, felt like something was 'missing'.

The graphics are beyond excellent, I think it's a type that people don't really realise how good they are, what effects are going on, how many are going on, no framerate dropping and several characters on screen with several effects on each. You really have to take a technical look at the graphics to appreciate them.

The replay mode is awesome, watching from every angle, seeing where you made mistakes, where you made smarter decisions. The online play is fun too(at least the lone match I played), balanced enough to where one player isn't totally dominating.

All considered, campaign, presentation, the replay mode, online/multiplayer/co-op modes, I'd give the game a solid 9.5/10

Comment by aelfin

Personally I'm distinctly underwhelmed. I'm only three full levels down, but it doesn't really either feel or look like Halo to me. The levels are too open (possibly to cater more for the 4-player co-op?), and the graphics boost serve mostly to make the levels look too complex for their own good (and thus just serviing to confuse re the layout) and also to make it not feel like playing Halo. It may sound weird, but the graphics are too shiny and detailed to *be* Halo, for me :/. It's strange coming across so many Brutes so early on; seeing AFAIK there isn't too many levels of enemies more powerful than Brutes in the Covenant hierarchy, it makes me wonder what they could possibly offer over the next 2/3rds of a game to mix it up. I guess it's a wait-and-see for me, but so far, it's just not that fun to play.

Halo 3 is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated games of this year for many people. It is also true that the Halo 3 hype machine has been working overtime, injecting a bit of Halo into everything from beverages to cars. While this kind of marketing works on a lot of levels, I can't help but think that in some ways it might be a detriment to the title. Not only does it make it difficult for the game to live up to everyone's expectations, it also leaves other people (some of whom might be fans) wishing they just didn't have to hear about it anymore.

After reading Gamertag Radio forum poster Anjo Banjo's thoughts on the subject, I realised that other people felt the same way. Knowing full well that she would probably be lynched for her feelings on the subject, she posted an article about her experiences with the Halo 3 marketing campaign and how "next time an (retail) employee asks me about preordering Halo 3, I might just end up in gaol. Cause I am honestly sick of this." Now, obviously these people are just doing jobs, but I feel Anjo Banjo's pain. It seems like one can't turn around without seeing Master Chief's helmeted head staring at you and the Kotaku mail room is filled to capacity with Halo tips of every size and shape.

So, my question to you is this. Has the Halo 3 hype machine gone too far and would the over marketing of a game, whatever it may be, keep you from purchasing it?