Dragon Age 2 DLC: The Exiled Prince & The Black Emporium

Dragon Age 2 was realeased with two DLC packs instantly available, one of which was free when purchasing a new copy of the game.  But, you ask, if I picked up the game used, is the DLC worth it?

The Black Emporium is said free-with-new-purchase DLC, and adds the following to Dragon Age 2 gameplay:

• Hawke can enter a sustained mode (at no cost to mana/stamina) to summon a Mabiri Warhound which assists the party.  The dog is available from the very beginning of the adventure. 
• The (titular) Black Emporium is opened in Kirkwall in Act I.  The Emporium features items that cannot be purchased anywhere else in the game, especially the Maker's Sigh, which allows you to redistribute all ability points and talent assignments (essentially allowing you to reformat a character).



Third floor: Ladies' handbags, designer dresses, disembowling daggers.

Is It Worth It?  For free, no questions asked, but is it worth the $9.99 price tag?  The additional features, while certainly neat (new dialogue is added for each party member's interactions with your Mabari, for example), did not add any additional play-time to the game.  You can pick up any crafting resources you missed in a previous act (which is nice), but it wont' help you towards the devilish Supplier trophy/achievement, so that is what it is.  Rather than considering purchase of the DLC, consider whether or not a used version of the game is worth not having these features, since that's pretty much the choice you're making...

The Exiled Prince adds a new companion to your party.  Or so it claims to.  In all reality, Sebastian Vael cannot actually join the party until Act II, and has only a minor quest to complete in Act I.  I barely utilized Isabella because she joined the group so late in Act I, do you think I'm going to use this dude?  Furthermore, Sebastian unbalances the otherwise well thought out party system (or had you not noticed that you had 2 rogues, 2 warriors, and 2 mages?) as a third rogue (and a second one of range).  On the bright side, Sebastian can equip bows, while Varric keeps Bianca near him at all times.



Holding his Longbow like a gangsta...

You can romance Sebastian, if you're a woman.  He is a man of the cloth, so no Friends of Dorothy need apply.  Like other companians, he has quests to be completed, which all-in-all add a couple hours to gameplay (although they utilize the heavily recycled locales, so it just feels like more of the same).

Is it Worth It?  For $6.99, I don't think it really was.  Sebastian barely feels like he belongs in the party of misfits, and I'd much prefer Varric for ranged attacks (and romantic lustings).  All in all, it just doesn't justify the price tag.

Item Packs are also the available DLC for Dragon Age 2, but as I haven't given them a spin, I'm not sure I feel good reviewing them.  The game already has all types of weapons and armor to chose from ... do you really want more?

Flash Game Friday: Sweatshop

Maybe you don't want to think about social issues while playing a Flash Game.  If so, skip this review and just play this classic.  (No seriously, you should play it, anyway.  It's about not shitting your pants, an admirable goal.)

Sweatshop is a game created by Little Loud to help raise awareness of the high costs of cheap prices, and possibly just be a fun game to play.  The game can, at times, be a bit heavy handed about it's thesis (sweatshops = bad), but at its core, it has a fun story and very non-traditional tower defense gameplay.

Workers have specialties, but children can do anything!

As raw materials come down the production line, you must place workers to craft the items.  As manager, you control the worker's conditions: how fast the belt runs, if there are bathrooms available, etc.  Some of these impact production and sale value, and some are simply for the benefit of your employees' health and wellness.  It is cheaper to hire children and replace the dead ones with new ones, but that's awfully heartless!

The game boasts 30 levels of increasing difficulty, and I found myself into the game for a few solid hours.  Give it a go, if not just to blow off some steam at your comparably easy job, but also to learn!