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(Credit: BioWare)

One of the more interesting games we saw at the recent Game Developer's Conference was a large-scale RPG called Dragon Age: Origins, combining well-trod sword-and-sorcery clichés with an inventively twisting plot and an advanced branching dialog engine (where the main character often affects the story by deciding what to say to other characters).

If all that sounds too "hardcore gamer" for you, that's a shame, although understandable considering the dangerously nerdy Dungeons & Dragons vibe of the game's marketing pitch to date.

Despite the elves, dwarves, and renaissance faire outcasts that populate the game, we could see the heart of a mainstream, Hollywood-style action/adventure beating underneath. The developer, BioWare, is responsible for several big crossover hits, including Knights of the Old Republic (a Star Wars RPG), and Mass Effect, a sci-fi (or is that "syfy," now?) game with some of the best intelligent dialog trees we've seen.

Unfortunately, in the segments BioWare demoed behind closed doors for us, all that inventive, involved gameplay is buried under uptight, wooden characterizations of medieval characters that seem to be trying to do Shakespeare in the Park, or at least the dated, stagy delivery of an old fantasy film.

The problem (and it's an industry wide one) is that while movies eventually evolved a more naturalistic acting style during the 1950s (in films such as On the Waterfront), most video games have never been able to make that leap -- instead of Marlon Brando, they're still doing Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn.

That aside, we were impressed with the tight interplay between the four members of your band of adventurers -- tact and diplomacy is required to keep friends from becoming enemies. Strategy types will appreciate the combat system, in which one can let allies figure out how to fight for themselves, or program extensive instructions for what to do in specific situations (for example, order an ally to always attack a certain kind of enemy first, or to never use healing items).

We're looking forward to seeing more of this game over the next several months, and Dragon Age: Origins will be available for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 late in 2009.

Screenshots: Dragon Age: Origins

This week at GDC 09, we learned about OnLive, a new "cloud"-based on-demand video game and entertainment service. It promises high-quality streaming of first-run major publisher games to many Macs and PCs, and it could threaten the traditional console model for gamers that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have built their game businesses around.

The companies have definitely taken notice, but what are they saying behind closed doors? Which of these responses would you most like to hear from the gaming behemoths?

While it may not have the same mainstream cachet as the Consumer Electronics Show or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual Game Developers Conference, also known as GDC, is always one of the most interesting places to gauge the health of the video game industry.

So far, the games biz has managed to create the impression that it is largely recession-proof, free (for the most part) from the layoffs and closures that have affected so many other industries. But video games may be a textbook trailing indicator, buoyed by popular low-cost hardware such as the Nintendo Wii and DS, and the Xbox 360 Arcade, residual holiday season goodwill, and a small number of high-profile releases competing for sales in the early part of 2009.

The more expensive PlayStation 3 continues to struggle to find an audience, and the real test for the industry will comes as new hardware platforms, such as the upcoming Nintendo DSi handheld, are released.

From the works in progress on display at the show, it's clear that game publishers are hedging their bets, looking to create smaller, less-expensive software products that have potentially wide mainstream appeal, rather than a handful of huge movie-like tentpoles (all the better to avoid a "Watchmen"-like commercial disappointment).

Instead, we're seeing a focus on downloadable games--which can skip the capital-intensive process of pressing discs, shipping them to retail stores, and waiting for consumers to buy them and bring them home. Instead, by offering content directly to gamers via their PCs or game consoles, physical costs are reduced, products can be released more quickly, and games can be sold at a range of different prices.

The show isn't open to public, so we've put together a short video tour and photo gallery of some of the notable sights and scenes of GDC 2009.

Scenes from GDC 2009

One of the big marquee games expected later this year (or early in 2010) is God of War III. It's a title industry watchers say is one of the few shots the beleaguered PlayStation 3 has left to score with a "system-seller," that will prompt fans to buy the expensive console just to play it.

Shown off behind closed doors at the Game Developer's Conference, it's not unexpected that someone in attendance (not us, we weren't even there) would surreptitiously film the secret presentation of early gameplay and promptly post it on YouTube (from there, it's popped up on almost every major game site).

Check out the shakycam footage below -- it certainly doesn't seem to stray far from the classic God of War style, with series protagonist Kratos fighting an assortment of enemies ripped stright from Bulfinch's Mythology.

Google's Marissa Mayer announcing new video game themes for iGoogle.

It's perhaps a sign of how little major game industry news was made at the 2009 Game Developer's Conference that Google's simple announcement of a new series of video game themes for its iGoogle personalized home page was one of the best-attended press functions of the show.

In the midst of a dark, noise-filled warehouse space converted into a temporary gaming hub, complete with Guitar Hero and Street Fighter IV setups, we caught up with Google's ubiquitous vice president of search products and user experience, Marissa Mayer, to talk a little about the company's very tentative initial inroads into gaming.

Why is Google interested in gaming right now, and why iGoogle themes?
The iGoogle engineers--all of them--are gamers. Video games are not only something that reflects your interest, but they're really emotionally connected to the user. Everyone's got that experience of finding a new trick or winning a game. It's also something that provides an element of whimsy that our team wanted to put in.

Gaming companies are very particular about how their IP is used. How hard was it to get nine different companies on board ready to launch at the same time?
I have to say, it was relatively easy. For the publishers of the games, they were very excited to connect with their fan base in a new way. iGoogle is a dashboard for people's day, and tens of millions of users log on each day.

I think it's really interesting to think about how a video game can participate in people's home page experience, when you open that browser the first thing in the morning.

A lot of people already have game modules in their iGoogle pages. This seems like a very logical leaping-off point toward something like that for the games represented here. Are these themes the first step toward integrating that kind of in-browser game content?
Absolutely. We think that games are social, and as iGoogle becomes more and more social--we launched chat last week--we'll know who your connections are, and that will allow you to interact with all your friends and start playing games on your iGoogle page. And they won't be just single-player games, but (also) multiplayer games.

So how long until we see Street Fighter from Capcom, for example, as an iGoogle gadget?
We can't speculate as to when, but I will say that there's an amazing opportunity there.

Photos: iGoogle gets its game on

Google's new gaming themes are available starting March 25. The initial release includes themes based on franchises from the following nine publishers:

Activision: Call of Duty: World at War, Guitar Hero
Blizzard Entertainment: World of Warcraft
Capcom: Mega Man, Street Fighter IV
Eidos: Tomb Raider: Underworld
Electronic Arts: Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box, Dragon Age Origins, FIFA 09, Mass Effect 2, Scrabble, Spore, The Godfather II, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, The Sims 3
Namco Bandai Games: Galaga
Nintendo: Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Mario, Wii Sports, Zelda
Square Enix: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Wizards of the Coast: Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering

Wednesday's Nintendo press conference at this year's GDC 2009 shed some light on various details about the company's ambitions. We now know about the Wii storage solution and the pricing structure and details surrounding DSiWare. While we would have liked to see a new Wii title announced, instead we were treated to a taste of a brand-new Zelda title for the Nintendo DS.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will be the latest adventure in the Zelda franchise exclusively for the Nintendo DS. There's not much information on the title, but it seems this adventure will have Link as the conductor of a train, traveling from dungeon to dungeon. The game's art style is very similar to 2007's portable hit, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Nintendo says we can expect Spirit Tracks to release by year's end, but for now you can enjoy this fresh new trailer of the game in action.

(Credit: IGN)

Whether or not you think the Xbox 360 could use a motion controller, Performance Designed Products (or PDP) will be releasing such a device for the console this fall called the Gametrak Freedom. While the Freedom will use several accelerometers for mapping pitch, roll, and yaw, the controller differs from the Wii remote because of something called ultrasonic 3D positioning.

Unlike the Wii remote, which uses an infrared (IR) lamp for operation, the Freedom will come with two sensors that will be placed on both sides of your display. This setup will enable a more accurate dimensional detection along with more precise measurements of speed and orientation. Supposedly this technology will require more specific movements from the user, different from the Wii remote that is occasionally easy to fool.

While this might sound like a significant leap from the Wii remote's capabilities, we're most concerned about the availability of games that will take advantage of this kind of control system. Instead of relying solely on third-party developers, PDP has produced a title in-house called Squeeballs. The game will offer 11 different minigames with 150 challenges in total. Squeeballs will be available for Xbox 360 along with the launch of the Gametrak Freedom later this year. PDP claims there are in fact other developers programming Freedom-compatible games, all of which have yet to be announced.

PDP hopes to release the Gametrak Freedom in the fall, with a PlayStation 3 version coming out sometime in 2010.

(Source: IGN)

Last year we reported that a Nintendo Wii storage solution was upon us that will allow you to store and load games directly off of an SD card. At today's Nintendo press conference at GDC 2009, the company has just announced that an SD menu has been added to the Wii software, and is actually available right now for download via a system update.

The new feature will allow for SDHC cards up to 32GB to be used to store and play games. You'll also have the option to download games directly to your SD card via the Wii Shop Channel.

(Source: Kotaku)

Click images for larger shots.

(Credit: Kotaku)

(Credit: Kotaku)

The DSi lets you record and edit audio.

(Credit: Nintendo)

Two weeks ago, we gave you an exclusive hands-on First Look at the Nintendo DSi, the company's second refresh of the DS portable gaming system. While we had to hold back some juicy details about the DSi, we can now let you in on all the fun.

The DSi Shop, which will go live April 5, will offer downloadable games and applications via the DSi Shop that you can store on either the 256MB of internal storage or on an SD card. When Nintendo visited us a few weeks ago, we got to play some DSiWare titles like WarioWare Snapped!, a collection of mini-games designed for use with the DSi's cameras. Snapped! had us moving our heads to dodge objects and watched our mouth's movements to re-enact eating a sandwich. We imagine there will be dozens of more titles that make use of the unit's cameras in addition to the microphone capabilities.

We also got to see a title called Moving Memo that lets you create a sort of flipbook animation. There have even been rumors about a Virtual Console for Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games on the DSi Shop (which would explain the absence of such games on the current Wii Virtual Console).

Games and applications on the DSi Shop will range in price from free to more than 2,000 points. 100 points will equal $1, so a 1,000-point game will run you $10. As a promotion, anyone who buys a DSi before October 5 of this year will get 1,000 free points to spend in the DSi Shop.

While a list of games and applications hasn't been finalized yet, you will be able to grab a free Web browser for your DSi right out of the gate. The Opera-developed software is reportedly more robust, offering a better experience over the cartridge-based software we saw in the past. We'll update this post with a list of launch DSiWare titles when Nintendo confirms them.

The Nintendo DSi will cost $170, and is available in either black or blue. Check CNET next week for our full review!