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Can a 45-year-old man maintain a marriage and a videogame habit? Let's find out!

Dragon Age: Awakenings

I recently picked up the almost-full-priced expansion to Dragon Age: Origin… Awakening. I was a bit shocked at the sticker price: $40 for something that doesn’t seem to add much more than some $5-$8 expansions I’ve bought through PSN. Of course, at least those one could play right away; Awakenings is designed for high-level players who’ve finished the first game and its expansions and want to continue on for another 20-30 hours.

I guess it’ll be fine, though I still wish whiny developers would get off their butts and design 1080p games for 1080p systems. Now that my wife and I have a 1080p set, we’d really like a few titles that actually take advantage of it… otherwise I’d be better off spending my time on a bumbleride indie twin.

Final Fantasy XIII is mine!

This weekend, my wife and I decided to get Final Fantasy XIII. It wasn’t an easy decision because there are so many titles we’d love to own on the market right now, including Uncharted 2, White Knight Chonicles, Heavy Rain, and before too long, they’ll be joined by Dragon Age: Awakening and Prince of Persia 2.

That’s a rich selection of titles to choose from, but Final Fantasy XIII was certainly a top priority. And as one of the few games lazy developers have actually gone to the trouble of making in 1080p resolution, Final Fantasy XIII stands out from the crowd with its sheer True HD level of detail and gorgeousness.

Any sales person who tells you that, short of a 50-inch screen, no one can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p needs to start a job search in a new line of work; 1080p shows up in brilliant clarity on our 32-inch screen just fine, thanks.

While I’m too early on in the game to comment much, I will say that I love the new battle system, which is much more involving than the one found in Final Fantasy XII, four years ago.