In LEGO Universe, you can build items to your heart’s content, participate in battles, play minigames, and a lot more. Parents get almost complete control over their kids’ activities in game, with the ability to limit them to certain areas or activities as well as the ability to set a time limit. (Naturally, if you’re not a child, you can play however you wish and without Mom’s permission.) Since the game is likely to be released on a subscription model, beta testing now is a pretty good way to get to play for free before the actual version hits, even though you’re likely to run into some bugs.

The official version will be released sometime in 2010.

Ubisoft did have a slight dip in sales (2.7% drop in year-over-year sales), but compared to the first half of the year, when they had a dip of about 20 times that, I think they’re golden, and they have Assassin’s Creed II to thank for that particular recovery.

They must realize it too, since the fourth quarter will see an Assassin’s Creed II Director’s Cut for PC. We’ll also see the release of Red Steel 2 for Wii and The Settlers 7 and Silent Hunter 5 for PC. As far as PC titles go, Ubisoft says that online services for these games both enhance gamers’ experiences and provide a good way to prevent piracy. The games that use more online services will be released in the coming months.

Ubisoft says their plan for the next year involves mainly sticking to franchise titles and hoping for stable back catalog sales. Ubisoft also plans to have several games available for the Xbox and PS3 motion control systems. Whether or not that means they’ll be available on their respective launch days, we do not yet know.

Most of this success is due not only to the game itself being so awesome, but the additional content packs (Warden’s Keep and Return to Ostagar). The latest expansion pack, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is set to launch on March 16, 2010.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next installment in the Dragon Age lore, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins. Players assume the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and tasked to uncover the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

“This is a tremendous start for the Dragon Age franchise and we are extremely pleased with the great reception the game has already received from critics and fans worldwide,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “Our team is dedicated to crafting high quality, engaging new adventures and stories in the world of Ferelden for our fans!”

Considering that a Dragon Age sequel was listed in EA’s third quarter financial results, we’re not so surprised by that, either.

For instance, we can look forward to new installments of Tiger Woods Golf and “the world’s most beautiful game,” FIFA ’11, not to mention console versions of The Sims 3. EA is definitely taking its mantra of “fewer and bigger” to heart – it’s their version of quality over quantity, since their top 20 games amount to 80% of their sales numbers.

Whereas normally that would just mean making the investors happy, this time, it looks like it means making gamers happy as well, with a new Dead Space installment and second Dragon Age title (both also bound for handhelds/mobile as well as consoles and PCs) on the way in the first few months of 2011. Dragon Age, in particular, was called “easily sequeled,” which is a new verb to me that seems to imply no new graphical or engine improvements. During this afternoon’s conference call, execs also noted “something far-reaching” coming to Mass Effect in 2011. (In other words, BioWare is going to be busy.) One thing that won’t make some gamers happy is the exclusion of NCAA Basketball from the FY ’11 games list – looks like that series is coming to an end.

The main focus of the call today was to recap their third-quarter earnings. EA is doing a lot better now than last year, losing only about $80 million compared to the over $600 million from 2008. A large part of that is due to the quality of their titles improving (19 of their titles received an 80 or better on Metacritic during the last year). EA is cutting operations costs, both by changing employees over to their “mobile” division (as they’re expecting a 26% increase in sales of mobile titles) and just plain reducing the number of employees they have.

Execs also made an interesting note regarding hardware sales (I don’t know where they got these numbers, but it’s interesting): Apparently sales of both the Wii and Xbox 360 are down, and PS3 sales have gone up 43%. (Perhaps the latter should be attributed to lower prices and better advertising?) With the above-referenced Mass Effect mention, maybe the PS3 is finally getting a port to address this new group.

EA also revealed that they’re now designing games with Project Natal and PlayStation Arc in mind – they aren’t projecting any sales related to these peripherals (you know, just in case they’re giant failures), but games specific to these motion control systems WILL be available on the Natal and Arc launch days.

Electronic Arts is also focusing intently on their online divisions. Every title for the next fiscal year will (theoretically) have downloadable content available or an online component. Tiger Woods ’11 will have Tiger Woods Online, for instance. They’ve supposedly been building up to this through the registration processes for The Sims 3 and Dragon Age: Origins. The first big test this year, Mass Effect 2′s Cerberus Network, had a few hiccups in the process, so let’s hope that they get at least that much down. EA execs claim that these downloadable additions mean that more consumers are buying top titles and playing them longer, resulting in big increases in revenue per user, which is precisely what they’re after, of course.

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Mulitplayer

• There are 7 multiplayer modes (4 were added during the release delay!)
• Maximum 10 players per game
• NO co-op or LAN play
• Takes place 1 year before the first game
• New multiplayer exclusive plasmid, ARROW – allows players to zoom around
• New multiplayer exclusive plasmid, HOUDINI – allows players to turn invisible like the Houdini Splicers

Single Player

• You will STILL have to fight Big Daddies
• Big Daddies are now slowly healed by Little Sisters
• New ability to dual-wield plasmids and melee weapons
• Takes place 10 years after the first game
• You will meet other normal citizens in Rapture
• New single player exclusive plasmid, SCOUT – allows player to leave their body to scout the area
• You will be able to GO OUTSIDE
• You will be able to harvest ADAM straight from the slug

I have never been more excited for a sequel in my life, especially in light of these revelations. Bioshock 2 has the potential to go above and beyond the amazing adventure that was the first game. Let’s hope it’s as wonderful as it sounds.

How do they keep it up? New features that prioritize customization and interaction, and freedom to do anything -like cooking, fighting, or just connecting with friends. Parents love it because it’s safe and family-friendly, and kids love it because it’s social networking and gaming at the same time. (I’m sure there are adults that play for their own reasons, as well.)

Later this week, Free Realms is scheduled to kick off the Festival of Hearts, a month-long event that celebrates love, friendship and kindness. There will be themed events, daily social activities, and storyline quests that all stick to the Valentine’s Day theme: hearts, candies, forget-me-not cards, flowers, love potions and more. New Hippo, Tiger, Beetle, Groundhog and Owl pets will also be available in the Marketplace.

The quest follows up to four of the bravest wizards (as in, you and three of your friends) as they take on dragons and monsters in an attempt to save this fantasy world from the peril that it has to be in simply due to game genre.

Magicka combines parody and satire with magic, co-op play, over a million spell combinations, and, of course, adventure.

Watch the snarky teaser trailer and an interview on the game with Johan Pilestedt, CEO and Game Director at Arrowhead Game Studios, below.

Then we got into the box. My half of the packs featured Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s art and a card unknown to us. We were sad to find that there are only three different pack designs when there are usually four. My second pack of the box, my third for this new set, gave me a very nice surprise. Jace, the Mind Sculptor himself! This is the only planeswalker for the set, and the card I was wanting the most. This guy alone pretty much made whatever else appeared in the box not matter at all to me. I did get a few nice rares, like Abyssal Persecutor and another Novablast Wurm, along with a foil and non-foil copy of a rare land.

So you could imagine my surprise when, as I return home, to see a package with a few more packs and a couple intro packs. Thank you very much, Wizards! The vampire intro pack seems very interesting. I’ve been working on a vampire deck (which I’ll be talking about in an upcoming Deck Building 101 article), and this pack is filled with some very nice additions to any mono-black deck. The blue-green Mysterious Realms is one I haven’t checked out at length, but I am hopeful that it provides some nice landfall abilities.

Overall, I’m still very excited for this set and glad it’s finally released! It’s a great distraction from the looming Grand Prix and Pro Tour season that’s gearing up and kicks off in a little town near me called Oakland, CA. Happy playing everyone, and if you pull something awesome in a pack, leave me a comment! I want to know what everyone’s getting.

“The addition of Taylor Lautner and the 3D twist to Stretch Armstrong…is sure to pay dividends when the film is released in 2012,” said Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro, Inc.

After initially being planned for 2011, Stretch Armstrong is moving to 2012 to allot time to shape the project into a 3-D superhero adventure and to accommodate Lautner’s existing commitments.

“In the past two years, Taylor has emerged as a real star at the global box office. He brings the perfect balance of energy and athleticism to the role of an unlikely super hero with a fantastic super power,” said Langley. “We couldn’t be more pleased that he has agreed to be our Stretch.”

Stretch Armstrong is based on the action figure made popular around the world beginning in the 1970s and re-launched in the 1990s. We hope that Stretch doesn’t suddenly turn into a werewolf. Just sayin’.

During the holidays, Runic Games’ Torchlight was a featured sale on Steam and made the list of highly recommended PC games for GamingAngels readers. I grabbed this game at $10 and during the holidays it went down to $5. The sale prompted me to ask Runic Games how the sale affected purchases of Torchlight and I tried to get information on what Runic Games is working on next.

Torchlight is a great game. What motivated the sales on Steam this holiday season?

Thank you! It’s fun to see the word of mouth among friends about Torchlight, and that definitely factored into the holiday sales. Chances are you if you liked playing, your friends will too and as a last minute gift, you can’t go wrong. We had enthusiastic players buying up copies for their whole family, which is awesome!

Some of my friends felt the game was great at the $20 price point, others have purchased it for $5. Are there any trends you see with the various price points?

We saw a huge spike with every sale, which was both surprising and gratifying. The first sale kicked off the night of our company Christmas party, and everyone was on their iPhone watching the Steam sales. We felt really fortunate to be on the bestseller lists over the holidays – it’s competitive enough as it is out there, but with virtually every game on crazy sales, it was a small point of pride to be able to say “Hey look, we’re in the top ten!”

Based on the positive response to Torchlight, will there be any followup like DLC or future episodes?

Probably not, to be honest. Torchlight is done. On the plus side, the mods are plentiful and lots of fun, which should keep people happy for a long time! Onto the next project!

What is Runic Games working on now? And what New Years resolutions do you have as a team?

We didn’t really discuss any resolutions as a team other than to stay small and keep doing what we love. Oh, and find a new office when our sublease is up! Maybe even buy a couch instead of the hand-me-down futon we’ve had for several years! We’re in pre production for the next phase now. Can’t really talk about it yet but we’ll have updates when we can.

Thank you to Runic Games for the interview and please feel free to contact us when you are ready to announce what’s next!