BioWare Planning Nearly Two Years' Worth of 'Dragon Age: Origins' DLC on MTV Multiplayer highlights comments from BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk suggesting Dragon Age: Origins will have more downloadable content than you can shake a stick at, provided stick-shaking is your idea of a good time:

You have to remember that video game consumers are some of the smartest, most connected people on the planet. You can’t trick them with anything, so don’t even try. I don’t think it’s so much as to trick them, as it is the strategy behind it has to be fully thought out. This is the reason that with “Dragon Age,” our DLC strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly when you’re going to do it and how you’re going to do it. Some of our fans would really like us to extend the world, so it’s going to be something that will make the world even bigger and more interesting. It’s not going to wreck it or break it.

The Terminator Salvation: The Game Website is online, as a multi-language home to the multi-platform tie-in with the upcoming Terminator movie. Word is: "View images of the latest deadly Terminators, learn about your fellow resistance allies, and see video of the battle for humanity. Relay this information, join the resistance and help spread the latest news on Terminators within your vicinity." Just be careful, SkyNet is no doubt aware of this already.

• Independent Game Conference East sessions confirmed.
• Miyamoto to receive ELAN 'Video Game Hall of Fame' award.
• April Folding@Home Contest for Stephanie. Win an XFX 4850 video card.

• Bionic Commando on GameSpot.
• LEGO Universe on Eurogamer.
• Risen on GamesRadar.

• Champions Online on Strategy Informer.
• Free Realms on Strategy Informer.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• This weeks Deal: Penny Arcade Episode 1 on Xbox LIVE.
• This week on Xbox LIVE Arcade: Puzzle Quest- Galactrix and Flock.
• Resident Evil 5 Online Multiplayer Tomorrow.
• Rock Band: Eleven new Wii tracks coming this week.
• Nintendo talks core, third parties, and DSi.
• Rodney Greenblat On Getting The Band Back Together For Major Minor.
• See The Albion of Tomorrow in Next Fable 2 DLC.
• 505 Games Announces The Destiny of Zorro.
• Silent Hill Reimagining Announced.
• Yu Suzuki Retires From Sega Creative Officer Role.
• PixelJunk Eden Encore adds 11 new Trophies.
• StarFox Creator Uninterested in Making New Title for Wii.
• Amsterdam Game Store Lists 'Wii Fit Plus' for Europe.
• Noby Noby Boy Multiplayer Footage Looks Slightly Disturbing.
• Greg Bear Penning Halo Forerunner Trilogy.

Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.

• Researchers spend $60M to build wicked fast circuits.
• Report: Microsoft to give free Windows 7 upgrades to XP downgraders.
• Microsoft Plans Major Windows 7 Announcement.
• Leaked HP memo details XP reprieve until 2010, report says.
• Best Buy claims downturn will help UK invasion.
• Phoronix Test Suite 1.8 Delivers New Automated Testing Capabilities.
• T-Mobile to use Google Android OS for home devices.
• Even dirtier IT jobs- The muck stops here.
• Cedega 7.1.1 is now available.
• AMD Claims 30 to 1 sales of HD 4890 over GTX 275.
• In Today's SEC Filing, Blockbuster Lists Every Possible Threat.
• TiVo Series 3 software update adds ads.
• The Tech Report Podcast 40: The GPGPU tax, three strikes you're out, and the end of netbooks.

• DSi enjoys rampant demand in debut weekend.
• Palm Pre to go on sale on Tax Day- Sprint toes the line on ship date.
• Pip-Boy 3000 iTouch.
• Commodore 64 laptop.
• Next-Gen iPod Touch to Gain "N" Wireless Radio.
• Micro-Billing Suits the Phone Companies Just Fine. Thanks Mike Martinez.

Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.

• YouTube to carry full-length Sony movies.
• Mozilla reveals roadmap for Firefox 3.6, scheduled for 2010.
• Yahoo makes image search previews more useful, visual.
• How can we save Thunderbird when email is dying?
• iTunes 8.1.1 enables HD movie rentals.

Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.

• Could the Internet Be Taken Down In 30 Minutes?
• Campaigners warn of user data creep. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Ad Block Plus Maintainer -rick752- Dies At 56.
• Microsoft Delays Stirling Security Suite.

• Take-Two Settling Stockholder Suit.
• Senators introduce bill to federalize cybersecurity.
• Yet another government attempt at cybersecurity.
• Obama administration pledges "transparency" on ACTA.
• Court: Congress can't put public domain back into copyright.
• Fox News Columnist Pays Big Price for Reviewing a Pirated Movie. Thanks Slashdot.
• Google Claims Orphan Books, Raising Alarm in Academia. Thanks Slashdot.
• Google loses on appeal, will face AdWords trademark suit.

• Parents Guide To MMORPGs on Vault Hub…
• "Dragonball" Sequel Already Penned. Thanks Ant…
• Analyst: Used Market Rush Unlikely To Affect GameStop…
• EBGames.com GameDays offer some scant PC bargains. Thanks Cheap Ass Gamer/Kotaku…
• Borderlands "still on the radar". Some people need constant reassurance…

An Assassin's Creed 2 Teaser Site is online, offering clues about the upcoming stealthy follow-up, offering a DaVinci-themed animation with hints about the game. More is promised on April 16 in relation to previews of the game in Game Informer magazine. Thanks Kotaku.

Stardock announces Demigod is gold, and that Gas Powered Games' action/strategy game will be in stores on April 14, and is now available for preorder:

PLYMOUTH, Mich., April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Stardock (www.stardock.com) announced today that the highly anticipated real-time action strategy PC game, Demigod, has gone gold. Demigod is set to hit store shelves in North America on April 14 and will also be available for download on Stardock's digital distribution platform Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com). Pre-orders are now available on Impulse for both the standard edition ($39.95) and the collector's edition ($49.95.)

Developed by renowned gaming studio Gas Powered Games, Demigod delivers an epic game experience by combining elements of its acclaimed strategy game Supreme Commander and its award-winning Dungeon Siege role-playing game series.

In Demigod, a god has fallen, leaving an opening in the Pantheon. Players take control of a Demigod, waging war in spectacular arenas against others to ascend to godhood.

Each battle takes place in an arena, where players earn gold and experience in battle which can then be used to acquire new abilities, learn magical spells, purchase better equipment and improve their faction's Citadel with the goal to lay waste to the opposing faction.

Demigod makes use of Stardock's Impulse Reactor which provides intelligent match-making, on-line tournaments, player skill ratings, and much more.

"We are extremely happy with how Demigod has turned out," said Stardock's CEO and president Brad Wardell. "Demigod is the kind of game that we think players will be playing years from now. It has a really fun single-player tournament, and it has online features that let both casual and competitive players create their own fun and unique gaming experiences."

"We're proud of what the Demigod team has accomplished," said Chris Taylor, CEO of Gas Powered Games. "They've created an original world and setting, with spectacular art direction and characters, and have matched it with unique gameplay that seamlessly mixes elements from multiple genres."

While most PC games are released at $49.95 or more, Demigod has been priced at only $39.95 due largely to Stardock and GPG's confidence that Demigod is a game that will appeal to a very broad set of PC gamers.

For further details about Demigod, please visit www.demigodthegame.com.

For more information about Stardock please visit www.stardock.com.

inCrysis has news on how to prepare for the free Crysis Wars trial planned for later this week. They have links to where the trial version can be downloaded already, and while players must wait to receive a key to start playing online on Thursday, you can play Crysis Wars locally on a LAN as soon as it is downloaded. Here's the deal:

You will be able to download the complete Crysis Wars game, and install it on your computer for free. From then on, you will be able to play on LAN with your friends, without any time limitation. This is the best opportunity to check the gameplay, adjust the settings to your fitting (from best performance to best visuals), and train with your friends on LAN, in preparation for the online week. You will not be able to connect online during this time.

This Thursday 9th April, starting at 9pm CET, MyCrysis members will receive a browser message confirming that they can claim their Free Trial CD-Key. This Demo CDKey will only be valid for your MyCrysis account, and will allow you to play online for the whole week. By the end of the week, your demo CDKey will be deactivated and you will have to purchase the game to keep playing online.

Raven: Wolfenstein is "not a WWII game" on VG247 quotes Raven's Eric Biessman saying that the upcoming Wolfenstein game is not a WWII game: "While the game is set in WWII, it’s not a WWII game – that’s like saying the Indiana Jones movies are WWII movies." Of course the Indiana Jones movies are basically set before and after WWII, but we think we see the hair he's splitting here, as he goes on to describe the game's non-WW2 elements: "Dark science and strange occult mysteries combine to create larger than life characters, weaponry and enemies. This also lets us stray outside the realm of reality to create compelling game play – we don’t have to have realistic enemies and weapons, we can do things just for the sake of being fun and exciting. It really opened a lot of creative doors for us."

John Romero's planet rome.ro describes a vintage video called A Visit to id Software on Vimeo that John got from Joe Siegler at 3D Realms as a VHS tape (ask your grandparents) of a visit to id Software back in 1993. Word is: "In 1993, Dan Linton, owner of a hugely successful BBS called Software Creations, visited Texas and made his way to id Software. This is the footage he recorded one night in November 1993. Shown are several of id's employees at the time: Jay Wilbur, Shawn Green, John Romero, Dave Taylor, Sandy Petersen and Adrian Carmack, Bobby Prince was visiting to finish the music and create the sound effects. This video has 21 minutes of me playing DOOM before the sound effects were put in as well as some early deathmatching with Shawn Green." Thanks Redwood.

There's a DRM petition on the Entertainment Consumers Association Website (thanks GamePolitics). This is more open-ended than the typical petition where your signature voices agreement with a premise, as it asks you to supply your opinions on Digital Rights Management. This all has a specific purpose, as they are looking to collect consumer's thoughts on the topic for presentation to the US Federal Trade Commission:

The FTC is holding hearings on the issue of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs). The ECA respects the careful balance that must exist between the content community and the customer, and agree, that piracy is an ever-present challenge for the trade; it is also becoming evident that consumer rights are being diminished.

We acknowledge that these are weighty and topically-important issues, without easy solutions, and we are pleased to see the FTC providing a forum for thoughtful discussion of the matter. We wanted to give you, the consumer, an opportunity to express your opinions on DRM, which will be delivered to the FTC.

Konami announces Six Days in Fallujah, based on 2004 Iraq battle on the Los Angeles Times profiles an upcoming third-person survival/horror shooter set in Iraq being developed by recently revived developer Atomic Games. There is also an article on the game in the Wikipedia offering details from the May 2009 issue of Gamepro magazine, quoting Atomic's Peter Tamte describing this as "a meticulously recreated in-game version of Fallujah, complete with real life Marines lending their names and likenesses, as well as recreations of specific events from the battle. It's almost like time travel. You're experiencing the events as they really happened." The survival/horror theme is ascribed to the game based on the atmosphere created by clearing a city house-by-house, rather than the presence of zombies or their ilk, and word is the game will also include destructible environments. The game is in development for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, but no release date is offered.

Sanctuary of Secrets is a website with riddles that may or may not relate to The Secret World, an upcoming MMORPG from Funcom. The site was found as the result of some clues in a movie called "They Are Coming Back" posted to the Secret World forum over the weekend, and Eurogamer outlines the discovery and the reasons this is thought to be a promotional alternate reality game (ARG) for The Secret World.

Fansite GateWorld has further indications that the Stargate Worlds MMOG in the works at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment may never see the light of day. Following rumors late last year that developers on the project were not being paid, and a more recent lawsuit over unpaid bills, there is a new interview with Stargate executive producer Brad Wright, who has consulted on the game, expressing pessimism: "We don’t know," they quote Mr. Wright on the topic, as he goes on to say: "It’s a shame. If it doesn’t happen — and, let’s be honest, it should be happening now if it was happening. It’s a shame. It’s a terrible shame." He goes on to elaborate: "They had an opportunity and they got our support, and they obviously had significant funding, and it didn’t happen. It’s kind of a drag for the fans and the time that we invested — what little of it there really was, in comparison to what they did — was still a shame that it was wasted, because it should have happened." Thanks GamesIndustry.biz.

Metaboli announces this European online gaming service has signed a three-year deal to distribute the Unreal series through their service in a refreshingly DRM-free form. Word is:

April 6, 2009 – Metaboli SA and Epic Games, Inc. have signed a three-year agreement to offer Epic's complete, multimillion-selling Unreal series of games through Metaboli, Europe's leading distributor of video games for download.

Under the agreement, the Unreal catalog will be available through Metaboli and Gamesplanet in Europe and GameTap in the U.S. on a subscription basis and for full purchase. The library includes Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor’s Choice Edition, and Unreal Tournament 3 Black. Unreal Tournament 3 Black is the fully updated version of UT3 that includes the massive Titan Pack title update and downloadable content.

Furthermore, these electronic software distribution (ESD) offerings will be completely free of digital rights management (DRM) software – which means there will be no unnecessary inconveniences in the name of piracy protection for end users.

A new "sniper" trailer from Men of War teaches you to keep your head down in the recently released World War II RTS sequel. The clip is available for viewing and download on the Men of War Website, or for viewing on YouTube.

The R.U.S.E. interview on Games On Net is a conversation from way back in the good old days of the GDC discussing this recently revealed RTS game with Ubisoft producer Mathieu Gerard. They discuss the game's Texas Hold 'Em approach to the fog of war, reconnaissance, unit types, terrain, control schemes, hints about possible touch screen support, resource management, and more. There are also some new screenshots from the game on Strategy Informer.

Making MMOs on a Shoestring- The NetDevil Story with Scott Brown on The MMO Gamer is an interview with NetDevil's Scott Brown about the history of this company, and how it manages to compete with the big players in the MMOG marketplace. Topics include the company's formation, their "shoestring" approach, growth, the appeal of creating online games, their early days, the mistake of partnering with 3DO for the original JumpGate, the unfortunate ending of Auto Assault, and a bit on future plans for the LEGO MMORPG and other projects.

Kerberos Productions announces a new patch for Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows is now available via GamersGate to update the space strategy expansion to version 1.6.6. For the wary, the post also says: "Bear in mind it is passed April fools, so this is NOT a joke." The 88 MB download is mirrored on The Patches Scrolls, where they have also reproduced the patch notes.

TechRadar UK - Why the future looks bright for PC gaming.
"Declining retail sales and the Bittorrent bogeyman aren't, then, a death knell for PC gaming. Whether it's growing into something new, beautiful and impressively independent or returning to the ideals it was founded upon back before Doom brought about the age of graphics and adrenaline, it's in probably the most exciting state it's been in for years. Vive la evolution."

STARFEEDER - A Segmented community when SC2 comes out, will it happen? Thanks Mike Martinez.
"Timing is everything. Fans in America have been waiting for a new StarCraft game for 10 years; new gamers at the perfect SC competitive age are awaiting the next game to make their own name. Veterans like me will always talk about the purity that is the original StarCraft; however, I recognize that what N.America needs is a modern game to be its next eSport. That game is StarCraft 2, and I believe that the community is ready and willing to help SC pass the torch."

• 2,500,000,000 Achievements have been unlocked.
• Dan Teasdale 'confirms' LEGO Rock Band, GDC slides reveal all.
• Cancelled Space Quest platformer media. Thanks Joystiq/superannuation.
• Yu Suzuki bows out from top R&D post, SEGA designer still about.
• UK CHARTS- Wii Fit back on top.

• I.B.M. Withdraws $7 Billion Offer for Sun Microsystems. Thanks Ant and Slashdot.
• NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) v5.0 Released.
• GeForce GTX 275 Overclock guide on Guru3D.
• Studios have 'Monster' 3-D vision. Thanks Digg.

• Q&A- Nintendo's Fils-Aime Talks DSi, Wii and Everything in Between.

• Can Yahoo Out-Google Google in Image Search?
• First commenters are first douchebags. Thanks Ant.
• Interview with Maddox, Best Page In The Universe.
• Netscape Alums Tackle Cloud Storage.
• Conficker copycat prowls for victims, says Microsoft.

• MediaDefender Buys MediaSentry For $136,000 (Not $20M).
• Critics tear into PCI security rules at congressional hearing.

• EU Data-Retention Laws Stricter Than Many People Realized.

• Drakensang The Dark Eye on Boomtown.

• Acer Aspire 8730G Laptop on InsideHW.
• Antec Twelve Hundred Gaming Case on JonnyGURU.com.
• ASRock A780GMH-128M Motherboard on Motherboards.org.
• ASUS EAH4890 TOP Radeon HD 4890 RV790 Graphics Card on Benchmark Reviews.
• ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10" Netbook on Futurelooks.
• Evolution Gaming Gear Mouse Pad MP3 on Overclockers Online.
• Gainward GeForce GTX 275 Graphics Card on TweakTown.
• In Win Commander 850 PSU on Tech-Reviews.
• LG Incite Cell Phone on Digital Trends.
• LG Versa Cell Phone on Digital Trends.
• NZXT Rogue SFF Gaming Chassis on ThinkComputers.org.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive on Bjorn3d.com.
• Sapphire's Radeon HD 4890 OC+ 1,024MB Graphics Card on HEXUS.net.
• Sparkle Calibre P980(0)X+ Graphics Card on Overclockers Club.
• Super Talent 16GB Pico C Flash Drive on Pro-Clockers.
• Tritton AX Pro Headset on Gaming Nexus.
• Xigmatek Thor's Hammer Cooler on PureOC.

• EVE Online Developers Help Player Make Fan Movie. Thanks Ant…

Last night was opening day for Major League Baseball, and the Mets and most others get underway today. I hate the economic imbalance of baseball and the spectre of performance-enhancing drugs, but my childhood love for the sport runs too deep for too long for me to feel anything but happy about the start of the season every year. To once again paraphrase the title of a book by Thomas Boswell, it is why time begins on opening day. Play ball!

Opening Day Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
Play:	Top 5 Smallest Java Games To Try. Thanks Digg. DeepLeap. Thanks Neatorama.
Links:	20 Messed Up Glitches in Gaming.
Stories:	Fiancé Drops Engagement Ring Off Brooklyn Bridge. Thanks Neatorama. 40 per cent of Australian women wear a bra with a cup size DD or bigger. Thanks Digg. Super Mario Defence.
Science:	How eating chocolate can help improve your maths. Thanks Neatorama.
Images:	Spiderman Comic Fail. Owie.
Media:	Flutter- The New Twitter. Amazon Women On The Moon - Video Pirates. Be, or not a B - That is the question.
The Funnies:	xkcd - Security Question. ActionTrip Comic Strip- Things Are Looking Up And They Are Rising.