Bioware has announced a browser-based version of Dragon Age: Origins, called Dragon Age: Journeys, developed by “EA 2D, BioWare, and some of the hottest indie talent from the flash developer community.”

We have some big plans for Journeys. The first piece that we are currently building is a 3 chapter, single player, tactical rpg delivered in Flash. Right now we’re hard at work finishing the first chapter, Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. The game will introduce you to the dwarven city of Orzammar and the Deep Roads surrounding it where the dwarves face a persistent threat from the darkspawn hordes.

The flash game will serve as a prequel to Origins. There is no release date yet for The Deep Roads, but it looks like a fantastic way to play Dragon Age on the go, with some Heroes of Might & Magic-style gameplay.

Let us know what you think.

(Thanks, Digital Battle.)

Developer Rusty Axe has announced that Real Estate Empire 2 is in development.

The game puts the player in the role of a real estate agency mogul. The game will feature thirty levels spread around four scenarios: “Baby Steps”, “The Inheritance”, “High Roller” and “Before the Crash”.

Real Estate Empire 2 features a streamlined upgrade and renovation system that makes the game easier to pick up and play. Real Estate Empire 2 also features a new goals based system that has players leveling up through a variety of different scenarios and goals. A much requested rental system has added an exciting new game play dimension.

Will you wait for good renters who won’t damage your newly renovated bungalow or do you take a chance and get somebody in there to start paying the mortgage today? Do you jack up the rents and play the slum lord or do you fix things up and try to keep everybody happy?

Real Estate Empire 2 will be released mid-October for PC. The official site can be visited here.

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One of the best tower defense games, Defense Grid: The Awakening, hits Xbox Live Arcade on September 2 for 800 MSP ($10 USD), according to a press release issued from Hidden Path Entertainment, the developer.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game:

Defense Grid: The Awakening on Xbox LIVE Arcade features 10 different tower types that can each be upgraded twice. These towers all have unique tradeoffs that affect ideal placement, such as line-of-sight attack or ballistic trajectory fire; a large area of effect or damage over time; and minimum and maximum ranges. Over the course of the game’s 10 hours of story play, players battle 15 different types of enemies, each with unique capabilities and strategies, across 24 unique environments. To ramp up the challenge even more, Defense Grid: The Awakening now includes an additional 100 unlockable challenge modes.

The Xbox Live Arcade version will also have the Borderlands mission pack, containing four new advanced levels and 12 challenge modes.

Click “Read more…” for the full press release and XBLA launch trailer.

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Tradewinds 2 is a great strategy game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The game was originally made for the PC, but Handmark and Sandlot games teamed up to adapt the game to the iPhone/iPod Touch. The goal of the game is to amass as much money as possible. Money is everything in the game and there are two ways to get money. The trading way and the killing way. Players can buy items at one port and attempt to sell those items for more money at another port. The other way to gain money is by killing pirates.

Players can choose from five different characters to play. The characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses. If players do not like any of the pre-built characters, they can build their own character. Essentially, there are five different games to be played. The goal of the game is always the same, but the way the game is played is a bit different for each character.

There are two different game modes, story mode and free trade mode. In story mode, players try to amass their fortune by trading items from port to port. Each port sells items for different prices. Players can gain money by buying cheap items in one port and selling them for a higher price in another port. Trading items to gain money makes for a lot of sailing. While sailing, players can randomly encounter pirates.

The pirate battles start out fairly simple, but your ship is not that strong either. The battles can be challenging, but players have the option of fleeing if they feel they are not going to win the battle. If players can defeat the pirates, they will gain the booty on the pirate ship. The booty is normally money, but can be gems and other items.

The random pirate battles are not the only battles players will encounter. Occasionally, pirates will take over the ports. If this happens, the ports need to be freed. The port battles are fairly challenging. The buildings have huge guns on them that really hurt your ship. The port battles are bigger, but so is the booty if players can win the battle.

The random battles pop up as players are sailing around completing tasks for the governors. Each port has a governor and some will talk to you and give you tasks to do. Others don’t want anything to do with you, until a certain point. Of course, the tasks are not performed for free. Each task will give you an item or money.

All of the money is used to fix the ship after fights and buy more ammunition for the ship. The ships can be upgraded too. It is not cheap to upgrade the ships and players will have to save for a while as they start buying bigger and better ships. The ships can hold more cargo, which also means guns because guns take up cargo space. The new ships are also stronger, which means they can take more damage.

The graphics in Tradewinds 2 are great. I was impressed with the graphics. The game is made for a mobile device, but the graphics look as good as the PC graphics. The great graphics don’t slow down the iPod Touch in anyway either. Not sure about the iPhone as I don’t own one, but I am sure it runs just as well on the iPhone.

Over all, Tradewinds 2 is a fantastic adventure game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Initially, I was not that impressed with the game, but once I got the hang of it, I was addicted. The game is full of strategy and can be challenging to balance upgrading the ships, fixing the ship and completing the tasks from the governors of the ports. If you like adventure/strategy games, you need to get Tradewinds 2.

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Q8IS Mobile In has announced the release of Blob Dash for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The evil lord Lord Gaggletron has used his mind control crystals to control the innocent race of blobs called the Obo.

Players have to lead the blob through a series of obstacles and the blobs are not known for their intelligence. Players have to place blocks, bombs, traps and other gadgets in the blob’s path to get them to go in the correct direction. If the players can manage to get the blobs safely to the end of the level, they will be rewarded with a mind crystal. Players have to collect all of the mind crystals to free the blobs.

“This game is for all casual gamers – those who love cute things will love Blob Dash.  And even those that hate cute things will have lots of fun destroying the blobs by blowing them up or squishing them,” said Bob Quenneville, Vice President of Q8IS Mobile Inc. “We designed the game to be an entertaining mix of action and strategy, and it’s perfect for mobile gaming because you can play it in short spurts whenever you want.  It is also unique because it is one of the few 3D puzzle games available on the iPhone and iPod touch.”

Blob Dash sounds like an interesting puzzle game. It sounds like it may be along the lines of Lemmings, but it is hard to tell exactly from the description. Either way, if you like puzzle games, you should head over to the Apple App Store and check out Blob Dash.

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