Just watching this latest Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen gameplay trailer makes me say “Ouch!” because I know some of these new creatures will be a pain to take down quickly. But as with the first game, it’s a learning experience when you encounter a new enemy in this game world. Check out its weaknesses, go at it with your best skills and make sure your pawns are up to speed. Hmmm… Now I’m feeling the need to play through the first game again… but with all the work I need to get done, that’s not going to happen at all. Unless someone creates time travel before Dark Arisen hits retail for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 23, 2013… which isn’t so far away at all. Yaaaah! The pain of having too darn many games to play, think of playing (or replaying). Well, there are far worse things to be worried about in the real world, of course…

Gran Soren just got a whole lot more dangerous. Seriously. Granted, it already WAS pretty deadly as it was teeming with all creatures great and small wanting to grind your party’s bones to make their bread (or a tasty filling for that bread), but the mad wizards at Capcom have worked in plenty of new not so wee beasties guaranteed to send you into a frenzy of running away if you’re too weak a character to handle it. On the other hand, if you’ve got the buff stuff and no bluff, you can tough it to those creatures rough until they’d had more than enough. Yeah, I liked Basil Wolverton’s bizarre comics as a kid, so sue me. Or go track down some of his freaky funnies.

Anyway, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 23, 2013) brings you the COMPLETE original game, ALL the DLC packs AND an entirely new adventure all for a measly $40. This means your friends who missed out can hop in and start off and see what’s what, while YOU, dear reader (well, if you played the original) can upload your save files and beat up on those bruisers with relish. Well, the relish they were going to slather all over that bread they were going to get to baking…

A ha ha ha, I can come up with the proper funny puns now, can’t I? “NO”?!! Eh, what do YOU know anyway. Hey, as long as I make MYSELF laugh, that’s good enough for me. Foo. Anyway, another week, another cool class video from the upcoming expansion that builds on the already massive game and adds a bunch of cool new content. Getting not only this but the complete original game on a single disc (or download) for a mere $39.99 is a great deal whether you’ve played the game already or not. As usual, the big, fat elephant shaped gorilla in the room here is finding time to play this even bigger game. Someone will one day invent a time machine that works properly. The one I have just makes toast and shocks me when I try to stick a fork in to take it out. Hey, YOU try getting a slice of bread out of a temporal field while it’s still active. Not an easy thing to do, folks… Well, a wooden fork would help a lot, but that’s what I’m trying to go back in time first to get, silly…

Who said magic-users were “bad” go-to characters in RPGs? As you can see in this latest trailer for Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, a good Sorcerer is indeed a major force to be reckoned with. A little “Disco Inferno” or “Lightning Strikes” would make this video even better, I say. Hey, if you played the original game, you know that rockin’ title song got stuck in your head for a few weeks. Anyway, keep this game on your radar, folks – I’m predicting another “sleeper” of truly epic proportions that just may beat out upcoming next-generation launch titles for sheer longevity and replay value. April 23, 2013 (April 26 in Europe) is only a short time away… are you ready? Those ridiculously tough and massive bosses aren’t going to kill themselves, you know…