For longtime video game designer Brian Fargo, Hunted: The Demon's Forge is a return to his roots.

Developers BioWare will release the first piece of downloadable content for its role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins next week, the studio and publisher Electronic Arts have revealed.

Return to Ostagar will bring players to "the site of the Grey Wardens' darkest hour, to reclaim the honor and learn the secrets of Ferelden's fallen king," says a statement from EA and BioWare.

The DLC arrives January 5 on PC and Xbox 360 for 400 Microsoft Points ($5). The content will be released on PlayStation 3 later that month.

Want to know my favorite weapon for just about any online multiplayer game? The mute button.

In fact, it has become my best friend while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I've heard piercing sound effects, heavy swearing that would make a sailor blush and one player who insisted on singing Lady Gaga tunes.

On the one hand, it disrupts communication and planning with random squadmates in a team setting. But I'll accept the sacrifice if it means saving my ears from out-of-tune renditions of "Paparazzi."

Adding full cooperative play to the main storyline in Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would have "ruined the experience," Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling says in an interview with games site VG247. Bowling says before developers created Spec Ops, the co-op mode with separate missions, the game allowed for multiple players to tackle the campaign together.