BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins

[iv3rdawG]

Not to be overshadowed by The Old Republic and Mass Effect 2, BioWare are busier than ever and Dragon Age: Origins is coming to the Playstation 3, XBOX 360 and PC on October 20th, 2009. Like all other BioWare games, Dragon Age will give the player multiple choices and paths to take throughout the game.

Synopsis: Dragon Age: Origins is the spiritual successor to BioWare's critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate, featuring deep character customization and role-playing, morally challenging decisions, tactical party-based combat, and a wealth of gritty, mature sub-plots. It is a dark, heroic fantasy game that combines original storytelling techniques with classic role-playing challenges.

In Dragon Age, your choices change the world and affect the people around you. Certain situations, storylines, and conversation options will change drastically depending on your origin and your motivations. You choose your origin, and from that starting point, your story begins. You play through your character's early days, defining his or her background and motivation and begin to learn more about the world of Ferelden from your own distinct perspective. Your choice of origin defines how you will view the world and how it views you. Choose a sneaky, disrespected commoner and you will play a story that focuses around subtle skills and careful wordplay. Choose a noble origin and the world will be much more positive and helpful, but those jealous of your status will not be afraid to take what you have, violently if necessary.

Gamespot E3 demo walkthrough (with DRAGONS!):

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJdrJ5cFJco

[Deexan]

This should fill the Oblivion-shaped hole in my life until The Elder Scrolls V.

[iv3rdawG]

Controller layout for the 360:



This might be one that I'll pick up on the PC instead of the consoles.

[Deexan]

In real news this has yet again been pushed back, this time from October til November 6th (3rd for you Yanks) on 360/PC and later in Nov for the PS3.

[Matrix_Fan]

As much as I love Bioware, I have to say I'm not sure about this one. If it gets good reviews like KOTOR or Mass Effect, I'll definitely give it a look.

[Justin]

Unfortunately, I no longer have my PS3 or my 360. I plan on buying a 360 again, soon, though.

But this definitely looks really cool.

[Dracula]

Just bought this for the PC. Liking it, but I'm not sure it's really kicked into top gear. It's pretty challenging, more deep but less user friendsly than Mass Effect and KOTOR. I'm playing as a human noble warrior to start with. Anyone else have it?

[Fanible]

I like it, but not having the main character have a voice kind of annoys me. I guess I'm just not a traditional RPGer, but Mass Effect's PC voice work, and the way you went about choosing what to say, and what you heard, was fantastic. I was hoping this would feature the same. That, and I suppose I'm just on the side of the PC gamers who enjoy a more "cinematic" experience in games, story progression and cut scenes. For example, as much as I love the series, I've never been a big fan of the mute Dr. Freeman, and his "in-game cut scenes".

But yeah, it's pretty solid. About what you'd expect from the makers of their prior Dungeon & Dragon games, and far more on top of that.

[Dracula]

Originally Posted by Fanible

I like it, but not having the main character have a voice kind of annoys me. I guess I'm just not a traditional RPGer, but Mass Effect's PC voice work, and the way you went about choosing what to say, and what you heard, was fantastic. I was hoping this would feature the same. That, and I suppose I'm just on the side of the PC gamers who enjoy a more "cinematic" experience in games, story progression and cut scenes. For example, as much as I love the series, I've never been a big fan of the mute Dr. Freeman, and his "in-game cut scenes".

But yeah, it's pretty solid. About what you'd expect from the makers of their prior Dungeon & Dragon games, and far more on top of that.

I loved having a voiced character in Mass Effect as well, but the downside is that you were locked into having one character. In a game like Dragon Age where you can play as one of three different races (and a variety of classes) each with a distict origin story, that would mean recording the same dialouge with a ton of actors and that would just not be cost effective. Got to take the bitter with the sweet.

[MrT]

I'm loving the game so far. Picked it up on 360.

Nearing 10 hours into the game, and it feels like it's getting better as it goes, which is what I expected. Slow start but really enjoying the game now.

[Fanible]

Originally Posted by Dracula

I loved having a voiced character in Mass Effect as well, but the downside is that you were locked into having one character. In a game like Dragon Age where you can play as one of three different races (and a variety of classes) each with a distict origin story, that would mean recording the same dialouge with a ton of actors and that would just not be cost effective. Got to take the bitter with the sweet.

As far as being cost effective goes, I think having multiple voice options with full voice overs would increase the replay value, there by also increasing the value of the game altogether. Speaking of actual costs, though, there are a lot of great voice actors who don't work for that large a sum, and thousands of up and coming good voice actors that could be utilized, and it wouldn't' be that much more expensive. That, or simply one of the dozens of voice actors they already hired to do the MANY other voice overs in the game, could have just been kept on to do one or more of the main characters.

The bigger issue I'd see is the time it would take to produce (auditions, recordings, and implementation), should they go with unique individuals, and the memory it would take up adding all the additional voice work - but most of those obstacles don't seem that big a deal for Bioware.

Mass Effect had two voice overs (one male and one female), which in my opinion greatly increased the replay value. I've been looking forward to a game where a company would take the time to do this with multiple characters, on a broader scale. Speaking of which, Bioware is suppose to be doing just that with "The Old Republic".

As for "taking the bitter with the sweet", as I've already said, this is something that hinders a game's overall value a great deal for me. It's like putting a cherry made of poop on top of a large pristine sundae. It's just how I like my games. I'm just not into role playing enough to enjoy "imagining" what my character can or should sound like. While it may feel more immersive for those who argue the "get an imagination" side of the fence, I actually feel less immersed in a game during scenes where everyone else is speaking, but my character does not. But unlike Oblivion and Fallout 3, where you're always in a FPV in conversations, I feel it's even worse for Dragon Age's speech moments, because Bioware still has it set up cinematically, where you see yourself and the person conversing, but for the most part your character just stands there doing nothing.

Naturally these games still work, and Dragon Age: Origins is fantastic, but this has always been something I've been adamant about. Having mentioned it (and as another example), I loved Oblivion, and would play it to no end if there was content continuing to support it. However I do still think it would have been far more amazing if it took the cinematic approach that Mass Effect did (and like The Old Republic will).

[FVD]

Looks like I may have to pick this one up, after I'm done with Assassin's Creed 2 (which I've just started to play)...