Gaming The Inquisition's Here and It's Here To Stay: The Dragon Age Series

sooo... has anyone else watched the other trailers on the bioware website? looking really good.

and those comments about the graphics a few months ago, i don't think it's terribly applicable considering the type of game this is. top down, turn based kinda RPGS don't really HAVE amazing graphics in any case that i've seen. and that doesn't bother me. i play those more for the story and so forth.

from the sounds of it, we're looking at a fairly epic story in length and so forth. especially since they're trying to get back to what baldurs gate and such were like, that would more or less mean that an epic story is NECESSARY to get back to those kind of roots. and then there's the editor/world builder they are including, which means this game could end up like NWNs and all of the user made content with that. now if there was only some way to get that stuff avaiable on the 360... that would be awesome.

:snoopy

 

I'm still looking forward to it.

 

I've been looking forward to this game for a while, but I just found the cinematic to be awfully bland.

 

i'll give you that it could definitely use some improvement. hope the rest are better. guess we'll be finding out. but the cinematics aren't really why i play these either.

:snoopy

 

When it comes to RPGs, I'll take smooth gameplay and epic storyline over graphics every time. And by epic storyline, I mean both an external epic story - characters vs. the world - but also an internal epic story - how the characters themselves interact. Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights II, and Knights of the Old Republic blow games like The Elder Scrolls and Icewind Dale out of the water for me specifically because of the party interaction. I want my choices to change how my party members think of me.

 

Which is why the lifeless dialog in the video bothers me.

 

ok... so there's LOADS of new info about dragon age. most of it can be found on the dragon age website, along with system specs (finally have a vague idea of if my computer'll be able to handle it or not) and a lot of other stuff including trailers and such. looking better as time goes on.

all that said, there's been an... interesting thing coming from kotaku, and here's the link: Massively Single Player RPG

sooo... speculation on what THAT might be?

 

Yeah, I read that a couple of days ago. Pretty interesting. I am not sure what that means exactly. Perhaps they're just saying it's that big of a game, that it almost competes with an MMO...? I am not sure.

 

Sounds familiar. Games such as Fable II and Demon's Souls could be described as Massively Single Player. You can see other people playing the game, you can interact with them in a limited way, but you're not playing against them.

Sounds like Dragon Age might have similar features.

 

Do we have a trailer?

 

From IGN:

Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition Revealed.

[image=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RqFkCgI3L._SS400_.jpg] [image=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DUHqfibL._SS400_.jpg]

(Limited Collector's Edition on left, standard version on the right.)

From the article:

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[color=blue][b][i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] Fans Sign Up for Free Downloadable Content, Unique Pre-order Packages and Exclusive [i]Mass Effect 2[/i] Content

August 12, 2009 - EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA ? August 12, 2009 ?[/b] Leading video game developer BioWare?, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced the [i]Dragon Age?: Origins Collector's Edition[/i] and pre-order incentive program*. The Collector's Edition is a premium package available in limited quantities featuring exclusive [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] collectibles, including a unique steel case, a cloth map of the world of [i]Dragon Age[/i], a Making-of documentary DVD, a digital version of the [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] soundtrack, game trailers, wallpapers, strategy tips, and a concept art video, plus three exclusive downloadable items that will provide special advantages to the player.

The Collector's Edition is available for pre-order today at www.eastore.ea.com for an MSRP of $74.99 (console) and $64.99 (PC) in North America.

As an added bonus, [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] (both original and Collector's Edition) includes two special pieces of downloadable content: "The Stone Prisoner," as well as a suit of [i]Dragon Age[/i]-themed armor that can be used in [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i], as well as in the upcoming BioWare Shooter RPG, [i]Mass Effect? 2[/i] on all available platforms.

With "The Stone Prisoner" download pack, players will have access to Shale, the mighty stone golem who can become one of the most powerful party members in the game, and comes with its own personal back-story and unique quests for the player to discover. "The Stone Prisoner" will also include new environments, items, and hours of additional gameplay, further deepening the epic [i]Dragon Age[/i] experience. "The Stone Prisoner" is available to original purchasers of new copies of [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] at no additional cost. "The Stone Prisoner" can also be purchased separately for $15.

In addition, players who purchase a new copy of [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] (original or Collector's Edition) will receive a code to download the Blood Dragon Armor, an exclusive set of themed armor that will give the player additional protection in combat. This armor will be available for use in both [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] and [i]Mass Effect 2[/i].

All gamers who pre-order [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] will receive the Memory Band, an in-game item that can be equipped to add +1% to all gained Experience Points, and which adds one bonus point that players can use to boost their character's skill set. In addition to the Memory Band, several leading retailers are also offering a bonus [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] item for a limited time. Players should check with their favorite retailer for additional pre-order item offerings.

In [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i], players take the role of a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians. Now, as a rising evil threatens to destroy all life, it is up to players to unite the shattered lands and slay the corrupted dragon known as the Archdemon. To restore peace, players must make ruthless decisions, and be willing to sacrifice their friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind.

[i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] will be released on November 3rd in North America, and November 6th in Europe on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC. The PLAYSTATION®3 version will follow later in November. [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i] is rated M by the ESRB. For more information about [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i], visit www.dragonage.com.[hr][/blockquote][/color]
Anyways, I'm getting this. Not just because of the bonus item in

 

Also:

The opening cimematic trailer has just gone up. Lots of blood in this game, looks like.

Is that the voice of Al-Mualim from Assassin's Creed (and Dagra Dai from Ninja Gaiden II) I'm hearing?

 

I've seen a few gameplay videos and I'm getting a little tired of seeing ridiculous and over the top armour and weapons in RPGs of late.

Maybe it's just me, but I can only suspend my disbelief so far.

Anyway, I'll get this for sure, but I'm just not as excited about it as I should be.

 

I like the idea of starting at the bottom of the social caste and moving up from there, and dwarves are cool

Me too, except for the dwarves are cool part. I'm glad they seem to be using traditional fantasy races and names. I'll know what is what right off the bat instead of going WTH is a Drummer, etc

 

Just went up an hour or two ago:

IGN: Dwarven Noble, Hands-On

This part was interesting:

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[color=blue]If you create a dwarven noble character, you begin the game as the middle child of the king (you can create a male or female character). You have older and younger brothers, which creates some tension in the entire who-gets-to-inherit-the-throne question. But dwarven society is rigidly divided in castes, which makes for great dialogue options as you can have your Second (your companion/bodyguard/advisor) act as the intermediary in all of your discussions if you don't want to interact with anyone of the lower caste, which basically means everyone else, since you're practically royalty. [hr][/blockquote][/color]
First of all, the bodyguard-dude's voice sounds friggin' awesome, and I love the power you wield. I like how he just leans against the wall and crosses his feet at the end of the intro video. Shows that the characters can do more than just stand around and talk, and that the game has some realistic body language.

This is going to be my second origin.

It sounds like BioWare are going out of their way to craft some genuinely new, actual, honest role-playing opportunities for people who are into serious RPing, as opposed to mere, WoW-style level-grinding. I don't know if I could make myself be enough of a douche to make use of that particular feature in-game, but just the fact that it's there is awesome. Similarly, BioWare seem to be making the romance options among the most sophisticated yet seen in gaming. This was a recent post by David Gaider, the lead writer of the game:

[blockquote][color=blue][hr]"For the player who chooses to pursue a romance, and then have a sexual relationship with the love of their life and doesn't want anything tawdry -- that's completely possible. In fact, you can have that relationship without it becoming sexual, as well, we don't even force the sex on you in order to continue the relationship, as with BG2. The romances in DA are by far the largest and most complex I've ever worked on.

"Just because the player could pursue a more tawdry path doesn't mean they have to. If someone's objection is to things that exist in the game which they have no interest in pursuing anyhow, but they don't want other people to have access to, then I'm sorry, but that's what the rating advisory is there to advise them of. If the mere presence of such content is problematic for then, then they should make their purchasing decisions accordingly." [hr][/color][/blockquote]
So, according to the DA:O [i]Tome of Knowledge[/i], Mages with the Shapeshifter specialization gain a +2 bonus to Constitution and a +1 bonus to Armor. Presumably, other specializations also gain appropriate bonuses. I'm curious as to how these bonuses are applied. When a specialization is unlocked, do all party members with an eligible class gain the bonuses from it? Do you gain the bonus only when you take your first Talent from that specialization? Do you perhaps gain only a part of these bonuses for each Talent taken? Or is it by some other method, like an addition to the automatic attribute bonuses gained as you level-up?

Even when you played as a true class rogue in [i]Baldur's Gate[/i] and [i]Baldur's Gate II[/i], there were all kinds of ways you could play, from a Thief to more of a ranged character, or even pretty decent in combat. Now with DA:O, there's more specializations than ever to play through. For those who don't remember, the specializations are: Assassin, Ranger, Duellist, and Bard.

You can make almost any kind of character you want with this setup. Spies, archers, thieves, combat-types, bounty hunters using traps, and according to the [i]Dragon Age[/i] wiki, you can also use two-handed weapons and sword-and-shield styles for combat, as well. In addition to the specific Rogue talents, nobody's really will be the same.

I like Dexterity-based fighters, so the Duellist sounds interesting. I also like stealth-kills, à la [i]Oblivion[/i], so the

 

Yay, sorta real romance where the goal isn't just to bang em and the plot ends!


I'll end up being a bard/jack-of-all trades because I won't be able to decide on a real class. Unless its like Oblivion where you can just eventually get uber at everything. Haven't read up on it, but I hope not

 

I would love to play a Bounty Hunter-type, since I loved all the special traps, etc., that the class came with in BG2. But since there isn't a class like that...the Ranger class might be a rough equivalent in this game, perhaps with additional skills in traps.

But my favorite BG2 class by far was the Thief Swashbuckler. Not sure which class in DA will be the closest resemblance. Probably the Duellist, so I might go for a Human Noble Rogue Duellist.

Also, the story apparently ends when it ends, à la Mass Effect and pre-"Broken Steel" Fallout 3. Once you enter the last section of the game, there's no turning back. Kind of like Ilos. There'll undoubtedly be a warning associated with it. There'll be a "playable epilogue," but it won't be just like a free-roaming section of the game. You'll likely be taken back to significant areas of the game in a preset or mildly variable order.

No old quests will be able to be returned to, nor will new quests be available, from what I'm reading. It'll be a wrap up of the story, but you won't simply see the credits roll after you kill the final boss, either.

You mean like Buff Shepard, my legendary Mass Effect character?

Buff was a Vanguard, and his Shotgun was his best friend. He also had unprotected sex with Liara, and didn't feel any remorse about spreading diseases. That's how Buff rolls.

Buff Shepard: Renegade without a cure...

 

I was the same Bard all the way through BG 1&2. Kinda sucked, but he was mine!

Second time in BG2 I was a kensai (no armor, dual swords) who dual-classed into a mage. Made the game too easy.

And I did all three romances, they did totally just abruptly end after you did the nasty.

 

I think it's great that there's now tons of info available via the Dragon Age wiki, but I was kinda disappointed to find that Elves only gain a bonus to Willpower and Magic skills. In almost any other game, an Elf gets a Dexterity bonus, but now it's the Dwarves that get it...seems to be a bit of a role-reversal, there.

We know that the origin story plays the same, no matter what race you pick. However, someone figured out how our stats will benefit from our racial and class choices, doing the math. These are the beginning stats BEFORE allocating the five points you get at character creation:

Human Mage:
Strength - 11
Dexterity - 11
Willpower - 14
Magic - 16
Cunning - 12
Constitution - 10

Elf Mage:
Strength - 10
Dexterity - 10
Willpower - 16
Magic - 17
Cunning - 11
Constitution - 10

The Elf bonuses bug the heck out of me. I though DA was taking their Elves away from the constant, "I'm so frail, I can only be a Mage for my preferred class"-bit. It's just kind of funny, really. Especially with the Dalish Elves being so specifically talented with hunting means. The Elf profile specifically says the Dalish live by the bow, and that City Elves have to scrounge for a living. That all implies Dexterity.

The racial benefits of Elves do seem little strange, considering there are two unique Elf origins only for non-Mages. Then again, you get 3 attribute points every level, so the +4 bonus doesn't really matter in the long run.

Also, "Templar" versus "Champion" looks to me like they will probably play differently enough to be unique classes/specializations in themselves, and it suddenly makes the class-system very interesting.

 

Except for Aerie, she popped out a baby in ToB.

And yeah, Kensai/Mage is well known as the stupidly powerful class. Can't wear armour? Doesn't matter any more!

 

All right, I think I got this whole specialization-bonus thing figured out:

According to what I'm reading, buying into a class specialization (which only happens once per character) gives you the associated bonuses and the option to spend talent points in that specialization's talent tree. Most followers start with a specialization, but you can also spend points on additional specializations. That's good. I was still trying to figure out how specialization points constituted a "pool," if you could only ever gain one specialization.

You gain specialization points by leveling up. I don't remember the exact levels, but 7 points sounds about right for the first.

Theoretically, as I understand it, you can unlock specializations at any level, provided you can complete the requisite story-content you need to unlock them. You can also start the game with all specializations unlocked if you've unlocked them in other playthroughs. Having a specialization unlocked provides no immediate benefit. One of the developers addressed this issue:

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[color=blue]Spending a specialization point to take a specialization provides a one-time stat-bonus, and it also unlocks new spells/abilities unique to that specialization. Abilities unlocked by a specialization are purchased with the same talent points that are used to purchase all other abilities.

All points, not just specialization points, do not have to be spent right away. Unlike NWN or KOTOR, you do not level up one level at a time if you have multiple levels saved up. DA is more like ME in this way. You level up automatically, and points are added to their respective pools to be spent whenever you want. Other than maybe specialization points, there doesn't seem to be much benefit to saving points up for a long time, though. At least that's been my experience.[hr][/blockquote][/color]
I'm still wondering how many points we are able to receive in total over the course of the entire game, and how they're spent, since there are only four specializations for each base-class (Mages get Shapeshifter, Spirit Healer, Blood Mage, and Arcane Warrior, for example).


[quote=MarcusP2]Except for Aerie, she popped out a baby in ToB.[/quote]
Stupid trollop...in my game, she ended up picking Haer'Dalis over me.

 

Haerdalis was lame, I never included him in my party. Emo like Xan from BG1.

 

These days my favourite class is Bard-Blade for the protagonist. Not only is it very, very powerful... it makes a lot of sense for a kid raised on stories and tales in Candlekeep. I wasn't a huge fan of Haer'Dalis either, though.

Though I do often go back to paladins. "Ulicus", though it might've been derived from a Star Wars character, was first born as a name for a Baldur's Gate Paladin.

 

A morality-meter in a BioWare RPG?

Not this time.

From the article:

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[color=blue]Most RPGs tie the player to a very explicit code of morality, defining their personal character within varying shades of good or evil. In these situations, saving someone would be considered a good act, while killing someone else is frequently seen as a vile deed. These extreme points of view frequently don't take into account that there could be more to these actions than it would initially seem. For example, players might discover that saving a person allows them to commit heinous crimes that you'll have to deal with later, or that killing a supposedly innocent person prevents the deaths of dozens or hundreds of others. On top of this, aside from agreeing or grousing about a decision, the impact on your party is relatively minimal. As a result of these limitations, you play more to a pre-defined sense of good and evil than making your own path, determining what works for you.

BioWare is hoping to break players of these limits in their upcoming RPG, [i]Dragon Age: Origins[/i], by eliminating the morality scale that places a character's ethical progression on a good/bad meter. Instead, whenever you come to a conversation with a potential moral dilemma, you're presented with a variety of choices. None of the choices are particularly tinged with any principles that you need to follow or avoid for a particular overall goal; you are given free reign to act however you want in a situation. As a result, you feel as though you're free to act based on what you feel is appropriate to that incident and the characters you're talking to. That's not to say that you won't have to deal with consequences of your actions, because specific decisions that you make will affect the world and characters around you, either resulting in an immediate impact or setting in motion items that would be resolved later. These consequences will also affect your immediate party, potentially improving or destroying your relationships with them outright.

I won't spoil any major plot points or conversational elements, but I will try to highlight this flexibility within the game by telling you of a few sections from the town of Redcliffe, one of the locations that you and your party will visit in your travels throughout the land of Ferelden. A once-thriving town at the base of a grand castle, Redcliffe has seen better days -- night after night, the village has been continually attacked by hordes of monsters that whittle away the defenses of the weakening town guard. As you and your party arrive, the town is bracing for what could be the final assault upon the town; either the militia of the town will stand and destroy the creatures, or they will fail and be wiped out utterly. It's completely up to you as to whether or not you want to get involved in the battle and help the townsfolk out or continue on your quest to destroy the darkspawn that infest the land. If you choose to leave, it's a safe bet that Redcliffe would be crushed. However, that would probably eliminate the chance of getting help in the future, so I chose to help in the defense of the town. To accomplish this task, I was sent to talk to Murdock, the mayor of the village, who has a number of problems. He needs as many men as he can get with fighting experience or desire to defend the village, and he needs equipment. However, he has a shortage of both: The blacksmith, Owen, has closed the smithy and refuses to fix or work on equipment at all. Similarly, a dwarf named Dwyn, a veteran when it comes to combat, has shut himself into his house and refuses to come out. It was up to me as to how I want to resolve these situations and prepare for the battle. [hr][/blockquote][/color]
Lots more at the article-link. So, the conversations are like if [i]Fable[/i] and [i]Mass Effect[/i] had a baby? Cool.

Honestly, I think this game looks great, apart from one crucial detail: the main character's lack of voice in cutscenes. It just feels kinda

 

Somehow I missed this game completely and only found out about it last week. I've watched a few vids and read up on it and now am very excited! In a way I'm glad I missed most of the hype for this over the past year. Now I only have to wait a month and a half!