Topic: Dragon Age: Origins -> Update: DAO Ultimate joins GOG

[MysterD]

NEWEST = 7-14-2016:
GOG = Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition; Dead Space; and SimCity 3000 join GOG's DRM-FREE club.

David Gaider Interview on DAO
Eurogamer -> Summary of a David Gaider interview on Dragon Age: Origins - what was in early drafts of the game (and not), what wound up cut out from the game, etc etc.
Youtube -> Full 53 min video of the David Gaider interview with VGS.

DA:O - Ultimate Edition
MysterD's Post on how to get DA:O - Ultimate Edition PC version's DLC Activated.[/b]


OLDER STUFF:
Witch Hunt $DLC
IGN -> 6.5 (out of 10) for Witch Hunt $DLC.
GameSpot -> 5.0 for Witch Hunt $DLC (out of 10) - ouch!
IGN -> DA:O - Witch Hunt $DLC Preview.
DA:O - Witch Hunt $DLC (Final DAO DLC) Announced.

News, Info, Etc:
1Up -> Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition - "TRAILER". This is coming Oct. 26th.
Bitmob -> David Gaider of Bioware reflects on writing characters for games.
DAO - Golems of Amgarrak $DLC revealed at Comic-Con.
PC Patch 1.04 released - around 90 MB.
Enormous patch for DA:O PC coming tomorrow. Console versions are currently in the "certification process".
DA:O - Leilana's Song DLC -> Trailer.
DA:O - Leilana's Song DLC announced for July 6th, 2010 on PC, PS3, and X360.
1Up/Games for Windows has a preview for the upcoming Bioware RPG, Dragon Age

[MysterD]

1Up w/ another preview for Bioware's upcoming Dragon Age

Dragon Age

BioWare returns home to PC roleplaying with Dragon Age
Platform: PC

Publisher: BioWare   
Developer: BioWare
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending   
Genre: RPG

Recommended by 15 out of 15 users.
by GFW Staff 12/07/2006    
Click here to find out more!

...

So now it falls to Dragon Age, the company's first PC-only RPG since 2002's Neverwinter Nights, to set things right. Join us now for the world's first look at this spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate; then hear what BioWare cofounders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have to say about roleplaying's past, present, and future.

It's only 10 in the morning, but Dragon Age project director Scott Greig has already bled for his game today.

"I managed to slice my hand on one of the practice swords," Greig says, pulling the culprit from its sheath, taking care not to disturb the fresh bandage between his thumb and index finger. "Who would have thought they'd be sharp? But it's nice having doctors on the premises...and it's, um, interesting that you can send out an IM to one guy in the company and the next day your office is filled with swords and giant axes."

What the hell...?

Greig has been with BioWare for nearly 11 years--the first official employee of the company cofounded by doctors/game geeks Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. Raised as lead programmer on Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, Greig is no stranger to BioWare role-playing games--or the complex process of making them. And today isn't the first time he's taken up arms for Dragon Age's cause.

Some recurring themes in our BioWare tour: Dragon Age's Eclipse engine tools are built to iterate, iterate, iterate; good games require a lot of back-and-forth at the back end...without having to worry too much about production time; and if a level, game, or section is just not fun, it's just not done.

Okay.

Most of Dragon Age's production efforts till now have focused on creating powerful tools, but Greig says the content will come together quickly enough for a winter 2007/early 2008 release. The tools will be made public in some form, but don't expect the ease of use of Neverwinter Nights' construction kit.

Hey, at least they plan to still release the SDK.

"It's going to take more time for the basic user to make levels," says level artist Andrew Farrell, demonstrating advanced techniques such as the ability to create overhangs in the terrain. "But there's a lot more power, and the levels will be a lot better."

Interesting.

"When we started concepting what Dragon Age's combat would be, we wanted to get a tight visual reference for the combat team," he says. "So myself, [lead animator] John Santos, and a couple others got a bunch of swords and shields and sticks and stuff and went to the parkade--the parking lot of one of Edmonton's malls--and set up a video camera on the second floor, looking down, so we could film it from the game point of view. We were out there hitting each other and going, 'I think the shield bash should be like this!' as a bunch of people across the street watched from their balcony with binoculars. Then a woman in a pickup truck came and said, 'What are you doing? This is private property!" and...well, let's say she escorted us off the premises."

LOL!

Greig and Santos show off the fruit of their loiterous LARPing in an early prototype of Dragon Age's tactical combat system. A player character in ratty armor with a shield and sword comes across three ugly orcish things in the street. At first, the camera is behind the player's shoulder--"Explore Mode," Greig calls it--but as the enemies take notice and move in to attack, the camera swings up to a nearly top-down, parkade-inspired perspective. Greig explains that you can issue commands to your party (four characters all told, at least for now) in real time, pause the action, and queue up spells and special attacks--comforting words for anyone who's ventured through Baldur's Gate. As the quartet trades blows, swords clash against swords, and weapons don't just whoosh through the enemy's polygons--they react. When the deadlock breaks, the hero raises his shield to block the foe to the side, and then swivels to the third to knock him to the ground with a shield bash.

Sounds sweet.

"We wanted to make sure that when you look at a fight, it's not just swing, swing, swing...we want to make it look like these guys are actually fighting and reacting. And we're making sure group combat is really cool--it's not just two guys fighting; you can actually have synchronized attacks with the people around you, too."

That sounds cool.

"Instead of people standing toe-to-toe," adds Santos, "you're actually seeing people duck and move and attack. Every time they get hit, you feel for them because they just got bashed in the head with something really heavy.

Sweet.

"Have you ever seen that HBO series Rome? Take a look at the gladiator fight in episode 11 and you'll get a good idea of what we're thinking of."

I didn't care for HBO's series "Rome" too much.

Anybody remember that episode??? How was the gladiator fight in that episode?!?!?!

Large-scale combat is also on the top of Greig's mind--no surprise for a game where here, one naturally assumes, there be dragons. "Remember the cave troll fight in The Fellowship of the Ring? That's what our large creature combat is going to be like. You've got the party guys running out, one guy jumping up on the back and stabbing, the other guy ducking between the legs." Objects in the environment can be manipulated in your bid for tactical supremacy: Knock over a table to fire arrows or shoot fireballs from behind cover, but only where it makes sense--emergence be damned, in BioWare's reckoning. "There will be a lot of ways of going through combat, and lots of different ways to interact with the environment...but our philosophy is that handcrafted is always better than random stuff."

Niccccccccccccce.

DRAGON YEAR ZERO
Step back in time to E3, 2004 AD, when BioWare teased PC RPG fandom with a brief glimpse of Dragon Age for the first (and for the past two-plus years, only) time. "That," explains Greig, "was our proof-of-concept test. We had just finished Neverwinter Nights and were thinking we needed to do something that's gonna be Baldur's Gate, only next-generation--with all the in-depth story stuff, all the characters, only much more cinematic and visceral. We had the idea to put together the exploration view of Knights of the Old Republic and capture the party-based action-packed combat of Baldur's Gate, only in 3D and advanced, so [that demo] was really a test to put that together...we knew it was early, but we wanted to make sure fans knew we were working on PC games, too. We'd just done KOTOR, Jade Empire was coming out, we knew Mass Effect was about to be announced [all for the Xbox or Xbox 360], and we just wanted to reassure our PC fans we hadn't forgotten them."

Cool. I still can't wait for DA.

A lot has happened since then. "We've spent the last two to three years just having artists and writers put together what the world is, what the story is for Dragon Age. [Back then], we were still working on the Aurora-engine level--NWN, KOTOR, and even Jade Empire were part of that technology chain--and realized that it wasn't gonna cut it. So we went back to the drawing board and started working on the brand-new engine, the Eclipse engine that's gonna be in Dragon Age."

Interesting.

While BioWare is loath to spoil the specifics of its world or characters, they're open about their influences--we hear George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series spill from more than one pair of lips, and the art direction takes a note from Frank Frazetta's Conan paintings. Folks utter the word "dark" at least four dozen times; "mature," "realistic," and "sophisticated" aren't far behind.

"'Dark heroic fantasy' really captures what the world is all about," echoes Greig. "The grittiness, the horror elements, blood, dirt--it's going to be a lot darker than anything we've done in the past. We still wanted to capture the high fantasy elements. There are heroes, villains, obviously dragons--it's called Dragon Age, after all--but it's more than just your standard 'take fantasy elements and toss them together' game. We wanted to make a living, breathing world that actually had a realistic feel to it. If people actually had magic, how would they react to it? If someone could walk into a room and point a finger and turn you into a fireball, this isn't something anyone would take casually. If this were history, and we had these situations with magic and monsters and creatures, how would this work out?" Even the name of the game is meant to ground the fantasy in history--this is the Dragon Age, meant to stand in a line tucked amidst the Bronze Age, Steel Age, and Industrial Age.

Sounds good to me. I like dark games.

As in any BioWare game, characters--and moral choices--tower over everything, though Greig says it isn't as simple as light-side points and dark-side points, open palm and closed fist. "Yes, you're the hero, or the antihero, depending on how you play, but it's going to be a lot more organic. You basically have to save the world, but what the world is like when you're done--that's totally up to you and the choices you make throughout the game. You're literally going to decide the fate of nations, who's becoming king, what nations are actually around after...what races are around. You're going to have to make some hard choices in the game, but we want all the choices to be clear. The player's gonna know if he does this, there's a really horrific consequence. Decisions are gonna be hard...and sort of shocking."

Ahhhh....got to love non-linearity.

But before you get to the who lives and who dies, one of the first decisions you need to make is just what kind of character you want to play-- and Dragon Age wants to make sure that, whatever your preferred poison, it's got you covered. "We use a class-based system that has levels--we're staying that close to our D&D roots. You start off with three basic classes, the wizard, fighter, and rogue, just to get you started. Very quickly, you get access to advanced classes, and even within those classes you get to customize abilities, stats, and talents--you buy points, build it up, and after a short while you'll be able to pick even more advanced classes. If you want to have a fighter-type character with magic-like abilities, there'll be a route you can take for that. If you want to be a barbarian berserker, you can do that, too...there's a route for everyone so players can build their character the way they want. There's a stupid number of class abilities and special abilities...I think it's more than in any other BioWare game."

Sounds like my kind of deep RPG.

[MysterD]

Since it's too long, Part 2 of the above post....

While character customization is grand, it poses a conundrum for writers striving to build a better, stronger character-driven narrative: How do you write a story appropriate for both a beer-swigging, meat-inhaling dwarven soldier and a holier-than-thou high elf--without resorting to prison cells, amnesia, or fresh-from-the-boat strangers in a strange land? "We've watched how people play our games," Greig says, "and found there are a few common archetypes people like to play. They'll always play the same character in different settings--if you're the 'elf archer guy,' you play that kind of character in every game. So we looked at the common archetypes and said, 'OK, we're going to let you play your character in the world, and it's going to make sense. So one of the big things we're doing is origin stories." Rather than just offer multiple endings, Dragon Age offers multiple beginnings, too.

"Say, for example, you want to be a dwarf--you'll have different choices for what kind of setting in the dwarf environment you start in. So if you pick dwarf noble, then you're part of the royal family in one of the dwarven cities, and that's where we start you off. And you spend the first hour or two of the game interacting with that world. You get to learn all about the dwarves and the plots that are going on, and major things happen to you personally. We also introduce at that point a nemesis for you--not the main villain in the game, but someone who's going to be dogging your footsteps throughout Dragon Age, and eventually you'll have to come face-to-face and deal with him. Your nemesis will be different depending on your origin.

Ooooooh....multiple beginnings.

And having a continous nemesis for the entire game sounds pretty damn cool, too.

"One of the other options is a dwarf commoner--pick that, and you start off working the sort of dwarf underclass. The nobles have their honor, but you start off down in the gritty and real dwarf environment, and you have to struggle through the street stuff...you have to work to forge your place in the underworld of dwarf society. And it's a completely different story-- you'll run into some of the same characters [that] you would as the dwarf noble, but they'll treat you and react to you differently."

Once you've played through your chosen origin, world events intersect, and you'll find yourself pulled into the same plot as all the rest--with different twists and side quests based on your roots. "If you go back into the dwarf city, depending on whether you were a dwarf noble or a dwarf commoner or an elf or human from one of the other stories, the NPCs will completely react to you differently with different subplots and different stories that open up for you."

"We've basically covered all the major fantasy archetypes," says Greig. "Each race has a classic, traditional origin story, and then we've got one that's a lot more edgy. We're finding in testing that the unusual ones are the ones that people like the most."

Sounds like it will be heavily replayable.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Behind every good hero stands his chums--and BioWare RPGs are nothing without followers. "Every character will have access to the full set of NPCs," says Greig. "They'll treat you differently depending on the origin story, and when you get them is dependent on origin story too." Characters follow behind you in Explore Mode, and BioWare is strongly pushing the idea of party banter. Greig compares it to Saving Private Ryan: "There's a part [in SPR] when they're just walking though the area not doing anything, but the banter going on really brings them to life. We're trying to capture that."

Cool.

As for A.I., "It's not just me and three meat Popsicles," Greig continues. "These are living, breathing characters...all the NPCs that join you have different agendas. If you say, 'I'll side with this faction,' that'll obviously please some of your party members, but others will say, 'I can't believe you just did that.'" Morally driven banter is one thing (party members in Knights of the Old Republic would often chide you for your dark-side decisions while blindly following your innocent-slaughtering orders) but morally driven behavior is another--and Greig hints that NPCs might even go so far as refuse to fight if they feel you're way out of line.

I like the sound of this...

NPC management is similar to that of KOTOR 2; every major area you enter has a "base camp" with activities that change depending on location, and selecting the appropriate NPC for the location will be important. "When you go into the city, it's probably not the best idea to bring the 9- foot-tall war golem with you," says Greig, pointing to a character modeler's monitor where a large rock creature is on display--an imposing, runecovered "dwarven war golem" named Shale. "This is one of the NPCs that joins you.... The dwarves used to make these guys for their wars, but the art of creating them has been lost. But you run into one of these guys and he gets to join up with the party--and as the prime mover of the world, you have influence over how this guy turns out. You can explore his past and get into the details to make him a living, breathing person--as far as dwarven war golems go--or you can turn him into a blind follower who'll basically kill at your every whim." A Dragon Age analogue to Knights of the Old Republic's space-age HK-47, it seems. "You'll also be able to upgrade him--carve new dwarven runes into him to gain new powers. You'll be able to customize every one of the party members in some way."

Down the hall, Greig shows off a "visual fidelity" test--an impressive blue-tinged torture chamber where stained glass windows pour colored light on the wall and sunlight flickers on the floor in distorted waves.

"The art philosophy is 'fantasy painting come to life,'" says Greig, invoking Frazetta once again. "It's dark. It's gritty...it's all about dirt and texture detail." Over by the in-game wall, he points out "the best barrels you'll see in a videogame...running on a high-end PC, you'll see the level of detail...[we're definitely thinking about] DirectX 10 and beyond."

I hope it'll also be supported on Win XP, too....

A giant disfigured blue demon plays bouncer at the door. "The artists went a little bit overboard with him," says Greig. "You can actually see a reflection of the room in his eyes. They also actually went down and did scrollwork on the [treasure] chests," he says, zooming in ultra-close to reveal detailed elvish runes on thin strips of metal. "One of the reasons for this test was to figure out how much is too much."

But when it comes to character close-ups and conversation, detail can make or break the deal. "There are two ways to go in the game industry for cinematics," says Steve Gilmour, director of animation and cinematics. "You go can go the sizzle, prerendered cinematic route, but because we're a story-driven game company, and because we allow you to build characters however you want them to be dressed and with whatever weapon that you've given them, we focus on in-game cinematics." Even now, in-game cinematics often means blocky figures with triangular mouths and cut-rate lip-synching--but BioWare is way ahead of the curve when it comes to crafting convincing digital actors.

Dragon Age uses a modified version of the Mass Effect conversation system, much lauded at last year's E3, in which characters' facial expressions speak at least a hundred words, lips synch convincingly to speech, and dialogue trees are distilled into bullet-point "ideas" and "tones" rather than complete sentences to make conversations flow at a more natural pace. "Ours is customized to do just what we need it to do," says Greig, "and we've got some ideas on how to make it Dragon Age.specific and work for the mouse and PC. The writing in a fantasy game is different from [that in] science fiction. In Mass Effect, they're going for a 24-ish, modern type of dialogue. The language is much richer in texture in a fantasy game. The voice actors are going to be busy, that's for sure.

"Back in Baldur's Gate, if a character needed to be angry, the writers had to write angry words. Then we got to voice acting, and so the words themselves didn't have to be angry; you could just have the actors read in an angry voice. Now we actually have a lot more options--you can say an angry word, you can have an angry voice, or you can have the character just sitting there glowering."

"A level of storytelling fidelity with digital actors that we've never really had before," says Gilmour. "That's what I'd say 'next generation' really is."

Nice.

CRITICAL HITS
BioWare tends to roll 20s. "We've had the opportunity to work with some of the best licenses, IPs, and world settings," says Greig. "We worked with D&D, Star Wars...and those have been great. The license holders have been good about letting us create stuff in their worlds. But no matter what you do, someone else actually owns it, and you have to respect their wishes and desires. And we'd come up with killer ideas that just didn't fit into those world settings. If you're building your own, it gives you a chance to explore those themes.

"There's been a great tradition of D&D; a lot of our fans grew up playing it, [and] we've grown up using it, but we wanted to do something more in line with a modern audience...like the old Battlestar Galactica series compared to the new one--how they've taken the same themes, characters, setting, and brought it to modern sensibilities."

For Greig, that's something worth bleeding for.

Sweet.

I can't wait for this one, for sure.

[Pugnate]

CGW got bought by MS???

Also Dragon Age is going to be one of the best RPGs ever.

[MysterD]

From GamesRadar, new preview on this Dragon Age game

That said, some tried-and-tested formulas are also used - such as party-based adventuring. Your main character will be joined by up to three comrades. "All the characters have their own agenda," says Scott. "We're very clear about what they want, and it's not just straightforward good or evil. We're going to be clear that when you act, there will be fallout."

Cool

Your hero will also be invested with an Origin Story. There'll be two to choose from for each race - the example they give is a dwarf noble or commoner - and this choice entirely dictates your first couple of hours in-game, giving some texture and logic to your involvement in the main quest. It will be a recurring theme later in the game, too: there'll be a nemesis specific to your Origin Story who'll be back to haunt you throughout your adventure and if you, as a dwarf, ever venture back to the dwarven lands you came from, your history as well as your choices can impact the plot.

Sweet.
   

All the Origins lead to the same starting point for the overall plot after an hour or two, but their influence continues throughout the game, creating different subplots later on. For each race, there's one traditional fantasy Origin, and one that's "a lot more edgy."

Cool.

From three archetypes - fighter, rogue, mage - before long you'll get a chance to specialize your main character's class (and those of your party). Later in the game, yet another level of choice will enable you to mix and match abilities in a way old-fashioned D&D wouldn't dream of.

Okay.

Wondering about that name? Think "Bronze Age" or "Iron Age" - the game takes place in an era dominated by dragons and powerful magic. "Magic is a really big deal. If someone were to walk into a pub, point the finger and you burst into flames, that would have real consequences in the world. There'd be all kinds of controls put on the use of magic." Scott's point is that this world isn't complacent about magic, death and destruction. The idea is to make us feel the results of our actions more keenly.

Okie dokie.

To that end, in combat, weapons no longer swoosh through the polygons of your foes - Scott Greig and lead animator John Santos beat each other up with sticks and wooden shields in a parking lot to prototype how the animations should fit together. It's physical and it's brutal. Instead of people standing toe-to-toe and swinging repeatedly, they're ducking and dodging and moving to attack.

Nice

They also wanted to get large-scale combat right - presumably because there's likely to be dragons to fight. "We really want it to feel like the cave troll scene from The Fellowship of the Ring," explains Scott. "The key thing is that you're not in control of one person, you're in control of the whole battle. You've got the party guys running out, with one guy jumping up on the back and stabbing, the other guy ducking between the legs. Maybe one character distracts the dragon so another can sneak up behind it, while magic-users find cover and cast spells. Maybe your wizard turns over a table and shelters behind it. Or maybe you're under attack from a wizard behind an overturned table, and you just blow that table away."

Sweet.

Perhaps the most remarkable goal, given the complexity of the technology, is that BioWare aim to give us the power to design our own adventures, as with Neverwinter Nights. "I was the first programmer on the Neverwinter Nights project," says Scott. "We expected a certain level of community involvement, but it's gone beyond our wildest dreams. We'll be including a similar level of support for custom content in Dragon Age. But the training wheels are off. You'll be able to create a game as detailed as Dragon Age using our tools." The same claim was made for NWN, and the results ranged from paltry to professional. Yet the quality is not the point - it's about empowering gamers, letting us unleash our creativity.

It's hard to think of a BioWare game that hasn't been hugely ambitious in one way or another. In aiming to push storytelling in particular to a new level, the Canadian (and now Austin, Texax-ian) goblin-lovers are setting goals that, even if only partially achieved, will please their fans and further open RPGs to a wider, more mature market. BioWare is back and it's about time.

I'm looking forward to this one.

[Pugnate]

This will be so great.

[MysterD]

This will be so great.

I hope so.

Bioware's known for goodness and greatness.

With Jade Empire PC coming (Tuesday!), Mass Effect (for now X-360 only, probably will EVENTUALLY be a PC port some years later), and Dragon Age (PC), Bioware's future looks very bright.

[MysterD]

IGN talked to Bioware on DA at GDC 2008.

GDC 2008: BioWare Bosses Speak Out
On Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and their design philosophies.
by Charles Onyett

February 21, 2008 - BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were on hand at GDC 2008 to answer questions regarding the company's many projects and the design philosophy behind their titles. They had little to say on what's going with Mass Effect in the future, whether it will still be an Xbox 360 lead, and what exactly is going on with BioWare Austin's MMO and the Lucasarts, KOTOR 3 stories that keep popping up. They were, however, more than happy to go into their ideas on what makes a game worth playing, how to construct a believable game world, and briefly comment on the long-awaited Dragon Age.

"Dragon Age you can picture fitting back into the more core BioWare experience," said Zeschuk. "it's fun for us to get back to fantasy, there's a huge amount of passion for that." The game will take on a dark, brooding atmosphere, they say, yet remain a heroic experience. "We'll certainly have humor, but the world is a pretty heavy world. I don't think it's a direct social commentary, but there's a lot of strife…it feels very mature. It's not like a kids fantasy where there's dancing elves. It's for adults." They promised more information will start to roll out soon.

The duo sees games and their perception in the public eye at a sort of tipping point, a perspective colored by last month's controversy surrounding a Fox News report that condemned Mass Effect without actually playing the game. "It's a very exciting time to be part of the industry," says Muzyka. Zeschuk picked it up from there, "one of the premiers of one of the Canadian provinces is a hardcore gamer. Suddenly he's wanting their province to support games. That's finally when you're getting that progression point where people that are making legislative decisions actually have a context, they know what [games] are and they like them. New art forms go through these similar kinds of phases where by the end, there's acceptance."

The team is committed to the idea of games as art. "Why do you love movies that are great," asks Muzyka. "You laugh, you cry, you feel a chill down your spine, you feel like that's so cool, you just told me something about the universe. These are the things that games will do, and I think because you're actually playing them at the center of the experience instead of a passive observer watching it, you might get a more charged emotion out of it. I think games have the opportunity to be one of the most powerful forms of art."

Zeschuk chimed in with little pause in the conversation. "This whole concept of people controlling their destiny is awesome, right? It's the ultimate in fantasy fulfillment. Where's it going? Who knows? You still have to wonder, when you look at the Wii, is it a toy or is it really games? They're going a different direction. We're going for emotional engagement, they're going for entertainment." Muzyka chimed in with, "That's still emotion. You can look at narrative or emotional experiences both in and out of game. Even with the community, it's almost like layers of an onion. If you're being brought together by it, it's all part of the experience."

Before our interview session expired, we asked about what kind of rig you'd need to run Mass Effect with decent settings. "It actually runs really well on even modest machines," says Zeschuk. "It's not a Herculean powerhouse."

[MysterD]

I wish Ray Muzyka would say more than it's "looking really sweet."

Can we get some previews, more info, or something?

I think the first time we really heard about it was in what? 2004?

[MysterD]

John Riccitello of EA has basically stated that Bioware's Deagon Age can be expected sometime in Q1 2009.

Please, EA -- lose the Draconian DRM....

Saboteur, Dragon Age slated for Q1 '09
EA CEO tells analysts that Pandemic's WWII stealth actioner and BioWare's fantasy RPG won't make the 2008 calendar year.
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Jun 18, 2008 1:15 pm PT

Yesterday, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello spoke at the William Blair & Company Growth Stock Conference in Chicago. Besides revealing the existence of a new Need for Speed and top-down strategy elements in Godfather 2, the executive also delivered a double shot of less-welcome news. Namely, that two of the top games from EA's recently acquired BioWare and Pandemic studios won't be arriving this year.

When asked by an analyst about which of EA's new intellectual properties would be among its internal top 10 bestsellers for 2008, Riccitiello began listing his picks. "Mercenaries 2, Mirror's Edge, Spore, Dead Space, including subscriptions Warhammer [Online]--but that won't show up in NPD, Battlefield: Bad Company...that'll certainly get in there," he predicted. Then, the executive added "Saboteur and Dragon Age" before quickly tacking on the qualifier, "but those two won't make the calendar year because they're coming in fiscal Q4." EA's fiscal year ends on March 31, 2009, which means that both games will now arrive in the first three months of next year.

Today's revelation will be a blow to those awaiting Saboteur, which had been expected on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2008. First revealed last March, the game aims for a different take on World War II, casting players as a member of the French Resistance using stealthy commando tactics to battle Nazi occupiers. After an early version was shown to the press last year, the game has remained largely in the shadows.

Riccitiello's words were less of a shock to role-playing gamers awaiting Dragon Age, which EA previously announced would arrive before April 1, 2009. The PC game is a completely original IP, unlike BioWare's last Western-fantasy RPG, the Dungeons and Dragons-based Neverwinter Nights (2002). (BioWare farmed out development of its 2006 sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2, to independent RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment.) Currently, the Canadian studio's most public property is the sci-fi RPG Mass Effect, which was recently released on the PC after its 360 debut last year.

[MysterD]

On Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 -- just expect more to be revealed on this thing at Bioware's web page...

[Xessive]

This is actually looks an Oblivion-esque MMO!

[MysterD]

We now know Dragon Age will have the subtitle of Origins.
So, first installment will be titled Dragon Age: Origins.

With that kind of title, w/ a subtitle and all, I'd bet there'll be more Dragon Age, whether it be expansions and/or sequels, eventually, if all goes Bioware/EA's way.

Here's more....

Dragon Age Trailer to Debut on SpikeTV

Dragon Age: Origins, the highly anticipated dark fantasy epic is set to debut on GameTrailers TV airing this Friday night at 1:00am on Spike TV and Spike HD. The trailer will be available in High Definition after it airs at gametrailers.com

EDIT #1 - 1:41am on Friday, July 12, 2008:
Here it is.
Dragon Age: Origins trailer

EDIT #2 - July 13, 2008:
DA: Origins Trailer #2

EDIT #3 - July 14, 2008:
Press release for DA: Origins for the PC

EDIT #4:
Handful of screenies for DA: Origins

[MysterD]

GameSpot reports that "in the future" DA: Origins will be console-bound.

E3 2008: Dragon Age arises on consoles
BioWare's epic fantasy RPG billed as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate will arrive on unnamed home platforms in addition to PC.
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
Posted Jul 15, 2008 9:07 am PT

Compared to the information dump at Microsoft's press conference yesterday, Electronic Arts offered a relative trickle of new details at its event later that day. That's not to say the publisher's press conference was bereft of announcements, however, with EA's id Software publishing partnership on the famed developer's Mad Max-inspired car-combat/racing game Rage taking top billing.

While the id alliance was certainly a win for the publisher's EA Partners program, EA had news from its internal studios as well. Namely, during BioWare president Greg Zeschuk's demonstration of Dragon Age: Origins, the executive revealed that the game would arrive on consoles in addition to the PC. Unfortunately, the developer would only say that the titles would arrive "in the future," and Zelschuk did not elaborate on whether the title would surface on all platforms simultaneously.

Billed as a spiritual successor to the gamemaker's acclaimed Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins offers a classical Western role-playing experience of swords-and-sorcery combat and an epic storyline. EA expects to release the game as part of its current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2009.

For more on the game, which just recently received its Origins subtitle, check out the game's first trailer and GameSpot's just-published impressions from the E3 Media & Business Summit.

[MysterD]

From Bioware's boards, Scott Meadows confirms a Dragon Age: Origins SDK

Yay!

I can finally let my mouth go.

Yes we are very happy to confirm the toolset.

A fair warning though, there are still some things that I am not allowed to talk about. <looks around>

So ask away....
(What did I just get myself into?)

thx

Quote: Posted 08/15/08 23:44 (GMT) by Hugie

I just got the email (sent to people who subscribed to World Builders' newsletter) -- W00t! Long story short, the toolset for DA is confirmed. Looks like a blend of NWN1 and NWN2 GUI-wise, with the one (expected) hitch that you can't create areas in the toolset itself. Wicked sweet!

It's actually more like the style of Jade Empire toolset, upgraded though.

We were fortunate to be able to create it from the bottom up so we could tailor it to the needs of the designers a lot quicker.

thx

Will there be quest/NPC/trigger wizards?

This is one of those, You get what our developers are using answers.

There are no wizards, in the vien of NWN style, at this point in time.

That is to not say we won't do any in the future.
And it doesn't mean that you have to set every little thing before you can test out the area either.

thx

[MysterD]

More on the toolset.
Bioware plans to show it off at the Penny Arcade Expo.

Dragon Age Toolset Plans  [August 17, 2008, 2:28 pm ET] - 2 Comments
BioWare announces the Dragon Age tools and plans to demonstrate to toolset at Penny Arcade Expo at the end of this month (thanks Gamer's Hell). Word is:

    Introducing the Dragon Age Toolset
    The Dragon Age Toolset provides builders with powerful, developer-grade tools.
    Key features include:

    Create Original Adventures: Using Dragon Age's rich set of assets and locations as starting blocks, you can modify these stunning areas by adding new quests, characters and scripting to create your own adventures, conversations and cut-scenes.

    Powerful Script Editor: You can fully customize combat and creature AI to create detailed action sequences full of heart-pounding party-based tactical combat.

    On-Going Toolset Content Updates: We have plans to release additional assets and features for the toolset in the future, allowing for expanded creation of new areas.

    Live Toolset Demonstration at the Penny Arcade Expo
    The Dragon Age Toolset will be part of a stage demonstration during the Penny Arcade Expo, August 29-31, 2008, at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle, Washington.

    At the time of this writing, you can attend the live demonstration scheduled to be on the PAX main stage Sunday, August 31, at 1:30 PM Pacific Time. For more PAX information and coverage please check out our Conferences 2008 web page.

    Toolset Demonstration Highlights

    At PAX, Dragon Age: Origins Producer Fernando Melo and Senior Designer Ferret Baudoin will be presenting a 45 minute overview of the toolset for Dragon Age fans.

    The demonstration takes place in the Ruins of Ostagar area

    A quick look at the extremely flexible Face Morphing feature

    Clothing, armor and weapons will be selected giving a quick look at the variety

    Enemy monsters will be selected and placed in the area

    The new dialogue editor will be featured

    The module created on stage will be played through live in the Dragon Age: Origins game

    We hope to see you at PAX. Stay tuned for more toolset updates and information.

[MysterD]

Some vids of the DA: Origins Toolset being shown off over here

[MysterD]

GameSpot vid for DA: Origins
GameSpot preview video here for Dragon Age: Origins.
They introduce one of the new characters in the game, Morrigan -- a shape-changing mage.

GameSpot written preview on DA: Origins
Here's the written preview

[MysterD]

Brent Knowles of Bioware, who is DA: Origins' Lead Designer, is already talking about DA DLC plans and a DA Sequel

BioWare already planning Dragon Age: Origins follow-up
By Wesley Yin-Poole - 21/10/2008 - 2:09pm GMT
Will be out 'before people have forgotten about the franchise'.

BioWare is already planning a follow up to Dragon Age: Origins, and has promised fans it'll be out "sooner rather than later".

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview to be published tomorrow, lead designer Brent Knowles revealed that BioWare is already planning where the Dragon Age IP is going to go and said there are still "lots of exciting places and events for players to experience".

Dragon Age: Origins, described by Mass Effect developer BioWare as the spiritual successor to its cult RPG Baldur's Gate, is scheduled for release on PC early 2009, with a console version to follow after.

When asked if Dragon Age was a franchise BioWare intends to return to in the future, Knowles replied: "We're already planning the future, what the team's going to do, where the IP's going to go. We've spent years developing the world. There's many more countries in the world than the one you're visiting in the first game, there's thousands of years of history, there are a lot of exciting places and events for players to experience, so we're definitely hoping to see the Dragon Age IP have a really bright life after the initial release."

While Knowles couldn't suggest when fans will see the next Dragon Age game, he did say it'll be out before "people haven't forgotten" about the franchise.

"I think we wouldn't be looking at a long drought," he said. "We want to keep players engaged in it. Post release content will be coming out fairly regularly for people to download. And then we'd obviously want to have some other product out in a reasonable time frame so people haven't forgotten about Dragon Age by the time it comes out. So it'd be smart of us to have stuff come out sooner rather than later."

You can check out our first-look preview of the hotly anticipated RPG right here. Be sure to check the site tomorrow for the full interview with BioWare's Brent Knowles.

[MysterD]

9 min video here showing off Dragon Age: Origins from GameSpot.

The vid ranges from showing off how some conversations are different based on things such as race and class to showing off combat

[MysterD]

Patrick Weekes of Bioware has a 3-part ordeal on "Romances Are Bad-Ass"
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

[MysterD]

Next month's PC Gamer will feature a cover and huge article on Dragon Age: Origins

[MysterD]

Tidbits of info on Dragon Age: Origins from the latest issue of PCG

Dragon Age DRM "Different" Than Mass Effect
Feb 02, 2009 at 11:16 AM - Robert "Apache" Howarth - 14 Comments
The latest issue of PC Gamer is sporting a hands-on preview of Dragon Age. GameBanshee snipped out a few of the more juicy details in case you're interested (don't worry, there aren't any scans, ahem).

    What Dragon Age's Got
    "Different" DRM than Mass Effect
    DLC - new areas and quests, at the least
    More written dialog than any BioWare game
    Spell combos
    Item crafting
    Six origin stories
    Campaign creation toolset
    Choose-your-own-morality
    Epic dwarven beards
    Leading on the PC, not consoles

    What Dragon Age Hasn't Got
    Multiplayer

[MysterD]

Dragon Age: Origins for the PC will not be dropping first on the PC.
All versions of DA: Origins -- PC and console -- will be dropping the SAME DAY.

[MysterD]

Videos from GT & IGN
GT Video on DA: Origins in the Tower
GT Vid on Storming The Gates
IGN posted a video of this DA: Origins in action here.

Written stuff from IGN
IGN took a demo of this DA: Origins, hands-on

You can play the game from the traditional Baldur's Gate perspective by zooming out and controlling the entire party as a squad. It's more enjoyable, however, to zoom way in behind a single character and lead them around with the standard WASD setups.

Which is what you can do with NWN2 games, as well.

Attacking and interacting with objects is handled with a simple right click; there's no need to click for each attack. F1-F4 allows you to switch from character to character, but you can also switch them up by clicking their portraits on the left side of the screen. Special abilities are located in a simple hotbar at the bottom, so you fire those by clicking on the icon or hitting the appropriate 1-0 key on the keyboard. We're not sure yet how the console controls will shape up, but the simplicity of the system should make it relatively easy to adapt.

That sounds like a pretty good control set-up for the KB/mouse, to me.

One of the coolest aspects of the game is the tactics system. This is a very versatile tool that lets players set a variety of conditions and circumstances for particular actions for each character. When you open the tactical page, the game pauses and you can choose from a number of expanding lists to create specific responses for each character to take in specific tactical environments. First, you'll choose a target, either a general category of character or enemy, or a specific character within your party. The system even lets you define your targets based on health levels, class or race, distance, or attacked in a certain way or at a certain range.

With the right targets selected, it's time to associate a command with that target. Here's where you choose whether to attack the target, use a special ability like a spell or a skill, switch to different weapons, or even move to a new set of tactics.

So for instance, you might have a starting tactics with your mage to cast flaming weapons whenever your party is being attacked, or to cast a protective spell on a warrior whenever he or she is being attacked by more than one enemy at once. You might set up your long-range archers to target enemies with low armor, and then switch to melee weapons if your front line fighters fall below 50% health.

In all it's a very flexible system, and surprisingly easy to use given all the options that are available. You'll basically run through a series of collapsible menus to find just the right conditions and actions you want to take in a situation, and then you can chain a number of actions and conditions together for a specific response to a combat situation. And since you can use tactical conditions to switch from one set of actions to another, the range of options is nearly unlimited. While you can still play the game in pause-and-go mode, giving individual commands to each of your party members as needed, the tactics system gives you more security to let the AI handle the other members of your party while you focus on what's important.

That just sounds awesome.
This is the kind of tactical RPG combat I've been wanting to see more of over the years (since BG2), not less of.

Still, there are some kinks to work out of the system. We set up our mage to use a fireball on any group of three or more enemies, but we failed to specify a range at which to use the power. Whenever she saw a group of enemies, no matter how many other friendly players are standing nearby, she's just let loose and fried the rest our party.

Ick.
Hopefully, the game's AI and pathfinding will be better than any of the AI used in the NWN series.
The NWN series, the AI just sometimes liked to do its own thing for NO REASON.

Hopefully, we'll be able to refine our tactics a bit between now and the time the game is released.

Hehe.

[MysterD]

Here's an article from MTV MultiPlayer, in which he Patrick Klepek writes why a console gamer might not like Dragon Age.

Argument: Why ‘Dragon Age’ Might Not Catch On With Console Gamers
Posted by Patrick Klepek on 2/18/09 at 11:00 am.

I haven’t played “Baldur’s Gate,”

Shame on you!

...but I have played BioWare’s spiritual successor, “Dragon Age: Origins,” and after a 10-minute session (albeit one without a proper tutorial), it planted the idea this style of RPG might not resonate with players who’ve come to expect differently from BioWare.

You mean from a console gamer's perspective.

PC gamers know DA: Origins will be the "spiritual sequel" to BG series, so they know exactly what to expect -- a very tactical RPG game.

***

If you’re like me, your first experience with a BioWare RPG was “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” I knew “Baldur’s Gate” was beloved by PC gamers, but BioWare’s action-y take on traditional combat resonated with me.

“Jade Empire” and “Mass Effect” took this combat philosophy in new directions, both giving more direct control over combat to the player.

Which both of those games (Jade Empire and Mass Effect) have LESS control over tactical combat for your characters, but instead have MORE control of direct action-style of combat.

“Dragon Age: Origins,” which BioWare has billed as their spiritual successor to the now Atari-owned “Baldur’s Age” series, is not like these games. The combat in “Dragon Age” is more methodical and tactical. It actually feels like “Final Fantasy XII,” a game whose combat seemed interesting but didn’t grab me.

Personally, I can't wait for DA: Origins -- I've been waiting a good while for a good huge-party based RPG to come around.

In the 10 minutes I spent trying out “Dragon Age” a few weeks ago at Electronic Arts‘ Redwood Shores offices, I died quickly. That’s mostly because BioWare dropped me into combat without walking me through a proper tutorial, but it only takes a moment to realize “Dragon Age” combat is different than anything BioWare has attempted for a console game before.

DA: Origin's is more like an old-school PC tactical RPG, from the looks of things -- if you as me.

Like “Final Fantasy,” it didn’t hook me. It feels MMO-like, and immediately made yearn for “Mass Effect 2″ in my head. That said, if you are looking for a new “Baldur’s Gate”-style game from BioWare, “Dragon Age” looks absolutely poised to deliver. Like Stephen admitted yesterday with “Street Fighter IV,” maybe this is a case where I’m just the wrong audience.

I'm thinking this kind of tactical RPG is just not for him.

That could change, though.

We haven’t seen what BioWare plans to do with the console versions of “Dragon Age.” Maybe the interface overhaul will make “Dragon Age” more friendly to someone like me. In its current state, I can’t see how it would directly map to a controller, but BioWare hasn’t let me down yet, so I’m keeping an open mind.

Are you like me, readers? I’m giving BioWare the benefit of the doubt, but from what you’ve seen of “Dragon Age,” do you share my concern?

[MysterD]

Kotaku has some Dragon Age: Origins impressions from GDC 09

[MysterD]

Bioware is planning to have around one and a half to two years worth of DLC for DA: Origins.

MTV Multiplayer: Different game developers have had different strategies for DLC and gamers have had varying reactions. What’s BioWare’s philosophy on DLC?

Greg Zeschuk: We have a very strong philosophy — it’s got to be valuable. This is one of the most important things that we believe: anything we give to our consumers, like to sell to them, whether it’s smaller or bigger, if you’re selling something to someone it’s got to be good and it’s got to be a certain value for the money they’re paying for it.

You have to remember that video game consumers are some of the smartest, most connected people on the planet. You can’t trick them with anything, so don’t even try. I don’t think it’s so much as to trick them, as it is the strategy behind it has to be fully thought out. This is the reason that with “Dragon Age,” our DLC strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly when you’re going to do it and how you’re going to do it. Some of our fans would really like us to extend the world, so it’s going to be something that will make the world even bigger and more interesting. It’s not going to wreck it or break it.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, that worked out real well for Mass Effect and the whopping one piece of DLC you did for it, that was about an hour and a half's worth of content.  I'm totally convinced.

[MysterD]

Yeah, that worked out real well for Mass Effect and the whopping one piece of DLC you did for it, that was about an hour and a half's worth of content.  I'm totally convinced.

This is the problem with DLC -- they just don't release enough of it at once to justify all this time it was in development. Them and Valve especially have fell victim to this majorly. I did like Bring Down The Sky, but it feels like it just didn't take too long to finish it at all -- no matter how complete the story ends up, when it's done, you're still lookin' for more different quests to do. Took me about 2 hours to get through the DLC, according to my saved games.

Also, the problem w/ DLC is....most companies just ain't treating DLC right. See EA, for example -- see Dead Space and Mirror's Edge for their DLC. Some games, add very little content -- maybe 3 new skins, 3 new weapons, and/or 3 new maps -- and that's it. Who wants to spend money on that if it isn't priced fair enough for the lack of content you're getting?

With Fallout 3 DLC's, these DLC's main quest can be finished in....well, what sounds like no time. Basically, a few hours -- 2-3 hours, from what I've read. Especially compared in comparison with the rest of the content the FO3 Vanilla game comes with as is. It is fine and all that every month, they are poppin' new stuff out -- but, are they worth it? Shouldn't they be say be releasing the DLC at a cheaper price than what they are charging? Of course, all of this DLC would just be better off released in one much bigger pack every say 2-4 months -- and charging a fair price for that amount of content.

It sounds like the only real DLC that can give you lots of time is GTA4: The Lost and The Damned on the X360. Of course, could also argue that games that release substantial amounts of content in the form DLC should probably be released on disc, anyways -- since in more likelihood, everybody who is a fan of said game would want THOSE kind of DLC's.

with the way companies and dev's are treating DLC, I'm not too big of a fan of this DLC idea. I still prefer the extra content in the form of true expansion pack-sized games. Think of expansions in size like say NWN2: Storm of Zehir, NWN1: Hordes, Elder Scrolls 4: Shivering Isles, BG2: TOB.

EDIT:
Oh, another extra note about DLC -- I think Sacred 2 has a great way of doing DLC. They just seem to put new features and new content in each new patch for FREE, adding a few new quests, items, and whatnot. That doesn't seem to be a rip-off at all. I wish more companies would support their product insuch a manner -- to really ensure that I keep a game on my hard drive, even well after finishing the game's main quest. I mean, really -- what better way to keep gamers happy?

[MysterD]

Dan Tudge, who was The Project Director of Dragon Age: Origins, left Bioware for Disney.
Mark Darrah will be taking over DA: Origins as the Project Director -- and his credentials include work on BG and NWN.

Interview here with Tudge on leaving Bioware to go work for Disney.

[Quemaqua]

For Disney?  I don't know if I want to play a game that somebody that fucking stupid was leading.

[MysterD]

For Disney?  I don't know if I want to play a game that somebody that fucking stupid was leading.

I scratched my head, too.
Why would you want to leave Bioware for Disney? 

I could see if he say left Bioware to say go to Obsidian, BethSoft, CD Project RED, or some other big RPG company...but Disney? WTF?

I mean, this guy was the Project Director here on Dragon Age...That's a big role.

Yeah, this just baffles me.

Hey, at least from that article, we know the game's content is basically done and Bioware's got it in the "polishing it up" phase now...

[MysterD]

Bioware's hired a voice-over cast of over 144 different voice-actors for this game

Dragon Age: Origins voice-over cast 144-strong
by Randy Nelson { May 2nd 2009 at 12:01AM }

Oh Twitter, is there anything you aren't used for? (On second thought, don't answer that.) We know that you were recently the means by which BioWare asked fans to guess the number of voice actors working on its upcoming RPG Dragon Age: Origins. (Random, we know.) It turns out the correct answer is a mighty-impressive 144.

Our response was "one," but only because we knew this guy could do them all.

[Via That Videogame Blog]

[MysterD]

Chris Priestly of Bioware announces NO Securom Internet Edition for DA: Origins PC.
You'll ONLY get a disc check.

Hi Everyone,

I have some good news to pass on to you today that answers one of the most frequently asked Dragon Age: Origins PC questions.

We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.

Some other cool stuff that we hope you’ll like - we have already launched the Dragon Age toolset beta, which offers developer-grade tools, and we’re looking forward to what fans will create with it. We’ll also be supporting the game with a ton of great downloadable content that will be available for purchase after the game’s release. Together these features will provide some very cool reasons to go online with Dragon Age: Origins.

We’re really excited as we head towards the release of Dragon Age: Origins this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, so keep an eye out for more news as we’ll be providing you with more details shortly.

Stay tuned for more coolness to come…

[idolminds]

I hope this is partly EA letting up on the DRM junk.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome.  I'm actually somewhat looking forward to this game, despite having no interest for quite a while.  The lack of online authentication crap most likely seals the deal on a purchase for me.

[MysterD]

I hope this is partly EA letting up on the DRM junk.

As long as they don't use StarForce or any other crap like it for a disc check...

[Quemaqua]

I would highly doubt it.  What would be the point of switching to a mere disk check if you're going to use the most hated DRM that exists?

[MysterD]

I would highly doubt it.  What would be the point of switching to a mere disk check if you're going to use the most hated DRM that exists?

Well, EA did use Securom Internet Edition after everybody bitched about 2K using it for Bioshock....