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

[Pugnate]

I have such high hopes for this one. It is a return to the D&D style RPGS... minus the D&D.

[idolminds]

Dragon Age: Origins to be released on another platform....the tabletop.

BioWare and Green Ronin to Publish Dragon Age Pen & Paper Role-Playing Game
BioWare’s Highly Anticipated Epic Fantasy Video Game Gets the Pen & Paper Treatment

EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced that Green Ronin Publishing will launch a pen and paper role-playing game (RPG) based on the highly anticipated video game, Dragon Age™: Origins. The pen and paper game extends the Dragon Age universe, making it more accessible to passionate RPG fans looking for another way to experience the epic fantasy world of Thedas.

"We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way - a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. "Our development teams craft rich, deep worlds, and this is an excellent way to expand the franchise."

"Dragon Age: Origins has been described as the spiritual successor to BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate™, one of the most highly-acclaimed fantasy computer RPGs in the world, so when BioWare approached us to do a pen and paper version, we had to say ‘yes!’," said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. "With our work on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Black Company, and Thieves’ World, dark fantasy is in our blood and Dragon Age: Origins is the best in its class. An opportunity to collaborate with BioWare on Dragon Age: Origins was not to be missed."

The Dragon Age pen and paper RPG will be available at card shops, book and comic retailers in summer 2009. The first release will be a boxed set -- perfect for new and experienced role-players alike. Green Ronin plans to release additional boxed sets and supplemental books, expanding the Dragon Age world even further.

Dragon Age: Origins from BioWare invites players to create their own heroes and join the fight against the darkspawn in a world of violence, lust and betrayal. The game will feature deep character customization, challenging decisions, and a wealth of gritty, mature plots that, combined with the BioWare heritage, make it one of the most highly-anticipated releases of 2009. Dragon Age: Origins is scheduled to release this fall on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC.

Dragon Age: Origins is rated RP by the ESRB. No PEGI rating is available at this time. For more information about Dragon Age: Origins, visit www.dragonage.com. Pre-order the game now atwww.eastore.ea.com.

[MysterD]

Dragon Age: Origins - "The Violence and Sex Trailer"
Holy crap...

[Pugnate]

haha

[MysterD]

We've seen lots of good RPG-type of footage and also the BG-type of party-based footage already and all -- so, that's good. Definitely what I want in a RPG.
I was already looking forward to this one just given the above stuff...but sheesh...

Toss me also some of this extra-level of violence and sex...
This games look like it'll have everything!

Color me *bloody* impressed!

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, it was a pretty impressive trailer.  It'll be nice to have another mature, serious RPG.  I felt that kind of stuff added a lot to The Witcher, not so much because any one thing (such as the sex) added that much, but because it took some of the feeling of restriction off, made the dark setting feel actually dark instead of merely dim.

[MysterD]

That couldn't have been said any better, Que.
100% agreed.

[Pugnate]

Dragon Age: Origins - "The Violence and Sex Trailer"
Holy crap...

So I learned the other day that the trailer wasn't some fanmade revision of some E3 trailer, but an actual EA trailer.

I agree with Kotaku (for the first time ever!) in that it almost seemed amateurish. I actually laughed when I first saw it because I thought it was some fan made thing, with the dumb Manson music, and the silly sex/violence and all. If that was an official trailer, I can't say that I liked it. It wasn’t actually too much better than the Age of Conan trailers, which I thought were pretty average… and I have just set higher standards for this than AoC.

I know a lot of other old school Bioware fans were a bit ticked, since Bioware had been hyping Dragon Age as the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate II, and ended up releasing a rather shitty trailer that sorta focused on violence and pointless awkwardly animated sex scenes. I think the music really pushed everyone over the edge.

While Baldur's Gate II had a lot of gory violence, and even a bit of sex (not shown, but written), and was overall a very dark RPG, its main attraction was its rich and complex world complemented by some fantastic storytelling. It wasn’t just the adult themes, the violence, nor the stellar writing (the relationships with Viconia and Jaheria, anyone?) that made the game “adult”… it was the more subtle nature of it all.

This trailer left me with mixed feelings. Taking the time to establish a deep world with a fine narrative should have been the trailer’s first priority, and sex and violence would have fit in fine with that as well. This trailer was too 'in your face'.

Lastly, I have to comment on the visuals. I have to say that I agree with the guys at IGN and The Giantbomb etc., that the graphics look a few steps behind Mass Effect.

To me, that isn’t entirely surprising, considering the game was actually in development long before Mass Effect. What is sorta disappointing is the somewhat generic looking art direction… especially after the creativity shown in Mass Effect. 

I loved those werewolves movement animations though.

Here is a link to the HD version of that trailer:

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14290725/dragon-age/videos/dragonage_trl_violence_050809.html

edit:

Should note, that I am not saying that Dragon Age won’t have a deep and rich world… I am just saying that I wish we had had more of a peek at it in this trailer.

BTW, it looks like that was the 360 trailer, which completely explains the direction behind it, and even the visuals. The trailer sorta makes more sense to me now that I know the target audience.

[MysterD]

Since we've seen a fair deal of the gameplay vids and stuff that do show off the game -- which does indeed look like a spiritual successor to BG2, with the strategy elements and the decision-making RPG stuff, if you ask me -- this new trailer showed one thing I wasn't really too sure about: how violent will this game really be on-screen?

Well, finally, I got my answer -- and I liked it. The violence looked off the charts!

This game looks like it's gonna have everything I've been looking for in a RPG, if you ask me. To me, this looks to be The Witcher meets BG2 -- The Witcher b/c of adult-orientated gameworld and BG2 b/c this is a strategic-RPG; and also it looks to be a cross b/t the two games b/c both games have that "your decisions will influence the game's outcome" going on.

[Pugnate]

Yea D, I saw the gameplay vids, interviews etc... but I think this was the first official trailer in years? I didn't find the E3 ones that impressive either.

[MysterD]

The trailer was called "The Sex & Violence Trailer" -- probably for a damn good reason, too.
 
What did you expect from *this* trailer?
Did you expect *this* trailer to show you lots of deep strategic elements and all kind of RPG elements?

This trailer left me with mixed feelings. Taking the time to establish a deep world with a fine narrative should have been the trailer’s first priority, and sex and violence would have fit in fine with that as well. This trailer was too 'in your face'

We've already seen a good deal of gameplay vids and That GT Trailer that showed off the epic-RPG side of things that we come to expect from deep Bioware type of RPG's.

Do we really need to see the same type of stuff all over again, Pug?

[Quemaqua]

Huh... I didn't hear the music because I was on my laptop at the time.  Now that you mention it, though, I think I did see some text in a corner saying what the song was, but I didn't really pay much attention.

Manson of all the fucking people.  That really fucking sucks.  Not only that they'd have something like that in a trailer for a game of this type, which is horrid regardless, but that they'd pick such an awful one.  But of course they would.  It doesn't matter what genre, all the licensed music in any EA game is always the worst kind of slop that exists, so I guess it makes sense they'd do that to this as well.

What's really vexing is that Bioware would even allow it.  The trailer did seem a little... sub-par.  But it was what it was, showing the mature nature of the game.  But tossing the music in on top of that is fairly... awful.  That changes the entire spectrum of what colors they're showing, not to mention how seriously one can take it, and it does seem to really play up the wrong qualities of what we think when we think "mature".  It's not sending the right message at all.

[Pugnate]

The trailer was called "The Sex & Violence Trailer" -- probably for a damn good reason, too.
 
What did you expect from *this* trailer?
Did you expect *this* trailer to show you lots of deep strategic elements and all kind of RPG elements?

We've already seen a good deal of gameplay vids and That GT Trailer that showed off the epic-RPG side of things that we come to expect from deep Bioware type of RPG's.

Do we really need to see the same type of stuff all over again, Pug?

Being the first official non e3 trailer, I didn't expect a Manson inspired trailer. Just because they named it as such doesn't mean I have to like it, right? I mean it wasn't bad... but I personally feel they should have established the important things as well.

Huh... I didn't hear the music because I was on my laptop at the time.  Now that you mention it, though, I think I did see some text in a corner saying what the song was, but I didn't really pay much attention.

Manson of all the fucking people.  That really fucking sucks.  Not only that they'd have something like that in a trailer for a game of this type, which is horrid regardless, but that they'd pick such an awful one.  But of course they would.  It doesn't matter what genre, all the licensed music in any EA game is always the worst kind of slop that exists, so I guess it makes sense they'd do that to this as well.

What's really vexing is that Bioware would even allow it.  The trailer did seem a little... sub-par.  But it was what it was, showing the mature nature of the game.  But tossing the music in on top of that is fairly... awful.  That changes the entire spectrum of what colors they're showing, not to mention how seriously one can take it, and it does seem to really play up the wrong qualities of what we think when we think "mature".  It's not sending the right message at all.

Yea I think the music choice was pretty much what vexed a lot of Bioware PC fans. I mean, after many years of absence from the PC scene, this is kinda supposed to be our game.

Having said that, I am not that unhappy now that I've realized it debuted on the 360 first, and was designed for the console crowd. I guess it is just marketing, so Bioware is allowing it. The song has no place in the game's actual soundtrack.

You can see what the thinking was. They thought they already had the PCRPG fans in the bag, when Ray Muzyka announced the game was the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.... and this was designed to attract the sorta fans who wouldn't give a damn about old school PC RPGS, but would still be semi interested in something like Oblivion. It struck a lot of right notes with those people.

[Xessive]

The only input I have is.. When it comes to trailer music it's tough to beat Miniature Replica Soldier!

[Pugnate]

Some weird news about this game from the forums:

Apparently, the world has no weight (huh?). Your characters can carry as much as you want.

http://daforums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=678057&forum=135&sp=0

Also, any thread on the DA trailer is getting locked lol.

[MysterD]

Some weird news about this game from the forums:

Apparently, the world has no weight (huh?). Your characters can carry as much as you want.

http://daforums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=678057&forum=135&sp=0

In the thread, a Bioware developer says there is an ITEM limit -- which can be increased and decreased, as you go along, though.

EDIT:
Hmmmm...you know, Gothic series DOES NOT have weight limits.

[MysterD]

Interview w/ Mike Laidlaw of Bioware
GameSpot VIDEO Interview w/ Bioware's Bioware's Mike Laidlaw about Dragon Age: Origins

Demo Impressions
Here's some Demo impressions from Kotaku
GameZone has their impressions on the same Demo
Videogamer.com has their impressions on playing 30 minutes of gameplay
G4 Impressions on DAO

[Pugnate]

Where are the summaries dude? Who is going to click those links. Do it!

[MysterD]

Okay.

From Kotaku's demo impressions.

Dragon Age: Origins isn't just a role-playing game, it's a world of violence, lust and betrayal. Or so says BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw who walked us through the game last week at Electronic Arts.

Does spicing up an RPG with a trifecta of sins give the game enough to separate it from all of those other role-playing games out and coming out?

What Is It?
In role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins you play as a Grey Warden, an ancient order of warriors and mages fighting to stave off a demon invasion.

Oblivion or Diablo, anyone? :oP

What We Saw
I played a section of the game that had my group taking on Uldred, a mage who has made a deal with the demons and is now converting other mages to his way. After an initial chat with Uldred he becomes a fairly large demon himself and begins laying down the demon hurt.

How Far Along Is It?
Due out later this year, the level we played seemed very polished.

What Needs Improvement?
Clutter: With four characters to control and plenty of spells to go around, the screen can get pretty packed when you throw in enemies. The different view modes help, but zooming back all of the way to a view reminiscent of Baldur's Gate sort of defeats the purpose of all of those spectacular graphics.

Confusion: It was a little difficult in the heat of battle to figure out when a spell landed and what it did. Granted they dropped us into a very difficult level with four characters to control and a room full of demons. It still would be nice to amp up some of the spell effects though.

What Should Stay The Same?
Conversation System: Borrowing heavily from Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins conversation system has you selecting from a variety of choices displayed in a list. Your choices then trigger a fairly well voice-acted conversation.

I liked the Mass Effect conversation system, myself.

This next stuff sounds like the typical Bioware set-up for their strategic RPG's (like BG). Sounds solid, to me.

Intuitive Controls: Character portraits are lined up along the left side of the screen and spells along the bottom, World of Warcraft style. You can switch characters on the fly by selecting a portrait. Movement is controlled with the keyboard and you can zoom in and out of the scene with the mouse wheel.

...

Live Pause: The game can be paused at any time by pressing the space bar. Maybe after you've been playing the game for hours the pause button won't be necessary, but it was invaluable while trying to learn the ropes.

The Look: Graphically, Dragon Age: Origins is amazingly slick. The detailed graphics were backed by a butter-smooth framerate. This was all on a high-end PC, not a console, so that may not be the case for PS3 or Xbox 360 gamers.

I'd like to know how it ran on a mid-range PC. I'd expect it to run smooth (hopefully) on a high-end PC!

Final Thoughts
Dragon Age: Origins looks like a high-end blend of World of Warcraft and Baldur's Gate, blending the best of both worlds in a dark heroic fantasy setting.

[Pugnate]

I'd expect it to run really smoothly on a high end 8 series card.

[MysterD]

I'd expect it to run really smoothly on a high end 8 series card.

I'm hoping the processor requirement is Single Core Processor.
I really want this game, when it gets released and all.

EDIT:
Dragon Age: Origins "War Dog" Trailer released.

[Pugnate]

The fact that core development on this engine was complete three years ago, I don't see it taking advantage of a multicore system. But I could be wrong.

Don't worry D, the main thing is that vid card. Should run it nicely for you.

[MysterD]

I hope so!

Hey Pug, how'd you like the "War Dog" trailer?

[Pugnate]

I like that little piece of music when Dragon Age pops up on screen.

[MysterD]

DA: Origins - Redcliffe Village Trailer

[MysterD]

Release Date
October 20th is the official release date for this one on the PC, PS3, and X360.

EDIT:
GameTrailers TV E3 09 Trailer from GTTV / Spike TV
The Dark Spawn Trailer (from E3 09)

[W7RE]

PC RPGs have always been a genre I've been interested in but never really given much of a chance. I've got to say that the Dragon Age marketing makes me want to get excited. The impressions of violence and rawness I get from the talk about the game, and the metal soundtracks to the trailers pique my interest. I guess I don't fall victim to marketing much because most marketing aims for a general audience, and thus misses the markf or me. This makes me feel like they specifically made the trailer to get ME to buy the game.

[MysterD]

Bioware pretty much had me with this one with "Return to BG" style of strategy-RPG's.
I've been longing for another BG for quite some time. Especially given the current overdosage of one-man to two-man shows for heroes/heronies we seem to get today.

Of course back in the BG days, many PC RPG's had bigger parties -- IWD series, BG series, PST series, Fallout 2 (if you got a high enough skill), etc etc.

The fact that Bioware's DA: Origin's is gonna be ultra-violent and more adult-like is making it even easier to make me look at this one.

[Quemaqua]

PC RPGs have always been a genre I've been interested in but never really given much of a chance. I've got to say that the Dragon Age marketing makes me want to get excited. The impressions of violence and rawness I get from the talk about the game, and the metal soundtracks to the trailers pique my interest. I guess I don't fall victim to marketing much because most marketing aims for a general audience, and thus misses the markf or me. This makes me feel like they specifically made the trailer to get ME to buy the game.

This is one of the most blatant attempts at marketing to the masses I've ever seen.  It doesn't fit anything that the usual fans of the genre are interested in and is attempting to use sex, violence, and image to sell a product to people that don't normally buy it.

[MysterD]

This is one of the most blatant attempts at marketing to the masses I've ever seen.  It doesn't fit anything that the usual fans of the genre are interested in and is attempting to use sex, violence, and image to sell a product to people that don't normally buy it.

They had me sold with "spiritual successor to BG2," a LONG time ago. The rest is just gravy on top, if you as me -- as long as it's done well, of course. Personally, this is Bioware -- and well, compared to most companies, I actually trust them.

Bioware needs to bring back the huge party-based RPG -- I miss it, myself. We ain't seen a truly great one since BG2 and PST. Sure, there's been pretty good ones -- NWN: Hordes (Expansion) and NWN2: Mask of The Betrayer (Expansion) -- but is there anything else really in recent years? The games have felt more

Personally, I really hope the hardcore strategy and deep decision-making RPG stuff can find its way to appealing to those in the masses who these trailers are trying to lure in -- which are those whom otherwise normally wouldn't be lured into this kind of game, otherwise.

Que, do you think the usual gamers into the more hardcore strategy and deep-decision making RPG stuff are going to be turned off by how "adult" this gaming is trying to aim itself for? Do you think they're ignoring these trailers and still gonna buy the game? Or do you think they'll say, "What the hell? I ain't gonna buy this shit now...!"

Personally, I'd like to see more games aim for the adult nature The Witcher and DA: Origins are aiming for.

[Quemaqua]

I don't think the game is trying to be adult.  Or maybe it is and they just aren't marketing it right, but all this screams to me is immaturity.  I was pretty interested in the game and nearly convinced I should own it, but with how they've portrayed it recently, I'm now fairly certain I'm not going to buy it just because I don't want to take the risk.  Yeah, maybe it's just silly marketing and the core game is great... but what if it isn't?  Or what if there's just enough of a bent toward bullshit that rubs me the wrong way?  I didn't really have those suspicions before, but I certainly do now.

[MysterD]

I don't think the game is trying to be adult.  Or maybe it is and they just aren't marketing it right, but all this screams to me is immaturity.  I was pretty interested in the game and nearly convinced I should own it, but with how they've portrayed it recently, I'm now fairly certain I'm not going to buy it just because I don't want to take the risk.  Yeah, maybe it's just silly marketing and the core game is great... but what if it isn't?  Or what if there's just enough of a bent toward bullshit that rubs me the wrong way?  I didn't really have those suspicions before, but I certainly do now.

I think what Que, Pug, and other gamers who have been recently rubbed the wrong way need is maybe a 10 to 20 minute in-game video/trailer that shows off a lot of the storyline, strategy and RPG elements as the main components of the game -- where it just so happens to be that all the violence, sex, and other "adult-natured" stuff just so happen to be there in the background to just compliment the main ingredients when necessary.

I think The Witcher is the prime example of how to make a very adult-natured RPG. The Witcher felt like the great story, RPG elements, and decision-making elements were the true heart and core of the game -- it's just the adult-natured stuff really complimented the heart of the game when it was necessary.

[Pugnate]

Well that village trailer looked more traditional, and that female character model looked quite good. What I found funny was again the Dragon Age logo with that music at the end of the trailer. It was such a weird fit.

The Dark Spawn Trailer (from E3 09)

Haha what the fuck was that? Anyone else see this? It was just so... ridiculous with the music and all.

The problem is that we all know the game is going to be nothing like this, and won't have pop metal music or whatever. It is pure marketing, but it will leave millions of kids pissed off when they come across a nice slow paced RPG, and not something with Manson blaring in the background.

Yeah, maybe it's just silly marketing and the core game is great... but what if it isn't?  Or what if there's just enough of a bent toward bullshit that rubs me the wrong way?  I didn't really have those suspicions before, but I certainly do now.

Yea I am not too worried because these are just promo cuts. From all the gameplay vids I've seen, the game seemed a lot like PS:T or BG than 'new shit'.

[MysterD]

G4TV is showing off Dragon enemies in DA: Origins (PC).
They're showing gameplay in combat right now.

[idolminds]

Ouch.

[Quemaqua]

He could probably have gotten with her faster if he gave her a Marilyn Manson CD instead of an arcane book.

[Pugnate]

Ahhh jeeze. It is like they are trying their level best for CRPG fans to get as turned off by this game as humanly possible.

Come on.

[MysterD]

Joystiq's E3 2009 impressions on DA: Origins.

[MysterD]

David Gaider has an interview w/ Gamasutra.

Worth noting - the first page has a good story on how Gaider actually got into BioWare.

[MysterD]

Dragon Age: Origins seemed to disappoint RockPaperShotgun at E3 2009.

Leliana AND Morrigan Spoilers.

(click to show/hide)

Because as we emerged from our night with Morrigan, we went over to chat with the slightly more modestly dressed redhead Leliana, who it turns out is apparently our girlfriend. Leliana’s voice makes Morrigan’s seem Shakespearian. The delivery is so deeply weird, stunted and childish. Unsurprisingly she’s upset at our bedroom antics, and protests. But not with any vigour or passion, but rather damply complains that it’s not particularly nice of us to go sleeping with other women right in front of her.

Acknowledging that she can’t necessarily stop us from sleeping around, she meekly asks that we either stick just with her, or have the grace to break up with her as we continue our conquests. We choose to tell her that we love her really. She immediately capitulates and welcomes us back into her arms, before you’ve washed the smell of the last woman off you. So romantic! Here my notepad reads, “Pathetic.”

Well, this could be a very interesting angle w/ the devoted woman always being there for you despite you, the player (pun intended), sleeping around...if done right. I hope the game doesn't leave it at that -- that y'all stick together and all is well for you two "lovebirds".

If you take this path, it should and could be MORE interesting if after this all occurs, Morrigan decides to try to cause some sort of trouble for the player, Leilana, or even both...

Or hell, if Leilana is so possessive, she tries doing something to Morrigan...or any other girl you do decide to sleep with...