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Some "insider" Dragon Age info

Webslinger

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http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=45574&page=52&postcount=1550

Derek French works for Bioware.

Derek French said:
We don't have anything finalized for the digital versions. For the most part, the digital versions of Dragon Age will use whatever the respective digital distributors use, but as I said, nothing is finalized yet.

The retail PC version is using a simple disk check.

So think "Sims 3" with respect to the disc check.

Game comes out Nov. 3rd.

The PC version is already finished. The holdup is due to stupid console players ;) : http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php??t=45574&p=1907728&postcount=1562

Desslock said:
Because of the delay for the console ports, the PC game has been ready for a long time - even if they've still been tweaking and cleaning up a few things.

Chris Priestly said:
Interesting fact, by polishing the PC version and shipping it with the 360 version, we have added an additional 65 quests into the game for the PC and console versions.

Desslock said:
FWIW, the reviewable build I've had for a few weeks is rock solid - in over 80 hours of play, it hasn't crashed once and is very polished. No issues whatsoever aside from a single journal entry that improperly recorded the resolution of a quest (the Conor quest, Bioware guys).

Desslock gets his RPG reviews published in PC Gamer Magazine (U.S.A.)


Desslock said:
"If you've been looking for a party-based RPG with tough tactical combat, Dragon Age is definitely for you.

Which is not to say it's combat intensive - it's actually very dialogue heavy, and most fights feel like heavily designed, challenging, setpieces. The awarded "achievements" for keeping your character alive in combat are well-earned."

A Polish site (?) has already reviewed the game:

http://www.cdaction.pl/

"The overall rate is 8.5/10.
Pros: multi-threaded plot
climate
combat
great possibilities for development
length

Cons: looks old school
some fights are difficult like hell even at lower difficulty
levels (difficulty levels)

There are additional rates for
- graphics: 7/10
- music: 9/10
- playability 9/10"

1) The graphics won't be great (I don't care). Reviews may ding the graphics.

2) The game will be huge (great).

3) The game may be tough (great for me).


3 of 5 English moderators will be buying this game.
 
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Can't wait. Some new food for the 5870. :D Seriously, though, I do enjoy these types of games even if they aren't my best games. Should be a lot of fun.
 
This game makes use of "friendly fire". So if you have a caster in your party that casts a large area of effect damage spell (say a giant fireball or something), your other party members better not be in the target area.

That's normal in regular D&D rules, but not even Neverwinter Nights 2 made use of friendly fire unless the game was played in a high difficulty setting.

Friendly fire is normal for Dragon Age. So yeah, I can see how this game might be considered tough.
 
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Dragon Age character creator to be released Oct. 13th

http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=696540&forum=135

Derek French said:
Free to download for anyone with an internet connection, hard drive space and minimum system requirements.

Since it is using the game engine, you could consider this a hardware test for your computer and Dragon Age: Origins PC. If there Character Creator works on your system, then the game should start up just fine.

The Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator is a subset of the main game using the same graphics and audio engine. You will only be looking at your character on a "stage" so it will tell you if your computer can start the game up.

The Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator will not tell you how your computer will run the game during a large combat encounter.

Christ Priestly said:
this is for the PC, not the console versions. The sliders in the PC do not match up with the console versions. Sorry.

Even though you cannot transfer your character, you can still download the Character Creator and play with it to get an idea for what your character could look like.

You can see the information about the skills, but you do not select the skills in the Character Creator. The Creator will focus on the different races, origins and visual look of the character.


Ric Williams said:
Exciting stuff!
I have been playing with it for a couple of weeks it's very cool. The team have done an amzing job with the character creator and the new BioWare social network will be fun too.
Not as cool as the game ofcourse but hey think of it as an early Halloween present while you are waiting.

Sorry to the console folks.

Stay tuned more info to come!

Bioware said:
"The great news is when we launch the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator we will also be launching an open beta of the new social community site."
 
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Warden's Keep DLC

http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=696539&forum=135


Warden's Keep (translated from German)

The Premium download package Warden's Keep offers players of Dragon Age: Origins, a new adventure in the depths of the fort, buy new armor loot as an ancient horror of the guards, the possibility of two of six mysterious new skills, as well as a new base including retailers and a group-chest in which they can keep their hard-won loot. Warden's Keep The adventure is based on an ancient myth of the Dragon Age universe, which states that the legendary, known as the Gray Guard protector of the country for two centuries were driven out in a storm of blood and betrayal of the country. The guards were until recently in exile, and their fortress is now overgrown and supposedly cursed. In the course of many years, numerous legends about the tremendous wealth and forgotten knowledge are created that are to be found at this hidden spot. However, no one has ever ventured there, also returned. Warden's Keep giving players the opportunity of this long-lost chapter in the history of the Gray Guard fathom. With the help of her faithful companion and a new leader, the players of Dragon Age: Origins the mystery behind the downfall of Warden's Keep can be ventilated and finally recapture the fort for the Order.

Chris Priestly said:
August 12, 2009 Update

When you buy the digital version (and only the digital version) of the Collector’s Edition you get the Warden’s Keep for free to compensate for no actual cloth map nor the metal collector's box (both cloth and metal are hard to download).

Those who buy the box version of the Collector's Edition or the regular version of Dragon Age do not get Warden's Keep for free.

Looks to be 6.99 EUR.
 
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Collector's Edition info

It's about $5 U.S. cheaper through online resellers.

http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=689474&forum=135

Christ Priestly said:
We are pleased to announce the contents of the Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition.

The Collector’s Edition is a premium package available in limited quantities featuring exclusive Dragon Age: Origins collectibles including a unique steel case, a cloth map of the world of Dragon Age, a Making-of documentary DVD, a digital version of the Dragon Age: Origins 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. Check with your local retailers for pricing.

As an added bonus, Dragon Age: Origins (both original and Collector’s Edition) includes two special pieces of downloadable content: The Stone Prisoner, as well as a suit of Dragon Age themed armor that can be used in Dragon Age: Origins as well as in the upcoming BioWare Shooter RPG, Mass Effect™ 2 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 Dragon Age experience. The Stone Prisoner is available to original purchasers of new copies of Dragon Age: Origins at no additional cost. The Stone Prisoner can also be purchased separately for $15.

In addition, players who purchase a new copy of Dragon Age: Origins (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 Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2.

All gamers who pre-order Dragon Age: Origins 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 Dragon Age: Origins item for a limited time. Players should check with their favorite retailer for additional pre-order item offerings.

Please check out the pre-order page for more details: http://dragonage.bioware.com/preorder.html

To clarify, anyone that purchases a new copy of Dragon Age: Origins (original or Collector’s Edition, via pre-order or at launch, digital download or retail) will receive a code to download the Blood Dragon Armor, a set of themed armor that will give the player additional protection in combat. This armor will be available in Dragon Age: Origins on any platform. It can be used in both Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. The armor is platform agnostic – meaning, for example, if someone buys the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins they will be able to download the armor for every available platform of Mass Effect 2.

The Stone Prisoner download pack featuring Shale will be available at no additional cost to all players who purchase a new copy of Dragon Age: Origins, whether it be on PC, Xbox 360 or PS3, the original version or Collector’s Edition, via pre-order or at launch, digital download or retail.

Pre-order is not required to access the bonus content of the Blood Dragon Armor or The Stone Prisoner.

August 12, 2009 Update

When you buy the digital version (and only the digital version) of the Collector’s Edition you get the Warden’s Keep for free to compensate for no actual cloth map nor the metal collector's box (both cloth and metal are hard to download).

Those who buy the box version of the Collector's Edition or the regular version of Dragon Age do not get Warden's Keep for free.

All retail and digital version of Dragon Age: Origins, Collector's Edition or Regular, pre-order or not, include the code for the character Shale as well as the Blood Dragon armor.
 
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System specs

Windows XP Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows XP with SP3
CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater
AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater
RAM: 1GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Windows Vista Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows Vista with SP1
CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 2.2GHZ or greater
RAM: 1.5 GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Recommended Specifications
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 2.8 GHz or greater
RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space
 
some strategy

Some insight into classes . . .

Desslock said:
Classes are distinct - you can't turn a Mage into a fighter-mage, for instance. You'll have to opt for a fighter, rogue or mage - they all play very differently despite some overlap in powers. Skills can be chosen by any character, even though in other games you'd typically associate them with specific classes (like herbalism, for making potions; stealing; trapmaking -- those aren't confined to mages, rogues, etc. as you might intuitively expect).

Mages are also extremely powerful, but vulnerable, almost to the extent of the older editions of D&D. They're also very customizable - one mage will play very differently from another based upon the wide range of available spells (you can try to be a jack of all trades, but at high cost, since you could instead progress in the 4 ranks of spells to choose from in each specialization.

But mages are uber-dangerous, which also fits well with the background lore of the setting. While in most D&D games typically one of the easiest ways to blast through the storyline is to have a band of fighter types, that wouldn't work as well in Dragon Age, where combat is really tough without a mage's AOE damage and crowd control spells and healing (no clerics, so mages fill that role too).

In my primary playthrough, for most of the game I ended up using 2 mages, a warrior and a rogue (my main), which is a mix that I don't think I ever used in a D&D game.
 
Very cool CG Dragon Age trailer can be found here (of course, I'm a guy and find women wearing
almost nothing in the snow completely believable)

This does not represent gameplay at all, and the graphics here are obviously much better than in the actual game.
 
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Game Informer gives Dragon Age 9/10:
http://gameinformer.com/games/dragon_age_origins/b/pc/archive/2009/10/05/review.aspx

"In the middle of reviewing Dragon Age, I had a couple vacation days scheduled. During my long out-of-state weekend, the game was constantly popping into my mind – how I could have won a fight differently, or how I might spend my next few talent points. As soon as my flight landed back in Minneapolis, I didn’t even fight the urge; I drove straight into the office and spent an entire Sunday night in front of the computer fighting darkspawn and saving Ferelden. The number of titles that can foster this level of dedication and obsession are few, and Dragon Age: Origins is among the best of them."
 
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Awesome. I can't wait for this to come out. I can tell you that I'll be taking my time with it, though. I don't expect to finish this one quickly. Batman I beat in 3 days. This will not be one of those games. :)
 
Awesome. I can't wait for this to come out. I can tell you that I'll be taking my time with it, though. I don't expect to finish this one quickly. Batman I beat in 3 days. This will not be one of those games. :)

A single playthrough is between 40 and 100 hours, and there are 6 different origins you can play, so yeah . . .
 
A single playthrough is between 40 and 100 hours, and there are 6 different origins you can play, so yeah . . .

This will be one of those games that I won't play exclusively until it's done like I do with a lot of other games. (Wolf notwithstanding as I had so many problems with it I moved on to other games but keep going back to it from time to time) I still have WET to play, as well, so, this is a REALLY good year for games for me. Dragon Age, though, will definitely take me MONTHS to "beat it" (if there is such a concept on this type of game).
 
These posts got me pretty pumped for the game:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1917838&postcount=1699

Joe. M said:
Is there a "good/evil meter" in Dragon Age? It's a small thing but I always find those kind of cheesy. I'd prefer some degree of uncertainty rather than knowing exactly how an NPC is going to react to me (unless you're one of those weirdos who goes 100% evil or 100% good in your choices).

Desslock said:
You can tell what each companion thinks of you at at any time - i.e. there is a visible "meter", but it's personal to each NPC.

NPC influence is a timesink (and it's possible to "game" it through giving gifts) but a pretty rewarding one -- companions have a ton of dialogue, so you'll miss a lot unless you buddy up to them (and miss the romances, of course), but even then there's a lot of context specific dialogue, so you'll never hear it if they aren't in your party during the event -- or if another companion that they riff off of isn't also in the party at the time. They also have some decent personal quests, and the conversations that companions hold with each other while you're walking around are also substantive and relevant, far beyond the amusing little barks they'd have in BG, for instance.

But playing with different mixes of companions will be one of the biggest sources of replayability - they're all pretty interesting and different.


http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1916919&postcount=1666

Naeblis said:
Again with the binary decisions in a Bioware game. Good/bad, black/white, defend/attack, side A/side B.... always with the same ****. Or new ****.


Desslock said:
Hey, as I mentioned in my review, BioWare games usually have 3 choices - good/bad/petulant teenager-nobody-ever-chooses-option.

While I definitely think that's a legitimate criticism (which I share) of past games, it's not true of Dragon Age generally, which does a better job of providing choices that seem varied and reasonably viable than almost any RPG. Dragon Age is a significant improvement in that respect. To be honest, it's the first BioWare game that (at least) matched the style of Troika/Obsidian, old Black Isle games in that respect - BioWare games have always had good stories and generally solid dialogue, but their method of storytelling has been simpler. There's an amazing amount of choice in Dragon Age.

Sure there are some quest instances where you have to elect to help, or not, but even when there's only two end results in those circumstances, there's different ways to arrive at those endings - the bottom line is, the choices just feel more "natural", less like you're gaming, and are more ambiguous and intriguing, so you're more likely to choose a personalized path based upon the character you're roleplaying instead of just "gaming" the result you think you want to have.

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1916973&postcount=1675

Naeblis said:
I hope for a *plausible* world and magic system. Nothing of that D&D crap.

Desslock said:
I think you'll also like the way magic is handled in Dragon Age, then. Mages are ******* dangerous and treated as such. They're lobotomized, hunted down, forced into training, or executed.

People aren't using light spells to walk their dogs - the clergy have no magic (and are opposed to it, for possibly legitimate reasons) it's a relatively low magic setting. It's a testament to the quality of the writing that reactions seem alternately sensible and atrocious, but always plausible.

It's the way stuff like that is handled that makes Dragon Age the "mature" RPG that I really enjoy - not the animated puppet sex.


http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1918218&postcount=1708

Balasarius said:
So what are the odds this will be fully playable at launch with a minimal of bugs?

Desslock said:
I can't even imagine how difficult this game was to QA, given all the choices and variations, etc. -- crashed zero times in 121 hours, no bugs, one incorrect journal entry (which had no affect on gameplay). It's actually amazing that there weren't evident scripting errors. Actually maybe one incident I can think of where characters acted like you had knowledge of something that I hadn't actually seen. but very clean technically.

Only technical issue is that system requirements are pretty high, especially given the nature of the graphics. Unfortunately, given the protection labyrinth I had to go through to get a build, I was only able to install the game on one of my systems, so I only saw its performance on a high end machine (video card seems to be key). I previously played it on a mid-range card at BioWare for a preview and it was fine - it was a slideshow on a low-end card, however.

Desslock said:
Mid-range anything that was a good video card over the past 3 years (i.e. geforce 8800 GTS+). Anything more recent is certainly fine. I wouldn't recommend it on the official min-spec of an ATI x800-gen card or geforce equivalent.

I played it at 2560x1600 with AA maxed though on a high end current card and it was completely smooth, as you'd expect.


http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=45574&page=58


Jakub said:
Dammit, you guys are sucking me in with the lore.

Ben Sones said:
Yeah. This is where they should have focused their marketing efforts. A deep RPG with a thoughtful, interesting setting feels a whole lot more "mature" to me than the awkwardly edgy gorefest/dating game that we see in the trailers. I'm really not sure what they were thinking when they came up with that whole ad campaign.

Shimarend said:
It was even weirder that they were so defensive about the criticism of it.
Desslock, your posts here are really making me wish I could play this.


Desslock said:
I spent almost a whole page of the review (in a sidebar) on this exact point.

Nice to have 8 pages to work with, heh.

Tim James said:
Look what happened, Desslock, you've made everyone swing around completely with the hints you're dropping. I hope the final verdict in your review (and everyone's experience) goes along with this or there will be a lot of tears!


Desslock said:
Yeah, it seems like my 43/100 rating might be a shock.

jking obv (joking obviously)

LesJarvis said:
Thanks a lot for all the info, Desslock. I hadn't paid much mind to the dorky ad campaign, but it's good to know for certain that the tone of the game doesn't match up to the way their marketing department has presented it. I look forward to reading your review, though I'll probably wait until I'm a ways into the game before doing so.

Desslock said:
I never put spoilers in my reviews, FWIW.

There are definitely some goofy things in Dragon Age that the ad campaign foreshadowed -- the game is almost fetishistic with its use of blood splashing all over melee fighters (although it worked for John Boorman in Excalibur), and the animated puppet sex is among the silliest content I've seen in a RPG...the European developers do sex in RPGs better, not surprisingly - or at least they have more fun with it.
 
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Dragon Age: Origins Exclusive Team Interviews

http://www.gameshark.com/features/635/Dragon-Age-Origins-Exclusive-Team-Interviews.htm


Here's a small snippet:

"I wanted to ask about the more recent marketing of the game. It seemed to take a different turn from where it had been, prior to the acquisition by EA in particular, into something much edgeier, the “New Shit” video, a lot more emphasis on the blood and the sex. Do you think that’s helping get attention for the game and if so, is it getting attention in the right way?

That’s an interesting question. It’s funny because it actually took place well after the EA acquisition happened. What I think it’s done is - the New Shit and that kind of stuff - is that it sat quite a few people back in their chairs. And the people who had been die-hard followers of the game for quite a long time - they watched all the old videos and that kind of stuff - a lot of them reacted negatively. And I think the reason they did is because they were worried that a marketing shift meant the entire game had changed. And, of course, they were excited about the game that they knew. They were worried that, “Wait! What are you doing?” Right? Like, “You must have changed everything!”

I will happily say that this boat is far too big to turn that quickly. This is the Titanic and the iceberg of shipping this damn thing was well ahead of us at that point. What it did do, I think, is it inspired a lot of debate, which is good because it does raise visibility. But it also brought people that may not have paid any attention, like, “Oh, it’s got a dragon. Yeah, I don’t care.” But suddenly, it’s like, “It’s got a dragon and rock and roll and what does that mean?”

And the thing about that, at the time, was we were basically hitting the notes of violence as Dragon Age is a game that is more visceral and is more punchy than many others. So, by giving it a more violent soundtrack than people were expecting, I think it actually had the impact of driving that point home, like, “Look, wow they have big battle scenes. They have persistent blood on their armor so when you come out of a fight…” So, it was all valid stuff that was in the game. And the end result is people flaring up about it to a degree, but also remembering and paying attention and I think that’s important for any game to have people aware of what’s happening.

And at no point did we ever say we changed anything. I think the hardcore guys were a little worried, but since then we’ve gone, “Okay, so now we’ve talked about violence. This month we’re going to talk about lust. This month we’re going to talk about betrayal.” You have to hit the points of the game and each of those has their own way of presenting it. More recently we talked about the music of the game. We talked about Zur and Audrey Ashburn and those haunting lyrics she did"

Which was wonderful stuff.

Yeah, and it’s entirely different in tone. So, that’s always the challenge in anything that’s 80-90 hours [of gameplay].

Now, with the edgier stuff, do you think people who see that and do like it, when they get the game are going to feel like it was represented in an accurate way?

That’s a good question. I don’t think they would feel particularly betrayed. It was all overlaid over the top of imagery from the game, stuff that happens. I think the tone of the game, right away, in almost all the origin stories is fairly dark, whether it’s your first choice, being to execute humans who have stumbled too close to your camp with in the Daelish elf origin, or starting off as a thug for a crime lord in the undercity. So, the tone is right, it’s right there. And when you enter combat, the first time you see a head come off it’s like, “Well, okay. There you go.” And beyond that, if anything, I think it was an invitation for people who didn’t know the game to look beyond just one trailer.

Is the hope that maybe some of these people who don’t play in the classic Baldur’s Gate RPG kind of genre – a genre they’ve completely ignored up to this point – are able to find something they like?

That’s exactly it. RPGs, I think, have a – if any genre has a hardcore fanbase, those who love it – because they come out so rarely and because they are such memorable experiences that it’s very easy to become a convert and to become an RPG guy. You know what I mean? [Points at self.] I’m waiting for the next one. I want it to come out. I’m in that camp. I know this. But there are other people who appreciate story. The same guys who will choose a shooter like Call of Duty where you’re staggering out of a helicopter after being nuked. Those sequences that just draw you right in. They [other gamers] appreciate that the same way an RPG player does. What they may not be looking for is like, “Oh, dragons,” where they’re worried it’s gonna be very staid and very slow. While Dragon Age certainly eases you into the action, I think it hits some notes that are surprising enough that you get a sense of the tone and get that feel of this is a little bit darker and grown up.
 
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