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Some "insider" Dragon Age info

A decent 20 minute combat preview can be found over here.
 
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PC Action, A German Magazine, gives Dragon Age a 91% score:

http://greywardens.com/2009/10/german-magazine-pcaction-rates-91/

"PCAction is one of the big game magazines in Germany. In their latest issue they got to test Dragon Age Origins and rated the game with 91%, although mentioning it has a few flaws here and there. The following text was translated by Google.

They still exist, the story teller, whose lips it is to miss just not a word about. Bioware good care a whole bunch of them in his closet, to make me happy as role players. Clear to me is emblazoned on every corner, almost level with a sign saying “We can make Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson as” contrary to me it should be right, because I stand on this kind of fantasy times. I do not need no vast, contiguous Open World, in any case I lose only the orientations in constantly. A little more attention to detail in matters surrounding graphics would have been nice and Dragon Age, but also with the travel system and the user interface, there are small but excusable flaws.

Hundredweight tome that the rules “for beginners” will include a bone-dry presentation … Role playing was so füher. I hated it! But for epic stories and adventures, so I took that into sales. But then came Bioware. The forging combined the strengths of the genre with Hollywood flair and ease of use. Wonderful! With Dragon Age, Canadians now supply from an absolute master-pieces – and leave the competition final stand like shoddy trainees!

Pros

* Great storytelling
* Great staged fights
* No questbugs found
* Neat monster design
* Nice soundscenery
* High replay value

Cons

* Unfinished class balancing
* Silent main character
* Sometimes unfair random battles



Here's the German source: http://dragonage-game.de/#468
 
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Webslinger said:
* Silent main character
Click to expand...

I don't consider that to be bad thing.

Did we really want Commander Shepard's lines to be voiced in Mass Effect? You might have, but I'm not sure that I wanted that.
 
Chris Priestly said:
We are happy to announce that BioWare will be releasing the Character Creator from Dragon Age: Origins on the 13th of October. This will give you 3 weeks to play around and get your Player Character just right before launch of the game on November 3rd – 6th.

What we have managed to do is get the awesome BioWare dev dudes/dudettes to break off the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator from the main game so you can download it as a separate application to your PC. Once you have downloaded and installed the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator you will be able to “pre-create” characters for use in the PC version at launch.

The Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator will allow you to create numerous different characters before launch and experiment with the different classes, races, and create multiple faces for the 6 Origin stories and save them to your hard drive for safe keeping until the game is released.

As you may be aware we are extending the BioWare community with a new social community site for Dragon Age: Origins. 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. You will be able to log into the new Social community site with your existing BioWare forums account name and password, and update it to the new social site account. Characters created with the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator can also be uploaded to your account from within the Character creator. Once logged in to the social site, one of the first things you will be able to do is use one of your uploaded characters as your social website avatar for your profile on the new social website forums (yes we got that in!!), exciting stuff! Stay tuned for more information on the social website from now through launch.

UPDATE

We are planning on making the Character Creator and opening the doors to the new Social site at 10am Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday October 13. Check your local time zone to see what time it will be available in your area.

Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator Details
Download location – BioWare/Dragon Age: Origins website (A link will be made public when ready)

File size - Maximum file size 320meg.

Languages – Available in English, German, French, Polish, Russian. Also available in Czech, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish with English Voice Over.

System specifications to run the Dragon Age: origins Character Creator – The Character creator runs on the same system specs as Dragon Age: Origins. Please check the FAQ here for more information: http://dragonage.bioware.com/game/faq

The character creator is currently only available for PC users.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to this . . .
 
Darth_yoda said:
Have you guys heard about this:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/10/08/bioware-announces-free-dragon-age-dlc/1

It appears that some of the DLC will be free to those that buy the game legitimately.
Click to expand...

Well, I knew at least one came as part of the Collector's Edition if my memory is right. There is a bonus content disc included. It seems that if everyone is going to also get some free DLC that part of the purpose of getting the Collector's Edition somewhat vanishes.

I have to admit that I've seen quite a few people complain about purchasing CE releases of games only to see people who purchased the standard version wind up being given the same game content bonuses for free. That is a ripoff and a slap in the face to the people who purchased the CE, IMHO. People who paid the extra money for a CE release deserve to get more and have it be stuff that the non-CE owners can't have or, at the very least, the standard game owners can have but they have to pay to purchase those additional items.

The above being said, if they give 2 free DLCs then that is pretty cool. It would be nicer if they gave all 3 but it was never planned, as far as I know, for the third DLC, which they will charge for, to be completed when the game was released and if they did give it away for free then they'd cut into their profits.
 
Dragon Age Character Creator and Bioware Social Site are live

http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=698275&forum=135

Chris Priestly said:
Hi Everyone

We are pleased to launch the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator and Social website. To access BioWare Social site:
1) go to http://social.bioware.com/login.php
2) log in with your BioWare forums user name and password
3) you will be prompted for some additional information - fill it in and follow the instructions
4) start browsing the site!

To download the Character Creator:
1) go to http://social.bioware.com/login.php
2) log in with your BioWare forums user name and password
3) you will be prompted for some additional information - fill it in and follow the instructions
4) Go to http://social.bioware.com/charactercreator.php
5) Choose your language
6) Download
7) Visit the Social site while you install.



Technical Requirements:
XP MINIMUM SPECS
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
650Meg HD space

VISTA MINIMUM SPECS
OS: Windows Vista with SP1
CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
RAM: 1.5 GB or more
VIDEO: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
650Meg HD space

RECOMMENDED SPECS
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP)
VIDEO: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 2.8 GHz or greater
650Meg HD space
Click to expand...
 
http://blog.bioware.com/2009/10/13/character-creator-and-the-bioware-social-network/


"As a little bonus we are also giving away an exclusive in-game item for those folks that upload their newly generated character into BioWare’s new community platform: BioWare Social Network. Upload your character and come Nov 3 Get ready to slip on The Lucky Stone:


dlc_luckystone.jpg


This old stone, set in a golden ring, has been an aid and companion to dozens of adventurers across innumerable years. Its trip to Ferelden was long and convoluted. Some say it has a life of its own.
Stats:
~ Adds +1 to all all stats.

You can check the new BioWare Social Network here: http://social.bioware.com
 
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Sweet. I'll work on mine this weekend. I have to figure out what I want for a character though. Ugh. Decisions decisions.
 
Bioware has plans to release content for Dragon Age for the next two years (at least):


Dragon Age Origins Interview: Executive Producer Mark Darrah (click for the full 3 page interview)

J: So you’re the producer on Dragon Age: Origins, correct?

M: That’s right; I’m the executive producer, which is just a fancy producer title. What that does mean is I’m not only working on the production stuff on Dragon Age: Origins, but I also do all the other production stuff for that franchise, such as novels and the pen and paper game. But if we were doing two titles in the franchise, I’d be in charge of both titles.

J: So what other stuff are you working on besides the game?

M: So right now there is a novel coming out before the game, and another novel coming out along with the game. There is a pen and paper game in the works. We have apparel deals. We are working with a company to potentially get swords made. We also are working on comic book, and a few other things just in a planning phase at the moment.


J: So have you talked much about the DLC that is going to happen in the future?

M: Yeah, we have plans that stretch out for basically two years. And it’s going to be everything from really small stuff like item packs up to larger quests that might last an hour or two up to even fully fledged expansion packs. Really it’s a broad long term support plan for the game."
 
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One part of the interview that did stand out to me was the following:

"M: There are 800,000 words of voice recorded dialogue. So that’s a lot. And then there is just over a million words total including all the codex’s and player responses."
 
http://www.gameshark.com/previews/3454/p_0/Dragon-Age-Origins-Hands-on-Preview.htm

"This game is good. Really good."

and

"[Bioware] is clearly thinking bigger than a single video game or even series of video games. Much bigger. Dragon Age, as a property, represents nothing less than a sword point aimed squarely at the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, even though no one would come out and say as much on the record.

Sure, the Dragon Age video game is the biggest piece of the pie and most of this feature is devoted to it, but it also didn’t take much time in the great white north to see that the scope of Bioware’s plans for the IP are much broader. This is just the first cannon salvo.

The game’s lead writer, David Gaider, already has two Dragon Age novels out on the market. Talk to lead designer Mike Laidlaw and you’ll hear all about extensive plans for official downloadable content for Origins, which we now know should keep coming for at least the next two years. Co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka are more than happy to talk up how excited they are about the world-building toolset and social networking site, and how they’ll work together to make the mod-community for the original Neverwinter Nights look like a mere proof of concept. Talk to executive producer, Mark Darrah, and you’ll hear plenty about all the non-video gaming plans they have for Dragon Age, whether it’s the pen and paper RPG system or even a likely board game and card game. And one can only assume that there’s plenty going on behind closed doors that they won’t begin to speculate to us press wonks. Who has time to talk sequel when every available finger is already stuck in a different pie? "
 
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Gaming Trend Preview Part 1

Gaming Trend Preview Part 2

"The press members at this event talked about the game all night. Dinner, Bowling, and the bus ride to and from was filled with chatter about the unique origin stories and how each of us had a completely different experience based on our decisions. The game was universally loved across the board - I can’t tell you how much that never happens. At the end of my 10.5 hours with the game, I had only uncovered 16% of the world. The sense of scale in the game became immediately apparent to me at this point. Whether Dragon Age: Origins holds up over time has yet to be seen, but I can tell you that, based on the time I’ve spent so far, Dragon Age: Origins is easily RPG of the year."
 
I think this game will be one of the classics for a long time to come. Especially given all the content that we're going to be seeing over the next 2 years at least. I can't wait.
 
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