Dragon Age: Origins Updates

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Shir'le E. Illios
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Dragon Age: Origins Updates

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

There has been a bevy of [url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/:19d8kmwu]Dragon Age: Origins[/url:19d8kmwu] articles popping up over the last day or so, so I thought now is as good a time as any to try and put some life back into the news section and report on them. :)

First there is a [url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/biowa ... 1:19d8kmwu]Eurogamer interview with Greg Zeschuk[/url:19d8kmwu]. It covers a number of general things like the recent forming of the RPG/MMO group within EA (putting Mythic under Ray and Greg's leadership). But there's a fair bit on Dragon Age: Origins as well.

Here's an excerpt:

[quote="Eurogamer":19d8kmwu][b:19d8kmwu]Eurogamer: When you take a dramatically different take on fantasy, as you have with Dragon Age, is there a worry that audiences might not get their heads around it properly? How do you feel the response has been so far?[/b:19d8kmwu]

[b:19d8kmwu]Dr Greg Zeschuk[/b:19d8kmwu]: I think it's going to all come out in the product itself. It's hard to say what people are thinking. Generally the feedback's been favourable and people seem to like the game, but the litmus test is how many people end up buying it. Then the key thing for us is if the whole world fits together nicely, if it's contextually appropriate, and all the activities are unified with what the world seems to be. It's a very hard game to demo and show. Back when we were pitching the good old Baldur's Gate stuff, you'd get people who would sit at a kiosk and literally play it for an hour, and you didn't have: "15 minutes! Go! Show us Dragon Age!"[/quote:19d8kmwu]
Interesting as well on page four of the interview where he talks a bit about the toolset and custom content.

Next is a video interview GameSpot conducted with Ray Muzyka. But isntead of linking it I'll cheat and use my awesome admin powers to embed the video for you:

[center:19d8kmwu][html]<embed id="mymovie" width="432" height="362" flashvars="playerMode=embedded&movieAspect=4.3&flavor=EmbeddedPlayerVersion&skin=http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... t%3D362%2F" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" name="mymovie" style="" src="http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cn ... oteus2.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>[/html][/center:19d8kmwu]

IGN then has a [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/100/10020 ... l:19d8kmwu]report on a recent demo[/url:19d8kmwu]. In it BioWare played two games next to each other, both very similar but with small changes to show how the choices you make can have different consequences. Most drastically in the demo show how a character could either become an enemy to be defeated or join your party based on who you have in your party and the choices you make. And less drastically how cookies can get you into places. They also looked at controls for the consoles.

Here's an excerpt:

[quote="IGN":19d8kmwu]In case you're entirely unfamiliar with the game, it's a similar kind of setup to the Dungeons & Dragons-based Baldur's Gate games of about a decade ago. And in case that still doesn't mean anything to you, Dragon Age is a single-player role-playing game where you roam around an original fantasy world with a set of party members who you'll talk with, fight with, and get to know over the course of your adventure. You'll need to take into account the particular moral leanings of each character if you want to keep them with you, and part of the fun of the experience should be testing out how each character reacts depending on what choices you've made and into what kind of circumstances you stumble.[/quote:19d8kmwu]

IGN (as well as several other websites) also has a couple of new movies up which I'll embed as well:

[center:19d8kmwu][html]<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/vi ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><br /><br />

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/vi ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><br /><br />

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/vi ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>[/html][/center:19d8kmwu]

Looking good. :)

CVG also [url=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... 7:19d8kmwu]has an interview with Greg Zeschuk[/url:19d8kmwu]. This looks at a variety of topics, including downloadable content and the possibility of a demo.

Here's an excerpt:

[quote="CVG":19d8kmwu][b:19d8kmwu]What about a demo?[/b:19d8kmwu]

[b:19d8kmwu]Zeschuk:[/b:19d8kmwu] We've not really talked about a demo. There's a few different ways we could do it. The way the game's set up actually makes it hard for a demo because there are six origin stories and we don't know whether to just pick one or a couple.

And then the really cool thing with the game is seeing what happens when you pick an origin story later in the game - like the way that characters get to know you.

It's not likely that we'll have a demo ready for release, but very shortly after we'll probably figure out some parameters where we chop the game into pieces and make them available for people to experience.[/quote:19d8kmwu]
He also defends the use of sex in video games, which has been doing the rounds on some sites as news. Guess that's to be expected after the silly controversy regarding Mass Effect's 'sex' scene.

Wired has [url=http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/07/b ... /:19d8kmwu]a more general interview with Ray Muzyka[/url:19d8kmwu], talking about how games are more and more blurring the lines between genres (particularly including more RPG elements), seeming to come to similar conclusions as [url=http://www.develop-online.net/features/ ... d:19d8kmwu]Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski[/url:19d8kmwu] a few days ago.

Here's an excerpt:

[quote="Wired":19d8kmwu]“The possibility space is almost limitless,” he said. “I see games like [i:19d8kmwu]Grand Theft Auto[/i:19d8kmwu] headed in the same direction.” Just as action games are incorporating more narrative elements, so is BioWare looking to incorporate game mechanics into its RPGs that will make them more accessible to a wider swath of gamers, he says.

For example, in [i:19d8kmwu]Dragon Age[/i:19d8kmwu], you’ll be able to play the game by just controlling your main character, letting the other three people in your party operate on auto-pilot, he said.

All game designers are “trying to solve for the same things – allow players to be explorers, progress their characters, have conflict, story, narrative, social interaction… those are fun pillars of gameplay that everyone wants to solve,” he said.[/quote:19d8kmwu]
More RPG in every game? Yes please. And hopefully this is along the lines of what they said in the [url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/d ... l:19d8kmwu]GamesIndustry.biz interview[/url:19d8kmwu] a couple of days ago:

[quote="GamesIndustry.biz":19d8kmwu][b:19d8kmwu][color=gray:19d8kmwu]Q:[/color:19d8kmwu] I guess what I'm getting at is, when do we get to the point where there's for example a romantic, story-driven game on a sort of AAA scale?[/b:19d8kmwu]

[b:19d8kmwu]Greg Zeschuk[/b:19d8kmwu]: The romantic comedy in game form?

[b:19d8kmwu][color=gray:19d8kmwu]Q:[/color:19d8kmwu][/b:19d8kmwu] Yes, exactly.

[b:19d8kmwu]Greg Zeschuk[/b:19d8kmwu]: That's a great question. I think we're actually getting to the point where the acting is almost there. We talk a certain amount internally about whether you need to have combat as part of the experience. Are there possibilities to actually start separating pieces of the game and actually tailor it to the audience? Certainly the core gaming experience, folks that are used to playing games over the last ten years, they want to have those battle moments, and the fighting. But there are different audiences that would maybe just enjoy the story. I think it's actually possible. I think the interesting thing about it too is I don't know if it's even necessarily a technology thing. I think once we've got the breadth of audience available to us, there could be really good opportunities created by different people coming to games that are story-driven. And primarily, that's the main thing.[/quote:19d8kmwu]
I've been saying for [i:19d8kmwu]years[/i:19d8kmwu] that they need to diversify their roleplaying games away from being so combat-driven. Heck, that doesn't even have to mean purely story-driven. Could be a Racing RPG, a platform RPG, a Sim RPG, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Further, VideoGamer has [url=http://www.videogamer.com/news/bioware_ ... l:19d8kmwu]some brief news[/url:19d8kmwu] on whether Dragon Age: Origins will contain full frontal nudity. Which, much to my surprise, hasn't been decided yet (and here I was convinced that it wouldn't, so if there's a possibility that it will then that's great).

Here's an excerpt (and pretty much all of the news :p ):

[quote:19d8kmwu]When asked by VideoGamer.com whether Dragon Age: Origins will contain full frontal nudity, BioWare vice president Greg Zeschuk replied: “I don't think we've worked that out yet, because we can adjust that whenever we want, right? On Mass Effect we worked extensively to figure out, how do we want to portray it? It's not oodling pixels [laughs] – sad but probably titillating, too. I think for us it's more just making sure it fits the context of what we're trying to create.”[/quote:19d8kmwu]
I'd love to see them have the guts to put full frontal nudity in; Dragon Age: Origins certainly seems to be the game where it'd fit (and having a brutal fantasy world where people are too prudish to take off their underwear seems silly to me). But either way I'm sure that even if they don't it won't be long after launch for at least the female models to get full nudity (on the PC anyway).

We'll see.

And finally, BioWare added a new [url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/character_ ... l:19d8kmwu]character page for Wynne[/url:19d8kmwu] to their website. She is one of the characters that can join your party (or end up being someone to defeat as IGN's writeup above shows). They'll probably add a short video as well in the next day or so.

Lots of exciting stuff; can't wait to play this game. :)


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Shir'le
F'sarn natha tithaur wun l'su'aco.

-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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