[b:1hea3hys]Tome of Knowledge[/b:1hea3hys]
But first there is the official [url=http://social.bioware.com/wiki/dragonage/:1hea3hys]Tome of Knowledge[/url:1hea3hys], BioWare’s wiki containing lore information regarding Dragon Age. It’s fairly bare-bones at the moment and just a [i:1hea3hys]glimpse[/i:1hea3hys] at what they’re planning with their social site, but as [url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 5:1hea3hys]Jay Watamaniuk puts it[/url:1hea3hys]:
[quote="Jay Watamaniuk":1hea3hys]Just the very start of the fine stuff coming.
The plan is to have already existing Dragon Age wiki vets (who have waaaaay more content and experience then me) help us out on this in the future.[/quote:1hea3hys]
Hopefully this wiki will quickly fill up with lots and lots and lots more details (which, in turn, should help people wanting to make their own modules in the Dragon Ago world).
[b:1hea3hys]Interviews[/b:1hea3hys]
Next up are a couple of interviews regarding the state of the game and such. In the first of these [url=http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6215368.htm ... 8:1hea3hys]GameSpot talks to Mark Darrah[/url:1hea3hys] (executive producer) about the recent delay, downloadable content and plans for the future.
Here’s an excerpt:
[quote:1hea3hys][b:1hea3hys][GameSpot]:[/b:1hea3hys] OK, speaking of DLC, with Mass Effect, initially BioWare had announced that it would be adding new planets, systems, and quests as DLC regularly after its 2007 release. That didn't really happen, and a lot of fans--including myself--were pretty disappointed. So what is the DLC plan for Dragon Age, and what guarantees can you offer to gamers that the same thing won't happen to it that happened to Mass Effect? I mean, Fallout 3 has been getting a new DLC pack every two months this year like clockwork...
[b:1hea3hys][Mark Darrah]:[/b:1hea3hys] We have a two-year-of-DLC plan for Dragon Age, so we're going to be supporting this product well after it's launched with all kinds of things--new items, new plots, new areas, everything you could imagine. But yeah, I think the stuff that Fallout 3 delivered is great, and we will be looking at doing stuff in that similar vein, as well as new things that you haven't seen before.
[b:1hea3hys]GS:[/b:1hea3hys] How far are you staggering the first DLC from the game's release?
[b:1hea3hys]MD:[/b:1hea3hys] We haven't really released any specific plans, but we're going to try to keep stuff tight and close together. We don't want you waiting six months before the first new Dragon Age content.[/quote:1hea3hys]
Next is [url=http://www.destructoid.com/dragon-age-w ... l:1hea3hys]a few paragraphs on Destructoid[/url:1hea3hys] where Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider explains some of the [url=http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.js ... 8:1hea3hys]ESRB listing for Dragon Age: Origins[/url:1hea3hys]. This listing gives the suggestion that Dragon Age: Origins might include bestiality, but as David explains:
[quote:1hea3hys]“There can be a pair of nugs on the bed. Nugs would be these little subterranean bunny pigs you find down in the dwarven cavern. If you click on them, it says, like, ‘the nugs refuse to look you in the eye.’ Or, there’s a transvestite dwarf with, like, lipstick and stuff. He sort of deadpans and he’s like, ‘Yes, the earth moved. It was wonderful.’ So there’s no bestiality. I guess somebody could suggest that because they put animals in my room that it was suggested that bestiality could occur. It’s just played for humor. That’s all,” he says.[/quote:1hea3hys]
Such humor can easily fall wrong, but somehow I’ve got the feeling that it might work here (as long as people can see it as harmless humor) and I can’t help but grin at the thought of a transvestite dwarf saying that in a deadpan voice.
For more of David Gaider there’s a [url=http://www.framerated.com/gameplay.aspx ... 9:1hea3hys]video interview with Framerated[/url:1hea3hys] where he talks some about the game’s story in general terms, how the game is about the player fighting the Darkspawn, but how that’s really more of a backdrop and it’s more of a political story (convincing nobles to fight and such I imagine). They don’t seem to offer an embed code, but the video is a nice watch (or rather, listen as there’s not much to see).
[b:1hea3hys]Mage Origin[/b:1hea3hys]
Then we head into more spoiler-rich territory as GameSpot has some [url=http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage ... s:1hea3hys]hands-on experience playing the Mage Origin[/url:1hea3hys]. The article is chock full of spoilers, pretty much going step-by-step through the Mage Origin, but in general terms it tells what tests mages go through and how the player experiences the standing of mages towards the rest of the world, all rife with intrigue and politics. Though I don’t plan to play this one myself (at least not to start) it sounds very intriguing.
Here’s a spoiler-free excerpt:
[quote:1hea3hys] Starting a new character as a mage will take you through an elaborate creation process that lets you allot statistic points to your character's ability scores. These include strength (which affects your melee attack ability), dexterity (which affects your speed and defense), willpower (which affects your maximum magic pool), magic (which determines how effective your magic spells are), cunning (which affects your stealth abilities), and constitution (which affects your character's overall health). Dragon Age's human mage characters begin their lives with statistics in the 10- to 20-point range, with points primarily clustered in the willpower and magic stats. At the beginning, you can allot five additional points (and with each experience level, three more points). Increasing your attributes to certain levels will not only make your character more powerful, but will also let you access higher-level skills along the game's elaborate personal skill tree. Like the pen-and-paper role-playing systems you might have seen, Dragon Age has a list of miscellaneous personal skills to which you can allot points. These include coercion (which lets you flatter or threaten your way through a conversation), stealing (which lets you pick other characters' pockets), trap-making (which lets you create deadly traps), survival (which helps your character better deal with animals and survive harsher elements), herbalism (the game's version of herb-collecting alchemy), poison-making (which lets you create various types of venom), and combat tactics (which lets you set specific scripts for your party members who aren't in action).[/quote:1hea3hys]
The paragraph after this first talks some about mage spell schools, but the second half pretty much goes into spoiler territory and stays that way until the end with only the last paragraph being spoiler-free again. In all that there’s one bit of interesting non-spoiler information talking about specialization classes for the Mage: “We also gained additional slots for spells and skills, and got a glimpse at some of the more-advanced classes that human mages can eventually become, such as shape-shifter (a profession that changes to different animal forms), spirit healer (a healing profession), arcane warrior (a mage/warrior hybrid), and blood mage, a feared class of wizard that uses ghastly death-based magic in battle--though changing to a specialized class will happen long after completing a character's origin.”
Mirroring this walkthrough YouTube has a video up for the Mage Origin as well, showing some spoilers as well (though far less so than the article):
[center:1hea3hys][youtube:1hea3hys]tqlWLYSO7yE[/youtube:1hea3hys][/center:1hea3hys]
Definitely some interesting conflicts going on there right from the start.
[b:1hea3hys]Dwarf Noble Origin[/b:1hea3hys]
Where GameSpot looks at the Mage Origin, IGN instead [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/101/10146 ... l:1hea3hys]takes a look at the Dwarf Noble Origin[/url:1hea3hys] in a walkthrough pretty much equally rife with spoilers for the Origin story (if shorter).
Here’s a spoiler-free excerpt (and pretty much everything else is spoilers):
[quote:1hea3hys]On first glance, the dwarves in Dragon Age are your typical Tolkienseque folk; once a great empire, they now live in one or two cities underground where they busy themselves with mining, crafting, and growing beards. Unlike J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarves, there are definitely female dwarves in Dragon Age (without the beards). But what's really interesting about Dragon Age's stout little folk is the degree of political intrigue. There's a delicious amount of backstabbing going on in the dwarven noble prologue, and all the political machinations remind us of novels such as Dune or A Game of Thrones.[/quote:1hea3hys]
Reading some of the article and watching some of the movies (more on that in a moment) I can’t help but get the feeling that dwarves in Dragon Age are a bit like Lolthian drow. At least as far as political intrigue and backstabbing goes (the dwarves seem to be more noble and less… evil and insane). Must be something about living underground.
IGN also has a couple of videos to accompany the Dwarf Noble Origin walkthrough, an intro cinematic (with some minor spoilers), a bit of dialog (with some minor spoilers for that dialog, but gives a good idea of how some of the political intrigue might work), a battle video (spoiler-free) and a character creation video (spoiler free as well, though it does contain beards).
[center:1hea3hys][b:1hea3hys]Intro Cinematic[/b:1hea3hys]
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[b:1hea3hys]Dialogue[/b:1hea3hys]
[html]<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://pcmovies.ign.com/pc/video/articl ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>[/html]
[b:1hea3hys]Battle[/b:1hea3hys]
[html]<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://pcmovies.ign.com/pc/video/articl ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>[/html]
[b:1hea3hys]Character Creation[/b:1hea3hys]
[html]<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=682217&downloadURL=http://pcmovies.ign.com/pc/video/articl ... rking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>[/html][/center:1hea3hys]
With IGN promising three of the six Origins and them having done a Human Noble and a Dwarf Noble I’m expecting an elf next. Only question is then, City Elf or Dalish Elf (or Elf Mage); I’m hoping it won’t be the City Elf, because that’s the one I’m planning to play and I don’t want to spoil anything.
Anyway, there you go. There’s likely more to come out of GamesCom over the next week. Though since I’ve got visitors over during that time I’m not sure how much of it I’ll have time to report on (at least not until next week).
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