Dragon Age: Origins - Penny Arcade and GameBanshee

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Dragon Age: Origins - Penny Arcade and GameBanshee

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is this weekend and BioWare is showing off their game there. But there's already a couple of interesting things to show you, the first of which being quite related.

You see, [url=http://www.penny-arcade.com/:2psdt27i]Penny Arcade[/url:2psdt27i] is making (has made) an eight-page web comic for Dragon Age: Origins.

Here's the news [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/102/10213 ... l:2psdt27i]according to IGN[/url:2psdt27i]:

[quote:2psdt27i][b:2psdt27i]Dragon Age: Origins Gets the Penny Arcade Treatment[/b:2psdt27i][/size:2psdt27i]
[b:2psdt27i]BioWare's new RPG getting eight part web comic.[/b:2psdt27i][/size:2psdt27i]

[b:2psdt27i]US, September 3, 2009[/b:2psdt27i] - [url=http://games.ign.com/objects/026/026717.html:2psdt27i]BioWare[/url:2psdt27i] has joined forces with Gabe & Tycho, the creative artists of the popular Penny Arcade web comic to create a new 8-part web comic based on BioWare's upcoming epic, dark fantasy [url=http://pc.ign.com/objects/682/682217.html:2psdt27i]Dragon Age: Origins[/url:2psdt27i].

The Dragon Age: Origins web comic features an all-new Penny Arcade treatment of a dangerous encounter between a party of mage-hunting Templar knights, the reviled "Witch of the Wilds" Flemeth and her deadly, magic-wielding daughter Morrigan. Featuring its own original storyline, this new Penny Arcade comic will give readers a dark introduction to the brutal world of Dragon Age: Origins.

Fans can view the first page of the series today at http://www.dragonage.com with a new page being revealed every week. Fans will also see an exclusive Q&A with Penny Arcade on the site as they share some of their impressions and favorite moments of Dragon Age: Origins.

To see and play the game that inspired the new Penny Arcade comic, players can get a special advance look at Dragon Age: Origins at this year's Penny Arcade Expo:

[b:2psdt27i]Where:[/b:2psdt27i]
Washington State Convention & Trade Center
Seattle, WA 98101-2350
Dragon Age: Origins Booth # 622

[b:2psdt27i]When:[/b:2psdt27i]
Friday, September 4th – Sunday, September 6th

Dragon Age: Origins is coming to PC and Xbox 360 in North America on November 3 and later in November for PS3. For more information and to see the new Penny Arcade Dragon Age: Origins web comic, visit http://www.dragonage.com.[/quote:2psdt27i]
You can find the first page of the comic at the [url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/pennyarcade:2psdt27i]Dragon Age website[/url:2psdt27i].

GameBanshee also has a couple of multi-page articles up that are all quite good to read. Particularly the first article as it goes into quite some detail regarding the gameplay systems behind the game, talking about classes and talents and equipment, etc. As such the article is entirely free of spoilers as well, giving a lot of details of the kind that other articles haven't really concentrated on (and dispelling any fears that Dragon Age doesn't have a very deep rule system).

Here's an excerpt from [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/previews/dra ... p:2psdt27i]the article[/url:2psdt27i]:

[quote:2psdt27i]The final character creation screen has you picking your talents. Depending on which class you've chosen (and, later, which specializations you pick or acquire), you'll gain access to particular talent groups that are each comprised of 1-6 rows of talents (with each row consisting of four different, interdependent talents). For example, a first level rogue can acquire talents within the Rogue, Dual Weapon, and Archery talent groups. If that same rogue eventually acquires the Assassin and Duelist specializations too, then identically-named talent groups will be made available during level-up from then on.

Continuing with this example, let's say our ambidextrous rogue decides that he wants to cut down his foes with two blades at the same time. The Dual Weapon talent group features a total of twelve different talents spread across three rows. The first talent in each row typically has attribute and skill prerequisites, but moving to the more advanced talents within a row requires the talent prior to it and usually has a level and attribute requirement to boot.[/quote:2psdt27i]
Definitely a good read and I can recommend it if you're interested in Dragon Age: Origins and how some of the game systems work.

But the site has two interviews in addition to that. The first is with lead designer Mike Laidlaw and talks some more about the various systems and how gameplay is like and such. It does contain a few references to things and situations you encounter in the game, but I don't think that they're really spoilers (the worst is one thing you do to become a Gray Warden in one of the first questions).

Here's an excerpt from [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/d ... p:2psdt27i]the interview[/url:2psdt27i]:

[quote:2psdt27i][b:2psdt27i]GB: So once it opens up, I would assume that there are some story-driven elements where for periods of time, you have to go through this path or that path to progress the story. But what percentage of the game would you say is opened up to free, non-linear exploration?[/b:2psdt27i]

Mike: Eighty.

[b:2psdt27i]GB: Eighty?[/b:2psdt27i]

Mike: Eighty. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "I've just went through a fair amount." But the thing is, it is a big game.

There is an awful lot of game where you are completely in the driver's seat. And there are parts where – what I see is that people get in that head set where they're like, "Oh, my God. I have to do this." And you don't. Like you could turn around and leave, and come back later.

But they go through the Brecilian forest. They go to the West Brecilian forest, and they go to the East Brecilian forest, and then they go back to the West, and they complete this quest. And then they go into this dungeon ruin. Then they go to the next level, and the next level, and they like never turn back, because they're kind of excited to see it play out. And that's pretty cool to me.

It's like when you feel like you just want to know how it turns out, and it pulls you in. I hope no one gets frustrated by it, because they certainly have the option to U-turn, and take a little break, go hit a shop, go back to camp and heal, all that kind of stuff.[/quote:2psdt27i]
The second interview is with executive producer Mark Darrah and that talks a bit more about future plans for the game/franchise and content and such.

Here's an excerpt from [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/d ... p:2psdt27i]the interview[/url:2psdt27i]:

[quote:2psdt27i][b:2psdt27i]GB: It was mentioned during the presentations we've had that the origin stories affect certain outcomes even up to the last ten minutes of the game. If you were to play through all six origin stories all the way through to the end, what percentage would you say is different? What sort of replayability factor are we looking at? I've heard 800 hours worth of gameplay getting thrown around for this game. Is it conceivable that even a third of it is never-before-seen when you play through the game a second time?[/b:2psdt27i]

Mark: It depends – some of the things are dependent on the story – the choices – like a lot of things are affected by your origin story and the choices you make there. Also, other things will be affected by choices you make throughout the rest of the game. So your origin story isn't the only thing that affects what content you're going to or not going to see.

So conceivably, if you played through one origin story and made very specific choices, and then played through a different origin story, and then played from a different moral stance, you may see almost no similar content.

But if you went through and played and made similar choices, you're going to see a lot of differences, based on your origin, because the people are going to react to elves differently than dwarves, and humans versus mages. But you're going to see more similarity if you make the same moral choices at some of the branching points in the plots in the stories.[/quote:2psdt27i]
Some quite nice articles. And I'll keep you updated as I come across more. :)


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Shir'le
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-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
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