Dragon Age: Origins — The Assassin

One of the single player games I’m very much looking forward to is Dragon Age: Origins. I know I’m not alone in my anticipation, so I’m delighted to share some new video and screenshots of the game. With a bit of luck this will be the first in a series of posts about Dragon Age: Origins, running up to release on November 3, 2009.

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In the world of Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware’s upcoming RPG, elves don’t have things easy. Contrary to the stereotypical portrayal of mystical enlightening beings, the elves in Dragon Age are oppressed, second class citizens.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the members of the Antivan Crows, “the most infamous guild of thieves and assassins in all of Thedra”, is an elf. Zevran the Assassin is one of the characters you’ll be spending time with in Dragon Age: Origins:

Bioware is crafting an RPG with a very dark, adult feel to it. Hand to hand combat is a messy business, and it shows.

Here’re some shots of a couple of the monsters you’ll be fighing: an ogre and a sloth demon.

Related post: My review of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne (a prequel novel)

Lemons and Lemonade

This week has been a challenge for me. I *really* want to be playing Fallen Earth, Champions, and the new EQ2 game update, but this thing with my arm continues to plague me. I logged in to Fallen Earth on launch day and lasted maybe 10 minutes before the ache became uncomfortable enough that it forced me to quit playing.

So still no MMOs for me (in theory I could play Champions with the gamepad but when I tried I kept ending up back on the keyboard typing, which sorta defeated the purpose of using the gamepad). But on the bright side, I’ve been playing my consoles. I set up an elaborate tower of pillows on the couch and rest my arm on it ‘just so’ and I can play without any pain. In light of this, I’m changing some of my near-future plans. Games I was planning on getting for the PC (Borderlands, possibly Dragon Age: Origins) I now think I’ll get on either the PS3 or XBox.

So this week I’ve been playing The Beatles: Rock Band and Need For Speed: Shift on the PS3, and I picked up Halo: ODST on the 360. TB:RB I can only do for a little while because the aforementioned tower of pillows doesn’t work too well with a plastic guitar. But the other two I can play as much as I like.

So I think I’m going to start doing more write-ups of single player games here, since I can’t say too much about MMOs if I’m not playing MMOs. Plus there’re a lot of single player games coming out that I want to play. In addition to the two I mentioned, there’s Demon’s Souls, Brutal Legend, Forza Motorsport 2, Modern Warfare 2, The Saboteur, and I’m betting I’m forgetting a couple. It’s going to be a good season of gaming coming up!