It’s Monday and that means Bioware has released another batch of Dragon Age: Origins screenshots. Before we get to those, though, I want to point out a post at Kotaku by Stephen Totilo, You Can Play Dragon Age: Origins Sort Of Like Four Other Games. He tells us even more about the ways you can play DA:O, including creating AI ‘scripts’ that will control the characters you aren’t controlling directly. He compares it to Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit System. Or you can play it almost like a 3rd person action game and let the computer handle the other members of your party. Or jump from character to character. Sounds like there’s a lot of variety in how ‘deep’ into the game systems you want to go.

OK on to the new screen shots. I’m reading the second Dragon Age novel now, The Calling, and there’s a hunter character in it that has a trusty canine companion. I was happy to see some shots in this batch that appear to be that kind of character, so it looks like you can create the now-traditional ‘archer with pet’ style hunter. (This might also be evident in the Character Creator…to be honest playing around with that was just making me anticipate the full game so much that I put it aside!)

Bioware also released a couple pieces of concept art…the first two images in this gallery.

Today I’ve got a couple of screenshots of the character creator (direct link to the exe) in action, and one of the new Bioware Social Site. Specifically, the Social Site image is from my character page, so feel free to shoot me off a friend invite! Those are two of my ‘standard’ character names, by the way. Gillain is from an old, old BBS text-based RPG I used to be a part of, and Mimi is the name of one of our guinea pigs. 🙂

Also, several full-sized screenshots of game play taken from inside a dungeon. No, I haven’t played the game; these were provided by Bioware PR. But the shots give you some idea of what the game will look like from various zoom levels.

Enjoy!

Today Bioware released the Character Creator from Dragon Age: Origins. You can download it by following one of the links listed in this Bioware blog post. If you install it, create a character and then upload it to Bioware’s social site (which also launched today), you’ll get an in-game bonus, the Lucky Stone, when the game releases:

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.

Next order of business: gameplay. I had an interesting discussion on Twitter today, and someone pointed out to me that while Bioware has released a ton of trailers from the game, there’s been very little gameplay shown.

Well, Giant Bomb has a lengthy Quick Look that shows gameplay, which I’ll embed below. The reason I want to do this is that I’m discovering that some people are anticipating a different kind of game from what Bioware is delivering. They’ve promised a “spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate” and that’s the kind of game it is, and we’re talking about the PC games, not the console versions done by Snowblind Studios (which were action-rpgs). Dragon Age: Origins gameplay is going to be all about real-time RPG combat with the option to pause any time to adjust the actions of your party of characters. This isn’t an action game and you don’t have direct control over the characters to the point of, say, hitting a button to swing a sword. This is old school RPG gaming.

I just don’t want anyone being unhappily surprised on launch day. I’m super-excited to re-visit this style of gaming; it’s been quite a while since a major developers has done anything like this. But it won’t be for everyone.

Anyway, here’s the Quick Look. Do keep in mind that the Giant Bomb dudes goof on Dave, who is running this demo, because he is, as they call him, a Pauser (meaning he likes to pause the game a lot). You can play a bit more fluidly than he does, if you’d prefer. Or at least, I’m assuming you can because you could in the old games.

Another Monday, another bite-sized morsel of Dragon Age goodness. This week we get a *beautifully* rendered cut-scene showing a band of warriors (Grey Wardens, I’d wager) encountering a gaggle of Darkspawn in a frozen mountain pass. This is (obviously) just a canned scene and so won’t have any direct impact on the game, but it sure does set the mood. Once upon a time Blizzard was known for doing some of the best cut-scenes in the industry. Looks like Bioware is looking to challenge Blizzard in the cut-scene arena!

At the start of the video, the leader of the party mentions a tomb, and one of the others says something about freezing to death while searching for the bones of a mad-woman. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that they’re searching for the tomb of Andraste The Prophet. She wrote the Chant of Light, from which the Chantry sprang (the Chantry being the major religion of Fereldran.

[My ramblings on the mythos of Dragon Age comes in part from reading the novels, in part from looking up things on the Dragon Age wiki, and a smidgen from press materials. Take everything I write with a grain of salt, as I’m no Dragon Age scholar!]

Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins posts. There’re two reasons for that. First & foremost, I’m very excited about the game. And second, Bioware’s PR has seen fit to provide Dragonchasers with an on-going stream of press materials.

In Dragon Age: Origins, your character is a Grey Warden. So who are these guys and girls?

The Grey Wardon is a military organization dedicated to fighting the Darkspawn. They have no allegiance to country or kin: they’re feared by many, due to their independence and military prowess. Their only purpose is to fight the Darkspawn and many people don’t even believe Darkspawn are real.

Maybe I should back up. The Darkspawn are a race of corrupt, basically humanoid people living underground. Their warrens are filled with fungus-like growths and weird hanging flesh sacs. They’re filled with a smell like rotting meat. The skin of the Darkspawn is described as rotting or tumescent, but they have sharp fangs and talons. Their bite is toxic and anyone bitten will either die from the poison or turn into an insane, ghoulish creature. There are various ‘classes’ of Darkspawn. Think, y’know, orc-kind, where you have goblins and orcs and cave trolls.

The Darkspawn are driven to search for The Old Gods: ancient dragons sleeping in lairs beneath the earth. When they find one, they infect the dragon with their corruption. Eventually the dragon wakens and bursts forth from its lair. The Darkspawn then follow it to the surface and set about trying to kill every living thing they can find. This event is known as a Blight, and they happen infrequently enough that memory of them fades into legend.

The Grey Wardens remain ever vigilant in the centuries between Blights, fighting skirmishes with the Darkspawn during their infrequent smaller raids on the surface. The Wardens can detect the Darkspawn and vice versa, because to become a Grey Warden you have to drink the blood of a Darkspawn (many candidates die from this), thus taking their taint inside yourself.

If a Grey Warden lives long enough, he or she will start to lose the battle against the corruption living inside them. When that happens, they undertake a ritual known as The Calling, in which they enter the warrens of the Darkspawn one last time, alone, with their intent being to kill as many of the foul beings as possible before dying in battle. Before this journey they, along with their close friends, feast among the dwarves who also live underground. The morning after the feast, the dwarves open the massive portals that lead to the Deep Roads where the Darkspawn now dwell, and the Warden enters alone. The portal is re-sealed, leaving the Warden to his or her fate.

The Darkspawn are a subterranean menace in the world of Dragon Age: Origins. At first they were a threat mostly to the dwarves, who (for the most part) spend their entire lives underground. Recently it seems the Darkspawn are starting to plague surface dwellers, too. Maric encountered the Darkspawn in The Stolen Throne and lived to tell the tale, but where do they come from?

Now it seems we know:

No one knows how the Darkspawn truly live in their tainted warrens beneath the earth, although a few Grey Wardens have, on occasion, delved deep into the old Dwarven tunnels in an effort to find the heart of the Darkspawn corruption and scour it clean. Those who ever returned, did so with ashen faces and spoke only of a creature called a “Broodmother” that haunted their dreams for the rest of their short existence. What the Broodmother truly is, only the Grey Wardens know for certain.

Before we get to the trailer (which is not for the squeamish) let’s talk DLC. Bioware and EA are doing their best to fight the used game market: those of us who buy the game new will get a code The Stone Prisoner, a DLC package which unlocks some quests and adds a new potential party member (a stone golem named Shale) to the game. If you buy a used copy of Dragon Age: Origins, The Stone Prisoner is going to cost you $15.

There’s another package of DLC that’ll be ready on Day 1 called Warden’s Keep. I’ve seen some sources claim this is an XBox exclusive, but my contact at Bioware says it’ll be available for $7 on PSN and PC, and 560 points on XBLA. The Warden’s Keep unlocks Grey Warden Armor, a chest to store your belongings in, and a quest line involved a haunted Grey Warden Keep.

Here’s the trailer for the Brood Mother. The creature is pretty vile, and the amount of blood spatter in this clip is way over the top. Make sure the kids aren’t looking over your shoulder when you view this one. A couple of stills follow the clip. This thing is nasty!!

When it rains it pours. New screenshots earlier today, and tonight the second Dragon Age novel by David Gaider arrived: Dragon Age: The Calling.

And this evening Bioware has released an interesting ‘behind the scenes’ video which features some of the Dragon Age team talking about the techniques they used to try to build a living world; that is, a world that players can lose themselves in because if feels so real.

Enough of my blather, why not have a look (watch it in HD if you have the bandwidth!):

Check out the Dragonchasers YouTube channel here.

We’re still nearly a month from launch, and Game Informer has already reviewed Dragon Age: Origin (the PC version). Wow, that seems early considering what an epic game we’ve been promised. The good news is that they gave it quite a nice rating (9).

I haven’t read the review since I already know I’ll be playing Dragon Age and would prefer to go into it with a ‘clean palette’ (so to speak). So it’s back to waiting for me.

In the meantime, Bioware has released a fresh set of screenshots, and as always, I’ve hand-picked a few to share with you.