Posts Tagged ‘dragon age origins’
Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads coming to a browser near you
It seems that BioWare and a browser-based development offset of EA called EA 2D have teamed up to produce Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. This game is a browser-based tactical RPG set in the same universe as Dragon Age: Origins.
There haven’t been many details regarding the game other than that it will be a 3-chapter title with talent trees, classes, sound effects, music and user interfaces taken straight from its console counterpart.
via bioware
Steam gets Dragon Age: Origins pre-order bonus
It was recently announced that Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam, will be getting its own exclusive pre-order bonus for Dragon Age: Origins. Said pre-order bonus will be the in-game item called the Wicked Oath ring which will boost your character’s combat and damage abilities.
Make note that this ring is in addition to the Memory Band in-game item that all retailers will be giving out to pre-orders of Dragon Age: Origins.
BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins will be out for the Xbox 360 and PC on November 3rd and for the PS3 on November 17th.
Dragon Age: Origins launch trailer hits the web
The above launch trailer for BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins has just hit the internet and boy does it make the game look good. Of course it doesn’t show any actual game play but the Lord of the Rings style cinematics really make me want to check this game out.
Despite being a launch trailer, we aren’t going to be able to get our hands on Dragon Age: Origins until November 3rd.
Dragon Age To Be “Massively Single Player” Game
Go to the website for any video game and along the base of the screen you’ll see logos for anyone and everyone involved from the publisher to the system(s) it’s being released on. Trailers also feature these helpful little reminders at the end and apparently in a trailer for Bioware’s upcoming Dragon Age: Origins two of the logos featured were somewhat unusual for a game: Twitter and Facebook.
It seems that as with Spore the overall aim is to blur the line between single player and multiplayer. With Spore you created creatures who existed in a universe populated by the creations of others. The developers are looking for some method of connecting the community of Dragon Age players through a ‘network of manually and automatically shared content’.
Some of that will be more passive, similar to the stat-tracking features of games like Halo 3 where you can nip over to Bungie’s and check out lifetime game stats for yourself and others. Given that they’ll be including a suite of content creation tools though there could be some other aspects to it. In-game merchants selling weapons and armor others have created is a possibility, as well as other people’s characters being used for NPCs or hirelings.
Bioware Founder Defends Sex Scenes In Games
While the self-appointed cultural crusaders raise an eyebrow at excessive violence, nothing gets them more frothed up and ready to bust heads than sexual content. Recently video games have begun to take the romantic component that some RPG makers have been including to the next level in a more visual format. This stirred up a mildly ricidulous hornets’ nest of controversy when Mass Effect was released, though most of those complaining hadn’t actually played the game.
Bioware’s newest RPG, Dragon Age Origins reportedly contains similarly racy content at some point as well and one can only assume that Mass Effect 2 will allow more boffing of sexy blue aliens (or aliens of some other hue). In an interview Bioware co-founder Greg Zeschuck defended his company’s decision, citing that that they’re doing this to reflect real human relationships in a “sophisticated mature experience”. He admitted that they’re not necessary for every game but “in certain types of games it makes sense to have them.”
Do digital recreations of sex scenes, no matter how tasteful, really improve the immersiveness of a video game’s romantic subplots? Public opinion still seems to be split on the matter, so what do you think?
Dragon Age Origins Getting Low-Tech Version
The world is often bizarrely cyclical. In its earliest incarnation Bioware’s fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins was based off the Neverwinter Nights engine and seemed more of a total conversion mod project than an actual independent title. Neverwinter Nights of course is one of many games to be based on the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper (and more on occasion) tabletop roleplaying game.
Now Dragon Age: Origins is coming back to, well, its origins. Green Ronin Publishing will be releasing a pen and paper version of the game to accompany the digital adventure this summer. “We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way – a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA.
The initial release will be a boxed set with more boxed sets and expansion books to be released later. An interesting possibility given that Bioware is including the suite of adventure creation tools is the possibility of user-created adventures being purchased and put out for the tabletop version.
Bioware Taking Applications For Toolset Beta Test
A few years ago some companies started exploring the idea of giving gamers some of the tools the developers themselves used in making the game. Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights were two games that featured a wonderfully integrated Mod support system. No fiddling around with patch files and other complexities, just put the files in the right directory and the game can activate the mod for you. Needless to say this was embraced with open arms by the gaming community. People played Neverwinter Nights for years and the amount of user-generated content was vast with yet more skilled modders adding in entirely new coding for horses, capes and a plethora of other items, keeping interest in the game high.
In light of this incredible success Bioware are planning to release a toolset along with Dragon Age: Origins (a game that when first announced was using the NWN engine). Once again the community will be able to build their own adventures to share with the public once the main storyline is completed. Right now they’re accepting applications for the beta test of the toolset. Luckily for anyone with no real programming or modding experience they’re not just looking for people who will use it to mold their own universes. They’re looking to get a broad range of users with different computer systems and levels of expertise. Sign up for it here.
Dragon Age Won’t be any Typical Console RPG
BioWare is putting all its effort in Dragon Age: Origins, with lead designer Brent Knowles pledging that the console editions of the game “will be no typical console RPG.”
"My first experiences with the console prototype have shown that we have to put some work in the interface but the main features work pretty well," he explained. "I even sometimes play the PC build with the Xbox 360 controller, which makes it a lot of fun."
Dragon Age is a deviation from the studio’s usual console-first approach that was seen in Star Wars: KOTOR, Jade Empire and Mass Effect. Dragon Age is due out next year on PC and consoles.