Dragon Age: Origins

A new PC RPG called Dragon Age: Origins is due for release on November 6th.

PC Gamer have just reviewed it in their new December issue and it looks like it will be a very special RPG indeed. Created by the same people behind such greats as Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect you know it is going to be something special.

Dragon Age is a traditional fantasy RPG of epic proportions, promising at least 80 hours gameplay per play though, and with 6 alternative and very different races and character classes to play as the main character, with each placing you in a completely different starting point embroiled in the history and lore of your character's race you have a lot of unique experiences to enjoy by playing through the game as each of them.

They have also create a brilliant combat system that all RPG fans should enjoy. It contains many elements from games like Baldur's Gate and Dungeon Siege, with you able to hit the space bar at any time to pause the action abd issue commands to your party members, then hit space again to un-pause and see the actions played out. I always loved this style of gameplay as it lets you tackle combat in realtime, but pause to take a breather and manage your characters and issue commands when needed.

However the combat system goes much further than that. Now you can assign specific actions to be performed when specific conditions are triggered. You choose these from a cascading menu system, so for example you could select "Self" then "Health" and finally "<25%", so that from that point forward whenever your character's health falls below 25% they automatically heal themselves.

But you could take it further, but telling a character to use ranged weapons until an enemy is close, then automatically switch to Melee weapons, or for the Mage to cast a spell to deactivate powerful swings if enemies get too close.

A very powerful combat system that you can get into as much as you like. You could for example fight in realtime and completely forget the paused turn based command features or the conditions assignment, but then you would be missing a lot of it's power and making it very hard to win battles.

The game itself centres around an order called the Grey Wardens, who are enlisted to protect the races from the Darkspawn and the taint that they spread throughout the lands. The main story of the game is to travel to all parts of the world to convince each race to uphold their part of a very old treaty to join forces as the Grey Warden's against the Darkswarn.

The game is coming out on PC, 360 and PS3, but I think the PC version will be the best and have a longer lifespan due to the modding community as time goes on.

Visit the official site at http://dragonage.bioware.com/ to see some videos, screenshots and lots more. The videos are especially impressive.

I didn't look at it yet, but noticed it's release, gonna have a look tomorrow. There's also Demon's Souls for the consoles, which looks nice, not fantasy though, and seems to be very hard to play. Nothing really for me, but you should give it a look too. But I guess you already know it, as it's been out since some weeks now. Don't know if there's a PC release though?

I think Demon's Soul is only out on PS3. Looks interesting but as you say it is meant to be very hard.

Yeah, dragon age looks awesome :D I have already ordered the PS3 version (out the 20th nov). I'm trying to complete my other games for then, because i think i'll be quiet busy :) I'm so happy that the other chars will have strategies like "the priest heals when i'm at 50%", it gives you more focus on the char you are playing. I'm also happy that they've kept the ability to pause during the fights to check things and adjust some paterns :)

For Demon's souls, i have completed it last night (ps3 has no zone for games :) ). Yep, it is hard and it took me something like a week, i was sick at home so it's really been a lot of hours. All i can say is that i think i have died more than 1000 times and i think it's even much more than that. The game is unforgiving, a small mistake and boom-dead. So you die, try again, die again and pass the place on the 60th try. Being killed is full part of the game and the only way to learn in that game. It is hard BUT very rewarding, the game is addictive like hell and the ambiance is awesome.
Actually, it isn't hard in the way "unfinishable" but more in the way "die alot and move slow". I found some monsters easier than some bosses of Doom3-hell. play it if you're ready to spend time and be a little nervous :p

those movies are so good .... looking forward to see the game