Getting Ready for Dragon Age: Origins

Rock Band tends to give the old 360 a fairly regular workout, so I haven’t actively been searching for new 360 games until recently.  One game that was brought to my attention is Dragon Age: Origins, which comes out for 360 on November 3.

Here’s how it looks to me:  it’s a video game RPG, but with a heck of a lot more blood and gore.  It’s a war story, but with fantasy lore.  It’s definitely geared for “mature” audiences – whether you’re talking about the busty women or the layered history, politics and architecture.  And I’m pretty sure there’s disgusting zombies and monsters.  In short, definitely not one for the kiddie nephews.

This game seems like an amalgamation of every genre I’ve ever tentatively stepped into, which is what interested me initially.  Dragon Age calls itself “an epic tale of violence, lust and betrayal” and “the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate.” I can’t confirm or deny, as I haven’t played the game yet, but there definitely seems to be a little bit of everything.

The game is only for one player, but there’s a developing community nonetheless.  The BioWare Social Network will let you upload screenshots, game data and more, if comparing and sharing is your thing.  They’re also on Twitter, Facebook and more.

By now, most people have played a game with character customization.  In creating a DAO character, they seem to be one step further away from that creepy deadeye look that other games have, and if the trailers are to be believed, the voice acting and mouth movement lines up a bit better too (no, I’m not expecting it to be a cinema scene all the time, though it would be nice).

There will be DLC available , and some of it has been announced already.  The first pack, called The Stone Prisoner, adds a new character, a stone golem Shale. The second item is a new adventure called Warden’s Keep, which unlocks Grey Warden Armor and a new chest to store items. The Warden’s Keep pack will cost seven dollars on the PSN and the in-game menu on the PC (560 points on Xbox Live Marketplace).

Some random extra things that interest me:

• Allies can be harmed by friendly fire
  
• Three levels of difficulty
• An undisclosed number of possible endings
• Romances (okay, whatever, I’ve never really played one with romances, shut up)

There’s tons of trailers and screenshots out there, on the main site, Youtube, etc.  However, if you want to see the trailer that got me interested in this game, check it out here.

Hopefully DAO lives up to the gorgeous trailers and screenshots!  Come November, you’ll probably be hearing my take, one way or another.