Dragon Age

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:53 am

Latest Update 11-05-2006

Quick Facts
Product: Dragon Age™
Publisher: Unsigned
Developer: BioWare Corp. ™
Format: PC
Game Type: Fantasy Roleplaying (single player and multi-player)
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Availability: Aiming for late 2007 or early 2008.

About Dragon Age
Dragon Age™ is a blockbuster fantasy role-playing game set in a world created and owned by BioWare. Dragon Age will offer a deep, party-based, roleplaying experience in both single-player and multi-player game modes. Utilizing a brand new game engine, Dragon Age will feature stunning visuals with a tantalizing blend of the exploration and combat of Baldur's Gate™, the multi-player gameplay and community support of Neverwinter Nights™, and a cinematic gameplay experience from BioWare, the developer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic™. Explore vast landscapes, engage in massive battles, and experience the sights, sounds, and culture of the heroic new world of Dragon Age.

Key Dragon Age Features
- Cinematic story-driven single-player campaign
- Separate campaign designed specifically for a multi-player experience
- Mod tools for great custom content
- Set in a new fantasy world created by BioWare for fans of its past titles
- Participate in massive battles
- Party-based gameplay for outstanding tactical combat and immersive character interaction

Links
- Bioware - DragonAge (Main site)
- Gamebanshee - DragonAge

Previews
- Gamebanshee
- Gamespy
- IGN
- Gamespot
- ActionTrip
- 1up *NEW*

If one of the links above is broken, or you want to add a link, please post in this thread or send me a Private Message

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:40 pm

I hope the story is as cool as Baldur's gate was. And no "The god kid who needs to choose" nor "the chosen one" thingie.

Bioware could have shown more on theyr website...

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Fri May 14, 2004 3:29 am

3 New previews

- Gamespy
- HomeLan
- IGN

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Fri May 14, 2004 3:38 am

The biggest innovation in Dragon Age is the switching, in both gameplay and viewpoint, in combat. Normally the game looks like a typical third person RPG, but BioWare wants to also have the tactical battles that were a trademark of the Baldur's gate series. In combat mode, the viewpoint switches to a over the top perspective and we got to see our hero and others take on the invaders.

Great idea, combining the best of both worlds

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Fri May 14, 2004 5:48 am

Well, if they have not 'lots theyr sense of humor' we can expect new Jan Jansens comming by, lots of combats and dragon slaying...

Nice news indeed

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Fri May 14, 2004 5:57 am

I hope they have a good party management with some intresting NPC's. I'm most excited about the perspective, i am a great fan of the BG(2) perspective.
Also the fact that they are creating a PC game is good. When i was playing KotOR I had that console feeling (although not as bad as with the FF7/FF8 PC versions).

I'm curious what kind of races/classes they are going to input, and how far the game is in development (working 18months on it now?)

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Sat May 15, 2004 5:13 pm

The NWVault Dragon Age page: http://nwvault.ign.com/DragonAge/

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Mon May 17, 2004 5:56 pm

And a new Gamespot preview

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Tue May 18, 2004 2:48 am

Originally posted by Stilgar
and how far the game is in development (working 18months on it now?)

Read somewhere (sorry I can't be more specific) that its slated for release 2-3 years from now. I do recall it was a very unofficial comment though.

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Tue May 18, 2004 5:07 am

Originally posted by Stilgar
I hope they have a good party management with some intresting NPC's. I'm most excited about the perspective, i am a great fan of the BG(2) perspective.

I was really pleased to read about that too...I just hope that its not going to make the game 'top heavy', especially as they're quoting 40-50 hours in the SP campaign which when you compare it to BG2's 300 doesn't sound like a great deal.

Also, because of the legal quagmire that now surrounds the D&D liscence (as I understand it), do you reckon this game might have started out as NWN2?

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Tue May 18, 2004 8:28 am

Originally posted by kopywrite
I was really pleased to read about that too...I just hope that its not going to make the game 'top heavy', especially as they're quoting 40-50 hours in the SP campaign which when you compare it to BG2's 300 doesn't sound like a great deal.

Also, because of the legal quagmire that now surrounds the D&D liscence (as I understand it), do you reckon this game might have started out as NWN2?

300hours gameplay in BG2? That sound alot (for 1 game that is, you can always replay it)

I think it's a good thing not to stick with D&D, now you can choose what you want, and have all options open. You can introduce new races/classes etc. or even a whole new skill system.
That isnt possible when you stick with the D&D rules.

Also the D&D-licence is with Atari, so if they wanted to make a D&D game they would have to work with Atari again.

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Tue May 18, 2004 9:20 am

I think it's a good thing not to stick with D&D, now you can choose what you want, and have all options open. You can introduce new races/classes etc. or even a whole new skill system.

Creating a brand new rule system, mythos and game engine is quite a lot of work which makes me slightly apprehensive that game play might suffer. Personally I hope this does turn out to be the 'spiritual successor' to BG2 as I've been waiting for that for yonks.

300hours gameplay in BG2? That sound alot (for 1 game that is, you can always replay it)

Well, the Bio website quotes 'hundreds' and I seem to remember when it was released that 300 was the number they kept waving about.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue May 18, 2004 11:01 am

Btw, not meaning to be boring and stuff, Atari has not been making so many good games lately... Deception, deception...

Oh, a good NPC system will be nice... very nice... and Character interaction, with conversation and fights, and intrigues between party members, betrayals and stuff... wow...

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Tue May 18, 2004 1:08 pm

Originally posted by kopywrite
I was really pleased to read about that too...I just hope that its not going to make the game 'top heavy', especially as they're quoting 40-50 hours in the SP campaign which when you compare it to BG2's 300 doesn't sound like a great deal.

Also, because of the legal quagmire that now surrounds the D&D liscence (as I understand it), do you reckon this game might have started out as NWN2?

300???!??! I use like 10 hours on the max finishing SOA.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed May 19, 2004 12:14 am

Originally posted by Luis Antonio
Btw, not meaning to be boring and stuff, Atari has not been making so many good games lately... Deception, deception...

Oh, a good NPC system will be nice... very nice... and Character interaction, with conversation and fights, and intrigues between party members, betrayals and stuff... wow...

What I hope, but what probally wont happen is that Bioware makes it a game like the WitchesWake module from NWN.
Rewards for quests and solving things, not for killing!

This solves alot problems that where in games like NWN.
(example: you need item from dragon, dragon sais he wants head of orcleader. You kill orc leader. Give head to dragon and you get item and experience. You kill dragon, and get another item and more experience)

But I dont think that's going to happen.

Originally posted by Gauda
300???!??! I use like 10 hours on the max finishing SOA.

Let's try to keep this a Dragon Age topic, and not a topic on how fast (or slow) someone can finish BG2.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed May 19, 2004 1:43 am

There is some new Actiontrip info (who called DA the best of E3)
I've edited my first post and i will keep doing so when more info becomes availabel, so all info is summarized there!

[EDIT] Just noticed DragonAge has the same abreviation(sp?) as DarkAlliance (both DA). Ooh well just call DarkAlliance BG: DA in the future

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Wed May 19, 2004 1:58 am

Thanks for the links Stilgar (erm...the NWN Vault one goes to an advert though...

). Those screen shots look pretty amazing, especially the large scale battle. Gob smacked.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed May 19, 2004 12:22 pm

I've edited the first post with some new info!
For those who havent checked, at the bioware site there is some conceptart and a few screenshots.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed May 19, 2004 5:03 pm

And now a DragonAge site at our very own good old Gamebanshee!!!

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Thu May 20, 2004 12:14 am

Yay! DA will have a 'game master client'!