Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[tibilicus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruQuvu-HVI

A video interview with some of the devs. Nothing new really, just summarises much of what has been posted here.

[rajpoot]

DA 2 Podcast

New facts -

• Decisions made in DA:O will show up in future iterations of the DA universe.
• Cassandra is an Inquisitor in the employ of the Chantry.
• Cassandra is interrogating Varric the Dwarf on the actions of Hawke over the last 10 years to better understand how the world came to be on the brink of war.

So actually it wasn't a seeker, but an inquisitor who's listening to Hawke's story....whatever that means.

[rajpoot]

Second Podcast. And some concept art for the four races.

Concept Art -

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Listening to the podcast kind of makes me sad. The chap goes on and on about how great all the different races are going to look, and the only thing I can think of is that they've limited the player's race to human.
Edit:
The Qunari lady looks nice. Lot nicer than Sten's banter in DAO made it sound.

[Double A]

Rumour going round the Bioware social from those who saw an early version of the game at Comic-Con seems to bring the words Ninja Gaiden and "Dynasty Warriors in RPG format" up in many threads. Now make of this what you will but it seems Bioware may be moving into the area of over the top fantasy combat, make of that what you will.

More interestingly, apparently new DLC based on the Deep Roads is in the works and one of the Bioware staffers at Comic-Con stated that Bioware would like to continue DLC for Origins, even after Dragon Age 2 is out. Whilst of course none of this is concrete, it's generating a lot of discussion and suggests to me at at least that the role of origins, as opposed to what Mass Effect was to Mass Effect 2, will have less impact on Dragon Age 2 and the world of Dragon Age II itself. Perhaps it's Bioware's aim to make the Dragon Age series a more tighter narrative, one which has a much more concrete story and more "canonicity". If this is the case, it will probably dramatically alter the way the series plays out.

EDIT:

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archi...i-evolved.aspx

All I can say is, are the Dragon Age team beginning to lose their minds? I've never had any reason to lose faith in Bioware before but I just have to ask why? Sure, the Qunari, or Sten at least looked too humanoid, but why did they have to be re-branded as some semi-daemons. This and the new art style fuels my worries that Dragon Age 2 will be some Comic style mess. I hope Bioware convince me otherwise.

Apparently they're also changing the way Elves and Dwarves look. I don't understand why they can't just fix Origins' flaws and build on what they already have. It sounds like DA II is going to cause a major continuity crisis for a lot of people.

"You only saw Sten in Dragon Age"

What about those Qunari mercs? I've seen like 20 of them. NONE of them have horns. Also, the Qunari helms probably couldn't fit someone with horns.

And is that Qunari doing magic or something in the last pic? I'm pretty sure Sten said they lock up their mages...

This is like if they gave the Elcor wings.

[rajpoot]

The way he's holding it, it looks more like a skull than anything else. In which case he's most likely doing Hamlet and not magic

[Mailman653]

DA 2 release date announced

[rajpoot]

Trailer.

So I hate the new Qunari, but it seems I'll love the game. And Hawke has some cool powers. Seems like he'll be a match for the Warden after all.

[Beskar]

Trailer.

So I hate the new Qunari, but it seems I'll love the game. And Hawke has some cool powers. Seems like he'll be a match for the Warden after all.

I think Hawke is probably possessed by a dragon or something. He is definitely using blood-style magic though.

I find it weird.. they are calling it a sequel, but it seems completely different to the original. It is like saying Final Fantasy 13 is Mass Effect 1's sequel. Makes you go "huh?"

[rajpoot]

I think Hawke is probably possessed by a dragon or something. He is definitely using blood-style magic though.

I find it weird.. they are calling it a sequel, but it seems completely different to the original. It is like saying Final Fantasy 13 is Mass Effect 1's sequel. Makes you go "huh?"

Anything is possible. And far as the sequel thing is concerned, I'll wager that it won't seem so much of a sequel considering the new art style and everything. We might see familiar faces, but I doubt we'll even recognize them....I mean we've already seen the concept art for Flemeth....she looks nothing like Flemeth.
And they've definitely changed the Qunari a lot. This one is infact roaring and snorting like an ogre insted of shouting like a man.
But the awesome thing is that at the end of the trailer, where you see Hawke walking with the logo in the background, those are most certainly in-game graphics, and they look great....(though Hawke walks a little....funny...almost as though he's over doing it).

All said, I liked the Sacred Ashes trailer a lot better.

Edit:
Maybe this Hawke is a mage-warrior of sorts? At 1:01 there's a move which was featured in the concept art as the finishing move for a mage Hawke.
At 1:29 you can see Flemeth.

[rajpoot]

Article on 1UP.

Flemeth seems to have her hands in every pie.

[Vladimir]

~inappropriate pie pun removed~

[Gregoshi]

Ahem, Gentlemen...can we dial back the testosterone level just a tad? What you do with your pixels is more a private matter than worthy of a forum discussion. Thank you.

Let's see how my froggy impression is... No, I can't do it, but just picture it in your mind.

Edit: Thank you Vlad.

[rajpoot]

I missed a pun?

Anyway...another article on IGN.
Be warned, this one has some spoilers about the characters and the story in it.

[Beskar]

I am looking forward to DA2.

Though I wonder though, how moddable will it be? DA1 was very moddable, but ME2 is no where near the same moddability.

[johnhughthom]

I'm going to stop reading about DA2. If I read any more I'll just decide not to buy it. It's Deus Ex 2 all over again...

[Meneldil]

Game doesn't work very well for console gamers, so they just dumb down the series. As simple as that.

Good gods thanks for not porting Starcraft or Diablo to console Blizzard.

[Double A]

I'm going to stop reading about DA2. If I read any more I'll just decide not to buy it. It's Deus Ex 2 all over again...

Hi old person.

...

Anyway, I still don't get the Qunari change. Sure, they say Sten is weird. I guess all the weird Qunari come to Ferelden, because I've seen at leat half a dozen Qunari mercenaries with no helmets or horns. The helmets indicate that someone with horns would be pretty damn uncomforatable as well.

Oh, and you'd also think that, I dunno, maybe someone would mention something like ing horns.

The only way I can see this all working is if everyone from DAO is dead and the game is set at least 100 years in the future. Yeah, then I can see Flemeth like that and maybe even the Qunari like that. If the game is good.

[johnhughthom]

Game doesn't work very well for console gamers, so they just dumb down the series. As simple as that.

That's the thing though, it worked perfectly well on console, I played on PS3 before PC and it was fine.

[rajpoot]

One of the members at the wiki, Ausir (who is also the founder of the Vault wiki and the Witcher wiki) interviewed Fernando Melo, the online producer for Dragon Age. He's asked a couple of questions that were posed by the wiki community.
Here's a link to the blog where he's posted the interview. It clarifies several things, but no new info really.

Oh yes, one good thing that it reassures the players of is, that still more Origins DLC is on the way and it'll allow players to wrap up their stories. Atleast that's what I hope he meant.

Are there any plans for more DLC for Origins before Dragon Age 2?
Yes, we’re not finished with Dragon Age:Origins, there is more content coming, we’re going to have some more details very soon, actually. And then we’ll talk more about it when we get there.

Will it bridge Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2?'
Not so much a bridging, I think it’s going to be more of an opportunity for people to close off some points that were left open in Origins, it will be an opportunity for them to kind of go back and revisit some places and find some characters they might want to have a final encounter with. We’re going to talk a bit more about it when we actually announce it, but I think people are going to be happy with this.

[Mailman653]

New DLC: Witch Hunt

[tibilicus]

That announcement makes me happy and sad. I'm happy because we get to go into the Morrigan story one more time but it makes me sad that such an announcement seems to suggest they want to tie up the Origins tale for good, including most of the characters from Origins.

Personally I would have liked there to be room for more Origins characters in the future but this doesn't seem to to be the direction Bioware wants to go in. Some things are also best left a mystery in my opinion; Morrigans story was one of those things. I think not knowing the fate of Morrigan added food for thought and added a welcomed unpredictability to the series. It would have also meant that there was a chance of the Origins story/events carrying right through the trilogy, I doubt this will be the case now.

[Monk]

That announcement makes me happy and sad. I'm happy because we get to go into the Morrigan story one more time but it makes me sad that such an announcement seems to suggest they want to tie up the Origins tale for good, including most of the characters from Origins.

Personally I would have liked there to be room for more Origins characters in the future but this doesn't seem to to be the direction Bioware wants to go in. Some things are also best left a mystery in my opinion; Morrigans story was one of those things. I think not knowing the fate of Morrigan added food for thought and added a welcomed unpredictability to the series. It would have also meant that there was a chance of the Origins story/events carrying right through the trilogy, I doubt this will be the case now.

Tying up the Morrigan plot thread was always on the agenda, but I sorta hoped we'd get a full game dedicated to it, instead of a DLC pack (however long it turns out to be). I'm actually glad Bioware is making new stories again (instead of the retreads we've gotten before) but... I kinda find myself hoping this is the last DLC for DAO. Not that I hate the game, but because this is getting ridiculous. Every time I put the game away and uninstall it, more DLC is announced.

If this keeps up i'm gonna end up in the same way I did with Fallout 3, complete franchise exhaustion.

[rajpoot]

This...is.....awesome!

Atleast that's what I hope. It's bittersweet. The $7 price tag scares me since this might not turn out to be the grand ending I'd been hoping for (actually there's no 'might'....for $7...this certainly won't be the grand ending I'd been hoping for). Still. Bioware is giving us an ending and that's what counts. It'll be nice to start DA2 without wondering where next will be see our Warden or Morrigan. For now...I'm hoping that they make this even better than Leliana's song. I mean Golem's of Amgarrak...'twas...disappointing.

And from the screenshots, it like we're getting our faithful old Mabari back. Yay!

[Beskar]

I think it will explain why Flemeth returns as a white-hair buxom twenties sorcess porn-star in DA2.

Interesting view of the trailer, with some 'hints' pointed out - http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gt...n-age-2/703595

Also, Dragon Age 2 comes out on my birthday. Is it fate?

[Beskar]

Right, I found out why Sten doesn't look like a demon and the one in the video does.

During the qun-ari war, the qun-ari took large amounts of the Thedan, integrating humans into their culture. Either using them as slaves and servants, or enlightening them to the Qun, and thus they were religiously converted. While all of Thedan eventually kicked the Qun'ari out, there were many left behind which over the generations have been following the qun, plus that island off the coast is full of Qun believing humans.

Sten is simply a human who has embraced the Qun.

[rajpoot]

Right, I found out why Sten doesn't look like a demon and the one in the video does.

During the qun-ari war, the qun-ari took large amounts of the Thedan, integrating humans into their culture. Either using them as slaves and servants, or enlightening them to the Qun, and thus they were religiously converted. While all of Thedan eventually kicked the Qun'ari out, there were many left behind which over the generations have been following the qun, plus that island off the coast is full of Qun believing humans.

Sten is simply a human who has embraced the Qun.

That's a more plausible explanation than some just having horns by chance.
So Sten is a hybrid....

[Beskar]

He might be purely human, just tall. People from the different areas have some sort of 'racial traits', so he could simply come from a darker skinned tall human place which was conquered and converted to the Qun.

Here is the source of this information

copy and paste of the more relevant bits:

To others they are heathens, worshippers of a strange religion that seek to spread it to “lesser” races by force.

It was a dark time for Thedas, with the nations of mankind being forced to once again unite against a common enemy… this one intending not to destroy, as the darkspawn did, but rather to conquer a land they saw as in dire need of enlightenment. The qunari proved themselves to be the most frightening sort of opponent of all: religious zealots.

They divided children from their families and sent adults to ‘learning camps’ for indoctrination in their religious philosophies.

For every tale of suffering recorded, there was another that tells of enlightenment from something called the ‘qun’. This is either a philosophical code or a written text, perhaps both, and some claim it may even be akin to the qunari god. Unlike the Chant of Light it governs all aspects of qunari life, both secular and spiritual, and the qunari are devoted to following its tenets strictly and without question.

one Seheran who converted reported pity for those who had not, as if the conquerors’ religion led to a sort of self-discovery. ‘For all my life I followed the Maker wherever his path may lead me,’ he writes, ‘but in the faith of the qun I have found the means to travel my own path. If only all my people could understand what it is the qunari offer us.’

Dealing with those of the local populace which had converted to the qunari religion proved difficult, especially as some of these had lived under the qun now for generations

Rivain was the only human land that embraced the qunari religion after being freed [Rivain is the sea-faring nation present in Dragon Age 2]

[rajpoot]

Witch Hunt Trailer; Seems like Morrigan is playing the antagonist this time.

Edit:
The Origins mabari has been confirmed as the final companion.
Link

[Beskar]

Witch Hunt is a waste of money and a waste of time.

All it is, is references to DA2 with odd chatter about Kirkwall, and that concept art monster. The scene with Morrigan was a very short chat dialogue which unless you romanced her and had the special baby, all you get is basically "flemeth is a threat, bye". No answers to anything, and a lot of more questions.

[Vladimir]

Well that's a shame. I wonder if their new (i.e. new to me) gameplay and marketing strategy is paying off.