Dragon Age: Origins PC Games and Downloads

Released on 06/11/2009

• Dragon Age: Origins (Product Review)

  Blight to see you, to see you...

  It only takes one big release for a developer to gain a real cult following.

  For many old-skool BioWare fans that game would've been one of its seminal PC swords n sorcery role-players; namely Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. For me personally it was stonking Xbox Star Wars RPG Knights of The Old Republic. Others meanwhile might have joined the ranks for mystical martial arts epic Jade Empire. If you lost hours of your life to any of these, Dragon Age: Origins is a game you need to play.

  If however you became aware of BioWare by way of sci-fi adventure Mass Effect, then take heed: Dragon Age has its developers' hallmarks for quality questing, complex plotting and immersive characterisation, but in other ways it feels old fashioned compared to Colonel Shephard's outer space shenanigans.

  For one thing, there's the setting. As the name suggests, Dragon Age is proper high fantasy fare; all elves, dwarves, goblins, mages, kings, swords and scale armour. Not that there's anything wrong with that - especially when it's this in-depth. It's like someone at BioWare swallowed the entire Lord of the Rings collection, complete with appendices, and regurgitated it onto a game disc like a particularly talented cave troll.

  Tread Blightly...

  From the moment you hit 'New Game', the commitment to storytelling is clear. First, a lengthy cinematic introduces you to the world of Ferelden, in which an army of orcs and undead dubbed The Blight runs rampant across the lands, and an elite band of warriors known as Grey Wardens rally its disparate races to unite in battle.

  Next up is character creation, which depending on your selections of race, class and background will lead to one of six Origin Stories. I went with Human, Rogue, and Noble, beginning my game as Kelden Cousland, younger son of the leader of Ferelden province Higheaver. There are also Dwarf and Elf races, plus Mage and Warrior classes, usually with a choice of privileged or underprivileged backgrounds. These affect your starting location, the skills you have available, and the way characters address you throughout the game, so potential replay value is through the proverbial roof.

  How many times you want to play through Dragon Age will depend on two key things; how much you enjoy in-game dialogue, and how well you click with the battle system.

  Be under no illusions; Dragon Age is a very wordy game. Whether you're reading about the history of Ferelden, its characters, or item descriptions in the menu, taking on incidental quests to quell an NPCs woes, getting to know your party or conversing with key story characters, you'll spend a lot of your time reading and listening to speech.

  Mute Effect

  Next to Mass Effect, two things stand out. First, the main character never actually talks. In that respect, it's a lot like BioWare's older console efforts. However, unlike KoTOR and Jade Empire, there's no morality system. Sure, your responses can vary wildly between self righteous, virtuous, arsey, aggressive and downright evil, but it's never rewarded with something you can point to; an alignment on the stats screen or a character whose appearance morphs, Fable-style, to reflect your actions. It's less rewarding, then, and feels a bit of a step backwards.

  Thankfully, Dragon Age is markedly more accomplished in its party interaction. Taking the mantle laid down by Mass Effect, Origins not only lets you converse with your followers to discover their backstories, but also rates their approval or disapproval to your responses and actions - including giving them gifts to curry favour. Get close enough to someone and you may even be in line for some sex, such as it is; stilted, censored, and good for but a childish giggle. Piss someone off enough though and they might leave your party for good. And since they won't all see eye to eye, keeping everyone happy (and horny) is pretty much impossible in just one run through.

  If you are to play Dragon Age through more than once, it'll be because you enjoy the combat. On PC, that won't be hard; Dragon Age is clearly designed with keyboard and mouse in mind. The top-down perspective allows for ample tactical movement, pausing with the space bar, activating ranged attacks and spells, and directing your melee fighters into flanking positions. It's very much the spiritual follow-up to Baldur's Gate that RPG nuts wanted; incredibly challenging, but brilliant with it.

  This is your story

  The console combat system though is a compromise. The camera is fixed in a third-person view, and while there is the option to pause and prompt with L Trigger, you'll need to order each party member by jumping between them with the bumper buttons. Unable to queue up actions as in KoTOR, you'll instead have to set up Tactics in order to fight effectively over prolonged periods. These work like FFXII's Gambits, asking you to set actions for conditions, like healing an ally when their health drops below 50%. This combo of manual and automated fighting proves functional, but lacks the PC iteration's tactical edge or the immersion of Mass Effect's quasi real-time squad shooting.

  What Dragon Age does have going for it is its Tolkien-style world, its strong storytelling slant and a list of playable archetypes that influence narrative and gameplay with equal diversity. Admittedly, its looks are functional and its art style unspectacular, but BioWare's brilliant use of audio in both screenplay and ambience truly bring Ferelden to life. More importantly, there's always that sense that this is your story, shaped by your actions, with a series of minor, malleable events building to the major, satisfying forks in the plot's long road.

  Don't go into Dragon Age expecting a medieval Mass Effect. Buy it instead expecting Lord of the Rings crossed with KoTOR and you'll likely love every minute of its spellbinding 70+ hours.

  Despite the old-fashioned feel, for RPG nuts Origins is not to be missed.

  

  Dragon:
  + Accomplished, if familiar RPG fare from the kings of the genre.
  + An engrossing LotR-style fantasy world filled with deep history and compelling characters.
  + Through-the-roof replay value.

  Draconian:
  - Unspectacular visuals and art style.
  - Combat can be incredibly hard - and on console isn't half as tactical as on PC.
  - The lack of a morality system makes choices less rewarding.

• Dragon Age III on the way?

  Looks like Eurogamer really enjoyed Dragon Age II. In an interview with the fantasy RPG's lead designer Mike Laidlaw, the games website was itching to hear if work had started on a sequel already!

  "I'll say there are always ideas, certainly - there's definitely a direction that the franchise has," said Laidlaw. "Frankly, Dragon Age II gives Dragon Age a direction in a much, much stronger way than Origins, which largely concluded on the note of, 'Yay, we won! What next?' Whereas Dragon Age II does present a place for us to go and evolve in a fundamental change to the world that I think is going make Dragon Age as a whole more exciting. But what comes next is always for us to look at and announce as time comes by."

  Eurogamer also asked if multiplayer would ever be on the cards. "Just from a fundamental idea: [multiplayer] absolutely would [work]," said Laidlaw. "A big part of that is going back to fundamentals of the Dragon Age series and that sense of team; that we are stronger together than we are divided, which is in many ways a story theme through DA2. Any time you have a game that is aware of the advantages of teamwork, what it's like when multiple classes combine their abilities, be it a rogue not just stunning enemies but helping to conceal his friends so that they can take damage better - that's where you do an allegory that says yeah, we could do multiplayer here for sure."

  Dragon Age II is on sale right now, for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

• Interview with Ray Muzyka at Gamescom 2011

  At Gamescom 2011 we were lucky enough to get time alone with Ray Muzyka, co-founder and CEO of BioWare. With an impressive array of big-hitters to his name and the upcoming Mass Effect 3 demoing at Gamescom, there was a lot to get our teeth into.

  [GAME] It's great to get the chance to talk to you! BioWare seems to be one of those companies that really gets people passionate.

  [Ray Muzyka] Yeah, yeah, we have great fans. And there are a lot of core fans who buy everything we make.
  

  So, in the industry at the moment all the RPG developers are saying they're building a deeper, richer gaming experience. As you're considered one of the leaders in the RPG field, what does that mean to you? How do you build a deep, rich experience?

  Well, looking at individual games like Mass Effect 3, we got great reception for Mass Effect 2 but we also got feedback that people wanted a deeper experience in some of the aspects of RPG progression and character development. So when you see the build, you'll see that we've taken that apart and we've tried to integrate it into an RPG-action experience. It's very visceral and intense, but you can also do a lot of things that the fans have been asking for, like weapon modifications on the fly. We have a weapons bench and you can put your weapon down and make modifications to really personalise it and make it your own. And it works really well, it gives a sort of in-the-field kind of perspective.

  We've also got some innovations around the way the characters progress. New abilities, and just a more refined system that we've learnt from doing Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. You can see that there are more interesting, more engaging ways to push your character in Mass Effect 3. The best thing you can do is check it out, then you can see for yourself.

  At the same time it's also got an integrated action experience, so it's an RPG and an action game at the same time. There are better movement controls for Shephard and he has the Omni Blade that kind of extends out of the Omni Tool, and he can jump over obstacles now and vault things, and he can grab enemies now and pull them over, and there are some specialisations.
  

  Everyone's talking about Atlas, the giant machine that you can snipe the pilot and get in.

  Yeah you can get in it! We're not trialling that here yet, but yeah, you'll be able to drive it.
  

  What are you most proud of in Mass Effect 3?

  Well, I think it's more intense in the actual moment-to-moment experience but we haven't lost any depth at the same time, and I think we really nailed the aspects of that. We're in the third iteration now and we're really comfortable with the tools. The team has been able to get to some things that they really wanted to do in the first one and the second one that we now know how to do. You know, we have some things we haven announced yet.
  

  I was going to be cheeky and ask you what they were, but you wouldn't tell me, would you?!

  No, no! But they're really good. They're really big things. They're to do with the campaign. They're in line with the experience that we're showing here today, so they're not separate parts.
  

  In the presentations on Mass Effect 3 that I've been to they've been talking about the emotional side of the game.

  I think that's been key to all of our games, emotional engagement. Mass Effect exemplifies that as well. The intensity of the experience, the personalisation of your actions and how you're going to play your equipment and your character in the deep RPG system.

  And then the story is unusually powerful. It's not the Reapers invading some planet in the galaxy somewhere - now they're invading your home, invading Earth, and they're taking other worlds too. You're still saving the galaxy, but really you're saving your home AND the galaxy, so it a lot more personal. The story arc is very compelling and emotionally engaging.

  It's the end of a trilogy, so it brings the whole story to a satisfying conclusion but at the same time it's the beginning of a new galactic adventure, a new galactic war. So it's kind of launching both things.
  

  Of all your portfolio of games, which was the most challenging in terms of dev work?

  They're big games. We have small games, too. We have social games, but then at the other end of the spectrum we have big MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic, which has an amazing amount of rich content that people will be discovering for years and years to come. And then RPGs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. None of them are easy to build, they're all challenging in different ways, I think.
  

  So how about working with a big IP like Star Wars. Is it challenging? Do you have an awful lot of sign off on what you do?

  Yeah, yeah, well it's a very tight partnership, very close cooperation and they've been great partners. We've worked with them now for like a decade since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I, and now the Old Republic for many years, and they've been great collaborative partners.

  We set the game in a period thousands of years before the movies, so it's a really rich period where we get to explore and make new content, and they've been very supportive of that. We've learned a lot about the Star Wars licenses. I mean obviously they're experts on that. They understand the fans, they understand the audiences, and we benefit from that.
  

  So which of your games is most challenging in terms of fan expectation? For example, I notice that RPG fans seem to be much more intense about gaming and all the different aspects of it.

  They do seem to be. I mean, they like an intense, accessible experience, but they also want the depth, the richness, the story and the choice. And it's one thing to give a choice, but you also need to show the impact of that choice in a meaningful way, which means creating new content for different paths and non-linear storytelling. It means investing more time in development to enable that choice in a personally engaging way that means something to the player, and so they can see how their character reacts to their events, and the world changes based on their actions. That's part of what makes an RPG satisfying. You see the consequence to your actions.
  

  So based on that there must be a lot of emphasis put on the writing and the storytelling.

  Yeah, that's certainly one aspect of it. Cinematic animation is another aspect for the games that have that. World building, you have to change the world if something happens in one area. The downstream effects of changing one line of writing can be massive.
  

  You must sit at events like this being interviewed a lot! Is there anything that you're dying for an interviewer to ask you that you've never been asked?

  There probably is but I can't remember right now, it's been a long day! I think someone asked me a question today that I've never been asked which was, 'What were you like growing up?', and I was like, wow, no one ever asked me that before! I used to play a lot of videogames andmy parents let me play whatever I wanted because I got good grades at school. And for me, it was a real motivator, you know. I see it as an art form. I have a passion about the evolution of games. I love the fact that now there so many manifestations of them. It's like movies, there's such a spectrum of different types of games, like there are different movies and books. And those are art forms as well.
  

  I remember way back to the beginning of gaming when kids used to programme their own little pixelly games on a Commodore 64 and the like.

  Yeah, and people can program those sorts of games on their mobile devices now, so it's almost come full circle!
  

  And is there any question you get asked all the time that you wish people wouldn't ask anymore?

  Well, one question I get asked a lot is, 'What's your favourite BioWare game?' That's a question I can't really answer, and I don't have an answer actually, because I like all of our games. Otherwise, why would we be making them if we didn't like them?! I like them all for different reasons, but I don't like one more than the other.

  I'm pretty passionate about all the things we're doing. We have great teams and they're excited about making games and the opportunities, whether it's a smaller social game or an MMO, or an RPG or the strategy games that come out of L.A. And theres some exciting stuff coming out of all of our teams.
  

  Over all the studios is there something that's a big focus at the moment? We see that motion control is a focus for some companies at the moment.

  Kinect. We're doing a Kinect version of Mass Effect 3. It's not a seperate version, but it's going to be really cool. It's voice control. We're using voice commands to control your squad so you can tell squad members to do different things, different actions like help me or heal me. Or you can read the voice lines, the dialogue.

  I wouldn't say that's an overarching focus though. For our label it's really about our vision, which is emotionally engaging games, and all the games we build are achieving that vision in different ways, but they're all achieving that vision. It's our core value for all our studios, it's how we operate, it's how we build our games, it's how we make decisions.

  We want to make quality games for our fans, andbe a really great workplace for employees, a place they can be proud of, and use their passion and entrepreneurship. For us, all these things are important, and that's what makes us a sustainable business.
  

  Like I said at the beginning, you are one of those companies that people do get really passionate about. Why do you think that is?

  I think it's a trust thing. You can try very, very hard to make games and for us, the quality is very important. And we aren't perfect, we make mistakes and we always take feedback very humbly and say, yeah we can jig that to make our games better. We're only as good as our next game, and we have a promise and an obligation to our fans. And I hope that's how fans see BioWare. I hope they trust our brand to not let them down, and if we ever do we always make sure that we try and improve on it in the next game. It's a promise, I guess, and we want to maintain that quality.
  

  Thanks for giving us the time to talk to you.
  

  Interviewed by Amanda Hepburn
  

  Published: 31/08/2011

• Dragon Age 3: Inquisition coming next year, Bioware confirms

  The long-rumoured third entry in the Dragon Age saga will launch in late 2013, RPG specialist Bioware has confirmed.

  The game has been in development for two years already and will use an enhanced version of the Frostbite 2 game engine, developed by fellow EA studio DICE for its scenery-destroying Battlefield shooters. This, it is planned, will result in a "more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices and more customisation".

  The story will revolve around the rise of a new evil in the land of Ferelden and, as leader of the Inquisition, you'll be tasked with locating and eradicating the threat. The game is likely to include multiplayer arenas, based on not-so-subtle hints dropped by Bioware's Mark Laidlaw. "Any time you have a game that is aware of the advantages of teamwork, what it's like when multiple classes combine their abilities, be it a rogue not just stunning enemies but helping to conceal his friends so that they can take damage better - that's where you do an allegory that says yeah, we could do multiplayer here for sure," he said in November 2011.

  The Dragon Age 3 team is also taking on board feedback from players of Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and the relevant DLC expansions. "We've visited message boards, read reviews, and we've gone to events to have direct face to face conversations with some of our most passionate fans," said executive producer Mark Darriah. "We've been listening, and we will continue to listen."

  No platforms have been confirmed for the game. "We are not talking about them at this moment in time" tweeted Bioware community manager Tully Ackland. Could this be a launch title for the next generation of consoles?

  Published: 18/09/2012

• Rolling The Dice: The History of Bioware

  
  

  

  Role-playing fans are used to risking everything on the roll of the dice, but those gambles are usually reserved for the fictional fantasy tales unfolding on kitchen tables and in college dorm rooms. In 1995, doctors Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip rolled the dice in real life when they turned their back on lucrative medical careers and decided to devote their time to making computer games instead. They called their company Bioware, and you only have to look at the games bearing that name today to see if their gambit paid off.

  

  This Christmas week sees Bioware release its first online multiplayer RPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, while next year brings the third (and final?) instalment in their epic sci-fi saga, Mass Effect 3.

  So how did the Canadian code factory reach the top of the RPG tree? Surprisingly, the first game from the newly formed studio wasn't a role-playing game at all, but a 3D action title about combat mechs. Shattered Steel was the title, and by taking advantage of the power of new PC video graphics cards it offered destruction and 3D scope that was beyond the capability of older hardware. Titles like Quake and Half Life were yet to redefine PC gaming, so Shattered Steel's technology earned the fledgling developer a lot of attention.

  That attention wasn't enough to stop Dr Yip from returning to life in a white coat, but Zeschuk and Muzyka weren't about to let go of their dream. They wanted to make games inspired by the lengthy Dungeons & Dragons sessions that had seen them through medical school. And they already had the game in mind - Battleground: Infinity.

  

  Don't be surprised if you've never heard of it. By the time the game arrived on shelves it had been taken on by Interplay. The publisher held the video game rights to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons brand, and so almost overnight Bioware went from developing games inspired by the role-playing classic to making an official Dungeons & Dragons game.

  Baldur's Gate was the result, and it was an immediate smash. The RPG genre was in rude health in 1998, with The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Diablo all well established, but Bioware's relative inexperience was balanced with a deep understanding of what made role-playing fun.

  Dungeons & Dragons remained the company's bread and butter for many years after, with expansion packs for Baldur's Gate leading into the sequel, Shadows of Amn, following in 2000. Neverwinter Nights continued the studio's D&D heritage in 2002, reviving the classic AOL online role-player for a more savvy internet audience.

  While these titles were critically acclaimed and embraced by RPG fans worldwide, they were still very much niche games. Few outside of role-playing fandom were aware of the Bioware name. That changed in 2003, when the company launched its first console game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. At a time when Star Wars fans were torn by misgivings over the prequel movies, and punchdrunk from a slew of half-baked spin-off games, it was Bioware's narrative nous that saved the Jedi. Epic in scale, and with the freedom to explore the galaxy far, far away, it fulfilled the dreams of many Star Wars fans and earned Bioware a promotion to the ranks of legendary game developers.

  

  Buoyed by this success, the company turned its attention to something new, the first original Bioware title since Shattered Steel, in fact. Jade Empire was the game, and it took the RPG framework and applied it to a tale of rival martial arts masters in feudal China. Kung fu combat added a surprising wrinkle to the familiar cloth, but critics noted that the story was a virtual retread of Knights of the Old Republic, with open-palm strikes replacing lightsabers.

  Only a few years later, and with a new console generation to play with, Bioware silenced any doubters with the 2007 smash hit Mass Effect. A slick, thrilling space saga with the pace of an action game and the depth of an RPG, it heralded a new era for the developer. Super-publisher EA swooped in to buy the company, and so began a period of blockbuster genre-hopping that is still in full swing.

  

  Blood-soaked fantasy epic Dragon Age found the company recasting the swords and monster tropes of the D&D years in its own style. Mass Effect 2 reached new heights of cinematic sizzle, showcasing an elastic storyline that allowed any of the characters to pop their clogs during the climactic suicide mission. And Bioware even found time to dabble in less obvious areas, creating a Mass Effect spin-off game for mobile phones and developing Sonic Chronicles for the DS, the first RPG to star Sega's blue spiky mascot.

  Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka are still at the head of the company they found over fifteen years ago, and their passion for role-playing is still tempered by a desire to innovate and stretch the boundaries of what can be done with the genre. With its ties to the developer's first breakout smash hit, and its desire to shake up the world of MMORPG gameplay, Star Wars: The Old Republic is perhaps the quintessential Bioware experience. Enormous in scale, complex in intent yet an absolute joy to play.
  
  Let the dice roll.
  

  Published: 22/12/2011

• Just one level of Dragon Age III is bigger than all of Dragon Age II

  Various representatives from Bioware took to the stage at the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo in Canada over the weekend, and let slip a bunch of tantalising new facts about the upcoming third instalment of the Dragon Age series.

  "Just one level in DA3 is as big as all of DA2's levels" was perhaps the most exciting nugget, tweeted by Bioware producer Cameron Lee during the presentation. Dragon Age II took place almost entirely within the vast city of Kirkwall over a span of decades, so it sounds like the next game - which finds the player taking charge of a new military order known as the Inquisition - will be expanding its boundaries considerably.

  Also revealed was the fact that Dragon Age III has had longer in pre-production than both previous games in the series, as well as Mass Effect. Character customisation will return in a big way, after being toned down for Dragon Age II, and there were also playful hints that players will have their own castle in the game. You'll apparently get to upgrade the interior and possibly even defend it from attack.

  Mike Laidlaw, the creative director of the Dragon Age series, revealed that although the team would love to include more playable races, for this game the main character will be human only. You will get to choose an origin story for them, as in the first game. Despite starting over with new characters every time, Bioware is also looking at ways that choices made in the previous two games can be incorporated into Dragon Age III.

  Dragon Age III is still deep in production, and is currently planned for release late next year.

  Published: 22/10/2012

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