Dhruin
SasqWatch
Kotaku serves up a preview of Dragon Age from a demo of Red Cliffs (see the videos linked recently), with coverage of the relationship system and a detailed account of the battle. Here's a bit on that relationship system:
...and an interesting bit on the status the console control schemes:BioWare didn't confirm or deny the depth of the relationship system in the game (e.g. we do know that you can have more than one relationship at a time, but we don't know if homosexual relationships are possible for both genders). They did insist that it was "classy" and highlighted a new gift system where you have to find out what characters like and give them those things to raise their approval rating. For example, Morrigan likes jewelry, but she doesn't like rocks; she will take a rock if you give it to her, but you have to load her up with trinkets to get a spike in her approval rating. Sounds like a dating sim, really – but if jewelry is what it takes to bump Morrigan's approval up enough to unlock her best spells (or at the very least keep her from turning on me), then so be it.
More information.It all sounds very spiffy – and given BioWare's track record, there's no reason to doubt that they can inject new life into a hackneyed genre with decent writing and voice acting. But I'm worried about the challenge of getting this experience on console intact. When I sat down to this demo, Laidlaw admitted that they hadn't even tested a controller scheme yet – not a good sign. At best, we'll get a clunky controller system that doesn't do as easily what the PC version does (think The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion). In the worst case, they'll have to actually change the game, cutting things from the console release or dumbing-down the PC version altogether.