Dragon Age - Screens @ IGN
 

IGN has five new Dragon Age screens, including one that shows the pulled-back, isometric-ish combat view (replete with GUI).
More information.

I really like some of those screens. Will there actuall be large scale battles like this?

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/682217…page=mediaFull

I doubt we'll see such huge armies in-game. First of all I think it would take a whole lot of computing power to get them on-screen in real-time. And secondly I don't know how would your party of four interact with such huge numbers.

I think the large armies are simply for cinematic purposes.

Don't forget that one is a mock-up from 2004, using the NWN engine (or a varient), as I recall. Large-scale battle certainly seem to be part of the setting (see the teaser) but it's a good question - how would you interact with such large numbers?

My god looks soo awesome, i just hope see this game in a near time.

The isometric screenshot rule?
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Those old screens are on that page the big battles just look like background graphics. Pretty sure it's not going to be like Heavenly Sword.

ummm… mow 'em down maybe? :biggrin:

I do like that isometric-style screenshot. Brings back warm and fuzzy BG memories.

I thought the idea was to return more gritty combat/world. That was said a long time ago though.

"BioWare is on the verge of wiping out the PC piracy problem. And the company will not do this by adding more and more DRM to its titles, as Electronic Arts might want. The
way to get rid of pirates, the BioWare style, is to create copious amounts of downloadable content and to increase the fidelity of PC gamers.

Ray Muzyka, who is the boss of BioWare, has recently told MTV Multiplayer that "We're doing a lot of post-release downloadable content on all of our PC titles going forward. We think it's a good thing to encourage players to make them want to buy a PC title"."

Hopefully that's good news all round also.

It's great that one developer understood.

Funny thing though, I have a complete collection of all Bioware/Obsidian/BlackIsle games already. I often pre-order every new game before I read the first review…

http://jemym.no-ip.com/rpgcollection.jpg

I have to say it though. Bonus stuff that takes place before the end of the game is something I rarely play. I did so with Heart of Winter and with Tales of the Sword coast, but those were exceptions.

That article is misleading - all that Ray has said is this that they quote:

"We're doing a lot of post-release downloadable content on all of our PC titles going forward. We think it's a good thing to encourage players to make them want to buy a PC title"

There is NOTHING there about reducing or eliminating the current level of DRM they use for PC titles as observed in Mass Effect… or indeed any promise to not increase that also. The site is making a conclusion from Ray's comments that can't be backed up by what he actually said.

"We're doing a lot of post-release downloadable content on all of our PC titles going forward. We think it's a good thing to encourage players to make them want to buy a PC title"

…as long as the baseline game is a decent length without the extra content. I prefer meaty expansions/addons rather than itty bitty "episodic" extensions, which might be one interpretation of what he's saying (I hope not) Still, based on the new footage/pics I'm feelings somewhat more positive. Wonder how long the "PC exclusive" deal will last…

People can just pirate the DLC so that won't prevent people from pirating the game itself.

Why not? The Total War series and Mark of Chaos get pretty close to this today. And in Mark of Chaos, you've got multiple heroes you can control individually, using powers and giving commands and such.

Imo controlling large armies takes too much away from the roleplaying part. I'm quiet content with roleplaying a party of four.

Nice collection. I have all except lionheart because I understand its not so good. I also have/had up to 4 copies of baldurs gate and two of icewind dale (and I even bought the ps2 baldurs gates). I had a bad cdrom burner 8y ago that somhow scratched beyond repair most of my cds - two of my baldurs gates were destroyed this way.

I agree. There is nothing in what Ray said that could be viewed as Bioware elimating or scaling down DRM in their forthcoming PC titles. Reading between the lines, well, that's another matter. I do believe that Ray gets it. So does John Riccitiello, I think. However, the investors might not.

Ray also speaks of ways to reduce piracy in PC games; releasing DLCs only available to registered is one of these ways, he says. Reading between the lines, this means a more lenient drm feature…or that would be my (qualified) guess at least.

As for the Dragon Age screens they look great :)

Found the article on MTV I guess the actual DRM word has been banned until they are ready to disclose it. That's not while they are announcing the game I guess. Still I'm more interested than I've been in a game for a while on meagre scraps.

One of my Baldur's Gate disks were broken, so I bought the collection because of that.

Lionheart is a decent game to play if there's nothing better available. It's the worst game in my collection, but it's not through-through "avoid at all cost" bad. The game remind me a bit about Divine Divinity in being a Baldur's Gate style game with Diablo style combat.

Very nice screens. And a nice shot of your collection, JemyM.

I was a little surprised to see the spell effects--I seem to dimly remember Dave Gaider or someone saying DA wuld be a "low-magic" world and magic would be the exception. I'm glad if they've changed their minds( or I remember wrong) because what's a cRPG for if not for tossing the occasional fireball?

There are rumours that the game will be ported to consoles after all:
There are so many good console exclusives today that perhaps its time to buy a new console. After ps3 lost even final fantasy xbox is starting to look like an easy choice.

Of course Dragon Age: Origins is coming to the console(s) near you. It might mean a Nintendo DS title, though, although that is (highly) unlikely, I think. A port or rather a re-construction of the game to play om Xbox 360 would be more likely.
The game will be out in early 2009 and then perhaps an Xbox 360 version will come out around Christmas 2009?

Slightly off-topic : Is the "Chaotic Evil" version of NWN2 selling as slowly as here elsewhere, too ?

Here, it "lies like lead on the shelves", as we say here.

Very nice looking screenshots, looking forward to all the info we're bound to get from the E3!