Dragon Age - Hands-On @ VideoGamer

Another hands-on look at Dragon Age but this previewer seems more able to comprehend the intended gameplay and genre. The article comes from a 30 minute demo at an EA European showcase and centred on a "meaty boss battle from halfway through the story":

Unlike KOTOR, each character has 20 action slots at the bottom of the screen that can be filled with attacks or items. When you times that by four, that gives you up to 80 tools to use in battle - quite a lot to keep track of. My first attempt at taking on Aldred was fairly disastrous: after transforming himself into some kind of walking monstrosity, he and his mutant companions made short work of my party - largely because I panicked and didn't have a clue what I was doing. My demo party consisted of two melee fighters (the player character and a chap named Alistair), a rogue (Leliana) and a mage (Wynne). Clearly the best strategy was to use the latter two characters as support while using the warriors for the main attack, but unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan: my sword-wavers rushed in and promptly got crushed under a large area-effect spell. Not good.

More information.

20 action slots, that's GREAT to hear! One of the videos I saw a few months ago seemed to have the wizard simply shooting the same weak spell constantly - looked like it was going to be one of those games where it's just a matter of mashing buttons fast instead of thinking.

20 sounds just about right, really. 20 times 4… that might actually be too much to keep track of. It will sure be fun finding out!

Nice article … more of a realistic look at things.

20 slots, which may or may not be enough for all your spells and abilities. Combat sounds excellent, though.

I think Mages have a sort of basic spell that they have unlimited uses of.

For mages to have some sort of basic magic attack with half-decent damage would be great. I don't like the whole "oh, I'm out of spells, time to whack my enemies with a staff" approach.

At any rate, combat really does sound great. And somewhat challenging, which is good.

Can it be? Is Bioware finally taking steps to stop dumbing down their RPGs?

I'll wait until it's actually out.

It all still smells like a big marketing smoke-screen to me.

Cautiously optimistic on this one… Battles sound strategic. Might we "finally" have a true, spiritual successor to BG2?

you obviously havent seen The Trailer That Ended It All

Originally Posted by Cabel Blacke
Cautiously optimistic on this one… Battles sound strategic. Might we "finally" have a true, spiritual successor to BG2?

Nobody knows. Even after the game managed to be released, it will vary depending on views. That said, the gameplay of DAO is going to be probably nearest to that of Baluder's Gate series among the games developed by Bioware. Considering Mass Effect 2 (and maybe Jade Empire 2 if it is something more than a rumor at all) being native to console platforms and Star Wars: The Old Republic being an MMO RPG, DAO would be also the best bet for the majority here, which doesn't necessarily mean majority in the entire game market though, among the currently developed games by Bioware.

Indeed, there are quite lots of marketing noises but I think designers at Bioware have been quite honest, which may be bit surprising from me, who has not always been kind to the works by Bioware, though. It is simply that I lean toward regarding them as groups of professionals rather than of artists.

20+ action slots?

Are we talking about NWN 3 perhaps?