Dragon Age - Preview Tidbits @ GameBanshee

GameBanshee sends word they have some summarised some tidbits from the recent PC Gamer preview of Dragon Age.
More information.

That's sounding really good actually. I've often wished that there was someway Blizzard could liscence WoW's engine for the creation of single-player RPGs, because it's a masterpiece of fluency and customisatbility.

The origin stories should really add to the replayability of the game as well. Having to play through a boring and totally linear start to a game in order to get to te non-linear bit for a areplay to see how differently it could have been done is always annoying. It also sounds like they're getting the C&C somewhat right, and have a more complex and interesting approach to morality than good points and evil points. I really hope they follow through on making the less-heroic path appealing. The player should have to make some kind of sacrifice sometimes in situations where the character is. Or at least, the 'sacrifice' should translate better. Having to take some time out of your deeply important personal/epic quest to help some random is a sacrifice for the character, but it's just more content for the player. Especially when the need for expediency in the story is not reflected in any way in-game. (Dues EX and BG2 were both guilty of this).

I hope it doesn't feel as streamlined as Mass Effect. That game just felt utterly generic. This one sounds like it has more depth. The word-count being the highest in any Bioware game ever seems like a good sign.

For a single character, I find WoW style combat rather dull: without latency in a single player game, there is no necessity to reduce combat to min-maxing ability chains. Instead of long timers, abilities can be limited by giving the enemy the ability to counter them with a stance or move that might open him for another attack in turn.

Observing the enemy, quick reactions and accuracy should have a place in combat if possible. If the player has complete control over a bunch of characters, this might not be on option, however. Either way, I am curious how it will turn out.

@Badesumofu: consequences and sacrifices are important, but I hope you are not sold on Peter Molyneux' ideas of permanent punishment / scarring / aging etc. for good characters. I did not play Fable 2, but the initial ideas sounded way over the top. Also, it does not reflect my experience in the real world that good people are generally disadvantaged. Idealists are rarer but often cleverer than the common opportunist and therefore see more alternative options. Also, at least where I live, bad people have to cope with prison - artificial aging in game terms - a lot more.

I want choices and consequences. If the 'good' choice always has better consequences for the player and the character, then it wasn't an interesting moral choice. Mass Effect's expedience vs. idealism was an improvement on the evil = jerk for no reason of KoTOR.

Taking time out of a personal quest, undertaking a side-quest to rescue someone is a sacrifice for the character. For the player, though, it's just extra content. That doesn't feel like an interesting choice to me. A choice to tourture a bad guy for information might be more interesting. Maybe you do it, but the info turns out to be dodgy, or maybe it works but then some other faction won't trust you or work with you in the future. Maybe torturing him gives you vital information about the next mission, that the good guy (or idealist) misses out on.

Those consequences all sound reasonable, and I agree that a system like this would allow to make much more memorable moral decisions.