Dragon Age came out just over two years ago, and took the RPG world by storm, showing just how well BioWare built RPGs and how good they are at storytelling. As expected, two years down the line, it’s sequel time, and Dragon Age 2 is set to deliver a bigger, better and feature filled game than its predecessor. On some areas, it succeeds, on others, it fails.

Dragon Age 2 is a story driven RPG where your decision have a big impact on how the game plays, it’s the exact opposite of the very linear games we see (like Call of Duty). In Dragon Age 2, your character moves through the world and through the story the way you want it, based on your decisions, meaning there’s always a reason to go back and play it over again, choosing a different path and getting a different outcome. There are numerous quests throughout the game, where you’ll do different jobs, meet different people, and so on, good ol RPG style. You can chose between three classes, Mage, Warrior and Rogue, which are pretty straightforward if you’re an RPG fan.

Dragon Age 2 takes the inventory and skill-set management and greatly simplifies it, which is never a bad thing. But this time, it’s been simplified a bit too much, which might disappoint hardcore RPG fans. On the upside, the simplified management and combat means that you’ll be spending less time tweaking things and pausing the game to manage stuff, and more time actually playing it. Remember in Dragon Age 1, where you had to pause the game before every big battle and navigate through your spells to get the upper hand on your enemy? In the sequel, it’s a bit easier.

One thing we didn’t like a lot is all the talking that’s going on. There’s a lot of dialogue — but good dialogue — which sometimes gets in the way of actually playing the game. This time, your character is fully voiced, meaning there’s a lot of back and forth discussions with other characters, like Mass Effect, another BioWare series. On top of that, the story is kinda bleak, certainly not up to par with Dragon Age 1 and the two Mass Effect games. You character is homeless and his job is essentially to rise out of poverty. Why? No real reason. No real motivation. Meaning the quests aren’t really connected, but they are quite good, in and of themselves.

Overall, Dragon Age 2 simplifies some of the combat and inventory management, and the game plays a lot faster as well. Visually, it also looks better, but still looks kinda dated, with low res textures and a washed out look. Story wise, it’s not as good as the previous game, and the dialogue cut scenes tend to go on for longer than necessary. Dragon Age 2 might not be the best RPG to recommend for veterans of the original game, especially if they’re hardcore RPG fans who like a challenge. In many ways, Dragon Age 2 is a lot easier and simpler to play than the original. For better or worse.

The Good:
More streamlined combat
Great quests
Interesting characters
Great soundtrack

The Bad:
Visually, still looks a bit dated
Story is weak
Atrocious loading times on consoles (PC version loads quickly)
Too much reliance on dialogue and cut scenes

Overall score: 8/10

According to reports, the new PS3 firmware is crashing Dragon Age for a lot of players. The issues are with firmware 3.30, which causes frequent crashes and freezes, according to posts on BioWare’s forums. The issue is for both regular and slim PS3 models.

Dead Space fans waiting for a sequel will be happy to hear that EA has just dated the game for a 2011 release. Of course, you’re probably not too happy to hear it considering you have to wait over a year to get your hands on it. Additionally, EA has also told us that Dragon Age 2 (or whatever the sequel is to be called) will also be hitting store shelves sometime in 2011.

But that’s not all as EA has also listed the two sequels as having a future presence on “handheld platforms” which could mean anything from the DS and PSP to the iPhone and iPod touch, or all over the above.

We’ll let you know as more information is made known about the two sequels.

via kotaku

Late last year we let you know that Dragon Age: Origins would be getting a DLC pack entitled Return to Ostagar which an expected launch date right around the holidays. Well, after a troubled start BioWare has just annoucned that the DLC pack has relaunched and is available for all to download.

As of this posting, the DLC is only available for the Xbox 360 but thanks to BioWare’s Twitter we have learned that a PC and PS3 version of the pack will be made available “soon”.

We’ll keep you posted.

After announcing the second DLC pack for Dragon Age, BioWare had some bad news: the DLC which was supposed to be released today will be delayed until tomorrow, the company announced on the official forums. While they didn’t mention exact details as to why it was delayed, it’s still just a day, and we’re sure gamers won’t mind. Right?

While we’ve already reviewed Dragon Age: Origins for you, EA has come forth today to announce Dragon Age: Origins Awakening, the first retail expansion for the game.

In Awakening, the player will take control of a new Grey Warden Commander in an area called Amaranthine and be pitted against all new monsters like the Spectral Dragon and Inferno Golem. Additionally, you will be able to surpass the level cap featured in the original game, collect new spells and items and party up with 5 new members.

Again, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening will be out on March 16th for $40.

via joystiq

Go to the website for any video game and along the base of the screen you’ll see logos for anyone and everyone involved from the publisher to the system(s) it’s being released on. Trailers also feature these helpful little reminders at the end and apparently in a trailer for Bioware’s upcoming Dragon Age: Origins two of the logos featured were somewhat unusual for a game: Twitter and Facebook.

It seems that as with Spore the overall aim is to blur the line between single player and multiplayer. With Spore you created creatures who existed in a universe populated by the creations of others. The developers are looking for some method of connecting the community of Dragon Age players through a ‘network of manually and automatically shared content’.

Some of that will be more passive, similar to the stat-tracking features of games like Halo 3 where you can nip over to Bungie’s and check out lifetime game stats for yourself and others. Given that they’ll be including a suite of content creation tools though there could be some other aspects to it. In-game merchants selling weapons and armor others have created is a possibility, as well as other people’s characters being used for NPCs or hirelings.

Seeing as how DLC is all the rage these days, BioWare is taking no chances with Dragon Age, as company co-founder Greg Zeschuk has gone on record to say that the upcoming RPG might be supported by downloadable content for up to two years.

"With Dragon Age, our DLC strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly when you’re going to do it and how you’re going to do it," he said.

While he wouldn’t offer any details of the content itself, he had this to say: “Some of our fans would really like us to extend the world, so it’s going to be something that will make the world even bigger and more interesting."

Dragon Age is due out this fall on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Previously slated to arrive before its console brethren, the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins has been delayed to the second half of 2009. It will now launch alongside the console versions.

“I’m really proud of our team, who are working very hard to make Dragon Age: Origins the biggest and most exciting BioWare game yet, and we will work to ensure it not only meets, but exceeds the expectations of our loyal audience,” said BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that the delay was due to marketing, and that BioWare will continue to polish the PC release.

Dragon Age: Origins director Dan Tudge has revealed that the upcoming RPG will be released on unspecified consoles following its PC release.

“Yes. Dragon Age: Origins will be coming to consoles in the near future, yes,” he said. Eurogamer notes that he hinted at a late 2009 release for consoles, though a representative later stated that “plans for consoles haven’t been finalized yet.”

Dragon Age is being billed as the spiritual successor to BioWare’s hardcore RPG effort Baldur’s Gate. The game is expected to arrive on PC sometime between January and March of 2009.