Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins, (previously known as Dragon Age), is a computer role-playing game currently in development by BioWare. Bioware has announced that the game will be released for Windows before April 2009, and in late 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Dragon Age: Origins utilizes a new game engine named Eclipse. It has been confirmed that a toolset for creation of fan-made content will be included, though it is a single-player only game. BioWare co-CEO Ray Muzyka describes Dragon Age: Origins as a 'spiritual successor' to the Baldur's Gate series, though it is not based on Dungeons & Dragons.

Gameplay
The designers are incorporating 'origin' stories for each race and some classes in the game. For example, a Dwarf Noble will begin the game as part of the royal family in one of the Dwarven cities, and a Dwarf Commoner will begin on the streets of the city. Origin stories determine the background of the player's character prior to the main events of the game's story, forming an introduction to the game world and hours of game-play. People that the player meets during the origin story may reappear throughout the game, some of whom may be adversaries.

There is no tracking of alignment as in previous BioWare games, but the moral choices of the main character throughout the game will still affect the story. You may save the world whether you are good or evil, but the decisions that you make in the process will change the world around you--deciding who will become King, for example, and affecting nations and races and their places in the world. These decisions will also influence your companion NPCs, and could ultimately lead to an NPC deciding to leave your party if he does not agree with your approach.

As with the Baldur's Gate series, players will be able to issue orders to NPCs in real time or while the game is paused, and queue up actions such as spells and special attacks.

These features are confirmed:
 * Three base classes to choose from: rogue, warrior, or mage, and have your own origin story that affects the game as a whole.
 * Combat is real-time pause-and-play tactical.
 * The camera provides an over-the-shoulder viewpoint when zoomed in, or an isometric-style viewpoint when zoomed out.
 * Party-based gameplay with the player's character, plus up to 3 other characters chosen from a larger pool during the game.
 * Spell interactions (eg. ‘Blizzard’ can put out fires, and fire spells can ignite grease from a grease spell).

Plot
As a change of pace BioWare has said that the setting will be 'dark heroic fantasy' (as opposed to the High Fantasy Forgotten Realms that BioWare fans are used to) with a story told on an epic scale with mature themes.

The player will begin his journey as one of the five Origin stories which serve as an introduction to the game and will all be unique. The Origin chosen determines who the character is and by the same measure how NPCs (party and non-party) will react to the player. Elves for example are often viewed as second rate citizenry. The developers have cited 'realistic' fantasy fiction such as George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and fantasy paintings by artists such as Frank Frazetta as inspiration for the game.

Development
BioWare will release a 'developer-grade' toolset (the same one that they used to make Dragon Age: Origins) to allow some modification and customization of the game.