Dragon Age: Origins

Topic: The Matrix...It's like it's from another millennium

Users: @SuzyQ

irc.simpworks.com

[Shockwave]

In my opinion, the fantasy RPG to look out for. Official website finally more than just a picture of the title:

http://dragonage.bioware.com/

A lot of the people working on this were behind the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games. First offical press release info follows:-

* Epic Party-Based Combat - Dragon Age: Origins will introduce an innovative, scalable combat system, as players face large-scale battles and use their party's special abilities to destroy hoardes of enemies and massive creatures.

* Powerful Magic - Raining down awesome destruction on enemies is even more compelling as players apply "spell combos," a way of combining together different spells to create emergent unique effects.

* Deep Customization - Players will develop their characters and gain powerful special abilities (spells, talents and skills) and discover ever-increasing weapons of destruction.

* Your Story, Your Way - With its emotionally compelling story, players choose with whom they wish to forge alliances or crush under their mighty fist, redefining the world with the choices they make and how they wield their power.

* Origin Stories - Players will select and play a unique prelude that provides the lens through which the player sees the world and how the world sees the player. The player's choice of Origin will determine who they are and where they begin the adventure, as they play through a customized story opening that profoundly impacts the course of every adventure.

Origins is scheduled to ship on PC in early 2009.

[A Spy in Mancunia]

Sounds interesting! Particularly the bits about stories and branching paths. Too many fantasy RPGs just seem to be slice n' dice fests by another name...

[Shockwave]

Cool press release announcement about the development tools you'll get with the game:-

Developer BioWare today released a number of details on the Dragon Age Toolset that will provide the public with "developer-grade tools" to create custom content for the fantasy-based PC RPG.

Originally announced back in 2004, Dragon Age: Origins is slated to hit PC early next year, followed by eventual console editions.

• Create Original Adventures - Using the rich set of Dragon Age assets and locations as starting blocks, users can modify these stunning areas by adding new quests, characters and scripting to craft their own adventures, fate-defining conversations and cut-scenes.
• Powerful Script Editor - Users can fully customize combat and creature AI, allowing them to create detailed action sequences full of heart-pounding party-based tactical combat.
• Content Creators Community - BioWare plans to have a dedicated community area online where content creators can share content easily and get content updates for the toolset.
• On-Going Toolset Content Updates - BioWare plans to release additional assets and features for the toolset in the future, allowing for expanded creation of new areas.