Dragon Age: Origins Comments by Kieron Gillen

"I think Mass Effect would have had an influence here."

I'm not sure what Mass Effect had an influence on but it sure wasn't the quality of the visuals or the cut scenes. I was playing that game yesterday and it still looks fantastic - Not that it's that old, of course.

Second.

By saying "I think for a lot of players it's important to note that it is a PC game primarily." Bioware seems to want to keep the expectations for the console versions pretty low. Also, the fact that at this very late stage they're still experimenting with the console UI and control scheme leaves me wondering how polished the end result will be on consoles...

@BrokenSymmetry

I actually took that quote to mean that the experience on console will still be true to what we might expect from a PC RPG. I wouldn't worry about the controls at this point either. Plenty of time to tweak that.
However after reading the article I am not sure I know too much more about this game. Other than it is going to have some lame 'sex' in it.

This is the first PC/360 game I'm getting for the PC in a long time. Hope they take a mature attitute to sex (and not like the Witcher's "mature" attitude). I'm hoping this means you'll have serious adult relationships that last longer than one cutscene halfway through the final act.

Who cares about consoles? :) It's about time Bioware ported from PC to consoles instead of the other way around for all their post-NWN RPGs which were quite inferior in many aspects on PC compared to the holy grail that is BGII.

Though I think most console peeps would have been interested in a question+answer if there would be some kind of toolset on their platform or not. The PC version is getting a very extensive toolset which will make for some awesome free content by fans but no word on how (or if) that will translate to the console versions.

It probably won't. shame, really.

This makes me a little concerned:

"I think it's become more demanding in terms of the player's sense of the experience. I think Mass Effect would have had an influence here. Moving it away from the book and more towards the movie, having a more cinematic experience of dialogue, having a cool camera cuts and dynamic moments. That kind of thing. "

I like the idea of a book-like RPG more. Not that Mass Effect was bad, I enjoyed it quite a lot but I would still prefer something more like Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment. More and deeper content and less presentation I guess..

"I wasn't expecting to have that much sex"

That stood out brightly...Exactly how much sex are we going to have?

Will it have sheep sex like in Arcanum?

I really like the sound of that final paragraph. As ever, down with caricatures, up with characters. :)
It's comments like the one highlighted by the third poster that have the potential to leave folk seeking console-specific details, and opinion (what's "MY" game experience going to be like, then, since this is a PC article! :p)...Open, maybe, but not particularly helpful.

bleh. BG2 was rubbish. Too much dice rolling for my liking.

ps. by dice rolling i mean chance to hit with weapons and stuff. I don't know it just seemed extremely complicated to me and it just wasnt fun. but i aint no ficko alwite?

@ geeza2020: I have played BG2 for hundreds of hours and not once did I have to roll a dice or witness a dice being rolled.

BG 2 remains the best single-player RPG experience I have had to date.

Mmmm I loved BG2.

I must reinstall it when I get home.

I'll probably pick this up for the PC, Consoles are fine for JRPG's, but all the best western RPG's I've played have been on PC/better on PC. I don't know why that is, it just seems to be...

totally agree with Wyrm : the dicerolling was totally transparent. What stood apart were the various stories and interaction with the NPC. Just loved that game ;)

''We're at the part where the PC version is pretty much locked down, and all the content is complete, and the game's fully playable.''

I wonder if they said the same thing prior to release of Neverwinter nights 2...

/shudders

Was looking forward to this game but am strangely put off by the content in that interview. Not sure what exactly but maybe after listing Mass effect, KOTOR and Jade Empire, or NWN1 for that matter, it struck home that Bioware haven't delivered a really good game in quite a while now. Can only hope this turns that around. But feel less enthusiastic now

Edit: And BG would be tops for me too.

"I wonder if they said the same thing prior to release of Neverwinter nights 2...

/shudders"

I very much doubt it considering Bioware had nothing to do with NWN2 - it was developed by Obsidian.

(grabbed box and read it) Wups, always thought they were the devs.

That makes me even less happy, since NWN2 was the only ''bioware'' game I liked since BG2, and BG2 was made by a wholly different team before they where sacked:(

*edit* they should just hire the team of the witcher, SOD the console ports (which will be shit anyway) and just focus on making some hardcore rpg. Maybe this will be nice, mayyybe.

I agree with you 100% re. the Witcher... I think that might just have been the best pure RPG of the last 5 (maybe 10) years.... ok the 'sex card' thing was a bit meh, but the whole adult nature of the game (by which I mean the shades of gray, the choices that had real cause and effect half a game away, the whole 'lesser evil' thing) was frankly brilliant... and yay it had titty cards too! :)

I enjoyed NWN2 as well and the first add on pack, but it was buggy as hell on release... of the pure Bioware canon I have to say it was KOTOR that really hooked me (and I hate third person games, I hate Star Wars and I hate console ports... so to like this game it must have been sh*t hot!)... I played Mass Effect on the 360... and while I enjoyed the main storyline, the main quests, the acting and dialogue etc... the side quests were abysmal and the side planets a joke (as for the bouncy cart you got to drive... grrrr!) ... it was like a game half finished... the central quest line totally polished brilliance and the bulk of the game timewise utter repeticious drivel...

I really hope and pray that Dragon Age will end up with the polish, graphics and story of the main Mass Effect storyline, the script and acting of KOTOR and the side quests and longevity of a BG1 or 2...

FIIIIIIIIIIIINALY!!!!!!!!!! Oh and btw they planing for 2 limited editions!!! One it will be a wooden chest and the othe a meta case with leather map :) I thing i am going to take both of them :DDDDDDD

Really looking forward to this BUT

The 3D engine reminds me of NWN2...not good, not good at all.

I'm not sure what Mass Effect had an influence on but it sure wasn't the quality of the visuals or the cut scenes.

I really loved ME, but all the polish, and cut-scenes, and whatnot, comes with a pretty high price for an RPG - it's extremely linear, with a very short main story, entirely linear level design (no exploration, unless you want to count the generic planets) not too many dialogue options, generic side-missions, limited itemisation, etc.

That's not really a criticism - as I said, I really loved ME - but for a spiritual sequel to Baldur's Gate, their main focus will have been somewhere else - at least I hope so. I doubt you could do a game with the scope of Baldur's Gate 2 and the polish of Mass Effect. Not without going bankrupt during development, anyway.