Dragon Age 2: Legacy

Mike Laidlaw, the creative director of the Dragon Age series, has announced his departure from BioWare, where he's worked for 14 years.

When BioWare moved from Dragon Age 2 to Dragon Age: Inquisition, something was lost. It was an expansion called Exalted March.

We didn't know about Exalted March until BioWare canned it, and we weren't told why it was dropped. But we assumed; we assumed BioWare wanted to get away from the negative reaction to Dragon Age 2 and onto something new ASAP.

"But not so!" Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw revealed on Twitter last night. "It was the move to Frostbite.

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Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider has moved onto "a new, upcoming BioWare project" and left Dragon Age behind.

The choices you made that were saved in other Dragon Age games will "absolutely come across" to the third instalment, Dragon Age Inquisition.

The next Dragon Age game will probably allow you to swap your follower characters' armour, BioWare has revealed.

The Dragon Age 2 Legacy DLC shows BioWare is listening to fan feedback, the developer has said.

Dragon Age II certainly had its flaws and missteps but what made it resonate - for me, at least - was the way it dialled the RPG bombast back to a more personal level. It was very much the saga of one person, and it was structured in such a way that when terrible events befell the city of Kirkwall, it felt organically connected to the character you were playing and the choices you'd made. Divisive though the game as a whole became, it was this narrative focus that provided its greatest strengths. Sadly, little of that strength is evident in this second DLC salvo, which snuggles comfortably into a more traditional role-playing framework.

The plot is triggered by a mysterious gryphon statue that appears in Hawke's ancestral home. Interacting with it leads into another flashback interrogation with Varric, in which he coyly dodges the question of why he didn't mention this adventure before. "I didn't think you'd be interested," he smirks. Given BioWare's see-saw reputation when it comes to DLC, it's a risky statement to put up front. As it goes, by the end, we are interested - but only just.

So we're whisked back to catch up with Hawke and your preferred party as they investigate why a Dwarf Carta is trying to kill him. It soon transpires that it has something to do with your blood and the actions of your father, who was involved in something with the Grey Wardens in a remote fortress prison.

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EA did not remove Dragon Age 2 from Steam - Valve did.

The Dragon Age 2 DLC released on Xbox Live and on the US PlayStation Store yesterday is mysteriously absent from the European PlayStation Store.

Dragon Age 2 has been removed from sale on Steam.

Out next week on PC, PS3, Xbox 360.

Dragon Age 2 downloadable add-on Legacy launches on 26th July, EA has announced.

It costs 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360, 800 BioWare Points on PC and Mac, and $9.99 on PlayStation 3.

BioWare described Legacy as a "major, story-based DLC".

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