Genre:

RENT

I emerged last week from my first 7 year adventure in Kirkwall. Somewhere around the middle of the game, I created several saves, so that I could hop back into the game when it finished. I did exactly that just a few hours after finishing my first playthrough.  Now, I’m *this close* to finishing my second complete playthrough.  But here’s the thing, the more I pick up the game and play, the less enjoyable I’m finding the game — not because I don’t like the story or the characters, or even the game itself — but because I find more and more problems: bugs and glitches as I play.

For instance, the day-one DLC “The Exiled Prince” had several issues on release, the biggest problem being that the achievements for the Xbox 360 version wouldn’t unlock until an updated version of the DLC was released late last week. Even still, I’ve had time to write this during the loading glitches that have hampered my game several times. In fact, on my second time through the last act, as I came to one of the crucial battles near the end of the game, all my adversaries became invisible — my companions continued battling them, but I couldn’t see them to fight them — and then my game got stuck on a loading glitch which meant turning my Xbox off and restarting a fight or two back. These haven’t been game-breaking, but there are many bugs that can significantly hamper your gameplay experience: missing quests, quests that complete before they’re even given to you, bonuses that get subtracted multiple times, spells and abilities that unpredictably get locked and cannot be used during combat and an entire mission that can’t be completed. And those are just the biggest, most notable things.

But lets talk about something else.  There’s definitely far more interesting things to talk about.  First, please prepare for spoilers. It’s going to be hard to talk about much of anything without them.  However I am trying to keep the spoilers minimal and only to things that you would’ve seen/known by playing through the demo and only for general comments about Act One (of Three).  I don’t want to completely ruin things for anyone.

You start the game the way most of us interested in Dragon Age are familiar with: you and your family are running from the burning husk that was the city of Lothering.  You’re only a few steps in front of the wall of the blight and fighting your way through the outliers with your Mother, and twin siblings: Carver and Bethany.  You encounter a templar and his warrior wife, recently escaped from the battle that somewhere in another story, a Warden is being forged by the fires of battle.  When you’re overwhelmed by darkspawn, you encounter the Witch of the Wilds (the first of many Origins character encounters), though Flemeth is much changed from her Origins days.  She helps you escape the oncoming horde and helps you flee Fereldan altogether.  Which is how you and your mother, remaining sibling (either Bethany or Carver falls in battle — which depends on the character class you’ve chosen) and new friend Aveline, all end up on the docks in Kirkwall.

I’d say that’s when the fun begins, because you get to meet up with Varric.  He’s the dwarf (in search of a disco, if that chest hair is any indication) that’s telling Hawke’s story, in this story within a story-framed narrative that is Dragon Age II.  Which is when I start to think that Dragon Age II isn’t really a sequel.  It’s a tangent.  It’s a “….meanwhile, back on the ranch” sort of story that’s making us bide our time until we get the whole story Bioware and David Gaider are really trying to tell with the Dragon Age series.  It’s not bad though, we get Varric’s snarky comments, his occasional exaggerations and the questions from the Seeker about whether or not any of this is true.  The game’s story, within a story (within a story) is exceptionally meta.  Just ask the Talkative Man at the Hanging Man Pub: “Do you ever wonder if this a story?”

To be honest, Acts One and Two are where you’re going to spend the majority of your time and it’s all going to look the same and seemingly all Hawke’s choices are going to boil down to choice between good and evil.  Despite the option for snarky/sarcastic responses to just about everything in the “new” action dialogue on the radial menu, the choices Hawke has to make are frustrating and I was having flashbacks to Fable III while I played (I still don’t understand why you can’t have both an orphanage and a brothel in town).  Everything seems rather black or white in Kirkwall and it becomes painfully obvious, very quickly, that Hawke’s choices are inevitably going to boil down to a choice between the Mages and the Templars.  But I digress.

Hawke meets up with Varric, Isabela (you might remember her from DA:O or the various DA II trailers in which she’s the love interest for Male Hawke) and Fenris, Merrill (also lifted from Origins), Anders (from the Awakening expansion) and if you get the day one DLC, Sebastian — though not in that order, depending on how you do the quests.  The game is essentially broken down into three major Acts.  In Act One, your Hawke and new team of rag-tag misfits explore Kirkwall and work to build enough capital to fund a caravan exploration into the Deep Roads looking for treasure with Varric’s brother.  He’s a bit of a jerk but willing enough to take Hawke’s money if it means getting into the Deep Roads.

Isabela

Let me tell you now that I think one of the best parts about this game isn’t the story, it’s not even Hawke: it’s all the other characters.  As you run around everywhere, your companions will talk to each other much like they did in Origins, but I think it’s on a much more frequent basis.  The conversations are often scandalous and almost always hilarious and they give indicators of friendships and rivalries building between Hawke’s companions that Hawke has nothing to do with.  For instance, we learn that Varric keeps an eye out for Merrill by paying off the guards around the Viscount’s gardens when Merrill sneaks in to pick flowers.  You never see this in-game, but Varric brings it up more than once in the random city chatter your companions have. There’s also the possibility that if Hawke isn’t romancing certain characters, that’ll they might become involved with each other.  All of these moments are my favorite thing about this game, hands down (and personally I think Isabela has some of the best lines of them all):

Isabela: So what duties did you have? As a slave, I mean?

Fenris: Not this again.

Isabela: I heard that Tevinter slaves are kept oiled so they glisten. Did your master oil you up? Did you glisten for him?

Fenris: I was his bodyguard.

Isabela: Always close at hand. Always within reach. Glistening.

Fenris: You have an entire story written in your head already, don’t you?

Isabela: Mmm.

The Qunari Compound

Unfortunately, Act One is also when you’re going to discover one of the reasons I think this game was able to be made and released in two years, versus DA:O’s seven.  All the scenery, all the locations, you see them tons and tons of times.  The first time you go into the cave on Sundermount after meeting Merrill?  You’re going to see the same cave insides at least 15 more times during other quests.  Sometimes you see more or less of a specific map, but it’s the same map over and over again.  The same can be said about the mansions you visit in Hightown, the houses you visit in Lowtown, the few underground places you visit in Darktown or the couple of Deep Road-y looking ruins you find.  Each area is exactly the same layout and decoration and it reeks of laziness.  The graphics themselves, I think, are lovely.  It’s a marked improvement from Origins, though there are several characters that suffer from odd facial design choices.  The characters that have been lifted from previous games have all had small makeovers, Isabela’s being perhaps the most drastic difference.  It’s disappointing to see so much effort go into the town locations and the characters and then to visit the same dungeon and house locations over and over again.  One of these things is not like the other.

In the pre-Act One, “running from Lothering” scenes that also made up the game’s demo, there’s a small introduction to combat.  You’re introduced to spells/abilities and how to get to them or use them once they’re assigned to a button (or still in your radial menu).  This feels very much like Dragon Age: Origins, and when I played a mage, I liked the similarities to the spells/talent trees to Origins.  What I didn’t like was the more visual look of the ability trees — it’s very Final Fantasy to me (as I think I mentioned in my review of the demo).  I feel I should be assigning Dress Spheres, not picking spells and abilities for my character.  I think this layout took longer for me to figure out, but Mass Effect fans might not have trouble with it.  Personally, I was also slightly annoyed at the horizontal design choice versus the vertical one in the previous game; I know it’s a small detail, but visually speaking it wasn’t appealing to me, which might be why it was harder for me to figure out initially.  The small combat tutorial is good for the basics, and I think if  you’ve played Origins you’ll get the hang of it fairly quickly.  The radial combat explanation is pretty brief and people that are new to Dragon Age might have a harder time figuring out how to get to those abilities that aren’t mapped to buttons.

Fenris mid-fight

As I mentioned when writing about the demo, the change to combat to be more “visceral” really just translates to having to hit more buttons (that and the “exploding” overkill graphic when  your enemies die).  Your character no longer auto-attacks when you point them in the direction of a bad guy and make the first attack.  This means constant attack button-mashing while waiting for your mana or stamina to fill back up or for abilities to cool-down.  Again, it’s sort of a minor thing, but with the attention made about how this game was supposed to be more action-oriented, “action” does not equal “more button hits.”  It also means that at times, your character will swing wildly about when there’s nothing to attack in close range.  I found that this happened less with the rogue or warrior than it did with my mage, but it still happened more than I would’ve liked.  The combat actions your character makes are pretty repetitive — the mage uses the same five or six actions over and over again during a fight, especially during ranged attacks.  This is far less noticeable during melee combat, but it’s definitely something you have to actively ignore when playing as a mage.  Or do what I did, and leave your mage to fight from range and transfer to controlling one of your hand-to-hand companions.  Fighting as Isabela often throughout the game definitely motivated me to create a duel-wielding rogue on my second playthrough.

Act Two is the time in which you get a few reprieves from the demands of the mages and the templars and you get the chance to learn more about the Qunari, about your companions and deal with the things impacted by the events in Act One.  In Act Two, you get the opportunity to know your companions a little better.  Some of them even…intimately.  This is when any flirting you’ve done with your companions might pay off, if you want it to.  In Dragon Age: Origins your companion relationships were on a point scale and were most often effected by giving them gifts (lots of gifts).  There are still gifts in Dragon Age II, however they play less a part in your relationships with your companions and instead give a chance for Hawke to learn more about his friends (or enemies).

More important here is to mention the change in the dynamic between how Hawke actually interacts with his or her companions.  There is still a point scale and how you interact in the story and with your companion plays a part in how much they like or dislike you.  However there’s now a sliding Friendship/Rivalry scale with rewards when Hawke reaches complete friendship or rivalry with that companion.  Once the relationship scales are tipped and the reward unlocks, it doesn’t change as a sort of indication that companion is either in it for the long haul, regardless of whether there’s a romantic relationship or not.  It is worth mentioning that there is the option to be in a romantic rivalry with the love interest companions.  I think that it’s also nice to know that even for the companions with whom you can not be romantically involved, there are still times when Hawke can “flirt” with them.

There are four possible romantic companions for Hawke and all of them will tie themselves to either a male or a female Hawke, making your options a bit more versatile than they were in Origins. Romantic entanglements work a little differently in this game as well.  Gone are the days where once you start a romance with a companion and can sneak them off for a little alone time when you like, or get a quick kiss while you’re out adventuring.  Now, those moments are few and far between but they make for good pieces of Hawke’s story.

If you haven’t read anything about it: just this week there was a bit of a kerfluffle over on the Bioware Social Network forums where a forum poster called out David Gaider and the Dragon Age II team for not having a romantic option for the so-called “Straight Male Gamer” since in this game all the romantic options (2 women, 2 men) are available to either a male or female Hawke.  Obvious issues aside, what’s of note is the comment from Gaider himself about the romantic options within the game (from that thread):

The romances in the game are not for “the straight male gamer”. They’re for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention. We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in DAO and thus don’t need to resort to anecdotal evidence to support our idea that their numbers are not insignificant… and that’s ignoring the idea that they don’t have just as much right to play the kind of game they wish as anyone else. The “rights” of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent “right” to get more options than anyone else.

The whole thing is worth the read if you get the chance.

Despite it’s many bugs and glitches at launch, there’s a lot to Dragon Age II to enjoy, the relationships between Hawke and companions, and between the companions themselves being just one of them.  Another, being just how much there is to do in the game, main story line aside.  The game is shorter than it’s predecessor if you stick to the main story.  However, Act Two alone can keep you busy for a long, long time if you let it.  There’s plenty of quests that you can pick up along the way, if you’re willing to spend the time going over the same ground again and again.  And if you’re the kind of person that wants replayability in a game, there’s many quests that you’ll only be able to find on certain playthroughs.  Sometimes you might not find an item to trigger a quest, you might do quests in a different order, not have the right party member along, or just miss something.  There’s plenty to miss.  Which means there’s plenty of opportunity for a second or third (or more) playthrough where you get lots of new content to explore.  I mean, I’m already super close to ending the game a second time and have an idea of the type of character and story I want for my third playthrough.  Or maybe I’ll pick up one of my various saves and see how things could’ve gone in a completely different direction with just a few different choices.

I think the issues with the bugs and glitches in the game are too many, too often to warrant a BUY rating for this game, not too mention the disappointing changes to combat and the constant repetition of locations.  But, I still love the game — in fact, I like it a whole lot more than I thought I would after playing the demo.  I expected worse than what I got, which I suppose is a blessing in itself.  However, I think if you go into expecting it to be really fantastic, you may be disappointed.

Three other small comments before I finish:

• If you have the chance to play the Facebook tie-in game, Dragon Age: Legends – do it.  Free stuff for the game is not a bad thing.
• I HIGHLY recommend grabbing “The Exiled Prince” DLC before you start the game in earnest.  Sebastian fits too well into the story to leave him out. (Much like Shale from Dragon Age: Origins)
• I wouldn’t pay money for it, but getting “The Black Emporium” with the Signature Edition was nice.  You can go there to pick up crafting supplies you’re missing or change the look of Hawke mid-game, if you feel the need for tweaks.  (It’s also useful for fixing a bug with Isabela’s outfit – which is supposed to change when you enter a romance with her, but doesn’t.)

First, I am unapologetic about my love for Dragon Age: Origins. I’ve played it and Awakenings and even with Dragon Age II launches, I don’t think I’ll give up playing through Origins. I like it that much, so much I’ve got it for both Xbox 360 & PC (the PC one is the Ultimate Edition). Indeed, most of this I’ve been working on while waiting at load screens. So suffice to say, that my love of the first game had me pretty excited about the second one — my game is already pre-ordered. But, I have to be honest with myself here, Bioware hasn’t really set out to make an actual sequel to the first game. As they’ve talked about the follow-up game, the keyword has been visceral: they wanted to make Dragon Age II a more visceral experience. I don’t think the word implies what they want it to when it comes to the experience that Dragon Age II’s demo brought to the table. Visceral doesn’t mean more blood and gore – though there’s a slight improvement in graphics – it’s not necessarily more bloody that Origins.

In the demo, I get the feeling the word visceral is supposed to mean that no matter what character I choose: warrior, rogue or mage, I’m going to be hitting things a lot more often. Or there’s a feeling implied that I’m more active. For instance, if you choose the mage, you’ll notice (if you played the previous game) that it’s not enough to point your mage at the right target and figure out what spell you want to cast when you have the lyrium (mana) for it. No, my mage lady Hawke needed my direction for every single magical strike from her staff and if the bad guys get too close, that equates to actual physical blows dealt by my staff. Maybe people (that aren’t me) enjoy this immense level of button pushing for what equates to an automatic hit. I however felt like not only was it completely unnecessary but it meant that Hawke took up way more attention that I’m used to spreading out amongst all my party members. In fact, I was so preoccupied with the annoying fact that I had to tell her to do everything, that I came up to one battle and had to play it OVER AND OVER again because everyone kept dying. On my like 10th play through (I’m not even exaggerating) I realized that my party mates weren’t really using their abilities with any sort of wisdom, or like, at all. If I left Hawke alone, she managed okay, which meant I ended up spending more time controlling someone other than the main character. Maybe in the full game, tactics will help this out a bit, but at the time it was pretty frustrating.

In this case, you start the game with Hawke’s brother, sister and mother after they’ve escape the darkspawn ravaged Lothering. On the way they run into a Templar named Wesley and his wife, Avelline. This story is broken by the storyteller, a dwarf Varric, as he recounts Hawke’s story to Chantry Seeker, Cassandra. As part of this story mechanic (which when we get our hands on the full game will allow your course as Hawke to skip around a bit) means that Varric isn’t always telling the story exactly as it happened. When questioned by Cassandra, Varric will retell the scene, which results in playing through a battle more than once.

The biggest changes that people coming from Dragon Age: Origins will notice isn’t the graphics update (it’s decent on the Xbox 360, but about what I’d expect from like The Sims 3 on my PC, really) but the navigation on menu screens and ability screens. Actually, my first thought upon seeing both my first CGI screen with Lady Hawke and the ability tree navigation later, were that they remind me TONS of Final Fantasy (X or X-2 specifically). The navigation won’t be out of place to fans of Mass Effect either but personally, I’m not a fan of the radial menu. I don’t necessarily mind it when choosing conversation options, though I liked the old style better (old school though it might be), but I really dislike it in the menu. Maybe it’s a nitpicky thing of me to do but when I go to the option screen, I expect certain things, and in a place like the main menu, there’s no need for radial selection over your basic list. The time it might save me from having to scroll down a list is so minimal it’s unnecessary. For leveling up abilities, there’s a sort of dress-sphere looking thing. Here’s where we could actually benefit from a list but instead, we have six areas to select with no real indication of what each of the six might be until you start drilling down into individual items. But, again, it’s not really helping speed things up in a way that keeps it from being frustrating.

In the demo, after the fifteen or so minutes of game play I was used to from PAX, there’s just enough story to lead you into getting excited about what might be next for the future Champion of Kirkwall. You meet up with two ladies, one of whom will be familiar to anyone that played Origins, and another that I’m still a bit peeved didn’t have her own achievement in Origins. Both of whom are up to their usual tricks, as you’re quick to learn (and similarly, somewhere in an alternative universe, your warden is learning about them too).

There’s a bit of a time skip in Varric’s story towards the end of the demo, will gives a feel for how the game is likely to be a little less fluid than the first one. If it’s a good indication of how the story will skip forward each time Varric moves the story along, I’m not sure I care for it a ton. There’s a little cutscene – the artwork in these is a little more art, a little less fleshy-squishy CGI – and then you’re dropped down in the next bit of story. The first time was a bit jarring for me and the best I can hope for is that they’re either not all like that, or maybe I’ll just get used to them.

If you’re a fan of the first game, you’re going to want to check out the demo to see what you’ll be getting yourself into. I’ve got a lot of things I’m not so happy about (namely the sort of Mass Effect nature of the game) but that’s not to say I’m not going to jump in with both feet when the game launches in a few short weeks. I’m still excited to get a full look at the Champion of Kirkwall’s adventures and to get an expanded look at the stories of some of my favorite characters from Origins. A word of warning though — I was one of the unlucky ones, my demo glitched on me bad enough that I had to shut off my Xbox completely. By that point I was also super frustrated with that stupid battle I mentioned and just opted to leave the Xbox off for the night. Thankfully, when I came back to it the next day, it was fine.

If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins at all yet, well I hope you remedy that. If you played it and didn’t like it, then you might want to give the demo a try. It’s a good chance to get a look at the game’s updated play style without having to drop any money on it. I have a feeling there’s a good number of you out there that might like this play style a lot better, since it’s going to feel a lot more “in the moment” and more like an action game. Really, there’s no reason I wouldn’t really to tell you to at least try out the demo (unless you don’t have the gig and a half to spare on your console – it’s pretty huge). But, I’ll say for myself, it’s helped me lower my expectations of the upcoming game a bit; maybe that’s doing me a favor after the bad taste left by Fable III.

A new Web series, “Dragon Age: Redemption,” has Day in a six-episode run as the character Tallis, who Day wrote for herself.

“Tallis is headstrong, she fights dirty, and she has a really sarcastic sense of humor,” she told USA Today for an article published today. “I wanted to bring a modern sensibility to a fantasy character in a fantasy world.”

Day chose the character Tallis from several characters already in the game. Her storyline involves finding allies in order to capture a renegade magician.

“I put every single effort into making this something that gamers will be proud of. Even though we were constrained a lot as a Web series, none of the people who were involved took that as a constraint. They took that as a challenge,” Day said in the article.

“Dragon Age: Redemption” filmed last month with Peter Winther at the helm. John Bartley served as cinematographer (he previously worked on “Lost”).

If you want to see more of Felicia, “The Guild” was recently approved for a fifth season.

The bundle will be available for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on October 26.

“The Dragon Age franchise got off to a tremendous start. With Dragon Age 2, we are building on the outstanding RPG fundamentals the original delivered while taking the franchise in a new direction with faster, more responsive combat that will allow players to think like a general, but fight like a Spartan,” said Mark Darrah, executive producer at BioWare. “We are giving the franchise’s gameplay a shot of adrenaline. We can’t wait to get the game in people’s hands so they can feel the difference.”

In Dragon Age 2, players will play as Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall. The new story spans 10 years of the Dragon Age universe timeline.

You will play as Leliana, who, if you didn’t know, is in a criminal ring. Kind of a secretive environment. She’ll accompany her mentor, Marjolaine on a mission and end up in a situation that her good looks and charm just can’t get her out of. (Welcome to real life, honey.) Instead, she’ll have to kill…or be killed.

The DLC has fully-voiced cinematics and a reward that transfers into the Awakening and Origins campaign.

FUNimation will be creating an anime feature based on the series for a home video release in 2011. Producers will include staff from both BioWare (EP Mark Darrah and Creative Director Mike Laidlaw) and FUNimation (CEO Gen Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes).

“Anime is a great medium for us to continue the robust Dragon Age story,” said Darrah. “Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we are delivering the exceptional quality and entertainment value that our Dragon Age fans expect.”

Dragon Age is only the first title in FUNimation’s Original Entertainment anime movie lineup. The co-production initiative was launched in November 2009. No word yet on whether other BioWare titles might get the same treatment.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case for their surplus of DLC. Recently released, “The Darkspawn Chronicles” is yet another uninspired add-on aimed at blind and loyal lemmings. Basically, uh, like me. Players are placed in a “what-if” scenario as they relive the ambitious attack on Denerim. Only this time, you’re the fugly and strategically lacking Darkspawn. As a “Hurlock Vangard” and professional lackey of the Archdemon, your mission is to crush familiar faces and aid the grouchy bastard in the final, dreadfully easy battle.

The battle system is a tad simplified as there is absolutely no character development. Instead, as a Vangard, its your job to “Enthrall” other Darkspawn on your team until they eventually die. “Woo” them with gifts for bonus status effects, but it’s really all…worthless. Of course, the DLC only includes a miniscule piece of gameplay, a lack of character customization options, and zero depth. Generally speaking, Bioware’s DLC has been a pretty faulty representation of an amazing developer.

Needless to say, “Chronicles” isn’t a befitting name, either.

For five bucks, you can purchase an hour of storming through exits and killing innocent townsfolk; If you’re like me and found Zevran to be an incredible annoyance, you may enjoy punching him repeatedly as a gargantuan Ogre. If you want to butcher Clerics and women, be my guest. Although this sounds insanely fun, “The Darkspawn Chronicles” manages to perfect “boring.” Essentially, it’s the same game with different character models and nothing to offer the Dragon Age crowd minus a few, humorous codex entries. Your reward is 25 achievement points and a lackluster ending. Unless you’d like a bloody-up a few teammates—save another five bucks for a legit rental at your local Blockbuster.

Well, Prima is taking a lot of that work out of the process. Some of their guides will now be available on Steam, and you won’t have to switch windows to read them – just use Steam’s UI overlay to read while you play! (You can also read the guide outside of the game, but it wouldn’t be nearly as useful then.)

The launch collection, available now for 50% off, includes quite a few epic games: Dragon Age: Origins, Just Cause 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

So, next time you’re stuck…well, look around and read.

BioWare Brings the Beauty.

A must-see for me was the panel by Clove Roy and Shane Hawco, two of BioWare‘s lead animators, both of which had worked on the epic RPG, “Dragon Age: Origins”. The panel, titled “Bringing Dragon Age to Life”, detailed the process that the BioWare Edmonton team went through in order to create a robust (and incredibly reusable) set of tools for creating and rendering all of the different characters (primary, secondary, and tertiary NPCs).

I come from a computer science background; I’m firmly ensconced in all things code. To see how the artistry came together through a combination of talent and mathematics was enough to make my nerdy little heart soar.

And then we saw demos.

Demos and trailers and more demos.

We watched in (sometimes) silent awe over how complex and powerful the proprietary tools were. The team used things like FaceFX, Mug Shop (both developed by a team of programmers at BioWare), and 3DsMax. Manipulating the meshes to create bones and muscles within the faces brings these static, generic molds to life. We saw how the animators, artists, and designers “massage” the meshes and textures to create characters like Morrigan, Alistair (<3), and Oghren. They also went into detail about how they were able to use the system to allow the player to customize their player characters through use of sliders to control the meshes and textures.

Within Dragon Age, there is a universal mesh that’s used to create all of the subsequent meshes (for masculine/feminine, dwarves, qunari, children, etc.). On top of that, there are textures and effects that are used to create the difference between the skin tone and texture of Morrigan vs. Wynne (young vs. aged).

There was also an exclusive demonstration on the new monsters for the new Dragon Age DLC “The Darkspawn Chronicles“, set to be released on May 18th. Panel attendees were given a never before seen sneak peek into the new creatures that will be joining the ranks of the Darkspawn in “The Darkspawn Chronicles”. After struggling with the terrible camera in my iPhone to get a good shot of the new Dragon Age hotness, I gave up.

But trust me when I say, these new creatures will rock your evil little Darkspawn world. It sure rocked mine.

Next up: what I learned from Tommy Tallarico, Victor Lucas, and the power of lap-dances as a foothold in the game industry.