It seems like Dragon Age: Origins has been hovering around in the background for some time now ... that’s because it has. Announced as far back as E3 2004, Dragon Age: Origins, the “spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate,” has been in production now for well over 6 years. For BioWare fans and those eagerly anticipating the game, the wait is nearly over as Dragon Age: Origins will be with us by the end of October. The fantasy RPG was one of three BioWare titles on show at this year’s E3 and we got the chance to see it in action, better still ... we actually saw a dragon! Seriously! It only took 6 years.

Dragon Age: Origins casts you into the role of a Grey Warden plagued with the formidable task of stopping the Blight from raining down death and destruction on the fantasy world. The Wardens are an ancient order that have been around for a long time, longer than Oprah apparently, and have long stood to defend the world from the Blight. The Blight are ravenous dark spawn who are unified by an arch demon (you know, that big dragon we keep seeing) by bringing them to the surface where they spoil the lands and poison the water. Seeing as the Wardens are the only ones able to defeat an arch demon, the fate of the world rests in their hands.
Your story begins from one of six different origins which not only affects your introduction into the game, but so much more. Like many other BioWare games, Dragon Age: Origins has deep seated roots in choice and consequence which will intertwine with the main themes of the game; violence, lust and betrayal. The demonstration at E3 allowed us to see a softer side of the game as Lead Designer, Mike Laidlaw focussed on the relationship and lust aspect, and what sort of implications and bonuses it can carry.

Dragon Age: Origins allows you, the player, to fuse meaningful relationships with various characters in your party. Your decisions effectively dictate how they act as part of your party, with some decisions improving their combat efficiency as they gain faith in your leadership, and other decisions having an opposite effect. We pick up our Warden about 30-40 hours into the game in the party camp – a moving location that allows you to interact with your allies in a peaceful locale. Our Warden’s current love interest is Leliana, a master archer who has shared many an intimate moment with our hero (or villain). To stir the boat a little here and demonstrate the party reaction and interaction aspects of the title, Laidlaw navigates across the encampment to Morrigan, the parties’ sorceress.
Morrigan has a hunger for collecting lore and rituals, and just as chance would have it, our Grey Warden has a book of secrets that she may be interested in. After handing over the book to the busty wench, Morrigan acquires a new skill meaning she will peform better in combat. This is all down to her being much more assured of your leadership. Up until now, Morrigan has been rather flirty with you, and this new act has opened up the chance for our Warden to bed this fair maiden. At this point, you can choose which way to pursue it. Being a live demonstration, Laidlaw decided to pursue the Morrigan love interest but of course skipped the “love scene” (let’s see Fox blow this one out of proportion). “Love isn’t free guys,” Laidlaw jokes.

Each of your party members in Dragon Age: Origins will have their own characteristics – all members will have needs, motives and desires. As a result of your womanising, Leliana is quite pissed off to say the least and demands you make a choice between her and Morrigan, and show them both a little respect. Laidlaw went with the crowd on this one choosing Morrigan as the Warden’s true holder of his heart. As a result, Leliana now becomes disapproving of our main character which will negatively affect her in combat. Laidlaw comments that you can actually disgruntle them enough to make them leave your party, and on some instances if things escalate fast enough, force them into attacking you. The whole interaction with your party seems like a complex and intuitive system but only reading what your character says rather than hearing dialogue seems a bit of a faux pas to us and a little 1990. Don’t expect anything as advanced as Mass Effect’s dialogue because you’ll be sorely disappointed.

The second part of the presentation/walkthrough was more combat orientated as the Warden and co. head out to visit Flemeth, the source of the book of the secrets you gave Morrigan, and her mother. Flemeth was not only expecting your confrontation but heavily infers that Morrigan is just using you, and using sex as a weapon – something that Laidlaw commented was entirely possible. This puts you in a bind giving you the option to abandon Morrigan to her fate, work with Flemeth to cast her over to the old witch or kill Flemeth. As usual, the almighty power of sex presides and so the Warden chooses to kill Flemeth ... or at least try. Did we mention that Flemeth was a shapeshifting mage who could turn into a dragon? Ah ha ... course we didn’t.

So our band of merry men face off against the huge dragon and its multi dimensional stomps, tail sweeps and kicks. There is at this moment in time an awful lot of blood spillage going on, and the Warden and his allies seem to be struggling. It’ll be up to Morrigan to heal the wounded and shapeshift into a spider to poison the dragon before the Warden can gain the upper hand. Whilst Morrigan’s trickery had the dragon distracted, it gave the Grey Warden enough time to mount Flemeth the dragon and drive a sword through her skull ... as you do, pretty much wrapping up the demonstration.
Dragon Age: Origins looks to be shaping up to be a fantasy RPG of many different dimensions but nothing on show struck me in the face as being outstanding. The interactivity of the party does seem pretty complex and in-depth, and combined with the choice and consequence aspects of the title; it could really bring the game into its own. However, I’m still pretty astounded that in the 21st century, with a renowned developer like BioWare, we still have to read text from the bottom of a screen for our main character’s dialogue outside of the cut scenes. You’ve also got to question why for such a huge trade show like E3, BioWare decided that a 15 minute presentation on the birds and the bees in Dragon Age, finishing off with 5 minutes of combat was a good balance. Of course, it’s a BioWare title, so you’ve got to expect a powerful story and delivery, but everything from the presentation just screamed Carry On Lord of The Rings. Sure there was blood and gore, but after seeing the trailers released in the build up to E3, I had to question whether I was looking at the same game. Let’s hope for a better showing in Cologne in August.

Dragon Age: Origins will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this coming October 20th in North America and what we can only assume is October 23rd in Europe.

Source: X360A.org

Ever wanted to see what your face looks like after Muhammad Ali steps in the ring with you? Ever wanted to see what your brother's face looks like when you've stepped in the ring with him? Well now, thanks to EA, you can ... without actually doing it.

Fight Night Round 4's "Photo Game Face" allows you to do just that, without having an Xbox Live Vision camera as well which will surely please some people. Pretty nifty little, although pointless, feature and if anyone wants to knock me out come June 25th (European release date), I'll whack my face up so you can download it and knock ten tonnes of crap out of me. Hey, and who said I did nothing for you guys?

Well today Infinity Ward launches their Official YouTube Channel. So head over there and have a look while your here why not have a look at the new Modern Warfare 2 Screenshots Here.

Namco Europe today announced Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, which is set to be the first title in the Budokai Tenkaichi range to come to next generation platforms, and will drop in PAL territories this coming autumn.

Set to feature interactive and destructible environments, players will be able to smash their opponents into the surroundings to enhance their damage count and gain the upper hand in battles. Raging Blast boasts superior graphics and characters will have enhanced facial expressions to immerse players further into the Dragon Ball universe.

It's a proud and momentous day in gaming today. I can for once, with a tear in my eye and my glass raised high, report that this week's Deal of the Week is actually pretty damn good. Deal of the Week meet Bionic Commando Rearmed.

Not only is this week's title a solid title, and one that everyone should experience, but at 400 Microsoft Points ... it's a bloody bargain! Seriously ... stop whatever you are doing right now and go and pick this up ... or not. But you only have a week, so don't drag your feet.

Remember, this is open for gold membership only.

[Via Major Nelson]

In celebration of the release of Modern Warfare 2’s full teaser trailer this morning, Infinity Ward’s put up the game’s official site.

There’s not much on there, but you will find three screens. Hoopla.

It’s out in November

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Deux-deux-deuxs and Cuban cigars are joined by the 1 vs. 100 closed beta on the list of semi-forbidden indulgences Americans are sneaking from across the great northern border. Virtually of course.

Kotaku reader Tai Youkai Sama figured out how to do it rather simply. He found nothing prevented him from creating a Canada-based Xbox Live account, then using it to send his U.S. - based account reminder notices the next time 1 vs. 100 went live. Bingo, when he accepted the notice, it allowed him to download the beta. And from there, he was able to invite plenty of Yanks to also download the game and peek in on the fun. Here's what they saw and what you might see, unless and until Microsoft tightens the IP filtering and kicks us out.

• As of now, all prizes are bogus - that goes for the Xbox Live Arcade games The Mob wins when The One craps out, as well as any Microsoft Points accumulated by The One, who is given the option of cashing out early or trying to outlast all 100 in the Mob. Since the cash doesn't exist, there's no reason to take the money and run, although some players yesterday didn't know that.

• Stephen's observations about questions being too easy also is right on the mark. Unfortunately, this can cause the bored to outsmart themselves, thinking that the obvious answer is a red herring. (There will always be at least one blatantly obvious incorrect answer.) I incorrectly answered that South America, not Australia, was home to the most marsupials, simply because I figured there might be a ton of possum down there or something. Don't make it complicated, because it's not.

• Two people were able to beat the entire mob of 100 last night. I'm sure this is partly because they had nothing to lose, so everyone kept playing, but I doubt Microsoft wants that to happen so frequently.

• The more dated questions proved to be the most difficult. A question about Dolly Parton singing the title song in "9 to 5," a 1980 movie, booted a bunch of people from the Mob. On the other hand, a question about "Mr. Dressup," a Canadian children's show, weeded out all the Americans.

• The host did live phone interviews with previous winners from the evening. (One, from Prince Edward Island, won playing on her brother's XBL account. I'm sure this will be an issue going forward.) None of The Ones, nor did it appear that anyone featured from the Mob, was from the U.S. I'm not sure if they're region-locking your ability to get into The Mob. (I didn't, and none of my friends did.) It's still fun to play along.

• The advertising is also inoffensive and largely organic. Really, it's a gameshow, so you have to expect the sponsor breaks. Plus it allows you to get up and pee or grab a beer, or check your stats. I saw spots for Sprint and a Naruto DVD during breaks. However, one question about a Burger King ad from 2006 led me to believe that some of the questions themselves could be sponsored. I hope not.

• The avatars' reactions are delightful. Especially when The One is sweating out a question or calling in for help. My avatar didn't seem to be doing much of anything up in the audience though, even though my other three party members were dancing, roof-raising and doing all sorts of things. I was wondering if I was doing, or not doing, something to cause that, or if I was inert on my screen but going crazy on everyone else's.

So, there you have it - a look inside the closed beta for all the non-Canadians, and a way to possibly get in on the action. 1 vs. 100 is a very innovative, very memorable experience the first time you do it. I'm looking forward to tonight's play. I'm not sure how long the replay value will last - this is for now a cool thing to do with my long weekend. But once Microsoft adds real prizes, that should boost interest, and fun, considerably.

Remember that bizarre story about former president Bill Clinton being approached for the role of the president in Fallout 3? Well as it turns out, that was more about an overzealous casting agent than anything Bethesda actually wanted. Speaking to Variety's The Cut Scene blog (via Kotaku), Pete Hines, Bethesda's vice president of public relations and marketing, says they never actually asked for Clinton to be approached for the role.

The story originated from an interview with Lev Chapelsky, general manager of Blindlight, a talent acquisition agency. Chapelsky told Edge that "we've made offers to Bill Clinton for video games and gotten great responses with attorneys who have said, 'The former president will not participate in one of your video game products, thank you very much.'"

But now according to Hines, that was never exactly at Bethesda's request,

"Before they would pitch us on someone like Clinton, they may first go ask if he would do something like that," Hines said. "In no way, shape or form, did we say President Clinton is who we want for this role or (tell Blindlight to) go chase him."

Still, it would have been pretty cool if Clinton actually agreed to it, wouldn't it have? Maybe they can get George W. Bush whenever they get around to Fallout 4?