Dragon Age Central

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on May 28, the Canadian developer registered the name "Bioware Eclipse Engine" under the computer software subsection of the goods and services trademark category.
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Perhaps the biggest surprise of the show was the fact BioWare showed this project, even on a very limited basis, since release is likely at least two years away. The demo was based on proof of concept work
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the game will be party-based, using a new engine capable of rendering battles with hundreds of participants. The rules system and IP will both be proprietary, the latter incorporating both familiar and original fantasy races.
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Dragon Age is being built using a new 3D graphics engine, which lends the game a look that’s reminiscent of Knights of the Old Republic but with much more detail both in the characters and in the environments.
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some of the interpretations of conventional creatures, like ogres, trolls, and the undead, are certainly being depicted in a distinctive manner in this game
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The first gameplay sequence we saw featured a massive, Lord of the Rings-style battle zone as the setting. Two characters, a surly barbarian who was dual-wielding swords and a female magic user, were the focus of the action here, and they were guided across a castle’s parapets as war raged below.
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With Dragon Age, BioWare is seeking to combine the dramatic, fully 3D look of a game like Knights of the Old Republic with the more-sophisticated, party-based combat of its classic Baldur’s Gate games. Basically, while you’re running around and exploring, the game will default to a third-person perspective similar to KOTOR, but when combat occurs, gameplay will shift to an isometric, tactical view similar to Baldur’s Gate.
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In combat, they’ll be able to pause at any time while managing the fight tactically, or they can zoom in for a KOTOR-style third-person perspective, directing any of the party members, while allowing the optionally artificially intelligent party members to hold their own.

Like KOTOR, Dragon Age will feature full speech, which is great. Unlike KOTOR, though, Dragon Age’s characters will do a lot more emoting. The level of detail in the characters’ faces allows them to serve as "virtual actors," to use BioWare’s term for it.
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We were told that the game’s story will be serious in tone and will involve a lot of political intrigue, conspiracy, and so on.
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Greg Zeschuk calls the game "a spiritual successor to all of our recent games," and goes on to add that Dragon Age "melds the fun of party interaction from Baldur’s Gate, the community and multiplayer aspect of Neverwinter Nights and the tactical combat of Knights of the Old Republic."
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The usual fantasy races like the orcs, dwarves and elves will not be present in their original form, though certain variations of those will be included in the game. BioWare says that they’re reluctant to make a break from some of the more conventional concepts of Tolkien-inspired lore as they’re afraid such a move might alienate many of their devoted fans.
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they’ve hired linguistics PhD students to develop specific languages and dialects for the game.
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you’ll be able to pause the action at any time during combat to issue specific orders to your party members (you’ll probably have 4-6 party members available to you), while the actual fighting goes on in real-time. Another welcome change in terms of combat is that, once you enter the fray, the camera will switch to an overhead view from the default third-person perspective, therefore offering a chance to better asses the field of battle and use more strategy than you would by observing the battle from up close. Another nice thing about the combat is the more streamlined option of having to take over just one character while the rest of your party members call their own shots.
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Dragon Age will be powered by a completely new proprietary 3D technology that will allow full 3D camera movement. This doesn’t just translate into better looking scenes though, as it actually has a lot of influence on the gameplay. The full 3D representation of the game world now allows for vertical movement and actual depth.
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the new 3D technology is that it will boost something like 2 million polygons per model (probably when you completely zoom in on them) and that the character animations were done with motion capture to make their movement and acrobatics look incredibly smooth and true to life.
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Besides boasting that it would have the "tantalizing blend of the exploration and combat of Baldur

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"This is a spiritual successor to all or our recent games," said BioWare cofounder Greg Zeschuk. "This melds the fun of party interaction from Baldur’s Gate, the community and multiplayer aspect of Neverwinter Nights and the tactical combat of Knights of the Old Republic. We wanted to take all of that and put it together in a new game that was our own."
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The game will use BioWare’s new terrain technology to create a tremendous feeling of height and depth in the game, allowing players to traverse heights seamlessly without loading screens.

All the animation and lighting is dynamic, while all of the acting is done with motion capture. Each character is rendered in millions of polygons, allowing the player to zoom in as close as they want.

What makes the combat system unique is that the game can be played in the over-the-shoulder mode of Knights of the Old Republic or in the tactical overhead mode of Baldur’s Gate. The player can toggle back and forth in whatever way feels comfortable. The game also utilizes the "combat pause," which allows players to plan strategy while the action is frozen.
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Zeschuk said they are aiming for an immersive experience that will keep the player in the game for plenty of hours, although maybe not as long as Baldur’s Gate or Baldur’s Gate 2. "It may be a bit shorter, but it will be a wider experience and the immersion will be better," he said.

"Everyone loves a tremendous story, and we are using this new setting to help tell it. We’ve even hired more and better writers. This is going to be a living world that players will want to explore to get familiar with the people and the characters."
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As Joint-CEO Ray Muzyka told us, "Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate."
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it will be filled with Dwarf-like, Elf-like and Halfling-like races
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Ray explained that BioWare wanted to try something a little different, but still wanted it to be familiar to fantasy RPG players. Although nothing is finalized at this point, Dragon Age will feature archetypal races and classes (you know, fighters, clerics, mages and the like)
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We did see one completely new race that will be in the game, though. Although they don’t have a name as of yet, or at least BioWare wasn’t saying what the name was, the characters sport horns on their heads and look rather lizard (or perhaps dragon) like.
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BioWare even has a few linguistics PhD students developing entirely new languages for Dragon Age. When asked about the significance of the title, BioWare told us that, like the Stone Age and Iron Age, they wanted to indicate that the game takes place in a time where dragons are prevalent.
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You’ll also be able to hire henchmen during the game, and BioWare promises you’ll run into some characters with a lot of personality, like Minsc from Baldur’s Gate.
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Our actual demo of the game opened up with a camera fly over of a massive battlefield. Reminiscent of the huge battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies, there were tens of thousands of units battling it out down below us as our two heroes, a barbarian mercenary and a priestess-like character walked across a bridge high overhead. For this part of the demo, we were zoomed out to a wide overhead view similar to Baldur’s Gate. Since the game uses a new fully 3D engine, they’re going to use a lot of elevation perspectives such as this in the game, where something may be happening on one level while you’re at a completely different elevation, and you’ll be able to travel both vertically as well as horizontally.

The next part of the demo featured the pair of adventurers deep in a dungeon. To show off the close-quarters, we opted for a tighter third-person view similar to Knights of the Old Republic. This allowed us to get right into the action and see the characters up close. Not only do the character models look impressive, but they’re also very reactive to the environment. We saw examples of eye tracking and our beefy mercenary turn into a scared little baby when he was startled by a flock of birds as he rounded the corner.
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Like the Baldur’s Gate combat system, Dragon Age will feature real-time combat with a pause feature to let you get more tactical with your choices. The game also features full motion-captured animation, giving the characters some very realistic looking moves during combat.

Although they weren’t saying much about the multiplayer side of the game today, Ray did tell us to expect all the level of community and multiplayer support that we saw with Neverwinter Nights. You can expect a separate multiplayer campaign with a similar story, but no cutscenes to slow down the action.
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