Dragon Age Central

An evil, demon-like creature peers at the viewer whilst hunched over. Its skin is red and covered in a network of black veins. It seems to be generating fire from itself.

An evil-looking knight wields sword and shield. His metal armour is intricate and stylised.

A winter-holiday themed ‘card’ featuring characters from the Bioware games ‘Mass Effect’, ‘Jade Empire’ and ‘Dragon Age’. The DA character is a super-sized blue ogre clutching an evil-looking snowman’s head.

A winter-holiday themed wallpaper featuring characters from the Bioware games ‘Mass Effect’, ‘Jade Empire’ and ‘Dragon Age’. The DA character is a super-sized blue ogre clutching an evil-looking snowman’s head.

Variants

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  462.0KB 800x600 jpeg (Small size)
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  963.7KB 1280x960 jpeg (Medium size)
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Daren Gladstone makes a ‘secret’ video recording around the Bioware offices.

Transcript:
This recording? Ok, awesome. Daren Gladstone [dg], senior editor, also sneaky bastard, sneaking through Bioware’s offices. Let’s take a look.
[... banter ... arrives at an office and sees some weapons]

[dg]Those are cool: so you were like walking through the mall with these things basically, and? Just basically going from store to store...
[dev1] It was outside. [...] We were just using little wooden practice swords, but thought these would photograph better.
So I sent an instant message to one of the guys here: "do you have any weapons you could bring in?". [indicates the large collection that were brought in]
[dev2] This hammer is suprisingly solid.
[dev1] That’s a table leg isn’t it?
[dg] Is that a table leg? It totally looks like it.
[dev2] It’s a turned piece of wood, that’s for sure.
[dev1] It’s a metal-plated leather-bound bunch of wood.
When we were working on Never Winter Nights, the art director was walking down the hall, and I’m not kidding, he has his arms full with a full set of medieval plate armour.
It’s like hey, Mark, is that your plate armour? No, it’s my wife’s he says!
[dg] I have my very own chain-mail.
[dev3] Actually he was a light. I think all he had was light padded armour. He was an archer.
[dev1] Yeah, his wife had the full set - full plate. We got it in and looked at it. It was well built.
The sound guys got a big thing out of it. They were hitting it with swords and stuff and like, wow, real plate mail doesn’t sound anything like you think it would.
So they ended up using different sounds anyway. [...] Real plate sounds like tin pipe plate, like aluminium pipe you’re rattling around.
[dg] It doesn’t have that majestic chink it has in the Lord of the Rings movies?
[dev1] That’s right.
[dev2] It doesn’t have that amazing thunk when you hit it hard.

[... banter ... sees artwork from dragon age hung on the corridor walls]

[dg] Wow, that’s crazy, that’s great.
[dev1] It’s all done by our lead concept artist. The guys freaking amazing.
[dg] I bet, I mean this looks fantastic.
[dev1] Actually, this was done by one of our art interns.
She took one of the... 3d box level art which we had assembled for concept, which basically she did an ink over on it.
This is what one of the levels actually is.
[dg] What’s the story here?
[dev1] This is a volcanic caldera. You would think that these... people would see this great lake, with a circular ring.
Circles have significance to magic users. So in this setting the wizards tower has been setup...

[dev1] Literally its a "you choose the character archetype that you want to play and...
[dg] ... it kind of drops you in a certain part of the world and part of the story and kind of reminds you of the old Ultima games.
I mean, like, you pick your character class [...], you start off in that city and you start from there...
[dev1] Right, but the difference is that there’s a dedicated 1-2 hour story of just playing through stuff where you meet, for example...
most of them have a personal enemy that you either make or someone screws you over or does something nasty to you, and they sort of dog your steps throughout the entire game.
They’re not the main villain [...], but you have your own sort of personal nemesis.

[... banter ...]

Variants

• gv.com.darrenbioware_640x480.mov
  104.0MB 640x480 5m37s svq3 (for macs)

From the cover of the first ‘Games for Windows’ magazine, we see a close-up of a dragon’s head expelling a jet of fire from its mouth.

The Dragon Age logo.

Variants

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• dragon_age_logo_desk_1280x1024.bmp
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  535.2KB 1280x960 jpeg (medium-sized version)
• dragon_age_logo_desk_1280.bmp
  3.5MB 1280x960 bmp (medium-sized for windows)
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• dragon_age_logo_desk_1024.bmp
  2.3MB 1024x768 bmp (medium-sized for windows)
• dragon_age_logo_desk_800.jpg
  254.2KB 800x600 jpeg (small-sized version)
• dragon_age_logo_desk_800.bmp
  1.4MB 800x600 bmp (small for windows)

Concept art for an Amazonian-type. The woman is somewhat slender and wears a minimal amount of revealing clothing, unlikely to afford much physical protection. She sports a necklace and a jewled forehead protector.

Variants

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  656.4KB 1024x768 jpeg (medium-sized version)
• wp68_da_800x600.jpg
  496.5KB 800x600 jpeg (small-sized version)

Concept art for a barbarian/fighter-type character. He has tatoos on his upper torso and shoulder-length hair, some of which is tied back into a pony-tail. He carries at least 3 weapons attached to his belt.

Variants

• wp67_da_1024x768.jpg
  787.1KB 1024x768 jpeg (medium-sized version)
• wp67_da_800x600.jpg
  556.2KB 800x600 jpeg (small-sized version)

An ancient tower stands defiantly in the gray gloom of a stormy night. The stone bridge providing access to it has crumbled, but has been patched with a wooden walk-way.

A fighter and a mage are walking over bridge toward a small group of enemies. Meanwhile a battle rages beneath them in a valley, featuring thousands of combatants.

Thousands of combatants are engaged in a battle in a valley beneath a bridge.

A male fighter holds a short sword in each hand. He is topless and we can see delicate tatoos across his chest and upper arms. He has a beard.

A female mage follows behind him wearing a revealing blue outfit of little protective value. She carries a large staff.

A top-down view of two characters in a fancy hall with tall pillars. The view is strongly reminiscent of NWN.