Dragon Age: Origins - Choice & Consequence | Estimated 100 hrs For a Full Playthrough
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/100/1002067p1.html
As for the demos we were given, both stations had different party compositions. For the first, which we'll refer to as D1, the main character, who you get to create, was a human fighter. In the second group, D2, the main character was a mage. Both groups stood next to a ferryman and were attempting to secure passage to a mage tower with the eventual goal of enlisting the help of its residents in fighting the Darkspawn, the game's primary enemy. In D1, one of the party members was Morrigan, a seductive mage character who chimed in during the conversation with the ferryman to intimidate him into letting them pass. In D2 party member Sten was present, who for some reason thought it to be in the group's best interest to offer cookies to the guard to get everyone across. Since you can only have three members in your group not counting yourself, you'll need to consider who to bring along not only for their skills in the field, but also how they might be able to help out during conversations.
Once the moat had been crossed and mage tower reached, both parties received quite different welcomes. For D1 the NPC who greeted them didn't recognize them at all, but for D2 there were more conversation options available since the main character was a mage and had been to that area before. In D2 the group was able to fire off questions about what exactly was happening with the tower, and soon learned that some kind of evil force had taken over the place.
Both parties eventually moved deeper into the tower and encountered an elderly magic user named Wynn, and this was where the outcome of different character types partaking in conversation proved to have dramatic effects. In D1's case Wynn was suspicious of the character party, and after a few interactions triggered an actual battle between her and the group, resulting in her defeat. With D2, Wynn recognized the mage main character and offered to help out, actually joining up with the character party. It turns out Wynn is the most powerful healer in the game, which we saw in action as she quite capably was able to keep party members alive during an ensuing boss battle. By comparison, D1 had a lot more trouble in the same fight, having to rely more on consumable health restoration items. And just so it's clear, Wynn wasn't just injured in D1's case, she was permanently dead. If you were playing as D1, you'd be barred from using Wynn for the entire rest of the game.
From there we got the opportunity to get some hands-on time with the Xbox 360 version of the game, which seems to control pretty well considering all the variables of a fight. You can easily switch between direct command of your party's characters and trigger skills from a bar that sits in the lower right of the screen. Six slots are available to fit in triggered abilities, split into sets of three that can be toggled between with a press of a trigger. Many aspects of the overall interface design are still being tweaked at this point, since there is a ton of information on items, character histories, and quest descriptions within the main menu that BioWare wants to keep organized. During our brief time with the game, which gave us a full four-person party to tackle a dungeon boss, the control took a little getting used to but seems fairly manageable, as combat can be paused to better plan your attack or recovery. It also looked pretty sharp as well.
Estimated at over 100 hours for a full playthrough, meaning you're doing all the side activities and hunting around instead of charging through the main campaign stuff, Dragon Age: Origins is going to be a giant game, the developer's biggest since Baldur's Gate II. It should also cater to those who like to replay role-playing games, since a number of different origin stories can be chosen for your primary characters, which we were told could account for 10 - 15 hours of additional content.
Lots of DLC is planned. Not to forget PC version will have mods from day one. Mod toolset is in beta now.
New battle videos:
Wynne Fight:
HD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/wy...agon-age/52502
SD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/wy...agon-age/52503
Sloth Battle
HD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sl...agon-age/52500
SD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sl...agon-age/52501
Sloth Mage Battle
HD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sl...agon-age/52504
SD -
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sl...agon-age/52505