Dragon Age

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The masters of the RPG return

To that end, in combat, weapons no longer swoosh through the polygons of your foes - Scott Greig and lead animator John Santos beat each other up with sticks and wooden shields in a parking lot to prototype how the animations should fit together. It's physical and it's brutal. Instead of people standing toe-to-toe and swinging repeatedly, they're ducking and dodging and moving to attack.

They also wanted to get large-scale combat right - presumably because there's likely to be dragons to fight. "We really want it to feel like the cave troll scene from The Fellowship of the Ring," explains Scott. "The key thing is that you're not in control of one person, you're in control of the whole battle. You've got the party guys running out, with one guy jumping up on the back and stabbing, the other guy ducking between the legs. Maybe one character distracts the dragon so another can sneak up behind it, while magic-users find cover and cast spells. Maybe your wizard turns over a table and shelters behind it. Or maybe you're under attack from a wizard behind an overturned table, and you just blow that table away."

Perhaps the most remarkable goal, given the complexity of the technology, is that BioWare aim to give us the power to design our own adventures, as with Neverwinter Nights. "I was the first programmer on the Neverwinter Nights project," says Scott. "We expected a certain level of community involvement, but it's gone beyond our wildest dreams. We'll be including a similar level of support for custom content in Dragon Age. But the training wheels are off. You'll be able to create a game as detailed as Dragon Age using our tools." The same claim was made for NWN, and the results ranged from paltry to professional. Yet the quality is not the point - it's about empowering gamers, letting us unleash our creativity.

It's hard to think of a BioWare game that hasn't been hugely ambitious in one way or another. In aiming to push storytelling in particular to a new level, the Canadian (and now Austin, Texax-ian) goblin-lovers are setting goals that, even if only partially achieved, will please their fans and further open RPGs to a wider, more mature market. BioWare is back and it's about time.

Perhaps the most remarkable goal, given the complexity of the technology, is that BioWare aim to give us the power to design our own adventures, as with Neverwinter Nights. "I was the first programmer on the Neverwinter Nights project," says Scott. "We expected a certain level of community involvement, but it's gone beyond our wildest dreams. We'll be including a similar level of support for custom content in Dragon Age. But the training wheels are off. You'll be able to create a game as detailed as Dragon Age using our tools." The same claim was made for NWN, and the results ranged from paltry to professional. Yet the quality is not the point - it's about empowering gamers, letting us unleash our creativity.

It's hard to think of a BioWare game that hasn't been hugely ambitious in one way or another. In aiming to push storytelling in particular to a new level, the Canadian (and now Austin, Texax-ian) goblin-lovers are setting goals that, even if only partially achieved, will please their fans and further open RPGs to a wider, more mature market. BioWare is back and it's about time.