Dragon Age: Origins Previews

The ongoing Dragon Age: Origins press tour is responsible for another helping of hands-on previews focusing on the Xbox 360 version.

GameSpot:

The demo’s organization gave us a clear look at the differences that might arise between two typical parties. BioWare had a pair of monitors set up side by side, with what we’ll refer to as Party A on the left and Party B on the right. Party A was led by a male human noble character, while the other was led by a female mage. Aside from the party member differences, the two systems were perfectly synched up, both picking up at a very specific point in the game. In this case, the two parties were attempting to cross a bridge to get to the Mage Tower, where they were seeking to recruit the help of friendly spellcasters to fight the scourge of the Darkspawn–the story’s primary antagonist.

G4:

The control scheme and combat interface is powerful and a great start. BioWare is currently polishing the console gameplay systems, but they are off to a great start. As with the PC version, every attack you make is a button press. Thereís no auto-attack in Dragon Age: Origins. Youíll also be able to set shortcuts for six special abilities, spells, or attacks. Additionally, you’ll be able to pause the action and bring up a ring selection menu that also functions as a targeting mechanism. Around the ring are your abilities, organized by category. While selecting with one stick, you can move the ring with the other. The ally or enemy in the center of the ring becomes the target for the selected ability. Itís very slick and allows you to quickly select and target your abilities and get back into the action.

GameSpy:

In the ogre battle I played, my mage character — flanked by a trio of generic soldier-types — brandished a bevy of ice-themed damage spells, as well as a crucial single-target healing ability. During the fast and frantic melee, I fumbled with the targeting controls, cycling through my group mates before finally settling on the no-good ogre, blasting him with my best spells, and quickly discovered that friendly units caught in my radius attacks got a case of the chills alongside my intended target (oops).

TeamXbox:

To bring up your radial menu of actions, you simply have to pull the right trigger. This simultaneously pauses the game, too, and it’s a toggle function, so you don’t have to hold it down the whole time. The middle of the radial menu is basically your targeting reticule, so aiming at what you want to and engaging an action from the radial menu will direct your action at the highlighted character. You can also lock on to your target by clicking down on the stick. The producer showing me this apologized profusely, saying that the controls were still being tuned and going through usability testing, though, from my experience, it seemed like it was in pretty good shape already. Those Canadians such perfectionists.