Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 is due for release on March 8, 2011 but the BioWare-developed fantasy RPG will be getting a companion game via Facebook at about the same time. Dragon Age Legends was just announced this morning by publisher Electronic Arts and the Facebook game will be out by February 2011.

The game will be set in the same location as Dragon Age 2 and will feature "challenging quests within an engaging storyline, earning loot, sharing rewards and growing their kingdom." The game will also allow gamers to gain special unlockable content for Dragon Age 2. People interested in beta testing the game can sign up at the official Dragon Age Legends web site.

Bioware's upcoming RPG sequel Dragon Age 2 isn't due for release for a few more months but today it was announced that that the developer is teaming up with the Penny Arcade web comic strip team to offer a special in-game item for the game.

That item is called Hindsight and is a special belt that the Penny Arcade team not only designed but also created a special comic strip that describes its powers and history. Bioware has gone even further, turning the strip into a full motion comic with narration and sound effects.You can get the code for the new item by subscribing to the Dragon Age 2 newsletter.

In Dragon Age 2, the player takes the role of a refugee that rises to become a powerful champion. Whether that hero is virtuous or cruel is up to you. This action packed trailer includes a great deal of gameplay including glimpses of key characters like Varric and Isabella. It also shows of parts of Kirkwall and provides a brief look at the qunari invasion. Really, who can't see a army of six foot giants rushing toward them? Dragon Age 2 releases on March 8, 2011. Customers that pre-purchase that game before January 11, 2011 (that's 1/11/11) will receive a free upgrade to the Signature Edition, which includes $20 worth of extra content.

Download HD Dragon Age 2 'Rise to Power' Trailer (151 MB)
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Electronic Arts wants you to put down your money early for Dragon Age 2. How early? Preferably by January 11. EA and developer BioWare announced today that all pre-orders for the fantasy RPG sequel will get the Signature Edition of the game at no extra cost.

The special edition will contain a number of extras compared to the regular version of Dragon Age 2. There will be a number of exclusive in-game armory items for your character to access along with a code to download an extra playable character and new missions. Owners of the Signature Edition will also get a downloadable version of the game's soundtrack and unnamed additional in-game items. Dragon Age 2 is scheduled to be released on March 8.

When Dragon Age 2 was revealed, it wasn't entirely clear how the BioWare would tie the player character from Dragon Age: Origins into the new title. After all, it was expected that imported saves would form the common thread through the Dragon Age series, much like it did for Mass Effect. In an interview with NowGamer, BioWare's Marc Laidlaw revealed that the save import for Dragon Age 2 won't determine the main character's attributes, but rather the world that was left by the actions of the player's Grey Warden, such as who rules Ferelden and Orzammar. Here's hoping the changes are a little more substantial than those in Mass Effect 2.

[via Joystiq]

So some of you may have yet to buy BioWare's terrific fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins. That means you also haven't gotten any of the game's post-release content.Today it was officially announced that soon you will be able to get all of that stuff on one disk.

The Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition comes out on October 26 for the PC and other platforms. For $59.99 players get the original game, the commercial Awakening expansion and all nine paid downloadable mini-expansions (The Stone Prisoner, Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar, Feastday Gifts, The Darkspawn Chronicles, Feastday Prank's Leliana's Song, The Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt). That should keep people busy until next year's release of Dragon Age 2.

[Via email press release]

Lots of fans of the original Dragon Age: Origins were not happy with the fact that the upcoming sequel, Dragon Age 2, will only give the players the choice of a human character for the playable protagonist. However, like developer BioWare's Mass Effect series, you will be able to change the gender of that lead character.

First shown last weekend at PAX Prime 2010, publisher Electronic Arts has now sent over an official screenshot of the female version of the lead character Hawke. As you can see, the the female Hawke still looking like she can wipe the floor with a room full of regular men. We will see which version of Hawke is more popular to play when Dragon Age 2 comes out in February 2011.

Just in case the original Dragon Age 2 trailer wasn't enough (when is it ever?), here is the extended director's cut version for your viewing pleasure. Dragon Age 2 is scheduled to release in March 2011.

Download HD Dragon Age 2 'Destiny - Director's Cut' Trailer (574 MB)
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Dragon Age 2 takes place sometime after the events of Origins, with a plot that's mainly focused on the city of Kirkwall. Darkspawn and over horrors are threatening the land and it's up to the player to step up and stop them. The game will also feature a fully voiced main character and players will have the option to import the decisions they made in the Origins campaign to see how they impact this story. With all this to look forward it, it's clear that March 8th, 2011 can't arrive soon enough.

Download HD Dragon Age 2 'Destiny' Trailer (408 MB)

It's going to be another busy first quarter of the year in 2011. There's already a ton of major game releases slated for that period and today it got another AAA title. VG247.com reports that Electronic Arts has just announced from its Gamescom press conference that Dragon Age 2, the fantasy RPG sequel from BioWare, is getting a March 8, 2011 release date here in the US. Europeans will be getting the game, as usual, a few days later on March 11, 2011.

Other major games already slated for a first quarter 2011 release include Crysis 2, Portal 2, Homefront, Bulletstorm, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Brink and many more.

PC owners of the original Dragon Age Origins got a few atvantages over the console ports of BioWare's RPG title. One was the release of mod and editing tools for the game while the other was the ability to move the camera to show a more tactical viewpoint of the game itself. Recently rumors hit the Dragon Age 2 forums (based on info from a French language magazine) that both features would be removed from the PC version of the upcoming sequel to the game.

The game's main designer Mike Laidlaw went on the game's official forums to do some damage control. For the PC mod tools, there's some good news as he said that the tools used to make Dragon Age 2 are almost the same as those that the team used to make Dragon Age Origins. He states, "While we won't be releasing a toolset update in tandem with Dragon Age 2, we ARE investigating what it would take to update the community toolset to match ours, along with providing DA2 content in the future."

As far as the PC camera issue, Laidlaw did admit, " ... we likely won't pull as far up as we did in DA:O," he added, " .. we are still working with the camera to keep the key elements of the tactical experience," While details could still change between now and when the game ships, he states, "you can still maneuver the camera around the battlefield and issue orders from a remote location, just as you could in Origins."

If you are going to the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend you might want to drop by the Hilton hotel across from the main convention center. Electronic Arts has set up a location where folks can get their hands on an early build of the recently announced BioWare RPG sequel Dragon Age 2. If you can't make it, 1Up.com has some impressions you can check out.

Even more interesting is that Comic-Con attendees are getting a chance to check out upcoming downloadable content for the first game in the series, Dragon Age: Origins. 1Up.com reports that the DLC, which doesn't have a title or release date yet, will be made for high level characters to go into a dungone filled with high level enemies. There's no real story content; it will be all about combat.

Gallery: Dragon Age Origins Screenshots

While BioWare is still working on big RPG projects such as the upcoming Dragon Age 2 and its debut MMO game Star Wars: The Old Republic the developer also has some smaller scale games it its working on. Reporting from the UK Develop conference, Eurogamer reports that BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk stated the company is " ... working on smaller MMO type games across the group - things all over the space"

BioWare has worked on smaller scale games before including a Facebook game and an iPhone game based on Mass Effect which Zeschuk admitted, "It wasn't the best one – people point that out to us. We learned the hard way." He stated that the development team has made games that were never released that were "way better" than the iPhone game: "Large scale MMOs. Small scale MMOs. We're going to continue to do triple-A console, but we're also going to be exploring pretty aggressively." He said that we will be able to see the fruits of these smaller projects "within the next year."

While we loved Dragon Age: Origins for its storyline and deep gameplay, the graphical look of BioWare's fantasy RPG was, well, a bit disappointing. When Dragon Age 2 was announced last week publisher Electronic Arts promised that the game would have a different visual style.

Now we finally have a glimpse of that different visual look for the sequel as Game Informer's web site has posted up the first two official internet screenshots from the game. As you can see the Hurlocks and Ogres from the original Dragon Age Origins have gotten an artistic revamp and the look of the game overall seems to be more detailed. You can check out higher resolution shots at Game Informer's web site.

It's not a surprise at all but developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts have just revealed plans for Dragon Age II, the second full game in the fantasy RPG franchise. A teaser site for the game has gone live with some info about the title although screenshots and gameplay footage are not yet available.

The game itself takes place over a decade in game time as your player character has to change from a battle worn refugee to champion by gaining fame, fortune and the assistance of allies. There's the promise of a new combat mechanic for the sequel as well as " a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style." Game Informer's new print magazine issue will have a cover story on the game this month. A release date for Dragon Age 2 has yet to be revealed.

Update: EA's new press release for the game announced a March 2011 release date. It a;so reveals that the human character you will be playing is named Hawke, " . . . a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age."