Dragon Age: Origins Preview
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One of the interesting features of DAO will be the Origin chapters, three to four hours long, which will determine how your character views the world and how the world perceives him (or her). Serving as a prologue, they will paint a picture of the universe you are in, and the characters you encounter in this introductive part may even appear later on as adversaries, depending on the decisions you make. The dialogues will also be specific to the character you create, and this was demonstrated live by Dan Tudge, as he chose a human warrior as the main character, who (accidentally) happened to be one of the most promising Grey Warden recruits. As a mentor you will have Duncan, an old and respected Grey Warden, who asks for your help to withstand a Dark Spawn assault in the ruins of Ostagar castle.
Once there, we were greeted by the young king Kaelyn, and the arrogant way in which he talked convinced me that he'll be pushing daisies in Elysium after the first violent cinematic scene. Ostagar was also the first place where I witnessed the dialog system, which is quite similar to the one in Knights of the Old Republic, with all the answers lined up nicely from top to bottom. Although this may seem a step back from the radial menu in Mass Effect, this is justified by the fact that in Mass Effect the focus was on creating a cinematic feel; In DAO, the producers are putting more emphasis on customization, and given the fact that you can choose both the race and gender, it would not have been efficient. That is also why the main character lacks a voice of its own, being a distant relative of Gordon Freeman in this respect.
