Dragon Age Origins
Grey Warden's Shield
Dragon Age Origins received a lot of boos and hisses from friends and fellow gamers when they heard that Bioware's latest RPG would be single player only. I too was disappointed at the idea but that didn't stop me from picking up a copy at GameStop.
According to Bioware's Co-CEO Ray Muzyka, Dragon Age Origins is a "spiritual successor" to the Baldur's Gate series, a dark medieval fantasy game revolving around Heroes known as the Grey Wardens. You, the main character, begin as an 'Origins' character who begins his or her journey from in one of the six origin stories which serve as an introductory point for the players and present the world from their personal point of view. The Origins character is selected according to race and class, selecting a Elven mage or Elven Rogue gives you a different storyline leading up to the main story.
After completing your character's respective origin story, the main character encounters Duncan, leader of an elite group known as the Grey Wardens. Duncan guides you to your destiny of becoming a Grey Warden, and dedicating your life to the destruction of the Darkspawn, a force of demon-like creatures that live underground and have at various points in history invaded the lands in massive movements known as Blights.
There are three base classes to choose from: rogue, warrior, and mage. These classes can be upgraded at level 7 to specialized class, such as the Berserker for the warrior class, Blood Mage for the mage class, or Assassin for the rogue. I created a few different characters and was impressed to see that people you run into in the different storyline react to your character differently with unique dialog depending on gender, race and class; Elves, for example, are often viewed as second class citizens.
I can't speak for the consoles but the game looks amazing on my Alienware M17x, and the camera view is great. You're not limited to just a top-down view or awkward first person like in Baldur's Gate. Dragon Age Origins utilizes a new game engine named Eclipse, for which a tool-set for creation of fan-made content is available to owners of the PC version only.
Overall the game is great. It is challenging, stunningly detailed and highly re-playable. So if you're tired of RPG'n massively online with other people, go for this single player only.
Check out the Official Website for more info, download wallpaper and try the online flash demo of the game @ http://dragonage.bioware.com/