New Dragon Age Add-On: Play as Darkspawn

BioWare has announced a unique new add-on, Darkspawn Chronicles, for Dragon Age: Origins Awakening wherein the player can fight as darkspawn. In this alternate storyline, your original character dies in the Joining ceremony, and instead you control darkspawn trying to thwart the Grey Wardens' quest to defeat the Archdemon. This DLC brings to mind the recent debate of whether choice is a positive or a negative in gaming. Some gamers (including myself) have trouble making "unethical" choices in video games, even if those choices lead to better loot or abilities. However, the new DLC does not appear to give you a choice; you are definitely campaigning against the side of good. I am reminded of the level "No Russian" in Modern Warfare 2, where the player is forced to go through the level either participating in or just witnessing the mass murder of innocents in an airport. Some players treat games as just a challenge to be beaten and as such, will make the most profitable choices in any scenario and may not be as affected by the ethical dilemmas that sometimes arise. Others approach such content as Darkspawn Chronicles and No Russian with a certain amount of distaste and may even hesitate to play at all. I am not sure if I will be able to hunt down Alistair and the Grey Wardens without qualms after having him as a party constant in my first playthrough and this question of morality could interfere (despite the inherent silliness of becoming attached to video game characters) with my enjoyment of the add-on.

Multi-platform game differentiation a plus

Dragon Age producer Fernando Melo has told gamasutra that having clear platform differentiation "paid off" for Dragon Age. DA:O was originally created as a PC game and then brought over to the console market for XBox 360 and PS3, but it was not done as a direct port, instead having many components specifically tailored to the individual systems. For example, the battle system managed to be intuitive for both PC and console versions, as more controls are easily accessible via keyboard to PC gamers (top left pic), whereas in the console versions the shoulder buttons were used in conjunction with the front-facing buttons to provide easy access to multiple menus without being overwhelming (top right pic). The general vision of differentiated versions has turned out to be a great move on BioWare's part, garnering best game awards for both PC and console versions. As a mainly console-based gamer myself, I hope that other developers follow suit in providing solid, version-appropriate games going forward.

In related news, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is out tomorrow!