E3 2008: Dragon Age: Origins Updated Impressions

It's hard to believe that our last preview of Dragon Age: Origins was more than four years ago, but that's how long it's been since developer BioWare originally debuted the game. Now firmly entrenched in the EA family, BioWare once again unveiled the game at today's EA press briefing at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. BioWare cofounder Greg Zeschuk arrived onstage roughly midway through the presentation to present a trailer for the game, and once again Zeschuk referred to the game as a "spiritual successor" to BioWare's lauded Baldur's Gate series. And once again, that's all we needed to hear to be very intrigued.

Described as a dark fantasy game that will let players form their own personal origin story, the game's trailer opened with a gloomy-looking gate being guarded by an army of stout-looking humans. Within a few seconds, it became apparent that the armed force was waiting for something: an invasion of sorts. A princely leader type spoke to the mass of soldiers, bolstering them for the attack to come. A few minutes later, the horde of bad guys emerged from the forest beyond: a motley crew of ugly-looking monsters and gigantic demons ready for a fight.

With all of the motivational speaking out of the way, the humans sent the first wave of attackers at the demonic legion: war hounds with gnarly-looking tattoos and snapping teeth just looking for some monster bones to crack. Once the hounds were released, the monsters let loose their first wave of warriors as well. From there, arrows were loosed, catapults threw their fiery loads, and all heck broke loose as the humans made what seemed to be their last stand against a seemingly never-ending tide of enemies.

Beyond the action-packed trailer, we don't really know a lot about Dragon Age: Origins aside from what was mentioned when the game was first introduced four years ago. We know that the game is coming to the PC first, and Zeschuk said that it will appear on consoles "in the future." Considering that this is a BioWare game, it's reasonable to expect that Origins will have a deep and involved storyline, and that the characters will be responsible for making moral choices in the game that will affect the world at large. We'll be providing more details on Dragon Age: Origins as they emerge.