One Hour With: Dragon Age: Origins – Character Creator

14:00. I should be playing Uncharted 2, as seen in this column yesterday, but instead I'm pretty much caught up in looking at all the options offered by the Character Creator for Dragon Age: Origins, which BioWare and Electronic Arts have released in anticipation of the full experience, set to arrive on November 3.

14:04. Really, EA, do I need to make it through the opening movie with no way of skipping? I would have rather sat through another Marylin Manson song.

14:05. So, there are three races offered, the now well known Human, Elf and Dwarf. And, apparently, the new fantasy world from Dragon Age has males and females being equal in respects in the military and society.

14:10. One of the big ideas behind Dragon Age is the fact that each character has a background that determines the initial part of the game and the way the other people in the world view them. Unfortunately, it seems that the Origins for the various combinations of Class and Race are pretty limited.

14:30. BioWare really outdid itself when it comes to the physical customization options. The player has the power to create a very wide array of characters. Also, it seems that for BioWare, elves are shorter than humans and dwarf women have no facial hair. Bummer. The upside is that you can even choose the “Blush Intensity” for a character. Frankly, it appears a bit too much like Spore.

14:38. It's also interesting to see what it did with the Attributes. The Strength, Dexterity and the Constitution familiar from Dungeons & Dragons are still here and do pretty much the same thing. The other Attributes seem to be custom built to help specific classes. Cunning is for rogues, Magic is for Mages, and Willpower governs all the spiritual capabilities of the character.

14:50. My overall initial impression is that there are way too many options when it comes to looks and too few when it comes to skills and abilities. And it's weird to note how much Dragon Age adheres, at least on this level, to the Dungeons & Dragons structure even if it's supposedly building a pretty different world.