It felt like so many game companies at this year’s E3 were aiming for the ever-coveted tween and casual audiences. So let’s be thankful for Dragon Age: Origins. For those of us fortunate enough to experience the Baldur’s Gate games and other similar titles like Icewind Dale, Dragon Age: Origins is like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise somewhat stale market. BioWare have moved away from using traditional Dungeons & Dragons rulesets and have come with up one of their own that, while being different, certainly pays homage to the classic titles.

So, I was given a Xbox 360 demo for Dragon Age by an enthusiastic Jarrett Lee, BioWare’s Marketing Manager. After a quick recap of what the game’s all about, it was playtime. For those of you just tuning in, Dragon Age: Origins begins like most other RPGs, you create a character and are placed within a story that develops over time. Unlike most other RPGs, Dragon Age: Origins allows that character to have an origins story that flavors the plot from the very beginning with some interesting and sometimes severe consequences. During the demo I made a Dalish elf that was immediately confronted with a choice that would change the direction of my gameplay for the entire game. Hence the emphasis or “origins” in the name.

Elves in Dragon Age are treated like second-class citizens and are, more or less, slaves to humans. The Dalish, however, are as free as a bird as the humans I encountered weren’t treated too kindly by myself or the other elf with me. After deciding to let the humans live – this time – they gave me a juicy piece of information about some nearby ruins that might be Elven in nature. Of course, I had to check it out.