Dragon Age chatter at last

It's been bloody ages since we heard anything substantial about Bioware's original PC fantasy role-player Dragon Age, but it looks like the wait is nearly over. For details, anyway (the game itself is apparently due in late 2007 or 2008).

That's because the first issue of a new official Games for Windows mag in the US has new details on the game, and has posted some of them on the net - concerning the story (apparently much darker), the combat and other systems.

Probably most interesting is the idea that the first few hours are totally different depending on the type of character you choose, with specific "origin stories" for each one.

In terms of combat, GFW reckons that it's a bit like Baldur's Gate but in 3D, with the player queuing up orders for party members and then either pausing to consider or leaving them to execute their coordinated attacks.

It also mentions combat with giant creatures, with the potential to have characters ducking through their legs and leaping on their backs and so on.

It won't specifically be Dungeons & Dragons rule-sets, the mag says, but Bioware's not straying too far from the systems it's traditionally worked towards.

Meanwhile on the chatting-with-NPCs front, the game's conversation system is described as a modified version of Mass Effect's.