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No. Strange then unless it only authenticates behind the scenes on your first use. Since the only time I had to use the key was to register it onto my Bioware community account, I seriously doubt ME has limited installs. How are they going to tell your copy of the game from someone else's? I haven't tried running the game pre-patched, so they had to have removed the limited installs. And this is exactly how the game does it - according to the developers at the Bioware forums. I don't know technically they're going to tell your copy from anyole else's, but I do know that the game attaches itself to your computer's HWID identification (something that apparently is tied to your motherboard?) Securom only, as I understand it, looks at this number? - and tries to figure out if this number has changed more than three times or five times. That might be the reason why the game can be un-installed and installed again and again on the same computer or be installed on three different computers. And EA has actully released a de-activation tool for the game, Mass Effect.

The Steam version of Mass Effect does not the activation limits. However, it still uses Steams own drm system, which requires you to be online? I think when you play the game. Or can play the game in offline mode? Might cost your more than 15 or 20 Euros, though.

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There is a demo for you to download if you don't know if you'll like it. Be aware, though, that Eschalon: Book 1 for the moment can only be boight via download since the developer, Basilisk Games, ran out of CDs...(or dvds). So popular was the first game in this trilogy. I have played the demo; it is very hard, but not impossible. Skills mean something in this game. If you don't have enough points in lockpicking, crates will explode, putting points into geography (I think) will it so that you see more on the auto-map. The combat is also very hard, but not impossible. The combat is sort of turn-based. You each have turns, and you need to strategically think about where you're moving your character. Graphics wise ist is not as polished or clean or full of bloom as some other games, I could mention, but it is OK. The story is intriguing enough to get you going; the environment is interesting, enough, to do the same.

Let us for forget that BG2's romance choice and dialogue choices were perhaps the first attempt at doing this properly... When other developers look at this, say Obsidian, they will naturally try to-recreate this and maybe up the technological advances a bit. Then Bioware comes along, and tries to do better than Obsidian, then Bethesda will take a swing at it, and then Bioware, then Obsidian --- you get the pciture. The point is that everyone is inspired by each other; they learn from each other, and they try to make the AI better, be it enemy AI, the global variable AI (if you can call it that?) for each character in say Dragon Age. I actually like that in DA: Origins characters will walk away for good if you do something they really really dislike - no matter how much beer, flowers or jewels you give to them... I'm not that fond of the main quest; apparently it will be us (as a grey warden) travelling the lands of Ferelden, rallying support for big (RTS?) battle against the hordes of the Blight. Hopefully, the game will feature interesting sidequests....

Romances (and love scenes) have become the hallmark of Bioware games; no Bio games would be complete without them. To me, this is just another way of expanding character interaction. And you don't have to them, if you don't want to; it really is as easy as this, I find. As for if the game, DA:O is high or low fantasy, I don't know. And frankly, I don't really care. I want a game with a good story, great characters, great character interaction and a decent plot. And DA:O seems to be the bill, so far. And the Origins subtitle is because you choose from 1 of 6 different backgrounds that have some (if not heavy) impact on the game later on as you play through the game. And I like fantasy games, I also like sci fi games --- and would be hoping for Bioware to make a game, an rpg, set in the Victorian Era og in the Wild Wild West.

No they aren't. You can play as either a man or a woman in any of the orgins; stories will then maybe be slightly different.

Yes, we have the 6 origin stories we know of as of today - only. And I'm fine with that. Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, there could be a story reason for there not being a human commoner origin story. It seems to me that the commoner in the human cities are the city elfs.... And while the city elf origin may take some inspiration from Braveheart, it is known as being inspired by the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. You know the old story of wife getting married to a bride she doesn't love --- probably being forced by another (human) male to do this - then wife goes crazy and stabs human male or her husband --- then she sings ---- ok, maybe, not in the Bioware game, but in the opera, she does...

-ehm- In Baldur's Gate games, your character can sleep with npcs (with the appropriate fade to black), In Mass Effect, Cmd. Shepard can sleep with a blue chick or a man or a woman (if Shepard is a man). In the European version of The Witcher, Geralt has sex with peasant girls; this happens in the US version as well, I think? The only difference is that the collectible cards you get when you have slept with a woman have uncovered breasts in the European versions, not so in the US version. And Mass Effect was available at Wal-Mart, wasn't it? I'm aksing because I don't know?

So, if we have a fighther that turns into a templar and an elven mage.....will they try to literally annoy each other, maybe even kill each other ? or die trying? I just wanted to chime in with some info from the DA forums here http://dragonage.bioware.com/forums/viewto...m=135&sp=45 If you read Mary Kirby's post, you will learn that the elves really are second or even third class citizens in DA: Origins. They are an assistant to a tradesman or a servant to noble (human) in town. Elves will not be head cooks or butlers, but scullery maids (kitchen maids) or the assistant that makes menial tasks for say the the bowmaker.... I like it I don't think I have seen this at all - but maybe it was in one of the Ultima games ?

I don't mind the nipples in DA: Origins being covered by long hair; I like women that has little mystery to them and don't reveal all their secrets at once, be it women in games or in real life (I'm pathetic right now, I know, I know ...) Anyway, the origin info looks great....

If you read Mary's comment here, http://dragonage.bioware.com/forums/viewto...7&forum=135 she says that the lady in question is not a lady since she is not a mammal (woman) and therefore do not have nipples at all. That comment made a few people and again on the forums. If she is not a mammal, then what is she? I agree, she doesn't look (too) human...

As for the animations, both Georg Zoeller and David Gaider have commented on them on the Bio boards - in the DA Forums. They both have said that the videos we've seen were clearly taking from a earlier build. Georg Zoeller said that the animations were about 1.5 or 1.0 slower than they currently are in the game right now. The only gripe I have is that you have to scroll down a list to get the characters to move, fight etc. Why can't I just click on the character(s) - and then have them do what I choose they should do? This isn't DA: GRAW after all - or maybe it is...

Well known fact, but surely irrelevant to the general lengths of games. Yes, I know. It probably is. However, people always seem to complain about gamelength. For Mass Effect (1) the main story takes about 2 hours to complete, I think? if you do a speed run. The point I'm trying to make is that if you want to do so, you can finish Mass Effect (1) in 2 hours -- or just play the main story for about 10-12 (or 15) hours. For DA: Origins, I will probably play through the game - all 80-90 hours of it - while other will play maybe half that time or even a 20-30 hours...

Having the sex - ehm - romance - scenes in DA: Origins be so that certain aspects of the romances in Jade Empire will look tame How would they do this? A foursome? Btw, here are the thread from the Bioware forums that Aria Leonsbane started: http://dragonage.bioware.com/forums/viewto...um=135&sp=0 And apparently Lacia de Lammermoor is an opera written by Donizetti about a women who is forced to marry a man that her brother wants her to marry, then stabs him in the back on their wedding night and go mad; thereafter she sings an aria known as 'il suono dou' (thanks to google and wikipedia for this info) On a somewhat more serious note; I like what I am hearing --- 80-90 hours long...bad thinhs happen...choice and some consequence is in And this Lucia di Lammermoor is apparently one of the Orgin stories for the female elves --- yes, some origin stories will be different if you play as a man or female in this game... Yet more edit: Did you know that you can speedrun through Fallout, the first one, in under just 10 minutes or so ??

I have long suspected that maybe Greg and Ray actually were from another planet (than Earth). I know understand that my suspicions are correct... Ray (and Greg) are clearly talking about some other place than Earth, I find. If they are not, someone needs to call them to get back them on Earth again. On Earth, competetion amongst the console makers, game companies and publishers is a good thing. It makes sure that the customer gets the programs, and games cheaper; it even makes sure that those companies who bascially do not treat their customers with respect, get closed. Since they don't sell much.... In the future --- seems to be a big word right now, for both EA, Ray, Greg and Bioware. And you do not know if Ray and Greg have had the same expections or hopes for the future that EA and John Riccitiello has: making even single player based games like MMOs, that is paying a monthly subscription to EA for playing a single player game. On their, EA's console... If this were to be come true, I would be very sad....

I have finally got the game and jumped right in and played some of it. I'm in the Samarach city? and planning what to next. Unfortunately, the camera is really bad, I find. I mean, I like the OK and all, but the camera and the camera modes are making it nearly unplayable for me. I can only play it, it seems, if I choose to option that has a fixed camera like BG2 and from a sort of isometric view. Is there any way to remedy this situation?

Dragon Age: Origins for the PC looks interesting. So does the English version of Drakensang - the dark eye. Eschalon - book 2 looks great, too.Alpha Protocol looks semi-interesting as well, at least for me. For adventure games, I'm looking forward to Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper.

North Korean MBAs are very prestigious. I would argue with Volourn about this issue, but I don't have any confidence in emerging victorious, so I'll just RUN LIKE HELL Also, is EA's ownership of Bioware total? I think it is? Yes, it is. But apparently EA hasn't got a clue about what is going on: http://dragonage.bioware.com/forums/viewto...m=135&sp=60 From Lethlar's post in the above thread: And the chief of EA thinks that DA: Origins is a 'game about dragons' I hope someone did get him the memo or emailed him... Then Ashi984 wrote this: For this, I too, am very grateful. When I fist read this I was and and But then I realized that this is actually a good thing; it means that EA isn't controlling anything at Bioware at all.... EA closing Pandemics branch in Brisbane, Australia is about the same as Carlsberg closing its brewery in a small town near Copenhagen to move all of the production lines for beer etc. to one town in Jutland, Denmark. It is, of clourse, bad for the people it will affect, but necessary, I think, in these financial times.

Kevin Saunders wrote: While it may not be fair that developers and publishers do not get any $$$ from used game sales or game rentals. Writers and carmakers do not get any money fromthe re-sale of their books or cars as well. Also, I fail to see how this is somehow related to the way capitalism works and how it is related to setting up trade routes in Storm of Zehir. Edit: I thought that for a full game you would pay 50 US dollars or so, and for an expansion you would pay like 20-25 US dollars? Not the full price. I didn't know that for each expansion, you would get less money to make the expansion. This means that the publishers, not the developers earn money? now, doesn't it?

I just wish that they were on another website - I have issues with both of the "Nexus" sites, or rather the policies of their administrators and moderators, that I will not get into here. You do understand that both TesNexus and Fallout3Nexus is run by the same man, a avid fan of the elder scrolls. In no way, shape or form are these sites established by Bethesda. Mods that are too mature for Bethesda may not even by linked to directly from their websites to TesNexus. Thusly, there are only 1 administrator, I think?, and that will be the owner of the site aka DarkOne.

The comment on Rock Paper Shotgun is from Patrick Weekes. He also sometimes posts at the Rpgwatch as does a Bioware developer called Stormwaltz. Here is a short recap of Weekes' post during the last year: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/search.php?searchid=560313 His last post is from March 13, 2008. Don't know what happened to him, though, Probably got moved to Dragon Age: Origins - busily working. And Gaider sometimes post on the rpgcodex as well. Haven't seen him around the Codex in about half a year or so. He is probably busy writing for Dragon Age: Origins as well. Stormwalts post about working for Bioware can be seen here: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread....#post1060923136 So, yes developers do read and post on game forums. When they're not busy making games that is.

This is very true, although some contracts mentions (or stipulates) that part(s) of these developmental costs only will be paid when say Obsidian hits a milestone. You know the whole, 'half now, half when it is done' contract. And then the studio, say Obsidain, has to pay this money back to say Atari. And royalties tend to be like 10% or 15% of the game's price in retail stores. And then Atari takes money away to pay for PR and other publicity costs. And then Obsidian needs to sell around 1 million or so, (or more) copies (or SDKs) to just break even. Before they even start to make any money for themselves.

I may be wrong, but doesn't this seem confusing? Wielding magic is a *natural ability* that comes in late childhood... So why can't Fighters and Thieves use it? Do they lose the ability once they choose a profession or something? Or are people already born with classes? Within Ferelden (which is not all of Thedas) the Circle of Magi takes children who show magical abilities from their parents and teaches them to use magic. Those who are unable to control their power or who show the wrong attitude toward magic are Tranquiled (magically lobotomized). There are nations other than Ferelden that may do something different. There are apostate mages (non-circle mages) and hedge mages (managed to hide from the circle) but DA only has one mage origin: Circle Mage. The reason a thief PC couldn't be a mage is that the Circle of Magi doesn't teach thievery or how to wield weapons. Now, as a mage levels, they can pick up lockpicking (it

Thank you for this. This is indeed great news, I find The music industry has apparently finally gotten around and come to their senses - after more than years. Let's hope, the game industry doesn't need 10 years to do the same as Apple, Mac, and Itunes just have done.