Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Age of Panic: Dragon Age Compo

By Kieron Gillen on November 2nd, 2009 at 12:14 pm.

Bagsie first in the shower after this.

Over the weekend the Dragon Age pre-loading has started, meaning if you pre-order it – er – it’ll start downloading. Early. And similar. Anyway, to celebrate this momentous event, Direct2Drive have given us five copies of the Digital Deluxe Edition to give away to you. Our fine readers. So it’s compo time! To secure your copy of this much anticipated game, you have to use the recently released character creator to make the most interesting looking character you can. What does “interesting” mean? Well, you read the site. That’s your job to work out. Reverse analyse our evil noggins. Anyway – when you’ve done that, send a link to a grab of your creation, perhaps with a little in-mail elaboration of why you think it’s so splendid. Don’t actually mail us the screengrab. Mail us a link to the photo. I repeat, mail us a link to the grab of your character. We can’t have our compo inbox bunged up with enormous jpg files, you understand. Anyway – get the creator from here and get cracking. The compo will close at 6pm EST GMT on Thursday 5th, so those who don’t win still have time to actually pre-order the thing. The usual compo rules apply.

EDIT: If you have trouble grabbing, try FRAPS.

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62 Comments »

  1. 02/11/2009 at 12:16 Psychopomp says:

    Are you allowing characters that use custom textures, and the like?

    Yes, they’re already out there :|

  2. 02/11/2009 at 12:18 Schadenfreude says:

    I did try and make a dwarf modelled on Brian Blessed that came out alright. Of course the cynic in me thinks it would be more difficult to make a dwarf that didn’t look like Brian Blessed.

  3. 02/11/2009 at 12:26 CMaster says:

    Interestingly, Dragon Age was a game that got very little attention at Eurogamer expo. I picked it up and thought it seemed alright, nothing glaringly wrong other than the constant loading screens on the 360 version (seriously, there was a loading screen every time I tried to talk to another guy in my party). Other than that, seemed a lot like ME in that you were channelled down combat-heavy corridors with no real option, but then this did seem to be towards the start of the game.

    • 02/11/2009 at 13:05 Persus-9 says:

      I had a quick pick up and play but to be honest I didn’t last long because even with the volume on max I couldn’t hear a damn thing over the sound of the show so about half way through the opening dialogue tree I just thought “Screw this, I already know I’m going to buy the damn thing” and wandered off to try out something I hadn’t already decided to buy.

    • 02/11/2009 at 18:00 mrrobsa says:

      This and a few other games were ignored by me on the grounds that I’d want to sink probably at least an hour into them in a more intimate setting before making an opinion.
      For example, played Borderlands for 15 minutes and was very bored. Nothing happened and I couldn’t find a way of making something happen, but that won’t become my opinion of the game, just think it was wrong time and place (wrong save game too perhaps!).
      Dragon Age interests me if only for the reason that Walker was raving incessantly about it on the PCG podcast! Looking forward to reading some reviews.

    • 02/11/2009 at 20:36 Nathan says:

      I think that Dragon Age (PC) was the one game that I enjoyed the most at the Expo. Perhaps it was just the biggest surprise, because I’d been downplaying my expectations to Dragon Age being rather generic and mediocre.

  4. 02/11/2009 at 12:29 Duoae says:

    EST? What sort of skullduggery is this?!

    *Enters competition*

  5. 02/11/2009 at 12:39 Kadayi says:

    Damn it. Despite my reservations about this I sprang for it last night on Steam….
    *shakes fist at universe
    *sigh*

    Yes You’re right, I’m deliciously evil

  6. 02/11/2009 at 12:40 Ben Abraham says:

    Is this another UK only compo or open internationally?

  7. 02/11/2009 at 12:51 James G says:

    As much as I’m looking forward to the game I sall not be entering, as I’m sure my pre-order would have shipped by the time I won. (That and I currently don’t have the bandwidth for downloading a game of quite this size.)

  8. 02/11/2009 at 13:26 Cutman says:

    Son of a bitch. I can’t print screen in the game. I suppose if I upload my info to my EA account I can see it there, but I can’t create my EA account because when I fill in my username it tells me I haven’t filled in my username and I need to fill all the required fields.

    • 02/11/2009 at 15:44 M.P. says:

      Had this problem too. Not in relation to this competition though, I simply was trying to upload a character to my EA profile because there was some sort of little bonus item they gave you if you did. It was really strange because I’ve had an EA profile for yonks, I log into it regularly to play Burnout: Paradise, and I went into my Bioware profile (created before they got assimilated by the Borg) and linked the two together in advance of trying.

      If other people are having trouble logging in, it might prove to be a problem when it comes time to us trying to buy DLC off Bioware’s store…

  9. 02/11/2009 at 13:27 Heliocentric says:

    Try fraps

  10. 02/11/2009 at 13:43 SirKicksalot says:

    I’ve uninstalled The Creator 5 minutes before reading this. Damn.

    • 02/11/2009 at 17:57 Dave says:

      I uninstalled it yesterday myself. My wife was checking it out and asked me to install it to see if it’s really true that you can’t make black people, or if it was just her system. It’s not her system.

    • 02/11/2009 at 19:21 Jimbo says:

      Are we allowed to submit multiple characters? I already made two and it’s like choosing a favourite child.

    • 02/11/2009 at 19:23 Jimbo says:

      Uhh, sorry, that totally wasn’t meant to be a reply. But whilst I’m here, yes you can change skin colour.

    • 02/11/2009 at 23:42 Dave says:

      You can change skin color from pale to typical Caucasian to slightly yellowish to tan to Skin Condition Red. You can make a guy with almost-dark enough skin and enough stubble to pass for black at nighttime maybe. But you really can’t make dark-skinned people.

      Aside from that, I once again question the wisdom of game developers putting character creation in a dimly lit setting. Oblivion did this too. You never get quite what you thought you were making.

  11. 02/11/2009 at 13:43 Cutman says:

    I got it working. I just put the game in windowed mode and click on my desktop when I had the game up. So my desktop was the focus, but Dragon Age still took up my screen. Wee workarounds.

  12. 02/11/2009 at 15:36 jsutcliffe says:

    Oh bother. Now I am completely unsure which version to buy (yes buy — I have decided that since I never win competitions I might as well not waste my time — yay pessimistopragmatism) Am I not going to get a complete version if I get the non superdeluxe version? What if I don’t preorder? Do I not get spangly bundled DLC? Arg. Hate EA.

  13. 02/11/2009 at 15:40 shiggz says:

    Not sure if it would help but remember you can hit print screen then open paint and do control-v for paste. Great way to show off your desktop.

  14. 02/11/2009 at 15:49 SirKicksalot says:

    I restrained from preordering because it’s always nice to have the boxed copy of an RPG, even if only for the manual. The deluxe edition includes the Warden’s Keep DLC for free. On the other hand, the retail collector’s edition has a cloth map and a metal box.

    Of course, I wouldn’t say no to a free digital copy:D Too bad I won’t win. And I can’t even decide which character to pick for this contest.

    Pro-tip for those that haven’t figure it out yet: you must remove the beard in order to modify the mouth, jaw and cheeks, and if you add a beard it will reset them. BioWare’s technical wisards strike again!

  15. 02/11/2009 at 15:52 Heliosicle says:

    Hrmph, even if I have a terrible chance at winning might as well try before I order it

  16. 02/11/2009 at 16:04 Joe The Wizard says:

    I’ve already pre-loaded it. Exciting!

  17. 02/11/2009 at 16:13 Jeremy says:

    Here’s the problem. I can either buy this game tomorrow, or I can attempt to win a free copy via competition 3 days later. Seeing as I am a man of weak discipline and expendable cash, I will probably just buy it tomorrow.

  18. 02/11/2009 at 16:21 GibletHead2000 says:

    /wonders if the title of this post is referring to a Senser track, knowing Keiron’s propensity for music references?

  19. 02/11/2009 at 16:30 El_MUERkO says:

    my guy looks exactly like the evil prince in Shrek, exactly like him :D

  20. 02/11/2009 at 17:39 Spoon says:

    I just bought it yesterday! Oh well, good luck to the entrants.

  21. 02/11/2009 at 19:05 Kadayi says:

    There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of racial variety in terms of humans tbh. However I guess it might be a concession to the fact that the game already contains distinct races, and adding in real world factors would just complicate issues. Mass effect offered up a bit more variety. I wouldn’t read too much into it.

  22. 02/11/2009 at 19:14 DJ Phantoon says:

    I know a face that’s sure to win. At least, I’m pretty sure the protagonist from Limbo of the Lost would be a winner.

    Just throwing that out there.

  23. 02/11/2009 at 22:17 Dead Fish says:

    I hope my games journo reference isn’t too obscure…

    I found that the editor doesn’t really let you do that much in terms of “interesting” faces. I bet that most results of a randomize button would turn out to be pretty standard, passable RPG folk. Kinda takes the charm out of it.

    • 03/11/2009 at 06:03 RyePunk says:

      wouldn’t that be the purpose to a random?
      I mean the devs would probably build it to only randomly generate within certain parameters, preventing any cases awkward cheek/nose/forehead/lips/ears… i could go on, but really you look at your main character for a long, long time. It is for the best if you don’t break into laughter every time he declares something profound only to wonder if he was born half troll.

  24. 03/11/2009 at 01:04 Thranx says:

    “I just thought “Screw this, I already know I’m going to buy the damn thing” and wandered off to try out something I hadn’t already decided to buy.”

    Haha, I was the exact same way at PAX… except for me it was more looking at the 2 hours wait to view the demo and play the demo… “I’m just buying it, why waste my time in line?”

  25. 03/11/2009 at 09:25 Tei says:

    I have failed to make a interesting character. I think the character editor is a bit too limited.

  26. 03/11/2009 at 10:56 Schadenfreude says:

    Quite a negative 8/10 review over on Eurogamer (Oli holds up Oblivion and Fallout3 as shining examples of the genre so your mileage may vary on this one).
    My comment from the thread:
    I really don't get the comments on the difficulty (From a few reviewers now). I've been playing this through on hard (Hurray for shopkeepers who break release!) and have yet to encounter any major troubles. If you've spent any amount of time at Baldur's Gate you should know what to expect (So far it's certainly easier than BG1). Have these reviewers gotten so used to action RPGs that they've lost the skill set to play these kind of games? In terms of gameplay DA has more in common with a strategy like Total War than your Elder Scrolls. All about troop position and fatigue management innit :D
    I said it yesterday in the Risen thread but Eurogamer are definitely not my go-to guys for RPGs these days. Perfect scores for Fable 2, Oblivion and Fallout 3 whilst being very luke-warm with things like the Witcher, Mass Effect and Risen (Which was no great shakes but better than they give it credit for) just doesn't tally with my opinion at all.
    Which is cool. They like what they like. They just consistantly don't like what I like. No big deal, I'm still enjoying the game and they're still harvesting lots of ad revenue. Everyone's happy :D

  27. 03/11/2009 at 16:33 Stupoider says:

    Am I the only one put off by the character’s teeth? :(

  28. 03/11/2009 at 20:08 Rei Onryou says:

    I’ve already pre-ordered, so no need for me to enter. John’s already done MAXIMUM FACE, so I’d now like to see MINIMUM FACE! Also, any attempts at the RPS team (bonus points if you pull it off using the opposite gender).

    Please RPS, post the top entries up for all to enjoy. Competitions are much more fun when the entries are shared. :)

  29. 03/11/2009 at 21:23 Vandelay says:

    I like all these people saying they have pre-ordered, gives me a better chance of winning. I'm probably going to need it after my rather poor attempts.

    As the game has the voice of Captain Janeway, I thought attempting to model the other Star Trek captains could be a good idea, but trying to get likenesses wasn't really possible with the character creator. Thankfully, both Picard and Sisko being mostly bald helped a lot. Kirk just came out completely wrong, so I had to settle with making it into new-Kirk, which actually ended up being probably the most like the real life counterpart. Didn't bother with Archer though; no one likes him.

  30. 03/11/2009 at 21:31 Mesmertron says:

    Hmm… ‘interesting’….

    I wonder how good my chances of winning would be if I submit my John Walker look-a-like dwarf with his portrait set to make him look like he’s crying.

  31. 03/11/2009 at 21:33 Frosty says:

    My entry is sent! *Hopes for the best* :)

  32. 05/11/2009 at 07:15 pewbeng says:

    Sure do hope I’ll have a chance against you guys.

    The professor is ready to be judged.

  33. 05/11/2009 at 19:07 pewbeng says:

    When will we know the results? Resisting the buy will be hard once it releases here tomorrow. :o

  34. 05/11/2009 at 21:01 Beastbaron says:

    I would also like the results, even though I won't have won the suspense is killing me.

    • 05/11/2009 at 22:26 Persus-9 says:

      Same here, I just hate that slight slight doubt of not knowing if I’ve won stuff even thought I know my effort was pretty sub-par and I really need everyone else to have got the e-mail address wrong or something.

  35. 05/11/2009 at 23:56 shadeedge says:

    Perhaps it’s been forgotten. It did say the end date was in order to make sure us failures could still pre-order the thing, and we’ve only got… four minutes now to do so.

  36. 06/11/2009 at 12:58 Squirrelfanatic says:

    Any news about the results' announcement? I am really excited to see those contributions.

  37. 06/11/2009 at 17:46 pewbeng says:

    RPS? More like… MEAN, amirite?

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