Dragon Age Packs Twice the Dialog of Mass Effect 2

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Dragon Age: Origins takes a step back toward the traditional dialog system developer BioWare used for all their role playing games prior to Mass Effect. While selecting phrases verbatim might feel old school compared to the emotional responses in Mass Effect don't think for a moment that they didn't put as much into it.

Quite the opposite is true. Despite the cinematic nature of Mass Effect 2, in comparing the dialog systems of the two games BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk told me that Dragon Age: Origins packed over twice as many dialog options. Why so much? In Dragon Age a large proportion of the potential responses are based on the race and class you've chosen for your main character, their skills and demeanor, and the decisions made in developing the relationships. For every group of possible responses you see on any given play through of the game, there's probably an equal number hidden to handle all the other potential combinations as Zeschuk explained it.

For many fans that's sure to pique their interest to make another run through Dragon Age: Origins while waiting for Mass Effect to arrive next month.

From The Chatty
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    December 18, 2009 7:35 PM

    why is this a separate news story? there's just no cohesion on the shack anymore.

    Given DA:O has been out for a bit, the headline should use "packed" not "packs"

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      December 18, 2009 7:41 PM

      Seperate story as opposed combining it with...what, exactly?

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      December 18, 2009 7:41 PM

      Out of curiosity (and I'm sure to regret asking) what would I have included it with? It's more a DA:O story than ME2.

      In general, I like to create pieces for the good bits from interviews because that gives us a place for each to have its own unique discussion.

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        December 18, 2009 7:47 PM

        Don't you worry Garnett I liked your story just fine.

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        December 18, 2009 7:57 PM

        True and not a bad idea!

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        December 18, 2009 8:00 PM

        I appreciate this story!

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        December 18, 2009 8:12 PM

        Will the interview be going up shortly?

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        December 18, 2009 9:48 PM

        Stuff like this is fine, even though it is kind of out of left field it's nice to have an article with cool facts instead of the boilerplate trailer, game announcement, or release list.

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          December 18, 2009 10:15 PM

          Yeah, this caught my attention and I found it interesting. Garnett is the man.

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        December 18, 2009 10:29 PM

        people will complain about everything here. front pagers are the worst though

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        December 18, 2009 11:28 PM

        nah, this kind of post is just fine...people can respond to the actual topic just like a chatty post...instead of "omg, that trailer is so badass" or whatever comments you get on GenericGameSite.com

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        December 19, 2009 12:13 PM

        I think it's fine as it is.

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          December 21, 2009 12:46 AM

          Ditto, it's an interesting fact that makes sense once you think about it.

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        December 22, 2009 2:43 PM

        This is fine. Consider it encouraged. Much better than a "marketers released a new video" post.

        Your choice of tense is fine too; it's not like the game stops doing it because it's on a store.

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      December 18, 2009 9:24 PM

      glad to hear i'm not the only one with a weird taste of fluff in my mouth as of late... that sounds harsher than i mean it to be but there's something chillingly advertorial about some of the news on the shack recently

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