As the spiritual successor to BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate, one of the most successful role-playing games in the industry, Dragon Age: Origins represents BioWare’s return to its roots, delivering a fusion of the best elements of existing fantasy works with stunning visuals, emotionally-driven narrative, heart-pounding combat, powerful magic abilities and credible digital actors. The spirit of classic RPGs comes of age, as Dragon Age: Origins features a dark and mature story and gameplay.

Each Origin Story starts the player off with a unique series of locations, characters and events that establish their motivations and lay the groundwork for the adventure to come.

With each Origin Story boasting several hours of unique game play, as well as challenging strategic combat and exploration, these 6 distinct preludes make Dragon Age: Origins the first BioWare game to offer not only multiple endings, but also multiple beginnings.

The player's choice of Origin Story lays the foundation for a profound journey based on the character's past experiences, establishing how they perceive the world and how the world perceives them. The choices you made during an Origin Story will influence the way the game unfolds, including different story elements, dialogue options and even plot branches, providing a wealth of replayability.

To celebrate the launch of this award winning new game, BioWare is inviting gamers and press from North America and across Europe to put their skills and endurance to the test as they embark on a tense, epic journey of discovery. On October 28, at 10:00 AM GMT, ten teams of four players each will live, fight and explore the game as the drama unfolds in their 24 hour quest to claim the grand prize. Each winning team member will receive $12,500. Official rules can be found at the official website.

"We're extremely excited about the Dragon Age: Origins Wardens' Quest - it's going to be an awesome chance for gamers to band together to prove they're the best at navigating the world of Dragon Age," said Mark Darrah, Executive Producer, Dragon Age: Origins."In the game, putting together a strong team is essential to success - in the same way the overall strength of the competing teams will decide who walks away with the money."

There will be ten participating teams representing their countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands and Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and a specially selected team comprised of the most loyal BioWare fans from around the world. The competition will take place in the Debating Chamber at County Hall in London, England. This space will provide a grandiose setting for the competitors to play the game, discuss strategy and battle for the grand prize as teams are eliminated throughout the day. Around the chamber, screens will be used to display leader board stats and show highlights. BioWare staff and costumed actors will further enhance the environment, theatrics and dramatics of the day.

Key Features :

• Epic Party-Based Combat – Dragon Age: Origins will introduce an innovative, scalable combat system, as players face large-scale battles and use their party’s special abilities to destroy hoardes of enemies and massive creatures.
• Powerful Magic – Raining down awesome destruction on enemies is even more compelling as players apply “spell combos,” a way of combining together different spells to create emergent unique effects.
• Deep Customization – Players will develop their characters and gain powerful special abilities (spells, talents and skills) and discover ever-increasing weapons of destruction.
• Your Story, Your Way – With its emotionally compelling story, players choose with whom they wish to forge alliances or crush under their mighty fist, redefining the world with the choices they make and how they wield their power.
• Origin Stories – Players will select and play a unique prelude that provides the lens through which the player sees the world and how the world sees the player. The player’s choice of Origin will determine who they are and where they begin the adventure, as they play through a customized story opening that profoundly impacts the course of every adventure.