Dragon Age 2 Demo Soon, Says BioWare

By Kevin Parrish
published

A playable demo of Dragon Age 2 is heading to the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this month!

Unlike Crytek's just-released Xbox 360-exclusive multiplayer demo of Crysis 2, BioWare said Thursday that a playable demo of Dragon Age 2 will indeed arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC on February 22. Apparently no one platform will get first dibs over the other two.

"In the demo, players will venture through the game’s prologue, choosing from three different character classes," explains BioWare in this blog post. "They’ll also learn more about Hawke and hone their skills and abilities that will make them the ultimate hero."

According to BioWare, the demo does not have a character or save game import feature. Players will have the ability to modify their character (a male of female version of Hawke) to some degree; however, the actual character creator has been disabled in the demo by default.

"After finishing the prologue, players will enter a key new location in the world of Dragon Age, Kirkwall, befriending Isabela, a romantic interest in the game who is also a deadly smuggler," BioWare added. "Upon completion of the demo, players will unlock a special weapon, Hayder’s Razor, an ancient dwarven blade which increases health, mana, and combat abilities, in the full release of Dragon Age II."

Here are the recommended and minimum specs for the PC version:

Recommended:

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent
  • CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent
  • RAM: 2GB (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
  • Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
  • Video: NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
  • DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or greater
  • DirectX 11: NVIDIA 460 or greater

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP with SP3
  • OS: Windows Vista with SP2
  • OS: Windows 7
  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
  • CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
  • RAM: 1 GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7)
  • Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB
  • Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB cards
  • Disc Drive: DVD ROM drive required
  • Hard Drive: 7 GB
  • Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5

Dragon Age 2 is set for release in North America on March 8 and March 11 in Europe.

Kevin Parrish
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • I hate that the minimum requirements are so low. C'mon, it's 2011, it's about time that the minimum requirements of games be increased! When games can be played on these rigs you know that the graphics will suffer (don't get me wrong, Dragon Age is a gorgeous game on full settings). We live in a day and age where OS can't take full advantages of the todays processors. We have graphics cards that are pumping out more performance than they ever have. The whole computer hardware industry is moving in the right direction. It pain's me that the software that runs on our machines must be inferior just so that it can run on the xbox 360 and ps3. MS and Sony Stop Milking your consoles with these "neat" peripheral additions, bring something new to the table and allow the industry to move forward!
    Reply
  • bluestar2k11
    "Apparently no one platform will get first dibs over the other two."

    And it's about **** time some developer treats us PC gamers as equals, rather then leaving us to eat what the console users leave behind.

    Makes me have faith in Bioware as one of the few decent developers left.

    Anyway, I liked Dragon age, despite my character having like no personality, worse then the Master Chief. Least he talks. I'm looking forward to seeing what DA2 has going for it. Just make the player character have a personality like Shepard from Mass Effect.

    I don't get the system specs though:

    # CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent
    # CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent

    Does that mean the AMD CPU actually has an advantage? Requiring a faster clock but less cores to do it, while the intel requires more cores but a slower clock.

    Whatever the case, hopefully it will be properly multi-threaded for suggesting tri and quad core CPU's.
    Reply
  • renz496
    ^ i think you don't fully understand that statement. the way i look at it the game will definitely can take benefit from 3 cores but not so from the forth one. but intel never sell odd core processors like AMD (in this case 3 core cpu) so the dev put quad core cpus for those who opt for intel cpu. so in short it doesn't mean that you only need 3 cores if your cpu has higher clock speed. :)
    Reply
  • Humans think
    The recommended settings describe my build.
    Don't get me wrong dcompart, you have a fair statement but when they build a game they dont want to exclude 95% of users from start. Look how succesful WoW is with so modest system requirements.
    The key is scalability so guys with better systems get a richer experience.
    Reply
  • bluestar2k11
    Ahh I understand.

    It didn't occur to me that intel didn't make a tri-core CPU like AMD did. So that would make sense, and also that it may not fully use a 4th core, or may not need too.

    Thanks^^

    renz496^ i think you don't fully understand that statement. the way i look at it the game will definitely can take benefit from 3 cores but not so from the forth one. but intel never sell odd core processors like AMD (in this case 3 core cpu) so the dev put quad core cpus for those who opt for intel cpu. so in short it doesn't mean that you only need 3 cores if your cpu has higher clock speed.
    Reply
  • Von Death
    Meh. Dragon Age 1 was 80% dialogue 20% fighting. Having to constantly pause fights really killed the game for me. If it's the same for 2, count me out.
    Reply
  • tavix
    I see DirectX 11...
    Reply
  • dco
    The biggest discrepancy isn’t in the CPU recommendation but the minimum GPU.
    A GF 7900GS is at least twice as powerful as a HD2600 PRO if not more.
    Reply
  • bluestar2k11
    Where did you figure this? Toms own charts for Q3 2008 show the 2600 winning in most games against the 7900GS

    Obviously some differences in a few, but that happens. But overall, the 7900GS is not twice as powerful as the 2600, if anything maybe 8% where they trade blows in different games but that's it.

    But point of the min spec is they are in the same range and class. They don't need to be exact strength.

    dcoThe biggest discrepancy isn’t in the CPU recommendation but the minimum GPU.A GF 7900GS is at least twice as powerful as a HD2600 PRO if not more.
    Reply
  • Von Death
    mayankleoboy1^ what you want is a FPS. get any FPS. its 95# fighting. 4% hammy dialogues. and 1% story.For some, Dragon Age is a great fit, but I'm looking for more of the hack-n-slash of Dungeon Siege 3 and/or Diablo 3.
    Reply