Dragon Age: Origins is a single-player role-playing video game developed by BioWare's Edmonton studio and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2009, and for Mac OS X on December 21, 2009. Set in the mythical kingdom of Ferelden during a period of civil strife, the player assumes the role of a warrior, mage or rogue who must unite the kingdom to fight an impending invasion by demonic forces. BioWare describes Dragon Age: Origins as a "dark heroic fantasy set in a unique world", and a spiritual successor to their Baldur's Gate series of games, which were based on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.[13] Upon its release, Dragon Age: Origins was lauded with overwhelmingly positive reviews and considered a critical success. Aggregate review site Metacritic ranks the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game with scores of 91, 87, and 86, respectively.[14][15][16] The game also received multiple awards from numerous outlets, ranging from IGN's "PC Game of The Year (2009)"[17] to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science's "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year 2009".[18] An expansion to the game, titled Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, was released in March 2010, and work on an official sequel is underway.[19][20] BioWare intends for Dragon Age: Origins to serve as the foundation for a much broader intellectual property. Even before its release, plans to expand the universe introduced by the game were underway; this includes sequels,dragon age cd key store, paper and pen games, books, and comics that would expand the scope of the Dragon Age franchise.[21] Several of those projects have since been released. The game incorporates "origins" for each race and some classes. For example, a dwarf noble begins the game as part of the royal family in one of the dwarven cities, whereas the dwarf commoner origin story begins on the streets of the city. Origin stories determine the background of the player's character prior to the main events of the game's story, dragon age deluxe edition key code,forming an introduction to the world while also comprising hours of play. Characters that the player meets during the origin story may reappear throughout the game, some as adversaries.[22] There is no tracking of moral alignment as in previous BioWare games,dragon age serial key,key for dragon age but the moral choices of the player will still affect the story throughout the game. The player will accomplish the goal regardless of choosing to be good or evil, but the decisions that the player makes in the process will change the game world accordingly – deciding who will become king, for example, and affecting nations and races and their places in the world. These decisions will also influence the companion NPCs, possibly causing an NPC to leave the party[24] or even attack the player if they disagree strongly with his or her actions.[25] The game has been described as the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate by BioWare co-CEO Ray Muzyka,[26] as players are able to issue orders to NPCs in real time, but pause the game to queue up actions such as spells and special attacks,dragon age serial code, a game mechanic from the Baldur's Gate series.[27] However, the mood can be compared to Planescape: Torment. There are three base classes to choose from: warrior, mage, and rogue.[28] These classes can be upgraded into a specialized class such as the berserker or templar for the warrior class,[29] shapeshifter or spirit healer for the mage class,[30] and assassin or ranger for the rogue. The game uses a party system similar to that of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, another BioWare roleplaying game, featuring the main character with up to three active party members chosen from a pool of NPCs. The game features a degree of interactivity between spells, such as a fire spell igniting a grease slick before being put out by a blizzard. The game contains many combinations which can be discovered by the player either by accident, or by finding clues as to which combinations are valid