I caught up with Andrew, the other Dragon Age II competition winner, upon his return from Canada to get his thoughts on the experience. He sent me a lengthy report on the trip and a link to a huge gallery of photos. It's a great read and an easy blog post for me; copy and paste FTW! Take it away Andrew…

Andrew: I just want to thank everyone at BioWare, EA and Mighty Ape first of all for the chance to visit the BioWare offices in Edmonton, and especially for the opportunity to play DA2 before its release. I would also like to extend a special thanks to Randall Bishop, Mat Goldman, Mike Laidlaw and Mark Darrah, as well as all the great people at BioWare. Mark the executive producer and Mike the lead designer for DA2 joined us for lunch and shared some interesting and entertaining anecdotes.

Mat gave an awesome presentation on the art concept for DA2, and Randal was our official tour guide through the BioWare labyrinth, spending all day with us during what must be an especially busy time with the release only 6 weeks away!

The first thing you notice about the BioWare offices, aside from the many many awards, is that they have a real appreciation for their fans. In every area of the offices there is fan art on display, sharing space with the awards and their own concept art. I got the impression that they really care about what the fans think and are thrilled when they go to the trouble of making and sending something to them.

Next you get the feeling that BioWare would be a great place to work. There was a real sense of wanting to take care of the employees and obviously they were are all keen and happy to be there even on a morning that was –30°C. Which is lucky because we heard about 14 hour days from more than one person!

The game itself looks great. Mat said that they wanted DA2 to have it's own immediately recognizable style, not looking like some generic RPG. They've drawn on Japanese traditional art styles and film, as well as some western art and film influences (Mat has graphs, so this is SCIENCE, not just what he thinks looks cool.)

The idea is to focus attention on the characters and the narrative, leaving the background as background. I'm with you Mat, but I recall in ME the scenery on the Citadel was almost a character. If I've summarized you wrong Mat, I apologize for not taking more (by which I mean any) notes.

The embellishments that look like the illuminations in ancient manuscripts are gone and replaced by a much cleaner layout, with new clearly indicative icons, so you don't have to squint hard/guess to see exactly what skill/spell/action you are about to deploy.

Mike says they wanted the warrior and rogue classes to feel powerful the way the mages did in DAO. Push a button and something awesome happens. The warrior Hawke seemed to have some of that. A lot of that really, when I targeted an enemy and pushed A, Hawke rushed forward instantly, and IMPACTED with his 2 handed sword, and you got a rewarding rumble in the controller. And being a DA game, blood sprayed and darkspawn exploded. A few hours was definitely not enough and after a taste, I am looking forward to the release even more.

The other BioWare IP I am hanging out for this year is Mass Effect 3, and this was under development during our visit. Alas the third floor was off limits and apparently guarded by a couple of marines with N7 armour and M8 Avengers.

Edmonton was interesting, albeit COLD: there were warnings out for frostbite on exposed skin within 5 minutes. We made one walk from the hotel to the nearby Southgate mall and back, and a bus ride to West Edmonton Mall (WEM), which almost resulted in us freezing in the snow due to missing the last connecting bus on the way home.

Neither of these was on a par with the ill conceived “walk from Ikea to Walmart in –20°C temperatures” in which I misread a map for the first time in years (weeks) and went the wrong way, and only survived by sheltering in Best Buy and the Future Shop on the way. I lived in Indiana for a while and although it snows there in winter, I was unprepared for Canada. The temperatures varied widely while we were there, from 2° to –30°C with wind chill.

WEM is huge, incorporating a water park, a couple of hotels and according to their website, over 800 stores & 100 eateries (I didn’t count them to verify). There is also an aquarium, live sea lion show, a replica of the Santa Maria and a couple of submarines, a gun store with a shooting range, and an amusement park. After exploring the ground floor by following the right hand wall (like dungeon delving) much of the day had gone, so we were much more strategic in exploring the upper level, hitting only a few preselected stores, before returning to Bourbon Street for an early dinner. Canadian beers were pretty good, but strangely for a place so cold, they all seemed to be served just a little bit warmer than I like.

The Radisson Hotel was nice, with comfortable rooms and was attached to the BioWare offices by a large atrium. The rooms had free wireless internet for guests and we were able to connect without difficulty and use Skype to call home to NZ. The restaurant in the atrium was reputed to have a pretty good Sunday brunch, and although I was disappointed with the bacon (a little dry) there was maple syrup on tap. The lobster bites on the dinner menu were awesome though – had them twice.
 
Aside from the 14 hour flights and freezing cold weather, it was a great experience and I just want to say thanks again to EA, BioWare and Mighty Ape!

Che: There are loads of people who would have liked to go along too, so thank you Andrew and Nigel for sharing your experience with everyone. Make sure to check out Andrew's Flickr gallery photos, and don't forget that Dragon Age II is coming on March 11th, pre-order your copy here.