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Dragon Age 2 Confirmed, Will Feature New Hero

UPDATE: Sure enough, BioWare has revealed a few more details on Dragon Age 2, as the official website for the game also went live this morning. The site offers a couple of pieces of concept art (one shown above), as well as some more info on the game’s setting and features.
"You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home," the site’s brief description reads. "Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now."

The site also promises a debut trailer will be released on August 17, and has a (rather vague) bullet-pointed list of "key features":

• Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make.
• Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land.
• Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior.
• Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go.
• Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style.

By the sound of it, it appears Dragon Age 2 will tell a more specific story about a single hero (a "destitute refugee") rather than offer multiple origin stories as the first game did. But then again, that’s just speculation based on the few details revealed here. In any case, our original story follows below.

ORIGINAL STORY: We’ve more or less known BioWare would be releasing Dragon Age 2 some time early next year -- Electronic Arts practically announced as much a few months ago, and Awakening teased a new Dragon Age title for February 1, 2011. But today, EA has officially confirmed the existence of Dragon Age 2, and Game Informer has the first few details on the title as well.

The confirmation came nestled in a press release concerning EA taking over control of Warhammer Online in Europe (via VG247), which lists "Dragon Age 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s ’RPG of the Year’ Dragon Age: Origins," as one of the titles that BioWare currently has in development. Furthermore, Game Informer’s website is teasing an upcoming cover story for Dragon Age 2, with the tease revealing the new game will feature a "new hero, a different part of the world, and a ton of surprising improvements."

That’s about all Game Informer is revealing right now, but the promise of a "new hero" already seems to suggests players won’t transfer their character from Dragon Age: Origins into Dragon Age 2, the way players could transfer their version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect into Mass Effect 2. Still, that’s not entirely certain yet, so we’ll see what BioWare has to say when more details are revealed.

And we may not have to wait much longer for more details, as BioWare also posted a tweet last night saying that "[tomorrow] will be a great day for BioWare fans." Hopefully that means more Dragon Age 2 details will be released later today? If anything more does pop up, we’ll pass it along.