Graphics do Not a Game make

So I read earlier, someone commented about a game I am, very much looking forward to called Dragon Age Origins, making the comment: The graphics are cringeworthy, the mouths barely move when they are talking.

The video they were commenting on was old, and the graphics have improved since then, however, this is not the point. If they had actually been watching the trailer, they would have noticed the frankly, stellar voice acting (Which is across the board, even minor characters have exsquisite voice acting work done on them). They would also have noticed that animations are incredibly smooth, with transition animations making everything completely seamless, the mocap department really earned their keep with this one, everything is so fantastically animated, couple that with the voicework and the believability of the characters goes up immensely.

Then there is the story, which, from the trailers and video walkthroughs, is simply amazing, there are multiple stories that take place, depending on race, origin and choices through the game, simply in the intro video they showed, there is masses of story, so it really is packed in, and unlike many choice based games, the changes are gradual, so you can't just quicksave before the time comes and then reload if you don't like the result.

Then there is the gameplay, which is good old sword and sorcery, but it also takes a lot from Baldurs Gate (The same people developed it after all). You have your party of 4, which is pretty standard fare, but whats not, is that spells can interact with each other, and from the look of the videos it's a very polished system. Battles look and feel very real, with the grime sticking to your character, and being persistent, and from what i've personally seen, some of the fights are monstrously hard, requiring micro-management of every character to bring them down, not to mention, freakin sweet takedown animations.

So, to go back over quickly, graphics don't make this game, although it's looking very polished now, the story, acting, animation and graphics all work together to make, what looks like an incredibly awesome game, and one which I am looking forward to intently.