Speaking of which, Dragon Age fans should go absolutely nuts with the release of Title Update 1.0.4, with all the good stuff it has packed in. A new story pack plus many new Codex entries have just been activated, giving players yet another aspect of lore and narrative depth to sink their teeth into. Patch notes for the update are out now; there is a lot to discuss!
So what exactly is going on with this update? To begin with, the new story pack looks to be an expansion of the game narrative, but BioWare has yet to reveal all the details. Could it be a set up for DLCs in the future? Or just exclusive teasing for the next Dragon Age game? Fans have been treating every block of the patch notes as if it had been some ancient elven scripture.
And then there are the Codex entries. If you’ve ever compulsively read all the lore behind every little thing in the game (which I must confess, I myself have done a couple of times), with this one, it’s Christmas morning. More worldbuilding, more backstory, more little nuances to bring Thedas to life. It is unknown whether the Codex entries are related to the new story, but if you remember BioWare, everything is somehow connected.
The patch notes themselves… well, they were exhaustive. Like, have they rewritten the whole damn game? Bug fixing, balancing, quality of-life updates-the usual suspects. The interesting tweaks to companions and the trigger of dialogues, however, make everyone start to speculate a little about hidden interactions or perhaps the reintroduction of cut content. Not the first time someone at BioWare has thrown in a sneaky little gem in a patch.
Speaking of sneaky, the timing of the update seems a little suspicious. Dragon Age 4 is not all that secretive anymore, but with all the teasing and this sudden dumping of new contents, one wonders if BioWare is doing it to crystalize the hype. Or maybe they’ve just been having fun toying with us. Could be either.
In the meantime, players are diving back in to look for changes, fresh news, or any hidden secrets in those new Codex entries. So, if all this hasn’t convinced you to jump into Thedas by now, then, I think, there’s never going to be another good time. Just don’t come blaming us for another 100 hours lost!
If you find anything fun – secret quest, cryptic reference, Varric’s personal journal – do let us know. We shall be consciously reloading our save files obsessively in order to watch all possible dialogue branches, pretty much. No shame.
