In fact, Dragon Age: Origins is such a straight-down-the-line fantasy RPG - it finds BioWare in such a respectful and conservative mood - that despite filling a small cinema screen with insanely high-resolution images of massed eldritch combat, the demo barely raises an eyebrow. It is all exactly as you expected the first time you heard about it.

Much is made of the fact the combat will be "scalable", but although the engine can throw vast numbers of characters around in the live cut-scenes - as evidenced by the Darkspawn charge that introduces the grand battle in the demo - we don't see much evidence of this in gameplay, with the most spectacular action happening tellingly off-camera.

Visually, Origins is technically impressive and flows smoothly, if not rapidly, from story to combat to exploration to conversation, within an elegantly restrained interface. It rarely excites, though. Its looks are as coolly handsome and restrained and hedge-betting as the characters who never say anything with feeling, because they have to deliver three responses the same way. There's grace and detached splendour here, but not much imagination, or guts, or glory. Dragon Age: Origins looks and sounds like a war in a library.​