Dragon Age 2 Demo Soon, Says BioWare

A playable demo of Dragon Age 2 is heading to the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this month!

Unlike Crytek's just-released Xbox 360-exclusive multiplayer demo of Crysis 2, BioWare said Thursday that a playable demo of Dragon Age 2 will indeed arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC on February 22. Apparently no one platform will get first dibs over the other two.

"In the demo, players will venture through the game’s prologue, choosing from three different character classes," explains BioWare in this blog post. "They’ll also learn more about Hawke and hone their skills and abilities that will make them the ultimate hero."

According to BioWare, the demo does not have a character or save game import feature. Players will have the ability to modify their character (a male of female version of Hawke) to some degree; however, the actual character creator has been disabled in the demo by default.

"After finishing the prologue, players will enter a key new location in the world of Dragon Age, Kirkwall, befriending Isabela, a romantic interest in the game who is also a deadly smuggler," BioWare added. "Upon completion of the demo, players will unlock a special weapon, Hayder’s Razor, an ancient dwarven blade which increases health, mana, and combat abilities, in the full release of Dragon Age II."

Here are the recommended and minimum specs for the PC version:

Recommended:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent
• CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2GB (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
• Video: NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
• DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or greater
• DirectX 11: NVIDIA 460 or greater

Minimum:

• OS: Windows XP with SP3
• OS: Windows Vista with SP2
• OS: Windows 7
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• RAM: 1 GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB
• Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB cards
• Disc Drive: DVD ROM drive required
• Hard Drive: 7 GB
• Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5

Dragon Age 2 is set for release in North America on March 8 and March 11 in Europe.