Scant moments ago BioWare’s Community Facilitor, Victor Wachter, posted his eagerly awaited announcement on BioWare’s popular Social Network. In recent weeks, many have criticised BioWare in being too miserly when it comes to providing the community with information, yet while it is far too early to say, appearances do suggest that the company has learned it’s lesson.

Victor Wachter
The community update will be a regular feature going forward…the first few may be scattered through the weeks ahead, but we want to make sure you are updated frequently and have a solid source for info…

A regular Community Update would certainly be an improvement, but will it be enough to quell the hearts of the Dragon Age fan-base? One Grey Warden thinks not, stating that “[Return to Ostagar] will haunt the franchise until Dragon Age 2 comes out and there is nothing [BioWare] can do.”

Hopefully this will not be the case, but even with this update the Community is still angered at the manner in which BioWare has handled the past few weeks.

After BioWare released their last 360 update (and later removed it due to bugs) many console fans have been biting at the bit for more information. Luckily the upcoming patch was one of the first things Wachter spoke of. To a well receptive Community, he even revealed some of the fixes this patch would make:

Victor Wachter
Some players were unable to unlock the four achievements from Warden’s Keep and the Stone Prisoner during the first four days of launch. These achievements will unlock properly once you sign in to your Xbox Live and EA accounts.

The previous Xbox 360 update update introduced an issue that relocked class specializations. This title update will resolve that issue.

* After loading a previously saved game, specializations that have been unlocked through gameplay will be available again.
* All book-based specializations will now automatically unlock once the Warden reaches level 14. Books will still be available from vendors so you can unlock these specializations before level 14.

The Hopeless Romantic, Perfectionist and Recruiter achievements were not unlocking for some players. This issue has been resolved. To update and unlock these achievements automatically, load a saved game where the Warden has completed the requirements for these achievements.

* The Recruiter achievement will still require a recruitment to occur after the save is loaded. If you have completed all the requirements for Recruiter, and the achievement is still locked, load an earlier saved game where you are still able to recruit any party member. Once you have recruited a party member, the achievement should unlock. This should work even if your current saved game still has unrecruited characters, but you have recruited all of them in previous play.

But when can we expect to see this update? Watcher claims that the patch “is currently in testing for certification. We expect this process to be complete soon.”

Be wary, as Victor does warn that the patch release may come unannounced, stating that “the notification…could come… on the release date”. Naturally the Warden will keep you updated as new developments arise.

The real topic, everybody wants to know about, is of course the repeatedly delayed Return to Ostagar DLC.

Thankfully, Wachter did not shy away from discussing this topic, although the actual information he supplied was very limited. All he has been able to say, is that RtO will be arriving “within a day or two of the title update”. For many Community members this is going to be seen as further reinforcing of BioWare’s ‘Iron Curtain’.

To answer the question a flurry of PS3 fans will soon be asking, Victor is going to look into a PS3 release date. At the moment no news is available.

Something that will certainly please some Wardens is that, as of next week, customers will be able to purchase BioWare points in select international stores.

At the moment no store names have been supplied, but we do know that Germany, Poland and Russia will be retailing these “points-in-a-box”.

Victor states that BioWare is currently “pulling together a complete list of countries [and retailers] where [points-in-a-box] will be available…”

So hopefully this is the beginning of a new era in which BioWare keeps the Community up to date with events in the world of Dragon Age–For now, we can only hope and try to avoid being too cynical.

Visit the Original Announcement

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