I'm about 32 hours into a "pre-reviewable" version of Dragon Age: Origins, and it's safe to say I'm lovin' it. At first I was disappointed at how traditional of a traditional role-playing game it was; I had hoped for some kind of nebulous, revolutionary feature that would shake up the usual Western RPG structure. But I'm more than happy with what I've got, and already contemplating a second playthrough with a different character (after I finish the game -- I'm not even close).

I do find one thing about Dragon Age puzzling, though: It's drenched in buckets of blood. It seems developer BioWare considers blood to be a central feature or theme throughout the game. It starts at boot up -- a bloody sword flashes across the screen, leaving a dragon-shaped smear in its wake. Spattered blood spots morph into a red BioWare logo.

And then you play. At this point I defer to Fangoria's ecstatic Dragon Age "Horrocade Review":

"I’d like to tip my hat to BioWare for the great inclusion of blood. This is an M-rated game, so blood can be shed as needed. In this game, the close-combat characters get covered in blood, and then the blood stays on them as they continue. Heads get torn off in combat, limbs severed, skin torn and skewered—more and more blood. I was in heaven. Even the dragon logo is an awesome blood stain!"

I haven't actually seen heads torn off or limbs severed, maybe that kicks in around hour 33. But even after just a single battle, blood drenches the melee characters like a Samhain album cover.

Sound like a little thing, right? It is -- the game's incredible, with or without blood. It's just weird. Check out more screens of bloody bikini and mankini combat after the break.

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