I might have been a bit harsh with my previous word on Dragon Age: Origins back in June, but after wasting about three straight days with the craptacular Risen (for PC and Xbox 360), my bar for fantasy RPGs have lowered somewhat. Bioware’s tribute to the Baldur’s Gate series will hopefully put that bar in check. This also means that I’ll have to plan my leave in advance, but that’s beside the point. Until November 3 hits, what can you, as a huge RPG gamer who’s been waiting for Dragon Age: Origins to be a return to form for CRPGs? Here are a few suggestions to get you in the zone:

Prepare thine self: I’m sure you’ve checked details here and there about the game on Bioware’s forums, but let’s just recap a few things new to the table. For example, you can set up your party’s A.I in the Tactics option. No Attack/Defend/Stay Put business, the tactic options presented are pretty detailed. You can get your party members to help you when your health reaches a certain percentage and also use specific powers in full force if you choose, for example.

The game has six different openings depending on whether you start off as a female mage or male rogue, or whatever you want to make. Oh, and you also get a dog. Well, not so much a dog than a killing machine that resembles a dog.

Revisit Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2: Last I check, they’re still selling the Baldur’s Gate Collection (parts 1, 2 and all the expansions) in some game stores here. If you somehow can’t find your copy of the game lying around at home, perhaps you can take a trip down memory lane. Fighting badasses like Sarevok and Irenicus, getting your mack on with a female druid widow or with an evil drow, making an uber-badass party that gibs any low-level enemy with one hit. Ah, good times. I remember the Monk being pretty powerful in Baldur’s Gate 2 simply because he started out at level 8.

Check out the Penny Arcade-drawn strip: It’s drawn really good and serves as the precursor to the game. Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade worked closely with Bioware to get the lore right, so do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes reading and checking out the art.

Make your character: ….on the 13th of October. The character creator toolset is available next Tuesday, and available only on the PC for the PC version of Dragon Age. Good on them to consider that character creation takes quite a while as soon as you load the game in.

Play some tabletop RPG: Okay, that’s probably a stretch, but perhaps having a small dungeoncrawling session live with real people in the same room can help rekindle the good old days before CRPGs and JRPGs took over the concept.

Look at the pretty armor you’re going to get: first-week copies of Dragon Age will contain a code to unlock the bonus blood armor for both this game and Mass Effect 2. Looks sleek!