Dragon Age: Origins controls well on a PlayStation 3, BioWare proved to Kotaku yesterday — mouse and keyboard not required. But if you want the overhead view seen in this game's spiritual predecessor, a mouse (and computer) is a must.

I got a chance to try a PlayStation 3 build of Dragon Age yesterday at an EA showcase of its late 2008 and early 2009 games. The single-player party-based role-playing game controlled just fine with a PS3 Dualshock 3. I was using shoulder buttons to swap through my four on-screen party members. I was using face buttons to activate default and special attacks, and holding a trigger to give me access to three more. I was running with the left stick and swiveling the camera with right stick.

I was tilting the right stick back to get a different camera view and then... blocked.

Dragon Age: Origins is being billed by publisher EA and developer BioWare as a spiritual successor to the studio's beloved Baldur's Gate games. But the ability to back the camera out and up, to go from behind-the-back action-gaming perspective to top-down strategic-perspective has been dropped from the console versions of the game. A BioWare rep told me that players who will want to zoom out will need to do so via a mouse scroll wheel. Then they'll get that Baldur's Gate look.

On the console, as far as I could see, the view will be much closer and into the action. It fits the platform, but it's a difference consumers with options should note.

Dragon Age: Origins ships on Xbox 360 and PC on November 3. The PS3 version will be out later in the month.

Send an email to Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at stephentotilo@kotaku.com.