Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out today, and if you find yourself stressed and aggravated because you're waiting for it to download—no preload on PC!—and it's going so slow and all your friends are going to be hours ahead of you by the time you get into it, I have just the thing to help you chill out and take the edge off: Dragon Age ASMR.
I was first introduced to the concept of ASMR by former PC Gamer editor James Davenport, the man who—among other things—encouraged PC Gamer readers to "watch people peel plastic film off new PC parts because you deserve it." The acronym stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, and it's essentially a physiological reaction to audio stimuli, most commonly produced by Twitch streamers whispering into, or rubbing things on, their microphones.
Gaming ASMR is a relatively rare thing, but it's been around for a while. We took a dive into the thriving Dark Souls ASMR scene all the way back in 2018, and a few years later we encountered Sims ASMR and then Stardew Valley ASMR. More recently GSC Game World shared some Stalker 2 ASMR featuring the sounds of the Zone, which I, as someone who's spent a good chunk of time being hunted by horrors in that haunted locale, did not find relaxing at all.
Now BioWare is getting in on the action, marking today's release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard with not just one but two hour-long ASRM loops set in the world of Thedas. First up, the "soothing ambience of Arlathan Forest," which is quite nice: A gentle breeze and plenty of bird and animal sounds in the background. Pleasant.
For those in a darker mood, there's the "spooky vibes of The Necropolis," a deeper and more haunting aural experience in which you may or may not hear the souls of the dead moaning in the distance. Not my cup of tea, although I won't say it's not pleasant because at least one guy clearly digs it: "Imma meditate the fuck outta myself with this in the background," AtaraxicOne wrote in the YouTube comments. Hey, you do you.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard—the game, not the ASMR—is out now and seems to be doing well for itself. There are some complaints of crashes and performance issues on Steam and the user rating is currently mixed, although that's based on—at best—reviews just an hour or two into a full-fat RPG, and so not to be taken as anything remotely resembling the final word. The concurrent user count on Steam, meanwhile, is ticking steadily up, and currently stands at a little over 70,000. Bearing in mind that it's currently Thursday afternoon in North America, I'd call that a pretty strong start.
Speaking of strong starts, if you've already got Veilguard downloaded and running and aren't sure where to begin, we can help: We've got seven tips for Dragon Age: The Veilguard you might accidentally miss, some thoughts on how to handle one of the first major story choices, and—of course—everything you need to know about your potential romantic partners.
