Capcom's Dragon's Dogma getting medieval in early 2012

It was true: Capcom announced Dragon's Dogma at Captivate last week, and the open-world, action-RPG puts players in a fantasy setting where a dragon has descended upon a village to steal the chosen one's heart. Shots and video.

After having his heart yanked out by a dragon, our hero - still alive of course - must search out the dragon in order to reclaim it.

It'll be no easy ride: you and three AI partners will be tasked with saving villagers, killing large mythological beasts such as a Hydra and a Gryphon, and finding out why the hero is the dragon's chosen chap.

It all looks very lovely, and we were not only surprised to learn that it was an truly open-world game, but that all of the NPCs in the game will be fully-voiced as well.

The game is under direction from DMC alumni Hideaki Itsuna and Resident Evil 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Itsuna told us last week that this game has the largest development team than any other project at Capcom - but more on that later this week.

Dragon's Dogma is slated for an early 2012 release on PS3 and Xbox 360.