Dragon Age: Origins

Scythe · October 2009

<div class="IPBDescription">Who's getting this?</div>I'm considering picking it up on steam, given the fact that the US dollar is doing so poorly of late.

I loved Mass Effect to bits, and I think I'm in the mood for another RPG. Plus the <a href="http://www.gamershell.com/download_52074.shtml" target="_blank">Sacred Ashes</a> trailer blew my socks right through my floor.

--Scythe--

lolfighter · October 2009

I found the character creator off-putting, specifically the part after actual creation where you review your initial abilities. I think there's stuff in there like "mighty slash" and "evilnasty stab" for the warrior and rogue, respectively. It looks so much like a by-the-numbers rpg.

locallyunscene · October 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Oct 16 2009, 07:34 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1732448"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>It looks so much like a by-the-numbers rpg.</div>
I want to like it, I really do, but it just strikes me as so "blah". I like the PA comic for it, but then I look at the trailers and gameplay videos and it just looks like generic fantasy roleplaying game.

Honestly the best fantasy game I've played recently is Dungeon Runners and NCSoft is shutting that down soon. Maybe that's just me though because the only reason I liked it was how hard it mocked the fantasy genre.

Thansal · October 2009

The videos all look great, but I haven't seen enough about the game itself to make me really think it is worth the $$. I am kinda craving a fantasy game, but as lolf pointed out the skills look rather meh, and I can't stand another game of 'look! great story, horribly game play!'

lolfighter · October 2009

Also, violenceporn. Yes, it's great that you can have lots of blood and guts in your game, but it seems all the more adolescent for it. I'm sure "holy ######, I totally cleaved that guy in half so much that I could see all his guts and breakfast!" is really awesome the first time, but it doesn't make a good game and it seems to be all you are focusing on which gives me the impression that it's all there is.

Also, I have seen NO gameplay videos. Every video of the game I've seen so far has at best been a scripted sequence, at worst a pre-rendered movie. For all I know at this point it's one of those games where you maneuver your character close to an enemy and then press autoattack. Or as Yahtzee put it, "you press a button to start kicking his shins and then he starts kicking your shins and then you take turns kicking each other's shins until one of you falls over and whoever wins usually comes down to which one of you was wearing the biggest boots."

TychoCelchuuu · October 2009

lolf:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPFwfvCpD4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPFwfvCpD4</a>

I'd buy this in a hearbeat if I wasn't horrendously busy. I'm at the point in my life where I barely get time to play video games, and this thing is between 40 and 60 hours long or something like that. I'll wait until summer vacation, by which time it will also be cheaper. That said, it looks fantastic. BioWare isn't perfect, but their games are always 8/10 in my book. That is, I know it'll be tons of fun. Mass Effect, KOTOR, Jade Empire, etc. BioWare doesn't let you down, even if they don't soar to the heights of something like Troika or Obsidian.

Thansal · October 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TychoCelchuuu @ Oct 16 2009, 02:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1732499"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>lolf:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPFwfvCpD4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPFwfvCpD4</a>

I'd buy this in a hearbeat if I wasn't horrendously busy. I'm at the point in my life where I barely get time to play video games, and this thing is between 40 and 60 hours long or something like that. I'll wait until summer vacation, by which time it will also be cheaper. That said, it looks fantastic. BioWare isn't perfect, but their games are always 8/10 in my book. That is, I know it'll be tons of fun. Mass Effect, KOTOR, Jade Empire, etc. BioWare doesn't let you down, even if they don't soar to the heights of something like Troika or Obsidian.</div>

Wellcrappit.

Now I want the damn game.

spellman23 · October 2009

I'm a bit curious how they're doing this AND the MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Anyways, not enough money nor time. =[

lolfighter · October 2009

Thanks Tycho. Now I definitely know I'll skip this one. That looks tedious and boring.

DOOManiac · October 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (locallyunscene @ Oct 16 2009, 09:07 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1732462"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>I want to like it, I really do, but it just strikes me as so "blah". I like the PA comic for it, but then I look at the trailers and gameplay videos and it just looks like generic fantasy roleplaying game.</div>

Ditto. I loved KOTOR and Mass Effect, but I never liked Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights, which it seems is what this is closer to. :/

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ Oct 16 2009, 04:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1732530"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>I'm a bit curious how they're doing this AND the MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Anyways, not enough money nor time. =[</div>

Don't forget Mass Effect 2 (and 3). (The answer is that they have a ton of money)

SentrySteve · October 2009

I don't really know too much about Dragon Age, other than I like Bioware and the PA comic is somewhat entertaining. I'll probably pick it in the distant future when it has a price drop and if no other good games are out. I got addicted to the recently released Demon's Souls for the PS3 which has been taking up most of my gaming time. Demon's Souls is an unforgiving old school RPG game that plays like a single player game but playing it online greatly improves your fun and game experience. You can see how other players died so you can improve upon their mistakes, leave/read notes about the level for/from other players, and in the later part of the game you can enter someone's game to assist or kill them.

It's kind of awesome.

DiscoZombie · October 2009

I was also sort of "unsold" from the game after the character creator. I agree that it seems run of the mill. The gameplay footage also looks pretty meh. I like the fact that you can design your own tactics for your dudes though. I loved making my own AI in Final Fantasy 11 - it seems to be a lot like that. Of course it probably won't be robust enough to be interesting. We'll see.

Konohas Perverted Hermit · October 2009

Looks odd. However I'm not that big of a fan of RPGs (old NES Zeldas and Diablo 2 aside).

TychoCelchuuu · October 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Konohas Perverted Hermit @ Oct 17 2009, 07:40 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1732629"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Looks odd. However I'm not that big of a fan of RPGs (old NES Zeldas and Diablo 2 aside).</div>
Odd? More like "looks like every oldschool RPG, especially Baldur's Gate."

Tykjen · October 2009

Seeing as I got lucky and got my hands on a Demons Souls import for ps3, ill rather wait with Dragon Age.

<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xd5u_LrqmPo"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xd5u_LrqmPo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>

no hype, came outta nowhere. not even coming to EU. and ign rates a challenging and extremly hard and rewarding game..9.4?
4 player coop ftw as well..BIG shame dragon age dont have mp.

Konohas Perverted Hermit · October 2009

So I'm still unsure kind of game this is. Is it a single player RPG or is a MMORPG?

Dirty_Harry_Potter · October 2009

It is very much singleplayer. As Tycho said, it's meant to be a spiritual successor to old-school DnD games like Baldur's Gate.

TychoCelchuuu · October 2009

Yeah, it's basically Baldur's Gate 3d.

DiscoZombie · October 2009

I am sort of intrigued by Demons' Souls, but I just know I'd get bored the first time I died and lost a lot of crap. I don't have enough time to game, period. The last thing I want to do is have to see my precious, short gaming time wasted.

Retales · October 2009

So, there's a character creation "demo" of Dragon Age: Origins available on Steam now. Not really much to explain, you just pick your gender, race (human/elf/dwarf), class (warrior/rogue/mage) and 'background story'. Then you get to customize your appearence and tweak your stats a bit and see what kind of skills you'd get.

Character creation is the part I hate the most in RPG games. I have this fear of discovering my stats are all wrong to get any cool skills or similar after like 10 hours of gameplay and ending up with a weakass character.

The trailers and such look pretty frigging sweet, though. I'm definitely getting this :O~~

lolfighter · October 2009

Yeah, the character creator was out two weeks ago.

Tykjen · November 2009

Installing now..cant wait!

DiscoZombie · November 2009

so it's out, and I have it all preloaded, and I can't get steam to unlock it -_- it's probably jammed up from too much demand

edit: I had the whole thing pre-loaded yesterday, and yet it still took me 2 hours to get it unlocked and up and running today. And here I thought Steam and pre-ordering were supposed to be conveniences... I could have bought it from Gamestop and had it installed and running in a half hour. Anyway... game itself is pretty fun so far. I love the tactics system, though I hate the way you have to spend actual skill points to improve your characters' AI. It should come naturally with levels or something, so you don't have to feel like you're choosing between better AI for your characters or more skills... but I do love that it exists at all. Less micromanagement ftw.

Paranoia2MB · November 2009

Anybody have this on console?

More so PS3? If so, online play too I'm guessing?

I'm tempted.

Thansal · November 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Paranoia2MB @ Nov 4 2009, 10:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736079"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Anybody have this on console?

More so PS3? If so, online play too I'm guessing?

I'm tempted.</div>

IT is SP only...

lolfighter · November 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"So, what's the multiplayer like?"

I've never fielded this question more often than when I was playing Dragon Age: Origins for this review.

"Back in my day," I'd say, as I waved my walking stick like a crotchety old ######, "RPGs were single-player only, and we played them on PCs."</div>

Paranoia2MB · November 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thansal @ Nov 4 2009, 07:07 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736082"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>IT is SP only...</div>

Shame =\

Demon Soul's looks very nice though and a buddy of mine has it as well. I should borrow his copy and his Fallout 3 haha.

TychoCelchuuu · November 2009

The reviews are coming in for this and they're all close to perfect. Looks like BioWare really surpasses themselves with this one:

<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/920668-dragon-age-origins/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/920668-drag...gins/index.html</a>

DiscoZombie · November 2009

I like the moral ambiguity... I just encountered a quest early in the mage storyline and I'm taking forever trying to decide what the "right" choice is... <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Jowan is suspected of being a blood mage and is going to be made tranquil, and he wants my help escaping. It seems to me that all parties are equally suspicious, and I don't know who to side with. I talked to the first enchanter about it, and he said that templar dude has evidence and an eyewitness to Jowan's blood magic, and I think it would be a reasonable request for me to ask to see this proof before I betray my friend, but that's not a dialog option :( Since helping Jowan escape *seems* like the "good" thing to do, and since Bioware is playing up the whole ambiguity thing, I bet if you help him escape it turns out he really is a blood mage later and does unspeakable acts or something -_- I could dig up spoilers on the web but I kind of want to avoid doing that for a change</span>

Retales · November 2009

Oh noes, setback! I checked the <a href="http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/" target="_blank">Can You Run It</a> test for Dragon Age. I pass all the minimums except:

Minimum: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4 GHz or greater (Vista/7 requires 1.6 GHz or greater), AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
You Have: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.06GHz

Now I'm a nubcaek when it comes to reading that cryptic processor text. The CPU Speed- test does pass, but I realize it's not only about teh megahurtz. Any idea if I could even run the thing in the first place?

That's on my age-old tabletop puter, since my <a href="http://www.afterdawn.com/hardware/product_details.cfm/3004/acer_travelmate_5520g-402g16" target="_blank">laptop</a> is broken and being fixed atm. I think the laptop would pass all the minimums at least.

Thansal · November 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Nov 5 2009, 12:01 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736279"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>I like the moral ambiguity... I just encountered a quest early in the mage storyline and I'm taking forever trying to decide what the "right" choice is... <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Jowan is suspected of being a blood mage and is going to be made tranquil, and he wants my help escaping. It seems to me that all parties are equally suspicious, and I don't know who to side with. I talked to the first enchanter about it, and he said that templar dude has evidence and an eyewitness to Jowan's blood magic, and I think it would be a reasonable request for me to ask to see this proof before I betray my friend, but that's not a dialog option :( Since helping Jowan escape *seems* like the "good" thing to do, and since Bioware is playing up the whole ambiguity thing, I bet if you help him escape it turns out he really is a blood mage later and does unspeakable acts or something -_- I could dig up spoilers on the web but I kind of want to avoid doing that for a change</span></div>
React as you think your character would react.

Instead of trying to figure out the optimal response, or who things will play out because it is a video game, simply react as you think your character would at that given time.

Dragon Age: Origins

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