OT: Dragon Age: Origins

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:07 pm

I have both, and the console version is noticeably worse than the PC, but I don't think it "looks like ass", even when viewed on the exact same monitor and just flipping between inputs. The console definitely has lower resolution textures, but we're not talking about some heinously ugly piece of crap. I think people make it out to be worse than it is.

But the PC version has some gorgeous rendering--especially in places like Orzimmar or whatever the dwarven city is. The lighting in there made it almost-Uncharted 2 level when viewing it on the PC

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:01 pm

http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/11/drag ... i_wish.php

Great tips from the esteemable Tom Chick. No real spoilers.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:59 pm

TCrouch wrote: it's because it automatically uploads your character data and screenshots at important moments to the character pages online.

Where is this place you speak of? I scour the interwebs and cannot find it for the life of me.

MacMan: there is an option on the 360 version to turn off 'persistent gore.' Not sure but that may do something about the crazy splatter.

EZSnappin · Post by **EZSnappin** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 7:59 pm

Zeppo wrote:
TCrouch wrote: it's because it automatically uploads your character data and screenshots at important moments to the character pages online.
Where is this place you speak of? I scour the interwebs and cannot find it for the life of me.

http://social.bioware.com

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:45 am

Save! Save early and save often using different saves. I was very lucky last night that I do.

Dont want give away any spoilers so Ill just call it the rock paper scissors solo series quest

. I was very deep into it when I got glitched. I died and when the game reloaded at last save point nothing worked. Doors wouldnt open. Device wouldnt teleport. The save was corrupted? I dont know wtf happened but I was not happy. I was saving every few minutes (fear of something like that and to take advantage of a luxury that Demons Souls denied))so I just went to the save before and I was all good.

My only other issue. God bless the boys at Bioware, as they did the best they could, but personally I find the interface to be user unfriendly(ofcourse I am not the best gamer) . I have gotten used to it and its now manageable but I keep thinking PC. Someone with both versions can tell you if its that much better on a PC cause I am guessing

. I do like playing it on a big TV though .

Two small points aside. I am enjoying the game. I started three different characters(Human warrior, elf rogue,human rogue). Got them to level 6(past the origins)and decided to stick with the human rogue. What happened to the dawrf right?
I am liking the story and having fun playing through the different story lines. It is sweet how they have done the dialogue system. Everything just flows naturally. Choices choices everywhere and they all seem to matter in how things unfold. Dont wannna give anything away but there are some interesting revelations...

Anyway I have played a billion hours of rpgs and this one is a keeper. I loves it... On the 34 scale of game fun Dragon's Age is a 9 outta 10

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:18 pm

I went against all my usual character building RPG instincts and picked a red-headed rogue dwarf chick. Been very enjoyable so far.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:30 pm

360 version here. Gotta love the "auto-level up" feature.

press it... get a dialog that says "Would you like to accept the changes" YES OR NO.

Can't see the damn changes I would be accepting. 1) they are partially blocked by that pop-up and 2) they don't seem to change at all, until AFTER you hit yes.

LOL.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:06 am

Finished a play through. Took me over 70 hours ( Being your own kid pays off sometimes). Could have done it quicker but I tried to see all the sights and do as many side quests as possibe though I did leave some in the can. Some things just cannot be rushed.

It was a special gaming experience. Love the story and the way it unfolded. The way my choices affected the way it unfolded. Some of those choices werent easy. The game was that good that once you settled into it you felt the character you were playing...It was just a beautifully done piece of gaming art.

It wasnt perfect...As mentioned, I have my one issue of the cluncky interface. My next play through(In a year or two) will be on a PC)....

It will easily be MY game of the year.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:00 pm

Same, my game of the year by far.

I'd be curious to know how your ending played out (in a PM, of course!).

Some of the choices I made, when it was giving me those "end credits story segments", I wondered if things would change based on choices.

I absolutely blasted through the game with no side quests...just over 20 hours. But I thought I could go back through and continue after the main quest, so on my second play through I'm going much, much slower.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:10 pm

Unfortunately for me I am a completest and kind of a shopper in these games. I'm trying to do every side quest and I keep trying to improve every ounce of my armor etc.

I really would like a nice map or the whole world, not just the game world and a nice unfragmented reading on the world and history after I am done with the game. I thought about the strategy guide, but I doubt it would have that info.

Without being done this is one of the best games I've played in a very long time. I don't want to give away anything but the choice I had to make with Brother G. was the longest I sat in front of a 3 choice conversation thread in a game ever. When I did make my choice I was stunned at the result. Very few games give me that type of experience.

HipE · Post by **HipE** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:25 pm

I'm embarrassed to say I dropped the difficulty to casual last night. I got stuck on the urn quest and had to drop it down to finish it. I know it is cheating, but with a game this big I didn't want to get stuck on something like that and miss out on everything else the game has to offer.

Awesome game so far, I'm 17 hours in and loving it. I can't even remember the last rpg I ever put any time into, but for some reason this one has me hooked. I guess it doesn't hurt that the world and plot are so similar to the Song of Ice and Fire series, to the point it almost seems to rip it off. Just wish I had created a mage to start, they are pretty badass in this game.

FatPitcher · Post by **FatPitcher** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:13 am

HipE wrote:I'm embarrassed to say I dropped the difficulty to casual last night. I got stuck on the urn quest and had to drop it down to finish it. I know it is cheating, but with a game this big I didn't want to get stuck on something like that and miss out on everything else the game has to offer.

Awesome game so far, I'm 17 hours in and loving it. I can't even remember the last rpg I ever put any time into, but for some reason this one has me hooked. I guess it doesn't hurt that the world and plot are so similar to the Song of Ice and Fire series, to the point it almost seems to rip it off. Just wish I had created a mage to start, they are pretty badass in this game.

I am on my second playthrough, this time with a mage. To be honest, I think I preferred the rogue, as mages need neither strength nor cunning and therefore are less able to influence during dialogue.

I did use both Wynne and Morrigan almost the entire time the first playthrough, though -- 2 mages casting area of effect spells on normal/easy difficulty cleans up large encounters very efficiently, and Wynne's healing, spirit healer final ability (injury cure + healing), rejuvenation, and plot ability saved me a lot of money on healing and mana poitions and injury treatments. Morrigan's Cone of Cold was especially useful in boss fights, as it is one of the few abilities (or maybe is the only?) that can disable bosses.

The downside was that they did little/no damage against undead (revenants!) with the basic attack, making some of the boss fights very lyrium-intensive.

Also, Leliana and Z are both pretty gimpy rogues, so nice to have one as main - they do tremendous amounts of damage when specced and armed properly (+ crit/backstab damage gear, plus wide angle backstab, plus auto-crit on disabled enemies = cuisinart)

I've been waiting for a game where it would be worth it to learn the toolset and make some modules. I think this may be the one.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Not sure how long the Best Buy "doorbusters" last, but I picked this up at about 10AM for $35. I'm looking forward to playing it. I haven't played many RPG's, but have really enjoyed those that I have (KOTOR, Oblivion, Final Fantasy 10).

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:16 am

I picked this up for the PS3 and have just started to get into it. One question: did you guys stick with using tactics for your party the whole way through, or do manual control in combat? Also, is there a way to make this more turn-by-turn instead of real time? I tried to figure that out but couldn't.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:29 am

Brando70 wrote:I picked this up for the PS3 and have just started to get into it. One question: did you guys stick with using tactics for your party the whole way through, or do manual control in combat? Also, is there a way to make this more turn-by-turn instead of real time? I tried to figure that out but couldn't.

I mostly let the party memebers do their thing while I just worried bout my rogue but sometimes I did have to pause the action when things started get ugly. The last boss fight was one.

They really did a good job in the way you can set up the others to fight and heal themselves.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:30 am

Tactics, tactics, tactics.

Especially as the game wears on, you'll need to use them on anything other than casual (and even then, some of the battles will really need them later on).

There's no way to make it turn based. You could just pull the left trigger (or L2 or whatever it's called on PS3) to get the paused radial wheel and then switch around and do stuff that way, though.

If you get used to setting them early on, you'll really feel proud when you mop up some rooms. I had my warrior tank set to automatically taunt anything attacking my healer, then if nothing was to attack my target. My dog would automatically seek out any rogues and mages and go occupy them so they didn't pepper us with ranged stuff, and the healer had about 10 rules of who to heal and when.

I was clearing rooms in a matter of seconds most times, and it was incredibly efficient. Without a major DPS main character, you'll have a tough time unless you're on Casual or have a good Tactics set.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:35 am

Thanks, that helps.

Pretty cool game so far. I really liked KOTOR and Mass Effect, so I figured this would be a good choice. I can see how it would be much easier to do on the PC, though.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:37 am

Yep. Set em up like a WoW party. Need at least one tank, a DPS and a healer .

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:43 am

I have a smooth-talkin', lock-pickin' rogue as my main character. I was also a little too ambitious in setting this to "hard" and am going to bump it down to normal.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:46 am

I'm crazy addicted.

I roll with a female dwarf back-stabbing rogue who like to kick dirt in peoples faces, Alistair, and two mages... one to immobilize and bring fury from the heavens while the other heals.

My favorite thing currently is to have my party hold in a hallway or choke point, stealth up and scope out the room, stun and backstab the most threatening opponent to death, then run like hell back to my party, where the enemies run smack dab into Morrigan's Cone of Cold. Decapitations ensue.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 2:03 am

I'm only about 7 hours in but am enjoying it greatly. I'm still finding my feet with the battle system though - did most of you guys just set the AI/Rules for your three allies and then concentrate on using your 'main'/primary character or did you do a lot of mid-battle switching? I'm finding myself a bit lost when it comes to the fighting.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 2:20 am

I set tactics (i.e. used the AI) and let them do their thing for the most part. It's not only about setting their tactics but also using their behavior. I found the default behavior for most to not be to my liking, especially for spell casters.

I also tended to stick with the same party when I could which was Leiana, Morrigan and Allistar (I'm sure I didn't spell one of those correctly). I found it very useful to set a tactic for my archer rogue to switch to melee weapons when she was being melee attacked.

The one spell I can't recommend enough is cone of cold, get it as soon as you can it helps in the boss battles.

I'll probably go back for a second play thru in a month, I enjoyed this one a lot. There are parts of it I don't want to do again right now like the whole Circle of Magi.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:24 am

I micromanage like a freak. My main character is a rogue, so I'm often using him to pull. But I have lots of trouble getting my party members to behave as I'd like with the tactics. Once I've pulled a mob or a bunch of them, I end up having to make sure my other party members are all attacking the right mob otherwise they seem to attack all helter skelter.

Also I micromanage my damage-dealing mage rather than getting the tactics to work. I just can't seem to get the tactics to work well, i guess. In a lot of fights it's not a problem, but when there are a bunch of mobs I have to micromanage to make sure everyone goes after the strongest guy first, or if it's a tough enemy I have to use the magic attacks specifically.

Gee I haven't played this game in weeks; I'm looking forward to getting back into it with my first guy and getting further with my dwarf warrior, and also I really want to do a mage of some kind.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:34 am

There are some really good tactics threads over at the Bioware site. I thought tactics were useless when I first started but once i got used to setting them they were much better.

The AI still does the occasional odd thing like stand there and not attack, especially if they were about to do something and then lost a target.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:43 pm

Thanks for the tips, guys! Will also checkout the bioware forums.