OT: Dragon Age: Origins

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:26 pm

I picked this one up today at lunch and cannot wait until I can play it tonight. I have been eagerly awaiting this title for quite some time now. I am a huge fan of Bioware and a huge fan of the genre. Is anyone else pumped for this one? Anyone pick it up? I'd love some impressions to tide me over until tonight.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:34 pm

Im also pumped...Also stuck at work and I have a copy waiting at home. Had the gf take my unopened NBA to TRU for it . Its good to have a servant

I think Ill leave early....

EZSnappin · Post by **EZSnappin** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:52 pm

Picked up the "Collector's Edition" at Best Buy today (I'm a sucker for a cloth map). FYI: they're giving you a $10 giftcard with purchase if you have a reward zone membership. Just got home so haven't had a chance to fire it up.

Really looking forward to it - even played the little flash game they had up to get some free doodads.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:08 pm

Played about 3.5 hours so far. The character creation/origin stuff is handled just beautifully. The entire game is epic and gorgeous. Combat is fast for an RPG, very much like ME with the radial menus etc. The tactics seem a bit more robust, but at the cost of a bit more complexity. I've been playing bluntly so far just to get a feel for things, so I haven't really spent time optimizing my other party members.

No real negatives so far, but it's super super early. They've really nailed the epic scope of a great RPG and clearly have crafted details great and small with great care and affection.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:12 pm

The cheesy british accents in all the cut scenes really bugged me but that isn't enough to stop me from picking this up:) Thanks for the impressions Rob - keep 'em coming guys!

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:21 pm

Actually, the cheesy British accents are dead on. Pefect for the milieu. The writing is also absolutely stellar, with some exceptionally good dialogue with post-modern even Whedonesque touches in some spots.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:56 pm

Game is incredible if you liked BG2 then you'll love this.

The controls and UI are done perfectly. The tactics you can set your party to carry out are very robust. I also like that their skill in that area determines how many combat tactics you can set for each one.

For example I have one guy set to

1. Attack any ranged target attacking him
2. Attack nearest visible target using shield bash
3. Attack any target >=25% health

Game is just really well done so far, and those cheesy cut scenes are awesome and really immersive.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:59 am

KotOR/Mass Effect meet Lord of the Rings.

I played 3-4 hours last niight. I think I might have spent more time in conversations than in battles.

... Which is, for me, actually a welcome departure from the grind of Demons Souls( Loved the worlds dark tendency weekend. Got me some good stuff) and WoW. The system is much like KoTOR and ME, very well done and looks deeper.....Though this one dude seems to be hitting on me

. The game seems have taken the love matching scoring from Fable as it gives a post convo +/- heart score.

I am enjoying the story....

My only issue was with getting used to combat but thats due to the games I have been playing. I started slow but I am getting the hang of it. Just needed to get myself back into Bioware mode and out of Blizzard mode.

Only a few hours in but it looks like it could be one of my faves all time.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:46 am

I don't know what to say other than I love it. I have been waiting on this one since I saw the first preview of it and it has not disappointed early on.

The game is deep and lots of choices need to be made. I am the type who will pour over the choices and instead of looking at it like I need to pick 2 skills I look at it like I need to eliminate 10 skills. I was in party chat with Zeppo stressing over every decision I needed to make but loving it the entire time.

I briefly looked into the tactics that Danimal brought up but knew it would suck too much time away so I decided to play a little before getting into that.

I keep seeing people bitching about the graphics on other forums but I didn't notice anything bad last night. The graphics didn't blow me away but they certainly didn't make me think they were terrible as some would suggest.

This game is going to get a lot of play from me and I can see multiple playthroughs in my future.

Does anybody know why the game needs to be logged into the servers for? For some reason I kept getting disconnected from their servers and was told I needed to go to the main menu to log back in to their servers.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:13 pm

No idea Scoop, I have the PC version and it looks great. I know I am logged in because the game updates my online profile and uploads screen shots of key events to the Bioware Social site but no idea if the consoles do that.

I'm not going to give a lot away but charters come and go into your party, the story here and I've only scratched the surface is compelling. Most of it you've seen before but I've literally come to care for some of the characters in this game in just 7 hours.

There is one NPC who you can take into your party which really makes you need to question your beliefs, I could only think of the who COD discussion the other day.

Party members have their own agendas and they will approve and disapprove of your actions and if they don't like what you're doing enough they will leave.

I strongly suggest you learn the tactics and experiment with them. While the default and preset tactics will get you buy some of the beginning stretches, they won't later. I really needed to do a lot of experimenting with my tactics especially with the spell casters to get a good combination. One hint always set one tactic on each NPC to use a health potion if less then 50%

I'm at a point where I can go off in a number of directions, I think I am going to pursue the DLC Warden's Keep I got because it gives you a nice base of operations and it has a dungeon adventure. Of course there is that other DLC with the Stone Golem. Eventually I'll get to fighting the Blight.

Bless you guys playing this on the console, I couldn't even imagine trying that.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:52 pm

Danimal wrote: Bless you guys playing this on the console, I couldn't even imagine trying that.

I figured that out after I started playing....

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:56 pm

XXXIV wrote:
Danimal wrote: Bless you guys playing this on the console, I couldn't even imagine trying that.
I figured that out after I started playing....

Why's that?

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:01 pm

ScoopBrady wrote:
XXXIV wrote:
Danimal wrote: Bless you guys playing this on the console, I couldn't even imagine trying that.
I figured that out after I started playing....
Why's that?

I did make an assumption as to what Dan was talking about but...
Speaking for myself... Seems like it would be much easier to do everything with a mouse and keyboard.
Something I didnt think about when I was getting the game.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:11 pm

Bah! PC gaming is mercifully almost dead for me. Except for the odd game like Torchlight, which has such minimal required specs that it's a no-brainer, I refuse to spend 1 more minute of my life monkeying around on a PC to make a game work.

I've had like 3 games give me a hassle in the last year on the pc and I just pitch them. It's not worth the time or aggravation anymore when there are such great games on the 360.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:30 pm

RobVarak wrote:Bah! PC gaming is mercifully almost dead for me. Except for the odd game like Torchlight, which has such minimal required specs that it's a no-brainer, I refuse to spend 1 more minute of my life monkeying around on a PC to make a game work.

I've had like 3 games give me a hassle in the last year on the pc and I just pitch them. It's not worth the time or aggravation anymore when there are such great games on the 360.

That doesn't make PC Gaming dead it just makes you old and grumpy

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:53 pm

Danimal wrote:
RobVarak wrote:Bah! PC gaming is mercifully almost dead for me. Except for the odd game like Torchlight, which has such minimal required specs that it's a no-brainer, I refuse to spend 1 more minute of my life monkeying around on a PC to make a game work.

I've had like 3 games give me a hassle in the last year on the pc and I just pitch them. It's not worth the time or aggravation anymore when there are such great games on the 360.
That doesn't make PC Gaming dead it just makes you old and grumpy

He was always grumpy. He just got older.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:54 pm

I didn't really play too much, basically through one origin bit, I just know I'm going to dig this game a ton. The mechanics of combat and conversation are truly great; a nice throwback to the 'D&D rules behind the scenes' that I really liked from KoTOR, but it seems like it will be deeper somehow.

I would say the graphics are pretty lean, especially if you look at the backgrounds during the close ups in the dialogue bits, but it doesn't bother me too much. It's no ME for sure, but I know this world will be tons bigger, so there's the trade off.

Also I thought it odd that one can choose a voice and style ('cocky, suave,' etc) for the character, but then in dialogue scenes it's like KoTOR where the player character has no voice. Weird.

I have no problems with the controls on the Xbox, either. With the radial menus and the trigger as modifier, there's plenty of control at your fingertips with visual feedback, so I don't have to worry about memorizing a bunch of F-key assignments.

One thing I know I have to do is start a 2nd character before I get too far in with the first guy. Not only do I want to experiment with all the classes and races, but also I know that I will do a better job building that 2nd and 3rd etc character, and then going back to the initial guy will be better for me too. Knowing this going in helps me agonize a lot less about those initial decisions.

But a BioWare game is nothing if not a series of decisons, one after the other, that will mostly have a real imapact going forward. Or at least they make you think they affect things going forward.

The other thing I know is that the BioWare games are much better on Hard or Insane, becuase instead of just droppng your HP and raising the HP of the enemies, those guys make major changes to immunities, special powers and attacks and so on for different classes of enemies, mini bosses, and bosses. That's where the beauty and challenge of the combat system really shines; normal is great to start with and get the feet wet, but that 2nd and 3rd guy have to start on Hard for me.

I'm a little worried that BioWare is biting off a little more than they can chew, however. Between this and ME2, which should be excellent, they also have their massive KoTOR MMO coming soon, and with that being so huge and unusual for an MMO (heavily story based, and entirely voiced [!]), it just seems like three gi-normous projects at once. I guess that EA money is working out for them!

But I just hope this game doesn't start to fall apart in the later stages, the way Obsidian's KoTOR2 did because of that. But they do seem amazingly committd to dlc for this game, so who knows?

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:58 pm

Danimal wrote: That doesn't make PC Gaming dead it just makes you old and grumpy

Didn't say that PC gaming was dead in and of itself...just dead to me. And old and grumpy are my middle names.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:45 pm

See I don't see any of those problems on the PC with graphics and that's because this is a PC game that was in development for 5 years, when EA stepped in that's when they decided to have a simultaneous release on all system.

Thus the PC game has been done for 6-8 months. So while the consoles were getting up to snuff they play tested the hell out of it, added a ton more side quests and developed the 2 pretty decent sized DLC add ins. I can tell you Warden's Keep is a cool adventurer and worth the money.

Bioware is big enough now they have massive teams on each project. DA is an IP to them not a one off game. They have 2 books already, are doing a pen & paper rpg I believe and a board game.

I wouldn't worry about ME2, totally different team and since that was designed for the console first probably going to look a lot better.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:12 pm

The story hasn't totally grabbed me yet but it is enough that I'm slowly starting to care a bit more about the game world. I'm definitely more of a space or future RPG guy than the medieval/magical genre so I bought this game mainly to get excited about ME2 ( I was hoping I'd see this game and think WOW! can't wait to see what they've done for ME2!). As mentioned previously it is very graphically underwhelming - I'm tempted to try the PC version to compare.

My major criticism of this game so far...

TOO MUCH BLOOD!!! Why does every guy/girl have to be absolutely coated in blood after every single battle? It is almost comical sometimes to watch some of the post fight discussions with everybody practically dripping in the red stuff. The cut scenes are hilarious as well with anybody who dies essentially transforming into a spurting fountain of blood.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:24 pm

Telltale sign I'm loving this game; I played for 2 hours last night and it seemed like I only played for 15 minutes when I realized it was 1:00 a.m. and I needed to go to bed. Oh, and I was pissed it was so late because I wanted more.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:25 pm

macsomjrr wrote:TOO MUCH BLOOD!!! Why does every guy/girl have to be absolutely coated in blood after every single battle? It is almost comical sometimes to watch some of the post fight discussions with everybody practically dripping in the red stuff. The cut scenes are hilarious as well with anybody who dies essentially transforming into a spurting fountain of blood.

Blood is the major underlying theme of the game. The Blight, the taint, Blood Mages, Bloodlines and Religion. The Blood is abundant because it is symbolism for many things in the game and the game world.

I think the origin stories do an excellent job of tying you to the character, better then any game I've seen.

This isn't meant towards anyone it is a general statement but I would bet anyone who plays DA and doesn't invest in the story, doesn't gobble up and read every piece of information that pops into the codex is going to find DA a mediocre game.

This isn't an Action RPG like ME or God forbid Fallout 3, where you can pretty much skip all that stuff and go through the game. This is an old school RPG the kind where decision matter and sinking yourself into the game world are almost required.

I've played it for over 14 hours in the last 2 days and there are some real compelling decisions you have to make. This game is perfection for anyone who loves the way CRPG's used to be made where story came first IMO.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:08 pm

Danimal wrote:
This isn't meant towards anyone it is a general statement but I would bet anyone who plays DA and doesn't invest in the story, doesn't gobble up and read every piece of information that pops into the codex is going to find DA a mediocre game.

This isn't an Action RPG like ME or God forbid Fallout 3, where you can pretty much skip all that stuff and go through the game. This is an old school RPG the kind where decision matter and sinking yourself into the game world are almost required.

Agree with the first part (although I found the story elements of Fallout 3 to be a blast as well). I was absolutely gobsmacked at the number of people whom I know that played Bioshock without really paying any care whatsoever to the audio recordings!! I understand that you can play a game that way, but why the hell would anyone want to? It's like watching the Godfather and saying that you're going to skip the family scenes.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:23 pm

Been playing the snot out of this one. Completed all of the different Origin quests and experimented with a lot of different class combinations.

Dual-wielding Warrior is just a hell of a good time for me. Beheadings galore.

But to the earlier question about why you have to be logged in (didn't see it answered), it's because it automatically uploads your character data and screenshots at important moments to the character pages online (PC version takes screenies, consoles just upload character and stat data). So it's like a mini-showoff site for your single player toon.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:55 pm

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

Good article and spoiler free.

General opinion I'm seeing in reviews is the console versions look like ass compared to the PC.