Dragon Age: Origins

[Crimrui]

Ah, what a superb game! Well, didn't played it much as I was really busy and I don't want to play this awesome game when I come home at late hours. I need to be freshed and rested to play this beauty. Anyway, I've only tried it hour or so, with making my character for almost twenty minutes lol.

The conversations that appeared when I just started the game, and the choices that appeared before me, made me drop a tear reminiscing at the same time all those good playing hours with Baldur's Gate. The gameplay is great and the feel is outstanding. Can't wait for weekends to play XD

I only noticed a bit of slowdown on Xbox360 version, in the beginning mostly, but after installing it to hard drive it works ok. Is this, normal?

By the way, I LOVE the main menu music, it fits well with Dragon Age's world.

[Kyero Fox]

I chose Wise... I dont like Sword and Shield because the shield sticks out too much

god damn it, i hate vista and my PC, the damn game keeps crashing every once and a while.

[NorthernFallout]

Having played for a few hours I must say I kinda like it, even if the genre itself usually doesn't respond well to me. The world lore is nicely built-up, most of the characters I've met so far feels somewhat real and the length will be a hard task.

Being a big fan of Mass Effect, the lack of a VA for the main char is a big annoyance, but I do see why they decided no to do it. The classic dialogue system they use now - one which I am wholly unfamiliar with - does have more logic in its answers, in that you can see what you are actually going to say and determine a response more easily (I think, or I just got fooled by an A.I).

Again, ME experience played off again with the combat system, which at first didn't sound like my thing. I'm used to pausing somewhat (ME again), but not as near as much this game would theoretically require. I'm also a more FPS-style gamer, preferring direct action than "click mouse to attack and choose skills". However, it surprised me positively because it's actually very smooth. I can still retain my direct-action feeling by only pausing to switch characters for a short time and carry on in real-time, giving it a slightly more challenging approach. It does lay itself up for deeper strategy, which is a plus and I will probably use in the future.

I do think what I really like about this game though is the audio; both the voice actors excellent performance and the glorious music playing in the background that fits so well with the setting. I think the voices rarely stagnates or get too unnatural, as it sometimes did in ME.

As for negatives, I could only come up with two currently; GFX and bugs.

Graphics, not in terms of overall quality, but the weird unequal split of it. Characters and buildings are beautifully made and detailed. So are the effects (especially light and fire), but the ground, bush and tree textures has to be some of the ugliest I've seen in recent months. That's merely an annoyance, as I don't care excessively about graphics. It jsut feels unfair to the landscape in general.

I have not yet catched any game-breaking bugs, but the ones I have is kinda strange. The first one is at first glance devastating. It usually occurs in conversations, resulting in a complete freeze of the game with only the music carrying on. The other is the graphics playing up, making it unplayable because I can't see anything. The funny thing is that BOTH these problems is solved by a simple ctrl+alt+del to desktop and jumping straight back in. Something tells me it's the 8800 acting up on something it can't handle.

The blabbering review aside, I'm currently running with two chars; Carl and Sigrid (Defensive Warrior Berserker/Offensive mage respectively.) Both because of their different backstories and their vastly different playstyle. Hopefully I'll get more time to play and explore the Codex during the weekend.

On another note, trying to create a Viking (Carl) failed horribly. Only the beard looks right, otherwise he just looks... too nice.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by AtomicoX

Having played for a few hours I must say I kinda like it, even if the genre itself usually doesn't respond well to me. The world lore is nicely built-up, most of the characters I've met so far feels somewhat real and the length will be a hard task.

Being a big fan of Mass Effect, the lack of a VA for the main char is a big annoyance, but I do see why they decided no to do it. The classic dialogue system they use now - one which I am wholly unfamiliar with - does have more logic in its answers, in that you can see what you are actually going to say and determine a response more easily (I think, or I just got fooled by an A.I).

Again, ME experience played off again with the combat system, which at first didn't sound like my thing. I'm used to pausing somewhat (ME again), but not as near as much this game would theoretically require. I'm also a more FPS-style gamer, preferring direct action than "click mouse to attack and choose skills". However, it surprised me positively because it's actually very smooth. I can still retain my direct-action feeling by only pausing to switch characters for a short time and carry on in real-time, giving it a slightly more challenging approach. It does lay itself up for deeper strategy, which is a plus and I will probably use in the future.

I do think what I really like about this game though is the audio; both the voice actors excellent performance and the glorious music playing in the background that fits so well with the setting. I think the voices rarely stagnates or get too unnatural, as it sometimes did in ME.

As for negatives, I could only come up with two currently; GFX and bugs.

Graphics, not in terms of overall quality, but the weird unequal split of it. Characters and buildings are beautifully made and detailed. So are the effects (especially light and fire), but the ground, bush and tree textures has to be some of the ugliest I've seen in recent months. That's merely an annoyance, as I don't care excessively about graphics. It jsut feels unfair to the landscape in general.

I have not yet catched any game-breaking bugs, but the ones I have is kinda strange. The first one is at first glance devastating. It usually occurs in conversations, resulting in a complete freeze of the game with only the music carrying on. The other is the graphics playing up, making it unplayable because I can't see anything. The funny thing is that BOTH these problems is solved by a simple ctrl+alt+del to desktop and jumping straight back in. Something tells me it's the 8800 acting up on something it can't handle.

The blabbering review aside, I'm currently running with two chars; Carl and Sigrid (Defensive Warrior Berserker/Offensive mage respectively.) Both because of their different backstories and their vastly different playstyle. Hopefully I'll get more time to play and explore the Codex during the weekend.

On another note, trying to create a Viking (Carl) failed horribly. Only the beard looks right, otherwise he just looks... too nice.

does your game crash once and while out of no where? and do u run on Vista

[Jays]

Originally Posted by Statonxyb

Both the Stone Prisoner & Warden's Keep combined are 323 MB. He's most likely referring to the fact that DLC and code redeeming for the PC version has been hell because BioWare's new social site is complete garbage.

Exactly what I meant - the latter that is.

Originally Posted by Keroko

... Dwah? Hell? All you have to do is go to the url the card tells you, enter the code, boot the game and download. The game even installs the thing for you. How in the world can you call that hard?

He's right. Yesterday that site was a total mess of things, impossibly difficult to get anything AT ALL done with it. Today I managed to get all of my stuff downloaded, so I'm happy in that aspect but yeah what a pain in the ass, you'd figure the least they could do is set up some sort of in-game system.

Originally Posted by AtomicoX

Mass Effect references

I feel you with those, I myself and a BIG ME fan - can't wait for number 2. This game hearkens back to the days of old school WRPG. I happen to play this game isometrically, though occasionally I'll go into a more third person view point to get a better scope of the landscape ahead. Enjoy it, I mean this is a blast from the past, Baldur's Gate was one HELL of a game, and this one is shaping up nicely.

-

I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding the "Tactics" systems, seems that though in theory it is a carbon copy of the Gambit system from FFXII, it doesn't actually appear that way. The thing is the game actually makes a point of telling you that it does work the way you think it should but it doesn't. For instance let me give you an example of the what I have my main guy set up with:

Human Warrior lv.4

1. Self - Health < = 25% /Lesser potion
2. Ally - Surrounded by 3 or more / Taunt
3. Enemy - Projectile / Running Shield Bash
4. Enemy - Nearest Visible / Attack

Now logic - or what I at least understand - dictates that my character would perform these actions in sequential order:

1. If health is equal to or under 25% then use a lesser potion.
2. If an ally is being attacked by 3 or more people then taunt will be used in order to relieve ally.
3. If there is a projectile enemy then he takes priority focusing primarily on knock him out with a shield bash then kicking his ass.
4. Attack ANY visible enemy, as in as soon as he sees an enemy he shouldn't wait for my command.

Now I don't quite understand why, but my character does not seem to do that, in fact he is reliant on me to order him around. Though this would dictate that the party leader is in fact under my total control and therefore Tactics are rendered invalid, the game makes you think otherwise. I believe that however, other party characters do follow the Tactics set. I will have to read more on this, if it turns out to be the case then I will be disappointed. The Tactics/Gambit system was put in place, or least stands to me a method of looking at the bigger picture, to have juggle the actions of your character and make tweaks and changes to the others at the same time, seems asinine on the part of Bioware, a rather incomplete idea compared to what Square Enix used in FFXII.

In FFXII you would set up your list of Gambits and you then you would just let them at it, you wouldn't be commanding anyone, in fact most of your time would be spent changing gambits, or making changes and additions to how your characters were fighting, though the orders of attacking, healing, using spells, ect. were done without me having to tell them so. It was almost like a train and you being the operator, the train runs by itself, but you have to continuously keep an eye on it to make sure it ran smoothly. Nothing felt better than making a sick, very sick list of Gambits for your fighting three and then putting down the controller and watching them kick ass, whilst occasionally making changes.

Hmm... this will take some time.

[Aershelelou]

I saw a trailer for this on Xbox live over the weekend. This game looks absolutely awesome. I want to get it some time so I can have a little break away from my Rock band games XD~

I absolutely love how the archer looks <3

[Jays]

Ok so I can confirm a few things.

1. Your lead character switches to manual mode. I don't understand why Bioware would do this, they should have at least had an option for this. (He wont follow the tactics list so long as you are in control of him)
2. When setting up Tactics that require an input percentage be aware of the following.

• "X < X%" this indicates an overall percentage as in "total health < 25%"
• "X > = X%" this indicates a percentage decrease of health "health decrease > = 25%"

What does this mean you say well; the first is what we are looking for, if your character's TOTAL HEALTH decreases below that of 25% he will use a certain action assigned to that, perhaps a potion or root, whatever you will. The latter means that whenever your character loses 25% or greater of his health he will use a potion. So you lets say your character has a 100 hp, every time he loses 25 points he will use a potion ie. once at 75%, once at 50%, and so forth.

I'm really going to have to need a projectile user now.

[NorthernFallout]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

does your game crash once and while out of no where? and do u run on Vista

Running on 64-bit Vista Ultimate. Hasn't crashed yet and beside those bugs it's very stable.
I'm just waiting for more bugs to enter the battle though.

[DragoonKain3]

Mages are freaking INSANE in this game. Absolutely breezing everything so far in the game (13 hours in) with my PC mage, and I'm playing Nightmare.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Jays

He's right. Yesterday that site was a total mess of things, impossibly difficult to get anything AT ALL done with it. Today I managed to get all of my stuff downloaded, so I'm happy in that aspect but yeah what a pain in the ass, you'd figure the least they could do is set up some sort of in-game system.

... But they do have an in-game system. The only thing you have to do on the site is go to bioware.dragonage.com/redeem, type in the code, and that's it. For the actual downloading of the content, you boot up the game, go to downloadable content, and click 'download.' The game then does the downloading and installing on its own. I did all that yesterday as well, and I had no problem whatsoever.

[Statonxyb]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Mages are freaking INSANE in this game. Absolutely breezing everything so far in the game (13 hours in) with my PC mage, and I'm playing Nightmare.

Yeah, I'm sort of regretting not playing a Mage on some occasions.

Spoiler for Sidequest:

I just completed the Blood Mage Hunt sidequest in Denelim City and the final boss (Blood Mage Leader) and his Blood Mage lackey completely shit on my team. Took me a good 4-5 reloads to figure out a strategy to beat the encounter.

The sheer destructive ability of a Mage I've seen thus far is overwhelming.

[Kyero Fox]

apparently Mages are OP..... play a Melee class next time.

[Statonxyb]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

apparently Mages are OP..... play a Melee class next time.

...I am

[DragoonKain3]

Bah. You guys already have games like Star Ocean where offensive spells (and thus offensive casters) are worth jack. Leave me alone with my OP mage in DAO.

I mean, this IS the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate after all, so its only to be expected...

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Bah. You guys already have games like Star Ocean where offensive spells (and thus offensive casters) are worth jack. Leave me alone with my OP mage in DAO.

I mean, this IS the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate after all, so its only to be expected...

idc, casters are cowards in the eyes of a melee class. attacking from a range, running for your dear life afraid of a knife.

[Keroko]

And warriors are idiots in the eyes of mages, walking around in big, heavy armor. Big heavy conducting armor.

Equilibrium is what they call that I believe.

[Sinestra]

Iv been on the ropes with Dragon Age for a couple of days now especially since im immersed in Borderlands right now. But im starting to break down my curiosity is winning out.

Actually in game feed back was nice guys thanks

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Keroko

And warriors are idiots in the eyes of mages, walking around in big, heavy armor. Big heavy conducting armor.

Equilibrium is what they call that I believe.

Courage and bravery is that of a Melee, should a warrior run away in the middle of a fight would be complete and major dishonor.

this is the way of the samurai.... and all Warriors alike.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

I like to burn things.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Courage and bravery is that of a Melee, should a warrior run away in the middle of a fight would be complete and major dishonor.

this is the way of the samurai.... and all Warriors alike.

*calmly freezes the charging warrior and then shatters him* Oh look, I didn't even have to run.

Though ironically enough Kharan has evolved into a rather fanatical Templar, the very bane of mages. I wonder how long it'll take for Morrigan to leave me, considering I'm stabbing apostes left, right and center.