Dragon Age

Pyr0

Can anyone give their opinion on this game ? It's looking interesting from the vids I've seen online, sadly I'm in work with no sound so can't hear any of the commentary

I'm curious about the combat system, is it similar to the likes of Severance Blade of Darkness ? As in you control when and in which direction your character strikes, combos etc ? Also, 4 characters appear to be available for you to control. Can you switch between the characters or are you stuck with one main character and the others simply act like NPC's ?

Spear

Pyr0 wrote: »

Can anyone give their opinion on this game ? It's looking interesting from the vids I've seen online, sadly I'm in work with no sound so can't hear any of the commentary

I'm curious about the combat system, is it similar to the likes of Severance Blade of Darkness ? As in you control when and in which direction your character strikes, combos etc ? Also, 4 characters appear to be available for you to control. Can you switch between the characters or are you stuck with one main character and the others simply act like NPC's ?

The combat is a cross between the usual tactical style of Neverwinter Nights/Baldurs Gate with a strong influence of MMO style mechanics. You can directly control the actions of a single character at a time, while the other will rely on preset tactics. Characters have a pool of stamina/mana used to perform actions, with a cooldown on abilities. The control of a character isn't as precise/micro-managed as Severance, you don't perform combos or the like manually.

Pyr0

Sounds interesting, is it worth picking up ?

Spear

Pyr0 wrote: »

Sounds interesting, is it worth picking up ?

There's a lot of text to read, Bioware quoted a claim of something like 9 standard length novels worth, so you might want to be prepared for that.

The setting is a fairly generic Tolkien style elves/dwarves/humans thing, but the story on top of it is pretty good.

The difficulty level can spike a bit at times, and if you're not used to Biowares style of tactical RPG it could be a slighly steep learning curve initially.

Pyr0

I'll take the plunge and go for it so, gives me something to play over the christmas ! Cheers for the info.

Spear

Pyr0 wrote: »

I'll take the plunge and go for it so, gives me something to play over the christmas ! Cheers for the info.

In that case here's patch 1.02 for it

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/15962/Dragon+Age:+Origins+Patch+1.02

Jim

Great great game. In the middle of my second playthrough atm. If you've ever played any Bioware games then its realy just a carbon copy with a few tweaks.

Kiith

As i've posted in many other threads, this is definitely game of the year for me. Absolutly fantastic.

SilverFox261

Definately worth the investment for over christmas. One of the games of the year for me.

There's also 9 different character combinations, each with their own background story to play through at the start which are all worth playing through as well once you've finished the game.

Pugsley

If you enjoyed Baldurs Gate this is the closest thing you will get wil pretty graphics. Theres plenty of dialogue and interesting characters, combat system works well and a decent plot. But it's let down by being fairly linear, theres not a great pile of exploring to do, and the hieght of openess is basically you get a choice of 3 quest stories to do in whatever order you want. Theres also side missions but there isn't much to them, basically go here kill this, return for gold.

Despite this still the best fantasy RPG to come out in years, played through it twice and really enjoyed it.

wayne040576

I got this on release but I've only had time to play it over the last few days. Really good game but, I'm playing the pc version and the loading times are horrible. Really annoying me. I'm in the first town now and have had to go in and out of one of the builidngs repeatedly.

Each time I enter or exit I have to sit looking at the loading screen for ages.

anonymous_joe

Jim wrote: »

Great great game. In the middle of my second playthrough atm. If you've ever played any Bioware games then its realy just a carbon copy with a few tweaks.

Screw innovation, BG in 3D's what I want.

It does rock though.

Kiith

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Screw innovation, BG in 3D's what I want.

It does rock though.

The inifinity engine remains to this day the best engine for proper RPG's. I dont think full 3d is necessary for new rpg's, and it can sometimes take away from it. Diablo 3 is a good example of keeping the same style as previous titles, while upgrading the engine to today's standards.

Baldur's Gate 3, in the Diablo 3 engine? Yes please.

Black Swan

I just went out and bought it, but haven't installed it yet. Played Neverwinter Nights way back when. Hope it's as much fun as you lads claim.

ratrope

You can barely ever go wrong with buying a game by BioWare - pretty much the same is applicable for Valve and Blizzard as well, imho.

pwd

Downloaded a demo, which turned out to be a character creator and not a demo at all. Stupid.

muppetkiller

Game of the Year for me too..simply brilliant..(PC version)

JBUCD

I was a bit disappointed to be honest. The story and the characters just didn't grab me.

calex71

JBUCD wrote: »

I was a bit disappointed to be honest. The story and the characters just didn't grab me.

Me too, Im a few hours in. It's all there and was what I expected all round but just not sucking me in, usually I'll play these for hours at a time but I'm struggling to get anymore than an hour so at a time. Maybe it will get going soon

Im at:

just left the 1st main village after getting morrigan to join and am loose on the world map

Lafortezza

calex71 wrote: »

Im at:

just left the 1st main village after getting morrigan to join and am loose on the world map

You're still very early days, once you get into the meat of the various main quests it gets far more interesting. Add in plenty of mini side quests and you have a huge choice of stuff to do if one direction gets a bit boring or monotonous.

One thing I'd definitely do once you get a bit further in is mix up your party a bit, swap people in and out. Some chars are weaker than others in combat etc but the interactions are great.

super_furry

Awesome, awesome game. Settled on a party with an Elf Mage, Wynne healing, Alistar tanking and Morrigan blowing the crap out of everything. Really enjoying it.

superfly

just finished it after 60 hours of gameplay and loved it
I had a Dalish Elf warrior with Wynne, Leilana and Shale
does anyone know where to find the percentage of the game completed, i have seen other people mentioning their score but i can't see it?

super_furry

Ugh, doing the Fade quest in the Circle of Magi at the moment and it's a real drag. Awful, unispired and fiddly section that's a disappointing change of pace.

WolfForager

Sephiroth_dude

Good game,loads of quests to do.

Black Swan

lafortezza wrote: »

You're still very early days, once you get into the meat of the various main quests it gets far more interesting. Add in plenty of mini side quests and you have a huge choice of stuff to do if one direction gets a bit boring or monotonous.

First time I played it, I didn't get very far into a quest or two. Deleted my character, set it aside, and came back to it days later. When I accessed it the second time, now with main and subordinate quests, it became addictive over the holidays.

lafortezza wrote: »

One thing I'd definitely do once you get a bit further in is mix up your party a bit, swap people in and out. Some chars are weaker than others in combat etc but the interactions are great.

In addition to my main character, I have eight characters in camp to choose from to form my party, and swap them out depending upon the quest or specific confrontation.

The third time I play it through, I will pay more attention to slotted weapons and how runes can be used selectively to empower your weapons. I sold way too many of them unwittingly to get enough gold to buy a powerful belt, amulet, or rings.

WolfForager

Must say that i'm really not a big fan of the whole party combat system, i found that out first when playing Mass Effect. I'm more of a solo RPG guy, coming from playing RuneScape and a bit of WoW back in the day, i spend most of my time in DA reloading my last save and trying to figure out why the hell i just died, trying again and most likely dying again. Poo!

Still love the storyline and finding better weapons + armour though

leninbenjamin

WolfForager wrote: »

Must say that i'm really not a big fan of the whole party combat system, i found that out first when playing Mass Effect. I'm more of a solo RPG guy, coming from playing RuneScape and a bit of WoW back in the day, i spend most of my time in DA reloading my last save and trying to figure out why the hell i just died, trying again and most likely dying again. Poo!

Still love the storyline and finding better weapons + armour though

I have the exact same criticisms. As I said in the other thread I find the NPC AI can be very very weak at times, which requires you to micromanage battles like hell and that became very tedious towards the large battles at the end of the game.

Just finished it last night though, and I will be playing it through again.

Are the DLC quests worth getting?

nevaeh-2die-4

cant take to this at all

graphics for the xbox are a disgrace, its very buggy and pixelated, i tried giving it a chance , but cant get into it.

uberpixie

WolfForager wrote: »

Must say that i'm really not a big fan of the whole party combat system, i found that out first when playing Mass Effect. I'm more of a solo RPG guy, coming from playing RuneScape and a bit of WoW back in the day, i spend most of my time in DA reloading my last save and trying to figure out why the hell i just died, trying again and most likely dying again. Poo!

Still love the storyline and finding better weapons + armour though

If you like solo type play: Fallout 3 fits the bill nicely if you haven't played it yet.

uberpixie

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I have the exact same criticisms. As I said in the other thread I find the NPC AI can be very very weak at times, which requires you to micromanage battles like hell and that became very tedious towards the large battles at the end of the game.

Just finished it last night though, and I will be playing it through again.

Are the DLC quests worth getting?

The only DLC you need to pay for atm is Wardens Keep: which is not hugely game changing tbh. There is a nice set of armour there though which isn't bad for rogues with a bit of strength to wear.

You should have had download codes for Shale and the Drangon's Blood armour with the game and should have been able to enable these first time playing the game.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Best game I have played in a very very long time, more should be made like it...

Blazher

Leslie Massive Paperboy wrote: »

Best game I have played in a very very long time, more should be made like it...

The new DLC is out on Tuesday

WolfForager

Forget the DLC, what they realy need to release is a HD texture pack of some sort, i'd say they've lost a fair chunk of their market to people who really wanted to play the game but couldn't stick the terrible graphics.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Blazher wrote: »

The new DLC is out on Tuesday

More DLC? Oh nice I shall google that.

WolfForager wrote: »

Forget the DLC, what they realy need to release is a HD texture pack of some sort, i'd say they've lost a fair chunk of their market to people who really wanted to play the game but couldn't stick the terrible graphics.

The what? :eek:

ballybay_eh

WolfForager wrote: »

Forget the DLC, what they realy need to release is a HD texture pack of some sort, i'd say they've lost a fair chunk of their market to people who really wanted to play the game but couldn't stick the terrible graphics.

I didn't think the graphics were terrible but considering that Oblivion came out 3 years ago and Dragon Age looks worse at times... probably not a good sign though.

Also, I found the final boss a bit of a drag.

Still, great game. (It's no Baldur's Gate 2 though)

calex71

ballybay_eh wrote: »

Also, I found the final boss a bit of a drag.

Yeah me too

call in the elves and man the ballista's

calex71

dlc info here http://dragonage.bioware.com/addon/rto

doesn't look to be massive, maybe same as other 2 only 400 points though.

leninbenjamin

calex71 wrote: »

Yeah me too

call in the elves and man the ballista's

Indeed. I called the mages first, then when they died, called in the elves, and stood off in one of the turrets and waited. Overall he was far too easy.

Bit too much of that in general in the game, the brood mother in the deep roads being another example. Stand off behind her on the platform and just hit her at range. Heck the hardest thing in the game I found was Berahts (the dwarf commoner origins) because you've no magic to do that stand offish approach.

Praetorian

I'm about 10 hours in and I'm enjoying it. But I think I've made some bad spell / upgrade choices, because I'm finding it quite difficult. I almost always have to micromanage each battle, and constantly find myself in no win situations, having to retreat & try and level up a bit more.

Something happened on Friday that really got up my nose. I was travelling somewhere & there was an encounter on the road which I couldn't win no matter what. My previous usable save was 3 hours back. Now that was annoying!

Story / characters all very enjoyable so far. Love the music too.

humanji

Praetorian wrote: »

I'm about 10 hours in and I'm enjoying it. But I think I've made some bad spell / upgrade choices, because I'm finding it quite difficult. I almost always have to micromanage each battle, and constantly find myself in no win situations, having to retreat & try and level up a bit more.

Something happened on Friday that really got up my nose. I was travelling somewhere & there was an encounter on the road which I couldn't win no matter what. My previous usable save was 3 hours back. Now that was annoying!

Story / characters all very enjoyable so far. Love the music too.

I've found a few battles to be like that. All you can really do is try and save often. It happens to me a lot in games, so I have a timer on my desk that goes off every 15 minutes to remind me. Sad that I have to rely on something like that. :P

But in the end, I got through those battles mainly due to luck. And I was micromanaging every move too. I guess you just have to think up a strategy and go by that.

super_furry

Think having the right team helps a lot. I've got Wynn solely dedicated to healing, Morrigan on crowd control, Allister hacking everyone up and me - Elf mage doing a bit of everything.

I've recently just gone Arcane Warrior with my Mage, but right now can't see any difference aside from the fact that it allows you to wield swords - which is useless for me because my strength is low. Are there any other benefits?

BeansBeans

I was having a bugger of a time earlier in the game, probably due to the fact i went to Denerim way too earlier. Also should have done the circle quest way earlier for the substantial boost gained.

But I must say since i got Shale its a bit too easy. Playing as a Rogue (assassin/duelist) with Morrigan and Wynne (a few glyphs and stonefist/petrify help a lot) i havent had any issues, even with the harder bosses. Shale with stoneheart is an amazing tank and has damage output up there with my rogue and Morrigan, its a bit silly, but i love the character. Advancing relationships helps hugely as well.

Anyway loving the game, but yes the graphics are a bit awful really.

Sarn

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Indeed. I called the mages first, then when they died, called in the elves, and stood off in one of the turrets and waited. Overall he was far too easy.

The end boss was fairly easy, line up the ballista a few area effect spells and that was pretty much it. I found the generals to be harder. Although saying that, I didn't use any of the reserves.

I found the graphics to be fairly good so it didn't bother me. Total play time in the end was 67 hours after doing virtually every side quest save Warden's keep. Great value for money.

Cunny-Funt

The graphics were stunning in mass effect, I wonder why they stepped backwards for this?

EGriff

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

The graphics were stunning in mass effect, I wonder why they stepped backwards for this?

Because there's no elevators for you to wait in for 5 minutes while they load up the next floor.

uberpixie

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

The graphics were stunning in mass effect, I wonder why they stepped backwards for this?

Mass Effect had sh it textures, playing the game again atm and you really notice this on the character models. Plus that texture pop up where the detail on the texture degrades and goes back to normal on some models when you move the camera slightly is really annoying. They tried using a lot of bloom and ansio to cover this up and fail miserable to do so.

To be fair with Dragon Age: they put all the detail on the character models at the expense of the terrain.

super_furry

To be honest, the graphics haven't bothered me in the slightest - aside from everyone being covered in blood.

quarryman

Is this game really any good? I've read a bit on it now and it seems that after an initial honeymoon period it becomes a slog and a punishing one at times if you aren't micromanaging everything to perfection.

Also I'd be playing it on the 360. Are things really watered down forthe console version

Making It Bad

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

The graphics were stunning in mass effect, I wonder why they stepped backwards for this?

You can go into the isometric camera in Dragon Age too. If you had this in Mass Effect when you zoom out/in of the action, I could see you losing lots of textures.

uberpixie

quarryman wrote: »

Is this game really any good? I've read a bit on it now and it seems that after an initial honeymoon period it becomes a slog and a punishing one at times if you aren't micromanaging everything to perfection.

Also I'd be playing it on the 360. Are things really watered down for the console version

mate of a mate played it on easy to get any joy out of it on the xbox, he doesn't have a gaming pc. By all accounts it is much better on the PC as you are able to micromanage better. The skill settings are a little easier on the consoles Vs the PC seemingly.

played it on the pc myself on medium for most of the game and turned the difficulty down to easy for some of the fights as things were just getting to pissy.