Dragon Age: Inquisition (PCMR:Edition)

degrassinoel

Glorious PC gamers,

Behold!

It's just over a week away, and by some critic's account it will indeed be magnificent!

PC Gamer
Polygon
and many more

Have all pretty much said it's gonna be awesome!

So, in just over a week we'll find out if they all got paid megabucks to sell a dodgy unfinished product or if Bioware are truly back and as usual (imo) at the top of their game.

Let the hype begin

Falthyron

Bought my key this morning here! €34 and it includes one DLC pack (weapons, I believe).

From the reviews, it is great to see BioWare returning to their old ways. Very excited for this!

Dragon Age also supports Mantle for AMD users and the latest benchmarks suggest AMD cards perform better than Nvidia cards.

degrassinoel

Have you used that site before? What's the story with release times and that?

Falthyron

degrassinoel wrote: »

Have you used that site before? What's the story with release times and that?

Yeah, I bought Titanfall from them earlier in the year. I have never purchased a pre-order key from them before, so I can't say how quickly or early you receive the key. My brother purchased COD:AW from them the other day and he had no problems either. From what I can see, they are the cheapest around. The email I received with my order said I will receive the key on the 21st or shortly before then.

degrassinoel

Had a look at their facebook (they give ye 5% off if ye like them) page and they've said the keys will be delivered 1-2 days prior to release. That's me sorted for a cheap version! Nice one dude!

Falthyron

degrassinoel wrote: »

Had a look at their facebook (they give ye 5% off if ye like them) page and they've said the keys will be delivered 1-2 days prior to release. That's me sorted for a cheap version! Nice one dude!

You're welcome! I wish I had looked at their facebook profile, though!

I think I will do a quick run through Dragon Age 2 in the coming days, I can barely remember it, but I do remember the repetition. Mostly want to get a grip on the storyline before I set off with Inquisition.

degrassinoel

i'd hold off on that, just dragonagekeep it. I played through the campaign a few months ago and it was really annoying how dull the game was compared to the first one. The odd thing is that the DAKeep storyline cuts out all boring bits and tells you an excellent story, the very same one condensed into around 10 minutes of narrative. When it works..

Falthyron

That is an excellent tool! Just spent 20 minutes going through the story and following the decisions I made. Will do some more refined adjusting to my play-through later and have it ready for Inquisition. Thanks!

Skerries

where do you get the 5% off voucher after you like the page?

Edit: found it when you click on the link from your facebook page

lmimmfn

isint the Mexican Origin VPN trick still cheaper? pretty sure its around 30euro for basic one and ~45euro for the Digital Deluxe

Anyways, i did the mexican trick, cant wait to start this as i loved DA: O but hated DA2 and this looks more like Origins.

Dave_The_Sheep

Is it worth playing DA2 before this? I played the first one, and pretty much all the DLC. Really enjoyed it. Heard bad things about 2, but I hate missing a game in a series if the story depends on it.

Anyone know if it matters that much?

degrassinoel

you can play it but as i said earlier here, if you cant be arsed with buying it or playing through again (it really is drudgery) there is an excellent story behind the game, you can recap the entire first two games here and upload your choices to DA:I

humanji

It may also be worth reading the plot on the likes of Wikipedia or one of the Dragon Age Wiki sites as the DragonAgeKeep doesn't really explain a lot about the characters, assuming you already know who they are.

lmimmfn

Should be able to use a VPN to
- preload on 14th November @ 12PM Hong Kong time( in 6 hours time if my math is correct )
- play on 17th November @ 10AM Hong Kong time( Monday morning at 2AM GMT )

lmimmfn

Preloading Now - 23.81GB

degrassinoel

nice

lmimmfn

the waiting game sux lol.

Dave_The_Sheep

Hungry hungry hippos.

degrassinoel

Mister plow, that's my name, that name again is Mister Plow!

Calhoun

You are licensed and bonded by the city aren't you Mr Plow, Shut up boy.

lmimmfn

This wait is sooooooooooooo long, 3PM GMT tomorrow, woohoo

oh and this is a good recap/beginners guide - http://kotaku.com/a-beginners-guide-to-all-things-dragon-age-1658487212

Vicxas

Christ I cannot wait, I dont know how im going to fit a newborn, WOD and this in...


Guess ill have to forfeit sleep, will be so worth it

lmimmfn

yep, i havnt been so hyped for a game in a very very long time.
It unlocks tomorrow and im off to Spain for a few days on Tuesday grrrr, well at least ill get a few hours in and im off work tomorrow

Falthyron

I just received my CD-Key from www.cdkeys.com.

Origin is telling me I can pre-load the game at 17:00 today and the game will be available on Thursday at midnight. Now, to find a way to make Origin think I am in the U.S. later...

Falthyron

Pre-loading now

degrassinoel

just got my cdkeys key there now it's ready to preload in origin and all

Falthyron

Ok, I am fully downloaded and I can run the game but it fails to run the authentication programme; presumably because those servers are offline until the moment of release. Does anyone know the exact time (GMT/UTC) when Korea have access as I believe they are the first?

degrassinoel

not sure about korea, but us yoyos in europeland will have it at midnight thursday

Falthyron

degrassinoel wrote: »

not sure about korea, but us yoyos in europeland will have it at midnight thursday

Screw Thursday at midnight! I am now in-game doing my graphics settings! The game is unlocked in South Korea See you guys in a few days!

degrassinoel

lol grats! hope ye dont get caught, also, JELLY!

how did ye get origin to think it was in korea?

Falthyron

degrassinoel wrote: »

lol grats! hope ye dont get caught, also, JELLY!

how did ye get origin to think it was in korea?

Using a programme called SoftEther VPN (freeware), I connected to one of many Korean Servers being used as a proxy. I was then able to log-in to Origin and it detected I was in Korea, the Store page was in Korean. I then proceeded to download Dragon Age: Inquisition. After that was finished I still couldn't run the game as it was trying to connect to EA servers to authenticate or decrypt. However, at around 4pm I tried again and it booted straight into the game.

If I want to keep playing I have to connect to the Korean proxy, but I found a workaround. If you set Origin to not 'Run when Windows starts up', disable your internet connection (temporarily) and then run Origin. Origin will say it has to run in Offline Mode, and you still have access to Inquisition. This is a temporary workaround until Friday, of course.

Plenty of graphics options, including Mantle support for AMD users. I really enjoyed the character creation process as it goes into quite a bit of detail and the premise of the storyline is interesting... I am using an Intel 4770K 3.5ghz processor, 8gb of DDR3 RAM and an AMD Radeon 290. With everything on Ultra it feels silky smooth and responsive.

degrassinoel

hmm didn't think a vpn would with origin.

I'm guessing the same risk is involved - ie: account being closed and losing all your stuff or is that an issue with origin?

Falthyron

degrassinoel wrote: »

hmm didn't think a vpn would with origin.

I'm guessing the same risk is involved - ie: account being closed and losing all your stuff or is that an issue with origin?

I used a VPN to unlock Battlefield 3 and Titanfall (iirc) without any consequences. If you start streaming the game or broadcasting or doing media/journalist coverage of the game, I am sure you would be painting a bigger target on yourself and would be more likely to face some sort of backlash, but as a single user, quietly playing away, I am sure they have bigger fish to fry - i.e. those trying to break the game's DRM.

Of course, if I do get in trouble then I am sure they have a good reason to close my account, but that's the risk you take.

degrassinoel

2 hours of play and i just got the title screen lol

lovin' it

Kiith

It's pretty damn awesome alright. I'll get back into it tomorrow, but really enjoyed the few hours i put in so far.

It runs very well, but does use up a lot of resources on the pc. Fan runs pretty loud, so i might check out what sort of cpu/gpu/hd usage it has tomorrow. Loading screens are quite long too, but that's not surprising considering how absolutely massive the areas are.

I see myself pumping a good 100+ hours into this.

degrassinoel

Yeah the load screens had me worried a bit - 3 minutes of black nothingness on the first attempt to load the game, but the load transition after the title screen had some interactive lore cards while it was loading - thoughtful gesture by bioware there

Anyways, back to my Female Carta Dwarf Ranger

The voice acting is excellent, already really like the elf mage, reminds me of Mordin

Kiith

I went boring, as i always do in Bioware games, and just picked a Human Rogue. First playthroughs are always like that.

I'll probably do another as a Elf Mage though, and see if i get totally discriminated against for being a filthy elf and an apostate.

Gbear

I'm going to hold off til I upgrade my computer (whenever the 390x comes out).

And I never managed to get through DA 2 so it'll give me a chance to do that.
I know there's a way to choose the decisions you want online but if I don't finish DA 2 before I play DA I I'll probably never get around to it.

degrassinoel

you might regret playing through DA2 too, it does get very repetitive after a while

Kiith

I'd say if you just stick to the main quest, you'll be grand. Shouldn't take you too long, and you'll get the important plot points for the 3rd game. You'll still need to use Keep to import your world state though.

Mickeroo

The dungeons are repetitive in DA2 but I still think the main story and characters are pretty good. It's not as big as the first game either so you can get through it pretty quick.

mewso

Dragon Age 2 for me was a sure case of not as good as the media made it out to be and not as bad as some butt hurt gamers claim it is. I think it was definitely a step down from Origins but still quite enjoyable.

Sonics2k

Been watching the other half play this on our PC. GTX 650 1GB and its running at about 45fps or so on a mix of medium and high. Very well optimised game from what I've seen.

Never been a real fan of the game, but I'm really tempted to give this one a go.

degrassinoel

I'm about 20 hours in and have no idea what i'm doing, and i love it

so far i've been swatted by a dragon, mauled by bears, eaten alive by wolves, fried to cinders by mages and pummelled by templars and raiders, smited by demons and been exploring every nook and cranny in ferelden

the game is enormous, just when you think you've explored all of one map another massive section opens up.

Colour me impressed

lmimmfn

mewso wrote: »

Dragon Age 2 for me was a sure case of not as good as the media made it out to be and not as bad as some butt hurt gamers claim it is. I think it was definitely a step down from Origins but still quite enjoyable.

im going to have to step in here, DA2 was an abomination, but tbh i expected it due to the lack of devlopment time i had already decided it wasnt for me 6 months before release. DA: O was one if not my favourite RPG either, i picked up DA2 cheapo later, played about 15 hours and just thought it sucked so for me it never happened

Inquisition on the otherhand, loving it so far, but k+m is an afterthought and tactical view sucks compated to Origins.

Skerries

I take it that it is a good idea to stick with Bianca for Varric and just upgrade her?

humanji

Skerries wrote: »

I take it that it is a good idea to stick with Bianca for Varric and just upgrade her?

I'm not sure. I'm only about 12 hours in, but so far any upgrades don't bring bianca up to the level of other weapons I've found.

Kiith

Played a bit more yesterday, and still really enjoying it. Was having a really hard time with it though, and seriously struggling with the regular fights (on Hard). I realised i was just running in and spamming attacks though, and now that i've fixed that and play properly, i'm really enjoying the combat.

Kiith

Ahh, some of these decisions are bloody tough. Doesn't ever seem to be black and white, and some things do seem to come back to haunt you. Really enjoying it now.

degrassinoel

yeah the

Mage/Templar decision

wasnt what i was expecting at all

awesome though!!

humanji

While I'm really enjoying it and will most likely restart as soon as I've finished to choose some of the other options, the more I play it, the more the little problems with it really grate on me.

The UI is a mess if you're playing on PC as it's clearly for console use and incredibly unintuitive if you're using a keyboard and mouse. The inventory in particular is fiddly as hell. And the respawning enemies can be ridiculous at times, with the likes of some of them reappearing within 30 seconds while I'm standing still at one point (I even timed it just to be sure). I'm also not too keen on the combat either. Maybe I've just been insanely lucky, but so far as a mage all I've had to do was spam my spells whenever they were ready while the rest of the group took care of itself, and this only failed me one time when I went up against a dragon. Now this was on normal difficulty, so I bumped it up to hard and it made a slight difference, but didn't do enough to make it enjoyable. I'm half tempted to go down to easy, just so I can quickly get passed the combat and back to the story, while bumping it up again for boss battles.

And as always with RPG's it suffers from "You must go forth and gather as many powerful allies as you can to save the world. Oh, and you can only take 3 with you at any one time". I know this is in almost every RPG and there's many good reasons for it, but just for once I'd love to go with a full squad.

Thankfully it's not too hard to ignore these problems. It's a fantastic game were you can really see the amount of effort that went into creating the world in both it's physical looks and the lore behind it. I did find myself at several points confusing it with The Witcher, and kept mixing the lore up. Anyone else do that, or am I the only idiot?