Dragon Age (or: Bioware focken' rock!)

[Phott]

So awesome.. So many ways to play it.

Finished it with my Dwarf Lord Warrior, playing Elf Commoner Rogue now as a really insane and evil characters, it's hilarious.

[The Trooper]

I got it and I must say it one of the best RPGs I've played. But I cant seem to find the right way to finish some of the main quest lines. I end up continuing them my accident most of the time cause I cant find the absolutely right thing to do to start the next leg. But other than that its god damned amazing.

[vcool]

I wish I could try this out. I don't wanna torrent, but it's quite pricey so I don't want to end up paying 50+ bucks for something I am not really gonna enjoy.

[nub]

I wish I could try this out. I don't wanna torrent, but it's quite pricey so I don't want to end up paying 50+ bucks for something I am not really gonna enjoy.

Yeah the game really demands a demo. You could perhaps try playing Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights to get a slight idea of what the combat is like. Although I'm pretty sure the combat in DAO is much more intuitive.

You might just have to try and watch a bunch of gameplay videos to see if it will appeal to you. I can say this though, the combat looked really displeasing at first, but when I actually tried it, I grew to like it very quickly.


Anyway, does anyone have any performance issues? Random drops of FPS? I can run it maxed out with 2x AA (I could make that higher but the fps drops are more prominent) but I still get some lag. The game doesn't look THAT good to be honest. As a matter of fact it doesn't even use normal maps, it still relies on old bumpmap technology. Regardless, I think the game has some undeserved performance issues.

PS: My friend can't even run it on the lowest possible settings, and when you run it that low, it looks like pure SHIT. His frame rate is so bad all the time that it's like a slide-show. He's having a hard time playing it. I guess it could be that crappy bargain-bin 8300 HP put in his PC.

[Mighty Monk]

Normally, I can't really get round to playing lengthy RPG games, but Dragon Age is an absolute exception.

LIke you Nub, I thought I wouldn't like the combat system but I certainly grew to like it and would have probably been annoyed with any other system.

The storyline (so far), the characters and locations have all been what I expect from Bioware: rich, interesting and highly detailed. If you've enjoyed their past games, like Knights of the Old Republic or even Mass Effect, I can't see why you wouldn't enjoy Dragon Age. Infact, while I'm at it, if you were fond of the KotOR combat system then Dragon Age is just an improvement on that if I remember correctly, so, huzzah!

This game is definitely worth a try.

[Phott]

Hmm.. I've had no fps drop, I'm playing the game maxed out, the graphics look REALLY good.

[RefaelBA]

This game really blew my mind.
I don't think I'm even half way through and i've already put dozens of hours into my campaign.
Started out as a Dwarf Commoner, and if all of the origins are this good, then damn it, this might get into my personal top 5 games of all time.

The more I play, the more astonished I get. My favourite part thus far is the Gauntlet, if you've been there yet, you know what I mean.

[Kremator]

Yeah Gauntlet is cool, I like the personal touches they applied to the events of the game in regards to your character.

However, I really don't understand the need to deviate from the D&D handbook - I mean I would be cool with it if they brought something fresh to the table but this ends up playing like any other fantasy RPG game Bioware made.

Regardless, I just finished it and it's a satisfying ending to my many hours of adventure; this is definitely a game RPG fans must buy, it offers so much playtime and content to the point of sensory overload. I truly enjoyed Dragon Age Origins.

[dragonfliet]

I'm late to the party, but I figured I would weigh in on how awesome this game is. I'm in grad school so I'm busy as hell and I made a decision not to buy this game when it came out. Then the stupid steam sale made me buy it, but I swore I wouldn't play it. Then I was like, I'll play it just a little bit... you get the picture.

This game is HARD. I'm playing it on normal and I've died far more than I would care to admit. Sometimes its just because the battles are insane (Dragons aren't friendly) and other times it's things like packs of wolves or bandits, which are really quite easy, but I don't pay that much attention and I rarely pause to organize my team and before I know it my healer is dead and so is my tank and I'm screwed, essentially. The combat is not something that looks fun at all, I'll give people that. Watching someone pause the game every 5 seconds is yawn inducing. In battles, however, you're so overwhelmed that pausing is the only way to take a breath and organize. They feel much faster and frantic than they look.

Cremator: the best way to protect your mages from things like wolves is twofold. 1) have your tank draw enemies towards him (ie: the threaten buff) and just stick a mage on healing his butt 2) have at least one mage with the snowblast or whatever it's called spell so that when your mages DO get some enemies you can quickly freeze them and run your mages to somewhere else. Oh- and the reason to deviate from D&D is simple: they don't have to pay royalties. Though I do agree, the world is sort of generic and I wish they had gone out on a limb and created an interestingly new world (although the Dalish and City Elf ideas were clever)

The story is interesting if a little too standard for my likes and the group interaction is also a good step if also a little too simplistic. Seriously DOA Beach VolleyBall style gift giving? Yawn. Hey person, I will randomly spam gifts on you to make you like me--that's not at all like insinuating you are shallow and can simply be bought. I also wish that when you convince someone to do something via persuade skills they would actually write a good reason you persuaded them. A well thought out argument instead of: "(Persuade) Because I say so." Oh well.

Anywho, I'm supposed to be writing a conference paper and this game keeps interfering pretty hard. It's addictive and fun. I would say that the writing and storytelling (and look) is not really in the same league as Mass effect, but it is still a fantastic, fun game.

~Jason

[Wills]

Oh Maker, I love this game.

Clocked 26 hours this past week. It's rather taken over my life. The Gauntlet has been my favourite part so far, and Kolgrim's Horn! Just entered the Brecilian Forest. The first time (you know what) happened, it scared the shit outta me!

[YokaI]

Maybe it's just me, but every screen shot they have of the game to me just looks unappealing, especially the environment which that review was (for some reason) praising. Everything looks very traditional, which isn't something I expect in fantasy, and nothing really seems other worldly in any aspect when I see the game.

Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

I think with a demo I would try it, but I strongly detest the gameplay most western RPGs promote. (Heavy on the "exploration", if you'd even call it that instead of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, and quite a bit of grinding with somewhat mediocre / boring combat. Mostly the first more than the latter.)

Also, RPG soundtracks are very important to me (probably because all of the ones I play have great sound tracks) but if what was playing in the background was the soundtrack to this game, then I will probably never try it out.

Ever since I watched Wolf's Rain I just love these guys.

Hopefully this game doesn't have as many plot holes as Wolf's Rain. )= Never did I expect someone to mention an anime without me being involved in the conversation.

[Wills]

Yokai, you're wrong. This is all I have to say to you.

[Habboi]

That damn dragon! *Blows horn* I didn't expect it to swoop down on me @_@

[nub]

Never did I expect someone to mention an anime without me being involved in the conversation.

Hey, just because your avatar and signature are always pictures of an anime chick doesn't mean you're the only one who loves anime.


Anyway, the soundtrack in DAO isn't BAD, but it depends on your standards. It can be epic at times. There are some songs that could be somewhat better, but the creepy music is pretty damn good in my opinion. The game isn't as "open" as you might think it is (like Fallout 3 or something) and is in fact a rather linear RPG, like Mass Effect is. The combat isn't my particular cup of tea but the story is the biggest reason why I love the game.

[YokaI]

Well with word of it being more linear, I may be more interested. American rpgs usually lose me when they tell me to go to some place and then you say "well, how" and you have to spend hours just trying to find out how to get to said place.

And while that dragon looks cool, the outside environment doesn't really looks very awesome to me in terms of what I expect from RPG games, something more like Netherstorm in wow is the type of bizzare fantasy environments I like. That being said, anything from WoWs bc expansion is a good example of environments I typically like... I guess what I would like to know is, how bizzare do the environments get as the game progresses? And when does it become bizzare in terms of environment design, like mid way through or toward the very end? I guess it's a vague question, and I am guessing even with the typical fantasy design it has for it's environment there would probably be some magnificent architecture / landmarks to guide the player.

As for music, how does it differ genre wise? I like RPGs soundtracks, and any other sound track tbh, to have many different genres of music in one thing, but each of which tying into eachother through the reuse of a melody, or hinting to said melody by it's note structure. I guess I should say, anything by yoko kanno and nobuo uematsu is a good example of the type of music I like, though I think I also cover a lot of that in my music composer thread in the music section.


The game looks interesting, and i wish I could rent it but I hear the console version is shit. =/ So I was considering maybe a christmas purchase if it's cheap enough atm.