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.