Dragon Age: Origins

[Beev]

Played about 5 hours on the PS3 version last night. It hasn't gripped me yet, but I feel like something is about to happen that will make it. I LOVE the blood splatters you get on yourself.

 

[erwos]

I LOVE the blood splatters you get on yourself.

I actually thought it was fairly gratuitous and didn't particularly like it. On weapons, yeah, it can stay a bit, but on characters, I'd like it to wear off faster. Maybe the designers wanted to better communicate how we're killing stuff and that's a messy process. *shrugs*

The story is fantastic, albeit it borrows liberally from A Song of Ice and Fire. Bioware definitely created a universe that they could put some more games in, and I'm pretty sure, five hours in, that I'd rather like to play more of them.

 

[Beev]

You can have the dog clean you off, provided you use him as a party member.

 

[sourceninja]

Graphics are not a concern to me. I still play 10 year old games. I just want good solid gameplay and story. If those exist it could still be tile based for all I care.

 

[warcrow]

I played both the PC and the X360 versions yesterday (I'm a double-dipper, yes) and the differences in the UI and graphics are quite significant. The PC version has all the settings maxed out and--to me--its a really good looking game. I cannot say the same for the X360 version since it looks a bit more generic in it's aesthetics, but I'm not saying it looks bad either. It's fine, I just with they went with a little more of a stylized look.

For me, though, the thing that stands out the most is sound design and music--it's astounding! I have fond memories of the Baldur's Gate series, and one of the things the game did so well was the ambient sounds. I loved chatting someone up in a bar and in the background you could hear the clinking of glasses, chitter-chatter and just general pub sounds one would expect to hear. I'm happy to say that that sort of detail has made it into DA.

Man, so many thoughts on this game but not enough time to type it all.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

So, if I loved Baldurs Gate 1&2, but don't have a pc that can run this, is it worth getting on 360 or PS3.

My hesitation is based on things I've heard about the console view being detrimental to tactical planning.(my favorite part of the BG series). I've also heard you can't pause and queue up spells on console...is this true?

 

[mchammer187]

wonder how well my pc can run this or if I should stick to a console version

8800 GTS
Q6600
6 GB Ram

 

[Garou24]

I loved Balur's Gate 1 and 2 and I got this for the Xbox 360 so i could relax and play it on the big screen and surround sound. I am really enjoying it so far. Does remind me of the older RPG games like badur's gate.

 

[warcrow]

wonder how well my pc can run this or if I should stick to a console version

8800 GTS
Q6600
6 GB Ram

Your machine will run it just fine. I suggest picking it up on Impulse like I did and try using this code to get 20% off: "SURVEY-2009"

 

[viivo]

I like it so far, but it can't compare to PST, BG or even Icewind Dale. It feels to me more like NWN 2.5 with a different ruleset, but that isn't a bad thing. I love all the lore (I'm a loser, I think I've spent more time reading the codex entries than actually playing the game)

 

[sourceninja]

I played a few hours as a human warrior. Now I'm wondering if I should start over and play a different class. It seems I spend most of my time micro managing my mage....

 

[Beev]

I messed up and didn't gear up my other characters at all until last night :embarassed;

My main character almost has enough strength to use the Blood Dragon armor, but Morrigan and Co. are all wearing their starter gear

 

[nanobreath]

I like it so far, but it can't compare to PST, BG or even Icewind Dale. It feels to me more like NWN 2.5 with a different ruleset, but that isn't a bad thing. I love all the lore (I'm a loser, I think I've spent more time reading the codex entries than actually playing the game)

Oh don't worry, you're not the only one! Good backstory and lore can really improve a game. I love the way they present a lot of the history. You can tell how the stories have grown larger than life, and most likely isn't how it really happened. I also like the dialogue in game, particularly the grey warden companion you get from the start, alastair(something like that). I love his sarcastic and down to earth replies. I guess because that's just how I would react to it all.

I think one of my favorite small things in the game so far is the sound. Particularly the ambient noises. With a 5.1 setup I've found many times I've started thinking, "dammit I wish those crickets outside would shutup." Or wishing the neighbors would shut their dog up only to realize shortly thereafter that it's all in game.

 

[mc866]

Your machine will run it just fine. I suggest picking it up on Impulse like I did and try using this code to get 20% off: "SURVEY-2009"

This code doesn't appear to still be valid, do you know when it expired?

 

[erwos]

This code doesn't appear to still be valid, do you know when it expired?

November 1st

 

[Illusio]

Been playing this game on 360 and I think it's a lot of fun. Graphically not the best I've ever seen, but that's ok. Really fun game play. My only problem is I can't decide why character I want to play. I've gone through 3 different origin stories. I'm never going to get past the grey wardens ritual if I keep restarting

 

[sourceninja]

I"m going to buy the PC version and just put the 360 version to the side. I don't like the control scheme on the 360. The pc version looks sweet!

 

[erwos]

I"m going to buy the PC version and just put the 360 version to the side. I don't like the control scheme on the 360. The pc version looks sweet!

It gets a little hectic on the 360, yeah. One of the obnoxious things the game does is move your party up with you whenever you enter into a conversation - meaning your casters are often right in the line of fire when "negotiations" don't go well.

 

[Queasy]

GameTrailers did a video comparison between the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

 

[viivo]

GameTrailers did a video comparison between the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Wow, I can't believe how bad the framerate on the PS3 is. I heard it's better looking, but in that video it looks exactly the same as the 360 version. Judging from that video, the PS3 version is unplayable.

 

[iamwiz82]

I'm playing PS3 and do see some fraterate drops, but it's an awesome game so far.

 

[Beev]

Mini-rant.

I hate low number systems (like d20). It's like they expect you to miss 50% of the time, and while that may be good balance, it's not fun. I'm a 2H using warrior and I can't stand it. It's annoying. Makes me wish the game was a high numbers game instead.

 

[erwos]

Actually, my "mini-rant" would be how uneven difficulty becomes later in the game. There are some encounters that just seem out of this world on normal, and others that are complete push-overs. It's not even correlated to whether they're a boss or not - I've had boss encounters that went over easy, and I've had particularly nasty normal encounters that just decimated me in seconds.

In general, it seems like the ones with more than one mage protected by a horde are particularly unbalanced - the mages just brutally spam stuns, paralyzes, and knock-downs while their buddies pound you to death. If you're not lucky enough to hit the mages with ranged attacks first, you're basically screwed. Even just one mage isn't so bad, but there's something about the AI that really ramps up the difficulty when you have to deal with two or more.

The first PC patch apparently tweaked party strength upwards a bit for normal difficulty, which seems like an appropriate solution. Making heals instantaneous and not requiring their own action would also do wonders.

 

[Beev]

Yeah I agree with the wonky difficulty too. Enemy mages are absolutely godly. And crowd control spells last for far too long. I don't remember what it was, but I was stunned for 10 seconds one time. That's just completely ridiculous.

 

[erwos]

Yeah I agree with the wonky difficulty too. Enemy mages are absolutely godly. And crowd control spells last for far too long. I don't remember what it was, but I was stunned for 10 seconds one time. That's just completely ridiculous.

See, that's the funny thing: I'm OK with some crowd control, and I think it's refreshing to see the AI do it. But, as you've noted, crowd control spells are just so powerful in this game that having the AI use them too freely ceases to be fun (ala Lost Planet rocket juggles).

I think part of it is also that damage spells act as crowd control, so the AI might think "oh, I just stunned him a couple times", when, in fact, it's gone "freeze, stun, knock-down freeze, stun". In fact, that might be part of the solution, too: nerf the crowd control effects of damage spells a bit.

Oh, and another thing: I'd love to read the lore of this game in depth, but it's so damn long that I think EA should release an eBook or HTML version of it.