Is dragon age like oblivion? Is it any good?

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
I remember getting oblivion as everyone here and on other forums went crazy for it and the graphics were apparently great etc, it was an alright game but tbh i got bored with the main quest pretty quickly and went around beating the hell out of guards/animals with a hammer then wishing i had a nanosuit or somthing to hide from their friends who came looking for me :/ i did some side quests too and beat some crazy stalker elf to death with a hammer and stole a lot of stuff. Is dragon age the same kinda thing? It sounds similar.

I see its by bioware, i liked mass effect, in fact mass effect was amazing the story was fantastic! Has dragon age got a good story?
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Dragon Age is an RPG like Oblivion but entirely different. It's a much better game. In Oblivion I never felt like doing any of the side quests cus the game never made me feel like I ever cared about anyone. Voice acting in Oblivion isn't that good at all and especially when you compare it to Dragon Age it's a no contest. The voice acting can make or break a story game and Dragon Age is pretty damn good in that aspect. Combat is much different though. I like it better than Oblivion but some others do not.
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
7,470
9
91
Dragon Age: Origins is more story-driven and linear in nature than Oblivion is. You can't just wander about the world aimlessly. Both have their pros and cons. I've enjoyed both. If you like Mass Effect I think you'll like DA:O. I highly recommend installing the respec mod with it though.

You may also want to wait until Bioware comes out with a Gold edition, or something similar, that will have the original game + expansion + DL content all in one. Right now they're keen on nickel and dime-ing their current player base for bits of new content every month. :thumbsdown:
 

RyanPaulShaffer

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
3,434
1
0
Ugh...I don't know, it's not like we actually have a Dragon Age discussion thread (or five) in this forum already or anything...
 

Kalmah

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2003
3,692
1
76
I don't even consider Oblivion to be a game. Or at least an RPG..

Let's see.. Animation are horrid.. there are 3 recorded voice overs for the entire game, level-scaled dungeons.. so instead of exploring the empty world you can just keep entering/re-entering the same dungeon because it's going to be the same thing in all of them.. once you get glass armor everybody else in the game is walking around in the same green glass armor... I don't want to write an essay here.. I could if I wanted.

Dragon Age is an RPG.. and they keep the 'RP' in the G. lmao
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
Everyone keeps complaining about how the enemies level with you in Oblivion, but isn't it the same in Dragon Age?
 

Kalmah

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2003
3,692
1
76
Everyone keeps complaining about how the enemies level with you in Oblivion, but isn't it the same in Dragon Age?

Oblivion is a sandbox world.. Dragon Age is story driven.

You don't want level scaling in a sandbox game.. it makes having a sandbox game kind of pointless right?
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
nothing like oblivion. Oblivion is 1st person shooter single player style while this is 3rd person isometric party style.

DA is also actually a good game.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Dragon Age is an RPG like Oblivion but entirely different. It's a much better game. In Oblivion I never felt like doing any of the side quests cus the game never made me feel like I ever cared about anyone. Voice acting in Oblivion isn't that good at all and especially when you compare it to Dragon Age it's a no contest. The voice acting can make or break a story game and Dragon Age is pretty damn good in that aspect. Combat is much different though. I like it better than Oblivion but some others do not.

Heh yeah oblivion was a bit rubbish for voice acting, reminds me of the zero punctuation review of it "characters frequently found conversing with themselves about how much they love buying from the shop owned by themselves" haha.

DA sounds ok, i like a good story.
 

Modular

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2005
5,027
67
91
Ugh...I don't know, it's not like we actually have a Dragon Age discussion thread (or five) in this forum already or anything...

I'm not one to do this usually, but really? Stop padding your post count by coming into every DA:O thread and saying the same thing.
 

bullbert

Senior member
May 24, 2004
717
0
0
For fun, use Google to search AT forums for "dragon age nickel and dime"

I did and my PC imploded, created a black hole, and sucked in my entire gaming library (3 decades worth). Now, I can only play solitaire on my portable, and my debit card gets billed a quarter every time I shuffle.


edit: back on topic. Similar genre? yes. "Like" the other? more or less, yes, but the other posters above have already pointed out the differences.
 
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zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Heh yeah oblivion was a bit rubbish for voice acting, reminds me of the zero punctuation review of it "characters frequently found conversing with themselves about how much they love buying from the shop owned by themselves" haha.

DA sounds ok, i like a good story.

AHAHA yea the voice acting really is bad. It's sad that they never even thought of making it better when they made Fallout 3.

The story is definitely better. The voice acting really does help. It is linear though as others have said so you follow a preset path but they can make a better story that way.
 
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HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2005
6,161
2
81
i like oblivion so much more, i hate linear games with a passion. the exception to this rule was dragon age because i played it, but only once because my second time around i got bored half way through. oblivion has better looking gear, land i think the skills/levels are done is a lot better as well. if youre computer can handle the graphics on high it looks a little better.....and there isnt some stupid dwarf always asking if you want an enchantment.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
i like oblivion so much more, i hate linear games with a passion. the exception to this rule was dragon age because i played it, but only once because my second time around i got bored half way through. oblivion has better looking gear, land i think the skills/levels are done is a lot better as well. if youre computer can handle the graphics on high it looks a little better.....and there isnt some stupid dwarf always asking if you want an enchantment.

Well the openness is better but that's about it. Voice acting was worse, story was worse, graphics aren't that good either but Dragon Age isn't anything special as well, most of the different environments to free roam in all look the same with the same bland textures.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
36
91
Heh yeah oblivion was a bit rubbish for voice acting, reminds me of the zero punctuation review of it "characters frequently found conversing with themselves about how much they love buying from the shop owned by themselves" haha.

DA sounds ok, i like a good story.

DA voice acting is great in the cut scenes, but the towns have that same feeling as they did in Oblivion and most RPGs. They are sparsely populated, and the residents that do live there say and do the same things over and over. Your character also constantly says the same stupid stuff during combat and every time you loot or open a door they say "It has begun" or "As you say".

I like DA because it's fun and has a good (even if predictable) story, but it still has that canned RPG feeling IMO.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
DA voice acting is great in the cut scenes, but the towns have that same feeling as they did in Oblivion and most RPGs. They are sparsely populated, and the residents that do live there say and do the same things over and over. Your character also constantly says the same stupid stuff during combat and every time you loot or open a door they say "It has begun" or "As you say".

I like DA because it's fun and has a good (even if predictable) story, but it still has that canned RPG feeling IMO.

The worst is "Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back?" I've heard that 1000 times.
 

bullbert

Senior member
May 24, 2004
717
0
0
DA voice acting is great in the cut scenes, but the towns have that same feeling as they did in Oblivion and most RPGs. They are sparsely populated, and the residents that do live there say and do the same things over and over. Your character also constantly says the same stupid stuff during combat and every time you loot or open a door they say "It has begun" or "As you say".

I like DA because it's fun and has a good (even if predictable) story, but it still has that canned RPG feeling IMO.

If games tied NPCs with voice acting into the good/evil/karma/whatever system, where you could kill the NPCs (over and over again) whom you considered to have extremely irritating dialog, and you could do so without hurting your "karma career path", now THAT would be a gaming system worth playing.

For example, you are a good guy, but the leader NPC of the good guys has really bad voice acting or really bad script writing, so bad you just want to slap him. But the game is coded so that I could flag him as a 'git' and I could give him a beatdown every visit and STILL get good++ points. Or maybe at least get favor++ points so the other NPCs like you more for giving the 'git' NPC(s) a good thrashing from time to time.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,202
216
106
I believe that Oblivion with mods can be quite a good game, but Fallout 3 is much superior, even without mods. As for Dragon Age, it's completely different, I wouldn't even try to compare them against each others, they're both overall great games in their own rights, I myself do prefer Dragon Age for many reasons, but I like Fallout 3 just as much as I like Dragon Age, in the end I think that Oblivion has had its time, it didn't age as well as Morrowind in my opinion, I could re-install Morrowind and play it again without a problem, but I haven't re-installed Oblivion in roughly a year or so and I really don't miss it.
 

AKA

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,304
0
76
I like Dragon Age okay, kinda reminds me of WoW on a smaller scale. My wife loves DAO but she has to play it on easy. Nitemare is too easy for me so it's not much of a challenge.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
The worst is "Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back?" I've heard that 1000 times.

Every time I see this mentioned, I add an agreement - thousands of times, drives you crazy. Don't pick the 'violent' voice. It got the be while I was playing all I noticed was the constant repitition of that.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
Way different. I actually prefer Oblivion for the combat. DAO combat makes me want to eat a bullet, but the rest of it is pretty good other than pretty shitty graphics.
 

mb

Lifer
Jun 27, 2004
10,233
2
71
DAO = great
Oblivion = snooze fest

That's all you need to know.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
DAO = great
Oblivion = snooze fest

That's all you need to know.

All I can say is... 2 weeks after I finished Oblivion.. I could no longer remember what that game was about nor the plot.

2 weeks after I finished Dragon Age: Origins, I remember every single character, and they are all memorable as well as very nice plot trying them all together.

Can't wait to play again when expansion comes out.