Dragon Age

[Vaz]

Anyone else playing Dragon Age: Origins? It's a single-player RPG with an immersive, compelling story which admittedly doesn't have much to do with dragons.

I was obsessed by the time my first session of play was over, and it also didn't take long for me to become an Alistair fangirl.

[Tcei]

I've heard alot of good things about it, and wana try it out, but $50 just isnt in my budget for awhile *sigh* eventualy...

[Kerech]

I'm not very far into the game yet, but I'm hooked as well. I love how you're standing around after battle talking to NPCs and you're all spattered head to toe in blood

[Azure]

Been playing on and off for over a week now and it is a good single player RPG. Playing as a Dwarf Noble Warrior and the plot seems pretty nice so far. Every race and class has a unique prelog to it as well with unique quests.

I'll try not to ruin it for people but it does circle around a demonic / draconic entity but I have yet to uncover much information about it in game as I just became a grey member and fought the first major battle past the betrayal and into the first city...

[AmonGwareth]

Got it the day it came out. Put about 40 hours into it so far. Played the Human Noble and Dwarven Noble storylines, but haven't finished it with any character yet. Great game.

[RuneDragoon]

Que the dragon age posters on my wall, and a collector's hotel door keycard...

Got them from PAX 2007 which was by far, still impressive. However I saw dragon age then and was at the unveiling event for the game editor (yay!). I still don't have the game but since that day I've really wanted it.

*peer at posters* I will have you... some day.

[Silverblaze]

The game is phenomenal.

Bioware does good things.

[Takora Drakan]

I call the gametitle "misleading customers", srsly when dragon stands on it, it should have friggin playable dragons in it. Else call it Biped age or such pfff

[AmonGwareth]

I call the gametitle "misleading customers", srsly when dragon stands on it, it should have friggin playable dragons in it. Else call it Biped age or such pfff

You obviously haven't played it then. The name has meaning in-game, it refers to the cycle of Ages. Each age has a name (sort of like the Chinese Zodiacs) and the current age in the game happens to be the Dragon Age.

And, the bad guy is an archdemon who takes the form of a Dragon.

[Shian]

I want to play!

I've been going crazy but must save stuff that family can buy me for Christmas! >.< *asplodes*

[Kerech]

You obviously haven't played it then. The name has meaning in-game, it refers to the cycle of Ages. Each age has a name (sort of like the Chinese Zodiacs) and the current age in the game happens to be the Dragon Age.

And, the bad guy is an archdemon who takes the form of a Dragon.

Yeah, but you don't get to see him much except in dreams, until the end (I haven't gotten there yet).

From the commercials, and the videos that floated around, I expected wall-to-wall dragons

Still it's a fun game! Just needs more dragon :P

[AmonGwareth]

I have fought a Dragon in the game that was not the archdemon. He was a serious pain in the butt.

[Takora Drakan]

You obviously haven't played it then.

And I don't plan to. I don't like games where dragons are just balloon monsters that give you exp, nuff said. Story here or there. You can give a dragon as much backstory as you want, it will rended null as soon as you have to kill it. Dragon age doesnt invent the RPG adventure gerne new, just with better graphics, and I am not such a graphic geek like others, else I would have left Horizons long time ago.

And yes the commericials showed much dragons, I actually expect then to see much dragons, but what I heard until now, not much dragons in the game.

And a oh so bad archdemon that takes the form of a dragon, that is just stereotypical crap. Why not try a giant beetle or worm for once?

One of the reasons I liked neverwinter nights so much, you could decide if you wanted to slay the dragons there, or just annoy them with your questions and hop around them like a children around a christmas tree. (yes I did that as I saw the first dragon that wanted not to eat my head)

[AmonGwareth]

Nobody is saying you have to, Takora. I was just explaining why it is called "Dragon Age". It is a good game and the name fits, thats all. Unfortunately you will be missing out on a very good RPG, but to each his or her own. C'est la vie.

[Kerech]

Has anyone played through as an evil character? Is it harder? easier? more fun?

[Velea]

My husband is playing it as a "less than good" character. It's interesting, is what he keeps saying.

I've thought about playing a rogue character that just picks every evil option she can just to see how the others in my party react. But I need to get through the main storyline once first.

For me this game is everything that a good single player RPG should be.... enough storyline behind it that it has great replay-ability, non-linear story with tons of side quests. I frequently find myself telling my husband "No, wait, don't tell me that! I haven't done that yet", because he's going through the story in a different order than I am. And yet I still haven't managed to totally screw up the overall story because of those choices.

So yeah, love the game. Don't suppose everyone who plays Istaria would mind if we shut down everything for a few weeks while the design team goes on a "research sabbatical" would you?

[Kerech]

Don't suppose everyone who plays Istaria would mind if we shut down everything for a few weeks while the design team goes on a "research sabbatical" would you?

We've been there... done that... the former owners seemed to be off doing something else for 8 or 9 months before you guys brought us back to life

[Shian]

I got weak and bought it this afternoon. So much for my lair
SO and I decided we'd have a separate holiday in Nov from now on so we don't have to wait till Christmas for games.

First impressions:

1. Oh hey, nice VO cast. Kinda floored when Duncan spoke. Hey, didn't I just listen to you not 10 minutes ago when I was playing Assassin's Creed? Yes I think I did. <3

2. The beginning of the storyline seems to be a hybrid of NWN2 and Witcher.

3. It's got a number of "things on my list every good game should have"
It runs in windowed mode to make it tab-friendly.
Great BGM
Decent VO cast

4. It's missing one of those and that's an autorun. 'Cmon Bioware... -_-

5. The AI in this game either sucks or is terribly hard to handle.
-Everytime I see the "Saving Game" popup, I know that I'm going to be reloading 4 or 5 times. One of two things will happen, my party members will simply stop auto attacking -or- I can't get them to stick near me enough to retreat and regroup. I'm currently stuck at the beginning of the tower where there's like 6 archers, a mage that throws fireballs at you and some other enemies.

How are other people getting past this part? Story is a bit too linear for my tastes. If I'm out in the field, the game won't let me return to town to get more supplies if I need them.

6. I'm severely hating the feature where you have to kill EVERYTHING in the room in order to get out of combat and I dunno, HEAL?

I got so frustrated with having to reload due to the above, I'm currently running through everyone's beginner stories. Cool beans

[Velea]

5. The AI in this game either sucks or is terribly hard to handle.
-Everytime I see the "Saving Game" popup, I know that I'm going to be reloading 4 or 5 times. One of two things will happen, my party members will simply stop auto attacking -or- I can't get them to stick near me enough to retreat and regroup.

I know I fixed this, I just can't remember how. There's something about selecting all party members with a single keystroke... maybe one of the slash keys? Does anyone else remember? Once I hit that, I never had that problem again.

I'm currently stuck at the beginning of the tower where there's like 6 archers, a mage that throws fireballs at you and some other enemies.

I can't recall specifically enough where that might be. There's a good walkthrough on wikicheats that offers some strategy too.

Story is a bit too linear for my tastes. If I'm out in the field, the game won't let me return to town to get more supplies if I need them.

No offense, but you must be REALLY early on in the game. Not long after you become a Grey Warden, there's almost no "linear" path to follow. You can do things in almost any order, and there are side quests galore that let you step out of the main storyline. To me this game is anything but linear, but that could be just me.

6. I'm severely hating the feature where you have to kill EVERYTHING in the room in order to get out of combat and I dunno, HEAL?

Again, no offense, but this is much more realistic to me. Your enemies aren't going to stop and say "Oh, I'm sorry, you need to heal now. Let me stay in this room while you go into the next one and heal up." Yes it makes for some very challenging rooms sometimes. There's one in particular that I have yet to be able to 'crack' no matter how many times I try it. But that's this particular spot is the first one where a combination of Wynne and some carefully used heal potions won't let me be victorious. I LIKE that there are some combats you have to "micro-manage" everyone in order to win. Course that could be because I'm still, after 30+hours of play trying to figure out the whole "tactics" thing for each character.

I got so frustrated with having to reload due to the above, I'm currently running through everyone's beginner stories. Cool beans

Glad that overall you're enjoying it. I'm in total agreement on the auto-run thing, btw. No idea why, but many single player RPG's don't include that yet. Seems like a basic must have to me, but I guess makers of single player games haven't gotten that memo yet.

[Vaz]

I use Tactics very sparingly - mainly just by setting the general behaviour thing to Aggressive. I also have Self/Any directives for a select few sustained abilities. Other than that, frequent pausing and micromanagement is how I roll. Nevertheless I play on Easy mode because I suck.

Just completed a playthrough for the first time. Looking forward to this game's sequels, whenever they're developed and whatever form they take. Also thinking about getting ahold of the two prequel novels.