Dragon Age is BORING!

Didnt they fix the eyefinity bug with the patch that came out about a week ago?

Seem to remember it being in the patch notes. Patch is up to 1.2b IIRC

 

I hated Dragon Age, and normally I am a big fan of RPGs. I have other criticisms besides the combat difficulty and design:

- the fantasy world is unoriginal and uncreative
- combat is not fluid as it is interrupted constantly by the need to micromanage
- characters outside the party are flat and two-dimensional
- dialogue is flat and boring
- the storyline is pathetically weak; a lone hero saves the world from certain evil domination with the help of his sidekicks? Come on, this fantasy story is tired and stretched too thin.

There is simply nothing interesting about this game. In almost every respect, it lacks creativity and for that I would rate this game a 4/10.

 

Oh, come now - classics are considered classic for a reason! I mean, yeah, the story has been heard before, sure - it's pretty much the basic recipe for about 80% of the fantasy stories out there, in movies, print, and game (from Conan in movies to numerous book series...)

I mean, you might as well say "The sci-fi story was completely unoriginal - they had blasters, and spaceships, and aliens; it'd all been done before!"

Yes, I do get what you mean to an extent - that it is nice to see something new, and I agree this story has been told in different versions. But I think there are some common elements that form the thread of fantasy - and the 'party of adventurers saving the world from a huge threat' has been with us since Dungeons and Dragons brought pencil-and-paper fantasy gaming to basements in the 1970's. Dragon Age: Origin and every other RPG out there has to, by necessity, incorporate some of the same thread.

 

As a fantasy writer, I certainly thought about that criticism before I made it, and I think it stands well on its own. I admit that genres often have common elements; fantasy often has swords, gay wizards, elves, dwarves and the like. But storytellers invariably portray these elements in different ways; no self-respecting writer would portray dwarves in the same way as Tolkien did, they would find a new explanation and culture that give the dwarves context. The same goes for other common elements in fantasy, but Bioware did none of this, instead choosing to stick with cliches that you see all over the game. It smacks either of laziness or incompetence.

Even the dwarven underground city is a complete knockoff. That's why I said that there is nothing original; sure, you can come up with some new names, faces and voices, but it is nothing short of imaginative plagiarism to copy ideas the way they did in DAO. The game doesn't suck you into the fantasy story, which is exactly what fantasy is supposed to do. For a developer like Bioware, which has made the likes of Mass Effect, this game is a big failure.

 

Hmmmm.... Well, I respect your thought and input as a fantasy writer - I'm sure you have considered these things far more than I have, and I wish I had the skill and imagination to write. But I guess I feel that there are certain things that, if you get too far away from them, they become something different altogether.

I didn't phrase that well - let me try it this way. If I wanted to create a fantasy story, and wanted to include dwarfs in my story (or, my versions of them) and wanted to be original, how far can I go? I can probably vary the culture a bit, and the exact size, maybe the color... but if I change too many things, are they still dwarfs? For example, if my dwarfs are tall and thin and live in beehives - well, that is original, but it's changed away from the core idea so far that it's probably no longer recognizable as what I started with.

For Dragon Age, I thought it was a nice touch that they at least acknowledged racial stresses and the versions of city elves that they portray are different than many of the 'traditional' fantasy elves. Dwarfs live underground, in a big city - yeah, OK, that's a cliche, but where else would you put them and still have them be dwarves?

(OK, I'll grant you - having every dwarf in the multiverse have a vaguely Scottish accent is a little much, but I guess it's become a convention of sorts...)

 

I don't expect them to make radical changes to a given recurring element of any genre, I just expect them to not deliver reheated leftovers. To an extent, Bioware developers have to be creative in envisioning what the dwarven/elven/human civilization would look like in their unique world that they have designed. In my opinion, the developers were extremely lazy in this regard. Rather than playing Dragon Age, it would be more rewarding to just read Tolkien's work or JRR Martin's and get a better storytelling experience.

 

Strategy RPGs aren't for everyone as not everyone likes to think and game at the same time. A lot of people out there like to shut off their brains and play games as they find it more relaxing, plus current gen games have tailored a lot of the minds out there to not be able to think very hard while gaming as they are overly simplistic compared to to the games of last generations (old PC/PS1 era). As a result some people will not like this game because without much of a thought process it will be overly hard and because of that quite boring. For me on the other hand I love taking the time to slowly craft each char and strategically battle my way through every fight.

This game is AWESOME and I need more of it.

 

Loved the mechanics of DAO and I wish Mass Effect used it. Only problem I had was how the camera wouldn't let me zoom out in certain places like the alleys in Ostagar. Story's boring though. Just not a fan of dwarves and elves. It's time that Gargoyles get some love.

 

Will my notebook even play this game? Specs are down there vvv

 

Yeah, you'll be able to play it. It's fairly cpu intensive, and the P8600 is fine. Your gpu will limit you to medium-low settings with AA turned off though.

 

At first, I thought I was going to hate this game, but I gave it a try anyways, and although the combat system is not my style (I can't stand pause, unpause just to pause again), it's still a great game. I just play on easy mode

 

Alright thanks man, if only there were a way to "rent" PC games. That's the only issue I have with PC gaming is that there isn't any try before you lay down $50. There isn't a real demo either, just a character creator demo

 

Only if you can't live without a consistent 40 FPS. The game runs OK at maximum detail and texture settings (though without AA) at 1280x800 on my 8600M GT -- there are barely noticeable slowdowns in very large and heavily populated areas, but not they're not significant enough for me to care. The 3670 is a substantially better card and since the native resolution is essentially the same, I think it shouldn't have any problems.

For some difficult to understand reason, the game loves to hog the CPU -- usage of my T9300 is at 100% almost the entire time and even when I ALT-TAB it. It doesn't need all that CPU (if I run Orthos in the background the DA:O process only needs 42% or so), but it takes it anyway if nothing is in the background.

It also likes RAM -- the daorigins.exe process only takes about 1.3GB, but the total RAM usage (defined as the difference between the RAM used immediately before and immediately after quitting the game after a lengthy session) is nearly twice as much. People with only 2GB will have problems (there's a long list of complaints about very long loading times which I bet are due to the game being forced to use the hard drive as pagefile space), but with 4GB it really shouldn't matter.

 

Agreed, this game devours RAM.

 

I played this game on my 1640 until I sold it. Same specs P8600 and 3670, you'll be surprised how well it runs. I played it on fullHD 1080p resolution (RGBLED) and at medium gfx and high textures. Average FPS was 20's with dips down to 15 at times and upwards to 30. WIth this game you don't really notice the dips at all, played extremely smooth and I always had FRAPs running just to keep an eye on my frame rate. Since it looks like your resolution is a lot lower, you'll have no problem playing at medium with a bit higher FPS. Prob even high.

Also believe it or not, the character creator gives you a nice estimate of what FPS you might be getting. Prob a bit higher than actual gameplay but I ran FRAPs when using it and it was just about right in what it showed to actual game play. Also it's a bummer you missed the steam sale for this game at $38.. although EA.com might have it's sale going on still, I'll check back if it is.

Third edit*
Hey on ea.com http://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age-origins
you can purchase the digital download version of DA:O for $35 no shipping costs, but probably taxed. If you want the disc version then it's $44. Either way I guarantee it will run for you, as a matter of liking it or not, I can't say =)

 

I sometimes wonder if people are reading the codex entries... as given those I cannot understand most of the complaints.

The game really is a movie you play... indeed it has more plot than most movies. No, its not quite the plot and detail of a book, but I think perhaps you might be setting the bar too high on that one.


-Most of the even medium-interest characters in DA:O have pretty detailed stories... The main character has a full lineage hinted at, the kings and nobles have at least background to their parents/grandparents..
I am not quite sure how much background people are expecting.

-Character development (complex change in character specifically) is definitely less than the better books save the main character and what YOU choose... but once again the story centers on YOU. If you choose to not develop, then whose fault is that?
Expecting book-level complexity in a CRPG is setting the bar too high IMHO and if they accomplished it, it would surpass anyhing any game had ever done before.

-I do agree the plot is a bit recycled... but to be honest, I am pretty sure ANYTHING Bog would write I could find something (or nearly everything) recycled depending on audience expectations. Audience expectation for DA:O is pretty much the epic tale they give you. Note, it IS slightly different in that this case is not the goody-two-shoes out to save the world concept.
(I don't think I am spoiling much saying the Grey Wardens are not really an organization that can characterized as "good".)

-Most of what you can and what a beginner SHOULD do to not make the game so difficult is explained in game provided you talk to people.

-The game isn't difficult even on Hard (nightmare will actually have a chance at defeating you) Unless you are trying a completely unorthodox character like a Dex-based mage build it is quite possible to SOLO on normal. I have no idea why people find this game so difficult unless you refuse to read or listen to anything...

-You never have to pause if you learn what tactics are... set your damage dealers and support to use their specials and control the pickiest party member (usually the tank, but sometimes the mages for control spells) for the battle in question. Diablo or WoW-ites are doomed (likely on purpose) as the battles are designed to kill people who simply charge in and expect to win by default. Enemies channel you through gauntlets and use spell combos... react accordingly.

Overall, NO game ever has so completely captured my attention and desire to play as Dragon Age. I don't think a better one exists.

 

Discussion of piracy(yes, that includes trying out the game with a cracked version) is against the forum rules. Those posts have been deleted.