Dragon Age: Origins free download

If you add Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins (the game so good that the sequel crushed the souls of its players in comparison) to your collection on EA's Steam competitor Origin before October 14th, you'll own the game permanently for free. Just a head's up.

This is a VERY good game--I'd say one of Bioware's top five--so it's absolutely worth it if you hadn't played it yet.

Dragon Age: Origins Is Free On PC Right Now

 

I actually bought the ultimate edition on steam a while back and haven't played it yet. It's definitely in the back log but thank you for posting this

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Thanks for this!

 

Thanks for this! Another free game for my Origin Library...

 

Before I saw this promotion (to stir up interest for Dragon Age 3, which is rumored to be a return to form after the controversial Dragon Age 2), I was seriously considering spending $20 to buy DA:O on Origin on this even though I'd already played it to completion because I only owned the Mac version and my six-year-old MacBook isn't in gaming condition anymore. Seriously, the game is that good.

 

Nice... Nothing like a free game..even if it means I have to further validate Origin's existence

 

But old games can launch standalone w/o Origin, no?

 

Yeah I think they can. Using all these front ends made me forget the good old days.

 

Nice try EA, but 7,5EUR I've spent on Steam for Legendary Edition was way better deal than free DAO+Origin. Keep trying EA, one day you might succeed. I also was lucky, because at the same time I bought DAO, Bioware was giving all DLC clutter (rings, armour, and other crap) for free. Which actually proves that I, in fact, sort of have a EA/Origin/Bioware/etc. account.
Nonetheless, the game is freakin' amazing. And that comes from a guy who doesn't like fantasy games. And even if I didn't finish it (damn mods broke the game at some point), I enjoyed every minute of 30h+ I've spent in game. IMO, DAO was the last good Bioware game.

 

This game is so good that it is worth putting up with Origin to get. It's so good that I spent hours on it last night playing again and enjoying it all over again after having played the game to absolute completion.

Note please, that even with it offered for free, no one should regret buying DA:O ever...

This is the definition of what a computer RPG should be like; made in an era where games were made for PC first and dumbed down for console later.
Arguably one of the best games ever made for PC period.

I hope the third installment takes after DA:O.
However, the third one is still saddled with consoles...
The third one will probably be like Skyrim and require the modding community to put it anywhere near as good as DA:O.

 

"Let's take a look at the teeth of this gift horse, now shall we?"

 

Never gonna happen. Inquisition is built on the Frostbite 3 Engine. Zero mod support.

 

Look how that turned out for Troy. If only they had looked...

Well then, another title I can skip. Good .
Shame really, some games really benefit from mods.

 

Note please... that Frostbite is difficult to mod, but not impossible.
Bioware is not officially supporting mods, but they aren't opposing it either.
(no restrictions beyond the engine issues)

Battlefield 4 is being specifically held back from modding by DICE as they "aren't ready for it yet".
Most likely this is the console focus coming out.
Note, even DICE didn't say "impossible".

Bioware has not tipped their hand quite yet in this regard.
All we have is "not officially supported".

"Unlikely" or "not easily" are likely correct.
"Impossible" or "never" I simply do not believe.
The PC modding community is quite simply too potent to be held back by anything short of complete opposition by the developer. (and sometimes that doesn't even win)

Then again, after DA2, Bioware has lost most of their credibility for PC gamers.
Here's hoping they want it back.

 

You wanted mods to fix problems with the game. But we don't know yet whether or not DA3 is going to be epic straight out of the box. If it is, I think it'd be a darned shame just to skip it because it doesn't support mods.

I disagree. I didn't like DA2, but it's fundamental flaw (scope of gameplay that was too narrow and with too much repetition of setting) is just a sign to me of a failed experiment, instead of a game designer that will never turn out another good game. DA2 was an experiment--what if a fantasy game wasn't an epic travel-the-world-to-save-the-world epic, but instead a narrow story about a few people in their particular setting? I didn't enjoy playing the finished product, but I see what they were trying to do.

I absolutely haven't written off Bioware.

 

BC2 came 4.5 years ago. Frostbite 1.5. Never been successfully modded.

BF3 came out 3 years ago. Frostbite 2. Never been successfully modded.

...

None of that has been for a lack of effort. At some point, modding basically is impossible if no tools and SDK are released whatsoever and the engine and file systems are extremely proprietary and locked down. It's pretty naive to think otherwise.

Frostbite is being used for basically every non-sports, non-casual game across all of EA's studios. You can bet the house they won't ever release mod support. Too much money is at stake. They want to sell you bucket loads of paid DLC. Articles such as this one confirm their renewed commitment to shafting gamers.

 

Let me add more fundamental flaws... removal of tactical combat, shallow characters, and massive over-streamlining. (otherwise known as "dumbing down for console")

To most PC gamers that's pretty much treason. Especially for a sequel to a game like DA:O. They made a PC icon into a console sell-out. (and not even a fairly decent one)

I didn't just dislike DA2... it was the defacto standard for how awful consoles can destroy games until Diablo3 came out.

I haven't written Bioware off quite yet... but pretty close.

 

The tactical combat is returning in DA3:

Polygon hands-on.

And the idea that "shallow characters" is a console-versus-PC issue is totally false. The Last of Us? Final Fantasy VII? Meanwhile, there's plenty of shallow characters in PC games. There's simply no correlation either way between platform and quality of characters.

Diablo 3 was written as a PC game and only ported to consoles much later. Its worst factor--the game-breaking auction house--never appeared on the console version at all. D3 is an example of how you can't blame bad PC games on consoles.

 

Console-type game... the big guns would not even bother as lipstick on a pig doesn't help anything.

Console-type arcade-shooter game... lipstick on a pig.


As for money-grubbing... yah I can believe that. However, the same might apply to any game being modded. Its the desire and potency of the community involved and the level of opposition.

I don't know what agreements Bioware signed to use the engine... but if they decided they could leave the door open even a little, modding may be possible.
If the agreement is ironclad, you never know what might be leaked. If Bioware has 100% sold out to consoles, then DA3 might not be worth modding to start with.

 

Please don't straw man. I was talking about mod support, not whether the games were good or not. Plenty of good games don't have mod support, and vice-versa. I used BC2 and BF3 as examples because they had the largest player bases and thus had the most people trying to crack them.

And I'd have to severely disagree regarding Bad Company 2. It was the last good game in the Battlefield franchise. "Lipstick on a pig" does nothing to address whatever you think is wrong with the games, just makes it feel like you're generalizing without ever having played them in-depth.

 

Obviously it's not the main reason why I won't buy it, but it is one of them, and a big one. Heck, there are a lot of games that don't support/have mods, yet I play them.
One of the reasons is (no surprises) Origin. I don't won't another stupid launcher on my OS. I know "but you use Steam." I will say this, Valve is as evil as EA or Ubi, but you know, they were the first, I kinda liked them, I stuck in it now. If AC2/FC3/FC3BD weren't so good I wouldn't put up with Uplay. I also don't buy Ubisoft games from Steam anymore. Yo dawg, you need to run the launcher to run the launcher to launch the game...Gah! The only thing worse than that are poor people who have to install unnecessary crap to play BF online. Good thing EA haven't had anything worth my attentions since like 2009 or 2010.
Oh and believe me, if I could, I would buy all my games from GOG (until they turned evil), but unfortunately, I can't. Next thing you know all ather game devs are gonna release their own launchers.
I believe that as a consumer I can make a choice for myself, do I want it or not. Even if DAI turns out to be a great game, I honestly don't care much. There are <del>tons</del> few good console only games. Sure I would like to play RDR or The Last Of Us, but in the end, my Steam and GOG libraries are nearing 200 games, and I don't care.

P.S. sorry for turning yet another EA game topic into Origin discussions .

 

I just put a shortcut for each game I have into one folder. That way I can go to one place and find my whole game library there, even though it was acquired partly from Steam, partly from Origin, partly from Amazon, partly from GOG, and partly from Blizzard. I'd rather shop around and get the best deals (and get all the distributor exclusives) than go "all in" with just one distributor.

 

So I hear... I am hoping this is true and that the final version of the game plays closer to DA:O than DA2.

Let me stop you right there... a game might have very deep characters on console as it isn't the hardware that makes this happen. Indeed, sometimes games developed for console break the mold in many different ways. It is the expected audience that makes console games what they are. In DA2's case, the game was developed with a single-digit mentality (frankly a retarded single-digit mentality) in mind. THIS is what makes it a "console game". Frankly if more games were like The Last of Us, the whole gaming industry would be a lot better off. (console and PC)

I'm sorry, but anyone who played D3 at release knows all too well that they were little more than beta testers for the console release. The auction house, as problematic as it was, was NOT the only thing wrong with D3. How about staggeringly stupid game mechanics, pretty much all but a handful of skills for each class completely useless, and itemization so stale that for the most part legendary items were just different colored rares? Nevermind that pretty much every class was just about what color you killed everything with? (everyone kited at release, melee was a death wish)

All of that was dumbed down from D2 to be console-friendly as they assumed the best their audience could handle was tying their own shoes with their mommy's help. D2 veterans felt like they were being forced into hand-holding. Where are the decisions that matter? Where is the gameplay or mechanics that matter? Where are the runewords? Where are the enemies who resist certain attacks? Why did the same tactic and equipment set work on every character?

DA2 did the same thing... dumber enemies, dumber NPCs, dumber combat, shallow and stupid dialogue... essentially making everyone who loved DA:O feel like they were being mollycoddled. That is the betrayal we are talking about and the mortal sin Bioware must wipe away.

We went from a fine wine to baby-filtered apple juice.

 

There are shallow PC games and shallow console games, and deep PC games and deep console games. You keep using "console game" as a synonym for "shallow game," and that's a complete falsehood.

Since Blizzard is overwhelmingly a PC-oriented developer, since it launched on PC sixteen months before it launched on console, and since the primary monetization scheme in D3 (taking a portion off the top of each transaction in the real money auction house) was a PC exclusive, I really don't think you can credibly argue that D3 was always intended to be primarily a console game, and the PC version was just a beta test for the console version.

DA:O was released simultaneously for consoles and PCs. DA2 was released simultaneously for consoles and PCs. Saying what's good about DA:O was that it was a "PC game" and that DA2 was bad because it was a "console game" is some bizarre no-true-Scotsman fallacy.

 

No its not.
Exceptions exist on both sides... although PC games are very specifically aimed at specific age groups.

PC gamers are generally young adults and even those are advanced in many ways.
Consoles are intentionally designed as toys and to be staggeringly easy to use even for the lowest-common-denominator.

Games like DA:O are adult in nature given the themes and adult situations and quite-muddled sense of morality.
The minute a game falls below single-digit mentality expectations... its aimed at the console crowd and we BOTH know it.

This does not mean an adult cannot enjoy a console game, or that the odd console game is aimed at adults.
It simply admits to where marketing is being focused.

Remind me again how long D3 took to develop.
Compare gameplay from the original D3 before they dumped all the original talent to what shipped.
Remember when Blizzard was about "when its done"?
Remember when Blizzard shipped instant classics?
Are you seriously arguing the complexity of D3 at release was even in the neighborhood of D2?
That sound is your argument crumbling.

Let's help you understand that when a game is released has absolutely NO bearing on what it was developed for when it comes to market.
Trial markets are opened all the time for products before their target market is hit.

Do I have to remind you about the tobacco market? Are you going to argue that their target was the legal people the law said they could?

D3 release was simply a money grab when they knew quite well they would completely alienate their PC market with a game not even ready for console.
They released a paid beta... got the cash and the info and released a more polished D3 to console. If it wasn't so sad, it would be brilliant.

DA2 was the same kind of thing... dumbed down, aimed at console users with less expectations and less needs.
It is much easier to make a product for someone who is barely going to play a game for a few minutes and get bored or who at best expects a handful of hours of gameplay. If you don't want to see the writing on the wall... that's your business I guess.

DA:O reminds me just how good DA2 should have been and reminds me just how frustrated I was with Bioware.
I sincerely hope DA3 is anywhere near DA:O.

 

I've been playing both PC and console games for decades, and it's my experience that there's no difference in age or in mental maturity between the two scenes (with the exception of realistic flight simulation, which tends to attract a far older audience than most other game genres [edit]and with the exception of Nintendo, which obviously targets children more than anyone else in the gaming world[/edit]). I've certainly observed a difference in technological know-how (PC gamers tend to be more tech-literate), but I've never witnessed a difference in average age or average maturity levels between the PC scene and the console scene, or that advertising for PC games is somehow more mature.

Also, if PC gamers are older and more mature than console gamers, explain League of Legends. The most popular PC game in the world right now, and a PC exclusive. Just sayin...

And I have no idea how tobacco proves that DA:O was a PC game and DA2 was a console game when both games were released on both platforms simultaneously. Yeah, DA:O was a better game than DA2, but that doesn't mean the former was a "PC game" and the latter was a "console game."

 

The LoL community is toxic because it's so freaking big, not because it's a PC game. Player-for-player, the CoD crowd on consoles is just as bad, if not worse.

 

That was my point. You've got your same mix of mature and immature, youth and adult, in the PC gaming scene and the console gaming scene.

 

The more people there are in a group, the greater number of asshats you're gonna get. That all I was trying to say.

 

Don't forget the other freebies

The Stone Prisoner DLC: https://social.bioware.com/page/da1-dlc
Bonus for Origins, Awakening and Dragon Age II: Choose Language | BioWare Social Network

You will have to login with your Origin account when you click the first link, then close the tab and click the link again. Voila, free DLC for both games (of course you'll have to buy the second game if you want to use that DLC).

 

Thanks for the head's up! Shale was incredibly obnoxious IMO, but he's also the best tank in the game. Very useful against a certain large shapeshifting dragon if you equip him with fire-elemental defensive crystals (whatever they're called).