I <3 Dragon Age: Origins

:Minor Spoiler:

I just got through the Magi Circle tower and-- Wow!
What amazing roleplay there is in this game. Truly a masterwork in my eyes, and the level of detail in this game Graphics wise and animation wise is simply the best I've ever seen in an RPG. Running the game at 1920x1200, all maxed settings with 4x Anti-Aliasing and everything looks so good on my Laptop's 17.5 inch display. Game runs very smoothly at these settings too, which is quite amazing.

I will have to post a video on Youtube about the gameplay of this game; I like the combat system, very teamwork oriented and I like the cooldowns system for abilities that they implemented. Also like the way movement doesn't feel blocky at all during combat and you can easily go and flank your opponent (which I often do with my female elf Rogue hero). Love the characters in this game, Morrigan's view of my heroic acts never ceases to entertain me.

One thing that I did not like was the blood effects that appear on the heroes when they get injured. Get hit once and they are splattered from head to toe with blood, slightly unrealistic even for an RPG (which is usually unrealistic for obvious reasons). Thankfully that is easily fixed by turning off the well placed option for displaying that blood on the characters.

In my opinion this game perfectly blends a Medieval world beset by demons with just the right amount of Magic. I heartily recommend this game if you are into RPGs or any kind of strategy game at all.

 

I loved Dragon Age, but it just felt a little generic for me... I don't know, maybe it's just because the game's "lore" feels so similar to that of many other games.

 

Glad to hear you are enjoying it, I spent countless hours on it too, awesome game IMO, one of the best RPGs ever made in recent years. The character design is purely epic, you will find yourself get attracted to morrigan/liliana often from time to time as the story unfolds, gotta love morrigan's snide remarks about the decisions you make in certain situations.

Too bad the expansion doesn't live up to the standard of the original game, you almost feel no connection to the original game story wise, many interactive voice conversations are cut out, most of the important origins's characters are just gone. I tried playing it for a few hours and somehow it just couldn't pique my interest again, very disappointing.

The game is very CPU-dependent, I experienced a large FPS gain by overclocking my 2.26Ghz P8400 to 2.76Ghz, but still can't manage to maintain playable framerates with everything maxed out at 1920x1080. Your upgraded T9900 surely helps a lot in this aspect. Do you run the game at the clock speed you specified in your signature?

 

I did the Magi Circle also and I felt the entire time, zero role playing. You had no choice but to go with the flow. The dialogue options all directed you in one direction. /shrug, I didn't think it was rpg at all.

 

I was disappointed with the Magi circle as well. I love the rest of the game though.

 

I just recently replayed the original, and played Awakening, and strayed from my usual hack and slash soldier and played as a bow-slinging rogue and had a fantastic time. Ranged combat can be much more effective than close combat ever could be.

 

Thia game had an amazing story-telling system, and the voice acting was just superb. It was like watching the movie of the decade, on a flawless gigant screen and 3d effects, and even more. I could play it over and over. The dwarf town quests were the best. If you remember the scene where you walk into the deep roads, and there was a woman which was lost there, or a ghost of her, and when you were walking deeply she was telling you the story of the group she came there with, what the darkspawn have made from them. The voice acting was superb and i was completely lost into that world.

 

IMHO the best CRPG ever released...
<3 Dragon Age.

 

You actually liked the Mage's Tower? That is easily my least favorite part in the entire game next to the entire endgame being dragged out forever.

 

I am more than in love with DAO ..... but I have to admit that the Mage's Tower mission is by far the most annoying and lame part of the game

 

scattershot is nice, but the rest of the skills seem really lame

 

I too enjoyed this game, even choosing to be a mage. The circle of magi might have had a stupid quest but imo mages are the best. Crashing Prison, Heal and Revival (something i just cant trust AI to do for me), Waking Nightmare, not to mention blood magic spells.

Awakening had its moments, but for all of us waiting to feel again what we felt with DAO, it was such a disappointment.

Say, any other games of this caliber out there? I played Divinity 2 Ego Dragonis, Risen, Fallout 3 and Oblivion already... Boy i must really have spare time on my hands

 

The Awakening skills are ridiculous, the new AIM skill combined with Arrow of Slaying get me on average a hit from 200-400 damage, and once it was over 600, lol. I would regularly do 100-150 damage and had 60% critical with help from my equipment.

 

the game looks amazing - but the combat to me i just think i wouldnt like

 

I found DA combat gives new meaning to tedious.

 

i also liked the dao combat system, it made me think and analyze, unlike most other rpgs where you just basically hack and slash
combining skills and coordination of 4 characters is much more interesting then those type of games

 

Mods are the most important thing. Everyone should get the Respecialization mod, which lets you pick your characters (and your teammates) specs and skills all over again. This was necessary for me as I found out which spells were useless and which ones were good.

Needless to say, I found this game pretty mediocre overall, for many reasons:

-The load times got progressively worse as I played.
-The loyalty system is all about buying your way to their hearts, and it's annoying how Morrigan hates everything.
- The story and lore is very derivative and reminded me of World of Warcraft but offline. I found the story quite boring, and honestly, the Darkspawn were just plain stupid. Not scary looking, not dangerous, just a really lame foe throughout the game.
- All of the gear looks pretty similar.. I bought Felon's Coat for 80g and it looked just the same as my 1g chest piece.
-The gameplay reminded me of World of Warcraft but offline. I just found myself mashing the same spells because there were only a few select good ones.
- Higher difficulty levels weren't any more challenging, just the whole game would take longer, because everything has more health.
- The only character I found bearable was being a Dual-wielding Rogue... Archers are underpowered, Mages are rather repetitive... I found DW Rogue to be the "most powerful". It shouldn't take three tries to have fun.

 

Yea, I run this game on my overclocked GPU at those settings in my sig. Runs amazingly well and never overheats (like Crysis after about a half hour of play). Played last night for 3 hours at least. I wanted to reapply some thermal paste to my GPU, but the whole taking the entire laptop apart to get to it is kind of turning me off.

And for everyone saying they liked the Circle of the Magi quest the least, that's a positive thing for me. Means I will like the rest of the Quests even more yay.


:Moderate Spoiler:

But you have to admit the Fade part was pretty interesting, having to change forms from a rat to a stone golem to get past the obstacles in the levels. I found that to be a nice change of pace from regular combat/exploration in the game. I also liked the whole helping allies wake up from their nightmares thing, I always enjoy that kind of roleplay.

 

I'm playing a DW rogue elf and it's very fun, I love going Stealth in combat and flanking the enemy for MASSIVE damage with momentum activated. Made my build to be pure Dex and Cunning. Now I'm just raising Cunning since it replaces STR for damage, and it increases crit chance on every attack.

 

Yeah Lethality is key. I ended the game with 60+ cunning.. can't really remember. I raised dex as minimally as possible...

Make sure to get Riposte, as you can get huuugee damage with it no matter the angle (remember to always try and backstab). I think I was getting 315 on some enemies.

 

Mmm, Rogue? You've already got your pick of two Rogues. Though, of course, picking the ranged one would be a silly choice. Piddling little arrows do jack all as far as damage goes.

Now, if you want to cheese your way through the game, then you're going to need 3 Mages and a Rogue. The Rogue being there just to open doors. And the Mages being there to smack everything. In the face. From up close, in the case of Arcane Warriors. While tanking all incoming damage.

Muahahahahaha.

 

Interesting.. If you find this RPG mediocre, which would you consider excellent? I wouldn't compare this game to Fallout 3 (which is totally different) or Mass Effect 2 (which i haven't played). The only competition is Oblivion which for its time, yes I believe it beats DAO. Still, this game had features I like. The "love" system for example, something i look forward in RPGs, like Fable, isn't it the whole point for "Role Playing" (a mortal) anyway?

Indeed Morrigan was annoying sometimes, but yet charming when you catch her off guard with your friendliness or love. Then again you have Liliane which is totally the opposite of Morrigan. The loyalty system not only depends on gifts, but also on what you say in dialogs you have mostly at camp, as well from the decisions you make in-game.

And i'll have to disagree that Mages are repetitive. You have ton of skills, usefuls skills, painful to the enemy, as well as healing and reviving which is crucial. Blood Magic is also something to keep you busy, and not just fire bolts from your stave.

 

You guys are wrong about the archers, near the end I would be doing 50 or so damage every half a second.

Near the end of Awakening I was doing well over 100 and got something like 676 damage on a target. As long as you somewhat build it with dual weapons so if someone gets close you can defend, your golden.

 

Yea, I find this game to be nowhere near mediocre. I have always loved games that give you choices that affect the outcome of the story in important ways ever since Kotor. Great roleplaying.

 

Archers are pretty beastly endgame but nothing even touches an AW/BM. The Arcane Warrior gives amazing durability and Blood Mage gives amazing damage output.

 

Yep. Sorry, mate, Archers just kinda lost out, damage-wise. Who needs to whittle away at a mob's health from far away when you could just walk up to it and smack it? Or put a storm on its head and laugh?

Or... Cone of Cold kiting, yay!

 

/shrug no pleasing some people... while I can completely understand someone who doesn't like DA:O due to not liking RPGs or not liking actually having to do something other than combat, I really don't get the "wasn't good enough" posts...

There is nothing else better out there and this is as close as any game has come to characterization and actual "role playing" instead of "roll playing".

Every CRPG is going to have to sacrifice on either story or freedom as there is limited storage and development time and budget. I thought DA:O struck a great middle ground.

Oh, and archers are a great deal better than most give them credit for.

 

I hate how the PC version doesn't have sparkly books! You have to keep moving your mouse around to find codex's from books.

 

Or you could press 'TAB" key to highlight all objects?

 

Wut you can press tab to highlight? Dammit >.>

 

Concerning performance, is Dragon Age really that CPU-dependent?

On my P7350 and GTX 260M, it seems to run significantly slower than on OP's T9900 and 9800M GTS. I can definitely not manage smooth gameplay at 1920x1200 w/AA.

 

I remember playing this game back when I still had the p8400, and yes it would stutter in some parts of the game, although it was pretty acceptable fps back then too.

 

Loved Oblivion (played twice, for 150+ hours), Fallout 3 (twice), Mass Effect 1 (thrice)... Knight of the Old Republic (4+ times) and Mass Effect 2 (twice) are probably my favorite RPGS. I generally dislike JRPGs and WoW type-turn-based RPGs. I just like to be in control I guess... repetition gets boring.

I think I'm more of a fan of actions RPGs (though I love KotOR) mixed with good narratives. Mass Effect 2 was seamless, and the story and characters were extremely engaging (for me at least). When I played Dragon Age, I just felt like I was playing every other fantasy game ever, and the story itself just didn't compel me. Whenever I fought Darkspawn I defeated them handily, yet they were crushing everyone else? The immersion simply wasn't there.

Oblivions world was very immersive.. although I would have preferred the whole "oblivion" aspect to be eliminated and just have a magic-infused medieval world to play in. Both it and Fallout were a blast to play.. except both game worlds felt lonely at times, though I guess that was the point of Fallout, as its a post-apocalyptic world.

I tried Blood Mage but I just found that Leliana as a DW Rogue (as I made her) was outputting more damage than me... so I switched naturally. Honestly a lot of the spells are pretty useless.. some whole sections of spells (like shapeshifter) are just useless.

 

I agree, the arcane warrior is basically a god, I had something like 75 armor near the end and I think if i took damage it would be 2 or 3 points max.

 

Hm.. i cant say i dont like this game at all. yeah a few annoyances here and there but it similar to the KOTOR gameplay formula and Knights of the Old Republic is a timeless classic in my mind.

Some personalilty similarities as well IMO.

Allistair = Carth
Morrigan = Kreia
Sten = Canderous Ordo/Mandalore
Wynne = Bastila
Shale = HK47 personal favorites
Oghren = Bao Dur
Leliana = Mission Vao
Loghain = Jolee Bindo
Zevran = ?

 

I wonder though during an alternate plotline following romancing Morrigan path when she options to transfer the power of the dragon to her child... im curious if the next dragon age will spin off that and how.

 

True. Oblivion's open world even though well set up, it did feel a bit lonely... Also, AI was not as developed as it is in DAO so human and creatures seemed like puppets waiting to be talked to or ready to charge on you if you were in their FOV. In DAO, people seem to be moving around, be worried with their own problems, and generally think for themselves.

For me, the search for the perfect RPG still continues... Something that combines Fable: LC, DAO and Oblivion elements. That is, fantasy, humor, romance, a not so stressful open world, realism and intelligent AI, and a good story. I know what i'm looking for is sort of RPG/LifeSim, but thats my idea of a perfect RPG.

I might as well give Mass Effect 2 a shot, even though i don't like futuristic games with spaceships and aliens (if thats what it is)... TBO I was reluctant to try out Fallout 3 too but i changed my mind... I was wrong.

For now, if you want to fill your time with something and you're done with everything else, I'd recommend Divinity 2: Ego Dragonis. Its not of DAO or Oblivions caliber, but when you become a dragon and fly for the first time, you'll simply enjoy it.

 

lol!

i ordered dragon age for the ps3 and it should be here today or tomorrow. i'm really excited to check it out, especially after reading so many great things about it.

i generally stay away from warrior/tank-type classes in all RPG-type games. they are just boring to me unless it is a thief/rogue-type of melee class that has great speed/mobility, good evasiveness, and my favorite part is the constant critical dmg atks i can rain on my enemies.

 

good game, I quit playing it for awhile after mage tower but gettin back into it. At denerim now doing my thang..

 

I see the Allistair, Morrigan, Sten, Wynne, and Shale ones but I don't see the others.

Leliana = Handmaiden
Loghain = G0-T0
Zevran = male Mira/Atton
Oghren = ???

 

carth and allister were very different, although they had the same VA, who also voiced kaiden alenko.

 

The console version is totally different though. You maybe should've gone with the PC version.

 

Ah I see Loghain as Jolee as he has deep down hes not evil but more a shade of gray though a little darker shade than Jolee and he is an "experienced" characer whose been there and done that.

Leliana has that good girl vibe like Mission while tempered with the survival skill of a thief who have a high confidence

Oghren and Bao Dur as both are warriors who are confident to sometimes extremely confident in their abilities

I always killed Zavran as he annoyed me even more than Allistair

Ehhh they both complained constantly about... well everything lol. Even kaidan was a bit of a overly dramatic character.

 

allister is a bro. and carth is really bitter and cynical.

 

yeah, i've gotten that a few times lol. i just wanted to keep all of my gaming on one system for now, which is my ps3. i haven't been PC gaming for over a year now, but i plan on gettin back into it after i get a new 17" laptop. eyeballing a sager NP8760 with a HD5870 right now.

i just started messin around with the game. any recommendations for a high damage class? a thief or range char preferably. i have no idea what i'm doin.

 

Check out the HD5870 review from Moo. He used a Clevo W870CU which is what the Sager rebrand is. The cooling on that for the HD5870 is very impressive.

Read if you want high damage output, go for Blood Mage.

 

mages are really really powerful, even after several nerfs.

 

so an elf blood mage? i wouldn't mind playin a mage char, i haven't played a magic based char in a while.

 

fireball-earthquake and/or blood wound-big aoe spell, let your companions do the clean up.

 

sounds good.

i was thinkin of tryin a dual wielding rogue, but maybe i'll try that on my 2nd go around.