Dragon Age: Origins (WARNING: SPOILERS)

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

36 minutes until dragon age time

rooooaarrr

Damn you! An hour and a half here.

Plus installation time, plus making a gaming snack.......

[GreenLantern]

Ahh!! IF this was last week it would be only 36 minutes!

You guys and your crazy time changes..

[MickMcGeough]

I bought this through the EA store preload, total 8GB download only took a few hours. Great game so far.

[Boblobla]

It is downloading as we speak, I am excited to play it tonight.

[FunkMasterFlame]

Apparantly there will be a code for an exclusive questline in this months issue of PC Gamer.

http://tinyurl.com/yj7sub4

You can also unlock special items by playing the free, online flash game Dragon Age: Journeys, which was made in collusion with Bioware.

http://www.dragonagejourneys.com/

[Resolute 14]

So I buy this game, go to install it, and remember that my DVD-RAM drive is broken. Crap. Plug in my old DVD drive, and the bay door won't open. Well, that explains why I didn't have it hooked up.

So I have this shiny new video game with blood, a dragon and a hot animated chick on the cover, and I can't install the game. FML

Guess I'm hitting up Memory Express on the way to the Hitmen game...

[Regorium]

The Dwarven Noble origin gave me chills. Played the mage one too, that was well done as well but not as powerful as the other.

I'm just a small ways into the game, but man, I'm frustrated with my choice of a warrior. The first NPC you meet is the exact same as me, and basically, I really really needed a healer.

When I made my mage, I specced her into full healing, and the origin quest was a complete joke compared to trying to minimize the amount of damage I took and all that as the warrior.

Some parts are very difficult already and I had to think and really make use of every ability I had even at lvl 5 (which aren't many) in order to beat it. Really cool!

[silentsim]

How is the combat in this game?

[3 Justin 3]

I'll be getting my copy next week since I ordered from the EA Store yesterday. Too bad because MW2 comes out and it's all I'll play for the next month. Can't wait for this game though, it is supposed to take like 60 hours for the main story or something.

[FunkMasterFlame]

Originally Posted by silentsim

How is the combat in this game?

It can be very challenging. As Reg said earlier, you'll need to make use of all your skills in very tactical ways. I find pausing every 3 - 5 seconds just to take everything in works well, but then again not everyone is a micromanaging mega-nerd like I am.

[Hemi-Cuda]

the combat in this game is terrible, whoever thought of putting friendly fire in for mage spells is an idiot. i can't get past the lighting the tower torch quest since i keep getting owned by hordes of enemies around every door, and if i try to use any of my good damage spells i just end up killing my own teammates

i'm glad i tried the free version first from torrents before deciding whether i wanted to buy it on steam, i'd be pissed if i had wasted my money on this

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

the combat in this game is terrible, whoever thought of putting friendly fire in for mage spells is an idiot. i can't get past the lighting the tower torch quest since i keep getting owned by hordes of enemies around every door, and if i try to use any of my good damage spells i just end up killing my own teammates

i'm glad i tried the free version first from torrents before deciding whether i wanted to buy it on steam, i'd be pissed if i had wasted my money on this

The only way around this really is to pause the game, re-position all of your party members, then unleash with your mage.

Friendly fire has always been there in all of their games, usually because mage spells are so powerful. I haven't played the mage enough to see whether or not this is also the case.

Also that tower quest is tough. The first level with the flaming barricades and their mage blasting you with AoE is absolutely ridiculous for an encounter you see two hours into the game. I had to reload several times before I finally figured out a good strategy for it.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

the combat in this game is terrible, whoever thought of putting friendly fire in for mage spells is an idiot. i can't get past the lighting the tower torch quest since i keep getting owned by hordes of enemies around every door, and if i try to use any of my good damage spells i just end up killing my own teammates

i'm glad i tried the free version first from torrents before deciding whether i wanted to buy it on steam, i'd be pissed if i had wasted my money on this

I had to reload once on normal in the tower. It's not that hard. You've really got to use each of your party members' talents and work together.

Friendly fire for area effect spells was in the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights games (which DAO is really close to) so I'm not surprised it's here. If it bothers you, just lower the difficulty. It's cut to 50% damaged on normal and disabled completely on easy. Or just don't set off fireballs on your buddies

[Hemi-Cuda]

what good would repositioning do? all my party members are melee, soon as i'd move them the melee enemies would follow and they'd all end up in the same cluster****. having FF on essentially makes the mage useless, you're penalized for trying to perform crowd control

the overall combat just isn't very fun either with the AI being so ######ed. i don't want to pause the game every 5 seconds just to make sure that all the members in my party aren't being useless, and the whole tactics system is insanely convoluted

coming from a huge fan of the KOTOR games and Mass Effect, i'm hugely disappointed in this game. the voice acting is top notch, the graphics are stellar, but the gameplay itself is just bad and the story was ripped straight from LOTR. i expected better from Bioware

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by silentsim

How is the combat in this game?

Combat is awesome, IMO. Very much like Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale, if you liked those. Pretty similar to Knights of the Old Republic too, I guess. On normal difficulty it's harder than any of those, though, at least at the beginning. I've played around with the combat tactics, which work pretty well, but I still think it's better just to micromanage actions other than downing potions and stuff.

My only gripe with this game so far is how inflexible the character building is. Any dual wielders are going to have to sacrifice basically all other attributes/talents. You're pretty much stuck with a stereotypical warrior, rogue, or mage. Haven't used any of the specializations yet though, maybe that'll change.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

what good would repositioning do? all my party members are melee, soon as i'd move them the melee enemies would follow and they'd all end up in the same cluster****. having FF on essentially makes the mage useless, you're penalized for trying to perform crowd control

the overall combat just isn't very fun either with the AI being so ######ed. i don't want to pause the game every 5 seconds just to make sure that all the members in my party aren't being useless, and the whole tactics system is insanely convoluted

coming from a huge fan of the KOTOR games and Mass Effect, i'm hugely disappointed in this game. the voice acting is top notch, the graphics are stellar, but the gameplay itself is just bad and the story was ripped straight from LOTR. i expected better from Bioware

I thought the tactics system was pretty simple.

- Nearest enemy: Attack
- If health < 50%, drink potion

What's hard about that?

If you want it to play like KOTOR or Mass Effect, just turn the difficulty to easy. You'll probably really like it (things pick up a LOT after the tower).

[LockedOut]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

what good would repositioning do? all my party members are melee, soon as i'd move them the melee enemies would follow and they'd all end up in the same cluster****. having FF on essentially makes the mage useless, you're penalized for trying to perform crowd control

the overall combat just isn't very fun either with the AI being so ######ed. i don't want to pause the game every 5 seconds just to make sure that all the members in my party aren't being useless, and the whole tactics system is insanely convoluted

coming from a huge fan of the KOTOR games and Mass Effect, i'm hugely disappointed in this game. the voice acting is top notch, the graphics are stellar, but the gameplay itself is just bad and the story was ripped straight from LOTR. i expected better from Bioware

Play the console version. If I remember correctly from the Gametrailers review there is no FF in the console versions.

[Hemi-Cuda]

well i tried giving it another shot, this time with a Dwarf warrior, and got a bit further since he seemed to be a bit better than the useless mage. but i found myself getting very bored with the game the further i played, unable to get into the story or world at all. a game like Mass Effect pulled me in so completely because it was a brand new universe with really interesting races and characters, and the story was quite unique. but Dragon Age is just the same old fantasy LOTR spinoff with the same elves, dwarfs, spawn of evil bad guys and zero interesting characters (save Morrigan, though that's because Claudia Black does the voice and i'm a huge Farscape fan)

eventually when i got to some village and had to fight wave after wave of zombies that finally wiped out my party due to sheer numbers, i figured this game just isn't for me and uninstalled. IMO the fantasy genre is tapped out, no one seems to want to do anything original with it and instead rehash the same thing every few years

[Boblobla]

I enjoyed what I did last night, I will play a lot more tonight and post a review.

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

So I buy this game, go to install it, and remember that my DVD-RAM drive is broken. Crap. Plug in my old DVD drive, and the bay door won't open. Well, that explains why I didn't have it hooked up.

So I have this shiny new video game with blood, a dragon and a hot animated chick on the cover, and I can't install the game. FML

Guess I'm hitting up Memory Express on the way to the Hitmen game...

Ya I had the exact samething happen to me, lol. I had to go buy a new drive, but it was worth it

Hemi you have to remember as well this is the start of the game. You are two hours into a 60-80 hour play through. This game is reminding me more of a MMO than any previous single player game. And just like MMO's the progression is very slow in terms of skills and abilities. In 2 or 3 more levels you will make HUGE strides in abilities and items. Your characters won't die in two hits anymore. Just stick it out, it will be worth it.

One thing that is pissing me off is the fact that I can run around in circles while a mob chases me, doesn't hit me, and my range just plow through him. This happened on the SPOILER IN WHITE BELOW

This happened with the Ogre battle on top of the tower where you light the beacon. I just ran around in circles while my range tore through him. Pretty lame, I think I am going to try and up the difficulty to see if it will fix that, but I doubt I can play on Nightmare for long.


Also guys from now on in this thread can we please warn or put in white text possible spoilers? I would love to continue chatting about the game but since I am in Cowtown this weekend I will fall drastically behind and do not want to have the game ruined for me.