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Dragon Age: Origins |OT| Letting The Fade fade out of memory
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
BanShunsaku
Member
TheVisualizer said:
Awesome, nice work.
Impressions please!
My review for the console versions is now complete. It's an overwhelmingly positive review. If anyone wants to read it when it hits the net after the embargo, feel free to PM me and I'll send it to you through those means.
Also, got home and another reviewer told me a story about his trek through the game.
Also, got home and another reviewer told me a story about his trek through the game.
Supposedly he decided to try and fight Flemeth, Morrigan's mother. He didn't spoil it for me, but I assume he got his tailed kicked since he wrote, "Yeah, I won't be doing that again." Makes me curious about trying to fight her in my next play-through
Solideliquid
Member
When will the embargo be lifted?
Steve Youngblood
Member
Wow, lucky you. What's amazing to me is that they didn't have something in their system not allowing the sale. When I worked at Circuit City (and as we all know, that was hardly the most efficient ship on the planet), any merchandise we got in early that had a street date would not actually ring up in the system. Meaning this game should have prompted the clerk that the item could not be sold earlier than November 3rd. This was obviously a corporate-wide setting that didn't simply rely on mangers/employees who didn't care about video games.TheVisualizer said:
But their folly is your gain!
Solideliquid
Member
Well, that's not a very good sign..Caspel said:
Dead Prince
Banned
Steve Youngblood said:
usually they have a sticker that says don't sell before bla bla date.
In other news. Neweggs shipped my Graphics card out today (sort of paid 20 minutes late for rush order but it was $3.99) and they got it out before the weekend! so I should have it monday or tuesday!
Lostconfused
Member
Yes the game must be shit considering everyone that has played it is extremely positive about it. I mean they are all bought and paid for right.Solideliquid said:
Steve Youngblood
Member
Sure, we had this as well. But that's rather inefficient. There are thousands of Best Buy stores, and you're relying on every single one of their merchandise people to notice that sticker before they simply open the shipping box and get these items ready to be stocked? The "item cannot be sold before date x" system parameter was the second line of defense. Sure, some angry customers might insist that the game was on the shelf and they should thus be allowed to purchase it, but the Point of Sale system wouldn't allow it because of the date parameter.DMPrince said:
DMPrince said:usually they have a sticker that says don't sell before bla bla date.
In other news. Neweggs shipped my Graphics card out today (sort of paid 20 minutes late for rush order but it was $3.99) and they got it out before the weekend! so I should have it monday or tuesday!
Grrr!! I ordered a phenom ii x4, mobo and ram today from newegg but it looks like they wont ship it until monday. I was 50 minutes late for them to ship today. -_-
Dead Prince
Banned
-Mikey- said:
Sales Order Date: 10/30/2009 12:24:03 PM
Didn't get charged until 12:43pm.
I got lucky
It's UPS Ground. when I ordered the first card it was on wednesday. got it next day. Hopefully they are good and UPS works saturdays and not hold it until monday. ;(
MarshallVaako
Member
Did anyone who preordered from the EA store get an e-mail with the preorder codes yet? How long after shipping are we sopposed to get the code?
Basileus777
Member
Solideliquid said:
I'm afraid it's become standard practice for games nowadays.
TheVisualizer
Banned
Impressions:
Preface, I'm not a huge RPG guy, so please pardon my ignorance as far as comparing Dragon Age to other games in the genre. This game's been off my radar after being disappointed in the early footage so Im not sure what everyone does and doesnt know about it so far. I didn't get very far in the story but don't know I can say that wouldn't be considering a spoiler...
-The game starts off pretty linear as you are walked thru your race's background/origin story which serves as sort of a tutorial gettting you comfortable with combat, leveling up, dealing with multiple party members, etc...
-I created a Dalish Elf - Warrior. My origin story was pretty brief, I took my time exploring most of the nooks and crannys of the Dalish Village and the Secret Cave where most of the quest takes place and I'd estimate it took me maybe an hour and a half.
-Theres a lot of backstory you uncover from speaking to NPCs and various book/scrolls you find, its added to your codex to read. Ddmittedly I havent checked out most of it as the main story has kept my interest.
-In the origin quest alone I ran into 2 or 3 pretty interesting choices Ive had to make, that I wonder how will affect the game later. Especially the wherabouts of one of your party members...
-The game has a sort of Mass Effect feel to it. It handles NPC conversations similar except your main character isn't voiced. The voice acting has been awesome so far with lots of variety and quite a few memorable characters so far even just 5 hours in.
-As far as the combat, I was actually under the impression that was going to be turn based for some reason. Instead it feels like Mass Effect with swords, bow&arrows and magic rather then guns and biotics. You unlock talents (special attacks/abilities) that you can map to 3 of the face buttons, the other face button (A on 360) is for regular attacks. Each talent (special attack) has its own cool-off period before you can use it again. So you can use all 3 one at a time. You can also map potions to the face buttons, not sure about weapons but I dont see why not.
-My talents right now are a dual blade sweep with two shortswords/daggers that is a little stronger than a regular slash and I have two archery related ones. One is called pinning shot and if your shot lands you pin the enemy to the ground which puts them in a stun state where they can move, defend or attack for like a min. The other is one is an upgrade to the pinning shot, I think its called Aim, I think it guarantees a hit as long as I am in range with a tradeoff of no critical hit.
-I think theres a lot more depth to the combat that I havent utilized as there was mention of tactics, flanking and some other interesting things that I havent seen or been able to implement yet. My combat as a warrior so far has pretty much help my patry hack&slash enemies until they are dead. Ive focused on double and triple-teaming enemies as i've had up to 3 other members accompany me so far, some have been generic NPC types that were just along to help and some are main characters that you have been introduced to thru gameplay videos. One cool thing is theres been times where the game has thrown about 10 different enemies at me at one time. I havent died myself yet but have had two party members die. Im not sure of the mechanic for this but they both revived after the battle, I think you can revive them with items called injury kits, it the tutotrial mentioned reviving them has some effect on whether or not they can use their talents, Im a little hazy on this and will have to go back and check it out as I was in a pretty serious battle when the explaination popped up on the screen and I clicked it off by accident.
-Another thing that stands out in combat are traps, the origin quest's cave/ruins was littered with them, some were pressure plates that triggered what seemed like fireballs that shot out of the ceilings or walls and others have been hidden bear traps that popup and keep you stunned for awhile. A little further along in my 5 hours I actually had smarter enemies retreat and lead me and my party into a chokepoint where we all got stuck in bear traps, they capitalized and ended up killing one of my party members with that slick move.
-Combat has a radial menu that pauses the game like Mass Effect. You can target enemies, select inventory, potions, tactics, and talents while its paused. There were only two options under tactics so far, one was swap weapon loadouts with another party member and the other had to deal with alignment, I think you can specify mages/archers to stand back more than melee based characters but I havent put this into practice yet.
-After beating the first major quest outside the Origin story (Ostagar) you get access to the world map. There were at least 10 locations available to travel to, as it seems like you just fast travel to each location if if not mistaken, no long journey between locations, at least not yet. During my first fast travel it was interrupted by a battle, not sure if it was random because when it finished it served to advance the story of one of the sidequests I took part in earlier in the game regarding a dog I chose to save. If it was random it was done very smooth and believable, you will see when you play, not like random battles I am familiar with from the older Final Fantasy type games, not sure how to explain it... Before I was shown the map there were choices/suggestions I got from members of my party on where we should go next, there were maybe 4 different places suggested. I picked one which was the closest which was a nearby village.
Thats just some stuff off the top of my head, if theres anything else you want me to elaborate on let me know. Overall game is awesome so far, can't really say anything bad about the game so far except the combat has been a bit simpler than I expected, but like I mentioned I think I havent properly explored its depth yet so dont be turned away by my comments as they might not be accurate. Again anything else you want to know ill try to help...
Preface, I'm not a huge RPG guy, so please pardon my ignorance as far as comparing Dragon Age to other games in the genre. This game's been off my radar after being disappointed in the early footage so Im not sure what everyone does and doesnt know about it so far. I didn't get very far in the story but don't know I can say that wouldn't be considering a spoiler...
-The game starts off pretty linear as you are walked thru your race's background/origin story which serves as sort of a tutorial gettting you comfortable with combat, leveling up, dealing with multiple party members, etc...
-I created a Dalish Elf - Warrior. My origin story was pretty brief, I took my time exploring most of the nooks and crannys of the Dalish Village and the Secret Cave where most of the quest takes place and I'd estimate it took me maybe an hour and a half.
-Theres a lot of backstory you uncover from speaking to NPCs and various book/scrolls you find, its added to your codex to read. Ddmittedly I havent checked out most of it as the main story has kept my interest.
-In the origin quest alone I ran into 2 or 3 pretty interesting choices Ive had to make, that I wonder how will affect the game later. Especially the wherabouts of one of your party members...
-The game has a sort of Mass Effect feel to it. It handles NPC conversations similar except your main character isn't voiced. The voice acting has been awesome so far with lots of variety and quite a few memorable characters so far even just 5 hours in.
-As far as the combat, I was actually under the impression that was going to be turn based for some reason. Instead it feels like Mass Effect with swords, bow&arrows and magic rather then guns and biotics. You unlock talents (special attacks/abilities) that you can map to 3 of the face buttons, the other face button (A on 360) is for regular attacks. Each talent (special attack) has its own cool-off period before you can use it again. So you can use all 3 one at a time. You can also map potions to the face buttons, not sure about weapons but I dont see why not.
-My talents right now are a dual blade sweep with two shortswords/daggers that is a little stronger than a regular slash and I have two archery related ones. One is called pinning shot and if your shot lands you pin the enemy to the ground which puts them in a stun state where they can move, defend or attack for like a min. The other is one is an upgrade to the pinning shot, I think its called Aim, I think it guarantees a hit as long as I am in range with a tradeoff of no critical hit.
-I think theres a lot more depth to the combat that I havent utilized as there was mention of tactics, flanking and some other interesting things that I havent seen or been able to implement yet. My combat as a warrior so far has pretty much help my patry hack&slash enemies until they are dead. Ive focused on double and triple-teaming enemies as i've had up to 3 other members accompany me so far, some have been generic NPC types that were just along to help and some are main characters that you have been introduced to thru gameplay videos. One cool thing is theres been times where the game has thrown about 10 different enemies at me at one time. I havent died myself yet but have had two party members die. Im not sure of the mechanic for this but they both revived after the battle, I think you can revive them with items called injury kits, it the tutotrial mentioned reviving them has some effect on whether or not they can use their talents, Im a little hazy on this and will have to go back and check it out as I was in a pretty serious battle when the explaination popped up on the screen and I clicked it off by accident.
-Another thing that stands out in combat are traps, the origin quest's cave/ruins was littered with them, some were pressure plates that triggered what seemed like fireballs that shot out of the ceilings or walls and others have been hidden bear traps that popup and keep you stunned for awhile. A little further along in my 5 hours I actually had smarter enemies retreat and lead me and my party into a chokepoint where we all got stuck in bear traps, they capitalized and ended up killing one of my party members with that slick move.
-Combat has a radial menu that pauses the game like Mass Effect. You can target enemies, select inventory, potions, tactics, and talents while its paused. There were only two options under tactics so far, one was swap weapon loadouts with another party member and the other had to deal with alignment, I think you can specify mages/archers to stand back more than melee based characters but I havent put this into practice yet.
-After beating the first major quest outside the Origin story (Ostagar) you get access to the world map. There were at least 10 locations available to travel to, as it seems like you just fast travel to each location if if not mistaken, no long journey between locations, at least not yet. During my first fast travel it was interrupted by a battle, not sure if it was random because when it finished it served to advance the story of one of the sidequests I took part in earlier in the game regarding a dog I chose to save. If it was random it was done very smooth and believable, you will see when you play, not like random battles I am familiar with from the older Final Fantasy type games, not sure how to explain it... Before I was shown the map there were choices/suggestions I got from members of my party on where we should go next, there were maybe 4 different places suggested. I picked one which was the closest which was a nearby village.
Thats just some stuff off the top of my head, if theres anything else you want me to elaborate on let me know. Overall game is awesome so far, can't really say anything bad about the game so far except the combat has been a bit simpler than I expected, but like I mentioned I think I havent properly explored its depth yet so dont be turned away by my comments as they might not be accurate. Again anything else you want to know ill try to help...
TheVisualizer
Banned
Steve Youngblood said:
Yeah I expected something to come up when I got to the register that would have shut me down but i guess not. I even mentioned to the Best Buy rep on the floor that I didn't think the game came out till next week, he was busy conversing with another rep and it I don't think he cared he was just trying to answer my question and keep it moving.
Snapshot King
Member
Hows it running performance wise on the 360? I'll be getting the PC version but it'll be easier to convince my pals to grab it if it runs great.
Edit: Also, great impressions. Nice to see a relatively new point of view to this kinda game. Specially for me, since I never played any of the old kinds of RPGs this is based on >_>
Edit: Also, great impressions. Nice to see a relatively new point of view to this kinda game. Specially for me, since I never played any of the old kinds of RPGs this is based on >_>
TheCardPlayer
Likes to have "friends" around to "play cards" with
Fallout 3 is literally, my favorite game ever, but this could take the cake. The sheer amount of depth is just astounding. Man, I so can't wait for this.
TheVisualizer
Banned
Snapshot King said:
Havent noticed any issues at all, no slowdown or anything but I dont have an meticulous eye for some of that stuff, but some of the environmental textures (grass and hills) in the first origin quest near and around the Dalish village were a little underwhelming. Also I installed it to my hard drive so that may make a difference?
Ploid 3.0
Member
Thanks for the impressions. The game seem to be right up my alley on console. It give me the impression that FFXII was modeled after BG2 (since this seem to be the same system) in a way. I wonder if the AI tactics assembly system or whatever is deeper than the gambit system. Now that FFXIII is going back to turned based this is just what the doctor ordered. I never thought I'd be into so many western styled RPGs this gen. Now that I think about it, I did a lot of pause play pause in ffxii also. Well on tough fights, and if I had things set bad (the mandragoras hunt for example. The buggers that sleep, confuse, poison etc you each attack).
Alex
Member
Different engine, and they're with a competent publisher who can optimize multiplatform amazingly well now, but after Mass Effect 360 I'd be amazed if there wasn't some pretty noticeable slowdown on consoles. Mass Effect ran pretty awful. I still remember that one ice world where it was single digit the entire time.
But then again maybe being with EA they've been able to put so many engine woes behind them now.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Got my Deluxe Edition pre-ordered on Steam, can't wait. These impressions have been turning me on even more.
timetokill
Banned
My girlfriend just bought this on Amazon with release-day shipping, hopefully I'll get a chance to play it as well. It's my computer, but her copy of the game, so.... :lol
nelkon and parker
Member
I got a year old Macbook pro with that has the Core 2 Duo 2.5ghz, and a 8600M GT (512mb). The character creator ran fine. Do you guys think this will be all right? Any other dudes buying it for the macbook pro? Just wanna make sure before I buy this off steam.
Shake Appeal
Member
Preloading begins tomorrow? Exxxcccellent news. I was dreading the thought of a 20GB download on release day.
Is anyone buying directly from EA? I pre-ordered it on the 27th and even had that showing on my card, but for whatever reason it isn't showing anymore, and I've been trying to get in touch with EA asking what's going on, but the EA store won't accept my login even though I changed pass. It still doesn't accept any pass I change, but the other EA sites it logs me in just fine. I just wanted to check the status of my order....
Lostconfused
Member
What is amazing is that my post was filled with a silly amount of hyperbole particularly due to the fact that I didn't read any previews either and just assumed that almost all are positive based on reaction of posters that did read them in previous dragon age threads. Amazing indeed.epmode said: