Dragon Age: Origins thread II

[Rhom]

I saw that the discussion at the end of the other thread was on the character creator that BioWare released. I didn't see any mention of the 2D flash strategy game. Apparently, playing the flash game will unlock stuff in DA:O. Additionally, if you create and upload your character and join the social network, you can get an in game ring with a bonus to all stats.

BioWare is really amping up the hype on this game. I'm sorely tempted to pick it up for my office computer and play it here with the volume turned down between patients. :lol:

[Elgernon]

i have been off bioware since they put out NwN. I thought BGII was a great game focused more on storyline and game play and in NwN they essentially ignored those aspects and spent all their time on pretty graphics. That being said I am actually hoping that DA:O will be a good game, can't wait for it to come out!

[Jon AS]

I thought BGII was a great game focused more on storyline and game play and in NwN they essentially ignored those aspects and spent all their time on pretty graphics.

Actually they spent all their time on the toolset.;) The graphics weren't that pretty, even when the game was new.

[emberling]

It's pretty amazing to me how the only thing I knew about this game a month or two ago was that it was allegedly an attempt to get back to BioWare's roots (to which I naturally thought, 'yeah right'), and that the marketing campaign was about as good as an Uwe Boll movie (Marilyn Manson?!? What the fuck?).

And suddenly, due to what I can only describe as a complete about-face in marketing competency, it is my most anticipated game of approximately ever.

The mind boggles.

[kungtotte]

It shouldn't boggle. This is Bioware after all.

[Rhaco]

I refuse to buy any game that has exclusive non-cosmetic in-game content for pre-ordering or whatever else. Why should I not get the full game just because I didn't buy it on the right day or from the right store? Fucking ridiculous. So no Dragon Age for me, and as a result no Mass Effect 2 either.

[Slurktan]

I refuse to buy any game that has exclusive non-cosmetic in-game content for pre-ordering or whatever else. Why should I not get the full game just because I didn't buy it on the right day or from the right store? Fucking ridiculous. So no Dragon Age for me, and as a result no Mass Effect 2 either.

Never played BG2 then I take it?

[Relic]

I refuse to buy any game that has exclusive non-cosmetic in-game content for pre-ordering or whatever else. Why should I not get the full game just because I didn't buy it on the right day or from the right store? Fucking ridiculous. So no Dragon Age for me, and as a result no Mass Effect 2 either.

eh...who cares?

a ring that gives you a +1 to all your stats. yawn.

also, if you are gonna buy it why NOT pre-order?

[Altherion]

I refuse to buy any game that has exclusive non-cosmetic in-game content for pre-ordering or whatever else.

What does this have to do with Dragon Age though? The content is purely cosmetic -- the only things they're offering for pre-ordering are some items. Given that the game comes with a toolset and you can modify the official campaign, I guarantee you that within a week there will be a player-made mod which gives you all of the stuff and, in all likelihood, Bioware itself will make everything available to everyone within a few patches. I could understand the concern if they were offering a quest or a character or something non-trivial, but one or two items in a 60 hour game mean absolutely nothing, particularly when it is easy to mod them in.

[Rhaco]

Never played BG2 then I take it?

BG=Baldur's Gate? If so, no.

eh...who cares?

Well, me. And it's not just a ring. The bonus content list I saw had around a dozen items associated with when, where and how you buy the game.

If companies are going to do this shit, at the very least they should make the bonus content available separately for a price. More and more, though, that's not the case, and it absolutely should not be encouraged.

Edit: Will the console versions have those mod options, Altherion? Sounds like a PC thing.

[kungtotte]

It's not like those pre-order items will be useful beyond the initial stages of the game anyway. That's how pre-order items work. Oh wow, the first couple of hours are 2% easier if you pre-ordered and got the items, big difference? Come back when it's something game-changing.

[Rhaco]

It's not like those pre-order items will be useful beyond the initial stages of the game anyway.

If true and/or if they're items that can be found in-game, I have much less of a problem with it.

It's still getting ridiculous, especially when it's something you get because you bought the game at a certain store.

[Altherion]

Edit: Will the console versions have those mod options, Altherion? Sounds like a PC thing.

Everything on the consoles has to go through Microsoft/Sony so initially, there will not be any player-made mods on the consoles. Bioware has said that they're trying to work something out for the best mods, but they haven't done it yet and even if they do, I don't think they'll distribute the unofficial changes to the official campaign. Thus, what I said was more or less PC-only.

And yes, there are various items depending on which store you buy from and also 3 others in the Collector's Edition. However, whenever Bioware did something like this, they've always made it available for free after some time. Besides, the items are really not that important. For example, there is also an item you get from uploading a character to their website (it doesn't matter what character -- you can just upload the default) and presumably some items from this "Dragon Age Journeys" flash game. They're basically fluff.

[kungtotte]

If at all possible, you should get DA:O on the PC. The possibilities with Bioware's games are simply too good to pass up, especially since I'm pretty sure they'll release a tool-set that is at least as capable as the NWN/NWN2 tool-set, which means tons of player-created content.

[TheBigTEA]

If you take Dawn of War 2 as an example of bonus stuff due to a pre order it was all lever 6 or lower. While some of it was useful or fluffy none of it was game breaking and all of it is available now anyways.

I am looking forward to this game in a big way. The origin vids all look cool and who does not miss BG and BG2 style combat?

[Relic]

so im struggling with trying to figure out if im getting this for the pc or the 360.

these are my pc specs-

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: System manufacturer

System Model: System Product Name

BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/27/05 19:28:53 Ver: 08.00.12

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz

Memory: 3056MB RAM

Page File: 1541MB used, 4409MB available

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

---------------

Display Devices

---------------

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

Manufacturer: NVIDIA

Chip type: GeForce 8500 GT

DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC

Display Memory: 512.0 MB

Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)

which is good enough to run the game but that medium to low settings.

on the other hand, this game seems designed and built for pc play. i cant imagine how the menu system will work on a 360. maybe if the 360 had a wireless keyboard for all sorts of button mapping that wouldnt be so much of an issue, but it doesnt.

thoughts?

[TrueMetis]

This is a game definately built for PC gaming and you should be able to play it just fine on you PC. Bioware is usually pretty good about that sort of thing.

[emberling]

I'm no expert but I've heard (specifically in reference to DA:O, actually) that NVIDIA cards with model numbers x500 and below are pretty much worse than x600 and above, regardless of the generation. That might not go back as far as the 6600 listed as minimum for XP, though; IIRC the specific conversation was comparing a 9500 to the 7600 listed as minimum for Vista.

You do have plenty of memory on both system and video, but the processing speed of your video card and CPU are both right on the edge. I wouldn't expect much of a good experience. I'm personally worried about getting reasonable performance with a AX2 6000+ (3.1GHz Dual Core), 4GB RAM, GF8600GT 512MB, XP.

The other factor you have to consider, though, is how you want to play. They've been touting recently how many very different ways there are to control your party, which ends up being a bit overstated, but the long and short is that if you want to control the game in the sort of RTS-like way of Baldur's Gate and friends, that is not possible on the console versions. If you prefer something like KOTOR or FFXII, or don't much care, or if you expect to use the complex AI scripting extensively enough to not need the controls to match your preferences, and you don't mind the extra price tag, and you don't expect to want mods, you should probably get it on 360. If some of these things are untrue, you're probably better off playing it on PC even if it runs like ass; your computer certainly can run it, it's just a question if you can stand to look at it.

[Werthead]

A couple of us single-corers raised this issue on the BioWare forums so BioWare went off and tested the game on a single-core and said it was generally okay as long as the single core was over the 2GhZ range and you had plenty of main and video RAM. Even so, it's not going to be great, but it should at least work. Apparently the rec is to run the character creator and see how well that works.

Given that the in-game graphics in the videos I've seen look less impressive than The Witcher, let alone Crysis or Fallout 3, all of which run great on my system, if this doesn't work properly I'll be pretty pissed off.

[Altherion]

thoughts?

That's a tough one. On the one hand, the PC version is unequivocally superior (I've compiled a list of differences in this post). On the other hand, the 8500 GT will only give you low-medium performance at best (I would guess closer to low than to medium). Do you know how to upgrade a graphics card? You can probably get a much better one for $50-60.