How about that Dragon Age?

[Hobaginator]

Anyone playing it or have played it recently?
I like DA 2 better than the first one, but mainly because the second just kind of pulls you in... the first one was kind of boring to me... actually now that I think about it I never finished.

First time I beat DA 2 I just played a warrior and maxed out strength... talk about easy mode. This time I'm thinking about trying out a rogue and using some of those archery skills. Rogue seems more complex and interesting.

Anyways, DA... discuss...

/coffee

[Xanatos]

Dragon Age: Origins is out of this world. It's simply stunning how much depth this game has. It may not have the best story out there, but the characters, gameplay, and music make up for it. The sheer amount of decisions and their impact on your journey make for one hell of a replay value. Add deep customization, great dialogue, exploration, deep strategic and challenging battles and you have one mighty fine game.

Dragon Age II on the other hand is the biggest piece of shit Bioware ever released. It's shocking just how much this game got dumbed down compared to it's predecessor. Dragon Age II is like a special, little retard brother to Origins. They turned it into hack & slash, and not a good one while we're at it like Diablo, Titan Quest, and Torchlight for instance. There's barely any customization if at all, you have almost no control over your characters outside the main one, locations are repetitive to say the least, lack of multiple races for you to choose, no exploration, side quest are laughable... everything that made Origins game of the year by many game sites is either dumbed down or non existent.

I really hope they don't **** up Dragon Age III.

[loaf]

I just bought Origins for my 360 since my PC still can't run it well. I actually like Origins better then II even if it's harder and I play it on casual so I can use a wider range of characters.

[Merlin]

Amazon sent me an email that you can buy both for $10 total, which got me wondering if I should get that so I can try out the sequal. I already have the first w/o the expansion. After reading the reviews I really don't think I even want to play the second now. Maybe I'll get it just for the storyline. I mean, that is pretty cheap.

[Hobaginator]

The second is cinematic as hell, with better cutscenes than origins. As for the hack and slash aspect, i really like it to be honest. Have you tried playing it on nightmare mode? It forces you to use the tactics slot system, and really plan out each and every move you make. I spend a lot of time issuing orders and using all of my party. The victories are incredibly sweet.

[loaf]

In Dragon Age Origins you use Tactics and Pausing in just Normal Difficulty (at least in PC version) I found the PC Version harder then the Console version. I had a hard time playing it on Easy sometimes, I could only imagine how I would fair on Hard let alone Nightmare. I could probably play Origins on Hard on the 360 no problem once I play through it once or twice to play Casual and Normal to get used to Trap Making and what not.

I'd honestly play it on PC then Console but my PC sucks.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I own Dragon Age Origins, have yet to play even the demo of Dragon Age II. My friend who got me into Dragon Age in the first place was highly disappointed with the sequel, but I think I might give it a try some day if I feel I can part with the money, and I am done with my current backlog of games.

Dragon Age: Origins was a lot of fun, though. Enjoyed the characters, character interactions, the exploration aspect, and the decision making. Decision making in particular I think is a step above Mass Effect in that they don't spoon feed you which answer is the paragon choice and which was the renegade choice. Which dialogue choice is the "best one" is hard to determine and entirely up to you.

Also found I was getting my ass handed to me at the beginning of the game on normal mode, but I pushed on up until about a third of the way through the game, where I came to a place that I probably wasn't supposed to go yet, but pushed on anyway. Switched to easy for that and neglected to ever switch back.

As far as party members went, Alistair and Morrigan were mainstays for me. Two first characters you get. Yay, I'm adventurous. Nobody else has commented on the characters yet, I noticed. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Halie]

Dragon Age: Origins is a brilliant game, one of my favourites. I've never played it on PC, only PS3 but I hear the PC version is a lot harder like loaf said, but it's also supposed to be a lot better. Though even on console, this game is fantastic. I love the amount of freedom you have and the characters are great. A lot of people think the story isn't very original but I still enjoy it. This is a game that I'll want replay for years to come because there are so many possibilities and different stories I haven't explored yet.

On the other hand, I just cannot get into Dragon Age II. I've tried playing it twice but it's nowhere near as engaging as the first. I don't even like the dialogue as much. The combat looks better but the gameplay is worse. And worst of all, Alistair isn't even a main character. The hell? He was my favourite character in the first, in fact I liked all the characters in the first. I haven't gotten far enough into the second to say I like the characters.

[ZantetsukeN]

I love DA: O. I am coming to end of my first full playthrough (it's been sitting on my backlog for about a year about half complete), and have enjoyed it. It is very challenging but very rewarding. The characters are good (apart from Oghren, something about him) and the story is very good. The thing I like the most about DA: O is that the choices you make have a huge impact on the story, definitely on a larger scale than Mass Effect.

Dragon Age II (which I bought first) while good, does have a lot of flaws (ie less tactics-more Hack and slash combat). For some reason, I love how they have given your character a voice á la Mass Effect. DAII is probably the worst Bioware game I have played, but I still enjoy it.

[Order]

I did enjoy origins. The expansion packs were even pretty good.
It wasn't an edge of my seat game, but it had some awesome moments and overall it was fun. I ended up playing through the game a couple of times which is rare for me.

The sequal did have a couple of disappointing points, but the combat was really a strong point in my mind. Especially the telekinetic mage skill tree.
What did disappoint me about it was the lack of expansions. The game had an entertaining story and some good characters, but it just ended suddenly. I was having fun playing a fantasy style rpg with out all the fairies and crybaby characters, but its clear that the developers were glad just to be done with it.


Heres my question,
If there was a DA 3 would you be excited to get your hands on it?
Would you buy it at all?

[Hobaginator]

I'd buy a DA:III if it either A. Had multiplayer... or B. Wasn't completely homo. And by that I mean wtf with the homo character interactions... there should be an option to turn that off in DA:2 because I was friggin pissed when my first character somehow magically turned gayer than aids (declined Isabella's advances automatically). Not that I care about the forever alone content... just don't want to have a fruit cake for a main character. I had to reroll from mage to warrior just so I could have a straight Hawke.

On the subject of Bioware's faggotry: SWTOR... Anyone notice that Sith Warriors can't NOT be completely and totally gay with Malavai Quinn?

Again, had to reroll from WAR to BH.

Son I am dissapoint.

This thread is now about Bioware's faggotry.

<-- BW devs

[Taco-Calamitous]

This thread is now about Bioware's faggotry.

Mod hat on
Nah, let's not totally sidetrack this thread, and try to word things a little nicer, plz. It could instigate a fight, and I'd prefer not to deal with that mess.

Anyhoo, I never played Dragon Age 2, so I dunno how easy it is to accidentally end up in a gay relationship, but in the first Dragon Age, it was kinda clear with the elf dude that was attracted to everyone that you were going down that road. (Same with the ME entries I've played.)

As for a DA3, I'd be concerned with what kinda reviews it got before I bought it. Probably wouldn't plop down 60 bucks for it brand new (didn't even do that with the first one.) Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[loaf]

Seeing how some of Dragon Age qualities were used in Mass Effect 2 (I'm not sure about 3). I think Mass Effect 3 will add some new quality to Dragon Age 3.

My friend told me who there are different ways of combat. They made combine them with the previous 2 titles with a whole new style or have types that go towards the previous games.

[Order]

I would definately like to see the combat system of DA 3 if it were made, but telegraph made a good point. I don't think I would pay $60 for it.
Id buy it, but Id wait to get a used copy.

As far as the gayness, I just don't use the characters I dont like. The first DA had a bit of it, but it wasn't a focus, it was pretty bad in DA 2. The only problem with not using the gay characters is your party is limited.
Give me something like the materia system where any character can take any role.

[ZantetsukeN]

I for one would not buy DAIII for multiplayer. I don't understand how that would work. Yes, ME3 multiplayer was a blast because it had a combat system that worked for it. DA does not. I think it would be a complete disaster. Obviously, if it had it, I would be willing to try it, but I highly doubt it would work.

My idea would be perhaps trying an MMO Dragon Age game. But considering how poorly received SWTOR was, I doubt they would be doing that any time soon.

[Hobaginator]

SWTOR was all right... but they messed up on A LOT of stuff. For example, space combat was like an arcade game from the late 90s. Mounts were retardedly slow. Light sabers were waaaaaaaay to weak (and I played a bounty hunter) and they totally bombed on the open world combat they made so much hype about. Once you reach max level, the story content dissapears and it becomes a grind -- you either spend 80 gaming hours doing repetitive PvP/missions for that epic world-ender gear, or you suffer with ugly gear and horrible stats... nothing in between. Once I got 50, I played for a week and quit.

Main problems were that rewards were too few and far in between and content was too bland after you max level. 1-50 was a blast though, I'll give em that.

As far as DA:III being multiplayer -- here's how I imagine it working... You can party with up to four friends on the same console, no split screen, it just would zoom out to fit everybody in a combat scenario. You can custom design the look of your character, and do away with the class system. Warrior, rogue and mage skills are all part of one big circular tree, you can branch out and get those sick mage skills like virulent walking bomb, glyph of repulsion and blood puppet, or you can be a jack-of-all-trades master of none with duel weilding swords, heavy armor, and healing spells. Na'mean? Also, you can choose different gaming modes... you've got hack-and-slash grand melee where you all just fight at the same time, or turn-based RPG style where it stops the combat and each combatant takes a turn to think and make their move - and you can move through the modes seamlessly in combat by all holding the L2 button at the same time to switch it, or you can choose one and lock it. Hack-and-slash mode would be useful for easy mode and those who can think on the fly, RPG mode would be essential to those boss fights on nightmare mode where every twitch matters. Just a few ideas.

[DragonHeart]

I think maybe playing DAII first was an advantage for me, as I appreciated the game as it was, without any expectations attached. Though it wasn't without issue, even then...I actually encountered a game breaking glitch in the final part of the game. Luckily I keep multiple save files, I was able to reload and avoid it. I also didn't know about the glitch with one of Isabella's abilities until after I'd played, but luckily I didn't have her in my party much.

Overall I loved the story and the dialogue, the gameplay was decent. I found the characters to also be decent but overly stereotypical.

Origins, which I played after, is more difficult for those of us who don't do tactics generally, lol. The characters are excellent though, and much more diverse. I can understand why they chose to be more selective in II, but still, it's nice to play such a wide range for a change. I also really enjoy the range of topics one can discuss with allies. There's a much better sense of character development and to an extent, it is logical since the PC and the allies you gather are, for the most part, untested or disgraced whereas in II aside from Hawke and maybe Merle, the characters have already been through their "trials by fire". I'm not saying that makes for a good gaming experience, that's just what I've observed.

Bottom line, IMO they're both worth the time for different reasons.