Dragon Age

[Garple]

I walked into Best Buy today, and they had like 15 copies on the shelf. On its release day. Such a refreshing change from gamestop where, as Chris said, you can only get a brand-new game day and date if you preorder it.

I've got the 360 version and I'm very pleased with how well they've designed the console interface. I don't really feel like I'm playing a hampered version of the game in any way.

Also, as an rpg this seems quite sound so far. Without any spoilers, I genuinely felt motivated to go do what the intro was pushing me toward. It wasn't like: "you have to do this because you are playing a video game." It was, "let me go drop some knowledge on those mua'fuckas, I'm pissed." It doesn't seem like my actions had the consequences that it was suggested they would, but it does seem like each race and background has a totally different first hour of the game which is awesome. And so far I've encountered a minor decision where I chose the wrong dialogue option and could not try again, the consequences were permanent (they aren't significant to the game as a whole so far, but that sort of thing does serve to flesh out the world).

[Irishjohn]

I completely agree about Best Buy. It's such a pleasant experience to buy games in there. They did try and upsell me some kind of bullshit scratch insurance once, but otherwise it's great.

I'm officially putting off Dragon Age for a while, but it seems to actually be good.

[Murdoc]

I completely agree about Best Buy.

I'm a big fan of Futureshop, their Canadian counterpart, I can walk in, see shit on a shelf, and buy it. It's f@$%ing amazing.

My only gripe is when they started putting Best Buys around, so now you have the same type of store, with the same stock, competing with each other with different prices.

Also, they want to check my bag when I leave; is this an American thing? Because I tell the guy to piss off every time I go there and PURCHASE something, this is something unheard of and insulting to Canadians(or at least me, since Futureshop doesn't do it, nor does anywhere else)

[syntheticgerbil]

Best Buy can get bent for all I care. Down with big all-in-one electronic department stores.

But I will agree it is nice they ACTUALLY MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO KEEP BRAND NEW GAMES ON AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL SHELF. Yeah that's real nice, I suppose, but I would consider it a given, not really a merit.

I noticed they also started marking a lot of their CDs down to $9.99, making them slightly less what I would call Worst Buy, but they still suck at carrying hardly anything but music published by major labels.

[Garple]

but I would consider it a given, not really a merit.

but they still suck at carrying hardly anything but music published by major labels.

Yeah, it should be a given. But since it isn't...

And why would you expect them to carry much music not published by major labels? They're not a niche retailer. go to an independent record store for that.

I'm not saying Best Buy is objectively fantastic. But they're not too shabby for a big-time chain.

[Garple]

I do have to also comment on the fact that after combat...your whole party has blood ALL OVER THEM, even during the cutscenes. This is not technically illogical...it just seems excessive in a rather hilarious way.

"Is there blood in 'Dragon Age: Origins'?"

"yes there is."

"How much blood?"

"let's just say the amount of blood is: Extreme!!!

[Korax]

I just started playing it on PC, and I think Bioware's been listening to the podcast. There's a feature you can enable where important story points and events trigger a screenshot that can be viewed in a gallery later.

On a slightly more sour note, the DLC that's available is priced with some sort of weird point system that happens to match the prices of the Xbox DLC, but there's no GFWL integration, so i guess that it means I would have to add space bucks to an entirely new account if I want to download anything. Unless they make it available on Steam (Steam's "Digital Deluxe" version included some of the DLC, so I would assume it's possible). Also, while there's an in-game achievement system, they are synced with a new "Bioware Social Network" account, and have no integration into Steam, so some people might be disappointed with that.

[kashwashwa]

Is it possible to play this as a goody two-shoes?

If not, forget it.

[Murdoc]

Is it possible to play this as a goody two-shoes?

If not, forget it.

saving the world and going to the bordello to have sex with animals; thats all anyone should care about.

[Scratch]

saving the world and going to the bordello to have sex with animals; thats all anyone should care about.

Nicely said.

[Korax]

Well, now I'm getting annoyed. In order to access any of the bonus content for my pre-order or even download the mod toolset, I need to register my game with the new Bioware Social Network, which is still in beta and barely functional right now.

[Garple]

Well, now I'm getting annoyed. In order to access any of the bonus content for my pre-order or even download the mod toolset, I need to register my game with the new Bioware Social Network, which is still in beta and barely functional right now.

PC games!

[Korax]

PC games!

I'd say it's more of a "Bioware made a game with online integration but didn't bother to make sure the online part worked on release day" thing than a specifically PC gaming thing.

It seems to be working now, and I was further calmed when I realized that I got the Warden's Keep DLC for free with my pre-order.

[Irishjohn]

Damn you Bioware. I'm tapped out from all the intense video games, and now I want your video game.

Damn you.

[George B]

Best Buy can get bent for all I care. Down with big all-in-one electronic department stores.

But I will agree it is nice they ACTUALLY MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO KEEP BRAND NEW GAMES ON AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL SHELF. Yeah that's real nice, I suppose, but I would consider it a given, not really a merit.

I noticed they also started marking a lot of their CDs down to $9.99, making them slightly less what I would call Worst Buy, but they still suck at carrying hardly anything but music published by major labels.

Just a quick best buy sucks aside: I went to BB to pick up an otherwise unavailable game a couple of weeks ago, and they still had a relatively large collection of Matrix:Online packages prominently displayed... a game that had been offline for at least 2 months at that point, rendering those 40 dollar boxes more or less useless to any consumer. gg, best buy.

Edited November 4, 2009 by Floordje
grammars

[brkl]

A quick look on GiantBomb involved a quest very near the beginning where the player was tasked to go into a dungeon to look for some shield that was an heirloom of his family. I think I'm done looking for shields in dungeons.

[DanJW]

If you are sick of looking for shields in dungeons, then you are sick of life

(-IGN.com)

from what I gather most quests will be better justified.

[sivartTheGreat]

A quick look on GiantBomb involved a quest very near the beginning where the player was tasked to go into a dungeon to look for some shield that was an heirloom of his family. I think I'm done looking for shields in dungeons.

I think that may be only for one character background; I started mine as a Dalish Elf and have had to search for no shield. Although I also agree with above post.

[Korax]

I think that may be only for one character background; I started mine as a Dalish Elf and have had to search for no shield. Although I also agree with above post.

I started as a mage, and the origin has you going through the final test to graduate from apprentice to mage.

I was talking to a friend as we were both playing way too much of the game, and he had a great ign-able quote: "It's like happiness was freebasing unicorns!"

[juv3nal]

I picked this up for ps3 last night (like I could be expected to do otherwise). I went with a human mage and I'm liking it a lot so far. The graphics are...unimpressive. I was up until 4:30 playing it (and in at work @ 9:30 today) so I clearly don't care about the graphics all that much, but to my eyes it looks worse than mass effect.

Random pet peeve: I hate how they strip my hood/hat/helmet for every cutscene. My character's bald. His head gets cold. Have some sympathy.

[DanJW]

They are worse graphics than Mass Effect, but for the reason that some of the battles are on a much bigger scale than those in ME. I expect you will see bigger and bigger battles as you progress through the game. PC is the way to go on Bioware games, for this reason.

Anyway as much as I love Bioware RPG's I have neither the funds nor the hardware to play this yet, so I'm going to have to duck out of this thread to avoid spoilers and cravings.

[Garple]

They are worse graphics than Mass Effect

The frame rate is really goofy during cutscenes on the 360. I don't care that much, and it's a side-effect that doesn't surprise me since the game was designed for PC, but I wonder if there isn't something they could have done about it. Also: I know the toolset is only available for PC and that makes perfect sense, but given the online capabilities of current gen systems (esp. ps3), do you guys think there will come a time when we can access mods on consoles (at least for "indie" games)? Furthermore, I doubt this will happen, because it would be like consoles admitting inferiority to PC in this area, but I think it would be really awesome if console versions of games like this supported a mouse and keyboard, now that our consoles have USB ports and, in hardware terms, seem to be so similar to computers.

edit: Please note that my questions may stem from the fact that I don't understand much about computers and don't be too harsh. Also: Lord Korax, I'm only kidding about the PC games thing, I respect it as a platform, but when it falls down a little bit, it eases my insecurities about being a console chump.

[Korax]

edit: Please note that my questions may stem from the fact that I don't understand much about computers and don't be too harsh. Also: Lord Korax, I'm only kidding about the PC games thing, I respect it as a platform, but when it falls down a little bit, it eases my insecurities about being a console chump.

Oh, no, I was being a bit facetious myself.

The problems I was having seemed to be more or less fixed later that evening, and... and... I ended up staying up all night just to play, okay?! ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU HAPPY IT'S COME TO THIS?!

[miffy495]

The recent glut of amazing reviews has me getting kind of interested in this game. Problem is, especially at this time of year, I really don't have the time to invest in a huge RPG. Reviewers have been saying 50+ hours as if that were a good thing. I have to work hard to sneak my gaming hours in as it is, so trying to squeeze in something that huge feels almost impossible. If I end up playing for, say, 3 hours a week for a really long time, will this be the kind of game I can enjoy? I'm sure you guys know what I mean. There are games you can just keep coming back to with long breaks in the middle (I've been making slow but steady progress on Pokemon Pearl since 2007. My most recent save was a month and a half ago right before the 8th gym leader.) and some that unless you play them all at once you just can't go back to. In contrast to the Pokemon thing, I've made peace with the fact that if I ever go back and try to finish my Ninja Gaiden save, I'll have completley lost any of the skill that got me to that point in the game. Is this a game I can play piece by piece, or am I just not going to enjoy it if I can't play all in under a month?

[Fuzzy Lobster]

Ooh.. I just bought a new TV. I can't wait for it to be delivered so's I can try my hand at being a disadvantaged dwarf.