Dragon Age Catch-All

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Guess you sided with the Order in The Witcher.

Racist. :ghost:

Hey, if I wanted to watch a bunch of hippies blathering on about love and sunshine I'd drive thirty minutes and wander around downtown Berkeley.

Oh and I totally blame console for the delay of DA! I should be playing it right now, instead of making this post.

bnpederson wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Guess you sided with the Order in The Witcher.

Racist. :ghost:

Hey, if I wanted to watch a bunch of hippies blathering on about love and sunshine I'd drive thirty minutes and wander around downtown Berkeley. :P

Ah, the kind of contempt that only really comes with familiarity, I understand.

farley3k wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I wouldn't think twice about buying the 360 version of most PC games but game like Dragon Age doesn't seem a natural fit for consoles so I'm wary.

Well KoToR and Jade Empire were both great on the console and Dragon Age looks a lot more like KoToR than different.

I could live with Kotoresque.

lethial wrote:

Update on Console Interface
Gamespot UK has a video that contains PS3 game play of DA from minutes 6:30-14:30.

Difference that I noticed:
- Camera is much more zoomed in. Behind the person 3rd person view.
- No action bar. Instead you have quick access to three skills of each party member depicted as buttons (in triangular formation mimicking the formation of buttons on the controllers) on the lower right corner of the screen.
- When you bring up the Radial Menu (circular rings), which takes up the center of the screen, the game is paused. The video showed that with the Radial Menu the player could change weapon on the fly.
- "Scrolling damage text" has very big fonts.
- There are some noticeable pop-ins and very brief frame rate drops (esp. when the mage is under player control and is casting a elaborate looking spell).

In short:
Console version definitely have more of a action RPG feel to it. But it is very obvious that Bioware did a very good job to make the console interface "natural" for the console. I wish more game developers did the same for PC ports...

Yep, looks great. I think it's going to work fine. I should have had more faith really. They always do a good job on their console versions.

bnpederson wrote:

Then I discovered you couldn't make people look too old, there's no option for giving someone bad skin or pox marks or whatever

What? Really? I guess I should check out the male side, then, because that's possible on the female side.

bnpederson wrote:

Then I discovered you couldn't make people look too old

Probably because of the storyline. I believe your character is a novice initiate into a warrior order as part of the plot, so it makes sense he/she wouldn't be too old.

I was just about to say that the options available in creating the character probably reflect their origin story.

I found it interesting that while they took the same "Shephard" approach of fixing your last name to avoid having your chosen name mess up the speech, there are different last names for the different backgrounds. Presumably this is because the early origin story bits happen and are all very distinct (and separately voiced), and then afterwards you're referred to by your title.

What the
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/22/dragon-age-journeys-bonus-items-transfer-to-origins/

I didn't even know that anyone was developing a flash version of Dragon Age. Now, apparently, you can get free in-game items for playing through this browser game while logged into EA.

Edit: From the Bioware Blog http://blog.bioware.com/2009/10/14/dragon-age-journeys/

And the official website: http://www.dragonagejourneys.com/#

Hypatian in OOCT wrote:

What? Really? I guess I should check out the male side, then, because that's possible on the female side.


I am a child.

Thanks for the links, I will update the OP with the flash game (that I will personally never play )

kuddles wrote:

I was just about to say that the options available in creating the character probably reflect their origin story.

Yep, that is what I think too. That is also the reason why there is no "age" selection.

More video of the console version of DA is out. This one is from Giantbombs.

Enjoy.

lethial wrote:

More video of the console version of DA is out. This one is from Giantbombs.

All the info and previews I've read about the console version sounds like they made the right choice, similar to Mass Effect in reverse, by completely overhauling the design of the game style and the interface to fit the completely different structure in the best way a traditional CRPG can. However, it also continues to confirm with me that I will be playing this game on PC.

lethial wrote:

More video of the console version of DA is out. This one is from Giantbombs.

Cool... looks like I'm not going to be skipping this game after all.

Okay, now this is a good trailer for a change! Meet Oghren!

Who says dwarves aren't the best race evar!?

lethial wrote:

More video of the console version of DA is out. This one is from Giantbombs.

Enjoy.

Those Giantbomb guys take everything so seriously. I wish they'd loosen up a bit.

The interface and the menu system look great.

lethial wrote:

Okay, now this is a good trailer for a change! Meet Oghren!

Who says dwarves aren't the best race evar!? :P

Doesn't quite have the charm of Khelgar Ironfist from NWN2.

So, anyone got any impressions about Dragon Age Journeys?

Played just a bit yesterday. Overall, the polish seems good. I'll explore it further during the weekend. Seems like a great appetizer

***PC Gamers MUST VIEW!***

Gametrailers has 3 new gameplay videos of the PC version.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/dr...
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sh...
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/de...

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching these 3 trailers. You will not be disappointed. Just please IGNORE some of the more inane comments...

Actually... DO read those comments, because if you are like me, they just make the game even better

Scorchy of SA forum has compiled some of these "wonderful" comments wrote:

"Man all this pausing totally kills these videos. Learn how to use hotkeys newb."
"The pause feature is for casual/bad players."
"With that much pausing this guy is doing, I think it might be better just to make it a turn-base option..."
"I found it amusing every time the player needed to pause just to select the enemies. There was no tactical advantage to that."
"That's WAY too much managing of micro for me..."
"That Pausing is Annoying --' If theres No way to turn it OFF i will be pissed with the pre-order."

Ugh. I recommend not watching them. At this point I feel like I've already seen half the damn game with how much video content is out there. I should have been more strict on my blackout.

oh man, I'm keenly anticipating the enraged backlash. It's going to be beautiful.

Based on those comments I wonder if the marketing by EA is going to come back to haunt them with some portion of the console crowd?

I still think yellow around the player characters' feet means the person is frightened!

One interesting thing mentioned in the (otherwise glowing) review in PC Gamer UK is that the game is EXTREMELY punishing and near-impossible to play "real time" in spots unless you drop down to Easy (and even then it gave him problems in spots).

Sounds pretty cool to me, personally, but I thought it might be worth noting in case it gives anyone pause (if you'll pardon the pun :P), especially since they've said the console version is more "action oriented" (which i would guess means they've toned down the difficulty perhaps?)

oMonarca wrote:

So, anyone got any impressions about Dragon Age Journeys?

Played just a bit yesterday. Overall, the polish seems good. I'll explore it further during the weekend. Seems like a great appetizer :)

I haven't played any Flash games before so can't say how it compares but I'm pretty impressed. Easy to pick up and play quickly and has the traditional trappings of an RPG (loot drops, leveling, skill trees). Can't comment if much of a story yet. Seems like it could get tactical but my party isn't big enough yet. I recommend checking it out...don't cost nothing.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

oh man, I'm keenly anticipating the enraged backlash. It's going to be beautiful.

sheared wrote:

Based on those comments I wonder if the marketing by EA is going to come back to haunt them with some portion of the console crowd?

Yep and double yep. Their whole "tell them lies, tell them sweet little lies" will buy them sales in the short term but reap anger and hatred in the long term. It was a stupid decision.

Katy wrote:

Now that I look at them closer -- yeah. My single core machine is going to be very sad if I try to play this.

My husband points out that we have another machine that even meets the recommended specs, and all we have to do is dual-boot it to Windows. So I'll be ordering a copy of Windows 7, and actually pre-ordering the game itself (on Amazon -- I have a gift certificate that's been just waiting for the perfect birthday present for myself since last March), since I'm now more confident I'll actually be able to play it.

*bounce*

I think the problems with the one video I watched is that the person kept pausing in situations that were it was unnecessary. He would keep pausing to activate an ability on the character he was controlling when he could have just hit the key. If you want to do that in your own game that's fine but if your going to be recording a video for an advertisement you would probably want it to look as smooth as possible.

I had a lot of fun with Dragon Age Journeys last night. Probably the best flash game I've played. Combat reminded me of Heroes of Might and Magic (though your controlling your party rather than an army) and the UI is pretty slick. Arming your character and choosing your talents are pretty in depth too. Lots to like, and I've already earned my first bit of gear for DA:O

Bullion Cube wrote:

I had a lot of fun with Dragon Age Journeys last night. Probably the best flash game I've played. Combat reminded me of Heroes of Might and Magic (though your controlling your party rather than an army) and the UI is pretty slick. Arming your character and choosing your talents are pretty in depth too. Lots to like, and I've already earned my first bit of gear for DA:O

I found the UI in combat for ranged characters was fairly clunky. When the fighter joined my group I could just click on the enemy and he would run over and attack. With ranged characters it defaults to movement. You then have to switch it over to attack to be able to attack. And it's never really clear what actually blocks line of sight.

But other than that and some other small issues, the game is kind of fun. Especially as a time waster.

Just do the dance, 1,2,1,2,1,2

oMonarca wrote:

Just do the dance, 1,2,1,2,1,2

That sounds like a WoW vehicle fight.

NSMike wrote:
oMonarca wrote:

Just do the dance, 1,2,1,2,1,2

That sounds like a WoW vehicle fight.

More like Malygos 3rd phase.... Oh gosh... Must not think about WoW!