Dragon Age: Origins Catch-All

That DLC giveaway is pretty nice and makes it probable that I will finally get through this game during my annual Winter RPG extravaganza (started with me currently working through KotOR).

It is nice, but it's also the type where they flood you with slightly powerful gear early on making most 'normal' gear vendor trash. Nice, but I wouldn't call it anything substantial.

mwdowns wrote:

That DLC giveaway is pretty nice and makes it probable that I will finally get through this game during my annual Winter RPG extravaganza (started with me currently working through KotOR).

Did winter hit your island? We got hit by a blizzard yesterday. It hasn't stopped. Great time to hunker down and play some games.

If you're being a completionist then you really should try all of the original stories before moving on. I did when it came out. Stuck with one of the dwarven stories, I think.

City elf was pretty cool too.

Vector wrote:
mwdowns wrote:

That DLC giveaway is pretty nice and makes it probable that I will finally get through this game during my annual Winter RPG extravaganza (started with me currently working through KotOR).

Did winter hit your island? We got hit by a blizzard yesterday. It hasn't stopped. Great time to hunker down and play some games.

Yep. Snow outside now. This was after 2 or 3 days of constant 40 to 60 kph winds. Winter on Sado is lovely.

mwdowns wrote:
Vector wrote:
mwdowns wrote:

That DLC giveaway is pretty nice and makes it probable that I will finally get through this game during my annual Winter RPG extravaganza (started with me currently working through KotOR).

Did winter hit your island? We got hit by a blizzard yesterday. It hasn't stopped. Great time to hunker down and play some games.

Yep. Snow outside now. This was after 2 or 3 days of constant 40 to 60 kph winds. Winter on Sado is lovely. :)

My Japanese friends keep complaining about the snow. Winter was just as bad last year. I love it and think it's beautiful.

I prefer the snow to the wind storms. Not a fan of cold weather, but snow is nice. Will need to get my snow tires put on tomorrow. Thought I had a bit more time before needing to do that.

Goddammit, EA, I hate you so much. Run Dragon Age and it says my DLC is "unauthorized." And for some reason, loaded up my old yahoo email login and linked to that profile. This is strange in that this is a new install of DA:O on this computer. The last time I played DA:O was on a previous version of Windows (I have since reinstalled). Yet, it's acting like this new install is liked up with that old one. How did that even happen?

Sonicator wrote:

It's definitely mostly flavour stuff (and from what I played was mostly along the lines of the "hey, I remember you!" type things you got with characters between Mass Effect games), but the dwarf noble origin made a pretty big change to the complexion of (minor spoilers)

Spoiler:

the power struggle in Orzammar: when I went through the first time on a mage I just saw it as "I don't really care about who wins as long as they give me troops, so I'll support the guy who seems like slightly less of a douche". On the dwarf noble, there was an interesting pull between revenge + tradition vs. what's probably best for the people + and maintaining your family name.

I love the Dwarven Noble starting story for the simple fact that there are some very different things you can do there between choices. I've always played as the upstanding and good brother. Yeah, my brother is a pompous jerk, but who cares? Apparently you can go way different there.

Demosthenes wrote:
Sonicator wrote:

It's definitely mostly flavour stuff (and from what I played was mostly along the lines of the "hey, I remember you!" type things you got with characters between Mass Effect games), but the dwarf noble origin made a pretty big change to the complexion of (minor spoilers)

Spoiler:

the power struggle in Orzammar: when I went through the first time on a mage I just saw it as "I don't really care about who wins as long as they give me troops, so I'll support the guy who seems like slightly less of a douche". On the dwarf noble, there was an interesting pull between revenge + tradition vs. what's probably best for the people + and maintaining your family name.

I love the Dwarven Noble starting story for the simple fact that there are some very different things you can do there between choices. I've always played as the upstanding and good brother. Yeah, my brother is a pompous jerk, but who cares? Apparently you can go way different there.

Yes. Yes, you can.

tboon wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
Sonicator wrote:

It's definitely mostly flavour stuff (and from what I played was mostly along the lines of the "hey, I remember you!" type things you got with characters between Mass Effect games), but the dwarf noble origin made a pretty big change to the complexion of (minor spoilers)

Spoiler:

the power struggle in Orzammar: when I went through the first time on a mage I just saw it as "I don't really care about who wins as long as they give me troops, so I'll support the guy who seems like slightly less of a douche". On the dwarf noble, there was an interesting pull between revenge + tradition vs. what's probably best for the people + and maintaining your family name.

I love the Dwarven Noble starting story for the simple fact that there are some very different things you can do there between choices. I've always played as the upstanding and good brother. Yeah, my brother is a pompous jerk, but who cares? Apparently you can go way different there.

Yes. Yes, you can.

Yeah, I read online rather than be framed for something, you can commit the deed, which is crazy to me. I should really go back as like a ruthless character and try that sometime.

Well, after a chat with EA (estimated wait time 5 minutes, actual wait time 50..wth), it turns out all you have to do to get past the unauthorized DLC problem is edit an .xml file in the Bioware folder in your My Documents.

Also, after just coming from finishing KotOR, it's much easier to play DA:O with it's silent protagonist. The last time I tried playing DA, was when I'd finished playing Mass Effect 2 and I missed hearing my character's voice.

Does anyone have any particular Mods they recommend?

There are some interesting mods that make some of the character models "more realistic". Generally this means that some weirdo has slaved over making Morrigan look more like his favorite goth actress, or making Wynne "hotter," but some offer pretty definite improvements.

Do mods work with the steam version?

Yeah just google Dragon Age Nexus and check out their top downloads. They are all graphics facelifts. Alternately, SA has a pretty conclusive list (as usual).

I just used the respec mod and the chest.

As for origins I thought both dwarf ones were very cool, and city elf. I finished with the dwarf commoner one.

I really liked the dwarf noble origin.

Spoiler:

I'm playing that character at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting back to Orzammar with my meteor sword, snazzy armour and war dog and sorting those fools out.

The city elf is also great.

Spoiler:

The highlight being when a fellow elf slides a sword across the floor to your character and the guards say, "Oh crap," or words to that effect.

That's the character I have lined up for my third play through.

mwdowns wrote:

Well, after a chat with EA (estimated wait time 5 minutes, actual wait time 50..wth), it turns out all you have to do to get past the unauthorized DLC problem is edit an .xml file in the Bioware folder in your My Documents.

Also, after just coming from finishing KotOR, it's much easier to play DA:O with it's silent protagonist. The last time I tried playing DA, was when I'd finished playing Mass Effect 2 and I missed hearing my character's voice.

Does anyone have any particular Mods they recommend?

Yeah, EA walked me through editing the xml folder to activate them as well. It's not foolproof, but it can be helpful.

Well, I ended up having some problems with some of my DLC again. Certain items and content were showing up as "enabled" on the Downloads screen, but were not showing up in the game. Tried uninstalling and starting from scratch. Didn't help. Found a post about the 1.05 patch, downloaded and installed it, and things seem to be working fine now.

So, what the hell is wrong with EA Origin. I'd installed the game from there and had run it a couple times but it never updated the game to the newest patch?! And there was no way (as far as I could figure out) to see which version of DA:O was running or to update within Origin. That's just a sh*tty service right there.

Thing is I like DA:O once I actually get to play the game, but it annoys me to no end because of what a pain in the butt it is to get the thing running.

DA:Origins is originally from before origin was called origin, or games on origin used it to update. It used to be EADM and just gave you the setup files as you'd get from the DVD and it would be exactly the same, most relevant to the current topic, no auto updating.

Even so, decent auto updating, or new version notification is a feature you really should be able to expect from a 2009 title, even if it's built into the game rather than whatever download client it used. It would be nice to see EA retrofit their old games to 'just work the origin way', but I very much doubt it'll happen.

This game is eating my life these days. Thank goodness it's winter and I don't have much to do except trying to stay warm or I'd be in some serious trouble.

I think I'm about halfway through now--stomping around the Deep Roads looking for Branka. I went a little crazy with armor mods. I'd remembered the kinda blah looks that most light armors had when I'd tried playing a year ago, so I picked up a couple from Dragon Age Nexus: The Phoenix Armory, Shade Leather Armor, Armor of the Black Fox, Sten's Armor, Armor of the Devout. They're all pretty nice looking (some a bit over-powered, but I'm not really playing DA:O for a super hard challenge). The Armor of the Devout is made specially for Liliana (there is a second armor you can use for yourself) and it looks good when you're looking at it from the front, but if you see it from the side or in dialogue cut-scenes it makes her left breast look tumorous. A bit off-putting to say the least.

Hard to say how far you are, can't you choose the areas you want to go to next?

I remember I went to the Deep Roads later in the game, so maybe that's afterwords.

I've done The Circle, Redcliff, and The Urn of Ashes along with most of the DLC. I have Deep Roads and then have to visit the Elves. Hopefully, I'll get to stab that bastard, Arl Howle, in the back soon too!

MWdowns, did you get your DAO via the recent sale on EA origins japan store ? id like to play this game again, i lost my copy ages ago and was thinking maybe ...maybe, but then when i realized you can only buy the standard version and you need to buy bioware points and then buy the dlc via the american website i KNEW there would be a problem.

eventually I will probably see DAO game of the year ed with all the dlc and awakenings in some bargain bin somewhere outside of japan and will scream for joy.

man, If Steam and EA made up that would be a fine day

my fav mods from the nexus was the one the added the dog as a 5th companion, beefed up the dogs powers, combat tweaks mod and the respec mod.

mwdowns wrote:

I've done The Circle, Redcliff, and The Urn of Ashes along with most of the DLC. I have Deep Roads and then have to visit the Elves. Hopefully, I'll get to stab that bastard, Arl Howle, in the back soon too!

You're getting there but, having just played it myself, I can say the end game is a lot longer than you would think. There may or may not be some Arl stabbing in your future.

Once you've done with DA:O try Dragon's Dogma. I have the feeling it was inspired by Dragon Age and pushes all the same buttons for me (and many that DA didn't. Climbing monsters ftw.) Just make sure you have plenty of winter left as it's another life hijacker.

Browny, it's called Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition, and it includes every DLC plus Awakenings. It's been as low as $9 on Steam (see here or here). If it's not available in Japan, just hit one of us up during one of the Steam sales and we can smuggle it for you.

Brownypoints wrote:

MWdowns, did you get your DAO via the recent sale on EA origins japan store ? id like to play this game again, i lost my copy ages ago and was thinking maybe ...maybe, but then when i realized you can only buy the standard version and you need to buy bioware points and then buy the dlc via the american website i KNEW there would be a problem.

eventually I will probably see DAO game of the year ed with all the dlc and awakenings in some bargain bin somewhere outside of japan and will scream for joy.

man, If Steam and EA made up that would be a fine day

my fav mods from the nexus was the one the added the dog as a 5th companion, beefed up the dogs powers, combat tweaks mod and the respec mod.

Nope. I'd picked up DA:O Ultimate Edition from Impulse (back when it was owned by Stardock). Once you have the code for the game, you can go into EA Origin and enter the code and it will show up there. If you get the Ultimate Edition it comes with all the DLC and stuff. Keep an eye out at Amazon for a sale. You can do the same thing with the game code if you buy it there. Thought about using that "dog as 5th companion" mod, but thought that it might be a bit TOO overpowered, especially since I've gone off the deep end with armor mods (they tend to be a bit OP).

Thanks Archangel, yes nearly all bioware games expect KOTOr are unavailable on Steam here in japan and ea origins japan store only sells the vanilla single game. Ill have a look at the Us steam come this summer

Finally finished Origins and then Awakening. Enjoyed my time with the game, but not sure if I'll be going back for a replay anytime soon. It took a lot of hours to complete. I ended up really enjoying Awakening, but was a bit sad at its brevity. Seemed like it could have been a bit more fleshed out and longer. Really liked the rune-crafting for weapons and armor. It'll be hard going back to Origins (if I ever do) and not have that ability to customize my gear.

Now I'm torn as to pick up Dragon Age II or just let it be for a few months and do it then.

Dragon Age 2 is an enjoyable game. It has connections, mechanics and story wise, to the previous games while, at the same time, having a completely different sensibility in terms of combat. I'd do as you feel. It's probably not going to effect your enjoyment either way. Perhaps keep a weather eye out for a cheap deal. At this stage though it'd be hard not to buy it cheaply. If you did pick it up you could always 'dip your toe in the water' and, if you weren't feeling it, put it aside for later.