Dragon Age Catch-All

I totally ignored all hype and marketing for this since early last year. I don't think I could have survived the nervous anticipation. Now I'm in on Steam for the Deluxe package. Can't wait.

Has anyone else read "The Calling" yet? I think it will be a bit more relevant to the DAO story than The Stolen Throne did.

It revolves around King Maric (the hero from the first book and the father of King Cailin from DAO) going back into the Deep Roads (think Moria) with a bunch of Grey Wardens to stop a possible Blight.

Quality-wise it's about the same as Stolen Throne. Competently but not wonderfully-written (I miss both the authenticity of Martin's voice or the mythic quality of David Gemmell's). The ending, I felt, was quite disappointing too.

I imagine that some of the secondary characters from it will appear in the game. Duncan, a young rogueish Grey Warden, is probably the same Duncan as is in the game, and there is a Darkspawn that I would expect to appear too.

Must stop reading this thread. I'm determined to hold of on this until I have some time off to really session it over Christmas, but you lot are amking it very hard.

DudleySmith wrote:

I imagine that some of the secondary characters from it will appear in the game. Duncan, a young rogueish Grey Warden, is probably the same Duncan as is in the game, and there is a Darkspawn that I would expect to appear too.

Interesting, if a little disappointing. I enjoyed Stolen Throne because it was sufficiently removed from the events of the game so as not to ladle too many expectations on me. I was happy they had given it that sort of treatment, to allow readers the chance to understand the world but not be OMGSPOILERZ-ful.

DudleySmith wrote:

Has anyone else read "The Calling" yet? I think it will be a bit more relevant to the DAO story than The Stolen Throne did.

About halfway through, so don't spoil too much! (Although you've confirmed my expectation that at least one main character will survive...) I'm trying to read it slowly, one chapter every day or two, with the hope of finishing around the time the game arrives.

I am surprised that I am not the only one that actually bought the books and enjoyed them!

On another note, I am always happy to try to push people to go for the PC version of any game, in that regard...

Just spotted this great user review by Woolen Horde, over at QT3

I won't go into specifics and details and spoilers, but I have played through Dragon Age, and it's easily BioWare's best RPG. It's also BioWare's biggest RPG. I mean, this thing is HUGE. It's got a huge story, a huge cast of characters, and it's really quite complex in terms of the relationship mechanics. Admittedly, there's a dungeon or two that are really grindy and feel like they're lengthy for legnthy's sake (seriously, they could have been chopped in half and they'd still be a bit too big), but otherwise the rest of the game just dazzles.

I'm hoping BioWare has tweaked the difficulty since I played, because at default this was a really brutal game at certain points. In fact, though it's supposed to scale with you since you can go through the story in different ways, it got so tough that about halfway through I adjusted the difficulty down to easy. Even then, many of the boss battles were incredibly micro-heavy. I had to constantly pause the action to order guys to drink healing potions or for the mages to bail someone out, else they're dead. Mouse and keyboard are your friend, though I didn't really try it out with the gamepad.

Still. GET THE PC VERSION. There are a gazillion loading screens that you'll encounter, and on the PC the wait isn't too bad, but I shudder at the thought of all those loads on a 360 or PS3.

About my only real complaint is that "adult" aspects are somewhat sophomoric. There are really awesome slow-mo kill moves, but after every battle the blood splatter is so ridiculously over-the-top that you want to laugh. And for sex scenes are uncomfortable. They're just.... awkward.

Also, when the game arrives, here's a big technical hint: Gift giving is done by dragging the gift onto the character's avatar in the inventory screen. I thought it was broken or something, and I never figured it out till near the end. Gifts have a HUGE role in helping to keep someone happy, even when every decision you're making is pissing them off to no end. This was a problem since I was accumulating all these gifts and I couldn't give them away and they were eating valuable inventory space.

Speaking of which, inventory is better than Mass Effect, but it will still drive you batty as it's slot-limited. Each item takes up a slot, and once you hit the maximum you're going to have to dumping gear. The thing is, you can really accumulate loot in a hurry, and in some of the longer dungeons you're going crazy trying to figure out what to keep and what to ditch because you can't get back to the store. Another technical hint: some merchants sell upgrades that boost your item limit. I didn't know about these till the end, too, and I sort of howled when I found out.

About the only true negative in what Woolen Horde wrote was the awkwardness of mature contents.

The gift giving thing is the first time that I heard about it. It sounds great, this would greatly minimize the need to save and reload every time you did something that could potentially adjust your influence with NPC companions.

argh..stop it! stop posting positive previews!

I'm going to have to stop coming into this thread...it's just makes the next couple of weeks seem even more agonisingly long.

They're doing a crazy event where gamers are going to compete with each other for a huge cash prize by playing Dragon Age.

All of us will apparently be able to follow along on the day of the event, which is prior to launch day.

Is Dragon Age strictly single player?

Yep

Yep. You can find updated info in the OP, I will keep it updated, at least until DA comes out.

lethial wrote:

Yep. You can find updated info in the OP, I will keep it updated, at least until DA comes out.

Thank you. Everyone who starts catch-all threads should be doing this.

kuddles wrote:
lethial wrote:

Yep. You can find updated info in the OP, I will keep it updated, at least until DA comes out.

Thank you. Everyone who starts catch-all threads should be doing this.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

Glad to see the positive review. As for the sophomoric adult content, seriously, who didn't see that coming. I mean, it's Bioware.

The mod community will take care of updating the adult content. Wait a month and that critique should be answered in force.

kuddles wrote:

Thank you.

Thanks, please let me know of how you guys think the OP should be updated and what should be included.

Long post incoming.

My wife asked me last night what I want for my birthday next week. I'm tempted to tell her to pre-order this for me, but I'm still on the fence. I can always pick it up later and I'm not sure she's up for getting me another game. However, both games she's ever bought me for my birthday have become huge favorites of mine (Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door & LittleBigPlanet) so it'll be tough to decide...

Personally, I think that you should keep the top post updated for a couple of weeks after the game has been released, and after that, if there is a major review or announcement for the game.

Really wish I could get this on the PC. 360 will have to do.

Vector wrote:

Really wish I could get this on the PC. 360 will have to do.

Same here, but the ginormous oogaba will look great on my ginormous screen.

And as for all these reviews, all I have to say is la-la-la-la-la-la, I'm not listening!

Still. GET THE PC VERSION. There are a gazillion loading screens that you'll encounter, and on the PC the wait isn't too bad, but I shudder at the thought of all those loads on a 360 or PS3.

This makes me sad. I wonder if that is why they locked the perspective on the consoles to the over the shoulder view.

farley3k wrote:
Still. GET THE PC VERSION. There are a gazillion loading screens that you'll encounter, and on the PC the wait isn't too bad, but I shudder at the thought of all those loads on a 360 or PS3.

This makes me sad. I wonder if that is why they locked the perspective on the consoles to the over the shoulder view.

Install the game to HD?

Some more info from people who played DA already over at QT3

From Woolen Horde

Origin stories are great wrote:

The Origin stories are great. You don't put them in and just have a single Origin story and this is still BioWare's biggest and best RPG. The Origin stories and the flexibility they provide is just a metric ton of crazy awesome goodness on top of the incredible moist and tasty cake.

Brilliant quests and levels, Failing the side quests can be GOOD! wrote:

there are some brilliant quests and level design. I especially loved the mage tower. You'll find out why. And a lot of the side quests you can fail, and that's all right. In fact, getting the quests complete will often seriously piss off a party NPC because they view it as a totally unnecessary detour.... and they're right! You can feel like a dick either way by letting some plot character down or hacking off half of your team. That's something I've never seen before.

Tons of party banter wrote:

The characters and the interplay between them is unparalleled. We all know how much the elevators sucked in Mass Effect, but the great thing about them was the hilarious banter as the NPCs poked and prodded each other. Well, this entire game is essentially an elevator (bad analogy), because the banter is everywhere. And as you uncover more and more about an NPC, the other NPCs almost can't wait to verbally pounce on them about the latest revelation. Then consider how many NPCs there are, and how many different party configurations you can bring along, and my mind is officially blown. Even the mutant war dog (who is also totally awesome) is a hoot, and he can't speak any words! You'll just want to replay the game over and over again with different party combination to hear what they'll say. And because the conversations progress as you go over the course of the 50+ hour game, there's not a lot of repeating going on. I mean, seriously, mind blown.

From Desslock:

"game" the Influnce System with the Gifts wrote:

It also gives you a way to "game" the influence system -- since characters like particular gifts a lot more than others -- you can find out generally through getting to know them if you've advanced their dialogues sufficiently. But you can also learn by trial/error - save the game first, then give every gift in your inventory to a character to see if there are any hidden "gems" for that character - reload/do the same thing for the other characters. I hate lame "gaming" the system like that, but on the other hand, I hated not getting access to all the dialogue options more. I'm not really a fan of the influence system in KOTOR/NWN2 and DA, although it's definitely better implemented here than in any previous game.

For me, I don't mind this at all. It is kinda like the buddy system in Persona 4, which I have very fond memory of.

Sidequests, War dogs, and how going off the track too much can have negative impact on followers wrote:

Heh, the war dog will also start whining almost immediately if stop to have an extended conversation with an NPC. It's a dog of action.

There actually aren't that many ancillary quests, and to be honest the ones that exist actually seem somewhat distasteful, because the threat posed by the main plot has been made so clear. It seems weird to detour to stop some pickpockets or make some potions for someone when a horde is bearing down on you.

That's obviously an issue all RPGs face, but you're so integrated with the main plot in DA that it really seems like you're shirking your responsibilities, unlike for example in Oblivion -- although there's far more latitude in Oblivion to "wander the Earth" and do whatever you want, ignoring the main threat, in that game it also seems like you're just "joe schmoe", and that there's governments, soldiers, etc. who may be more suitable to address that threat. It's not necessarily your business. That's not the case in Dragon Age, since your role is fundamental and all would be lost without you, making little ancillary chores seem like far less realistic options.

But that's really a strength of the game, because its plot also really draws you in, and as Woolen indicated, you're also suitably scolded for detouring, which may be an RPG first.

A lot of side quests are related to the main plot wrote:

Yes, many sidequests arise through the main plot - you have a specific objective in that area, and in the course of exploring, you pick up a few ancillary goals -- i.e., you go to visit the Mages to enlist some help, and realize that you need to help them with a few problems of their own first.

But there are also "job board" quests, which are essentially completely ancillary, although they reflect the developing state of the world (i.e. go and see what happened to this merchant caravan, and you see evidence of an enemy army on the march). In the main city (and the few towns) you'll also get some purely ancillary stuff -- i.e. rob this warehouse, help this boy - that's the stuff that often seems misplaced - if you're strictly roleplaying a character I'm not sure you could rationally justify those diversions.

The companions also have their own quests, and they are generally cool, or at least open up some interesting character insights.

Dungeons seem to be more fun to "crawl" in wrote:

Almost all the battles in the dungeons feel like action set-pieces and pose unique tactical challenges, instead of being generic battles with substantially similar foes. Aside from the writing, it's Dragon Age's best strength.

Edit: More updates from Desslock:

It's certainly my favorite BioWare RPG since BG2 and I recommend it. I can understand some people preferring KOTOR as a "game", but DA is certainly a much better RPG, as it has far more roleplaying depth/choices/nuances.

Potential negatives for old school RPG fans -- none, really. I guess the companion-sex, which looks incredibly goofy and the whole mini-game of advancing the romances feels contrived - but I liked the additional dialogue that occurs if you have a romance (or two). The somewhat fetishistic use of blood splattering.

There is a ton of context-specific dialogue in this game - the companions are constantly blathering new stuff. It is far more dialogue-heavy (at least if you want to get as much as you can out of everyone you meet) than the BG games. But I suspect the disparate playthrough times being thrown around are evidence that you can carve a lot of time off by focusing less on that stuff.

BG fans will certainly like the combat.

Just curious, what is preventing you guys from getting the PC version? If I remember correctly the system requirement of the game really isn't that high. I will find that and update OP.

Brass Tax, if my system could run a decent ME1, could it run a decent (read middle settings) Dragon Age, you think?

Grenn wrote:

Brass Tax, if my system could run a decent ME1, could it run a decent (read middle settings) Dragon Age, you think?

Going by the system requirements published for ME, DA actually have a lower system requirement. So you should be fine.

Unless you have a small HDD.

lethial wrote:

Just curious, what is preventing you guys from getting the PC version? If I remember correctly the system requirement of the game really isn't that high. I will find that and update OP.

My wife using the PC at night for work mostly. Buying a 2nd PC isn't really an option so 99% of my gaming is on the 360. And to be honest 99% of the time (or close) it isn't a bad deal. I usually prefer the 360 versions. This game just seems to be one which is geared towards the PC.

Of course no one has really reviewed the console version. That quote is from someone who never played the 360 version and has no idea how it plays. He just assumes since the loads were frequent on the PC they would be frequent on consoles and further assumes they will be longer. I haven't seen any comments by people playing the 360 version (if they exist) describing these things.

lethial wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Brass Tax, if my system could run a decent ME1, could it run a decent (read middle settings) Dragon Age, you think?

Going by the system requirements published for ME, DA actually have a lower system requirement. So you should be fine.

Unless you have a small HDD.

Hey, my HDD is plenty big!

Thanks.

farley3k wrote:

reason

That make sense. I think the only thing that we are sure right now is that the Console version won't have the isometric view, which you already alluded to.

lethial wrote:

Just curious, what is preventing you guys from getting the PC version? If I remember correctly the system requirement of the game really isn't that high. I will find that and update OP.

I own a sh*tty laptop that doesn't meet the minimum system requirements of Fallout 3.

If you don't mind me asking, what laptop do you have? Fallout 3's min requirement is definitely higher then DA.