The 'Buying Dragon Age: Origins' thread.

[Lemur]

Yeah, I gave the game a quick spin while waiting for a phone conference with my client. Completely unable to get the codes/whatever working. Sheesh. Why can't they implement some sort of in-game interface? Idjits.

[Monk]

Yeah, I gave the game a quick spin while waiting for a phone conference with my client. Completely unable to get the codes/whatever working. Sheesh. Why can't they implement some sort of in-game interface? Idjits.

Yep, I can't get it working either.

Impulse users who have used EA's live chat tech support report that EA is working on getting it fixed, and they are told to try again in a few hours. Everyone in the US must be trying to register at the same time.

[Krusader]

Just checked and Dragon Age is available a day earlier on Steam...as of writing this that's 23 hours and 49 minutes away.

And lets hope Social-site works better tomorrow.

[Beskar]

4 hours to go! w00t!

[Meneldil]

It must be your internet connection. It took 30 minutes for myself. But then again, the downloading speed was 10MB/s.

D'oh. I get 300kb/s. Every once in a while. I mean, it happened 2 months ago.

Maybe someday France will get real connections too.

Oh well, went to downtown to buy the game in a typical "Oh well, I'm poor, but this time I don't give a damn" mindset, only to find that it won't be available on PC before the 19th. Apparently they screwed with the shipping big time in my area. Bleh.

[al Roumi]

Oh well, went to downtown to buy the game in a typical "Oh well, I'm poor, but this time I don't give a damn" mindset, only to find that it won't be available on PC before the 19th. Apparently they screwed with the shipping big time in my area. Bleh.

noooooooo. That must be frustrating! I'm waiting for my boxed copy to arrive in the mail, it was only released in the UK today (although earlier on Steam).

I won't get mine before next week, but that's ok (i hope!) as I have Broken Steel to finish on FO3.

[Meneldil]

Speaking of that, if I plan to get it over some internet downloading service such as Steam, Impulse or Gamergate, which one is the best to go with?
From what I understood, each one has it own DLC and what not. So meh, any idea?

[Samurai Waki]

I used Steam... it seemed to have a fairly reliable connection the whole way through. My brother on the other hand swears by Impulse; since their advertising is far less annoying.

[FactionHeir]

I got it from Impulse. You get the 3 DLC items that way for the DDE which are US version only. Impulse is the only service (I think) that doesn't check whether you actually are US or not when downloading.

[al Roumi]

You can buy all DLCs from windows live anyway. I'm planning to do so once my box arrives -I feel like i need the reassurance of a hard copy...

[Beskar]

You can buy all DLCs from windows live anyway. I'm planning to do so once my box arrives -I feel like i need the reassurance of a hard copy...

Nope... it doesn't use Windows Live.

[al Roumi]

Nope... it doesn't use Windows Live.

http://eu.dragonage.com/news.asp?id=59505

"The Stone Prisoner will give players access to the mighty stone golem Shale who can become one of the most powerful party members in the game. Shale comes with its own personal back-story and unique quests for the player to discover. The Stone Prisoner DLC will also include new environments, items and hours of additional gameplay, further deepening the epic Dragon Age experience. The Stone Prisoner will be available to original purchasers of new copies of Dragon Age: Origins at no additional cost via a code* on an insert card in the retail version or as provided by the retailer for digital purchases. The Stone Prisoner can also be purchased separately on the PlayStation™ Store, the PC via the in game menu or on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace."

The same message is reiterated for all DLCs on the page.

[Monk]

I got it from Impulse. You get the 3 DLC items that way for the DDE which are US version only. Impulse is the only service (I think) that doesn't check whether you actually are US or not when downloading.

Yup, you simply have to be in the US when you buy it. Impulse will let the US buyer gift it internationally which is right awesome.

[drone]

I like PA's take today on the DLC and the plethora of release versions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Contains adult language!

This is why I stopped buying games day 1. If it's good, I'll pick up the Platinum Edition (TM) two years from now and avoid this crap. It's just a game, not a Microsoft OS.

Edit->moved link to spoilers. Tycho likes to use the naughty words!

[Monk]

I like PA's take today on the DLC and the plethora of release versions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Contains adult language!

This is why I stopped buying games day 1. If it's good, I'll pick up the Platinum Edition (TM) two years from now and avoid this crap. It's just a game, not a Microsoft OS.

Edit->moved link to spoilers. Tycho likes to use the naughty words!

To be fair, the armor is pretty nice.

[Krusader]

To be fair, the armor is pretty nice.

Abilities too it seems.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But did not go for them as it seemed they were Blood Magicish. Would not be RP for my character, plus assume there would be consequences anyhow down the road.

[Vladimir]

That's weird. I went to Best Buy today and they still had it locked up. Oh well. I usually follow Drone's logic but I wanted to mess around with the toolset.

Barkspawn: I like!

[Meneldil]

This whole DLC crazyness is indeed annoying as hell. I hope the video game industry will get slapped hard for it, but I doubt that will ever happen. Heck, I'm planning to buy the special edition with all the DLC's.

It's even worse in that case, since the DLC's are released at the same time as the game. Which pretty much means "Hey, we've been working on this for quite some times and could have added it to the main game, but you know what? You're going to have to pay 5 bucks for it" which in turns is pretty much equal to a middle-finger.

I'm honestly trully sorry that the game is good, and looks like the best Baldur's Gate-like released so far, cause that means I'm going to have to buy it. But heck, I really wanted to give them the middle-finger too, and eventually show them my naked butt.

[Krusader]

This whole DLC crazyness is indeed annoying as hell. I hope the video game industry will get slapped hard for it, but I doubt that will ever happen. Heck, I'm planning to buy the special edition with all the DLC's.

It's even worse in that case, since the DLC's are released at the same time as the game. Which pretty much means "Hey, we've been working on this for quite some times and could have added it to the main game, but you know what? You're going to have to pay 5 bucks for it" which in turns is pretty much equal to a middle-finger.

I'm honestly trully sorry that the game is good, and looks like the best Baldur's Gate-like released so far, cause that means I'm going to have to buy it. But heck, I really wanted to give them the middle-finger too, and eventually show them my naked butt.

Well, when people out there buy DLCs you can bet publishers will do whatever they can to milk the franchise dry. At least Bethesda & Bioware have released toolsets for their games, so people can create their own stuff in addition.

And don't think I disagree with you. It sucks, plain and simple. I'm getting more and more convinced that somewhere down the road we will see another video games industry crash like that happened during the 80s. Just hope there won't be a Nintendo there to have monopoly.

[Zenicetus]

I'm honestly trully sorry that the game is good, and looks like the best Baldur's Gate-like released so far, cause that means I'm going to have to buy it. But heck, I really wanted to give them the middle-finger too, and eventually show them my naked butt.

Well, you can buy and enjoy the game, and still send Bioware a message by not buying the DLC. Or you can send them a different message by doing what I'm doing. I bought the deluxe version which includes initial add-on DLC, and I might buy a DLC expansion after finishing the game if it adds actual enjoyable playing hours, instead of just trinkets.

But I refuse to buy the optional quest that's available in-game at the campsite, which totally breaks immersion. That's a message I hope a lot of people will be sending. It's just one very small step from there, to having in-game merchants offering to sell you armor or amulets for actual real-world money.

[Monk]

Well, you can buy and enjoy the game, and still send Bioware a message by not buying the DLC. Or you can send them a different message by doing what I'm doing. I bought the deluxe version which includes initial add-on DLC, and I might buy a DLC expansion after finishing the game if it adds actual enjoyable playing hours, instead of just trinkets.

But I refuse to buy the optional quest that's available in-game at the campsite, which totally breaks immersion. That's a message I hope a lot of people will be sending. It's just one very small step from there, to having in-game merchants offering to sell you armor or amulets for actual real-world money.

Maybe I installed the DLC before he shows up at the camp, but i could swear he wasn't there until I installed Warden's Keep.

[frogbeastegg]

Maybe I installed the DLC before he shows up at the camp, but i could swear he wasn't there until I installed Warden's Keep.

He's there, with the usual quest giver's "!" above his head. He gives you some introductory chat and then tells you to buy the DLC if you want to take the quest.

[Monk]

He's there, with the usual quest giver's "!" above his head. He gives you some introductory chat and then tells you to buy the DLC if you want to take the quest.

Call me Monk the Blind then.

[Beskar]

Must be Xbox only, he isn't there in the PC version. (not on mine anyway)

[frogbeastegg]

Must be Xbox only, he isn't there in the PC version. (not on mine anyway)

Possibly.

When I saw that there was a quest available in my camp I rushed over to collect it only to run head first into the advert.

[Vladimir]

oops, wrong thread,

[drone]

Well, you can buy and enjoy the game, and still send Bioware a message by not buying the DLC. Or you can send them a different message by doing what I'm doing. I bought the deluxe version which includes initial add-on DLC, and I might buy a DLC expansion after finishing the game if it adds actual enjoyable playing hours, instead of just trinkets.

Or you can do what I'm doing, which is waiting for the edition with all the DLC and X-packs combined. This nickel-and-dime job is ridiculous.

But I refuse to buy the optional quest that's available in-game at the campsite, which totally breaks immersion. That's a message I hope a lot of people will be sending. It's just one very small step from there, to having in-game merchants offering to sell you armor or amulets for actual real-world money.

It's a step already taken.

[Beskar]

Actually, I been thinking about this. The whole DLC thing is overblown.

You say "why isn't it with the game!!! whine", but the fact it, it is actually with the game, in the deluxe edition. In the olden days, you had to choose for the more stuff, you had to pay more but then you never have a chance to get it, if you choose for the cheaper option.

What the developer is doing, is allowing those who pay for the deluxe edition, is giving them actual tangible things for their support, while allowing those who went for the cheaper option, the option to pay more to get the individual bits of DLC. Because end of the day, no one is going to buy the deluxe version if all it was, is having a crappy $0.33 mug with "Dragon Age" plastered on the side of it.

So the "DLC" is just the deluxe edition of the game, as the cheaper person, you got the game itself anyway, however, the developers did a little bit extra for those buying the Deluxe addition, then they are allowing you to upgrade to that, if you really want it.

All in all, you got nothing missing at all, you got the game. You just don't have the extras.

[Meneldil]

I never ever had to chose between two versions of a same game.

Yeah, sometimes you had collector editions, that were collectors because they had fancy stuffs such as a poster, a cloth map, a shirt, the official walkthrough and what not. In the very worst cases, you'd have gotten a fancy but useless item in-game (like WoW collector pets - and those are already completely stupid). But additional content? No sir, I can't think of a simple example right now.

Edit : And people would buy the collector edition if it only had a cloth map, a shirt, a booklet, a poster. I did it for several games. Whenever a collector edition is released, it's out-of-stock after a few weeks, because everyone wants it, even though it does not offer poorly-made additional content.

It would be similar to having a Baldur's Gate 2 version with the character's keep, and one without it. One version with Minsc and one version without him. And that would be freaking retard.

[Beskar]

it's even worse for me. I own the DLC and I can't even use it. Because the game won't connect to the servers, even though some how, it lists my achievements on my bioware profile.

Also, the character and keep aren't anything to do with the storyline or similar. It doesn't really matter.