Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[Scienter]

I think VtM: Bloodlines did the action-RPG sub-genre perfectly, better than Mass Effect even, though I loved Mass Effect's retro sci-fi aesthetics.

I loved that game! It's a shame they didn't make more. Maybe they will now that vampires (although wussified) are popular right now. Or did the company who made it go under?

[Lemur]

I loved that [Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines]! It's a shame they didn't make more. [...] Or did the company who made it go under?

That would be Troika Games, and it's thoroughly deceased. Shame really, since both Arcanum and VtM:Bloodlines had the potential to be true groundbreakers, were they not rushed, buggy, etc.

There's great fan-based mods and patches for VtM:Bloodlines.

[Xiahou]

That would be Troika Games, and it's thoroughly deceased. Shame really, since both Arcanum and VtM:Bloodlines had the potential to be true groundbreakers, were they not rushed, buggy, etc.

There's great fan-based mods and patches for VtM:Bloodlines.

I'm apparently the only person on the planet who found the un-modded, vanilla Bloodlines to be completely playable. A couple glitches, a few CTDs, sure. But, it was never anything close to the unplayable bug-ridden mess most people tell me it was.

I won the game 3x without ever feeling the need for fan-made content or patches.

[DisruptorX]

I'm apparently the only person on the planet who found the un-modded, vanilla Bloodlines to be completely playable. A couple glitches, a few CTDs, sure. But, it was never anything close to the unplayable bug-ridden mess most people tell me it was.

I won the game 3x without ever feeling the need for fan-made content or patches.

No, the bugginess is extremely overstated. Its no more buggy than say Fallout 2. Actually, its less buggy.

[frogbeastegg]

I'm apparently the only person on the planet who found the un-modded, vanilla Bloodlines to be completely playable. A couple glitches, a few CTDs, sure. But, it was never anything close to the unplayable bug-ridden mess most people tell me it was.

I won the game 3x without ever feeling the need for fan-made content or patches.

I played through the game at release with no patches, and other than a few minor glitches and some broken triggers in side quests it was all ok. The source engine was a bigger problem - it always makes me terribly motion sick.

[Ironside]

I suspect most of the bug issue was the one that could crash your game so you couldn't pass that point, thus being unable to finish the game normally. Then we also have that door that was almost impossible to open or when your computer changes into a furnature.

Still love that game and malkivian playthrough is still among the funniest games ever imho.

"Police officials has gone on record saying: Don't worry that crazy bastard will save him."
"One witness stated that the exchange was all like pow, pow, ah take that, oh you got me, take that, blam, aiee."
Or telling Jack about his plan... Without knowing it.
Among the easier to find we have the pet turtle.

[Meneldil]

Return to Ostagar has been released, finally.

The pros:
- Some new lore (regarding Cailan and Celene, the orlesian Empress)
- Some new banters (mostly with Wynne, Alistair, Loghain and occasionally Dog)
- It's only 3€

The cons:
- A shameless rehash of Ostagar, with a snow texture and some Darkspawn stuff. There's only one new zone.
- A new plate armor set. Huho, as if the game wasn't already filled with those. During my warrior playthrough, all 4 plate wearing characters had a full set, and I still had 2 or 3 more in my inventory, while I couldn't get any leather or cloth set.
- Cailan's armur is utterly useless. It's made for tanking, but requires a huge amount of strenght that no tank characters is going to reach at any time. Who the hell took care of the itemization?
- The new zones are all corridor-ish, even Ostagar camp.

All in all, I'm kind of disappointed. The lore ain't that exciting. The fights are overly easy. The loot is useless. Not a single new texture or stuff (unlike Stone Prisonner). Oh well. For 3€ I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better.

[Krusader]

Return to Ostagar has been released, finally.

The pros:
- Some new lore (regarding Cailan and Celene, the orlesian Empress)
- Some new banters (mostly with Wynne, Alistair, Loghain and occasionally Dog)
- It's only 3€

The cons:
- A shameless rehash of Ostagar, with a snow texture and some Darkspawn stuff. There's only one new zone.
- A new plate armor set. Huho, as if the game wasn't already filled with those. During my warrior playthrough, all 4 plate wearing characters had a full set, and I still had 2 or 3 more in my inventory, while I couldn't get any leather or cloth set.
- Cailan's armur is utterly useless. It's made for tanking, but requires a huge amount of strenght that no tank characters is going to reach at any time. Who the hell took care of the itemization?
- The new zones are all corridor-ish, even Ostagar camp.

All in all, I'm kind of disappointed. The lore ain't that exciting. The fights are overly easy. The loot is useless. Not a single new texture or stuff (unlike Stone Prisonner). Oh well. For 3€ I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better.

I'll echo that. Took me 20 minutes with listening to dialogue and team-banter.

3 € x 10 = 30 € which is the price of the next Dragon Age expansion.
So that means 20 minutes x 10 then doesn't it? A little over 3 hours of game time in the expansion perhaps?

[Beskar]

I loved that game! It's a shame they didn't make more. Maybe they will now that vampires (although wussified) are popular right now. Or did the company who made it go under?

I know you mean about twilight, but you haven't seen what the Japanese are currently doing with Vampires. Let's say it is very taboo in Western Culture.

[Vladimir]

That would be Troika Games, and it's thoroughly deceased. Shame really, since both Arcanum and VtM:Bloodlines had the potential to be true groundbreakers, were they not rushed, buggy, etc.

That's unfortunate.

I agree. Although I could never bring myself to play an "evil" vampire the game itself was remarkable and an incredible journey.

I wonder if there's enough people here to get an RPG replay thread going? Play through some of the older - and maybe not so old - games and post opinions on how well they hold up.

Perhaps there will be interest this summer. I remember my attempt to play through the entire BG series again, only solo. I went through a lot of preparation, repurchasing, and modification only to play the game and realize how alone I felt during play. Perhaps that's a result of getting older .

Instead of a book club it would be like a game club. Each player can add their own twists and relate the adventure making it feel like a story.

[Meneldil]

I know you mean about twilight, but you haven't seen what the Japanese are currently doing with Vampires. Let's say it is very taboo in Western Culture.

Huh man, you've obviously never watched a vampire porn movie.
Just for your information, the first modern vampire novel (Carmilla) is about a more or less openly lesbian vampire. It's been written by an Irish, in...1872. 25 years later Dracula followed the same path, with some quite erotical scenes (such as Jonathan Harker being blood-sucked to exhaustion by 3 vampire babes).
Nowadays, we have Anne Rice's books. Most of them have homosexual and bisexual sex scenes, involving two or often more characters, with some of them being barely legal (as in being immortal but looking like 14 year old teens). Tbh I found some of these books quite disturbing and unappealing.
Vampire is also a quite fashionable theme within the fetishist and gothic subcultures.

Japanese vampires are lame, just like pretty much anything comming from japanese pop culture. Gross and silly at the same time, full of clichés, weak plots, and what not.

[Scienter]

I know you mean about twilight, but you haven't seen what the Japanese are currently doing with Vampires. Let's say it is very taboo in Western Culture.

You've piqued my curiousity. Too bad I'm at work, there's no way I'm googling about Japanese vampires from here!

[johnhughthom]

After playing Mass Effect 2 the control scheme in DAO feels awkward and unwieldy. I played it previously on PS3 and enjoyed it, but it almost seems unplayable now on PC after being used to ME2 controls. Using a rogue getting into position with mouse clicks involves constantly having to move the camera around and the less said about trying to control it with WASD the better. Perhaps it will get easier when I'm used to it, but I don't really feel like getting used to it will be any fun...

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

That's how I felt on trying the demo - it didn't feel right at all for me, so I passed on the game.

[Meneldil]

After playing Mass Effect 2 the control scheme in DAO feels awkward and unwieldy. I played it previously on PS3 and enjoyed it, but it almost seems unplayable now on PC after being used to ME2 controls. Using a rogue getting into position with mouse clicks involves constantly having to move the camera around and the less said about trying to control it with WASD the better. Perhaps it will get easier when I'm used to it, but I don't really feel like getting used to it will be any fun...

I have no issue with the controls whatsoever *shrugs*
If you zoom out, it plays like a RTS, if you zoom in, it plays like a MMO.

[rajpoot]

Why don't they make all the games with simple controls like M&B or some TES game I'll never know.....why have the mouse movement thing at all! That's supposed to be for RTS games.

[Meneldil]

You don't have to use the mouse to play DA:O. WASD is more than enough, unlike MMO's where players who only use WASD will look like morons. I never use the mouse to move my characters in DAO, so *shrugs* again I guess :-P

I seriously don't see what's complicated or tedious or annoying with DA:O controls. Maybe that's because I'm an experienced MMO and RTS player, but I never had any problem at all. To go even further, I think the controls are about as good as you can expect for a party-based RPG. I am no fanboy of the game (I think the gameplay is lacking, and consider there are quite a lot of holes in the story), but DA:O is certainly not shamed by TES games.