Dancien Graves

Go forth, buy now.

Started playing at 10pm CST last night. Still playing, no sleep.


RPG YAY

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Cindy Claveau

UPS is supposed to deliver my copy after lunch, today.

I'm trying to restrain my excitement but it's hard. I've only wanted this game for the last year.

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Sometimes, "I hit it with my axe" is the best solution.

Edav Nomad

I played it for about 4 hours last night and if I didn't have to work today I would have played it longer. I don't know about the PC version but the Xbox 360 version came with the code for the DLC that gives you the Stone Golem as a future party member. I'm sure it would though.

Also, at first, you only get one piece of the Blood Dragon Armor but you can get the rest of it from a certain vendor. The first piece also appears to be sellable for about 7 gold.

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Dancien Graves

Every review site I have seen says the PC version has the best graphics out of the three versions

Kavik Brock

The trailers I have seen look pretty cool. I'm curious, though, is this a game that you're in charge of your whole party? Directing each party member to do this, then this, then that, then hit the go button?

I haven't had a chance to read up on the game, at all. I just know that it looks pretty badass.

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Sock monkeh save mah soul!

The Travels of Charles

Dancien Graves

You can do that (Control each character in your party) or you can set up AI behaviors and tactics and it actually works pretty well.

Edav Nomad

Yeah, but I don't mind that as long as the gameplay and story are good. So far it looks like Dragon Age fits that criteria.

Ceiri

The reviews also seem to say that the PC version is significantly more difficult than the console versions.

Lianne Marten

So fucking good!


So goddamn hard!

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I hope that whoever you are, you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better. But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you... I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

-Valerie

Dancien Graves

It's because they know PC gamers are smarter. It's okay though, easy games tend to suck.

Cindy Claveau

I'm in love. This is nothing like past RPGs I've played - I find myself more concerned with the direction of the story line than I do what level I am, or what gear I have.

THAT is what a roleplaying game should be.

Moral dilemmas. Yummmm

Edav Nomad

Did these reviews mention which difficulty setting that they were using? It does have one that is called "Nightmare." Supposedly in that difficulty setting you can damage your party just as much as you do your foes and the enemies AI is very aggressive. Also the party doesn't heal very quickly on their own. I'll try that setting tonight to see how it does.

Siyu Suen

Mad randomly IM'ed me and got my guy on the trail of trailers, now he's completely in love and we're buying the Deluxe tonight I'm not ready to take a hiatus from work so he'll blaze the trail, but I've told him to keep his headphones on to not spoil anything

So far, the graphics look simply inspiring. Absolutely gorgeous, it looks like a soul stealer.

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"Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever" -Baron Munchausen

I'm attempting to bring about the end of the world to usher in a new era of mask wielding overlords. This is how!

Cindy Claveau

The graphics are good. I'm complaining about my female mage's man-hands and how her walk looks so manly. Not feminine at all.

But the real beauty of this game is in the playing of it. I mean it when I say it's swept me off my feet - "stolen my soul" is a good term

Here's my mage in a cut scene. Looks better here than in the character creator:



And a nice vista from the bridge at Ostragar (no, they still haven't solved the age-old problem of funny looking mage hats)

Miriel Enfield

I've been seriously put off by the marketing and trailers for this thing - the whole endless fighting to rock music thing nearly killed all my interest in this game, and I was actually excited about it before. (That the graphics don't look so hot doesn't help, either.)

Marketing's marketing, though. Is this writing strong enough to make this worth looking into despite the execrable trailers?

Lordfly Digeridoo

The trailers have little to do with the actual gameplay. It's mostly reading and dialogue, with the occasional bad-ass fight scene.

How bad-ass? Well, in most games, when you kill a guy, it's just a normal swing. In Dragon's Age, the game knows it's going to be a lethal blow, so triggers some extra-delicious animations. Case in point (minor SHPOILERSH):





I was fighting an insane ogre-type thing, easily five times my group's size. We beat the shit out of it for five solid minutes. When it was finally time for the fucker to die, the game cuts to one of my warriors whacking it around a bit, then slicing it down, then STABBING IT IN THE FACE REPEATEDLY with his broadsword until blood covered him.

Dead Ogre. Level up. Loot received.


It's also pretty.

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http://www.lordfly.com/

Cindy Claveau

In my opinion, absolutely. And it's not just writing - consider the number of permutations a programmer has to script to allow multiple player decisions, all ending with viable outcomes. I'm trying to imagine the flowcharts they had to do for these quests to allow the player to define their own destiny.

In one of the earliest quests I took, I was faced with the choice of helping a friend and breaking the law, or turning him in and staying in the good graces of powerful leaders. I made what I thought was the right decision for me, and the game played right along - meanwhile immersing me in the moral dilemma and the fear of consequences.

Like I said earlier - graphics are good, the game UI is good, combat is much better than it was in the old NWN/NWN2 (IMO anyway), computer AI is smart, but the biggest selling point to me is that the game gives you choices and adapts to those choices.

That spells infinite replayability to me. "What if I had taken the other road?"

Cindy Claveau

Just wanted to add that the big cutscene of the battle at the tower gave me chills. So freakin' GREAT! It says something for this game that I'm enjoying the cutscenes almost more than the actual gameplay.

Only one wipeout so far, but that was because I didn't have my party members' tactics set correctly. Tactics really matter here - there are some settings that won't make your archer fire his bow when you think it will, and others that tell your fighter to charge into a horde of Darkspawn and die. That happened to me

Luckily, dead party members rez after you win a fight. And if you lose everybody, let's hope you've kept hitting F5 (quicksave) after every victory. It could be a long way back to the scene of your death.

Michael Bigwig

How does the game stack up against Oblivion?

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~Michael Bigwig
___________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs

Dancien Graves

It doesn't. Oblivion isn't even in the same league as this game. Oblivion is still in the triple AAA farm league while Dragon Age is in the Majors.

Edav Nomad

The "Nightmare" difficulty setting does make it harder on the Xbox 360. You have to be careful to not hit your party members especially if you are a Mage since one of the first spells you get is a fire one and it shoots the fire out in a cone shape. Also the enemies seem to attack more aggresively. Tactics are very important in that setting.

Michael Bigwig

Oblivion got great scores...that's a bold statement. I liked Oblivion. But I still think it has something missing, and I agree by the trailers, DA seems a lot deeper and refined.

Cindy Claveau

I was a big Oblivion fan, but Dan's right - Oblivion isn't even in the same ballpark as Dragon Age.

The main reason, IMO, is that the DA story is far more immersive. Sure, you could go anywhere/do anything in Oblivion but the cost was a sense of purpose and immersion in the story. Open another Oblivion Gate, ho hum.

When a game gives me chills during cutscenes like DA does, it's in a class by itself.

Kavik Brock

I want to try this game! I have to finish Batman first, though. Can't justify buying another game if I haven't finished the last one.

Keep talking it up, though. I want to hear all of the good/bad/ugly/amazing stuff.

Thanks for sharing, so far!

Dancien Graves

What's everybody's favorite class set up so far?