Escapist Says Dragon Age Is Better On The PC

[Elzair]

Susan Arendt, the Senior Editor of the Escapist has posted a recent article that claims the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins is superior to the console version. Here are some highlights from the review.

A few months back, I was fortunate enough to visit BioWare in Edmonton and play Dragon Age: Origins for several hours.
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I am a console gamer through and through. Which is why I feel like something of a Judas for saying that I will more than likely end up playing Origins on a PC, even if I have to borrow one to do it.
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And let me state plainly that Dragon Age is a great game on the 360.
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But having played both versions, it is clear to me that although Dragon Age can be played on a console, it should be played on a PC. It's just better that way.
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Origins looks and feels like a natural successor to those games, which means it was designed with a mouse and keyboard and mind. BioWare has done an admirable job of shoehorning the plethora of control options into a 360 controller (using TARDIS technology to do it, I feel sure), but it just can't match the simplicity and intuitiveness of the PC. I played the 360 version for an hour or two, and was struggling with the controls the entire time, but had mastered the PC control scheme in mere moments.

Well, does this represent an incline of Bioware, or does it just restore the crappy status-quo* of pre-XBAWX Bioware?

* That would still be an incline, though.

 

[Black]

incline

dragon age

The fuck you're talking about son?
Almost every multi platform title is better on the pc. Doesn't mean that a piece of shit won't be a piece of shit on the pc.
I don't remember fallout 3 being good despite being better on the pc.

 

[Elzair]

I don't remember fallout 3 being good despite being better on the pc.

What? I did not like Fallout 3 either, and I thought the PC interface was very wonky. It was as bad as Oblivion's, and that is saying something. I did not play the 360 version, but I did try it with a 360 controller, and I thought it played much smoother. I would have stuck with the controller, but the game featured no way to switch the thumbsticks, so it did not feel natural to left-handed me.

 

[roll-a-die]

I'm so glad I've trained myself to be ambidextrous. Left handed people just can't play console video games and have it feel natural.

Back on topic now. Yeah from the videos I have watched on giant bomb. The interface looks allot more... intuitive on the pc.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I should hope it plays better on the PC, considering it started out as a 'see, we still remember our homeys' type thing directed at the PC community. It wasn't until later Dragon Age got slated for consoles, and then the bullshit started.

 

[Tycn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDrLKBUbmg

"So, what exactly makes Dragon Age a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate?"

"Well, you can zoom the view out so it looks just like isometric!"

 

[Zed]

Of course it's better on the PC. Everything is.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS THIS TOPIC IS TOTAL FAGGAGE. OF COURSE THE PC VERSION IS BETTER ALSO OF COURSE THIS IS BIOFAG TRASH WHICH ONLY CONSOLETARDS SHOULD PLAY

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Just about every game is better on the PC. You have to seriously screw up the port to make the game worse. See: GTA IV, DMC 3.

 

[Volourn]

No. Not every game is. That's a fuckin' lie.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Just about every game is better on the PC. You have to seriously screw up the port to make the game worse. See: GTA IV, DMC 3.

If by better, you mean the controll scheme i.e. KB vs Controller, then I've found it actually depends on a few things:

If it's a true multi-platform game i.e. it was designed from the get go to run on both console and PC -> then there's a good chance the PC version will play better with KB, but not always. e.g. Batman Arkham Asylum plays better with a 360 controller even on PC.

It also depnds on the genre. I've found that most (not all) 3rd person action games play better with a controller - BAA, DMC4, Prototype etc. Though again, a lot of these games are ports of the console version anyway.

Racing games and sports games a controller of some sort (wheel or console controller) is pretty much mandatory.

Of course where the KB rules supreme is with 1st person games (especially FPS) and strategy games (RTS & TBS) and most RPG's.

The PC has other advantages, in the processing/graphics depts. - assuming you have an up-to-date rig.

Also, don't forget some PS3 games actually let you plug in and use a KB. Don't know of any 360 games that support that, but I'm assuming MS wouldn't allow it because they still want people to buy PC's and run Windows.

The lines are certainly becomming more blurred than they used to be, that's for sure.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Susan

Hmmmm. That sounds like a name with a vagina attached. Perhaps I should visit this internetomopage.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Just about every game is better on the PC. You have to seriously screw up the port to make the game worse. See: GTA IV, DMC 3.

If by better, you mean the controll scheme i.e. KB vs Controller, then I've found it actually depends on a few things:

If it's a true multi-platform game i.e. it was designed from the get go to run on both console and PC -> then there's a good chance the PC version will play better with KB, but not always. e.g. Batman Arkham Asylum plays better with a 360 controller even on PC.

It also depnds on the genre. I've found that most (not all) 3rd person action games play better with a controller - BAA, DMC4, Prototype etc. Though again, a lot of these games are ports of the console version anyway.

Racing games and sports games a controller of some sort (wheel or console controller) is pretty much mandatory.

Of course where the KB rules supreme is with 1st person games (especially FPS) and strategy games (RTS & TBS) and most RPG's.

The PC has other advantages, in the processing/graphics depts. - assuming you have an up-to-date rig.

Also, don't forget some PS3 games actually let you plug in and use a KB. Don't know of any 360 games that support that, but I'm assuming MS wouldn't allow it because they still want people to buy PC's and run Windows.

The lines are certainly becomming more blurred than they used to be, that's for sure.

Actually, I meant purely on the basis of the port job. IE both of them run shitty while looking shitty even on excellent computers. Though, DMC 3 gets the thumbs up for keeping all in game references to the controller. "Press 3 + 5 to do the special attack. WTF? that just opens a menu. Fuck, it means press J + Space bar". I am probably very lonely in my insistence on playing and beating DMC 3 completely with a keyboard. . I haven't touched a controller in months, the only games I really think need it are flight/racing sims.

 

[DreadMessiah]

Susan Arendt: Motto "It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." Gragt = Susan Arendt or these two need to hook up...

 

[Zeus]

Almost every multi platform title is better on the pc.

Seriously. Between mods and infinitely scaling hardware -- you can really crank up that resolution ten years from now, ya know? -- PC versions are better in almost every respect. I still like the control of a console, though. It's nice not to always have to hunch over a computer. Mouse+keyboard is best for strategy games and FPS's and whatnot, but sometimes it's nice to kick back with a turn based RPG and not sit three inches from the monitor.

 

[Tycn]

The whole argument for control is pointless anyway since if they ported a shit interface you can just use a controller.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

I'm so glad I've trained myself to be ambidextrous. Left handed people just can't play console video games and have it feel natural.

Sometimes I wish I were left-handed when I'm playing fighting games. Maybe then I'd be able to do Zangief's motherfucking Final Atomic Buster.

 

[Gragt]

Susan Arendt: Motto "It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." Gragt = Susan Arendt or these two need to hook up...

That dumb bitch got it wrong, the correct phrase is "It is pitch black."

 

[Zeus]

The whole argument for control is pointless anyway since if they ported a shit interface you can just use a controller.

Do any games have a special gamepad interface? I heard Oblivion lets you play with a 360 gamepad, but I always thought it more or less worked like those Joy2Key programs, with you using the analog joysticks to "move the mouse cursor around" to the right spot and then press a button for Enter. As opposed to, you know, just hitting a button for YES and nother button for NO, or whatever.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Escapist should shut the fuck up.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS YOUR GAY FANCYTALK IS RETARDED, EVERTHING IS BETTER ON PC AND IF YOU THINK DIFERENT STFU AND GO BACK TO GAMEFAGS

 

[Mogar]

Everything's better on the PC. We still have the most precise, and elegant controller, best graphics (if we're willing to shell out loads of cash), better online support, and modding communities. All those together (well, with the possible exception of the last) won't save a bad game.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Everything's better on the PC. We still have the most precise, and elegant controller, best graphics (if we're willing to shell out loads of cash), better online support, and modding communities. All those together (well, with the possible exception of the last) won't save a bad game.

actually mouse & keyboard suck for sports games, action games, platformers, and probably a few others

but you can just buy a gamepad for those so yeah pc is best

 

[Zeus]

We still have the most precise, and elegant controller

Precise? Yes. Elegant? I think not.

Keyboards are like PS2 controls. They have so many buttons that game designers got lazy and started to use them all. (Eventually that lead to moronic decisions like games that use the D-pad as a menu, not to mention L3 & R3, also known as, "Press too hard on the analog sticks while walking around and something stupid happens.")

The keyboard is modeled after a typewriter. A typewriter isn't the best gamepad. The up/down/left/right keys are on the right, but we need to use our right hand to hold the mouse, so we've been walking around with !@#$ing W-A-S-D keys for fifteen years.

You call that elegant?

 

[Berekän]

actually mouse & keyboard sucks for action games

ACTION GAMES

ACTION GAMES

ACTION GAMES

Have I done it right?