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Dragon Age Dragon Age: Origins is ten years old today

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
You need gazzilion mods for it to be passable today... Most important thing is HD textures and other visual enhancements.

Texture mods almost always look like ass, and the game holds up fine unless you're a graphics whore. If you think mods are required for it to look "passable" then I'd like to see you try playing anything made before 2005.
 

Xeon

Augur
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
1,858
Only mod I kinda wish they had available is increase the inventory size but the only mod I could find was to get the max 120 space from the start which kinda sucks.

I liked the mod that adds the Gray Wardens armor set and weapons, and the chest to the camp area. Bashing the locked chests and doors as well so you don't need Leliana with you all the time was kinda nice.
 
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
17,897
Location
大同
Only mod worth considering is the one(s) that restores some cut content, although it isn't anything major like KotOR2's.

Also the one that removes the bra from Morrigan's armor design since she ain't no prude city gal.
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
You need gazzilion mods for it to be passable today... Most important thing is HD textures and other visual enhancements.

Texture mods almost always look like ass, and the game holds up fine unless you're a graphics whore. If you think mods are required for it to look "passable" then I'd like to see you try playing anything made before 2005.

Yeah, every game should look like shit Elex
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,086
Location
Bulgaria
Only mod worth considering is the one(s) that restores some cut content, although it isn't anything major like KotOR2's.

Also the one that removes the bra from Morrigan's armor design since she ain't no prude city gal.
Morrigan does have a good wifu ark. Shame that they didn't fallow it with the second game :(. Really wanted to play as dad,gutting demons and shit!
 

Xeon

Augur
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
1,858
Yeah, really wish they continued the Gray Warden's story. Even tho I guess the Blight was done and they mostly fight Darkspawns still would have liked to see more progression.

I liked Hawk overall, the sarcastic anyway but really enjoyed the Gray Warden and would have been a lot better than the Inquisitor in DAI.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Yeah, really wish they continued the Gray Warden's story. Even tho I guess the Blight was done and they mostly fight Darkspawns still would have liked to see more progression.

I liked Hawk overall, the sarcastic anyway but really enjoyed the Gray Warden and would have been a lot better than the Inquisitor in DAI.

Same here. Personally I thought Hawk was a cunt, and that the whole of DA:2 was utter bollocks, but either way as you say the Grey Warden story had far more fertile ground to build from.

Morrigan was a superb character, wonderful blend of nature/death/survival/"evil" and innocence/naivety/tenderness/"good", and seeing the story of her and her unborn demi-God unfold would have been brilliant.

Would have been easy to continue too. If you didn't shag her, simply say that one of the gang like Sten or Zev did, and that she captured the essence of the Arch Demon that way instead. Warden could have still sacrificed themselves or not, a simply choice for the player to make on opening 1) Did you penetrate Morrigan? 2) Did you sacrifice yourself? If the player hasn't played DA:O even easier, she just becomes a wondering witch with a demi-God inside her.

But no, let's fuck all that off to run around doing errands for merchants in a prison of a city. Fucking Bioware cuntfaces
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
Replaying this and I actually find it better than I remember, and I always sort of liked the game.

The main problem is that the game just slows to a halt in some of the hubs. The combat areas in particular. Orzammar and the Deep Roads would've been fucking fantastic if it weren't for the lengthy, slow combat slogs. I mean even the crime boss dungeon is just waaay too long.
That said, the Dalish really suck. They are not interesting in the least and is probably the worst part of the game when it comes to the lore. Just a snoozefest.
Redcliffe is really good, with nice options given to the player, nice atmosphere. And you can do nice things like get the Blood Mage specialization if you're a mage. It's nice.
The Circle is alright except the Fade.

Also, most of the sidequests are really bad. The little fetch quests are so badly done that you don't even realize what the fuck you have accomplished when you turn them in. Horrible.

But, it feels like more than the sum of its parts. I like that it feels so substantial. They really took the time to develop the world and everything about it. It feels genuine. Such a shame that they didn't continue building on it instead of going the route of DA2.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
DA2 is fine in the sense of continuing the politics of the world and centering the conflict around one city and its major figures. It would've been pretty good had they continued with the same combat from DA:O, just reworked a bit to get rid of the jank, but alas. DA:O suffers too much from generic-itis and the creative bits are few and far between, making the bigness of it more exhausting and daunting than open and diverse. I don't know why they decided that button = awesome is the way to go, that should've been reserved for Mass Effect.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
That said, the Dalish really suck. They are not interesting in the least and is probably the worst part of the game when it comes to the lore. Just a snoozefest.

Yeah, I'd agree with this. The way to do them would have been as crazed militia members out to free their enslaved brothers, but instead they're just hanging out in the forest bumming around. Same thing in DA2 only at least they had a limited role outside of manic pixie dream girl. DA3 I barely remember the story.
 

DayofBlow

Educated
Joined
Nov 12, 2018
Messages
92
Location
Last Week
DA2 is novel when described in one sentence. Execution of said idea quickly reveals itself to be garbage while playing the game. Saying DAO is 'generic' is hardly meaningful critique, because it ignores the fact that the execution of it is decent to good for the most part, while the novelty of DA2 can't hide the fact that it's overwhelmingly subpar.

Pretty sure the whole "set in one city" story is because they had 1.5 years to turn a DAO expansion into a full sequel, so they limited their scope with that in mind. Hardly an artistic choice. And it still sucked. Combat was the least of its issues.
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
I think my main problem with the Dalish is that they still feel a bit too classic fantasy to fit into the grimdark thing of DA. Even though there's a pretty nice backstory and all that, you're still dealing with the woodsy, fairy folk to some degree. And in their quest, you run into what is basically an Ent (that rhymes) and you run into a Lady of the Forest.

Meanwhile, you got cool shit like the Dwarves basically living next to the darkspawn, mages living in constant fear of demons and a noble's child in Redcliffe...well, also being taken over by a demon. But still. Within the context of the game, the Dalish just feel kinda boring and out of place in a way.

Needs more grimdark and less finding acorns for a giant talking tree.

Though siding with the werewolves and slaughtering the elf camp is pretty nice.
 

Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
but either way as you say the Grey Warden story had far more fertile ground to build from.

Say what you want about DA:O, it had a good start to a series, the trouble was no one wanted to bother continuing where it left off.

I noticed a similar thing with Mass Effect and sudden changes the second game shoved on you (getting killed, then suddenly brought back to life within the intro..... because?) after the first established the setting wonderfully.

Now that I think about it, it's the reverse of what happens to too many movies, where a one off movie is successful enough that it's forced into becoming the first of a trilogy where it has little to no connection with the following films that butt out so much of what the origin movie established. The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

I think my main problem with the Dalish is that they still feel a bit too classic fantasy to fit into the grimdark thing of DA. Even though there's a pretty nice backstory and all that, you're still dealing with the woodsy, fairy folk to some degree. And in their quest, you run into what is basically an Ent (that rhymes) and you run into a Lady of the Forest.

The biggest problem I found with them is continuing the mainstream evolving of Elves into not just fantasy North American Indians, but combining it with their insistence that Elves are full of misanthropy due to human frailty and weakness. See Elrond's "Men are weak" comment in the LOTR movies that has no place in LOTR.

I increasingly get a kick out of it because Tolkien was aware of that angle and deliberately avoided it in his Elves, even having it be a key part of a dialogue between two characters where one reveals Elves in fact envy Men because of their ability to die.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Athrabeth_Finrod_ah_Andreth

Finrod, as both a scholar and philosopher, strove to amend the distance between the Eldar and Men. He truly wished to understand the Atani. He explained the closeness of their kindred as Children of Eru.[1]:308 Andreth resented this somewhat expressing that the deathless Elves look down upon them as children. He explained that they were both Eru's children. He also cautioned that harbouring envy for the Elves' immortality would breed hatred, which is what the Enemy would wish.[1]:310 He explained that the Shadow, which she feared, and Death, which was her fate, were not one and the same. Andreth questioned him about this because she believed that he would not understand what death was.

Finrod countered to explain that he indeed did know death and its fear for his own grandfather was murdered by the Enemy, many had been lost in the journey to the Hither Lands, and many others died horribly in the war against the Enemy. Andreth continued that their death is not the same. The Eldar knew the pain of death only for a time and then were reborn while Men knew death as an uttermost end.[1]:311 She continued that no matter how clever, brave, swift, or strong Men were, death will overtake them. Finrod asked then if that meant Men, thus pursued by death, had no hope? Andreth said that she was not ready to tell him yet of their Hope.[1]:311

The debate continued with Finrod explaining, "'our hunter is slow footed, but he never loses the trail.'"[1]:312 This statement clarified that Elves are bound to the world and cannot pass beyond it, when Arda dies, the Eldar will perish, (hröa and fëa) body and soul. Beyond that, they know nothing. Andreth admitted that she did not know that.

But like so much Sci-Fi people just ignore that and focus on showing Elves with contempt for Man because of their own misanthropy.
 
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Darkman

Educated
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
49
Replaying this and I actually find it better than I remember, and I always sort of liked the game.

The main problem is that the game just slows to a halt in some of the hubs. The combat areas in particular. Orzammar and the Deep Roads would've been fucking fantastic if it weren't for the lengthy, slow combat slogs. I mean even the crime boss dungeon is just waaay too long.
That said, the Dalish really suck. They are not interesting in the least and is probably the worst part of the game when it comes to the lore. Just a snoozefest.
Redcliffe is really good, with nice options given to the player, nice atmosphere. And you can do nice things like get the Blood Mage specialization if you're a mage. It's nice.
The Circle is alright except the Fade.

Also, most of the sidequests are really bad. The little fetch quests are so badly done that you don't even realize what the fuck you have accomplished when you turn them in. Horrible.

But, it feels like more than the sum of its parts. I like that it feels so substantial. They really took the time to develop the world and everything about it. It feels genuine. Such a shame that they didn't continue building on it instead of going the route of DA2.


Redcliffe was one of the best RPG hubs in recent memory. As soon as you get there one of the militia practically begs you to help stave off the undead attacking. And then you can engage in a bunch of simple side quests to make the battle easier and unite people into accomplishing a common goal, ranging from paying mercenaries to help defend the village, convincing the cowardly, skeezy barkeep to fight in the battle. Promising the blacksmith that you will search for his missing daughter. Paying for a valuable sword you took. Convincing a spy to help a defend a town he doesn't even live in..etc. Even if you had to pay, intimidate or even deceive people into helping they realize that they did good and will continue to help the village grow. You can do all this or just abandon the village to die. You don't owe these people a thing, the arl is the only person you need to help.


This is what an RPG should be like.
 

jf8350143

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
1,277
but either way as you say the Grey Warden story had far more fertile ground to build from.

Say what you want about DA:O, it had a good start to a series, the trouble was no one wanted to bother continuing where it left off.

I noticed a similar thing with Mass Effect and sudden changes the second game shoved on you (getting killed, then suddenly brought back to life within the intro..... because?) after the first established the setting wonderfully.

Now that I think about it, it's the reverse of what happens to too many movies, where a one off movie is successful enough that it's forced into becoming the first of a trilogy where it has little to no connection with the following films that butt out so much of what the origin movie established. The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

I think my main problem with the Dalish is that they still feel a bit too classic fantasy to fit into the grimdark thing of DA. Even though there's a pretty nice backstory and all that, you're still dealing with the woodsy, fairy folk to some degree. And in their quest, you run into what is basically an Ent (that rhymes) and you run into a Lady of the Forest.

The biggest problem I found with them is continuing the mainstream evolving of Elves into not just fantasy North American Indians, but combining it with their insistence that Elves are full of misanthropy due to human frailty and weakness. See Elrond's "Men are weak" comment in the LOTR movies that has no place in LOTR.

I increasingly get a kick out of it because Tolkien was aware of that angle and deliberately avoided it in his Elves, even having it be a key part of a dialogue between two characters where one reveals Elves in fact envy Men because of their ability to die.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Athrabeth_Finrod_ah_Andreth

Finrod, as both a scholar and philosopher, strove to amend the distance between the Eldar and Men. He truly wished to understand the Atani. He explained the closeness of their kindred as Children of Eru.[1]:308 Andreth resented this somewhat expressing that the deathless Elves look down upon them as children. He explained that they were both Eru's children. He also cautioned that harbouring envy for the Elves' immortality would breed hatred, which is what the Enemy would wish.[1]:310 He explained that the Shadow, which she feared, and Death, which was her fate, were not one and the same. Andreth questioned him about this because she believed that he would not understand what death was.

Finrod countered to explain that he indeed did know death and its fear for his own grandfather was murdered by the Enemy, many had been lost in the journey to the Hither Lands, and many others died horribly in the war against the Enemy. Andreth continued that their death is not the same. The Eldar knew the pain of death only for a time and then were reborn while Men knew death as an uttermost end.[1]:311 She continued that no matter how clever, brave, swift, or strong Men were, death will overtake them. Finrod asked then if that meant Men, thus pursued by death, had no hope? Andreth said that she was not ready to tell him yet of their Hope.[1]:311

The debate continued with Finrod explaining, "'our hunter is slow footed, but he never loses the trail.'"[1]:312 This statement clarified that Elves are bound to the world and cannot pass beyond it, when Arda dies, the Eldar will perish, (hröa and fëa) body and soul. Beyond that, they know nothing. Andreth admitted that she did not know that.

But like so much Sci-Fi people just ignore that and focus on showing Elves with contempt for Man because of their own misanthropy.

The problem I have with mass effect is that the second game simply does nothing to push the overall story forward.

You can pretty much skip the main story of ME 2 and go straight into ME 3.
 

Mexi

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
6,811
Great game. I think I played this game back in like 2010 or so. That entire 2 years from late 2009 to late 2011 were the greatest years of my life. I don't think I've played a AAA rpg game better than DA: O or Fallout: New Vegas.

Anyways, one thing that was crazy awesome is that I bought the game used, and the codes were unused.

Morrigan had a lot of potential. I don't even know what the fuck happened to her story arc as they ruined the series for me with voiced protagonists. I banged and then followed her into the Fade. Would've been a better story arc had it not been for the bugs that killed the Morrigan DLC when I played it.

Alistair was a fucking bro. Anyways, I need to replay this game some day. I played it on the PS3 before I got a computer that could run it well, so I'd love to revisit the game and play it like it was meant to be played since the PC had better graphics and probably substantially less bugs.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
The problem I have with mass effect is that the second game simply does nothing to push the overall story forward.

You can pretty much skip the main story of ME 2 and go straight into ME 3.

Same here. It was essentially a spin-off. Nowt wrong with that, they just should have sold it as such.

ME2's real problem was that it dumbed itself down too much to rely on combat elements which weren't strong enough to carry it. But the story itself was a nice detour. Bioware just didn't seem to recognize that's what it was.
 

EruDaan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
1,550
I got it for christmas when it was released, fired it up and couldn't finish it even after trying again half a year later. I did two of the three main story lines but then fell from my chair out of boredom. It's a shitty game no matter how you see it or how you want to argue. Backstory feels forced, just another big evil, chantry is boring, ferelden is boring, dwarfs are... well, somewhat different from dwarfs but still are "ohhhh we lost our proud heritage to monsters and are now just sad remnants of an once proud people", elfs are also somewhat different from the cliché but the swamp area is grey,green and brown and nothing else, morrigan has no tits, grey wardes more like gay wardens, amiright *derpface* and the list goes on.

The fade missions were somewhat interesting...
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Same here. It was essentially a spin-off. Nowt wrong with that, they just should have sold it as such.
But the story itself was a nice detour. Bioware just didn't seem to recognize that's what it was.
ME2's story problem is ME's overarching storyline. Since giant space Cthulhus are a humongous threat, collecting individual allies, no matter how skilled, seems trivial and not part of this story. They actually knew that and that's why they made the last mission be on board the defunct reaper, which in turn also didn't lead to anything in the end.

DA2 is novel when described in one sentence. Execution of said idea quickly reveals itself to be garbage while playing the game.
Not really. The execution of the story was good enough to get its point across, even if it went derpy in the end. I staunchly defend DA2's narrative as Bioware's most daring and creative. They not only broke their crusty mold, but also managed to flesh out the companions (including doubling down on what they do best, banter) and have two versions of your relationship with them which made sense. The game was unfinished and it wasn't very good as a game, but I don't think they can be faulted for the narrative.

As for whether DA:O is generic or not, it kinda is and that's one of its biggest flaws. It isn't 100% generic and it has cool and interesting things in it, but you are rarely doing those interesting things, you waste more time in same-y tunnels, frolicking with forest people, climbing a mountain or a tower, fighting basically orcs and spiders, etc. Sometimes, these activities had a good payoff, and that's what most people remember. The broodmother, the anvil, the politics in Orzammar, the healing ashes, the escape from the prison, etc. It would've been better had the game had more scenarios like the defense of Redcliffe. It's bogged down by unnecessarily lengthy bullshit that could've been made more elegantly.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
convincing the cowardly, sleezy barkeep to fight in the battle.

Or not. See, the barkeep is charging soldiers for beer. And groping his waitress. You can confront him and threaten him. If you repeat the threat after he shows fear and backs down, he will run from the bar squealing in terror. At which point you unsheathe a dagger and throw it into his back, causing him to flop to the floor, dead.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
The problem I have with mass effect is that the second game simply does nothing to push the overall story forward.

You can pretty much skip the main story of ME 2 and go straight into ME 3.

Good point. ME2 should have been the "gathering allies" game with ME3 the all out war game.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
As for DA:O, you can't have a whole game comprised only of nice things, like it or not quality's gonna drop at any moment. Looks like I'm defending it, but I really had mixed feelings with it.

In fact most of the good things are tied to the dwarves there, that are a unique race. They ruined them with Varric, who can be seen as a good character, but not real goodness IMO. I liked Oghren more but in the end he's a rehash of Korgan eliminating the evil side, so. The dwarves had some sinister things going on and that's well liked. IMO Dragon Age should always be about Blights and spawn and Grey Wardens. If they explore Tevinter they can finally make it interesting again, though.
 
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DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
If they explore Tevinter they can finally make it interesting again, though.

That and keep the mage rulers with slaves aspect, and really explore that in a mature way with faction dynamics. That shit would get me interested, despite how bland and MMO-like Inquisition was.
 

Xeon

Augur
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
1,858
Doesn't the Blight only happens every 100 years? or is that only for a location?

They will probably ruin Tevinter with the Elf from DAI fucking it over.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
Doesn't the Blight only happens every 100 years? or is that only for a location?

They will probably ruin Tevinter with the Elf from DAI fucking it over.

Well obviously set the next game in the time of the next Blight, duh.

You can also advertise it accordingly. "Return to the Blight with.....................". Like Assassin's Creed is always about assassins, different setting.

The thing is that Bioware loves to reuse their faggy characters and this doesn't fit with that.

As for the dwarves, they're generally a somewhat undefined race (popular folklore and Tolkien portrayed them as hard-working, tight-knit and greedy), so they did something good with them because they poured actual effort into it. OTOH elves are just your regular pansy elves. And here they're certainly not your Noldor, they're just cannon fodder and outcasts.

The thing is I haven't found the really fucked up shit (broodmother etc) in the sequels. My point is that DA should openly embrace the gore and the horror and the adult, and stop dillydalling.
 
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