I am playing Dragon Age Origins

[anvi]

DAO is really long with all the DLC.

Even without the DLC, I thought it was almost a little too long. I couldn't wait for it to be over towards the end.

I think when that happens in a game it is never because it is too long, and always because it just stopped being fun enough. I think DAO could have avoided that by having more dragons and bosses nearer the end. My only IRL friend who played this game said he quit at the Dark Roads. He is so typical of the average player, I expect that happened to a loooot of people.

EverQuest really proved to me just how much tedious grind people can put up with, almost infinite. But the game has to provide enough carrot and stick at regular points that are significant enough to coerce the player into actually wanting to push forward.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Most of the best stuff in Dragon Age Origins happens at the Landsmeet. It is packed so full of player agency and C&C it makes the worst parts of the game - Elven ruin dungeon crawling, Derp Roads, Fade etc, more than worth the time taken to play through them.

The other thing I liked about DAO was the different prologues depending on the background you pick, the best being the Human Noble and Dwarven Noble. Human Noble has a big impact on what the Warden can do in the lore, if you play as a male. And the Dwarven Noble storyline is a bit like Game of Thrones with the family backstabbing and betrayal.

 

[The Bishop]

The Stone Prisoner
I'd get this just for the fact that the playable character Shale (a golem) is really funny. Also, they managed to integrate Shale into the main storyline almost flawlessly. I've had one play through where the golem was my main tank for the entire game and I didn't notice any glaring errors where the programmers "forgot" to include him/her/it in a scene.

No wonder, since most of this content was actually removed from the base game when it was pretty close to finished and then re-added via DLC.

 

[Lacrymas]

Can you even get this game without the DLCs anymore? The ultimate edition is like 5 bucks on GOG when on discount, so I don't think the discussion whether the DLCs are worth it are relevant.

Alistair is royal blood in a country on the verge of collapse. Loghaine is an oath-breaker and psychotic isolationist who tried to kill the only people who know what the hell's going on. He is clearly incompetent and clueless. Supposedly he is a good strategist, but really, plotwise it's a very weird decision to support him

Unless you're planning to bang his daughter and keep the throne for yourself, ofk

This "Alistair is of royal blood" thing is pretty hamfisted in the game. How can he prove that when the only two people with some influence who know it's true are dead? EDIT: Arl Eamon. Why would they elect him as king even if he could prove that? Isn't the Landsmeet a sort of forum where the aristocracy elect a king? The only viable candidate was Anora. Just electing Alistair because he's the old king's secret son from a maid is stupid. He has no qualifications and no training for this. AND Anora was already queen, so electing Alistair is nothing but fanservice because he's your buddy and the protagonists always get to be king in a Disney world. Dark fantasy indeed. What Loghain did was a mistake, but only in hindsight, he would've succeeded had the Blight not been real, so from his warped perspective he did the sensible thing. The game very much pushed the narrative that he's paranoid and he was "wrong". The writing just needed to be better to make this interesting.

 

[Cael]

Can you even get this game without the DLCs anymore? The ultimate edition is like 5 bucks on GOG when on discount, so I don't think the discussion whether the DLCs are worth it are relevant.

Alistair is royal blood in a country on the verge of collapse. Loghaine is an oath-breaker and psychotic isolationist who tried to kill the only people who know what the hell's going on. He is clearly incompetent and clueless. Supposedly he is a good strategist, but really, plotwise it's a very weird decision to support him

Unless you're planning to bang his daughter and keep the throne for yourself, ofk

This "Alistair is of royal blood" thing is pretty hamfisted in the game. How can he prove that when the only two people with some influence who know it's true are dead? Why would they elect him as king even if he could prove that? Isn't the Landsmeet a sort of forum where the aristocracy elect a king? The only viable candidate was Anora. Just electing Alistair because he's the old king's secret son from a maid is stupid. He has no qualifications and no training for this. AND Anora was already queen, so electing Alistair is nothing but fanserviice because he's your buddy. What Loghain did was a mistake, but only in hindsight, he would've succeeded had the Blight not been real, so from his perspective he did the sensible thing. Well, he did the sensible thing from his own warped perspective. The game very much pushed the narrative that he's paranoid and he was "wrong". The writing just needed to be better to make this interesting.

No. Eamon of Redcliff knew, and he is the preeminent Arl left after Cousland died of terminal treason. It was Eamon that advanced Alistair's claim.

 

[Lacrymas]

Ah, him, ok. That doesn't solve the entire problem :p You still need to go through the election process, even if you are hereditarily eligible.

 

[Cael]

Ah, him, ok. That doesn't solve the entire problem :p

It does. Anora is queen only by marriage. Alistair's claim is by blood. Just as in real life, Harry was third in line to the throne until his brother (William) sired a child, so was Alistair technically second in line until Cailin sired a child (which he didn't because it is possible that Anora is barren).

 

[Lacrymas]

As I said, it isn't only by blood, you need to also go through the election process. The human noble origin can become king by marrying Anora as well. Other problems include Alistair being a Grey Warden and that you can leave the throne only to Anora, meaning blood is not the end all be all of the political system. Otherwise Alistair would've been elected king regardless of your involvement if the secret is revealed.

 

[Cael]

As I said, it isn't only by blood, you need to also go through the election process. The human noble origin can become king by marrying Anora as well. Other problems include Alistair being a Grey Warden and that you can leave the throne only to Anora, meaning blood is not the end all be all of the political system. Otherwise Alistair would've been elected king regardless of your involvement if the secret is revealed.

The vote is irrelevant. The vote was between Alistair and Loghain, not Alistair and Anora. Anora was the third option if you chose to go that way.

 

[Lacrymas]

>The vote is irrelevant
>the vote was between Loghain and Alistair, Anora was a third option.

Choose one.

 

[Cael]

>The vote is irrelevant
>the vote was between Loghain and Alistair, Anora was a third option.

Choose one.

Both. You would know if you had actually played the game.

 

[alyvain]

The human noble origin can become king by marrying Anora as wel

Not really. You'll become king (or prince) consort

 

[vota DC]

As I said, it isn't only by blood, you need to also go through the election process. The human noble origin can become king by marrying Anora as well. Other problems include Alistair being a Grey Warden and that you can leave the throne only to Anora, meaning blood is not the end all be all of the political system. Otherwise Alistair would've been elected king regardless of your involvement if the secret is revealed.

Even if he is a bastard son he is still royal blood, royal blood aren't supposed to go in suicide mission, they even warned that killing archdemon means death. So even who wants Alistair king choose Loghain for this dangerous mission....funny thing is that Alistair would piss off Anora that execute him.

 

[Chippy]

Best mod for that game was 'The Winter Forge'. Awesome piece of work. Shame about the janky game though. They couldn't even get archers to work right in a 3d environment - as they had to be on the same elevation and usually in the face of the enemy before they could fire.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I like the fact how everyone is shitting and pissing on this game, and yet, seems to perfectly remember plot/locations/quests/npcs, and have elaborate discussions on main villain's motivations.

 

[alyvain]

I like the fact how everyone is shitting and pissing on this game, and yet, seems to perfectly remember plot/locations/quests/npcs, and have elaborate discussions on main villain's motivations.

I remember bad experiences better than good ones

 

[Delterius]

I like the fact how everyone is shitting and pissing on this game, and yet, seems to perfectly remember plot/locations/quests/npcs, and have elaborate discussions on main villain's motivations.

you're supposed to at the end of things like this

 

[Piotrovitz]

I remember bad experiences better than good ones

When you're slogging through sea of shit, you can always quit and never look back, like I did around the elven gay refugee camp in that corridor/dungeon forest.

Unless you have autistic-completionist deviation, but that still doesn't explain lengthy, agitated discussions here about main antagonist's dick.

 

[alyvain]

I remember bad experiences better than good ones

When you're slogging through sea of shit, you can always quit and never look back, like I did around the elven gay refugee camp in that corridor/dungeon forest.

Unless you have autistic-completionist deviation, but that still doesn't explain lengthy, agitated discussions here about main antagonist's dick.

It was just bad, obviously underdeveloped, pretty generic game. It had some depth but the problem was exactly that when think "shit is not so thick here, I bet I can dive deeper and find some pearls and whether Loghaine was circumcised" you find absolutely fucking nothing at the bottom

 

[mfkndggrfll]

Isn't this the same guy who was bashing classic RPGs in other comments? And now he's making a thread about him playing some garbage tier RPG?

 

[Undead Phoenix]

DAO had the potential to be a very good RPG, with an excellent first act (the origins) and characters with apparent depth and substance as well as some fun C&C.

It gets rightly shit on here because despite setting up everything very well, the execution is a complete flop that heralded Bioware's decline. And a game that showed promise and failed to deliver is worse than one that is constantly shite because of the 'what if' bitter taste it leaves.

Alistair's meltdown when you recruit Loghain is the last bit of good writing Bioware did

 

[DalekFlay]

I think when that happens in a game it is never because it is too long, and always because it just stopped being fun enough.

Depends on the person. Some guys here will play something 100 hours and then claim it was shit the whole time and they were just bored. Myself, a game has to be REALLY amazing for me not to take a break after 30 hours or so, just because I itch to try something else.

 

[RRRrrr]

DAO had the potential to be a very good RPG, with an excellent first act (the origins) and characters with apparent depth and substance as well as some fun C&C.

Good or bad, DAO is the last RPG by BioWare.

 

[Semiurge]

Can you even get this game without the DLCs anymore? The ultimate edition is like 5 bucks on GOG when on discount, so I don't think the discussion whether the DLCs are worth it are relevant.

It's not playable on modern hardware without "the official un-official patch". You might think it is at first but when you're about halfway through it starts to CTD regularly and saves made in Denerim go corrupt.

 

[NJClaw]

Can you even get this game without the DLCs anymore? The ultimate edition is like 5 bucks on GOG when on discount, so I don't think the discussion whether the DLCs are worth it are relevant.

It's not playable on modern hardware without "the official un-official patch". You might think it is at first but when you're about halfway through it starts to CTD regularly and saves made in Denerim go corrupt.

I had this exact problem and lowering graphic settings was enough to keep playing. According to the internet, there is a problem with the amount of stuff the game loads when in Denerim.

Playing with lower settings isn't even noticeable: everything (apart from Morrigan's boobs) looks like shit anyway.