Dragon Age Dragon Age: Origins is ten years old today

[Heroic Liberator]

- voiced NPC dialogue

As a feature or pertaining to its quality?

 

[Lilura]

Just don't like all dialogue voiced in cutscenes.

 

[Hellion]

Good game overall, but in no way the "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" that BW initially set out to make. The EA aquisition mid-development played at least some part in this, I guess. It's funny that it can now be regarded as the last "good" game BioWare ever made.

Loghain was a well-designed character, and the fact that you had quite a few options on how to deal with him later on was great.

Its expansion was good, too. And, like all good things, its lore was completely ignored in all subsequent Dragon Age games.

 

[Lilura]

Its toolset never took off either. Not like Aurora, anyway. The toolset was dumbed down from Obsidian's Electron. It was nowhere near as powerful.

Modding scene sucked, though there were some good tactics mods eventually released.

 

[Roguey]

- Console UI

The issues with the UI are purely Bioware's ineptitude. The console port happened after the fact, hence why it looks so different (and also why Volourn prefers the console codex and inventory) https://www.mobygames.com/game/ps3/dragon-age-origins/screenshots/gameShotId,505348/ https://www.mobygames.com/game/ps3/dragon-age-origins/screenshots/gameShotId,505349/ https://www.mobygames.com/game/ps3/dragon-age-origins/screenshots/gameShotId,505366/

 

[Nerevar]

DA:O looks like an awesome game if you compare it to the mediocre shovelware that gets passed off as an RPG these days. ToW and PoE2 were massive disappointments.

 

[Lilura]

List-based inventories need to die. I prefer the tactility and aesthetics of grid-based.

 

[JarlFrank]

WAY too much combat in this game. I tried replaying it like a year ago and quit about halfway through because it felt like they deliberately designed the game to waste my time with tons of trash encounters

That's the thing that prevents me from re-playing the thing.

It had so many copypasted trash encounters, I felt drained at the end of the game. So much filler padding, the joy had been completely sucked out of the game and replaced with tedium.

 

[JDR13]

I feel like reminiscing a bit about this now-classic RPG.

You lost me at "classic".

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

derp roads. jesus harold christ the derp roads.

 

[Lilura]

That's the thing that prevents me from re-playing the thing.

Eclipse engine has overhead and just feels sluggish so that's why I don't bother replaying. Plus, all those voiced cutscene dialogues. And the Fade (which I modded out).

I can tolerate Electron's sluggishness because of strategy mode cam, which is way better than Eclipse cam.

 

[Roguey]

Lilura what do you believe is fake? List inventories aren't exclusive to consoles. They were fairly typical in RPGs from the 80s.

You lost me at "classic".

It's a classic now. I've been seeing people having fond recollections of it in my periphery, not unlike Oblivion.

 

[Lilura]

Lilura what do you believe is fake? List inventories aren't exclusive to consoles.

It's not just about it being a list-based inventory. It's also the dimensions of the panels that scream "console 'tard" to me. Whether it was coded and designed with console 'tards in mind or not, it's not a PC UI.

 

[Roguey]

It's not just about it being a list-based inventory. It's also the dimensions of the panels that scream console 'tard to me.

Their target resolution was pretty low, I guess it made sense for them at the time. If someone with an old computer wanted to play DA:O in 640x480, they could. They couldn't be bothered to scale the UI up though.

 

[commie]

derp roads. jesus harold christ the derp roads.

That's such a meme as it wasn't that bad. By that time you tended to steamroll everything so it went by pretty fast.

Worse was the Fade..initially it seemed cool but then the constant backtracking and warping at dead end samey corridors in between the decent stuff, just dragged on like a motherfucker. It's indicative that a patch specifically allowed you to skip the Fade after first go.

 

[Starwars]

Are there any good mods for replaying this? It's been a while.
I've always liked the game despite its many flaws. It's interesting to think back on. People whine today about the kickstarter games and all that but back the state of RPGs at the time this was released was pretty dire as I recall. I was pretty hyped about the game and some of its features even though it came from Bioware. I enjoyed it even though it's a real slog at times.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

derp roads. jesus harold christ the derp roads.

That's such a meme as it wasn't that bad. By that time

1) you could pick them as first area
2) leveled content

let me offer you a nice cup of shut the fuck up.

 

[Nano]

I can tolerate Electron's sluggishness because of strategy mode cam, which is way better than Eclipse cam.

I severely disagree with you on this one. The NWN2 camera was horribly unintuitive and non-user friendly regardless of what cam mode you were using, which is a problem the DAO camera doesn't have. I think most people would agree with me on this.

 

[Lilura]

Their target resolution was pretty low, I guess it made sense for them at the time. If someone with an old computer wanted to play DA:O in 640x480, they could. They couldn't be bothered to scale the UI up though.

Wouldn't mind seeing a citation for that one. Note that IWD2 (2002) and even fucking Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001) were natively 800x600. Their UIs were specifically designed for 800x600, and they don't drop to 640x480.

So BioWare comes along in 2009 and starts off at 640x480? Don't think so. And I doubt DA:O even runs at that resolution.

 

[Lilura]

I severely disagree with you on this one. The NWN2 camera was horribly unintuitive and non-user friendly regardless of what cam mode you were using, which is a problem the DAO camera doesn't have. I think most people would agree with me on this.

Most people will agree with you, yes. But then, most people aren't the leading commentator for Electron, like I am.

 

[whydoibother]

Don't forget the other birthday coming up

 

[Frozen]

Kai Lame, spiritual older brother of emo Kylo Ren.

 

[Roguey]

Wouldn't mind seeing a citation for that one. Note that IWD2 (2002) and even fucking Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001) were natively 800x600. Their UIs were specifically designed for 800x600, and they don't drop to 640x480.

So BioWare comes along in 2009 and starts off at 640x480? Don't think so. And I doubt DA:O even runs at that resolution.

You are correct, the lowest resolution is 800x600 and the menus just fit the entire screen.

 

[JarlFrank]

derp roads. jesus harold christ the derp roads.

That's such a meme as it wasn't that bad. By that time

1) you could pick them as first area
2) leveled content

let me offer you a nice cup of shut the fuck up.

I found that werewolf forest area much worse, mostly because I chose that as the last area to go through.

It seems like commonly, people tend to rate the last area they tackled as the worst, because at that point you're worn out and just want it to end rather than the game going on for several more hours with the same style of filler encounter placement.

 

[whydoibother]

derp roads. jesus harold christ the derp roads.

That's such a meme as it wasn't that bad. By that time

1) you could pick them as first area
2) leveled content

let me offer you a nice cup of shut the fuck up.

I can't remember if the game allowed you mechanically to leave the Deep Roads once you went some way in. Of course narratively it makes no sense to just "leave it for later" when you realize its too hard, and meta-gaming it feels like shit to have such a realization, but even just mechanically, not sure you could leave.
My first playthrough met no problems from the leveled content, and even the itemization worked well, I was getting stronger over time. I just lucked out into playing the game in the order it was balanced, I guess. But my PC wouldn't let me do the final battles properly, with the swarms of darkspawn making everything sluggish, and the weather effects (i think?) making the dragon fight play out in like 12 FPS. Revisiting it it was alright, a gimmick boss at the end, okay. The real ending was talking to all the characters you met along the way and making the baby decision. But I wish my very first experience with that ending, the first time I saw it, wasn't me being mad that I can't afford a new VGA.