Ok who is still playing this? Are you keeping up with all the dlc? Looking forward to Darkspawn chronicles or are you holding off thanks to patch 1.03 problems? Or are you a ps3 gamer feeling left behind?
Found any amazing mods that others should try?

Got it for the Xbox 360, and unfortunately, I miss the hilarity of our good friend Shale and Alistair. How their humour makes me lust for more ;_;

Tried Shale, Sten and dog? Very funny banter combination.

Well, I'm still playing this - or at least attempting to.

Sad to say, I rarely pay very much for games - usually buy them weeks after release to get them far, far cheaper. One upshot of this is that I've currently got a ton I've yet to play/finish, and I get distracted ...

That said, I like Dragon Age. I'm way past being a graphics whore, so the strange, lo-fi graphics are fine with me. But the storyline, banter, and overall depth and very endearing - you just can't help but like it. I do feel the actual battles are a little clumsy, and strangely out of pace with the rest of the game, but these really are small potatoes.

Big annoyance for me is that I want to play it, but can't. I've got that PS3 problem where I can't play it for very many minutes before it resolutely hangs. But of course, when they solve this problem, I'll be back on it.

Depending how I get on (and how soon I get a new PS3 hard drive) depends on whether I'll get the DLC.

Still, overall, it's nice to play a game where good story-telling is a part of it, instead of the pathetic "let's emulate a film" and wonder why it then makes a non-game.

But, thumbs up from me anyhow.

Leliana's song is out. Since I did not really like her I'm not tooo extatic about this one. More importantly there is still no new patch and this requires 1.03. I'm giving it a miss for now.
Btw, there is fix mod for pc that does some bug fixing for the core game.
You will probably need a bioware ID to get to this: social.bioware.com/project/2563/

What I've heard about DA 2 is making me wonder. It sounds like Dragon age 2 will be mass effect 2 in fantasy land. The word cinematic has fallen, that and going on about graphics never bodes well for the story part in games.
Fixed main character with limited customizatiion. Like i ME you are always hawke. Gender and first name optional. If they also psuh the trend to even darker with less humor i'll drop out.

What I am extremely concerned about is that you are absolutely correct, DA2 is sounding a lot like ME2 "in fantasyland"

ME2 was absolutely horrible for accessibility and DA PC version was some of the best that our entire staff had ever seen. So, will they make it a FPS/RPG and remove the strategy from the battles? I certainly hope not but it wouldn't be first-time a development company (SOE) decided to screw over a perfectly accessible game (SWG) with a modification that no one wanted (NGE).

This is semi OT: I was replaying KOTOR after tinkering with DA and ME2. It struck me that there is a major diff in replay value between these. games. The number of direct effects from your actions ans alternate paths is greater in this old game than their new products.
RPG's havent gotten bigger. Sure they look betetr than NWN and other classics. However in sheer scope, side quests, alternate routes/outcomes and world effecting changes not that much has changed. Imho we are in fact going the other way. The most freedom I've had in a recent game was fallout 3.

Dragon age has one event where you can let events take their course without doing anything. It was a nice move because that gives you the feeling of having at least some control.
Mind you I would love to see a mod that tells duncan to get stuffed for example. or let the templars handle their little problem themselves. I like choices.

I actually agree with you on having freedom in the game. It seems like most of America would rather have their story line spoon fed to them but I would rather have the power to alter the ending. one of my most favorite games ever is the ultimate series (that eventually spawned Ultima online) - you had to answer a bunch of questions like "you come across a thief who tries to steal your last ration. Do you: A Kill him B Give him your food C Teach him to hunt" and then however you answer about 10 questions would determine which main character you are given.

I also used to like those books that you could choose which way the story would go.

I doubt we really need to worry much about DA2 being a massive departure from the original in terms of gameplay. Part of what people loved about DA was the combat mechanic (i.e. pausing + tactics + direct control over party members), so it wouldn't make much business sense for them to just throw that all away. The paradigm shift with ME2 was slightly more understandable, because in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't *that* much of a change. They just made it an even less-accessible FPS than it was to begin with.

btw: Steve, what you just, described is pretty much exactly how Fallout works. The G.O.A.T. exam consists of numerous multiple-choice questions that determine your starting stats. I've never played any of the Ultima games, but that's a system I really would love to see more of.

Well since bioware just hired one of the former big boys from raven, you could hope for a better fps. Mind you ME1 has more rpg elements than me2. You can also make more choices ME2 is so linear, do a set number of missions and event a will trigger etc.

I have slightly less faith in BEAware than you do. It would not be the first time EA has broken games that worked fine. The dlc quality so far has also not instilled me with hope. EA has no heart for games, to them it's al about money. While most profesionals in any field can agree that taking pride in doing a good job is also important.

Course you could bypass the goat by walking up to the teacher and just telling him what stats you wanted. Fallout 3 does an ok job, but I'd like to see more. The consequences of your actions should be more profound and long term. If you kill person A they might send a bounty hunter after you, however it could just as well be their widow or child demanding an explination or revenge. I was also mildly disapointed that whiel wearing full armor and looking like a ghoul soldiers didn't take potshots at me. Actually that brings me to a ME2 gripe as well. How is it people recognize me wearing armor with a full face helmet? More so after switching armor sets.
Certainly not all games should be like that, but once in a while would be nice.

It may be worth noting that DA:O is now Bioware's top selling game of all time. Which may possibly give people there or at EA pause before they mess around with the format too much for DA2. I'm not wild about the Hawke thing, but I'm not prepared to worry about it too much yet.

Oh, and for context, I have one playthrough under my belt, I'm in the middle of two more, and I'm partway through Awakenings. I'm very slightly (okay, not so slightly) obsessed with the game. I may also be reading the novels but I refuse to confirm or deny that rumor.

Actually from a certain pont of view that would give them extra drive to make it as mainstream as possible. Look how square buthered final fantasy 13 to suit the broadest group possible. I'll reserve final judgement untill an actual playtrough. However this one I will not be pre ordering. Not unless some serious in depth reviews and a demo pop up. The majority of fans however will pre order it or buy it on release day. Look at how well the dlc is selling.

So you know where cailan and co get their lack of brains. I think novel is too kind for these, they come closer to cheap romance pockets. The backstory is nice, but you cannot give the author credit for that. Afaik almost all background was already fleshed out in the dragon age IP. It starts out ok only to slowly go downhill. Did you finish the first booklet? The main reason I kept reading was to see how much they would reveal of shale's past.

<strong>RenderB wrote:</strong>


Given that he is the lead writer on Dragon Age: Origins, I think one can.

Fair point, I stand corrected on that one.
Mind you, as this shows being able to create good game IP, and being able to write a good book are not the same thing. To me the book lacked flow, and any character I could even remotely care about. As far as I can tell this was his first book, so he might get better over time. Granted personal taste comes into all this. Considering I'm more iinto high fantasy that probably did not help matters. Hm, you know I would love to see a game (co) written by JMS. He seems to have a knack for creating more rounded characters. (Goes back to reading thud!)

Well then...

So, judging by the above story, some facets of fans' apprehensions about DA2 have turned out to be fully justified. Others, not so much.

On the character customization front, they're definitely ME-izing DA, by predetermining the PC, allowing only limited choice such as gender and perhaps other cosmetic adjustments. Presumably, class will also be a choice.

Conversation's undergoing a major overhaul to be more in line with ME. Personally, this is something I'm very happy about. While I didn't necessarily *dislike* the way dialogue worked in the original DA, I certainly prefer the ME approach of choosing the tone of your responses. Frankly, being able to read word-for-word what all of the possible response choices are really makes it too easy to "fix" the outcomes of conversations the way you want them. But that's just me...

And finally, we have the aspect of gameplay most relevant to us AGers: combat. It sounds like PC gamers have nothing to worry about, as the highly strategic combat mechanic is going to be relatively untouched in the sequel. It's only on the console version that there's going to be a significant paradigm shift, moving towards a more Oblivion-esque (presumably) action-oriented combat system. On the one hand, this is frustrating because it basically forces people to the PC if they require a slower-paced strategy-based style, which is unfortunate for console gamers. But on the other hand, they just as easily could have done away with that system entirely and forced everyone to adopt the new action-oriented version. So in that respect, they did right in my book.

Unless there was a major change while i wasn't looking, there will also be no importing of variables from your DA:O. If there is one thing I liked about ME2 it's that it at least gave me the chance to import what I had done in the first game.

I'm the complete opposite in regards to dialogue, I hate the tone system. You never really know what moronic thing your main character si going to say. The whole point of dialogue options imho is so you can get the result you want. It also let's you hold middle ground. ME 2 has no middle gorund, it more or less punishes you for being balanced. The fact hat paragon means doormat and renegade equals total murderous git does not help. This from the company that came up with a former jedi that was all for common sense and pragmatism.

Btw, for those that do not keep an eye on the bioware forum. Seems all the nagging has helped, they are now releasing the pc 1.04 patch this monday. Originally it was implied we had to wait several weeks for it to finish console q/a testing.

<strong>RenderB wrote:</strong>
Nope, it's actually right in the posting I linked to above. You *will* be able to carry over your Origins game. You won't be playing the same character, of course, but the world you built with the choices you made in Origins will be the world the sequel takes place in.

Well that is one good thing then. Sorry, didn't even notice there was a link there, but otoh it was 3am.

I love being right. There is going to be a dragon age ultimate edition.(Ok, I said GOTY ;-P) So anyone that has not been getting dlc save your money and wait a few months.

We also get to find out what Morigan has been doing in the upcoming (last) dlc.

Well here are the official details on The ultimate edition: www.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/dragon-age-or...tion-hits-on-oct-26/

i want to thank yu all for helping me with games to play mouse only i am going to buy dragon age today unless you have a better idea pc user