Dragon Age: Origins

[Eusis]

Well, shit.  I guess I should have waited a day or two, because now I wish I had ordered the PS3 version.

Oh well.

Have they actually shipped the order, or is it just so you can still get your freebies? Maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise, the blu-ray would be awfully useful for a game that requires 15-20 gigs of space.

[Parn]

The order is "prepared to ship", i.e. I can't change it.

[Roger S. Huxley]

Just bought it, but stupid ass bandwidth limit won't really allow me to download it at home.

Looks like I'll be spending at lot of time at my university this week <_<

[Blace]

I bought the PS3 version. Played it for about 4 hours so far. I'm really liking it. I made an Elf warrior and am currently level 5.

[Alisha]

just got the game and spent like 30 mins messing with character creation lol.

[Prime Mover]

I've heard buttloads of text describing the whole dialog system, decision making, and open endedness. But what I have yet to hear is commentary on how immersive the atmosphere is. Is it incredibly generic, does it suck you in, does it get repeatative and bland? What's the call. I would say immersion is probably my single biggest draw these days. I've been interested in picking this up (for 360, since I have neither PC nor PS3) but I'm concerned that it's just going to be horribly bland.

[daschrier]

Also, for people who have played, are there set encounters, or random encounters, or a mix of both?

[magusgs]

It's pretty immersive.  After playing through the mage origin story, my main gripe is that the plot pigeonholes you into certain paths / dialog options that don't necessarily make sense according to the type of character you're playing--I wanted to be neutral but the game unnaturally forced my character to choose a side in the squabble by limiting my dialogue options.  Basically, the most sensical option (don't get involved) wasn't available and wasn't effectively negated.  With a little more polish, I think this "plot hole" could've been easily filled--which is a shame, because the situation set up had the potential to be very poignant.  Of course, if you're not trying to play realistically / true to character, or you're willing to play along with the choices they give you, this gripe is moot.

The encounters so far seem to be set.  Once you get a full group, the encounters become pretty interesting.  Lots of ambushes and surprises.

[Prime Mover]

I hate to be a bitch, but we're still talking about character/plot here. I'm wanting to know more about the environment and atmosphere.

[magusgs]

I hate to be a bitch, but we're still talking about character/plot here. I'm wanting to know more about the environment and atmosphere.

Those elements are secondary to character and story for immersiveness.  :P  Stunning visulas, audio, and presentation are boring and bland without a focused narrative to bring the world to life (see Bethesda criticisms).  It has those, I guess, but you seem to emphasize elements that are secondary to me, so my opinion is probably irrelevant to you anyway.  The game could be best thought of as an amalgam of elements from Bioware's previous RPGs (Baldur's Gate II, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic), with Neverwinter Nights 2 being the closest title to it I can think of.  If you didn't like those, you probably won't like this.  This is not a sandbox game, so if you go into it with that expectation you'll be disappointed.

You could always try the free flash game if you're on the fence. :P

[Clothahump]

To the guy wanting to know if the atmosphere was immersive -


I've asked that question on several sites, and all I get is the same double talk you're getting, so I'm guessing the answer is - no, it's not.

[DM Kyle E. Miller]

If you take a step in Ferelden, you will not want to leave.

Does that answer your question?

[Jet16]

Or, to put it simply, this game will immerse you balls deep.

[Parn]

Some people found Lost Odyssey to be immersive.  I found it to be the exact opposite.

*shrug*

[Prime Mover]

Those elements are secondary to character and story for immersiveness.  :P  Stunning visulas, audio, and presentation are boring and bland without a focused narrative...

Yes, and focused narrative and character development are boring and bland if the setting has no life to it either. Look, noone's more of a stickler for good writing and character portrayal than me. But ya know what I've learned? IT ALL MATTERS. No element is more or less important than others. You may choose to have very simple narrative, but it has to be good. You may choose to have a very simple setting, but it should be good. You can't choose to neglect one side, but you can choose to have it simpler and just draw less attention to it.

As much as I liked Mass Effect (especially after the second playthrough), I did have one major complaint: it was very clear that BioWare (in that game) really didn't care about the physical environments very much. They were so focused on character portrayal, that the environments were usually bland and repeatative. And ya know what? I think it did bring down the quality of the presentation. Part of the problem that the environments WERE complex and it was obvious that a lot of time was spent in rendering them well, but the basic design was completely uninspired, and it showed. They should have put less time into high quality graphic rendering, and more time into inspired design, made simpler designs that were more inviting, for the characters to really come to life in. Bioshock, on the other hand, had a rich world that lived and breathed all on its own, and was extremely central to the narrative.

All I’m saying is that you can’t say that character portrayal is more important than setting, it’s all relevant. For example, I would say that for film, few do a more consistently good job of character portrayal than BBC television. Watch Inspector Morse or any historical dramas, and you’ll see what I mean. They’re concentration is on character, however, their sets, while very simple, really help to engage the audience. Hollywood tends to have over-elaborate sets that distract the audience from the dialog (which is bad), but BBC has simple sets, but they are very important and meticulously thought-out.

In video games, I’m used to developers concentrating on one aspect or the other, and totally ignoring everything else. Many jRPGs suffer from concentrating TOO much on setting, and end up inserting generic/stock narrative. On the flipside, wRPGs suffer from concentrating TOO heavily on complex narrative, while having extremely bland or generic setting. Mass Effect is the only BioWare game I’ve played so far, and at least in that game, I felt like setting was very generic and uninspired, even the citadel.