Dragon Age: Origins - Gen. Discussion & Info

[quote name='Rhett']
Is any of the DLC worth it? I'm considering Warden's Keep, but the rest look short and overpriced. I will not be getting Awakening just because of all of the issues I've heard about, and it sounds too short for what it's priced at.
[/QUOTE]

The two which launched with the game (The Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep) are definitely worth it. The rest it really depends on how much you loved the game. All of them have Achievements, so they're worth it in that respect. They're all pretty short though. And Awakening is definitely worth it, it'll take about 15-20 hours which is a lot more than many full retail games. If you can find it cheap I'd recommend it.

[quote name='Rhett']
And how random is the loot in each playthrough? I understand certain characters may drop specific items that are specific to them, but can this be randomized at all? Do they have specific loot tables, or is it just all of the random loot piles/chests/etc?
[/QUOTE]

As a general rule of thumb, you will never find anything particularly useful in a chest. There are exceptions obviously, but don't feel the need to drag around someone who can open them if your party wouldn't call for it anyway.

[quote name='Rhett']
I've also been molested by Revenants. Boy, they took me by surprise...twice. Finally took one down, but it killed my tank and made my rogue tank. -.- Running Rogue (Main), Rogue, Tank, Mage-Support, and it works fairly well. Finally got the Mage of the party very well suited with tactics, which helps a lot.
[/QUOTE]

Revenants are tough. Probably the hardest regular enemies in the game, so no shame in losing a few characters to one.
 
Yeah, the Revenants too me by surprise too. I forget where I encountered my first one, but I was like holy shit where'd he come from. I proceeded to die shortly afterwards.

For DLC, only one I have is Stone Prisoner. I'm not really sure if it's worth the $15 myself, but maybe I just expected more from it. The other ones are probably better priced but wouldn't know. Although I will mention this. I don't know for sure, but if you bought the game new and it has the DLC codes, I heard that the deadline to activate the codes was either delayed or extended.

Also, almost finished with my first playthrough, and the ending is kicking my ass (where you work your way to the archdemon). Granted, I was extremely tired last night, but I really should have put more work into my party. Live and learn. I will say this though.
Betraying Allister was extremely satisfying. I romanced him after romancing Zevron, then talked up Allister about becoming a king where I then picked the girl and had Allister executed.
 
As interesting as any new dlc might sound, I really need to focus on getting my first playthrough completed! I think I'll eventually Awakenings from Goozex once it drops in price, but I'm not so sure about any other additional content. I'm hurting for points, but rather time to play games.
 
[quote name='bvharris']
As a general rule of thumb, you will never find anything particularly useful in a chest. There are exceptions obviously, but don't feel the need to drag around someone who can open them if your party wouldn't call for it anyway.[/QUOTE]

I've actually been using Leliana with maxed out Lockpicking/Disarming, and I've been surprised. It's gotten me a fair amount of money and loot from it, and it bugs me seeing locked chests... Plus, disarming traps is very handy.

Shale doesn't look worthwhile (I've basically decided that I'd only use a certain few characters in a party anyway... I don't want a hulking Jewish Golem looking thing in my party.) to me..

It's too bad you can't replay the game with a 'New Game Plus', like ME1/2, but I can't imagine the game on a harder difficulty level. Friendly Fire? OW.
 
[quote name='Rhett']
Shale doesn't look worthwhile (I've basically decided that I'd only use a certain few characters in a party anyway... I don't want a hulking Jewish Golem looking thing in my party.) to me..
[/QUOTE]

If set up correctly, Shale is hands-down the best tank in the game.
 
[quote name='Rhett']Shale doesn't look worthwhile (I've basically decided that I'd only use a certain few characters in a party anyway... I don't want a hulking Jewish Golem looking thing in my party.) to me..
[/QUOTE]What? Shale regenerates health faster than the damage she takes. There's no way Shale can fall in battle.
Especially against the Archdemon.
:lol:
 
Does this game ramp up the difficulty mid-way? I'm having a lot tougher time lately. Party is around level 14/15, and I'm in the Underground of Orzammer in the Dusty Roads. I was ploughing through at the beginning of the dungeon though, so I'm wondering if the game upped the difficulty on me.
 
I wondered that too. I also notice some areas are easier than others. For example, when you're in the forest (for the elf / werewolf quest), it seems pretty easy, and next thing you know, you get raped and surrounded by werewolves.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Difficulty_Settings

There's a definite order in which the difficulty scales higher in different areas. Orzammar is the hardest of the main quests.[/QUOTE]

Yeah Orzammar was definitely the toughest for me of the main quests - that took me a little while to get past (especially having to do it twice to get both achievements). But holy crap did this game get difficult at the end. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but I'm completely stuck just inside the final building. Maybe I just chose my final party poorly or something but even after switching down to easy I get rocked before making it to the far end of that room every time. Not sure I'm even going to bother trying to finish the game at this point, which sucks since I've spent a ton of time on it so far.
 
[quote name='brkptr']Yeah Orzammar was definitely the toughest for me of the main quests - that took me a little while to get past (especially having to do it twice to get both achievements). But holy crap did this game get difficult at the end. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but I'm completely stuck just inside the final building. Maybe I just chose my final party poorly or something but even after switching down to easy I get rocked before making it to the far end of that room every time. Not sure I'm even going to bother trying to finish the game at this point, which sucks since I've spent a ton of time on it so far.[/QUOTE]

I figured I built / chose my party poorly as well, but I eventually got through. It helps if you have a good amount of health potions and keep an eye on health that way. I think I started spamming acid flasks and other things I had on hand to try and make it a little easier too.
 
[quote name='JStryke']I figured I built / chose my party poorly as well, but I eventually got through. It helps if you have a good amount of health potions and keep an eye on health that way. I think I started spamming acid flasks and other things I had on hand to try and make it a little easier too.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the health potions is where I think I really screwed up. I didn't stock up enough before entering the final portion of the game because nothing leading up to that (with the exception of Orzammar) was tough at all. So I figured I'd plow through the end just like I had been the rest of the game, and I was so wrong. I don't have anything in my inventory to craft health potions, and as far as I know there's nowhere to buy any at this point. I suppose I could go back to a save before the endgame but I'm not really up for replaying that whole section again I think.

Good call with the acid flasks etc - I always forget to use those. I'll give that a shot.
 
Do the empty flasks/items for crafting potions and bombs weigh you down? I need to stock up on flasks to make bombs ("why can't I say bomb on an airplane?").

Which difficulty are you dudes playing on? You can always bump it down a notch if you're having problems getting through an area.
 
I was playing on normal and had to bump it to casual at certain parts because I would just keep getting raped.

As for ingredients weighing you down, if they do, it would take a lot of them to do so. Because I know I would sell ingredients at random points and it didn't make a dent in my weight.
 
[quote name='JStryke']I was playing on normal and had to bump it to casual at certain parts because I would just keep getting raped.

As for ingredients weighing you down, if they do, it would take a lot of them to do so. Because I know I would sell ingredients at random points and it didn't make a dent in my weight.[/QUOTE]

I bumped down to casual to beat one of the Orzammar endings, can't remember which, and the back up to medium for the rest of the game until now. I'm on casual now in the end but I'm still getting nowhere.

I think the way it works is each individual ingredient type counts towards the weight regardless of how many of each you have. So 100 elfroots weighs the same as 1 elfroot.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']Anyone know if this is an hour long DLC like the other DA ones or does it actually get to 2 hours plus in length?[/QUOTE]

Haven't played it yet, but from what I read it's another short one. No more than an hour.
 
I feel bad for only putting in around an hour into this game when I got it for $20 during the EAstore sale. Straying away from purchasing any new games until I devote more time into this one.
 
Finally about to beat the game with my most favorite main character (Rogue). I got to the Fade and I was like "Damn. Screw this." and made two more characters...

I was willing for multiple playthroughs at first, but Orzammar and The Fade just drag out seemingly forever. Didn't help that I was completely lost in the Deep Roads because they failed to mark one of the passages in Caridin's Hope as 'Ortan Thaig' instead of 'Deep Roads', which cost me over two hours before I looked it up.

DA2 would be nice, though. I'd like more randomized loot, and less staleness (which carried over from DND). Very fun, though.
 
I'll wait to hear this is actually worth the money... unless I decided to go for all the Achievement points in DA.
 
I enjoyed it. In terms of content it is fairly disappointing (no new environments, no unique weapons or armor skins, even for the bombastically named Battledress of the Provocateur-- it's just a barely recolored version of every other female rogue armor in the game). But for storytelling it is as good as anything else in the game. It actually made me like and care about Leliana, and she wasn't one of my favorite characters in the game proper. I didn't experience any glitches either, which must be a first for Dragon Age.
 
one character i didnt care for was that random inclusion of that one guy who looks like he is a relative to one of the monsters from the Mario brothers movie
 
[quote name='menikmati']I feel bad for only putting in around an hour into this game when I got it for $20 during the EAstore sale. Straying away from purchasing any new games until I devote more time into this one.[/QUOTE]

Trying to finish Splinter Cell so I can dive back into Dragon Age. I miss it.
 
From Kotaku:
Instead of multiple origins, there is only one. From the official press release:

"Dragon Age 2 thrusts players into the role of Hawke, a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke's rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor. Featuring an all-new story spanning 10 years, players will help tell that tale by making tough moral choices, gathering the deadliest of allies, amassing fame and fortune, and sealing their place in history. The way you play will write the story of how the world is changed forever."

BioWare's Chris Priestly confirms on the forums that, like Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series, players will be able to create either a male or female Hawke. Like Mass Effect, this should allow for a deeper story, while allowing characters to refer to the main character by name.
- and -

also from Kotaku:
You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.
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Dragon Age II is turning into Mass Effect 2. I'm down :cool:
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']From Kotaku:
- and -

also from Kotaku:
--------------------------------

Dragon Age II is turning into Mass Effect 2. I'm down :cool:[/QUOTE]

That's fine by me as well.
 
It's almost funny how much it sounds like a Dragon Age-flavored version of Mass Effect 2. That's fine with me, ME2 was such a huge improvement over ME1, if DA2 is a similar leap from DA1, it will be amazing.
 
10 page article on it in the July GameInformer
dragonagecoverspread.jpg
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']Dragon Age II is turning into Mass Effect 2. I'm down :cool:[/QUOTE]Oh, the places you could go with that statement. :lol:
 
Really disappointed about not being able to import your Origins character into the sequel. I was hoping for some type of closure since the endings left space for obvious continuation of the storyline. Hopefully, they'll revisit the Origins story arc, or somehow make our completed save files worth something.

Other than that, I can't wait!
 
[quote name='Ma12kez']Really disappointed about not being able to import your Origins character into the sequel. I was hoping for some type of closure since the endings left space for obvious continuation of the storyline. Hopefully, they'll revisit the Origins story arc, or somehow make our completed save files worth something.[/QUOTE]

I was going to post something similar to this. But yeah it is disappointing that I won't be able to continue my character/s adventure. How to you guys feel about it?
 
They barely made the carry-over work in Awakening (lots of people reported Alastair coming back from the dead, glitches with stats and items, etc.), so I wasn't getting my hopes up for any continuation into DA2.

We don't even really know where/when the new game is set (do we?), but if it is in Ferelden and a reasonable amount of time after Origins, it would be neat if they could import little touches like whether Harrowmont or Bhelen is leader of the dwarves, just to make it feel a little more like "your" world.
 
Why couldn't they have said all of this @ E3? Is waiting for the Game Informer cover 1 month after E3 worth more than debuting your game at the biggest game press event in the world?
 
Meh... not sure why everyone is so happy for this to be an old-fashioned ME2, do we really need more action games?

I thought DA:O was linear enough as it is, now they're probably going to take out most of the RPG elements for all action...

That's disappointing news to me, and I'll probably skip DA:O 2 if it's even less RPG than the first game.
 
I'm hoping that isn't where they're going with it. What Id like to believe is when they say "Streamline the action" they're speaking to this one main Character you play. He'll be a Fighter (not a Thief or a Mage) That lends itself to doing away with much of the previous combat system : Range attacks , Switching weapons ,how you assign attributes as you level, casting spells , drinking potions, etc etc.
And just like ME1 , while you'll still have party members you wont be expected to care about what Shield their carrying or what armor is equipped. All the loot will be focused on you. All I want to be able to do is tell the thief when to pick a lock or the mage when to heal the party ... I dont want to be asked to care what kind of hat shes wearing
 
[quote name='EdRyder']I'm hoping that isn't where they're going with it. (then describes exactly that)[/QUOTE]

You, sir, are an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
 
^Ha! Yeah, I kinda did do that.
The hope is that if you can pare down all of that , they can open up other areas.Like the crafting system from NWN2 or their Baldurs Gate. I'd rather be able to name my own magic items than tell Leiliana what boots to sport.
 
Yeah, I guess that's a good a point.

But I personally like creating my own character, or at least having the option to really customize it, and play a role. I was just hoping they'd actually expand on the character creation system from the first game, but looks/sounds like they're getting rid of it all together? And I feel like the world is going to be even more linear, where as I had hoped they'd expand and open it up more for exploration.

At this point it's just sounding like a more mature version of Fable 2/3.
 
[quote name='bvharris']Haven't played it yet, but from what I read it's another short one. No more than an hour.[/QUOTE]
I've already spent more than an hour (maybe 2,) and I'm not done yet.
 
bread's done
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