I'll pipe in too, even though I can't listen to the zero-punctuation reviews (FYI, I'm -not- going to work that hard to understand what you're trying to tell me).

Dragon Age is, as virtually everyone agrees, a wonderfully polished example of the genre. I absolutely love it, and at the same time I'm finding that my gaming tastes have apparently changed. It didn't take long to learn that the game has that terrible ability to suck you in, and make you forget about the time. And nowadays, unlike all the rest of my life, I find the idea of getting lost in the game for a minimum of 3-4 hours at a sitting to be, well...intimidating.

I used to play games like any hardcore gamer does...6-8 hours at a stretch for a decent game, and 10-12 for the exceptional ones (as life's schedule allowed). But now...even though my schedule doesn't really stop me from playing for big chunks, it's just not my preferred arrangement. I like to play for an hour or so, and then do something different for a while. I suppose I'm finally growing out of my 20-year-long hardcore gamer phase. What a pity. Especially when I finally have a wife that understands gaming, and isn't bothered by my habits. LOL

I do swear that I'm going to push myself to break through this intimidation for this game, though...it's just that good.

>> ^thyazide:
Dragon age origins, or the game you buy when you don't feel like paying for your wow subscription, want to play alone, and have a pause button at all times.

Or play something new, that you haven't been playing for the last 6-7ish years. If you're on the F&F list, who got to see what a interesting game it was back in the early alpha.

Because despite adding content, it still does get boring after a few years. Not to mention repetitive, and monotonous.

I left a comment on the ZP video page, but DAO truly deserves all the praise and more: thanks for making this game. It took me by surprise and I never expected this, but it's one of the best single-player experiences I've ever had. And many compliments to writing staff, Shale's mini "transition area" dialogues with other party members are hilarious!

Cheers, Ed

In reply to this comment by CrushBug:
Wow guys, that is quite a lot of praise! I have am very pleased with his review of our game. A lot of us were dreading what he would say, but I love the part where he said "25 hours in and I still want to find out what happens next". I will have to point this page and comments out to my co-workers.

I love everything about Dragon Age: the level of polish, the gender equality, the autistic savant dwarf, the level of difficulty (started on Normal, at LVL 20 atm and cranked it up to Hard), the dialogue (hadn't actually laughed at anything an NPC in any game would say in years), the darker parts (oh and there are a few). I even love the, let's be honest, somewhat outdated graphics, because my PC is actually able to run it on max settings. I love how the game doesn't have the massive, frequent memory leaks ME had. I haven't even played MW2 because of how much I enjoy it. Clocked 60 hours and I'm only at 46%, having done all side quests that have been thrown at me so far, I am loving it, and so is my wife. Thanks so much for the quality entertainment, CrushBug

Dragon age origins, or the game you buy when you don't feel like paying for your wow subscription, want to play alone, and have a pause button at all times.

As I was playing, I was thinking that the game felt like a mix of Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, although the latter is still a better game in my opinion (I just really enjoyed everything about it, particularly the feel of the world). I was happy to find the game got rid of some of the baggage that Dungeons & Dragons brings with it, from a gameplay system point-of-view. A minor annoyance was having to occasionally change from "normal" to "easy" difficulty during a few extremely difficult fights.

I did have issues with the dialog system, although I'm glad conversations aren't linear. I don't like going through a dialog wondering if I asked or said the right thing, only to have to reload a saved game because I didn't like the outcome. There's a point in the game where you're trying to win people over by making your case during a verbal tug-of-war, and it's near impossible to know which dialog options will work for you or against you. There are also times when you say something in dialog without realizing that it permanently shuts you out of a quest, not allowing you to complete it.

Minor problems overall though. I haven't played a great game in several years (excepting for the games in The Orange Box), let alone a great RPG, and Dragon Age is a welcome end to that drought.

Thanks for the promote, no smiting here

In reply to this comment by MycroftHomlz:
*promote... do not smite me.

Hahahaha! It's soooooo true...

But the game is SO good. It's not ground breaking - it's just the best implementation of this style of game, so far, imo.

(Goes off to play more Dragon Age)

I absolutely adore Dragon Age: Origins. Still found this funny, and he's got a few good points, but it doesn't take away from my infatuation with this game (...and everything else Bioware does...).

>> ^Lodurr:
One of the only fantasy RPG conventions not included in Dragon Age is the thing about freedom--an open world to explore, where the main quest can get eclipsed by the much more interesting side quests. This was present in Oblivion, Morrowind, and the Baldur's Gate series, so I'm surprised no one's really commented on it. ...

I am a huge fan of open-world, sandbox style games. The first game that I got massively intrigued with was Ultima 6 -- I played it at least semi-regularly for around 2-3 years, yet I almost completely ignored the main story. I just enjoyed exploring the extremely large world, building up my character, etc. Morrowind came close to that for me. Oblivion was good, but seemed like a step back in gameplay and overall experience from Morrowind. Having everything in the world be scaled to your level bothered me a lot -- Dragon Age scales enemies and loot, but it doesn't feel as forced to me, at least not yet.

I also loved the Baldur's Gate series, but I don't feel like they were open-world games. They had multiple distinct location maps, just like Dragon Age does. There were more areas in either BG game than in DA, but it takes a lot less time and fewer artists on the development team to crank out (notably well made) 2D areas than 3D maps.

So I guess that in my opinion Dragon Age is more directly related to Baldur's Gate than Oblivion/Morrowind or Ultima (not surprising since the developer is the same, and refers to it as a 'spiritual successor'). I am 100% happy with Dragon Age as a new Baldur's Gate-esque game. It doesn't innovate, but it didn't need to for me to enjoy it.

I would be greatly pleased if there was a new, entirely non-original rehash of the design philosophy and sandbox experience of the Ultima games but put into new graphics and interface. In other words, Dragon Age is to Baldur's Gate as this would be to Ultima. Unfortunately it seems that sandbox style games are falling more and more out of favor, which I understand to a certain extent due to the fact that it would be a massive undertaking to create a world as large as Ultima 6's with 3D environments instead of sprite tiles...

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
I have enjoyed the game so far, and I don't have a beef with it using 'standard fantasy' as its chosen backdrop. I think they changed it up nicely enough with the elves being 2nd class citizens, Dwarves being anti-magic gurus, and humans being Theo-political mixes. I have to agree with Y's sentiment of being tired of humans always being the prats in the story. Oh well. Anyway, an enjoyable game and that's what matters. I don't need games to be radical new innovations to like them.


Yahtzee is all wrong about it being standard fantasy. and it's actually bad that it isn't. if by standard he means tolkienesque. and dragon age ain't tolkiensque.

edit:
Also, it is a bit dark. but it's more horror dark than fantasy type dark.
Rape, eating flesh, torture, cannibalism. I'm surprised no one's commented on that.

One of the only fantasy RPG conventions not included in Dragon Age is the thing about freedom--an open world to explore, where the main quest can get eclipsed by the much more interesting side quests. This was present in Oblivion, Morrowind, and the Baldur's Gate series, so I'm surprised no one's really commented on it. Dragon Age is incredibly focused on the main plot, which makes the few side quests totally out of place, such as helping an elf win over a girl he likes (while the horde of baddies just wiped out a neighboring town).

The physical area of the game seems tiny. There are less than 10 major areas to visit, and two of the towns I've seen so far have something like 10 buildings in them and 20 or so NPCs. It feels like I'm walking through Disney World. Within these small areas, you're always hemmed in to a single path much like the Final Fantasy series. While exploring a forest, you're stuck on the trails. What's so hard about making an open zone? Baldur's Gate 1 did it just fine.

The only way I can start to understand this game's appeal is by thinking back to Mass Effect, because I really enjoyed that game and the formula seems identical. I think the difference is originality and the script. Mass Effect was an original story (at least to me and most gamers) and the cutscenes were almost TV-worthy, whereas Dragon Age's story is familiar to just about everyone and is executed poorly.

Your video, Zero Punctuation: Dragon Age: Origins, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^Lodurr:
"If you feed people wallpaper paste for decades then you shouldn't be surprised that that's all they want to eat now." Great line, he should've saved it for his Dragon Age review.


Can't comment on Uncharted 2, but I enjoyed the "while waiting for something that matters" (= Dragon Age) line.

I've been playing that for a few days and while it definitely isn't revolutionarily new, I think it does an excellent job of being a modern take on Baldur's Gate. Which suits me just fine!

/glazedEyes
*mmmmm.... wallpaper paste*

"If you feed people wallpaper paste for decades then you shouldn't be surprised that that's all they want to eat now." Great line, he should've saved it for his Dragon Age review.