Comments on: Dragon Age: Origins – Crush! Frag! Review!

By: Rob Rich

Rob Rich — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:44:03 +0000

I dunno… He seemed pretty freaked-out when I was talking to him once and he thought he heard pigeons flying overhead.

By: Tristessa

Tristessa — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:22:57 +0000

I thought the visuals looked fine. They weren’t shooting for an over stylized look and they hit that ‘realistic-but-not-too-realistic’ spot. Maybe I’m just not as jaded by stellar graphics making slightly lesser ones somehow not live up to the high bar.

Oh…I hate Morrigan! I stuck her right in camp and went mageless for a huge stretch of the story.

@Rob Rich – Shale doesn’t have a fear of bird, he simply hates them. because birds land on – and poop on – statues. And yeah, it’s very funny =D

Dragon Age is my choice for game of the year. I talked about it over on my blog (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9011248) – but keep in mind that there are some spoilers in one section.

By: Rob Rich

Rob Rich — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:43:22 +0000

Okay, after even more Dragon Age I’ve remembered something; Every so often the audio will cut out during dialogue. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does it’s only for one line, but it does indeed happen. It’s more weird than annoying, but meh.

By: Rob Rich

Rob Rich — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:19:24 +0000

Oh I think Morrigan is indispensable in a fight, but her personality is… grating. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that I dislike her character so much speaks volumes about how well Bioware (and her voice actress) handled everything. I also love Alistair because he reminds me a lot of myself (and no one loves me as much as I do ;) ). As for Shale, he’s probably my favorite character because he’s just so… different from everyone else. He’s sort of hard to pin down, and I like his curiosity/observations about the behaviors and customs of the “soft skins.” Also, his random fear of birds is something I find very, very funny.

On the topic of free DLC for buying a game new, I think it’s a fantastic idea. Seeing as used games generate zero profit for publishers and developers, being able to charge for DLC after the fact makes sense. And getting access to that content for free makes for an excellent incentive for buying a game new. I think it also helps that it’s actually interesting DLC instead of some random BS like a golden rifle. Well, okay, the armor is ultimately pointless (aside from looking cool), but Shale is totally worth getting, both for the quest and being able to have him in the party.

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:13:23 +0000

My relationship with Morrigan is love/hate. She’s obviously a callous bitch (though being raised in a swamp by an Abomination of Legend might do that to a person) but she’s the much needed dry wit to counterpart Alistair’s self-deprecating humor and Leliana’s occasional uber-girlyness (SHOES!).

These have been my party since I got them all together and I’ve yet to rotate anyone else in – The Dog, Shale, Sten, Ohgren and Zevran have all been recruited so far, but none of them have gotten any playtime (beyond about two minutes of Dog being in the party). I can’t bear to break them up. It’s sad.

Oh well, that’s what second playthroughs are for.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:37:56 +0000

The main character not being voiced drives me nuts too, it is so cheap. Every single NPC in the game is voiced — they couldn’t voice the most important character? Also, Morrigan is the shit. I love her, you’re the only one that doesn’t! I wanted to put Leiliana in a casket and burn her she was so boring.

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:07:25 +0000

Eh, mono or not it would still be there. Like I said – the PS3 and PC probably don’t have it since they don’t have as much in the way of space constraints as the 360 does – PC gamers are used to multi-disc installs or DD rendering that all null and void and PS3 has like, three times the space to work with on Blu-ray.

Also, I just downloaded Shale tonight – I kinda like this idea of “You get some DLC for free if you don’t buy used”. It’ll be interesting to see where the industry goes with it.

Right now I’m fighting my way through the gang hideout in Orzammar. Woo!

By: Uglyfido

Uglyfido — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:51:28 +0000

Man, I can not wait to get my hands on this. I love everything BioWare, and I’m certain this will be no exception. Also, nice review. :D

By: Rob Rich

Rob Rich — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:02:21 +0000

I honestly never noticed any audio issues in the PS3 version, but I’m also the only guy in the world with an HDTV that only uses MONO. -_-

Also, Shale rules.

By: Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:20:02 +0000

Umm… quite a bit? I mean, the Wardens are pretty central to the whole affair, what with you being one and all.

Also, I have to echo what Rob said above, only a bit more intensely – this is NOT a pretty game by any stretch. I’m playing the 360 version and at times it’s so rough-looking that it hurts. I think one of the big issues is it looks like they use the low-res textures you’d see on small models during the cut scenes too, where they stand out as eyesores. I shouldn’t be able to count pixels, people.

The audio has also been compressed to hell and back – you can hear the artifacting every time most of the characters use an “S”-sound. Still, I suppose that’s the price you pay for cramming this much game (and this much audio) onto one DVD – I imagine that issue is probably better on PC or PS3 (Rob, confirm or deny?) since storage-space is less an issue.

That being said, it honestly doesn’t matter at ALL – the game drags you in and doesn’t let go of you. Everything else has gone onto the backburner the last few days because of this game.