why? with its generic setting you can get that from most MMOs. heck go play LOTRO, its basically the same overall story. a evil presence is trying to take over the land, humans, dwarfs and elves are trying to unite to stop it.
Gel214th I was going to write a long reply to your post, but do you know what.....I can't be bothered, you're an idiot plain and simple and you don't even deserve a longer response than this, go back to playing wow if you're so awed by it.
why? with its generic setting you can get that from most MMOs. heck go play LOTRO, its basically the same overall story. a evil presence is trying to take over the land, humans, dwarfs and elves are trying to unite to stop it.
Lotro is done horribly but that is my opinion. Bioware clearly is one of the best in doing fantasy. I would rather give my money to Bioware because I know I'll be getting a quality game. This mmo genre needs companies that actually care about making great games rather than other companies who push out unfinished products just to make a quick dollar.
Bioware clearly is one of the best in doing fantasy. I would rather give my money to Bioware because I know I'll be getting a quality game. This mmo genre needs companies that actually care about making great games rather than other companies who push out unfinished products just to make a quick dollar.
Agreed, although I am slightly biased, seeing as Bioware employs a member of my family :P
Bioware has really hit the mark with DA:O, it is without a doubt the best single player rpg developed since the early 00's, and I think it will hold that title for the next few years. It is going to be very difficult to top what they have accomplished.
Epic doesn't even begin to describe the game, and the guy above who considers it a "generic setting" is clearly someone who just shouldn't play rpgs at all. You think LOTRO and DA:O have similar storylines because each story features an antagonist? That's as ridiculous as someone saying one book is the same as another just because they both have pages...
Regarding stanalone RPG's and what MMO's can learn from them, its important to keep in mind that the dynamic that drives standalone games is the opposite of MMO's. In a standalone I'm the only real person in the game universe. In an MMO, I'm one of thousands (hopefully). That being the case the idea that MMO's should learn from standalone's is a bit worrying.
In a standalone game, as the only player it makes sense that I be the focus of the storyline. That the storyline be the driving focus of just about every thing I do. However in an MMO where I'm one of thousands in a persistant world, i can't stand it when the storyline is mandatory and forces me (and every other player) to be the one. Yes there should be story in an MMO, a rich and compelling one, but it should be there primarily to provide structure. A context for the world and the players to base their actions on.
Also regarding the 'choice' that bioware is famous for, I do like it, b but again, in an MMO where the results of that choice are going to be mostly cosmetic or limited very strictly to my immediate play area, ignoring the fact that I'm playing in a persistant world, then I don't particularly care for it.
Bottomline: In MMO's the storyline should be there to facilitate the players, letting them make their own storylines in the world they're in.
P.S. I guess you can tell I'm a sandbox type player
To: MMORPG i dont see any sense in this article. I saw a lot of Dragon Age ads on this website, and now this article. How much they paid?
Yup! Agreed.
The loose reference to WoW in order to have an excuse to say "Dragon Age: Origins" on the front page one more time is pretty nauseating. Especially when it's just plain wrong, in that the systems mentioned that they borrowed from WoW were around long before WoW existed. Boo again on your 'journalism' mmorpg.com.
as i stated elsewhere if mmorpg.com is going to shamelessly promote single player games because EA is heavily advertising on their site then they might as well produce an article with some substance.
this article was a poor effort in trying to link dragon age to mmos and, in my opinion, offered very little if any insight into whatever they were trying to elaborate on. maybe because the only evident elaborate attempt is that of further promoting a game advertised on their site.
Think DAO is linear? It may say more about you than it says about the game.
Yes, you have a handful of origin stories that converge at Ostragar. However, those origin stories give you context for:
gender (doesn't make a difference in stats/abilities, but does make a difference in relationships and cultural fit)
race (this is a racist society - AND the races have prejudices of class [human], caste [dwarf] or free/subjugated status [elves])
profession - mages are considered a necessary evil which may have recently become enough of a liability to be eradicated
By the time you reach Ostragar, as anyone who's rerolled will know, dialogue and reactions will change from the NPCs. You may arrive in Ostagar with one or two party members. You will hit the next map location choice with three or four (or two if you make some choices I suspect few will, but could be totally valid within the cultural framework given).
Shortly after you leave the coda to Ostragar, you run through a small town where you can pick up another two potential party members. Party size is max 4. So you may have to choose to leave out up to TWO characters from your party going forward, each of which has not only skills but information and existing *relationships* with important NPCs going forward.
If you think the story is linear, you're treating this like Diablo. It's NOT Diablo. It's *actually* that rare beast, the true RPG. *Real* choices involving real sensitivity to your party members (and your own willingness to pander to what they want to hear) make *real* differences in future interactions with them and with NPCs who relate to them.
So, as you may guess, even though I haven't gotten through a huge percentage of the game play, I've gotten significant replay value from the first perhaps 25-30% of the game.
If you think DAO's linear, it's just a reflection of your own gameplay style.
The Dragon Age game must have been made for a high end system since it would not run on my system Intel Dual Core 3.6, Nividia 9800, 4GB Ram, Winxp SP3. When I contacted Bioware support, they suggested I upgrade to a faster system using Windows Vista or Windows 7. If I had the money to spend would upgrade, stupid bastards.
BioWare support is probably just trying to be friends with M$ and some hardware dealers :P
You "seem" to have a system powerful enough to run the game, I've seen it run on a C2D E8400 with a 8800GT and 4Gb of Ram and it was pretty smooth. Not running at full settings but good enough.
I wrote "seem" because you only posted hardware, there are a lot of other things to take into consideration besides that. If you have checked everything software wise that could hinder the game's performance than I really have no clue. If you haven't looked into the software part. Try the basic first, nvidia drivers, pain in the ass security software that hate games (like norton for example).
You could also try turning off AA both ingame and in the nvidia control panel and see if it gets better. If you want to try more advance tweaking I suggest you get rivaTuner and fraps. Mess with rivaTuner a little bit and use fraps to check ingame fps. Some games maintain a rather balanced fps except in more GPU demanding stuff like rendering a lot of characters, increasing the drawing distance a lot (doesn't apply in Dragon Age I know). If you can identify the source of the problem you get one step closer to solving it.
But basically you're either CPU bound or GPU bound. One of these for some reason is hindering your performance.
Good luck with that, hope you can get sort those issues out.
TU2 Closed Beta Testing... looking very good so far
Dragon Age has been a pretty enjoyable experience so far, if it does feel a bit overly difficult requiring frequent pausing hehe. It doesn't remind me of WoW at all; I tried WoW for a few months and dropped it (funny since I am a MMO addict) but will play Dragon Age trhough to the end (maybe more than once). Dragon Age is not a perfect game, but it is a good game even though I will admit it is probably over-hyped some. It certainly is a nostalgic throwback to the RPG days of Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate. It feels like DA:O is running off an enhanced version of the Neverwinter Nights engine, ableit a smoother and less clunky feeling third person engine.
Bioware clearly is one of the best in doing fantasy. I would rather give my money to Bioware because I know I'll be getting a quality game. This mmo genre needs companies that actually care about making great games rather than other companies who push out unfinished products just to make a quick dollar.
Agreed, although I am slightly biased, seeing as Bioware employs a member of my family :P
Bioware has really hit the mark with DA:O, it is without a doubt the best single player rpg developed since the early 00's, and I think it will hold that title for the next few years. It is going to be very difficult to top what they have accomplished.
Epic doesn't even begin to describe the game, and the guy above who considers it a "generic setting" is clearly someone who just shouldn't play rpgs at all. You think LOTRO and DA:O have similar storylines because each story features an antagonist? That's as ridiculous as someone saying one book is the same as another just because they both have pages...
LOL hardly, more like a brand new movie thats coming out where a woman travels back in time to save the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. this brave woman all alone in the past will match wits against a machine that can take the look of a human. this breed of machine are called ELIMINATORS!
Think DAO is linear? It may say more about you than it says about the game. Yes, you have a handful of origin stories that converge at Ostragar. However, those origin stories give you context for: gender (doesn't make a difference in stats/abilities, but does make a difference in relationships and cultural fit)
race (this is a racist society - AND the races have prejudices of class [human], caste [dwarf] or free/subjugated status [elves])
profession - mages are considered a necessary evil which may have recently become enough of a liability to be eradicated By the time you reach Ostragar, as anyone who's rerolled will know, dialogue and reactions will change from the NPCs. You may arrive in Ostagar with one or two party members. You will hit the next map location choice with three or four (or two if you make some choices I suspect few will, but could be totally valid within the cultural framework given). Shortly after you leave the coda to Ostragar, you run through a small town where you can pick up another two potential party members. Party size is max 4. So you may have to choose to leave out up to TWO characters from your party going forward, each of which has not only skills but information and existing *relationships* with important NPCs going forward. If you think the story is linear, you're treating this like Diablo. It's NOT Diablo. It's *actually* that rare beast, the true RPG. *Real* choices involving real sensitivity to your party members (and your own willingness to pander to what they want to hear) make *real* differences in future interactions with them and with NPCs who relate to them. So, as you may guess, even though I haven't gotten through a huge percentage of the game play, I've gotten significant replay value from the first perhaps 25-30% of the game. If you think DAO's linear, it's just a reflection of your own gameplay style. Shava
Couldn't agree more. Already played through as a Human noble warrior and have now started a human noble rogue and human mage while my wife is currently working on her elf rogue.
I think anyone could nitpick anything about the game but I think it would be doing the game a bit of an injustice. For me the sum of all the parts adds to a far greater whole than most games I have played over the years.
see thats just it is i don't think what i wrote is a nitpick.
story - lets see evil monsters are trying to take over the world. a secret group of trained warriors are trying to unite the lands to stop them.
companions - snarky righteous character ... check! Emo i hate everything wizard - check! brute warrior - check! geez these haven't been done before
I play a human Warrior 2 handed tank, was able to play that way from the start and when i got Berserker there was no change in my playstyle.. and the limited skill it unlocked was extremely disappointing. i was expecting a whole new set of skills to pick and choose to personalize my class. i got 4 extra skills ...wooo
Well, I can easily give you that.
You're right, evil monsters trying to take over the world. The Dark Spawn as being "notorcs", etc. I can't argue with that.
However, think the reason that it works, at least on some level is that it speaks to something that is deep down within. It certainly is not different from Oblivion or even to a lesser extent,. Morrowind. though in those games there is more of a face to the big bad. So I can't disagree. It carries directly over from Lord of the Rings.
And yes the characters are archetypes of familiar faces. However from what I've seen, there are very nicely subtle hints of "something more". They still are what you say they are but these character archetypes will be used in many more books and games and movies going forward. We will see them 20 years down the road.
I can't say I disagree in that it might be nice to have something different but the question is, would it work as well in the context of a crowd pleasing fantasy game. They certainly aren't remaking the story just giving a slighly different flavor to it. So yes, the story and characters on their own is boilerplate.
Part of creating characters for the theater and casting them, is believability. So if I have a character in mind and have an actor who isn't as good as another but they physically embody the character far more than the better actor, then in many cases they are going to be hired. Part of this is because the play or movie only has a finite amount of time to run and the audience needs to sign into the characters as quickly as possible.
So having said that, part of an adventure story is having strong characters for the audience to grab on to. So sure, the writers at bioware could have explored the depths of these characters. And there are depths. But given that this falls more into the sword and sorcery /hack and slash realm of stories, they need to create characters that can immediately insinuate themselves into the players' minds.
However, the characters are flawed and in very subtle ways. Could bioware have built more on this? yes, most certainly. But in some ways its a trade off as the story really is more about you and your journey through their story.
And yes, we don't make this story. I just signed in to Dragon Age (and funny enough, the game crashed ; ) ) and tried looking at the game through a different set of eyes because of several threads on this site. And yes, there is some merit to some of the negatives that people are writing if looked at through very pointed spectacles.
In a game like oblivion or even more so, morrowind, you really do get a feeling that you are in a world. In the bioware games, you are in a world but it's a very focused world. It's more about being in a living book or movie than a full on immersive world where yyou wander to find your destiny.
And I can say that for some this will be a huge problem.
That is why I think Dragone age is more about the sum of its parts to create the whole than being specifically a "role playing game" that brings something new to the genre. It's not new. It is a refinement of Bioware's style of games.
For my taste I have been completely delighted in the acting of most of the characters. However, one has to take the story and characters for being very pointed archetypes. Searching for greater depth, and depth that is far reaching, within the characters is going to be a dissapointment. I would go so far as to say that in some ways they are like shakespearian characters (bear with me here) in that they all are very broadly painted characters whose sole merit rests on somethng greater.
Characters like Hamlet or Macbeth don't have layers and layers and layers. They are pretty one dimensional and lay firmly in the story that they inhabit. They fulfil very concrete roles. Where they shine is the world they inhabit and of course the language that is used.
But they are very memorable characters because the world and language used allows for their subtle characterizations to shine. They are memorable.
so yes, the characters in dragon age are pretty boiler plate. but I am not sure the the game would be better if we delved into the deeper issues and motivatons of the characters. I think more depth would have helped but the delicate balance is being bogged down in depth so that we are not playing a game but more like watching a movie (which some are already finding a bit unwieldy with regards to the cutscenes) or reading a book (and there is a lot of reading in the game).
What I would say is that Dragon Age is very distincly a Bioware game. It plays out and feels like all the Bioware games that have gone before, right down to the snarky evil character the player might play. Where it shines for me is that all of the parts, regardless of their flaws work so well and if players could check their cynicism at the door they might be able to enjoy the game for what it is.
However, if we bring all of our baggage from past games then sure, we can dissect the game in such a way as to leave all the parts out in the open where they might be hard pressed to stand up to closer scrutiny.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Not that many of you bothered to actually look at the game or play it before posting, which is readily apparent, but the Achievment clearly lists unlock all endings. This directly implicates the presence of multiple storylines having your choices make an effect on the story overall.
gear grinding to improve a characters combat performance
too much on number crunching
It's still good to see that there are companies that try to create CRPGs with a good focus on the story element. Yes, even CRPGs lack in the roleplaying department. But at least the NPC and party banters make up for it a little bit. But this is still more than in the average MMORPG party that is set out on gear grinding (ok, you can have lots of smalltalk but that's even a step farther away from roleplaying ,) ).
Another point concerning CRPGS
I don't want to see "exclamation marks" hovering over quest NPCs. I don't want a "navigation" system. I don't want to see a quest NPC standing directly near the quest entrance (if it isn't dictated by the story). All this and lots more is just for convenience but takes the excitement of discovering the game world. And it just gives me the feeling that I have to work on a checklist... (errand 1 - checked, errand 2 - checked, ... errand n - checked)
Dragon Age is the #1 game in history right now! It blows MMO's away and they know it! It completely stopped me from playing CO and even caring about STO beta. One of he best things about this game is if other people complain about it and quit I dont care it doesnt effect my experience.
Multiplayer is overrated and is actually just frustrating dealing with people whining and changing the game I'm playing. Dragon Age may signal the end of MMO gaming as being the overall best format for rpg. Single player is BACK!
Luckily, it seems, for me I've never much cared for the previous Bioware games I've come across so all this supposedly "tired" content is brand new to me. Dragon Age's setting is just so rich and plausible in a way most fantasy settings aren't that I believe it's a real world in a way Oblivion never quite sold me on even as much free-roaming as it let me do. Fallout 3 pulled it off with a very stylistic and interesting setting but the NPCs were generally bland or, worse, just annoying. None of them really tickled my imagination though I loved exploring the world, that I did. So much to find out there.
DA's characters, every one in my party so far, is interesting to me. I often pick companions for an adventure based on curiosity about how they'll interact with each other or the adventure as much as their actual combat utility. In fact, the difficulty of the gameplay (at least in the console version - the optional bird's eye view and MMO GUI on the PC version make handling the tactical chores much easier from what I've read) is making my approach less practical. I may just switch to Easy Mode rather than letting some developer's tactical puzzle be the boss of me.
And, I touched on this in my last post, the world is a wonderful reinvention of fantasy cliches and historical settings. It's gritty but warm, dark and light, plausible and all the rest. More than that even is just how well it all fits together to create immersion. I'm generally skeptical of narrative heavy games because I find they drag me in directions I don't want to go and limit what I can do. They often seem shallow or boring and almost always unrealistic and predictable. Dragon Age is so well crafted, evades so many pitfalls, that I'm entirely happy following along their story because I feel I've the wiggle room to put my own spin on things.
Luckily, it seems, for me I've never much cared for the previous Bioware games I've come across so all this supposedly "tired" content is brand new to me. Dragon Age's setting is just so rich and plausible in a way most fantasy settings aren't that I believe it's a real world in a way Oblivion never quite sold me on even as much free-roaming as it let me do. Fallout 3 pulled it off with a very stylistic and interesting setting but the NPCs were generally bland or, worse, just annoying. None of them really tickled my imagination though I loved exploring the world, that I did. So much to find out there. DA's characters, every one in my party so far, is interesting to me. I often pick companions for an adventure based on curiosity about how they'll interact with each other or the adventure as much as their actual combat utility. In fact, the difficulty of the gameplay (at least in the console version - the optional bird's eye view and MMO GUI on the PC version make handling the tactical chores much easier from what I've read) is making my approach less practical. I may just switch to Easy Mode rather than letting some developer's tactical puzzle be the boss of me. And, I touched on this in my last post, the world is a wonderful reinvention of fantasy cliches and historical settings. It's gritty but warm, dark and light, plausible and all the rest. More than that even is just how well it all fits together to create immersion. I'm generally skeptical of narrative heavy games because I find they drag me in directions I don't want to go and limit what I can do. They often seem shallow or boring and almost always unrealistic and predictable. Dragon Age is so well crafted, evades so many pitfalls, that I'm entirely happy following along their story because I feel I've the wiggle room to put my own spin on things.
Do the npcs that sell quests for real money add to that immersion?
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Do the npcs that sell quests for real money add to that immersion?
Did expansion packs that added content after the game launches break your immersion, then?
It's simply a delivery method. Although I bought the DLC before I even got to that point, so I didn't see the npc "Sell" it, I personally look at it as a superior method than putting an ad on a website.
Imagine if someone never went to a games website to see if there was new content/expansion packs.. They're going along, maybe on a second or third try for the game, but this time there's an NPC they've never seen before. The NPC informs them there is a new journey ahead of them, but it tells them about buying the expansion pack...
I don't see the harm in this. It's sounds to me like it's the smoothest way to incorporate new content, old content, and real world sales within the game world.
I certainly hope something like this doesn't spoil the rest of the game for you... Unless you're prone to let small issues outweigh more important things. Suppose it's about personal perspective.
I love the content downloadables. I already picked up Warden keep and because of the Downloadables and the Online Profile you get and community its a SPORPG
The reason its featured here is because DA is the BOMB!
Do the npcs that sell quests for real money add to that immersion?
Did expansion packs that added content after the game launches break your immersion, then?
It's simply a delivery method. Although I bought the DLC before I even got to that point, so I didn't see the npc "Sell" it, I personally look at it as a superior method than putting an ad on a website.
Imagine if someone never went to a games website to see if there was new content/expansion packs.. They're going along, maybe on a second or third try for the game, but this time there's an NPC they've never seen before. The NPC informs them there is a new journey ahead of them, but it tells them about buying the expansion pack...
I don't see the harm in this. It's sounds to me like it's the smoothest way to incorporate new content, old content, and real world sales within the game world.
I certainly hope something like this doesn't spoil the rest of the game for you... Unless you're prone to let small issues outweigh more important things. Suppose it's about personal perspective.
there is nothing to spoil for me, I simply wont buy the game. When I pay for a single player game, I want to play the entire game. Being milked is for cows and other such creatures.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Comments
Loving Dragon Age so far.
why? with its generic setting you can get that from most MMOs. heck go play LOTRO, its basically the same overall story. a evil presence is trying to take over the land, humans, dwarfs and elves are trying to unite to stop it.
Gel214th I was going to write a long reply to your post, but do you know what.....I can't be bothered, you're an idiot plain and simple and you don't even deserve a longer response than this, go back to playing wow if you're so awed by it.
*Edit Typo*
why? with its generic setting you can get that from most MMOs. heck go play LOTRO, its basically the same overall story. a evil presence is trying to take over the land, humans, dwarfs and elves are trying to unite to stop it.
Lotro is done horribly but that is my opinion. Bioware clearly is one of the best in doing fantasy. I would rather give my money to Bioware because I know I'll be getting a quality game. This mmo genre needs companies that actually care about making great games rather than other companies who push out unfinished products just to make a quick dollar.
Agreed, although I am slightly biased, seeing as Bioware employs a member of my family :P
Bioware has really hit the mark with DA:O, it is without a doubt the best single player rpg developed since the early 00's, and I think it will hold that title for the next few years. It is going to be very difficult to top what they have accomplished.
Epic doesn't even begin to describe the game, and the guy above who considers it a "generic setting" is clearly someone who just shouldn't play rpgs at all. You think LOTRO and DA:O have similar storylines because each story features an antagonist? That's as ridiculous as someone saying one book is the same as another just because they both have pages...
Regarding stanalone RPG's and what MMO's can learn from them, its important to keep in mind that the dynamic that drives standalone games is the opposite of MMO's. In a standalone I'm the only real person in the game universe. In an MMO, I'm one of thousands (hopefully). That being the case the idea that MMO's should learn from standalone's is a bit worrying.
In a standalone game, as the only player it makes sense that I be the focus of the storyline. That the storyline be the driving focus of just about every thing I do. However in an MMO where I'm one of thousands in a persistant world, i can't stand it when the storyline is mandatory and forces me (and every other player) to be the one. Yes there should be story in an MMO, a rich and compelling one, but it should be there primarily to provide structure. A context for the world and the players to base their actions on.
Also regarding the 'choice' that bioware is famous for, I do like it, b but again, in an MMO where the results of that choice are going to be mostly cosmetic or limited very strictly to my immediate play area, ignoring the fact that I'm playing in a persistant world, then I don't particularly care for it.
Bottomline: In MMO's the storyline should be there to facilitate the players, letting them make their own storylines in the world they're in.
P.S. I guess you can tell I'm a sandbox type player
Yup! Agreed.
The loose reference to WoW in order to have an excuse to say "Dragon Age: Origins" on the front page one more time is pretty nauseating. Especially when it's just plain wrong, in that the systems mentioned that they borrowed from WoW were around long before WoW existed. Boo again on your 'journalism' mmorpg.com.
as i stated elsewhere if mmorpg.com is going to shamelessly promote single player games because EA is heavily advertising on their site then they might as well produce an article with some substance.
this article was a poor effort in trying to link dragon age to mmos and, in my opinion, offered very little if any insight into whatever they were trying to elaborate on. maybe because the only evident elaborate attempt is that of further promoting a game advertised on their site.
Think DAO is linear? It may say more about you than it says about the game.
Yes, you have a handful of origin stories that converge at Ostragar. However, those origin stories give you context for:
gender (doesn't make a difference in stats/abilities, but does make a difference in relationships and cultural fit)
race (this is a racist society - AND the races have prejudices of class [human], caste [dwarf] or free/subjugated status [elves])
profession - mages are considered a necessary evil which may have recently become enough of a liability to be eradicated
By the time you reach Ostragar, as anyone who's rerolled will know, dialogue and reactions will change from the NPCs. You may arrive in Ostagar with one or two party members. You will hit the next map location choice with three or four (or two if you make some choices I suspect few will, but could be totally valid within the cultural framework given).
Shortly after you leave the coda to Ostragar, you run through a small town where you can pick up another two potential party members. Party size is max 4. So you may have to choose to leave out up to TWO characters from your party going forward, each of which has not only skills but information and existing *relationships* with important NPCs going forward.
If you think the story is linear, you're treating this like Diablo. It's NOT Diablo. It's *actually* that rare beast, the true RPG. *Real* choices involving real sensitivity to your party members (and your own willingness to pander to what they want to hear) make *real* differences in future interactions with them and with NPCs who relate to them.
So, as you may guess, even though I haven't gotten through a huge percentage of the game play, I've gotten significant replay value from the first perhaps 25-30% of the game.
If you think DAO's linear, it's just a reflection of your own gameplay style.
Shava
BioWare support is probably just trying to be friends with M$ and some hardware dealers :P
You "seem" to have a system powerful enough to run the game, I've seen it run on a C2D E8400 with a 8800GT and 4Gb of Ram and it was pretty smooth. Not running at full settings but good enough.
I wrote "seem" because you only posted hardware, there are a lot of other things to take into consideration besides that. If you have checked everything software wise that could hinder the game's performance than I really have no clue. If you haven't looked into the software part. Try the basic first, nvidia drivers, pain in the ass security software that hate games (like norton for example).
You could also try turning off AA both ingame and in the nvidia control panel and see if it gets better. If you want to try more advance tweaking I suggest you get rivaTuner and fraps. Mess with rivaTuner a little bit and use fraps to check ingame fps. Some games maintain a rather balanced fps except in more GPU demanding stuff like rendering a lot of characters, increasing the drawing distance a lot (doesn't apply in Dragon Age I know). If you can identify the source of the problem you get one step closer to solving it.
But basically you're either CPU bound or GPU bound. One of these for some reason is hindering your performance.
Good luck with that, hope you can get sort those issues out.
TU2 Closed Beta Testing... looking very good so far
This site has no business writing feature articles about non MMO games.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
*posted in wrong thread*
Always notice what you notice.
Dragon Age has been a pretty enjoyable experience so far, if it does feel a bit overly difficult requiring frequent pausing hehe. It doesn't remind me of WoW at all; I tried WoW for a few months and dropped it (funny since I am a MMO addict) but will play Dragon Age trhough to the end (maybe more than once). Dragon Age is not a perfect game, but it is a good game even though I will admit it is probably over-hyped some. It certainly is a nostalgic throwback to the RPG days of Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate. It feels like DA:O is running off an enhanced version of the Neverwinter Nights engine, ableit a smoother and less clunky feeling third person engine.
I Love you Dragon Age.
Agreed, although I am slightly biased, seeing as Bioware employs a member of my family :P
Bioware has really hit the mark with DA:O, it is without a doubt the best single player rpg developed since the early 00's, and I think it will hold that title for the next few years. It is going to be very difficult to top what they have accomplished.
Epic doesn't even begin to describe the game, and the guy above who considers it a "generic setting" is clearly someone who just shouldn't play rpgs at all. You think LOTRO and DA:O have similar storylines because each story features an antagonist? That's as ridiculous as someone saying one book is the same as another just because they both have pages...
LOL hardly, more like a brand new movie thats coming out where a woman travels back in time to save the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. this brave woman all alone in the past will match wits against a machine that can take the look of a human. this breed of machine are called ELIMINATORS!
yeah Dragon age is along those lines.
Couldn't agree more. Already played through as a Human noble warrior and have now started a human noble rogue and human mage while my wife is currently working on her elf rogue.
see thats just it is i don't think what i wrote is a nitpick.
story - lets see evil monsters are trying to take over the world. a secret group of trained warriors are trying to unite the lands to stop them.
companions - snarky righteous character ... check! Emo i hate everything wizard - check! brute warrior - check! geez these haven't been done before
I play a human Warrior 2 handed tank, was able to play that way from the start and when i got Berserker there was no change in my playstyle.. and the limited skill it unlocked was extremely disappointing. i was expecting a whole new set of skills to pick and choose to personalize my class. i got 4 extra skills ...wooo
Well, I can easily give you that.
You're right, evil monsters trying to take over the world. The Dark Spawn as being "notorcs", etc. I can't argue with that.
However, think the reason that it works, at least on some level is that it speaks to something that is deep down within. It certainly is not different from Oblivion or even to a lesser extent,. Morrowind. though in those games there is more of a face to the big bad. So I can't disagree. It carries directly over from Lord of the Rings.
And yes the characters are archetypes of familiar faces. However from what I've seen, there are very nicely subtle hints of "something more". They still are what you say they are but these character archetypes will be used in many more books and games and movies going forward. We will see them 20 years down the road.
I can't say I disagree in that it might be nice to have something different but the question is, would it work as well in the context of a crowd pleasing fantasy game. They certainly aren't remaking the story just giving a slighly different flavor to it. So yes, the story and characters on their own is boilerplate.
Part of creating characters for the theater and casting them, is believability. So if I have a character in mind and have an actor who isn't as good as another but they physically embody the character far more than the better actor, then in many cases they are going to be hired. Part of this is because the play or movie only has a finite amount of time to run and the audience needs to sign into the characters as quickly as possible.
So having said that, part of an adventure story is having strong characters for the audience to grab on to. So sure, the writers at bioware could have explored the depths of these characters. And there are depths. But given that this falls more into the sword and sorcery /hack and slash realm of stories, they need to create characters that can immediately insinuate themselves into the players' minds.
However, the characters are flawed and in very subtle ways. Could bioware have built more on this? yes, most certainly. But in some ways its a trade off as the story really is more about you and your journey through their story.
And yes, we don't make this story. I just signed in to Dragon Age (and funny enough, the game crashed ; ) ) and tried looking at the game through a different set of eyes because of several threads on this site. And yes, there is some merit to some of the negatives that people are writing if looked at through very pointed spectacles.
In a game like oblivion or even more so, morrowind, you really do get a feeling that you are in a world. In the bioware games, you are in a world but it's a very focused world. It's more about being in a living book or movie than a full on immersive world where yyou wander to find your destiny.
And I can say that for some this will be a huge problem.
That is why I think Dragone age is more about the sum of its parts to create the whole than being specifically a "role playing game" that brings something new to the genre. It's not new. It is a refinement of Bioware's style of games.
For my taste I have been completely delighted in the acting of most of the characters. However, one has to take the story and characters for being very pointed archetypes. Searching for greater depth, and depth that is far reaching, within the characters is going to be a dissapointment. I would go so far as to say that in some ways they are like shakespearian characters (bear with me here) in that they all are very broadly painted characters whose sole merit rests on somethng greater.
Characters like Hamlet or Macbeth don't have layers and layers and layers. They are pretty one dimensional and lay firmly in the story that they inhabit. They fulfil very concrete roles. Where they shine is the world they inhabit and of course the language that is used.
But they are very memorable characters because the world and language used allows for their subtle characterizations to shine. They are memorable.
so yes, the characters in dragon age are pretty boiler plate. but I am not sure the the game would be better if we delved into the deeper issues and motivatons of the characters. I think more depth would have helped but the delicate balance is being bogged down in depth so that we are not playing a game but more like watching a movie (which some are already finding a bit unwieldy with regards to the cutscenes) or reading a book (and there is a lot of reading in the game).
What I would say is that Dragon Age is very distincly a Bioware game. It plays out and feels like all the Bioware games that have gone before, right down to the snarky evil character the player might play. Where it shines for me is that all of the parts, regardless of their flaws work so well and if players could check their cynicism at the door they might be able to enjoy the game for what it is.
However, if we bring all of our baggage from past games then sure, we can dissect the game in such a way as to leave all the parts out in the open where they might be hard pressed to stand up to closer scrutiny.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Not that many of you bothered to actually look at the game or play it before posting, which is readily apparent, but the Achievment clearly lists unlock all endings. This directly implicates the presence of multiple storylines having your choices make an effect on the story overall.
For my taste MMORPGs focus too much on:
It's still good to see that there are companies that try to create CRPGs with a good focus on the story element. Yes, even CRPGs lack in the roleplaying department. But at least the NPC and party banters make up for it a little bit. But this is still more than in the average MMORPG party that is set out on gear grinding (ok, you can have lots of smalltalk but that's even a step farther away from roleplaying ,) ).
Another point concerning CRPGS
I don't want to see "exclamation marks" hovering over quest NPCs. I don't want a "navigation" system. I don't want to see a quest NPC standing directly near the quest entrance (if it isn't dictated by the story). All this and lots more is just for convenience but takes the excitement of discovering the game world. And it just gives me the feeling that I have to work on a checklist... (errand 1 - checked, errand 2 - checked, ... errand n - checked)
Dragon Age is the #1 game in history right now! It blows MMO's away and they know it! It completely stopped me from playing CO and even caring about STO beta. One of he best things about this game is if other people complain about it and quit I dont care it doesnt effect my experience.
Multiplayer is overrated and is actually just frustrating dealing with people whining and changing the game I'm playing. Dragon Age may signal the end of MMO gaming as being the overall best format for rpg. Single player is BACK!
Luckily, it seems, for me I've never much cared for the previous Bioware games I've come across so all this supposedly "tired" content is brand new to me. Dragon Age's setting is just so rich and plausible in a way most fantasy settings aren't that I believe it's a real world in a way Oblivion never quite sold me on even as much free-roaming as it let me do. Fallout 3 pulled it off with a very stylistic and interesting setting but the NPCs were generally bland or, worse, just annoying. None of them really tickled my imagination though I loved exploring the world, that I did. So much to find out there.
DA's characters, every one in my party so far, is interesting to me. I often pick companions for an adventure based on curiosity about how they'll interact with each other or the adventure as much as their actual combat utility. In fact, the difficulty of the gameplay (at least in the console version - the optional bird's eye view and MMO GUI on the PC version make handling the tactical chores much easier from what I've read) is making my approach less practical. I may just switch to Easy Mode rather than letting some developer's tactical puzzle be the boss of me.
And, I touched on this in my last post, the world is a wonderful reinvention of fantasy cliches and historical settings. It's gritty but warm, dark and light, plausible and all the rest. More than that even is just how well it all fits together to create immersion. I'm generally skeptical of narrative heavy games because I find they drag me in directions I don't want to go and limit what I can do. They often seem shallow or boring and almost always unrealistic and predictable. Dragon Age is so well crafted, evades so many pitfalls, that I'm entirely happy following along their story because I feel I've the wiggle room to put my own spin on things.
Always notice what you notice.
Do the npcs that sell quests for real money add to that immersion?
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Did expansion packs that added content after the game launches break your immersion, then?
It's simply a delivery method. Although I bought the DLC before I even got to that point, so I didn't see the npc "Sell" it, I personally look at it as a superior method than putting an ad on a website.
Imagine if someone never went to a games website to see if there was new content/expansion packs.. They're going along, maybe on a second or third try for the game, but this time there's an NPC they've never seen before. The NPC informs them there is a new journey ahead of them, but it tells them about buying the expansion pack...
I don't see the harm in this. It's sounds to me like it's the smoothest way to incorporate new content, old content, and real world sales within the game world.
I certainly hope something like this doesn't spoil the rest of the game for you... Unless you're prone to let small issues outweigh more important things. Suppose it's about personal perspective.
Doesn't bother me much. I'm loaded.
Always notice what you notice.
I love the content downloadables. I already picked up Warden keep and because of the Downloadables and the Online Profile you get and community its a SPORPG
The reason its featured here is because DA is the BOMB!
p.s. Its also the wow killa
Did expansion packs that added content after the game launches break your immersion, then?
It's simply a delivery method. Although I bought the DLC before I even got to that point, so I didn't see the npc "Sell" it, I personally look at it as a superior method than putting an ad on a website.
Imagine if someone never went to a games website to see if there was new content/expansion packs.. They're going along, maybe on a second or third try for the game, but this time there's an NPC they've never seen before. The NPC informs them there is a new journey ahead of them, but it tells them about buying the expansion pack...
I don't see the harm in this. It's sounds to me like it's the smoothest way to incorporate new content, old content, and real world sales within the game world.
I certainly hope something like this doesn't spoil the rest of the game for you... Unless you're prone to let small issues outweigh more important things. Suppose it's about personal perspective.
there is nothing to spoil for me, I simply wont buy the game. When I pay for a single player game, I want to play the entire game. Being milked is for cows and other such creatures.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.