I can't be the only one who wants a change in pace from the FPS genre this time around and Dragon Age Origins maybe a hit IMO. Dragon Age Origins is created by BioWare's Edmonton studio which will be released on November 3, 2009 for the PC and consoles. This is a single player, computer role playing game (CRPG) that appears to work best with a game pad (not sure yet). If you pre-order now you are suppose to get some sort of bonus at participating outlets.
Dragon Age Origins is said to be be a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series. So that should give some of you an idea of what this game is all about. This game will allow you to effect the outcome of the game based on the choices you make throughout it. You will be able to issue order to other NPC either in real time or by pausing the game. The game will allow you a rear person's view or an overhead view of the environment. This game will have 3 upgradeable classes to choose from: the rogue, the warrior, and the mage. The specialized classes are Berserker and Templar for the warrior, and Shapeshifter for the mage. The six character backgrounds are Human Noble, Human/Elf Mage, Dalish Elf, City Elf, Dwarf Commoner, and Dwarf Noble.
The plot of the game is vague but the gist of it is dark heroic fantasy storyline. Depending on who you character is you will start off in one of six Origin stories as a starting point. This game is said to not use Securom protection but instead some sort of disc checking system.
As for downloadable content this game is said to come with The Stone Prisoner and Warden’s Keep. However, you may want to keep an eye out for the moddable content. There maybe a large modding community once this game is released.
Create New Adventures – Forge your own environments from your imagination, or use the rich set of Dragon Age locations and artwork as starting blocks to build new, original campaigns, quests, or cut-scenes.
Stage Massive Battles – Test your might in battle by fully customizing the combat and creature AI, allowing you to create detailed action sequences full of heart-pounding warfare.
Be the Director - Create your own stories with the powerful cinematics editor that offers full control of the camera, voice and lip syncing tools, and a full character creator.
Content Creator's Community – Join the BioWare Social Network where you can easily find tutorials, share content, chat with other creators, and get content updates for the tool
[1]fixed potential corruption of character statistics
[2]fixed portrait appearance sliders when importing a character from the downloadable Character Creator
[3] fixed import for preset face settings from the downloadable Character Creator
[4]made Easy difficulty easier
[5] slightly increased attack, defense, and damage scores for all party members at Normal difficulty
[6]fixed video issues when running on a very wide screen display, including ATI Eyefinity displays
[1]Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
[2]During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
[3]When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
[4]The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
[5]The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
[6]Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
[7]Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.
Gameplay
In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.
Plot *Spoiler Warning*
Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.
PC Specific
Controlling a summoned creature (like a ranger's pets) during certain special area transitions no longer results in odd behavior.
Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs.
In some cases, the class icon was set incorrectly for characters imported from the downloadable Character Creator. This no longer occurs.
The options menu now includes a setting to automatically download previously purchased content that is not currently installed.
After installing new downloadable content, the game now always reminds the user to restart the game.
The icons for some promotional downloadable content items were missing. They now appear correctly.
The screenshot upload GUI would stop working from time to time on the client. There was a memory override that was fixed. It is a client fix. It doesn't affect the other problems we have seen on the server.
Patch details:
Many of the fixes affecting balance, gameplay, or plot scripting are already included in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 versions of Dragon Age: Origins.
You do not need to download patches prior to Patch 1.02a. Downloading Patch 1.02a contains all previous patches. Downloading Patch 1.02a will provide you with all patch data available.
Balance
Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.
Gameplay
In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.
Plot *Spoiler Warning*
Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.
PC Specific
Controlling a summoned creature (like a ranger's pets) during certain special area transitions no longer results in odd behavior.
Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs.
In some cases, the class icon was set incorrectly for characters imported from the downloadable Character Creator. This no longer occurs.
The options menu now includes a setting to automatically download previously purchased content that is not currently installed.
After installing new downloadable content, the game now always reminds the user to restart the game.
The icons for some promotional downloadable content items were missing. They now appear correctly.
The screenshot upload GUI would stop working from time to time on the client. There was a memory override that was fixed. It is a client fix. It doesn't affect the other problems we have seen on the server.
Ill be getting it. I am thinking about pre-ordering but still waiting to see more footage. I played it for about 10 minutes a gencon indy. It was pretty sweet, however the version i had didnt have the "pause" mode and the ability to switch between your party members.
The only thing I find strange is that the graphics are pretty bland. I mean Biowares last SP RPG Mass Effect is just about 2 years old and has what looks to be far better graphics than this game. Otherwise it does look good.
really? I dont think so. When i played the game i thought they were pretty good. It was a beta version and the game had no dips in framerate or anything like that. The 360 version did however.
really? I dont think so. When i played the game i thought they were pretty good. It was a beta version and the game had no dips in framerate or anything like that. The 360 version did however.
Have you played Mass Effect, you can literally see the texture on your characters skin, this maybe looks as good as Oblivion from what I have seen. Maybe it will look better to me when I can actually play it?
How is that targeted at 15 year old boys? Almost any game for PC has violence in it, and sex is a part of everyday life, now if you start giggling like a giddy schoolgirl when you see it, that might say your not a mature person.
How is that targeted at 15 year old boys? Almost any game for PC has violence in it, and sex is a part of everyday life, now if you start giggling like a giddy schoolgirl when you see it, that might say your not a mature person.
I don't know, I just get a slight The Witcher-feel when I see the trailers. It's darkness, it's evil, it's blood and gore and you're part of an elite group protecting the lands from an overwhelming evil force and I'm just sick of it and oh there's boobies. I actually think the game will be pretty good, but I still think all those things are for 15 year old boys. I want a game about philosphy combined with monster spanking that makes you wonder what life's all about and how everything reacts to everything and your attitudes towards it.
FPS Doug isn't much of a wow player, more COD4 and CSS.
I am just not a big fan of the whole leveling up and having to walk through the entire world to do/find crap. I might pick it up just for the hell of it, but its definitely not one of my most anticipated games.
Have you played Mass Effect, you can literally see the texture on your characters skin, this maybe looks as good as Oblivion from what I have seen. Maybe it will look better to me when I can actually play it?
QUOTE]
Oh yea dude I bought mass effect twice once for 360 and once for pc. I am thinking that they are two totally different types of games geared toward a specific type of look. I agree with you that the facial textures look a lot better on mass effect. However, I think the other textures (character body, enviroment, etc.) Look very good. I also think the spells, fire, etc look even better.
FPS Doug isn't much of a wow player, more COD4 and CSS.
I am just not a big fan of the whole leveling up and having to walk through the entire world to do/find crap. I might pick it up just for the hell of it, but its definitely not one of my most anticipated games.
Right, but he's not a main character on the show, I seriously cant stand watching that show, just way too over the top. Either way, without WoW it wouldn't have been made and he wouldn't be in existence.
If you dont like leveling you won't like RPG's, thats what they are all about, you are FPS Doug Stick to those, heck even those have levels now.
Like you have full control over your entire party. So that you use strategy in a sense when pausing the game to determine each of your characters moves. They will do their own moves but it gives you greater control over what each of your party characters do. Just like a strategy game.
Like you have full control over your entire party. So that you use strategy in a sense when pausing the game to determine each of your characters moves. They will do their own moves but it gives you greater control over what each of your party characters do. Just like a strategy game.
I don't know, I just get a slight The Witcher-feel when I see the trailers. It's darkness, it's evil, it's blood and gore and you're part of an elite group protecting the lands from an overwhelming evil force and I'm just sick of it and oh there's boobies. I actually think the game will be pretty good, but I still think all those things are for 15 year old boys. I want a game about philosphy combined with monster spanking that makes you wonder what life's all about and how everything reacts to everything and your attitudes towards it.
FPS Doug isn't much of a wow player, more COD4 and CSS.
Stick to those, heck even those have levels now.