Dragon Age: Origins Comments by Oli Welsh

Lots of good PC games coming out, glad that my laptop will still be able to cut it for a bit!

A good read, and I guess you hit the nail on the head with your conclusion.

"Flying Buttress and Free-Standing Arch age, more like." Ahhhhh, that made me laugh.

I dunno corroonb - wasn't the Aurora engine used on The Witcher? I thought that worked well. Hopefully based on that it will be fine although I agree with you about NWN 1 and 2

Don't worry Corroon - Neverwinter Nights 2 was done by Obsidian. And the first one was designed more with multi-player in mind than single-player. I have very high expectations for this and can't wait for release. With Alpha Protocol, Empire: Total War, Spore and the like, the next 6 months of gaming looks very promising indeed!

Looks good. Super solid rpg, here we come.

Will there be space hamsters?! I need to know!

This, D3 and the improved version of the Witcher - at last the PC gets some decent RPGs again. Just when I was contemplating getting a new one which couldn't play games as well.

Can't wait....

Slow moving party based rpg's ftw...

I want to have time to think again rather than have to aim or furiously click.

Warrior, wizard and rogue - does not sound like much choice in characters. Lets hope the character classes and choices are not dumbed down.

fuck, i cant wait for this

@ gallow

yeah, here I was hoping for some D&D version ruleset in there

ah well, bit of a shame it isn't a high-fantasy setting, lets hope it's atleast epic enough! :D

I've been very disappointed by the previews and footage shown - it just doesn't excite at all. Jade Empire had tons and tons more of charm. It looks like Baldur's Gate, but in the sense that it makes me long for a new 2D Baldur's Gate. Charmless models, flat colors, imagination-less surroindings... oh how I hope they make up for it in tactics and writing. Must've been a long and difficult development process.

I'm so glad the gameplay looks the business after the misstep with the heavily LOTR inspired cinematic trailer.

No-one does a fantasy RPG like Bioware and I can't wait for this.

pausing game to allow queing of commands - check.
/pre-orders!

I'm hoping for more detail on the world the game is set in personally. When I heard Bioware were leaving behind the D&D ruleset and the FR setting in favour of their own work, I was hoping for something a little more... creative... than what I've seen so far.

Still, good writing and characterisation can make up for that (assuming, of course, that the basic gameplay is all present and correct).

What kind of article is this? It's based, apparantly, solely on that little gameplay video we've all seen. How can you draw any kind of conclusion from that?

Then again, the author of this text actually doesn't (because he doesn't know anything about the game). He goes something like: "it might be good but it might also disappoint". That's damn succint.

"corroonb:
A Planescape Torment sequel would be awesome and Interplay is just one guy who owns the IP."

'Planescape Torment' and FunComs' 'The longest Journey' remain two of the greatest storys in gaming history (for me at least).
I would donate body parts for a chance to play a 'well realised' sequel to Planescape.
Was so unexpected and understated.
A Real gem in my gaming timeline.

Id give my left nut for another game in the planescape setting, but you'd have to gather the guys from troika together.

Don't worry Corroon - Neverwinter Nights 2 was done by Obsidian. And the first one was designed more with multi-player in mind than single-player.

Well, in my opinion, NWN2's (and especially the addon's) writing was superior to anything Bioware have done in years...well, Mass Effect was great - Kotor1, JE and NWN1 not so much, though.

As for The Witcher, it uses the (albeit heavily enhanced) Aurora 1-engine (NWN, Kotor), which resulted in a game that not only looked, but also performed considerably better than the NWN2 engine. Hohum. Obsidian aren't exactly technical wizards, I guess.

What we need is Obsidian doing the writing, Bioware upping the production values, and a third party deivering a solid engine. :-)

Hmm the Startrek of the RPG/Hackyslashy universe?

I couldn't agree more with this article. After seeing the first gameplay video I saw myself wondering if I accidentaly clicked on World of Warcraft. When Baldurs Gate came out I was impressed, with Baldurs Gate 2 I was seriously hooked and with KOTOR I was blown away. Jade Empire also got me, but I already found too many things were similar to KOTOR. Especially close to the end I found it too repetitive. I didn't play mass effect so far, it's on my to-do-list. Dragon age looks... solid. And by that I mean: been there, done that. I don't expect this game to spark a revoltion of any kind. I don't expect this game to surprise me. That is very sad, since that means I don't see any point spending money to buy this game.

Well, any game since NWN1 from Bioware hasn't been a real revolution (nor such a brilliant experience, NWN1 OC wasn't either of course) so that's not a big issue. Going back to BG-style is a good choice (and from what I read on the official boards, it might be possible to play the entire game in isometric view), especially in terms of controls and interface. Seeing the current RPG market you might even say the back-to-basics approach is a revolution in itself. NWN2 missed the mark on more than a few things (not even a drag-selection box ffs).

The setting of Dragon Age (did that cutscene look like uninspired drab or what?) and other things we haven't seen yet might not be so sweet though. It's gonna take a lot of effort to beat the reigning partybased RPG champ BG2 and it'll definitely require more than just a familiar interface.

Overly negative from the little that has been seen.

What i always keep in mind about Dragon Age is that the lead writer on the game is the person that wrote the second NWN expansion Horde of the Underdark. This was a fantastic expansion, it was the only game i've ever played where you had the chance to side with the bad guy when they tried to lure you to the dark side.

Running through BG1 Tutu & widescreen mod at 1680x1050 and it's fookin gorgeous!

Onto BG2 after that - Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata will have to wait a while methinks... :)

Definitely needs better clouds.

Last time I heard the phrase "spiritual successor" was Bioshock, and that didn't nearly fill SS2's shoes IMO. A "Baldur's Gate 3" is something I'd really look forward to, but I have to check my enthusiasm since, personally, I thought NWN2 was a disaster.

Planescape Torment 2 is what we really need! It's a no-brainer - the guy never dies! :) Heck I'd play a sequel that used the original engine even. Write a new story, bump the resolution and call it a day. :)

UncluLou:
As for The Witcher, it uses the (albeit heavily enhanced) Aurora 1-engine (NWN, Kotor), which resulted in a game that not only looked, but also performed considerably better than the NWN2 engine. Hohum. Obsidian aren't exactly technical wizards, I guess.

Or maybe for the same price of a good coder in America you can buy two in Poland?
I think there are issues with the NWN2 engine too, but the causes aren't as simple as technical competence IMHO.

Not quite convinced by that. I doubt CD Projekt are nearly as big as Obsidian, nor do we usually get better looking and performing games out of low(er) wages countries.

If anything, short dev time of NWN2 was a problem.

The Witcher had nearly 70 people working at the end of the development and has been in development since atleast 2004, maybe longer. Oh and CD Project Red is backed up by a 200 man publishing team. Oh and the combat isn't WoW, it seems like an evovled Infinity Engine.

No, no, please. Make it *much* more generic.
There's just not enough elf and troll games around nowadays.
Then when you're done, maybe a WWII shooter or six. Can't seem to find them in the shops nowadays.

Coming soon: Dragon Age II: The Quest for Originality

The comments about the WoW like combat are worrying. RPGs which play like offline mmos get boring very fast. I'm hoping that the spellcasting is complex, always loved how much you could do with the spellcasting in D&D games and they have an opportunity to really build on that with their own system.

To be fair, the criticism this article raises against Dragon Age is the same that I've raised against almost all Bioware games, whom are "all" lauded by critics and gamers. I'm hoping that Dragon Age will fix some of the flaws of their latest efforts with this, though. Such as creating interesting and engaging combat encounters, those haven't been in Bio-games since BG2 - I wish the preview would have gone into the combat system a bit more in depth. Or interesting characters, I know Bioware likes their archetypes but they are almost always mind numbingly boring. Obsidian imo. set a new standard for non-stereotypical characters with MotB (maybe not better than Planescape Torments, but in the same league), far more interesting than anything Bioware has done since BG2, though HK47 was good fun.

There are other faults in Bio-games, but these are the mayor ones for me. Considering how much filler combat they put in all of them a good combat system is very important.


Edit, two things about the game:

1) Bioware seems to finally have found an acceptable solution to "death" in combat, instead of NPC:s just getting back up again after the fights they get up, but with injuries that I hope are harsh enough to stop suicide rushes and actually forcing tactics.

2) What's with the hate against portraits in RPG:s nowadays? I've always preferred real portraits to these character model faces that games have nowadays, they are just boring. Oh, "the face of the avatar must match the in game face," eh? Well, just make the player choose a portrait and have pre-generated in-game faces that matches them. Those who whine about not being able to create their own faces instantly prove themselves worthy of ignoring - a miniscule price to pay to get rid of the boringness that is this.