"Dragon Age - Bioware's Spiritual Successor to Baldurs Gate"

So... is anyone playing this on the 360?

The only PC I have is a laptop, and it's not good enough to run this, so I have no other option. The EG review is scaring me a bit, though.

Does anywhere have some pc benchmarks for different systems? I don't know if mine can handle it

Genji wrote:
So... is anyone playing this on the 360?

The only PC I have is a laptop, and it's not good enough to run this, so I have no other option. The EG review is scaring me a bit, though.

Check out the xbox forums,
http://forums.xbox.com/51/29290674/ShowPost.aspx#29290674

game seems to be getting nothing but praise,. Many people saying if you like KOTOR you'll like this.

Wouldn't pay much attention to EG's review, they tend to favour Oblivion/Fallout/Fable type RPGs over strong story driven games with depth, like Mass Effect and DA it seems.

Awesome. Guess I'll pick it up then. After exams. ;)

hiddenranbir wrote:
Speaking of generic I found their choice of the gay romance option to be equally generic and dull. How surprising it is the campy float-a-boat. Imagine if it was Sten, that would have gotten them some real shock attention.

Most of Bioware's writing at this point, especially their party dialogue and romance options, are pretty staid, parochial, and predictable. It's a shame. Somehow the same tricks still work every time, though, and I end up really enjoying a few of the party members.

Other than the obvious size, I can see nothing remarkable about this game at all, graphics are well below par, combat is awkward and unresponsive, voice acting is passable at best, environments are the very essence of generic, the story is admittedly quite involving, but there's no flair to any of it. Nothing really stands out as exceptional, it's just a heap of adequate.

Yossarian wrote:

hiddenranbir wrote:
Speaking of generic I found their choice of the gay romance option to be equally generic and dull. How surprising it is the campy float-a-boat. Imagine if it was Sten, that would have gotten them some real shock attention.

Most of Bioware's writing at this point, especially their party dialogue and romance options, are pretty staid, parochial, and predictable. It's a shame. Somehow the same tricks still work every time, though, and I end up really enjoying a few of the party members.

To behonest. It doesn't matter. No matter what you read, what games you play. You WILL have the same style characters. They may be slightly different but the style is set.

From Final Fantasy, through fanstay novels to Bioware. The cliches are set. The cocky mage or the humble mage. The rightous paladin. The charming (loveable) rogue. The angry dwarf. Whatever. They will ALWAYS be there. Why? Because anything without them is generally lacking depth.

Nope no crashes, and yes, I did play non-stop since my last post. O_o

There are some very entertaining surprises in this exploration wise. Some very tough enemies suddenly appearing.

PC version is very, very stable. I can minimize the game and open 4 other different files at once and the worst I get is the occasional minute-long load or framerate stutter. My PC is far from new so this - plus the fact that it's actually playable on high settings - is surprising and awesome.

Hantheman wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

hiddenranbir wrote:
Speaking of generic I found their choice of the gay romance option to be equally generic and dull. How surprising it is the campy float-a-boat. Imagine if it was Sten, that would have gotten them some real shock attention.

Most of Bioware's writing at this point, especially their party dialogue and romance options, are pretty staid, parochial, and predictable. It's a shame. Somehow the same tricks still work every time, though, and I end up really enjoying a few of the party members.

To behonest. It doesn't matter. No matter what you read, what games you play. You WILL have the same style characters. They may be slightly different but the style is set.

From Final Fantasy, through fanstay novels to Bioware. The cliches are set. The cocky mage or the humble mage. The rightous paladin. The charming (loveable) rogue. The angry dwarf. Whatever. They will ALWAYS be there. Why? Because anything without them is generally lacking depth.

On a slightly related topic, I remember playing one of those unofficial "persistent world" mods that Neverwinter Nights had. It was great, because you could come up with your own special background, and craft skills to match it. The only caveat was that you had to have it approved, but most of them were.

Oh, and you had to act in-character. Which is so unbelievably nerdy, but man... people in that world were actually helpful. I told some guys in town that I was going off on a quest and needed help, but they said they were too busy, so I went by myself. I thought "yep, just the same as every other game", but I was pleasantly surprised when - as I was getting mauled by monsters - I saw the same guys I had talked to coming to help, acting in-character all the way. They were high level, so it didn't even net them any experience, but they were even nice enough to let me get the killing blows!

It was the single most awesome multiplayer RPG experience I've ever had.

Sorry to go off on a tangent. :)

Anyone know how to uninstall DLC?

Also, I'm still finding this hard....on Easy.

I'm in Denerim and have done a couple of missions and again am getting attacked by 3 or 4 archers, 4 blood mages at once and about 5-6 tanks.

Now I dropped an earlier quest due to getting pwnt all the time, and am now struggling a bit here.

Is there a certain difficulty path in terms of quests everyone else has taken? As I'm now getting a little bit tired of a) not being able to play on normal and b) getting the shit kicked out of me all the fucking time.

Genji wrote:
So... is anyone playing this on the 360?

The only PC I have is a laptop, and it's not good enough to run this, so I have no other option. The EG review is scaring me a bit, though.

Been playing it today on 360 and PC yesterday. TBH the 360 version is fine... not worth the 6/10. Framerate is smooth and yes textures are a bit weaker but it is still a great game. I actually played more on the 360 version since I have a bigger screen and can sit in couch while getting supplied with hot drinks and food :)

I am really feeling the BG in this. 9/10 for me on both systems.

Shit, I've just read EG's 360 review, it's pretty scathing! No pause button does sound gash, I'm pretty disappointed about that, that's how I play RPGs like this...

Are there any Baldur's Gate fans with this game on the 360? If so how are you finding it?

morriss wrote:
Anyone know how to uninstall DLC?

You can go to the D/L screen and untick "enabled" and that should do it.

You can pause, afaik, but you have to set the radial menu to hold instead of toggle? Or something (360 players confirm)? One of the errors in the review.

Quint2020 wrote:
Shit, I've just read EG's 360 review, it's pretty scathing! No pause button does sound gash, I'm pretty disappointed about that, that's how I play RPGs like this...

Are there any Baldur's Gate fans with this game on the 360? If so how are you finding it?

Well, I'm a BG fan, and I just bought it. I'll wait until after exams to play it, but will post impressions soon enough...

morriss wrote:

Is there a certain difficulty path in terms of quests everyone else has taken? As I'm now getting a little bit tired of a) not being able to play on normal and b) getting the shit kicked out of me all the fucking time.

What character do you have as you main and what companions? I'm playing on Normal and have not had a death yet. All I do (with my mage which is supposed to be the toughest class), is freeze the toughest bad guy, then when the rest are in range I clobber them with an AOE spell (maneuvering to make sure I dont hit my own) and then hit whom ever is a problem as I spot heal my party as required.

Doing this, I've never touched my NPC party tactics and I just leave them to it. I do ensure they are armed as well as I possibly can manage (including melee weapons). I have Morrigan, Alistair and Lelliani and they are backing me up fine. Alistair is spec'd for shield .

I'm only at lothlorien or whatever its called, but have done most of the quests there and had no trouble with the Ogre at all . I would recommend doing all the side quests if you have problems with the main quests. You get loot rewards and you get xp (although the game scales, so the XP is of lesser use). I suspect I will get my ass handed to me soon and then I will have to look at what my party are doing each battle.

Oh there are also infinite XP and money (with Stone Prisoner content only) glitches in game if you are finding it impossible, but I'm loathe to post those.

LOL - just booted up the game to find my daughter was playing until 4am on her char. She isnt getting up any side of midday :)

[edit] Also Flank the enemy where ever possible. It makes it easier to do AOE effects and you do more damage with more chance of hitting. [.edit]

Edited by AngeleDei at 10:36:35 08-11-2009

One thing I don't like is the DLC being released alongside the game. I had a long conversation with some moron only to find out I had to pay to do a quest! If it's one in the CE then maybe that's not so bad, but if it's not it just smacks of profiteering. Ok, so when they release DLC like 2 weeks later that's basically what they're doing anyway, but at least there's the illusion you're getting something they haven't just held back by a few weeks.

Tomo wrote:
One thing I don't like is the DLC being released alongside the game. I had a long conversation with some moron only to find out I had to pay to do a quest! If it's one in the CE then maybe that's not so bad, but if it's not it just smacks of profiteering. Ok, so when they release DLC like 2 weeks later that's basically what they're doing anyway, but at least there's the illusion you're getting something they haven't just held back by a few weeks.

That does suck. Would totally ruin the immersion for me. What was the quest? I think only the Warden's Keep dosnt come with all newly paid for versions of the game, (as opposed to second hand) so I figure it had to be that.

Just curious lads. When you play a game like this, do you play to completion or will you break off for MW2/AC2 for example. I can only really get into 1 game at a time and would imagine an RPG would be even harder to get back into after leaving for a few weeks. I played Risen from start to completion, due to this fact. I'm also shite at button mapping in my head so more than one layout and I'm in trouble ;)
Sorry to be a bit off topic, I was just wondering is all.
Can't make up my mind if I should get this game or not.

Great Scot! I think I just hit a bit of a difficulty spike with a bonus content quest I got at the first camp outside of Lothering.


At Soldiers Peak, fighting alongside the mage against Sophia. I beat her but she leaves my party pretty weak with a couple of fiery AoE attacks. Then I'm forced straight into another battle against respawning demon things. I'm playing on normal but this is tough.

morriss wrote:
Is there a certain difficulty path in terms of quests everyone else has taken? As I'm now getting a little bit tired of a) not being able to play on normal and b) getting the shit kicked out of me all the fucking time.

What's your party composition and are you getting your positioning correct at the start, tanks at the front, squashies behind and with a bit of a spread to avoid aoe? I assume you're using aggro skills on your tanks, of which you may need 2 in that sort of battle, then crowd controlling and aoeing early? Do you pause frequently in the early party of the battle until you have it under control?

I"ll be playing this from start to finish I think...and then probably going through again as a different class with and evil guy (currently playing a good female mage).

I might buy MW2 for Xmas :)

AngeleDei wrote:

Tomo wrote:
One thing I don't like is the DLC being released alongside the game. I had a long conversation with some moron only to find out I had to pay to do a quest! If it's one in the CE then maybe that's not so bad, but if it's not it just smacks of profiteering. Ok, so when they release DLC like 2 weeks later that's basically what they're doing anyway, but at least there's the illusion you're getting something they haven't just held back by a few weeks.

That does suck. Would totally ruin the immersion for me. What was the quest? I think only the Warden's Keep dosnt come with all newly paid for versions of the game, (as opposed to second hand) so I figure it had to be that.

Not sure... begins with 'S'...

Ah...Stone Prisoner. My mistake. From what I've read (and I've just double checked), the Stone Prisoner is available with all retail copies of the game from regular upwards. Least that is the case just checking EA's board. Have you used all your redeem codes?

Triple checks: Stone prisoner might not be available if you downloaded the Standard Edition. It is available with standard Editions bought from retail outlets though through a Rave? Card.

Edited by AngeleDei at 10:44:31 08-11-2009

Orange wrote:

morriss wrote:
Is there a certain difficulty path in terms of quests everyone else has taken? As I'm now getting a little bit tired of a) not being able to play on normal and b) getting the shit kicked out of me all the fucking time.

What's your party composition and are you getting your positioning correct at the start, tanks at the front, squashies behind and with a bit of a spread to avoid aoe? I assume you're using aggro skills on your tanks, of which you may need 2 in that sort of battle, then crowd controlling and aoeing early? Do you pause frequently in the early party of the battle until you have it under control?

Maybe I just can't work it out like you can. I can't see the things you're talking about here. I have used about 30 mins on the tactics screen, I've bought armour/better weapons for every character and that's that.

I pause to either give health or sometimes direct them to help Morrigan if she's getting battered. Tbh, I don't want to be involved in the combat beyond this point.

Tomo wrote:

AngeleDei wrote:

Tomo wrote:
One thing I don't like is the DLC being released alongside the game. I had a long conversation with some moron only to find out I had to pay to do a quest! If it's one in the CE then maybe that's not so bad, but if it's not it just smacks of profiteering. Ok, so when they release DLC like 2 weeks later that's basically what they're doing anyway, but at least there's the illusion you're getting something they haven't just held back by a few weeks.

That does suck. Would totally ruin the immersion for me. What was the quest? I think only the Warden's Keep dosnt come with all newly paid for versions of the game, (as opposed to second hand) so I figure it had to be that.

Not sure... begins with 'S'...

The Stone Prisoner comes with all new copies of the game. And is well worth it. The quest is very short but Shale rocks.

Wardens Keep is the paid for DLC, very short, a few good items, and a place to dump the stuff you don't want to sell. Possibly not worth the money, but quite cheap as DLC goes.

I suspect the problem Morriss may be having is the lack of a healing mage. I am only on an early mission and am having epic fights Vs relatively weak numbers but, since I am playing a rogue and the mage you have for this mission has no healing, I am struggling with healing.

Loving it but, if the difficulty spikes, I may have problems (PC normal difficulty BTW)

Oh and the graphics have grown on me. I love the fact that you can explore in over the shoulder view and go Iso for battles. Also not sure I will ever be able to go back to the INfinity engine games where you cannot rotate the camera!