BioWare Rocks

[Saxman]

I can't WAIT for this one to come out in a couple days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EegjjffT4sg&feature=player_embedded

Got my character(s) created already with the free character creator.

[Delirium]

Thanks for the link! This is what I've been looking for, a non MMO RPG to play.

[Saxman]

This looks like it oughta be a GOOD one, too. It's bloody, it's violent. Oh, and watch the "Violence" trailer. Looks like they take the "Romance" side-plots of Neverwinter Nights & NWN2 and REALLY ramp it up beyond what the sanitized world of D&D games allow. 

When you have TRAILERS that require age verification, you KNOW it's gonna rock.

Of course, being an RPG they're still going to completely FUBAR weapons terminology (I'm dreading the one-handed "longswords" and ludicrously heavy two-handed swords)....

[Ack-Ack]

Lucky for me, my local gaming store doesn't give a rat's bellybutton about street dates and picked up a copy last night.  Almost called in sick when I realized it was 4am and I had to get up in 4 hours when I stopped playing.  Between this game and Borderlands (another excellent game), my weekend is gonna be shot.

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[Saxman]

Lucky for me, my local gaming store doesn't give a rat's bellybutton about street dates and picked up a copy last night.  Almost called in sick when I realized it was 4am and I had to get up in 4 hours when I stopped playing.  Between this game and Borderlands (another excellent game), my weekend is gonna be shot.

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I hear the main quest ALONE is 90-odd hours of gameplay, and this isn't even counting the side-quests.

[Ack-Ack]

I hear the main quest ALONE is 90-odd hours of gameplay, and this isn't even counting the side-quests.

Played about 5 hours last night of the origin begining for the city elf and haven't finished that part yet.  Heard the origin story line is around 8 hours or so before I get into the main story line.

As I mentioned, Borderlands is also another great game.  Too bad it released just a week and a half before Dragon's Age, it's almost as good and with the cell shaded artwork it's one great looking game.  It's also funny as Hell and the loot is way over the top, reminds me of the crazy random loot drops from the Diablo series. 

In a couple of weeks, Modern Warfare 2 comes out.  Funny thing with that game is a lot of major games that were slated to be released in Q4 have been delayed until Q1 of 2010 because studios like EA and Ubisoft didn't want to go against the jaggernaugt that the Call of Duty series has become.

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[Saxman]

In the midst of the origin story now. The PC version is absolutely gorgeous and the character animations are outstanding, (from the reviews I've seen the PC version is the most graphically polished, followed by the PS3 and 360 in that order) and I love the soundtrack (I really hope they release one. I loved the one for NWN2, too, but I don't think they ever released that one, either). The one complaint I have is not being able to rotate the camera by mousing to the edge of the screen, which just feels more natural than using the keyboard. Looked for an option to do that but I couldn't find one.

I DO also miss the formation options from Baldur's Gate, rather than your characters moving as a random mob. It'd be great to have them moving with a wall of shields up front and an archer or mage that stands in the back. I'm going to have to either turn off or tweak the auto-action stuff, too. Getting tired of setting a defensive position on good high ground, only for my characters to charge into the fight as soon as I switch between them.

I can't wait for the contect creator to come out.

[Soulyss]

The Steam version unlocked last night and I spent a good portion of the evening playing.  Already suffering from the issue that cripples me in all of these games, I'm never happy with the decisions I make regarding character direction and keep changing it up. 

So far I'm quite happy/impressed with the game though.

[Saxman]

The "No alignment but your actions DO affect the outcome" idea is very interesting. Granted, I'm already falling into my usual role (do the right thing above all else and hang the law) but I can see where this is going to offer a LOT more playability than your usual Lawful/Chaotic/Neutral and Good/Evil pigeon holes.

[Gaidin]

I don't know, havent researched, but is this a single player game or an online, WOW type game?

[Ack-Ack]

Dragon Age is a single player offline only game.  Think of it as Baldur's Gate in the 3rd person view, that's probably the closest description of the game.  It's excellent and I highly recommend it.  Bio-Ware has promised to support the game with downloadable content, though they haven't specified what exactly it will be.  There is also a very robust editor that comes with the game that will allow the community to make new quests, with everything from voice synced characters and cinematic cut scenes.  On top of the 70+ total hours of game play, with the community stuff this game is going to have a lot of content.


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[Gaidin]

TY, I will have to check it out.

[Fishu]

Just beware, EA is the true source of the blight. This rant will sum it up quite well: Penny Arcade: A Truly Fascinating Phenomenon, along with a comic related to it.

First of all there's like a dozen or more small single item/ability/whatever DLCs around, which seem to depend on where, how and what you buy. Okey, that's not too bad, I mean who cares about a few silly items that you cannot get by any other means than by being in the right place and buying the right version.

Then there are two totally different collector's editions around: hard and digital copy. The hard copy costs whole lot of bucks, containing an aluminium box, cloth map and something like that, BUT you don't get Warden's Keep nor Stone Prisoner addons. HOWEVER if you buy the digital collector's edition, then you'll get both of the addons. They say that's because you don't get the other goodies - alumium and cloth are difficult to download. Regardless you'll have to pay alot more for the hard copy and yet you don't get the addons.

Let's forget about the collector's edition. Who needs one, right? You'll finally get the game, install it and start playing. After a while of playing you'll go to a camp and there you'll find a character who's offering you a quest. It turns out that you need to get premium content for the quest that's included in the vanilla version. The premium content costs $7 for the Warden's Keep and $15 for the Stone Keep - if you didn't get those with the digital deluxe edition.

Let's just say I'm glad I didn't find the collector's edition available at any store in the EU. I might've preordered it and found out that I'm left out of important two addons. After all I've been under an impression that a collector's edition contains all of the stuff available on the date of release, thereby avoiding all the hassle with additional material that does not ship with the vanilla version. I guess I cannot anymore rely on that notion when purchasing games.

I'm glad I didn't preorder. Simply having the EA publish the game made me very cautious and like I was afraid, my fears were proven correct. I suppose it's needless to say that I'm not going to support this kind of marketing model.

Such a pity, before the release I was anxious enough to mod a wallpaper.

[Fulmar]

As an avid PC gamer, within the last year it's hard to find a few shining gems in 'new' released games as Fishu posted above.  I'm a fan of FPS games and its quickly becoming hard to find the non-console port for PC.  MW2, OFP2, Borderlands...etc etc.

[Ack-Ack]

As an avid PC gamer, within the last year it's hard to find a few shining gems in 'new' released games as Fishu posted above.  I'm a fan of FPS games and its quickly becoming hard to find the non-console port for PC.  MW2, OFP2, Borderlands...etc etc.

Actually, the console versions of Borderlands and Dragon Age are actually PC ports, not the othe way around.  Both games were designed and developed as PC games first, that's why Dragon Age's release was originally delayed so they could finish the console versions after the PC version had already been completed.  If they didn't delay the release so all three versions could be released at the same time, the PC version would have been released last Spring.


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