Dragon Age Origins

[SteveThaiBinh]

Here was the old thread.

 

It's been a while since I checked the game's website, and boy, doesn't it just look all spruced-up.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I doubt it will be theit biggest game ever...

[Starwars]

It will however be the bloodiest and have the most sex in it.

[Syraxis]

Did either of the two Bioware doctors say it will be "epic" yet?

[Starwars]

If they didn't, I'll buy 100 copies of the games and eat them all.

[Hurlshort]

I finished the book. It was pretty good.

 

 

Although the end was terrible, or rather just bad writing. The main character was developed as this nice guy all story long, and then boom, he becomes a total cutthroat ruler. It was just very jarring. Still, the writing was good enough the rest of the way, it seemed like Gaider was on a time crunch to wrap it up.

 

[Purkake]

If they didn't, I'll buy 100 copies of the games and eat them all.

 

If you get the special edition, you can eat all the sausages...

[alanschu]

I finished the book. It was pretty good.

 

 

Although the end was terrible, or rather just bad writing. The main character was developed as this nice guy all story long, and then boom, he becomes a total cutthroat ruler. It was just very jarring. Still, the writing was good enough the rest of the way, it seemed like Gaider was on a time crunch to wrap it up.

 

 

 

It's about Maric and Loghain beating out the Orlesians is it not? Is it Maric that becomes the cutthroat ruler?

 

[Purkake]

So is it better than Warcraft 3's Arthas storyline?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Can't be too hard.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I finished the book. It was pretty good.

 

 

Although the end was terrible, or rather just bad writing. The main character was developed as this nice guy all story long, and then boom, he becomes a total cutthroat ruler. It was just very jarring. Still, the writing was good enough the rest of the way, it seemed like Gaider was on a time crunch to wrap it up.

That was the point, he did what his position as king required him to do, whether he liked it or not. And that was the climax, so it was supposed to be jarring. And no, I don't think he was

a total cutthroat

 

[Hurlshort]

I finished the book. It was pretty good.

 

 

Although the end was terrible, or rather just bad writing. The main character was developed as this nice guy all story long, and then boom, he becomes a total cutthroat ruler. It was just very jarring. Still, the writing was good enough the rest of the way, it seemed like Gaider was on a time crunch to wrap it up.

That was the point, he did what his position as king required him to do, whether he liked it or not. And that was the climax, so it was supposed to be jarring. And no, I don't think he was

a total cutthroat

 

 

 

I don't have the problem with the point or even the action necessarily, I have an issue with Maric being portrayed all story long as this overly nice guy, and then he runs his girlfriend through with a sword. Maybe if he thought she was about to betray him, then it would make sense to act so hastily, but the damage was already done and Maric was never made out to be impulsive.

 

 

But to be honest, I thought the rest of the book was extremely well written, and it really has me looking forward to the game.

[GreasyDogMeat]

I can't believe you losers read game novels.

 

Now, I'm going to get back to Halo: Fall of Reach.

[Maria Caliban]

The developers have said several times that it's not as big as BG 2.

 

Edit: From what we've heard, the toolset is incredable. Almost everything (character creation, spells, classes, races) is handled via scripts, they have a terrain editor like NWN 2, and they're betaing a mod-builder social site. There is other neat stuff, but I don't understand it well enough to explain.

Edited July 30, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Wrath of Dagon]

I don't have the problem with the point or even the action necessarily, I have an issue with Maric being portrayed all story long as this overly nice guy, and then he runs his girlfriend through with a sword. Maybe if he thought she was about to betray him, then it would make sense to act so hastily, but the damage was already done and Maric was never made out to be impulsive.

She caused most of his beloved army to be slaughtered, and he thought she was still betraying him. Also the scene was meant to be sudden and shocking (dark and gritty^TM), and he felt really bad afterwards. So perhaps that was the first time you were supposed to realize how much Maric had changed, I don't remember if the execution of the Fereldan traitors happened before or after.

[Starwars]

Edit: From what we've heard, the toolset is incredable. Almost everything (character creation, spells, classes, races) is handled via scripts, they have a terrain editor like NWN 2, and they're betaing a mod-builder social site. There is other neat stuff, but I don't understand it well enough to explain.

 

It does look great. But there's one thing that might just kill it off for me, and that is that there's no option for a non-cinematic style of conversation (like NWN2 had the old NWN1 style as an option). This means that I will either have to suffer through horrible community voiced mods (I can't recall for any game that I've played that actually has good voiceover, hell, I complain enough about AAA games voiceating), or the rather awkward "silent" cutscenes (which I think can work well at times, but definetely not for every cutscene). From what I understand, there also seems to be a limit of how much text you can put on one node (and it doesn't seem to be that much) until it "spills" out of the conversation UI.

 

It also looks as if the UI system will not be very moddable, so the chance of something like that being modded in seems slim at the moment.

 

It's too bad since some of the features look great. And the building of a social site where community members can help each other would've been exactly what NWN2 needed since it would've encouraged teamwork (building a solo mod in NWN2 is of course possible but very, very time consuming).

But yeah, I guess I'll hope for the feature to be patched in or something, otherwise the DA modding will not be for me.

[Purkake]

I don't know if this was already discussed in the last thread, but the ESRB rating summary revealed some funny stuff about a brothel:(really minor spoiler)

 

During the course of the game, players are able to visit a brothel where a hostess asks what they are interested in. If players select "Surprise me," they can sometimes wind up face-to-face with a woman, a man, a transsexual, or an animal; sexual activity is never depicted during these brothel encounters.

 

The rest of the summary contains some additional spoilers, but it's out of context and without any names.

[Guest PoziomyPion]

I don't know if this was already discussed in the last thread, but the ESRB rating summary revealed some funny stuff about a brothel:(really minor spoiler)

 

During the course of the game, players are able to visit a brothel where a hostess asks what they are interested in. If players select "Surprise me," they can sometimes wind up face-to-face with a woman, a man, a transsexual, or an animal; sexual activity is never depicted during these brothel encounters.

 

The rest of the summary contains some additional spoilers, but it's out of context and without any names.

 

The bolded part reminded me of one episode from the Sarah Silverman Program. I can see Bioware defending themselves just like she did in that episode, for doing what she did.

 

"I'm just a curious eccentric, like Albert Einstein!"

[HoonDing]

It reminded me of Porky's. Sadly enough.

[Monte Carlo]

It would be ironic if a potentially critical success was marred by an attempt to be 'mature' for the sake of it.

 

Not that the brothel feature mentioned above is in any way mature, in fact quite the opposite. No doubt over at EA / Bio towers some management android will already be picking the 'learning points' out of the marketing debacle.

 

I've never felt the need, personally, to play Grand Theft Auto: Ferelden.

[aries101]

I don't know if this was already discussed in the last thread, but the ESRB rating summary revealed some funny stuff about a brothel:(really minor spoiler)

 

During the course of the game, players are able to visit a brothel where a hostess asks what they are interested in. If players select "Surprise me," they can sometimes wind up face-to-face with a woman, a man, a transsexual, or an animal; sexual activity is never depicted during these brothel encounters.

 

The rest of the summary contains some additional spoilers, but it's out of context and without any names.

 

Ok, Let me pull a David Gaider on you.

 

If you don't like any of the content that is in the game, then don't buy the game.

 

It really is as easy as this. Period.

 

And that said, let me say this:

 

You don't have to go to the brothel, if you don't like the idea of going to the brothel. It is an option you can choose, if you so incline.

 

David Gaider have said, in a post on the Bioware forums, that we shouldn't believe all we read or hear - not even from the ESRB website about the game. It may well be for comical relief this would be happening.

 

Personally, I'm happy that Bioware has the guts to include a brothel in DA: Origins, this is a mature game, meant to be bought by mature people. And brothels have existed in nearly all human history; Ferelden is based loosely on medival Europe, hence I think the decision to include a brothel in it. People, most of them, anyway, on the Bioware DA: Forums agrees with the decision to put a brothel in the game.

 

And we really don't know the brothel will fit into the story in DA: origins before we have played the game. And even in the first Baldur's Gate, we had to go to a brothel (for a quest).

[Monte Carlo]

People, most of them, anyway, on the Bioware DA: Forums agrees with the decision to put a brothel in the game.

 

Sure, if Bioware told them that they had to wear clothes made from pineapples and sing Happy Birthday backwards some of the folks on the Bio forums would agree.

 

Adding a brothel is perfectly OK in a game - hey they might even be really mature and add some content about the inhumanity of much of the 'World's oldest Profession'. Alternatively, you could make an awkward, gauche gag about it. I'm hardly a killjoy (I thought the gnome gigolo from NWN1 OC was quite amusing). But the hype is telling us that this is a new type of fantasy, maybe even one where brothels aren't full of tarts-with-a-heart.

 

Interesting brothel moment in popular culture of late: Titus Pullo and Vorenius rescuing the girl from the mining camp brothel in Rome. The girls are slaves, the brothel is hellish and the two ex-legionnaires slaughter the pimps and punters alike, as you probably would in ancient Rome.

 

That would be interesting and dare I say it mature.

 

Edit:

 

Ok, Let me pull a David Gaider on you.

 

If you don't like any of the content that is in the game, then don't buy the game.

 

When you are reduced to saying that to people who have supported and respected your games design work for years, your natural customers and fan base, then you've lost already.

 

It's as simple as that.

Edited August 2, 2009 by Monte Carlo

[Aristes]

Wow, seems like an excessive response to me, aries. I didn't get the impression that Purkake was complaining, simply edifying.

 

I don't hate the idea of the brothel out of hand, but don't assume that a brothel in a game makes it more mature. Gratuitous sex is not mature. In fact, fixating on sexual encounters is less mature. Yes, I enjoyed the Witcher, but the sexual situations were out and out puerile. It's not a big issue for me one way or the other. I'll prefer juvenile approaches to sex and violence to whatever 'romance' they include in the game, so I don't really care. Just don't cite the brothel as adult content. Adult maybe, but not adult.

[alanschu]

I didn't really take part in the brothel but I heard there's some very hilarious things that can happen there, under the right circumstances. My guess is it's more for comic relief, but like I said, I didn't do anything there.

[Aristes]

That sounds fine by me. I mean, I'm a goofy RPGamer. I think a little over the top humor is fine. That's probably why I enjoyed Fallout 2 so much. I like silly schticks and slapstick from time to time. I never had a problem with the brothel, only with folks thinking it equates to mature content. Hell, we don't want too much mature content. Otherwise the game would be about some poor bastard who loses his farm and ends up being a street thug in some city, shaking down egg merchants for enough scratch to buy some mouldy bread and a small slice of ham or something.