Dragon Age: Origins

[Longshot]

I am completely in love with this game. Playing as a human mage, and have so far gotten support from the Circle, and are on the quest for the Urn. Oh, why didn't I get this sooner?

[ExtraSensory]

Morrigan approves of everything I do. Should I be re-thinking my humanity?

[Dave-O_Boy]

So I did the Circle quest and I could have sworn that I was siding with the Mages (as my character is one), but I got the achievement for siding with those dastardly Templars. I wonder what I did wrong.

[Arius]

That happened to me during the Dalish Elves quest. I was confused.

[RobertMc123]

Yeah same here, it said I sided with the Elves when I really sided with the werewolves, very odd. Okay without spoilers, how long do I have to go now, I have called the Landsmeet and have been tasked with talking to the nobles, so a rough estimate of how much of the main game is left?

[Spatial Coffee]

You're at the end game, so few hours.

[iamevilchris]

the responses to the following questions are pure spoilerage.

So I did the Circle quest and I could have sworn that I was siding with the Mages (as my character is one), but I got the achievement for siding with those dastardly Templars. I wonder what I did wrong.

did you use the Litany of Adralla when the crazy circle thingys appeared around the mages during the boss fight (it will happen many times)? if Irving and the circle mages die, it will treat it as if you sided with the templars. (you get the Litany off the dude's body when you get out of that Fade)

That happened to me during the Dalish Elves quest. I was confused.

Yeah same here, it said I sided with the Elves when I really sided with the werewolves, very odd.

to side with the werewolves, you have to attack the elves. even curing the curse is considered siding with the elves because they are still alive at the end of the quest.

[Dave-O_Boy]

the responses to the following questions are pure spoilerage.

So I did the Circle quest and I could have sworn that I was siding with the Mages (as my character is one), but I got the achievement for siding with those dastardly Templars. I wonder what I did wrong.

did you use the Litany of Adralla when the crazy circle thingys appeared around the mages during the boss fight (it will happen many times)? if Irving and the circle mages die, it will treat it as if you sided with the templars. (you get the Litany off the dude's body when you get out of that Fade)

Ah... I did do that. Blast.
-And here I thought just by killing that blood mage I would have been spiffy. The battle was pretty choatic and didn't realize that by using the Litany I would harm the Circle mages.-

[Arius]

I thought the litany saved the mages. I used it a lot and still got sided with the mages. Maybe one survived. Ah well.

[iamevilchris]

I thought the litany saved the mages. I used it a lot and still got sided with the mages. Maybe one survived. Ah well.

it does, that's what i meant. but maybe Irving didn't survive for Dave, thereby making it look like he sided with the Templars.

edit for Dave: the Litany has to be used more than once during the boss fight. he will try to turn Irving and the Circle Mages many times until he dies.

[Lavos]

I played at a friends house a warrior for like 15 minutes, and i lulzed getting out of the bed putting on a sword and fighting with underwear on. 9/10

[Dave-O_Boy]

So here's another question:
-I'm doing the Redcliffe(sp) quest, and am at the point where I can choose to either kill the boy, use blood mage to get into the Fade, or go back to the circle to get into the Fade. My question is with the way that I messed up that Circle quest is going back there still a viable option or do I have to make a tough choice?-

[Hannah]

LOVE this game. My brother got it for PC mid-December, and I got hooked.

First run-through, I was a human noble/warrior/totally in love with Alistair. After all, who doesn't love the character who delivers unpleasent news and witty one liners?

I'm currently on my second go 'round as a city elf/rogue. I'm incredibley amused by the different responses you can give as an elf... They're so rude to humans, it's great.

[Darkobra]

So here's another question:
-I'm doing the Redcliffe(sp) quest, and am at the point where I can choose to either kill the boy, use blood mage to get into the Fade, or go back to the circle to get into the Fade. My question is with the way that I messed up that Circle quest is going back there still a viable option or do I have to make a tough choice?-

Well you can still use Jowan and use the mother as a sacrifice for the boy if you want to save him. Her blood will act as the lyrium that you can't get from the mages. Otherwise you can kill the demon which, in turn, kills the boy. Although I'm unsure if these are your only options as you might still be able to get the lyrium. and that's how you kill a gorilla with your bare hands.

[Archemetis]

I got the game for the 360 quite recently and I got to admit the game was some-what overestimated. I'm not disputing that regardless of that it's still a fantastic game, no no.
I love it.

The graphics, although lacking anything to compare (as I've not seen the PC version in full glory) still tend to have the occasional fail moment for me.
Just when sometimes when the hair seems to have a forcefield around it or when you're close enough to the character's their armour seems to turn blurry and lack any sort of detailed graphic or modelling.

But as is expected from a bioware games (with the exception of Mass Effect that had both)
The Graphics are normally nothing compared to the story.

Which is true, I have no faults with the story or writing, I only have fault with the occasional bit of bad dialogue delivery or the fact that as soon as your character leaves the tragedy of what happened in the opening behind they seem to completely forget about it.

Example: playing a Dalish Elf I refused to go with the Grey Wardens and was instead conscripted, After I arrive at Ostagar my character seems to forget that she didn't want to be there and just accepts everything.

Beyond that It's a very glitchy game in parts, worst of all in the Mage tower fade sequence.
I won't say anything more about it for those who're behind but I don't think I've ever been so infuriated by a section of game before.
I just hope it isn't only me that gets this problem, hate to think my copy is broken.

But overall, the experience I've had with this game is fantastic definitely I breath of fresh air after playing nothing but Fable 2 for months...

Oh!

So here's another question:
-I'm doing the Redcliffe(sp) quest, and am at the point where I can choose to either kill the boy, use blood mage to get into the Fade, or go back to the circle to get into the Fade. My question is with the way that I messed up that Circle quest is going back there still a viable option or do I have to make a tough choice?-

It doesn't matter either way you go about it, the only thing it effects is how Allistair will react after it's done.
-On my first run through I went to the busted up Mage tower, did the entire quest there, asked for their help, came back to Redcliffe Castle and the situation hadn't moved an inch, so it's completely possible, later on I decided to get the tower done first.-

[Spatial Coffee]

Which is true, I have no faults with the story or writing, I only have fault with the occasional bit of bad dialogue delivery or the fact that as soon as your character leaves the tragedy of what happened in the opening behind they seem to completely forget about it.

Example: playing a Dalish Elf I refused to go with the Grey Wardens and was instead conscripted, After I arrive at Ostagar my character seems to forget that she didn't want to be there and just accepts everything.

In Ostagar, there are some dialog options which reflect your character's willingness to become a Grey Warden. I don't remember them word to word, but you can certainly express that your character isn't voluntarily there.

The rest of the game is pretty simple about this: You can't cease to be a Grey Warden, you just have to accept it.
Still, if my memory serves, there are some occasional situations where your character can state that this life wasn't what he or she wanted.

[iamevilchris]

So here's another question:
-I'm doing the Redcliffe(sp) quest, and am at the point where I can choose to either kill the boy, use blood mage to get into the Fade, or go back to the circle to get into the Fade. My question is with the way that I messed up that Circle quest is going back there still a viable option or do I have to make a tough choice?-

Well you can still use Jowan and use the mother as a sacrifice for the boy if you want to save him. Her blood will act as the lyrium that you can't get from the mages. Otherwise you can kill the demon which, in turn, kills the boy. Although I'm unsure if these are your only options as you might still be able to get the lyrium. and that's how you kill a gorilla with your bare hands.

if i remember correctly you still need a bunch of mages to send someone into the fade. so if the mages are dead, it's either blood magic or killing the boy (which i did on my second character. i did it to save time from the whole Fade thing, but it ended up taking just as long with all the "PLEEEEEASE DON'T KILL MY BOY!" dialogue from Isolde) you will also need duct tape and some pipe cleaner for that gorilla.

[Dave-O_Boy]

-I ended up killing the boy. Al didn't like that too much.-

[Mancomb Seepgood]

I'm currently on my 3rd playthrough of this & although I got it on the 360 which has crappy combat it's still a lot of fun. Am a two handed warrior this time round and have found that this is the most fun class by far.

It's not perfect by any means, and wouldn't have chosen it as game of the year as most critics seem to have done, but I haven't enjoyed a game this much since Mass Effect.

[Philip]

It's kind of awesome to read all these positive opinions on a personal Game of the Year choice of mine. I still haven't finished the game and much like Yahtzee and Co. I found myseld wondering when all of this will end, but I heard there will be an epic epilogue after the final boss fight.

When I was listening to one of the more recent LRR podcasts and Jeremy was mentioning that he bangs Leliana on a regularily basis I felt really good, because Leliana was also my choice and I do not regret it. However soon after getting her achievement I found her hair to be lacking. So I googled a bit.

And I found out, that the amazing hairstyle from the "Sacred Ashes"-Trailer for Dragon Age is acutally available and I applied that hairstyle to Leliana. If you search around "Dragon Age Nexus" you can find all sorts of Mods for this game and it really is interesting. You need to get used to it at first, but then it's just nice to see Leliana even more beautiful. I also found her accent very pleasant to listen to... but that's probably just me.

I am currently at ... around 30 hours in the game as an elven rouge. Probably more than that, but it's just keeping me interested. Trying to get the dwarfs on my side, while looking for their Paragon. They will be the last race I need, so I am pretty excited about what happens after that and if it's just basically hunting the bad guy. Even if it is, I wouldn't mind though, since the characters just do it for me.

That kind of sounds euphoric, in fact: it is. For a really long time I haven't played such a game and it met my expectations, which were quite high after hearing about it for the first time. My father also tried to play it on his new PS3 and was not very impressed and bored, so I guess the opinions tend to differ. Perhaps it is just that I habe the time to play it. Other than that I kind of couldn't play the console version, since I am not used to the controls and I would've certainly missed the overview-perspective.

I am also pretty excited about the upcoming expension pack Dragon Age: Awakening. Which sounds good already. I am convinced that the playtime for that add-on will not be just 15 hours, maybe if you rush through it, which I will not do.

[whyarecarrots]

Well, I've finally got this game working, and, after a slow start, I'm utterly hooked.

I'm playing as a male warrior, and have just completed the main quest to gain the support of the Dalish Elves, and have just defended Redcliffe.

I'm currently 'wooing' (for want of a better word) leliana, and doing almost everything in my power to piss off morrigan (it's so easy it's funny), including calling her a 'heartless shrew'

I am surprised by how difficult this game is in places though: it's something that I haven't found in many games recently. I've had to get used to just leaving fights unfought, knowing that I;m unable to win them: The mad hermit in the Brecilian forest wiped my entire party in a matter of seconds, and the revenants and skeletons summoned by the gravestones in the forest did exactly the same. Things do seem better now that I've set up tactics for my warriors (me and Alistair) to automatically use small health kits when under 75% health (and as I have about 300 of those things at the moment, this isn't a problem), so I may go back to the forest and try those fights again soon.

The one bad thing I have to say about this game however, is that I think Mass Effect is better. Ok, it may be less expansive, and be more repetetive at times, but the combat is (generally) more satisfying, the facial animation is almost infinitely better (the improved graphics of dragon age serve only to make the faces much more wooden), the setting is more original and compelling, and I much prefer hearing and seeing your character speaking the dialogue lines you choose. Still really enjoying Dragon Age though.

[Mancomb Seepgood]

I found it really hard the first time through as well, with Alistair dieing all the time. On my 3rd time round I found it much easier and have been playing on Hard with little problem.
I think it's because I had the other damage dealer to attack Alistair's target so they die quicker & have him use Shield Wall all the time. Also get the dragon plate armour from Wade ASAP!

The one proble I've found is that there is a lack of health potions. The shops don't seem to restock and there are currently 0 available in Ferelden! Which is a pain as I'm on the final part.

[whyarecarrots]

The one proble I've found is that there is a lack of health potions. The shops don't seem to restock and there are currently 0 available in Ferelden! Which is a pain as I'm on the final part.

The crafting materials to make lesser health poultices can be bought very cheaply from varathorn (for the elfroot) and the camp trader (for the flasks), and if you have the patience to keep clicking several hundred times you'll have more than enough health poultices.

[Hannah]

The one problem I've found is that there is a lack of health potions. The shops don't seem to restock and there are currently 0 available in Ferelden! Which is a pain as I'm on the final part.

Yeah, I had this problem too... really sucks by the end of the game. Luckily there were still some shops I hadn't bought from, so I got through ok...

I ended up spending ALL my money on health and lyrium poultices/potions at the end of the game though, since I could only find greater potions for the most part. Why are the lyrium potions so expensive?! Arg.

[whyarecarrots]

Ah, yes, lyrium potions, the only thing I find myself not having enough of :s I should really try and find out how to craft them.