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Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins

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From: Electronic Arts

List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $38.48
as of 11/24/2009 07:47 CST details
You Save: $11.51 (23%)



New (23) Used (3) from $34.04

Seller: vankhuong
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 75 reviews
Sales Rank: 46

Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5

MPN: 197183
Model: DragonOrigin-pc
UPC: 014633190946
EAN: 0014633190946
ASIN: B001IK1BWC

Release Date: November 3, 2009  (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:
  • Scalable combat options that let you decide the level of control you have over your party, including NPCs. Issue orders, set your own tactical AI, or take control of any party member to lead the charge.
  • 6 possible playable preludes known as `Origin Stories¿ which along with your play, define how your hero character will see the world, how it sees you and sets the tone for the entire story.
  • Travel across the vast and varied lands of Ferelden; from the conspiratorial halls of the last great dwarven city, Orzammar, to the untamed snarls of the Korcari Wilds.
  • Dragon Age: Origins will give you deep character customization options including: class, race, appearance, abilities, and equipment.
  • At the heart of the storm sweeping across Ferelden. Decide the fate of nations, people and, ultimately, yourself. Just remember: for every choice, there is a consequence.

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Dragon Age: Origins PC...Dragon Age: Origins represents BioWare's return to its roots in the form of a dark heroic fantasy game that bines deep and immersive storytelling with classic role-playing. As the spiritual successor to BioWare's popular Baldur's Gate series Dragon Age: Origins lets players acquire party members and interact with them while featuring a stunning amount of high quality cinematic dialogue. The pause-and-play bat system lets players make tactical decisions from an overhead view. Players that prefer a more "in-your-face" style of play can also take control of each party member to fight and explore in an over-the-shoulder view. Origin Stories are a major feature of the Dragon Age: Origins experience. Players choose their origin and from that starting point they will play through a unique prelude that lays the foundation for their adventure. The player's choice of origin defines how they will perceive the world and how the world will perceive them. Certain situations storylines and conversation options will change dramatically depending on the player's choice of origin and personal motivation. In Dragon Age: Origins the choices players make will change the world and affect the people around them making every journey through Ferelden unique.

Amazon.com Product Description
From BioWare, the makers of Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur's Gate comes Dragon Age: Origins. An epic tale of violence, lust, and betrayal, Dragon Age: Origins is a single player role-playing game (RPG) set in a fantasy game environment, and featuring three playable character classes, accessible in the form of three races. In addition, the game features extreme character customization, a new game engine, party-based gameplay utilizing non-player characters and a built-in personal history system for each hero character rooted in a variety of possible origin stories.

'Dragon Age: Origins' game logo
Six possible hero Origin stories available in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
6 possible hero Origin Stories.
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Three character classes and three races available in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
3 classes and 3 races to play as.
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Gritty, brutal action in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
Gritty, brutal action.
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Frightening enemies and bosses in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
Frightening enemies and bosses.
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Party-based combat in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
Party-based combat using NPCs.
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Dwarf city in 'Dragon Age: Origins'
Stunning 3D environments.
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Story
In Dragon Age: Origins the survival of humanity rests in the hands of those chosen by fate. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians who have defended the lands on the continent of Thedas throughout the centuries. Betrayed by a trusted general in a critical battle, you must hunt down the traitor and bring him to justice. As you fight your way towards the final confrontation with an evil nemesis, you will face monstrous foes and engage in epic quests to unite the disparate peoples of a world at war. A romance with a seductive shapeshifter may hold the key to victory, or she may be a dangerous diversion from the heart of your mission. To be a leader, you must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice your friends and loved ones for the greater good.

Gameplay
Dragon Age: Origins is a 3D oriented RPG based in a dark, heroic, fantasy realm where moral choices have a lasting impression on the people you meet, the members of your own party and the world around you. The inclusion of subtitle "Origins" in the game's title refers to the six unique origin stories available to new heroes as a new game begins. Each of these has an impact on the player's motivations and his or her experience, and renders a unique prelude, path, and possible ending(s) to the game. There are many different endings to the game based on the origin story of the character and the choices you make as you play through the game. The game features three character classes--warrior, mage, and rogue--and three races of being--Human, Elf or Dwarf--that can assume these classes. Although most game elements, such as weapons, magic, etc., are available to any character, each class and race has different strengths, abilities and affinities which lend themselves to better utilizing different elements.

Dragon Age: Origins is a single player game based on party-based gameplay and combat where the player can join, control and quest with up to three non-player characters (NPCs). Players can also quest alone if they so choose, but with the chance of survival are slim. Convincing NPCs to join you, and treating them well may be necessary depending on the varying sentiments between the player and the NPC, or between the NPC's in the party based on the chosen history written into the origin story accepted at the beginning of the game. This uncertainty allows for a variety of possible dynamics within the party ranging from open hostility, all the way to romance. The game progresses in real-time via a pause-and-play tactical combat system that allows the player to check inventory levels, equip a character, etc. in a slight vacuum. Additional features found in the game include: a combination of a standard loot system and a currency system based on gold silver and copper; advanced character customization functionality; the use of poison, traps and herbalism; dual-wielding skills; and "spell combos," which allow players to chain together different spells to create a unique effects.

Key Game Features

  • BioWare’s deepest universe to date with over 80 hours of gameplay and more than double the size and scope of Mass Effect.
    • Travel throughout dozens of environments and fully immerse yourself in a shattered world that is on the brink of utter annihilation.
    • An epic story that is completely shaped and reactive to your play style.
  • Complex moral dilemmas offering no easy choices.
    • Tailor your Dragon Age: Origins experience from the very beginning by choose from six different origin stories.
    • Decide how to handle complex issues like murder, genocide, betrayal, and the possession/sacrificing of children without the security of a good/bad slider to tell you what to do.
  • Full character customization allowing the player to sculpt a hero in your own image or fantasy.
    • Elaborate character creator allows you to create your own hero unique from anyone else.
    • Shape your character’s personality and morality based on the choices you make throughout the game.
  • Engage in bone-crushing, visceral combat engaging in battle against massive and terrifying creatures.
    • Unleash legendary powers and choose from over 100 different magical spells and skills.
    • Experience the adrenaline rush of brutal combat, beheading your foes or casting spells that make enemies explode from within.

System Requirements:

Minimum Recommended
OS: Windows XP with SP3 / Vista with SP1
CPU: XP: Intel Core 2(or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater AMD X2(or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater / Vista: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM: XP: 1GB or more / 1.5GB or more 2 GB (XP) / 4 GB (Vista)
HDD: 20GB
Video: XP: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater / Vista: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater ATI 3850 512 MB or greater, NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater, AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 2.8 GHz or greater
Other: DVD-ROM drive for physical disc play; Mouse/keyboard/gamepad for gameplay



Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 75
1 2 3 4 5 6 ...15Next »



1 out of 5 stars Corrupted files -- couldn't install   November 23, 2009
Autodidact
Corrupted archive files on the CD that shipped, so game wouldn't install. Checking the web, this seems to be a common problem. Returning this game.


5 out of 5 stars If you like RPG this is the one.   November 23, 2009
Collin Klopfenstein (Sequim, WA USA)
On the PC this game is a great meaty RPG that will fill your winter hours with tons of fun. The game play in combat is much like a turned based stratagy game. It remains challanging throughout the 50 to 70 hours of gameplay.

One note, avoid the DLC that is offered as of 11/23/09 as they are currently not worth the money. (Too short) I also didn't like having NPCs in game for quests that I had not purcased yet. Basically an in game advertisement for their overpriced DLC.



5 out of 5 stars For Mac Bootcamp users:   November 23, 2009
Desert Dweller (Tucson, AZ)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Hello everyone. This is for those of you Mac Bootcamp users who are wondering if this will run on a Mac. Well, I'll share my experience so far, in case anyone is on the fence about buying this:

I've got a 2-year old iMac with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB of RAM, and I'm running Windows XP with SP3 on Bootcamp, and this game runs flawlessly. I've got it set to a high screen resolution, and "medium" detail for graphics, and it runs very nicely.

In about 15-20 hours of playing, I've had one QTD error ("quit to desktop"), and that's it. I've seen none of the slow load times or any other glitches. The graphics are beautiful on my settings. Better than NWN2 on highest, and and as good as or better than The Witcher too (which was stunningly beautiful IMO).

From a gameplay standpoint, there's plenty of reviews, but I think Dragon Age is great. I'm one of those that has done Baldur's Gate I & II many times, including their expansions, NWN 1 with all it's expansions, and NWN 2 (without expansions - I have the Mac versions, so the expansions aren't available).

I'm not sure Dragon Age is the "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, but I don't know that it needs to be. It's definitely at least as good or better than NWN I or II (in my limited play of Dragon Age so far). I also was skeptical it would top The Witcher , which I've recently played several times through, and which also runs flawlessly on my Mac Bootcamp setup as above. So far, I'm forced to admit Dragon Age at least equals, if not succeeds, my beloved "The Witcher".

So for anybody with a fairly recent desktop iMac running bootcamp and Windows XP, feel comfortable giving this game a go!



4 out of 5 stars A good game, but hold out for another price drop and the first few patches to be released...   November 22, 2009
Ana Mardoll (United States)
Dragon Age: Origins / B001IK1BWC

I've been played RPGs pretty much all my life; I cut my teeth on the first Final Fantasy games and the last 20+ years have been one long love affair with RPGs as a genre. I still am a big fan of one of Bioware's previous RPGs, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, which I hold as a model example of how to build a intuitive, easy to pick-up-and-play console RPG, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy of Dragon Age on launch day. Only a few weeks later, the price has already dropped by 1/5 and while I am enjoying the game, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see the reason for the price drop.

First of all, before I get flamed too heavily, I just want to say that Dragon Age is a good, solid game. I'm glad I bought it, I'm glad to be playing it, and I'll go back to playing it again after this review. I'm not writing this review to 'bash' the game - just to let people know what to expect from it, and to help them decide whether to buy it now or wait until it's a little cheaper, or a few more patches have been released.

As far as what to expect, Bioware certainly made little secret that this is a very dark, violent, and rather sexually explicit game. A lot of effort has gone into creating a Crapsack World where pretty much every person and institution you encounter is corrupt or diseased to the core. And while I enjoy a cup of moral ambiguity in the morning just like everyone else, it's possible that Bioware may have overdone this effect just slightly, with respect to your party members. Personal preference is going to govern this, of course, but KOTOR veterans should take note that one of your party members is basically Carth with a palette swap, and Bastila is back, but with most of her clothes missing. Thankfully, Bioware included more romantic interests this time, but as a general rule, there's going to be at least someone in your party that you look forward to seeing die in combat.

Unfortunately, this will get old quickly, because currently the party companion AI is a load of crap - something that really shocks me after loving KOTOR for so long. This game takes so many steps backward in comparison to that classic that I'm just blown away that this is the same game company. The game advertises itself as a "tactical" game, meaning that you're supposed to pause at the start of every battle and issue orders to each party member - and, as a KOTOR veteran, I'm ok with that. However, Bioware has completely gutted the engine, failing to allow players to cue up attacks. In KOTOR, you could take control of each party member, cue up several commands, zip over to the next one, cue up several commands on them, rinse, lather, repeat. On Dragon Age, you can only issue one command at a time - so, basically, at the start of the battle, your only option, really, is to pause and tell everyone to whack Monster A.

The problem is, that after everyone gets their single whack on Monster A, they all start doing their own thing and if you DON'T want them to do their own thing, you have to pause and re-issue orders. Now, this wouldn't be SUCH a big deal with decent AI. But the Dragon Age AI is so bad that after Bob the Warrior hits Monster A, Bob will then dart across the room to start flailing at Monster B. Jim the Archer, on the other hand, will send off a single shot to Monster A, per orders, and then focus on Monster C - who will, inevitably, be behind a sight obstacle, meaning that none of Jim's arrows will *ever* hit, and Jim will never reposition himself so that he can hit his target. Carl the Rogue, on the other hand, will launch himself into a kamikaze attack against monsters D, E, and F, dying instantly. You, the player, will then die because your meat shields have all hit the dust - seriously, on "Normal" difficulty, you will have to bind the Quick Load key to a mouse button just to get anywhere.

Bioware seems to have understood that their AI is terrible (how could they not?) but they have "rectified" it with a truly terrible "Tactics" system that is so gimmicky that it feels like a nice punch to the face. Each character has three "slots" that you can program in a situation-and-response, in order to craft the AI to not be so darned dumb. Want to tell your characters to heal themselves when their hit points are low? That takes a slot. Want to tell them to focus their attacks on the monster your main character has targeted? That's your second slot. Want to tell them to *move* out of an area of effect spell? That's your third slot. Oh, you wanted to tell them to cast support spells as needed? You'll need half a dozen slots for that alone, so no dice. Oh, you want more slots? Well, you have to buy them at each level with the skill points you're allotted - skill points that *should* be going to Strength and Wisdom and the like. You *are* allowed to save Tactical setups... but you get three save slots, you can't name them anything unique, and they won't port over to other characters easily. Some people will love this, but to me it just reeks of Fake Difficulty and it's irritating. And I really enjoy watching my support characters stand there like lemons because my mage broke off combat to heal someone, meaning that she's no longer targetting anyone, so therefore neither will the support characters.

Funny enough, Bioware has already released its first patch, which seems to acknowledge the issue - they haven't been able to make the AI smarter, but they did buff up their hit points so that their idiocy won't get them killed so quickly. But it throws you out of the immersion to see characters standing dumbly in the middle of a fire spell, without even trying to move out of the burning circle, and it feels like such a step backwards after KOTOR - I thought we'd mastered this technology by now? And it's annoying that I basically can't play my mage because of the she's-not-attacking-so-the-fight-must-be-over mentality of my moronic support staff - I instead have to possess one of my useless grunts and set my mage to constant healing with the tactics nonsense. So much for wanting to cast attack magic.

As for the "origins" gimmick that was so loudly hyped, it's basically the same stuff you've seen before - the origin you pick gives you a unique tutorial starter area, but after the 2 hour mark, you converge into the main plot and everyone seems to have pretty much the same story from then on. There's nothing bad about that, but it's not quite the messianic revolution that the hype was making it out to be, so just be aware what you're plunking down money for. It's not bad, but it probably won't compel you to complete the game 6-8 times for the 'variety' that isn't really there.

All in all, I really *do* like this game for the story - I gave it four-stars, after all. Post-patch, and set on "Easy" (something I NEVER do, but I'm in this for fun and the awesome story, not for the 'challenge' of reloading every five minutes because my warrior got his face stuck in a wall), I'm happy enough, but then I was one of those freaks who didn't find Carth insufferable. I *do* recommend Dragon Age, and I figure that eventually enough patches will be released - either by Bioware, or more likely the players - to make the AI more sensible. I hear there's already a player-made patch to grant full "Tactics" slots to everyone so that you can at least program a decent AI for each character. So I'm happy I bought the game, but I'm sad that so much of what I loved about KOTOR was stripped out here, apparently to make room for more blood-splatter physics. Also, and I'm beating a dead horse here, but why doesn't the game have the capability to download and apply Bioware's patches itself? As it stands, I have to go out and look for them online and download them on my own. And, seriously? I didn't have to do that with KOTOR - I'm just saying.

~ Ana Mardoll



5 out of 5 stars Need a reason to lock yourself in your room for a few days...or weeks?   November 22, 2009
DarkGameReviewer
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

After playing The Witcher three time through, I was really looking forward to this game. I needed a good, long, challenging RPG to last me for some time (so I don't have to buy MW2).

My expectations have been high and, well, I have to say, Dragon Age: Origins is better than almost every other CRPG out there, with maybe a select few exceptions (Oblivion jumps to mind).

First, I want to get something out of the way, this game is certainly not for everyone, its only for a specific audience. If you have never played an RPG before, can't pay attention to an excellently written dialog for more than a few seconds, and can't go three minutes without shooting someone on your Xbox360 or PS3 or whatever you have...this game will bore you to death...trust me. Otherwise, GET THIS GAME!

Personally, I find this game alot better than Neverwinter Nights, just because, the combat system is better. No more of that "Turn-based Realtime Tactical Combat," now its purely real-time, and of course, you can pause the game and issue comands whenever you feel like it. To be honest, though, in comparison to Neverwinter Nights, there were definately far fewer magical spells...that's not really saying much, though, because NWN had a mind-boggling amount of spells. In fact, at times, the combat may become a little WOW-style grinding, although this rarely happens.

The reason why you'll keep on playing is not becuase of the combat, though, it is because of the excellent plot and characters! They are simply fantastic (especially Alistair). Never in a game will you find more beleveable and relatable characters...EVER, until Mass Effect 2...You can build up relations with characters that will change the way they react to you, and frankly, you'll find yourself talking to the characters voluntarily even if you didn't originially intend to...IT'S THAT GOOD! The most surprising thing about the story is how different each play through can be depending on the choices you make, including your Origin Story (look these up on google).

Graphics, cool, ambient occusion...nice...not excellent, just good...the PC version is the best, but if you have no other option get the PS3 version over the Xbox360.

The game is long...about 60 hours for a single no-thrills playthrough, if you ingnore all side-quests and don't build up any relations...don't have any sex...etc.

All in all, Dragon Age is worth $40, in fact it could be worth $100 considering how much play time you can get out of it.

Gameplay - 9 / 10
Story - 10 / 10
Graphics - 8 / 10
Value - 10 / 10

Overall - 9.5 / 10


Showing reviews 1-5 of 75
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