Dragon Age, you disappoint me.
 

I have no idea what game everyone else has been playing, but the one I'm seeing is shit.

The graphics are shit, the voice acting is shit, the AI is shit, the enemy spawning is shit, the music is shit, the story is shit, the animations are explosive, bloody diarrhea, the combat is, well, not shit, but certainly not anything great, and the only thing it seems to do right is make some decent environments, only, oh, wait, not even, because there are invisible walls around so much water as a measly puddle and you can't jump to take advantage of what would otherwise be good level design.

And this is what we're getting from the people who made Mass Effect? Mass Effect, from what little I've seen, is at least a helluva lot prettier and nicer-sounding, although I can't speak for the gameplay. It's like they crossed Mass Effect with Oblivion and forgot to include anything that had made either of them good.

What do people see in this thing?

The voice acting?

Seriously?

Dude maybe I'm just not remembering the game or I played too much Fallout 3 but Dragon Age's voice acting was pretty top notch all around.

Edit: Also I don't remember any enemy spawning except for maybe an odd quest here and there. They were always like, right there, in the same spot, all the time. So I'm not sure what you mean. I don't know what's wrong with the AI either unless you mean your companions then yeah you've got to micro-manage their tactics pretty heavily but you only need to do that like once in the game and then update them with their new spells/abilities. I don't remember any of the music but the Bard's song in that one cutscene was nice. The story is a lot better than most games, but that's not a real high margin or anything so I guess it could still count as shit. I think the kill animations got repetitive? That's kind of the only thing I remember about the animations besides them being jerky with transitions and my dragon-killing ones always looking terrible.

I don't remember any invisible walls and I don't really see why they'd have any they're not really afraid of just literally boxing you in with a bunch of rocks/trees. Also I can't think of the last straight up isometric RPG that let you jump.

Edit 3: Diablo II let the Barbarian leap, I think that might be it?

Edit 4: No that was an ARPG nevermind.

Mass Effect is pretty awesome but it's a completely different genre, they're not even similar unless you count gaining levels.

What do I see in Dragon Age I don't know it's a game and I played it and it seemed pretty neat. I like a lot of the dialog and most of the characters and the story's pretty good for a videogame. And I like that you can actually pick your ending instead of having your character be a loser and go off and do loser things that you would never do.

Edit 2: Nothing about Oblivion was good.

The rant is great and all but there's no details to say why you don't like it blues. We know you can elaborate. What happened?

Let's face it. The only thing that made Oblivion great was jumping on water.

...you're calling the Voice Acting and Music shit? The Voice Acting and Music were incredible! And I don't get why everyone's complaining about the graphics. Sure they're not the end-all be-all of graphics, but they had a lot to do and the graphics really never bothered me.

Not to mention, this "invisible wall" problem you ranted on about really wasn't a problem, unless you're basing your entire review on the Ostagar tutorial area where they cordoned you off because really you just had two objectives you had to get done. Otherwise it's not a problem.

Plus the story is fricking incredible. There are levels upon levels of cameos, stories, and changes based on the decisions you make. It's definitely a 9/10, if not a 10/10.

Unless you're basing all of this on Halo, then it's really not your genre.

The only things I disliked about Dragon Age is the in game advertisements for the DLC (HEY! We got a quest for you! *Enters the dungeon* $9.99 to continue please.), and the fact that Morrigan disapproves of everything.

Jade Empire had one guy just like that. His schtick was to fight everything. I was glad he was on my side.

Alright, let me clarify this.

Graphics - poor specular highlights, poly count is curiously low. It looks like an original XBox game. Also, really not digging how everyone gets covered in blood from so much as killing a fly. We'll be turning that off, I think.

Voice - it's not that they don't have a decent cast. I mean, they have Captain Janeway in there. It's just full of really fake-sounding accents and awkward delivery.

Enemy spawning - come on, really? They just pop out of the ground? That's some pretty heavy bull, because going through, you'll be standing on top of them before they come up and attack you. It was a cheap idea with the Zerg and it's a cheap idea here.

Music - okay, I'll break down and call it a mixed bag, but there are a lot of places that go for 5-second ambient noise loops, which I suppose is a matter of taste.

Story - I'm sorry, but I'm not one for a body count, and half the deaths are so pointless, it's disgusting. The story, or at least for the male human fighter, is basically one aggravating bitchslap after another as people get killed off for retarded reasons and you get betrayed. Granted, I'm not very far along, but it's not exactly winning any points. And I understand from my cousin that you're treated to being raped first thing in the game if you go for a female elf archer, which is oh-so-peachy on its own.

Animations - It's bad enough that the poly count is low, but everything is so jerky and unnatural that with the blood spattering everyone, the entire world, monsters and party alike, looks like it's populated by zombies with Tourette's. There is simply nothing smooth or natural about it. This is the kind of crap I was disappointed with on a last-generation console.

Combat - killing stuff is at least functional, but so far, it amounts to whacking things a few times to make them die, which, while realistic, makes it feel cheap somehow. You often get swarmed by enemies only to finish them off before your party even bothers to catch up.

And I'm sorry, but yes, there are invisible walls around bodies of water. There was also a nice fallen tree connecting one hill where I was to another hill with booty, but it was absolutely pointless because there was no way to jump on it and use it as a bridge, so I had to go all the way back down and around, and around the other hill, through a five-second battle, and then up the walkable slope on the side opposite the path. If you're going to put a tree bridge there, it's quite simply disappointing to be unable to use it, and it's not so much to ask to have a jump button. Oblivion had one, so it's not like everyone in fantasy wears lead boots.



Edit: And no, I'm not comparing this in any way to Halo, which I haven't played. I AM comparing this to Oblivion and Fallout 3, since those are my main entry points into this genre, unless you want to count Perfect World, in which case, that's still no support for not having a jump button.

Once you get past Ostogar, it gets SOOOO much better. Trust me. And yeah, I have played all the origins now. Human has it rough, but the common dwarf and elf get the shaft the most. I have to say the Dalish really get the best deal.

I'm sorry, it appears we did play completely different games. The graphics weren't amazing, but they were still good. The voice acting was decent. I never once had an enemy spawn, they're always there, moving about. Music was fine, I guess, I never really pay attention to that part. The story was gritty and mostly a meh, but not out and out horrible. I liked alot of the animations... Combat was very difficult at times, I had a hard time getting through a lot of the fights. The invisible walls only annoyed me in the elf forest, I never noticed them at any other time.

If I had to complain, I'd say that the beginning mage story didn't really have the option I wanted. There was either help "the man" or help your bud, but no option to refuse to go along with either.