GameSpot, Eurogamer and IGN UK have each posted a review of BioWare's latest RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. GameSpot used the same review for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. Each one received a different final score, with the reasons explained in the last few paragraphs of the review.
The differences between versions aren't limited to the interface. Dragon Age doesn't look amazing on the PC, but it's an attractive game nonetheless. Zooming from an isometric view to a third-person perspective is slick, and while environments don't hold up quite as well when viewed up close, they're consistently lovely when viewed from above. On the flip side, the Xbox 360 version looks positively disappointing. Textures are highly compressed and colors are washed out, though the upside is that this version maintains a smoother frame rate than on the PlayStation 3, where things might get jittery when swiveling the camera around. The PlayStation 3 version features higher-quality textures than those on the Xbox 360, better color saturation, smoother facial animations, and shorter load times. Minor visual hiccups, like corpses that disappear and reappear, are a bit more common on the PS3, however. The PC version is the superior experience, but if you're choosing between the two console releases, the PlayStation 3 has the upper hand. Some minor glitches are shared between the console versions, however, such as rare occasions when the soundtrack or voice-overs disappear. We also ran into a few quest malfunctions that could be replicated on all three platforms, though they were relatively minor and did not interfere with the progress of the main quest.
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Few games are this ambitious, and even fewer can mold these ambitions into such a complete and entertaining experience. You might spend 50 or more hours on your first play-though, but there are so many paths to follow, so many details to uncover, and so many ways to customize your party that you'll want to play again as soon as you finish the first time. PC owners even get an extra dash of depth via the downloadable toolset, which lets you create new levels, spells, skills, and even cutscenes. But any way you slice it, here's the fantasy RPG you've been waiting for, the one that will keep you up late at night, bleary-eyed, because you have to see what happens next. Like the best fiction, Dragon Age will sweep you up in its world, so much so that when you're done, you'll want to experience it all over again.
There aren't many working in high fantasy who can lay claim to total originality. Nor is there anything inherently dull and derivative about elves, dragons and dwarves. But there's something missing from Dragon Age. There's no alternative to the eeriness of Elder Scrolls, the colourful exuberance of Warcraft, the gritty savagery of Warhammer, the classical lyricism of Tolkien.
In its desperation to infuse this setting with "maturity" - be it of the sober, political kind, or the game's painfully clumsy gore and sex - BioWare has forgotten the key ingredient of any fantasy: the fantastical. Without it, you're still left with a competent, often compelling, impressively detailed and immense RPG, but it's one that casts no spell.
Bioware’s achievements in all this are incredible. It cannot be stressed enough at the depth of the universe they have conjured. Every corner you look, there is a sense of age, of something old. Entire mythologies for multiple cultures have been brewed up, entire religions mapped out in their own belief systems, history that stretches back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Cities look lived in, worn – majestic and squalid places that spill with times gone by and a sense of place. The castles look like they have been there for centuries, and truly, there is an uncertain sense that they have been. That Ferelden and its inhabitants were waiting patiently in the wings for all this time, waiting for their chance to shine. Well, like the Grey Wardens, their time has come. Let us unite then, and in the words of an old friend: We shall show those cursed Darkspawn our hearts – and then show them theirs.
Update: Several more reviews have been posted online.
This is the most enormously detailed game world I've experienced, its history stretching back thousands of years, its cultures vivid, beautiful and flawed, the battles enormous, the humour superb. Roleplaying games now have a great deal to live up to.
The folks at BioWare have shown that they're always looking for ways to make their games better -- each of their RPGs builds upon the previous title. Dragon Age displays this refinement, and while the story may not be completely original, it's told in a way that enthralls and enchants the player. It's the best RPG of the year -- and maybe the best of the HD era.
Note: 1UP used the same review for each platform, with a 'Console versus PC' comparison at the end.
In the end, Dragon Age: Origins feels like a real throwback to the good old days of PC role-playing epics. It also feels like exactly what you expect the makers of Baldur's Gate to come up with as a follow-up to that classic. While that means you could rightfully fault the game for not being especially innovative, it's this adherence to a classic style of gameplay that will ensure that it's welcomed by the legions of nostalgic RPG players that make up this genre's core audience. That said, this is definitely not the game for those frightened of the idea of micromanaging a game to the point where a large portion of it will be spent in a pause screen. However, as the sort of guy that has lovingly played an Infinity Engine game at least once every year for the past decade, I can think of no higher praise for this throwback than to say that Dragon Age: Origins leaves me feeling fairly confident I won't need to dig out the classics for this ritual next year.
Instead, expect hundreds of hours of fan service condensed into a familiar experience. With Dragon Age: Origins BioWare is giving something back to lovers of Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate. Its role-playing is superb, but not revolutionary. It is a fantasy RPG so obviously crafted for the PC that it seems pointless to consider playing it on an alternative platform. It is an experience as compelling as it is archaic. This trip back in time to the glory days of the PC is welcome, but it makes you appreciate the advances made by modern day RPGs Mass Effect and Fallout 3. They don't make them like they used to, grumpy 30-something PC gamers claim. BioWare does, and you should be grateful.
we probably should've seen this coming =/ The game is 15+ gb on a PC - and the way in which the game can branch and twist depending on where you choose to go and how you choose to play creates a problem of which content will happen first for Disk 1, and which to put on Disk 2.
They probably could've done something where data from disk 1 would be installed, and disk 2 is the play disk - but you can't expect every xbox 360 user to have a hard drive... thanks, Microsoft.
Cant wait to get home tonight! Mine shipped late last night from Amazon, with their release day shipping. Should be sitting on my door step by the time I get off work today. Getting this on PC of course too.
I'll be picking this up late next year, after purchasing a new computer to play it on. I agree with those who believe it is best played on a PC. I know I enjoyed Oblivion on the PC, with the plethora of mods available for me to tailor the experience more to my own personal tastes and liking.
The Gamespot Xbox vs. 360 comments are totally contradictory to what has been said on Neogaf.
The frame rate in the PS3 version is bad a lot of the time with many characters on the screen at the time (20 FPS or below), whereas the Xbox 360 version maintains 30 FPS with some small dips here and there. One guy, incidentally an editor for a PS3 site, said he'd rather have bought the 360 version because of the slow down.
Ultimately, if you lack a gaming PC you have to pick between visuals (PS3) and performance (360).
Just for comparison, here is the Kotaku comment on the PS3 version:
Quote:
Chugga Chugga Frame Rate: Dragon Age is a pretty game, but when it really starts moving, things get ugly. With only a couple of characters on the screen things aren't too bad, leaning towards the high 20's frame rate-wise, but when you're in a big battle or a crowd scene, things dip into the middle to high teens. Mind you I am guestimating here...it's not like I have some magical PS3 FPS tool, but the dip is definitely noticeable.
Very interesting to see how split the reviews are on this game. Gamespot splits itself between a 9.5 and a solid-but-not-moving 8.5? 9.5? For Gamespot that's gigantic - they didn't even give Half-Life 2 a score that big (9.2), or Fallout 3 (9.0), or Oblivion (9.3 PC, 9.6 360), or hmmm... Baldur's Gate 2 (9.2).
To compare, Mass Effect got a 9.0 (PC) and 8.5 (360).
Also, it's always fun to see people bemoaning the industry's preference for flashy visuals over quality gameplay, only to have them eviscerate games because of poor texture quality.
I remember reading that there would be no preload on any delivery service except EA's proprietary crap, but I preloaded the whole game last night on steam.
Seems the web side of the game was not ready for release just yet. Forums have been down for 7 hours, activating DLC doesn't work, activating bonus items doesn't work.
I wonder if those items can be activated later on and you still get them to a game you started earlier on? Or do I have to wait for them to sort out the website problems.
I remember reading that there would be no preload on any delivery service except EA's proprietary crap, but I preloaded the whole game last night on steam.
Steam provided pre-load on November 1st (Sunday) for people that purchased it... Originally it was "no-preload" and then it silently became Nov 1st.
I have it downloaded and ready for tonight... after my kickboxing class... which i feel like missing...
