How many of you bought it? One of the best games I have played in a long time. Similar experience to The Witcher in terms of adult content, but the game is a lot more fun and the replayability is insane. Your experience using the same character, class, and race can be radically different just by the answers. I grew tired of the normal "Pick a response" games from Bioware as the answers were always so canned. The grey area adult decision making is why I enjoyed The Witcher and Dragon Age has the same concept. Where it really shines to me is in the battles. Typically these games follow a pattern for me. An hour of getting used to the battles, finding the optimum strategy, and then the rest of the game button pushing to try to get them over with quickly. I have been playing about 20 hours so far and haven't tired of the fights yet. They keep you totally engaged. You can take out epic death lords and then get wiped on the next common mob because you stopped paying attention. You have to actively manage character positions for defense and offense, and control enemies through spells and taunts or you will get surrounded and destroyed. It reminds me of WoW raids but in single player. I also like how the items aren't cheaped out. Gold is harder to come by and you're not going to buy your characters into uber-gear. I'm towards the end of my story and I can afford to buy one Epic piece of equipment for my main character and that is it. Everything else has to be earned or found (and the drops you get can be good but never to the point of making you impossible to kill). The relationship system is also pretty cool, you get bonuses or penalties from your party in combat depending on how you interact with them and the world. Kind of cheap in some respects because you can be a die hard war monger to the warrior or a pansy, religious freak to the priest and still get positive points from both. Would be cooler if your dialogue with all characters was graded from all party members at all times. You can also give gifts to up your relationship status but it is very slow and you probably won't find enough items to make a difference with all party members (but maybe 1 or 2). I highly recommend it if you enjoy games like KOTOR, Jade Empire, The Witcher, etc. It was marketed as Baldurs Gateish but it is a lot less hardcore in terms of the D&D style.

I REALLY liked baldurs gate, and I like BioWare in general.

However, Ive watched about 10 gameplay videos for Dragon Age, trying to like it, but it just doesnt look fun... I cant put my finger on what it is though. Too bad theres no demo.

I'll pick it up eventually, maybe for Christmas. I've only loosely been following the game but I've generally enjoyed Bioware's RPGs, and if this really is a "spirtual successor to Baldur's Gate", I should enjoy it.

My main concern is that I'll need to get it for the Xbox 360 as my PC isn't nearly up to snuff, and if it features party management I'm a mite concerned how well it will control. I'm also slightly put-off by the grimdark setting and the marketing focus on the violence and sex, because generally when a game is spruiked like that it makes me suspect it's pretending to be more mature than it really is. But I'd still like to play the game when I've got enough time to dive into a full-fledged RPG.

I have to say that this is the game that I'm currently playing.

Bad parts of the game? Well, it's extremely linear and the graphics aren't all that great. By linear, yes, they offer you 800 choices, but in the end, you have 800 different choices with the same result. And it's pretty much a dungeon hack. Don't expect different ways of solving a problem. You kill monsters, move to the next area, rinse and repeat.

But the overall feel is much like a Tolkenesque world, which while many players might not like it due to being worn out, I actually do like it. The overall atmosphere is excellent.

The PC version tends to be quite a bit harder than the console version though. You'll have to pause the game and issue orders often for each fight. (Although this is nowhere near Wizardry difficulty. I'd say it's around twice as hard as Baldur's Gate). And it's nice having another RPG that gold isn't abundant within 5 hours in.

So far really enjoying it. I loved the Neverwinter Nights series, and you can definately feel the influence on this game.

My main character is a mage, and so far it's been good. It's a nice departure from the DnD caster rules that had to be adjusted some to work in NWN. Story has been excellent too.

As was mentioned the game is a bit linear, there is a definate beginning and end. But there are a variety of beginnings to experience. And if it's something Bioware has been developing over there tenure in making RPGs, it's story and trying to make your actions have an impact. They try and provide options that may have short term or very long term ramifications through out the game.

the issues with games released around this time is I have a hard time paying full price for them when boxing day is a mere 43 days away

Quote: Original post by Nytegard
The PC version tends to be quite a bit harder than the console version though. You'll have to pause the game and issue orders often for each fight.

Does the console version handle the fights differently? I would have thought barring the input differences they would play the same, and if you need to pause the game to control fights the only differences would be how easy it would be to issue orders in each platform.

My friend has bought it and has only complained about a few things so far:
- Rapid DLC releases that they charge you extra for, plus some kind of annoying in-game ad for these. "I bought the game already, isn't that enough??"
- Sometimes it's hard to control the other characters in your group. When you attack or get attacked they just stand there waiting for orders, while getting beaten half to death? You should be able to script this behaviour, but even so he seemed to have some trouble.
- The game is too linear (as people mentioned here), but the story is really good on the other hand.
- Something about pick-pocket for rogues, that you could only pick-pocket friendly NPCs and not non-friendly..? Something like that.

I'm working my way through another single-player adventure-game at the moment, but when I'm done Dragon Age is next in line. :)

Bah I haven't even started Brutal Legend yet, just finished Borderlands, MW2 just came out, and Assassin's Creed 2 is around the corner! I would love to give this game a go (I've heard great things) but I'm pressed for gaming time!

Haven't checked it out yet.

One particular trailer (Sacred Ashes 2 I believe) showed a dragon being slain by slowly dragging a sword through its side (yeah, sure, sword of biceps +100 or what?) and then a closeup of its empty eye socket after it had lost an eye to some magic attack. I can't stand that. Give me a sword and let me show those dragon slayers how creative I can get dismembering them. But the game probably won't give me that freedom ;-)

I don't enjoy the AD&D rules. In Drakensang you could end up being clobbered by the enemies like a stupid peasant that just ran into a trap. Reload, try again and the dices say that you just gracefully disposed of the same enemies in the same situation without suffering a scratch.

Controlling a group also isn't for me. I want to identify with a character and be immersed in the world as him.

I'll probably wait for Mass Effect 2.