# Dragon Age: Origins from Bioware now released



## Rahl Windsong

Just thought I would give a heads up to the community here as Bioware has finally released their long awaited first installment in the Dragon Age series with the release of Dragon Age: Origins.

I have played through the game once and never before have I looked so forward to my 2nd play of this masterpiece of an RPG. It literally has everything from characters that are so well written that you really form strong oppinions about them, to epic battles where the outcome has an effect on the world and how it reacts to you and your party. Say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing and some party members will leave if they no longer have a high enough liking of your Player Character. 

The main plot is somewhat normal for an RPG, where there is an evil force and you have to stop it, however the stories, sidequests, and the downloaded content (which costs extra) really make this game an epic experience in terms of the single player RPG. Once again Bioware has lived up to their name as the best story tellers in the gaming industry, this game actually had me misty eyed in parts of it I was that into it as I played through the first time.

I highly recommend this game!

Also once your game is registered you can download the toolset. Now for most of us this toolset is something we may never use, however as with almost all mainstream Bioware games that come with a toolset these games tend to take on a life of their own after the Official storyline is completed. 

Once the modders in the community start to get their hands on the toolset that is a completely new story, literally. In NWN2 I have found player made mods complete with voice acting that are as good or better then any of the professional mods from the developer, or third party developers. The Dragon Age lore is vast and detailed the one thing missing is a complete listing of exactly how everything works. For instance when I swing my sword or cast a spell how do the magical qualities calculate into the hit? That type of info seems to be lacking right now but I am certain the modding community will publish that part of the manual as soon as they discover it with the toolset.

Anyway my first playthrough was a elven male rogue with a city elf origin, and I have to say some of the battles in this game will forever be firmly etched in my mind as some of the best RPG battles of all times, especially if you play on some of the more difficult settings. It is just like the old Baldur's Gate games where you can pause combat any time you want/need to, to issue new orders to your party, the battles are very tactical even allowing you to use terrain as cover.

Now I have a human mage that I am playing as my next playthrough and the Origin story was completely new so all of the origin stories are new the first time you play them and I believe there are 6 of them total.

The game is also available for download on Steam and all the other download sites most likely....

enjoy!


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

I just today got this game and now I'm stuck in Denerim....how am I supposed to get back to the world map from the market district? The only other option there is is The Pearl....


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## Pyar

Hey Manarion, when you are in the city map click n and that should bring up the world map. If not then you have to complete some quest before you can go back into the world. Keep exploring!


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## Winters_Sorrow

Yup, this is an excellent game. Ironically I haven't actually finished the main story yet but I have completed the 6 origin stories with the City Elf, Dwarf Noble & Mage origins being my favourites respectively.

The Dog thing seems a bit of a rip from Fallout 3 but if you're going to steal you may as well steal from the best. Definitely a game worth getting and I'll be interested to see what the modding community turn it into as it was already quite similar to LoTR in terms of design and content so that would be the easiest tweak to begin with.


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## Rahl Windsong

Winters_Sorrow said:


> Yup, this is an excellent game. Ironically I haven't actually finished the main story yet but I have completed the 6 origin stories with the City Elf, Dwarf Noble & Mage origins being my favourites respectively.
> 
> The Dog thing seems a bit of a rip from Fallout 3 but if you're going to steal you may as well steal from the best. Definitely a game worth getting and I'll be interested to see what the modding community turn it into as it was already quite similar to LoTR in terms of design and content so that would be the easiest tweak to begin with.


 
Sadly the dog usually stays in my camp in DA. I wish they would have made it so the dog can come along as a pet for the PC then I would take it with me every time. 


SPOILER AHEAD.....













At the very end of the game it was very sad for me cause all of my party members were there, well except for the assassin elf I forget his name just now, but he turned on me and tried to kill me and my party near the end of the game, though I killed him and moved on. However at the end your dog is there but not clickable and the PC just wants/needs to be able to pat his head and say "well done boy" or something like that. I was so pissed off that my dog was the only one I could not interact with at the very end....


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## Shadow Trooper

Got this game at the begining of Dec on Steam.

I have been looking for a game to get me back into the RPG world and since the Dragonlance game I had on my Amiga, haven't found one (that includes Baldurs Gate).

All I can say is this is not only the best RPG game I've played, but also one of the best games full-stop. I bought the deluxe version so had the red armour, rock character mission, the Warden's mission and a couple of magic rings etc. The only one I was a little disapointed with was the Rock mission (and that was only because by that time I had settled on me, Alistair, Zevran and Morrigan). The only character I didn't have the choice of was Stern, as I messed up that mission.

Great game!


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## Vir

Ive been playing this on the PC im really enjoying it, the gameplay is good and i really like the stories, so much so that i've played through most of the intro sections. 

My only problem is that i have two characters, on one i have recruited everyone but the Dalish, on the other character i have recruted the Dalish but no one else. I can't work up the motivation to do the dalish on my first character and so cant progress through the game.

The dialouge choices are brilliant, they seem to have come along way since mass effect. They are not the generic good bad choices which i was expecting which is good.


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## devilsgrin

<spoiler alert> if you don't want the Dalish... try to recruit the werewolves then....its VERY difficult to do tho


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## Cayal

Just finished Demon's Souls and finally (after buying this 2-3 weeks ago) put Dragon Age in. 
Haven't started it yet, stuffed up my character creation.


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## MeriPie

SPOILER! 











I absolutely loved it, got a bit addicted though... I had ALMOST completed it as a mage, then found out that if you're in a relationship with Alistair, he dumps you when he becomes king unless you were a human noble to start  So I had to start again cos that just upset me too much. Yes I am cool, what about it?


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Hehehe.


Alistair was a useless, whiny idiot. (Female characters I made, for a lark, got Zevran-the one character I won the game with had Morrigan, though originally tried for Leliana. What a disappointment THAT was!)


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## Tansy

Love Dragon Age, completed it and Awakenings 

Gets too easy with 3 mages though

I need to go back and try it with a rogues, elf and warrior etc, just spent too long on it lately that I can't justify getting my other chars up to speed, I created one of each background and will play them all out at some point


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## devilsgrin

finding the motivation to finish all the characters you can start is so hard sometimes. 

3 mages makes it a cake-walk. but playing as a rogue is also fun, since it means you can bench Leliana... gods i loathe her.

I loved Alistair... he's my favourite character in DA:O. i didn't find him at all whiny, everything he says, pretty much, you have to ask him to say, and those few things he does just say are entirely justified in the context of where and when. 
His Banters are some of the funniest in the entire game... though Zevran has by far the best banter with every character... but especially Oghren and Wynne.


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

I never use Oghren and Wynne. The only mage I keep in the party ever is Morrigan. I usually go with Morrigan, Lel, Zev, and main char. Sometimes I'll switch to the war hound if I have him.



And as for a mage, well....hahaha. My mage is stuck in the Void after the Abomination in the mage tower sent us there.


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## devilsgrin

Leliana is the most annoying character in the game. unless your a rogue yourself, she's almost mandatory for the party to unlock chests. but her voice, her mental issues, the hypocrisy of the "lay sister of the chantry" judging you when she was what she was/is what she really is... and that accent... i love a french accent, but give me a decent one anytime PLEASE. 
Arlessa Isolde, annoying as she is, has a fantastic voice and accent.


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## Tansy

Really enjoying playing with Sten on my last play through, trying to complete it with no mages when not necessary


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## ScottSF

I just traded Alistair for the dwarf Og-something and he has a supped up enchanted hammer so I don't think I'm going back.  

Question:  You know all those stones you can find that seem to have powers?  How do you use those?  Is there a skill like the herbal and poison ones?  I'm running a Mage, Dwarf, Assasin and the Witch, wow I really suck at names and it seems I have the witch doing most of the work.  Good idea Tansy, It would be lots of replay fun to do without mages.  I wonder if you could do the game with a party of 2 or even 1.


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Actually, there are poison skills-Assassin skills if I remember correctly-but I've never used them.....


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## Tansy

You can learn Rune craft, i believe it is one of the skill sets, or find a dwarf or mage who can make them for you id you have blank runes


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## ScottSF

I've used the healing, poison and rune skills but I just couldn't figure out how to use the crystal like rocks, they seem to have properties.  I'm sure there's some skill that I haven't looked up.

Hey I just confirmed that the witch Morrigan is voiced by Claudia Black.  I never got too deep into Farscape but I knew enough to recognize that voice.  Also Captn Janeway is in the credits and I'm pretty sure I heard Tuvok as the leader of the Elves.  FUN.


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## devilsgrin

those rocks (frost shard, etc i presume) are used in making balms. (flame balm, etc) or you can use them as they are for a minor buff effect.


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Looking back on this game, I do seem to remember one frustrating thing about it. The patch we had on my copy had that one bug in it where you go back to Flemeth's hut to finish Morrigan's companion quest, but Flemeth isn't there.....

Rather ticked me off at that point, actually.....other than that, and its relative shortness, it is a good game. I'd probably have to rank it #3 on my favorite games list under the PC version of Baldur's Gate and Diablo II.


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## Connavar

Is this an action RPG like Fable,The Witcher ?  Not RPG ala FF series,turn based ?

Im not big RPG player but games Dragon Age i have always wanted to play but they were for xbox or PC only mostly.


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## Tansy

It's not turn based Con, more like Fable but better


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Not only better, but far better, especially when one attempts to deal with the Xbox's version of Fable.  

The actual stat/class selection, like in Oblivion, alone makes DAO better than Fable. Not to mention the fact that its challenge is balanced.


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## Tansy

I loved how diff character backgrounds were well different 

I played each character up to Ostagar and when I first got it was constantly seeing how new characters panned out, really added to the game for me, especially when the decisions and dialogue affected events as you move through


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Haha. I always liked being antagonistic to Alistair. His responses were hilarious with such. On the way to that one village, I forget which it was, that Alistair is about to reveal he's a prince....


"Look, I wanted to stop to tell you something."

"That you're an idiot?"

"Yes, that's it. I'm an idiot, thank you. Now we can all rest much easier with that out in the open." (Or something along those lines, has been months since I've played.)


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## Tansy

Apparently there is an Alastair online fansite

"Swooping is bad"


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

I would have far preferred a Morrigan fansite, but, c'est la vie.


And to think in certain areas Morrigan actually had some kind of conscience. My characters of course had none.  When I came across the dying soldier in the forest at the start, I would simply kill him. Alistair of course would complain, and I would say, "Shut up and do as I say!"


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## Tansy

I always seem to play angelic characters lol, maybe cos I'm such a lil devil in real life 

They aren't adverse to picking a pocket or two though

I did love Alistair's lines with Morrigan though, was disappointed with how Morrigan looked,she should have been more like in uncharted 2


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

I never did play uncharted 2 but, I was fine with how Morrigan looked in this. Actually, my fighter built up a relationship with her.....scary thing was, I was actually trying for Leliana.


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## Tansy

Lei is certainly more attractive but a little more self righteous till hardened, but she does love shoes  us gals love shoes, I love Morrigan's sarcastic nature and moral ambiguity

My male char romanced both Morrigan then Lei, Morrigan wasn't pleases hehe

And finally had a female char fall for Alistair, luckily she was a noble, he was sickly sweet as a romantic interest but really cure


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

My first character was the worst of them all. I took Zevran due to the very fact that he was just as unscrupulous as she was (yes, a female elf rogue) but I killed that one wounded soldier and the sick dog. And I killed that one kid possessed by that demoness.



That managed to get both Morrigan AND Alistair mad at me. One of the very few scenarios where you can get both their disapproval......


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## Tansy

I've yet to have a nasty char lol

weird how in games I have to be inherently liked but in rl not really assed lol


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

Hey, it happens.


I always felt like throwing Alistair off a cliffside, to be honest....such a shame Zevran couldn't have killed him.


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## Tansy

I do love Zev, need to make him a nice saucy elf..hmm male or female?


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## Connavar

Tansy said:


> It's not turn based Con, more like Fable but better



Thanks i can finally play a game like this then.  I have a bit jealous of PC,xbox gamers when i saw games like Fable.


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## devilsgrin

Karn Maeshalanadae said:


> I never did play uncharted 2 but, I was fine with how Morrigan looked in this. Actually, my fighter built up a relationship with her.....scary thing was, I was actually trying for Leliana.


 
you had to TRY to romance Leliana? most people suffer from incidental romance with her. its almost too easy to make her fall in love with you... its practically easier, in fact, than convincing Morrigan or Zevran to join you in your tent.


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## Karn Maeshalanadae

devilsgrin said:


> you had to TRY to romance Leliana? most people suffer from incidental romance with her. its almost too easy to make her fall in love with you... its practically easier, in fact, than convincing Morrigan or Zevran to join you in your tent.



It all depends on how you play, Dev. My characters tended to be soulless monsters with no conscience, so, Leliana disapproved of most of my actions in those games.


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## devilsgrin

aah i suppose that would make it slightly more difficult to get leliana on-side.


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