Dragon Age: Origins

[Steel_Wind]

What kind of CPU/gfx do you have?

Bye
Thanee

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.16 GHz, 4 gig DDR2 800 on a P5QLPro mobo, Asus ENGTX260 / 896 Mb video under Vista 32.

A middle-of-the-road leaning to higher end gaming PC by tody's standards. Not slow, not bleeding edge. About 18 months old. Certainly more expensive than a console though

 

[fba827]

So what origin story / class combos are people using for their first run through? Does gender choice make big or small differences (i.e. hardly noticeable, or does every interaction also skew towards your gender choice, etc)?

And, as someone who is not allowing himself to play until next week (homework first), what are some small detail gems that might get overlooked but are well worth the notice? -- By that I mean "pay attention to how your NPCs interact" or "watch how the weather changes" or "don't gloss over any dialogue choices, read them all before picking because one is always humorous" etc. -- not asking for actual spoilers, just detailed attention that I might otherwise overlook when I start playing...

 

[Remus Lupin]

Daleish Elf Warrior.

 

[The Serge]

I bought mine for my PS3. Even though I have the PC hardware for the game, I wanted to see it on a huge screen and play it on the comfort of my sofa. I can, though, see why the PC would be a better experience: the interface is a little clunky (you have to hold multiple buttons to move through the menus; while I don't mind given my significant backgroun with fighting games, I can see where this would frustrate others) and you can't get a decent overhead view (its more of a point of perspective view). In a couple years, I might buy the PC version when it's $20 bucks, but I don't regret my PS3 version.

I'm playing an elven mage. I am loving the dialogue interaction options not just between my character and the various party NPCs, but am getting a real kick out of NPCs interactions with each other. Listening to the introductory conversation between Alistair and Stern was a real hoot, and I thought Morrigan's argument with the dog was hilarious. I like how much effort your PC has to spend interacting with the party NPCs; the interactions really make the experience richer and more meaningful. In essence, it's everything BGII (and Planescape: Torment) had multiplied by three in addition to phenomenal graphics.

Speaking of graphics, while it's not quite as good as those in Mass Effect, I'm having a hard time understanding all the complaints associated with the visualization. Event though there's not much in the way of variety for the mages, the textures on their robes is really well done. The faces are generally well done too (wish I could make a real "black" character, but I'll get over it). So far, the voice acting is superb as well.

So, while I would love for Bioware to return to the D&D rules set (preferrably 3.5), this game has been a great experience so far. I've played 17 hours and I'm only 8th level and completed less than 10% of the game. AWESOME.

 

[The Serge]

So what origin story / class combos are people using for their first run through? Does gender choice make big or small differences (i.e. hardly noticeable, or does every interaction also skew towards your gender choice, etc)?

From what I understand, gender matters for the romance. I can't tell if it matters elsewhere since this -- like BG -- appears to be a fairly egalitarian (and acronistic) society.

And, as someone who is not allowing himself to play until next week (homework first), what are some small detail gems that might get overlooked but are well worth the notice? -- By that I mean "pay attention to how your NPCs interact" or "watch how the weather changes" or "don't gloss over any dialogue choices, read them all before picking because one is always humorous" etc. -- not asking for actual spoilers, just detailed attention that I might otherwise overlook when I start playing...

Other than the weather part, everything you've written here is in the game. As I mentioned in my previous post, the interactions between your character and your party members is not only immersive, it's pretty essential if you want to get the most out of them. Depending on how well you interact with them, you can enhance their effectiveness (like the githzerai in PS:T) and some of them can teach your character new tricks. And some of the characters are absolutely hilarious. It's great listening to them banter back and forth while you're walking around. I've actually made sure I didn't interact with another person/item in order to hear the entirety of an NPC-to-NPC conversation.

 

[Remus Lupin]

My favorite bit of dialogue so far is when the female rogue starts commenting on Morrigan's clothes, which ends with Morrigan crying: "Stop staring at my breasts!"

 

[John Crichton]

I now have the PC version in addition to the 360 version.

I hooked my laptop up to the 50" plamsa via HDMI and now I feel stupid for ever getting the 360 version. I kinda forgot I could do that. Doh!

The lappy can't quite do 1920x1080 but it can do the setting just below that with everything maxed. Excellent stuff. I'm finding that I really like the codex/inventory screens much better on the PC. And the overhead tactical view. I'm sure the gaming rig can do everything at full resolution but it's still downloading at the moment so I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Thanee]

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.16 GHz, 4 gig DDR2 800 on a P5QLPro mobo, Asus ENGTX260 / 896 Mb video under Vista 32.

Ok, that should have no trouble with the game.

On another forum, someone posted he can run the game completely fine with most things turned to high with a C2D 2.2 GHz and a GF 8800GTS320.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Except that when the economy bailed last year, my entire division was shut down.....so, I decided to start my own small company....money's a little tight while I work on building up sales.....so my gaming PC is also my business desktop, and I am paying off a laptop I bought for presentations. So, until that's paid off I'm trying to be careful about expending too much cash in too many places.

The PC needs an upgrade anyways.....I damaged the mother board by shorting out some ports while working on a client contract.....and if I have to replace the MoBo, I need to pretty much replace the CPU as well.

Ok, I can certainly see your reasons here. But like someone said above, if you need to replace the PC anyways, I see very little reason to also buy a console then, but rather spend that money on the PC to get one that works well for everything you do.

Maybe prices are cheaper in the U.S......

Maybe. I'm not in the U.S., though, so I do not really know.

in Canada, a decent PC generally costs about $800-1000.....twice the cost of a console....at least from the price research I've been starting to do.

That's not decent. That's bordering on high-end.

For that kind of money you should get a Core i5 with a Deluxe mainboard, 4 GB RAM, and a Radeon HD57XX or even HD58XX plus all the bells and whistles (case, quality PSU, 1 TB HDD, CD/DVD RW, etc).

Your definition of a completely capable gaming PC is certainly different then mine.

Very much possible. In my opinion, a decent gaming PC doesn't need a quadcore or a newest generation gfx card, but a CPU/GFX combo that runs all modern games in a decent manner (settings moderate to high, but not necessarily maxed out). A PC like that is far more powerful than any console on the market already.

You get that easily for $400.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Well, my current PC uses the ATX form factor motherboard, and a case to match....if they've changed the motherboard format, then the case will no longer fit.

ATX is fine. The "newer" standards havn't really surfaced on the mass market, there is also µATX, so you need to make sure you actually get a mainboard that fits your case.

What I *know* is that I need to replace my motherboard, CPU, probably my RAM (mine is DDR1), my sound card (mine seems to be shorting out....it's an old Soundblaster Audigy, and I'm getting static now, that intermittently comes in and out when playing anything with sound....music, games, video files, etc.). And my video card. Also my power supply fan is on the fritz, and just about ready to kick the bucket.

Yeah, so pretty much a complete system.

Mainboards have an onboard soundchip, no sound card necessary
CPU A decent Core 2 Duo should be sufficient
RAM 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz is sufficient
GFX Maybe a GF 9800 GT with 1GB RAM if you don't want to spend too much
PSU That's an important part to replace! Don't save here!

Bye
Thanee