Dragon Age: Origins

[MonkeyLancer]

Wow, Kotor being the best Bioware game ever? That's a statement I don't think I've heard before. I have yet to try it, would others endorse remedying that?

[Demiath]

Wow, Kotor being the best Bioware game ever? That's a statement I don't think I've heard before. I have yet to try it, would others endorse remedying that?

I actually hear that a lot, but mostly from people who either were too young to get into Baldur's Gate when it was first released or simply missed the BG series entirely. Although KOTOR is at least the fourth best Bioware title yet (after BG1, BG2+ToB and DA:O in that order), the KOTOR nostalgia usually overstates the game's importance and overall greatness. It was a decent enough Star Wars game with some memorable characters, but (much like NWN) it suffered from generic 3D environments and an unsatisfying combat system.

By the way, I bought the Obsidian-"developed" sequel a long time ago but will probably only get around to playing it if and when the long-awaited Restoration Project is finished (which at the moment doesn't seem very likely to happen during this decade)...

[Archangel]

Isn't BG a Black Isle game? If this is true Kotor is Bioware's their best game.

Bioware done IWD 1 and 2?!

Anyways, I consider BG2 best RPG ever, and after that fallout (1&2), PST, Kotor 1 and 2, then Witcher and then others.

But Kotor is a superior game to DAO in almost all ways. Even with its too easy combat system Kotor had much more fun fights then DAO. But none of them beat BG2 fights (some SoZ fights were almost as fun)

[Demiath]

Isn't BG a Black Isle game? If this is true Kotor is Bioware's their best game.

Bioware done IWD 1 and 2?!

No, Bioware developed Baldur's Gate and Black Isle published it for them (which is why you see both company logos at startup). Black Isle themselves developed IW, IW2 and (obviously) Fallout.

[Archangel]

Didn't Interplay publish all Bioware and Black Isle games?

[Demiath]

Didn't Interplay publish all Bioware and Black Isle games?

Yes and no. "Black Isle" was simply the name of the division within Interplay responsible for publishing Baldur's Gate as well as developing their own games. Thus, Black Isle was created by Interplay and subsequently also shut down by Interplay. By contrast, Bioware was never a part of Interplay and remained independent until fairly recently when it became a divison of EA.

[Archangel]

Interplay dying and falling apart is just like losing some favorite music group

And then years pass and you hope one day they will get back together and make you happy again

[MonkeyLancer]

All of that developed and published business can be convoluted. It does seem like Interplay is trying to resurrect itself, but none of the titles they are working on have a great appeal for me to relive. Similarly enough to alot of bands I'm pretty sure they won't be able to outdo their first "album" of Wasteland and Bard's tale.

By the way, I bought the Obsidian-"developed" sequel a long time ago but will probably only get around to playing it if and when the long-awaited Restoration Project is finished (which at the moment doesn't seem very likely to happen during this decade)...

err.. the end of this decade is less then a month away at this point! Demiath, you haven't finished DA:O and you've given it pretty high praise so far, how do you find the story is panning out for you?

[Demiath]

err.. the end of this decade is less then a month away at this point

Well, I was thinking more like "a decade from today" or something...

Demiath, you haven't finished DA:O and you've given it pretty high praise so far, how do you find the story is panning out for you?

Actually, I have finished DA:O. I think it's pretty clear from my earlier posts that I wasn't a big fan of the over-arching storyline and dialogue (although I have to admit that a lot of the party member-specific dialogue was quite good). However, I did appreciate what a complex and ambiguous mess the final confrontation with Loghain at the Landsmeet turned out to be, and just how many independent variables seemed to be involved in determining the outcome of that crucial plot development. Gameplay-wise I felt the end game (i.e. everything between Landsmeet and the final confrontation with the Archdemon) was a bit rushed, as the last "dungeon" was short and a bit generic and there was a lot of surprisingly mindless hack'n slash to wade through just before that. As for the overall length of the game I think it was just right for a long RPG, as it took me about 60 hours to get through with the majority of side quests finished.

[Archangel]

I am still playing but I find the game less and less fun as I progress. Too much pointless H&S that is not fun enough. At least in SoZ at high levels with good stealth you could have just avoided all the random encounters (you could to that in Fallout as well), but here they are killing me. And there have been two good ones (where you ambush them) and when you meet the assassin NPC.