Dragon Age Origins

[snoopy369]

Also - preordered from D2D. Pre-order bonuses suck but D2D does have an interesting one at least.

[Asher]

Direct2Drive is the worst of all services.

[snoopy369]

You say that like a religious chant

For me, it's always worked 100%, and I've never once had activation code issues or anything else; fast downloads; and always able to redownload things without fee. No software needs to be running in the background. I've probably installed Civ4 half a dozen times, on at least three different machines, over the what, 4 years? since I bought it, and never had any trouble.

In the scheme of things I imagine all of the services have little issues, but overall behave reasonably; except EA's, anyway, which is just evil. ("Purchase Protection" for $5? Ha...)

[Asher]

The name straight out of a late-night infomercial is the worst thing.

There's just no point to it. Impulse and Steam both have the different approaches to the same service and both work well. Direct2Drive is just for AOL-type users.

[snoopy369]

I don't see how it's any worse than either service, except for the name I suppose, which at least is accurate to what it does It's also one of the first major services (Steam being the other), which is one factor in its favor for me - I was using it when it was either Steam or D2D, and back then even Steam wasn't as wide-reaching as it is now.

[dannubis]

The name straight out of a late-night infomercial is the worst thing.

There's just no point to it. Impulse and Steam both have the different approaches to the same service and both work well. Direct2Drive is just for AOL-type users.

**** steam. I bought 1 game through that service and had nothing but problems with it.

[Asher]

What problems?

[DrSpike]

Back to the game: reviews are coming in now and they are good. Pros are a solid well fleshed out game world (Bioware's speciality) and good story. Cons are it's old school (but that won't bother many here), and 360 version has graphical and interface issues.

I'll get it - probably on the 360.

[vee4473]

From what i've read and the gamespot review and video review seems to corroborate this, for the console version the camera is much more limited. I think I read that you wouldn't be able to pan around as much and it has a more limited "behind the character only" viewpoint. As well as some other party control limitations.

This game is one in particular that seems to me to be a "get the console version only if your computer can't handle the PC version".

Or are you just more of a console guy these days?

[DrSpike]

My PC is getting on a bit now - I've not bothered to upgrade for a while as there just aren't new PC only games worth playing. If my machine will run it then I'd be tempted by the PC version. But the 360 version doesn't sound too bad - the radial wheels worked well in Mass Effect, and the camera issues don't sound like showstoppers.

[Asher]

Poor Spike has a ghetto computer.

It releases on Impulse at 1pm EST today. Can't wait.

[snoopy369]

I downloaded it over the weekend... will install it when I get home Probably while listening to my fiancée's thesis presentation practice...

[Spaced Cowboy]

Just picked it up on my way home from work....



What is it with cameras and flash.

It is either auto or off.....what about F'ing on for the over-ride?

I end up turning off the flash 90% of the time, but the one time I need it....tsk-tsk.

[snoopy369]

Manual modes

I usually have to fiddle with my camera's flash strength in the rare instance I use one ... in general I go with adjusting the shutter speed and/or aperture width instead.

So... first impressions? Any input on what character type seems most interesting for the initial hour or two? I got bored on monday and made four, just to see what I could make. I like the character creation tool, it's very good compared to others I've used (Oblivion, for example), though the later bits where it shows you the skills is pretty useless - it should explain what's going on there better.

[Asher]

I didn't get a chance to play it, but my SO loves it so far.

Also, the age of quad-cores is here. Dragon Age extensively uses up to 4 simultaneous threads, and the game is CPU-bound.

The Intel quad-core Q6600 is 75 percent faster than the dual-core E6600 (which runs at the same frequency)