Dragon Age - "RPG of the Decade"

CVG reveals the PC Gamer review of DA that has some mighty boasts for the RPG.

The first Dragon Age: Origins review has arrived via PC Gamer magazine, which brands the BioWare game "RPG of the decade" in its 94% review.
"Thus begins Dragon Age, one of the most enormous and astonishing of games," it says. "Were the difficulty levels not so enormously silly, it would require sheer pickiness to find a major fault with this game."

PC Gamer calls Origins' gigantic environment "the most enormously detailed game world I've experienced, its history stretching back thousands of years, its cultures vivid, beautiful and flawed, the battles enormous, the humour superb.

More information.

Q: Does this review have any more credibility than one would give an IGN review?

(Which, of course, is little to none.)

Seen this sort of feedback several places now. Of course, Oblivion had the same kind of feedback, so that doesn't prove a whole lot.

I decided about five years ago to pick it up on day one, however, so all of this is of no interest to me. I'll be playing it as soon as possible regardless, and will certainly be writing actively in the DA:O section in the days after I get it, along with others on RPGWatch who will certainly get it as soon as it hits the stores as well.

Basically, if you are unsure whether or not you should buy, just wait for the feedback in the RPGWatch DA:O section, as it will probably be a whole lot more accurate than most reviews.

What does he mean, the difficulty levels are "silly"? I figured Normal would be a good place for me to start, since I've played only console RPGs before, none of which have been difficult. I understand Dragon Age will be challenging, and I will need to pay more attention to party balancing, sequencing, potion supply, buffs, etc. That is fine, I welcome the challenge.

But his comment about "silly" difficulty levels makes me wonder. What does he mean by that?

As for the topic, I try not to buy into the hype when people say things like "RPG of the Decade." It just sets me up for eventual disappointment.

Originally Posted by Maylander
…and will certainly be writing actively in the DA:O section in the days after I get it, along with others on RPGWatch who will certainly get it as soon as it hits the stores as well.

I will definitely be watching for reviews from people I trust. It just occurred to me that by setting up their fancy online accounts where DA players are supposed to "chronicle their adventures", Bioware introduces an arena where they can:

a) censor outrageously negative comments/reviews of the game;
b) don't need to censor anyone, because the population will overwhelmingly be of the fanboy variety.

People who don't already belong to any online RPG forums will naturally go to Bioware first and what they see will be a series of exclamation points followed by exactly two number ones.

That's where I plan on raving about the game!!!!11

*YAWN*…..

Another "RPG of the Decade"?

Originally Posted by Anderson
But his comment about "silly" difficulty levels makes me wonder. What does he mean by that?

Here's the exact quote:

"The pop-up suggesting that switching to Easy will remove the need for micromanagement during fights is lying. There are difficulty spikes at certain points where getting through a battle on Easy becomes stunningly hard, and requires frenetic fine-tuning. Similarly, if you choose to play a dwarf rogue, you'll find yourself forced to pick Easy during the opening moments of the game because you are simply incapable of surviving battles otherwise.

Later on, any class can hold their own with enough skills. But unless you're a mage with a cluster of healing spells, you must be prepared to spam health poultices to get through many tough encounters."

The review was written by John Walker who also writes for Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Another "RPG of the Decade"?

Those were my thoughts. The hyperbole in games journalism is so extreme and relentless it's beyond parody.

I'm hoping the reality is something along the lines of: "BioWare have finally released an RPG which compares favourably to Baldur's Gate, and it has only taken them a decade to do it".

Originally Posted by Anderson
But his comment about "silly" difficulty levels makes me wonder. What does he mean by that?

That he is a Pro and playes RPGs for decades now, so to say.

Originally Posted by Cassius
Those were my thoughts. The hyperbole in games journalism is so extreme and relentless it's beyond parody.

I'm hoping the reality is something along the lines of: "BioWare have finally released an RPG which compares favourably to Baldur's Gate, and it has only taken them a decade to do it".

You know, they already released such an RPG and it only took them 2 years

So, I guess -- based on past experience -- that this should be the warning bell that I will hate this game … yet for some reason I cannot resist the urge to buy it. I am so pathetically weak.

Hypestorm approaching, take cover!

Sounds good though, one can hope, I guess.

It's the arpigi of the eon! ROFL

Well, the polish was obvious to me in the gameplay videos I've seen. That much can be expected. I don't think they were lying about the length of the game, neither. So we have that, at least. Whether this 60-100 hour RPG will actually be epic, dark, mature and all those other words, we'll just have to see. I'm probably a heretic for considering this on Xbox 360, though.

Originally Posted by screeg
I will definitely be watching for reviews from people I trust. It just occurred to me that by setting up their fancy online accounts where DA players are supposed to "chronicle their adventures", Bioware introduces an arena where they can:

a) censor outrageously negative comments/reviews of the game;
b) don't need to censor anyone, because the population will overwhelmingly be of the fanboy variety.

People who don't already belong to any online RPG forums will naturally go to Bioware first and what they see will be a series of exclamation points followed by exactly two number ones.

If you have been coming to the Bioware websites for many years (like I have, been there for about 5-10 years now), you'll know that Bioware isn't the sort of company that censors people's opinions about things; even the negative remarks about DA: Origins are still standing, both from reviewers and fans alike. There's even one or two threada about people complaining about lack of multi-player in DA: Origins. And they aren't locked (as often as before).

In the Mass Effect 2 forum, there is a really interesting discussion going on about whether or not ME2 is a shooter or an rpg. Civilised, constructive and son on.

Back at the DA: Origins forum, there is a rather lengthy and fascinating discussion about the whole dlc-thing and how Bioware plans to deliver the DLC. People are, of course, venting a bit, but that's to bo expected, I find.

Sometimes, though, Bioware devs. will come in and lock a thread or remind everyone that personal attacks and name-calling aren't very constructive.

My comments on the Bioware forums about DA: Origins just being a sort of 'build your own army' experience wasn't censored at all; nor was my comments about DA: Origins, to me, being basically just Mass Effect in a fantasy setting e.g. Grey Wardens=Spectres, and Blight=Reapers. Plots for both games involve battling an ancient evil…

And it isn't like Bioware players hasn't been chronicling their adventures before; in BG2 forums, in the spoilers section, people are asking for help. And then they tell others what they have done etc.

Originally Posted by aries100
If you have been coming to the Bioware websites for many years (like I have, been there for about 5-10 years now), you'll know that Bioware isn't the sort of company that censors people's opinions about things; even the negative remarks about DA: Origins are still standing, both from reviewers and fans alike. There's even one or two threada about people complaining about lack of multi-player in DA: Origins. And they aren't locked (as often as before).

Biowhore does censor negative opinions.
You have to aplogise in advance 10 times and explicitly state that you DON'T find your complaint very important for the game and that you'll buy it anyway, that it's a SMALL feature you care about and it's also a plus if you add a sad smiley —> to evoke empathy.

*Otherwise, you will be accused of impoliteness to biowhore: topic lockdown!
*You'll be flamed by crazied fanboys: topic lockdown!
*You'll be flamed by a bio-develop who says that "immersion" doesn't mean anything at all and thus you shouldn't use this word because it's laughable.. bla bla bla. While at the same time they've been overusing the shit out of the phrase "we've done it to enhance gameplay" which is subjective exactly as immersion is. If you respond; topic lockdown! And possibly ban.

I've not made this up, it's the sad state of affairs at biowhore's.

Originally Posted by aries100
And it isn't like Bioware players hasn't been chronicling their adventures before; in BG2 forums, in the spoilers section, people are asking for help. And then they tell others what they have done etc.

They've made a special point that this new feature or dashboard or whatever is going to be more sophisticated than a bunch of different forums for members. I'm just saying I think this is one quite clever bit of marketing, unlike 75% of the other new types of marketing they've tried so far for DA.

Regarding censorship, my point (b) is that when you have a congregation of rabid fans in one place, the environment becomes to some extent self-censoring.

As someone pointed out in the following post, his might explain PCG's high rating (at least in part -- just sayin') … http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit…&newsbit=13600

Hyped "RPG of the decade".

FIXED. Really, all this hype is almost going to guarantee a huge backlash when it doesn't live up to expectations.