Dragon Age - Twice the Dialogue of Mass Effect 2

A minor item and probably not surprising but Shack quotes Biodoc Greg Zeschuk as saying Dragon Age has twice the dialogue as Mass Effect 2:

Despite the cinematic nature of Mass Effect 2, in comparing the dialog systems of the two games BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk told me that Dragon Age: Origins packed over twice as many dialog options. Why so much? In Dragon Age a large proportion of the potential responses are based on the race and class you've chosen for your main character, their skills and demeanor, and the decisions made in developing the relationships. For every group of possible responses you see on any given play through of the game, there's probably an equal number hidden to handle all the other potential combinations as Zeschuk explained it.

More information.

SO Mass Effect MAY be worth picking up….when it comes down in price.

Errr, and because Dragon Age is a huge game that can easily fill up 70 hours while Mass Effect will likely be half that long?

Thank goodness! I loved the dialogue but I was WAY too often interrupted by other's sayings about ever damn fart.

Not surprised at all. DA: O has a completely different scope than the ME games.

Yup. I only thought it was interesting in light of the expected "Mass Effect 2 dialogue is more advanced than DA:O" reviews that will come out in January. DA:O opted for scope and choices, while ME2 will focus on cinematic presentation. People may prefer one over the other but I know I'll get tired of hearing how DA:O was a step backwards.

Hmmm, I don't know about the way DA:O's main character never says a word (except rarely in battle). I think I would rather pick the general response and have the character voice the actual line. We wouldn't get to pick the voice anymore but, given how rarely we hear it anyway, that's not a big loss IMHO.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Hmmm, I don't know about the way DA:O's main character never says a word (except rarely in battle). I think I would rather pick the general response and have the character voice the actual line. We wouldn't get to pick the voice anymore but, given how rarely we hear it anyway, that's not a big loss IMHO.

Then they would have to limit you to just two character types. Male / Female

Originally Posted by Zloth
Hmmm, I don't know about the way DA:O's main character never says a word (except rarely in battle). I think I would rather pick the general response and have the character voice the actual line. We wouldn't get to pick the voice anymore but, given how rarely we hear it anyway, that's not a big loss IMHO.

I much, much prefer it the way it is. I don't want to listen to a voice that doesn't match my character and I don't want to sit there listening to a question I could have read in half the time. I realise not everyone agrees but, then, you can play Mass Effect (or Risen or The Witcher) and have your voiced main character. That DA:O doesn't do it isn't a flaw; it's just a different strength.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
That DA:O doesn't do it isn't a flaw; it's just a different strength.

A strength and a weakness to be sure. They could have tried to work around the issue some more. I didn't mind that my character didn't have a voice per se, but I did mind that he didn't say a word when he was shown on camera. All NPCs were constantly talking or giving input; my own character? Mute.

This made choosing your own voice during character creation a farce. Whenever he said something, I thought "What? Who said that?" because having him actually speak up was so rare.

DA:O desperately needed / needs a first person mode. Zoom out during battles for tactics, zoom in all the way for better immersion. Case in point: VtM: Bloodlines — I didn't mind my voiceless PC there. Fore some reason it felt more natural and I think it was because all dialogues happened in first person. If you are the PC you can imagine yourself talking, but if the camera is somewhere else you can see that you are not, which is a bit of an immersion breaker in many situations.

Originally Posted by Arhu
This made choosing your own voice during character creation a farce. Whenever he said something, I thought "What? Who said that?" because having him actually speak up was so rare.

This is so true. It's funny, because my Human Warrior liked to shout "get off my back!" sometimes when I clicked on him, and it took me awhile to realize it was him. He very rarely spoke during combat, which was disappointing to me.

Hehe yes, I've had similar experiences. That particular voice set (the one that says: "Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back?") really got me confused at times. Generally, the dwarf voices worked out better, but the random comments here and there still weren't consistent enough in my opinion. Might as well drop the voice if it's that random.

Originally Posted by Arhu
A strength and a weakness to be sure. They could have tried to work around the issue some more. I didn't mind that my character didn't have a voice per se, but I did mind that he didn't say a word when he was shown on camera. All NPCs were constantly talking or giving input; my own character? Mute.

It's a question of taste. I much prefer the DA way. I dislike it in the PB games when the PC says something on his own initiative, even if the game is only going to give one dialouge option (which is a bad thing in itself) I still want to click it, rather than hear it spoken to me. I prefer the PC to be totally mute.

And for a game like DA, just imagine how much VO it would take to voice the PC. You'd need up to 6 versions of each line. That's a massive amount of resources that would have to be taken out of something else. Either that, or they'd make all races sound the same, or reduce the number of race/gender choices. It works well enough for ME (though I wonder about ME3, they will need twice as many PC lines recorded) and it helps that the female Sheppard is voiced by Jennifer Hale, who is a great voice actor.

ME and DA are different kinds of games, and I think they are a good counterpoint to each other. I don't really want to keep playing the same game over and over. It's quite a treat to have ME2 coming so soon after DA:O.

Gonna get me an HD 5850, i5 750 based machine with a 24" monitor in the new year. It seems like a waste to play ME2 on this laptop. DA:O is fine in low settings, as it's a more cerebral experience. ME is more visceral, with a greater focus on presentation and a cinematic interactive experience.