After a marathon weekend in the company of Dragon Age: Origins we’ve returned to compare our PC and PS3 games.
As a veteran of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights my PS3 ‘opponent’ was looking for a major upgrade to the AD&D like gameplay of the earlier titles. He wasn’t disappointed and started reporting back after a couple of hours.
The depth of the characters, the richness of the setting and the tight micro-management of his team were all pluses. He especially liked the chains of events and consequences brought about by players’ roles and actions. The graphics impressed as well despite slowing down a bit when multiple opponents came on screen. Overall, he declared the game a huge success and he has plans to play through the other five player character options/ paths that offer different angles on the game.
Windows 7 Pro (32-Bit) and Ninite had Dragon Age: Origins up and running on the PC much faster than any other full installation I’ve ever tried. It made sense to accept the limitations of a mid-range graphics card from the off. (Dragon Age: Origins isn’t quite as shiny as the bleeding edge graphics in Uncharted 2 but anyone with a fast graphics card should like what they see).
The PC version of Dragon Age: Origins kicked off four hours after the PS3 version but I soon gained some ground. The roleplaying side was of more interest to me than combat and micromanagement, so I skipped some of the micromanagement options and concentrated on the story.
The land of Ferelden is well realised and the task of seeking out an ancient military order to challenge the threat from the Darkspawn makes for a decent plot. The slick menus on the PC even made some of the management tasks more entertaining. It is, however, a bit of a mystery why it had to be too bloodthirsty for kids and teenagers.
I definitely liked the setting and the choices but there were times when it was almost too LotRs. Without a new twist to the format it might well have been more fun playing a tabletop RPG instead. I also kept wanting to reach for a Wii-mote and a Nanchuck. After Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 it just didn’t feel right to be unable to properly wield a sword or tear a panel off a wall.
The PC didn’t catch up in the end. A few breaks interrupted play and ‘the enemy’ stayed glued to his console. The game offered him the kind of detailed simulation of complex tabletop RPGs he enjoys and there’ll be plenty more fans of Neverwinter Nights who have exactly the same reaction.
Dragon Age: Origins overdoes the simulation of a ‘rules heavy’, ‘battle game’ tabletop RPG for me. But there’s no denying that it makes an excellent upgrade to the Neverwinter Nights genre.
