I'm not very far in, but I kept wondering why they were using these subtle angle changes when someone would hand something over. Now I know, it's the flipper. Haha, you should have implemented some Ron White comments into that one. "Watch it. It's a flipper!"

I'm actually getting rather sick of all these dragon age entries. Isn't there better things to blog about in the world? Like how my hair is long and makes me look like a chick?

I wish someone would invent a way for me to communicate with NPCs better than picking responses from a menu.

Well, like what? I've seen a ton of fantastic unimplemented game design ideas (eg, on GameDev), but I've never come across any good ones about dialogue. Lacking strong AI, really what can you possibly do?

This is a strange oversight, particularly since your character was so vocal in the cutscenes in Mass Effect.

In a game, I like to *play* a character instead of watching a movie about a character. Besides the extra bazillion lines of dialogue for each voice of each race...no wait, that's reason enough. But this was discussed in an interview as a deliberate design choice.

Satsui, I should have probably explained that reading these Dragon Age entries is not mandatory. My apologies if I wasn't clear about that earlier.

Till, yeah, I'm not sure what a better alternative would be to dialogue trees. But since I'm not a videogame designer, coming up with an alternative isn't really within my purview.

And I get that it would be hard to do dialogue for the player character given all the choices of races and classes. But it looks awkward when the camera cuts to my mute character. She has green lips, so that probably doesn't help.

I'm really enjoying all these Dragon Age entries - when you're interested in a game you can't get enough and these are telling me loads more than any of the reviews.

I'm a new follower since Tom's Joystiq podcast appearance but this blog has rapidly moved up to be a daily read - nice one.

Keep up the good work and greetings from the UK.

Maybe it is a PC/360 thing but I thought the eyes were the one outstanding bit of texture work in the game, really worked to give the polygons a bit of life (although the flickering focus of their attention in some scenes is a bit weird, like the character doesn't know what to look like in the background - a result of the sometimes comical direction/animation possibly). Of course they manage to go weird when you put on a full face helmet (understandably removed from all cut-scenes for the PCs but the NPCs can't take them off) as the reflecting light spots aren't dimmed and so from out of the blackness two gleaming white spots, just off centre for the eye positions, stare vacantly back at the camera.

"Dragon Age is great, but once again, Bioware assembles a world out of relatively small areas separated by loading screens."

A design decision that came out of BG1. They decided never again to do exploring huge areas for 2 small encounters.It took a lot of resources just so people can make a map of the area.

"Dragon Age is great, but you have to play a kleptomaniac."

BG had this but people complained because in the FR breaking the law meant getting killed easily by the watch. So people would just reload if caught. If the player just quick loads anyway whats the point?

"Dragon Age is great, but you play a weirdly mute protagonist in a world where everyone else speaks out loud.Dragon Age is great, but you play a weirdly mute protagonist in a world where everyone else speaks out loud."

I think they should have at least put in speaking animation even if the character wasn't voiced.

Dialogue trees are by far my favorite method of delivering conversations in games. Every modification I've ever seen to them has been for the worse. I agree with the other complaints, though. I'm not a big fan of voiceovers in RPGs, but if everyone else is doing voice -and- I'm supposedly saying things (unlike many mute protagonists in things like JRPGs and Half-Life), it stands out.

quote: "A design decision that came out of BG1. They decided never again to do exploring huge areas for 2 small encounters.It took a lot of resources just so people can make a map of the area."

Yeah, but...

You can have small, focused areas without constant loading.

When you play seamless/mostly-seamless games like Dungeon Siege, WoW, etc., it hurts to play games like Oblivion where you're constantly taken out of the game to stare at a loading screen.

I know there are a thousand-and-one technical reason for the load (primarily memory), but it's still a limitation/obstacle I'll be happy to see the industry move past/figure out.

What about: "Dragon Age is great but everyones arms are absurdly too long."

Good god, just look at the screen shot on this article. Evertime I play this game I want to mail an anatomy book to the games artists. Would it really have been too hard to have decent proportions for the character models.

*sigh* at least the story is really entertaining.

I really enjoyed having the main character actually speak in Mass Effect. It made me actually care about the character, or what I said as that character. I don't think I've ever optionally gone to talk to NPCs in an RPG just to see what conversation sparks up.

bah, add "until I played through Mass Effect" to the last post.

I am very, VERY, glad you decided to write this series on Dragon Age, Tom. At first glance, one might assign this game a perfect score, based on the graphics, sound, characters, and storyline. And Bioware certainly deserves a great deal of credit for what they've accomplished. But I must agree that there are significant lapses which impact both immersion and the gameplaying experience as a whole (e.g., the issue of first-day DLC, which could have been done differently and not pissed off thousands of gamers). I hope that Bioware, EA and other companies are following your and other critics' reviews, because they can certainly do better--for gameplay and for the gamers.

Sorry about the wall of text.

There was an interview with someone from Bioware a year or so ago where they said that your character didn't have dialogue because there were too many separate dialogue options for them to be able to record dialogue for each of them. Plus, it would be weird if you were playing through the game a second time and your new dwarf character had the exact same voice as your previous elf character.

idk about this game it would be a lot better if it was real time battle

you know what i like is that sci fi are a bunch of bitches becasue they can never compliment a game they always have to down grade games sci fi boo to you thats why your a lame review company

My major (small) complaint is that the main character doesn't have any facial expressions.

I can accept the muteness as a trade-off for the fact that I can play different races, but when my char does something *EXTREMELY DRAMATIC* with his sword during the *EPIC MOMENT* and doesn't even blink or seem in any way moved, it bothers me.

He just stares. With those constantly sad eyes.

When I was in the bit city I kept getting intercepted by huge armies of watch people that I then had to slaughter. They said such things as "hey, there's that thieving grey warden". Was that because I had my rogue friend nick everything I could in Market Square or does that happen anyway?

Tom...followed you for years, CGW and on. I feel it is high time I assigned you an immortal quest...cough... asked a favor. As you will soon find out and as the forums prove; archers are gimped. BG1, BG2, NWN1, NWN2 and now DA...archers ALWAYs gimped. Every time I am disappointed then I wait a few more years for Bioware to come out with a new fantasy RPG. I mend my tights and polish my replica composite bow all ready to don leather only so I can start pinsticking greenskins. DA was my last hope...again my Legolas ears will have to go back into my treehouse. I am not alone in my quest to role-play the most effeminate and deadly of Tolkien's characters...why won't they give us this dream? You seem to have caught their attention with the inventory thing...maybe you can drop a blog post about the persecution of archer wannabes? Please, for old times sake? I can't ask Jeff Green, he has some kind of dwarf, gnome fetish. Would never understand. Sigh, if not, then's it time to boot up Pool of Radiance again, the last game that actually made archers viable.

I still miss Baldur's Gate

As someone who was anticipating this game for a long time, I think you've an excellent series going. So far I'm really liking the plotting and story telling. I don't know if it's the music, dialogue choices or what, but the choices feel very dramatic and really took me in as I played through all of the origins. It really made me feel like I was part and parcel of what was going on. However, the animation has been disappointing. Everything feels painted, bright, and vividly colored. It's like looking at a VF viewmaster. That's great for cities and the woodlands, but not for prisons and dungeons. Sometimes dull and dingy can be a good thing. Also, the only thing you can interact with is whatever is shiny. That adds to the painted feeling. Making things more touchable interactable would lead to meaningful exploring. Also, everything feels too small. It might be the camera angles, or the way to convey party play instead of single player with the first person, using captions, or playing too many dwarves :P, but the immensity of a scene is not always easy to convey. And don't even get into panoramas. I really think Oblivion set the standard that would be tough for any game to follow (it had some lag time too, however). And finally, characters seem to have limited movement, they can't jump, leap, or control speed. Even little stones block their movement, leading to the painted feeling of the sets. I would allow some flexibility depending on the dexterity attribute. I'm okay w/ the dialogue trees. Sometimes they can be redundant. In the conversations related to strictly information gathering, NPC's will fill in what is not asked. And all of this is in addition to the expected issues about storage and having only 4 characters per party. Having gone through so many origins, I would mind having my characters meet each other, but ...

Regardless, I'm really loving this game. The battles are fun, the actual background music (not the Marilyn Manson commercials) is appropriate, and Hollywood could learn from the writers of this games script(s).

I love the game, but my biggest complaint to this point is that I am tired of being punished for accepting quest. Every time I take a mission to advance the story or put a little gold in our pocket it seems like half the party disapproves to the point that they all hate me.

I could understand why Alistar gets upset when you make certain decisions in the game, two in particular, but when Morrigan and Stern disapprove every little thing, it gets old.

There needs to be improvements made to this system.

Problem: thinking you can steal anything.
Solution: stealing from the elves in the Brecilian Forest.

Problem: no VO for the main character.
Solution: (a) only allow one male and one female voice - see Mass Effect; (b) double the game's production budget.

Problem: Dialogue trees.
Solution: A control that allows the player to modify their character's attitude, stance, or approach to conversation (e.g. aggressive, polite, cynical, solicitous, understanding... )based on which the code can then select the most appropriate response from those available.

Oh my god, that's exactly it, JV! That's precisely why it feels so weird when the camera cuts to my character. It's always that same dull expressionless face! Now that you mention it, it's not even necessarily that she doesn't say anything, it's just that she has no facial expression and no sense of reacting.

Mr. Calm, do you really feel archers are "gimped"? It seems to me that they're a support class. If you're expecting to plow through a dungeon like an amazon in Diablo, then you're bound to be disappointed. Because I think the archer's lot in life is to hang back and zing away while the front line fighters bruise their knuckles. Then we quietly slip away into the night to meditate in our quarters while the warriors drink mead and carouse with wenches. But maybe I'm just projecting my RenFaire experiences onto fantasy worlds.

Tom, I agree they are a support class. Classically, the rogue archer or Ranger should be limited in HP and armor and usually are. Not as much as a mage since they still melee in survival mode, so their dps should not be as much as a higher level mage considering the trade-offs. However, in all these games their dps never comes close to either mage or melee warrior. This isn't just me, search "archers = useless" on DA forums and there are hundreds of posts on this on NWN forums. Makes you definitely feel "gimped" when you build an archer knowing you will never be as strong as the other classes. DA is really the only quality party-based, i.e. tactical RPG left anymore. It hurts my inner Tanin, half-elf to know the game will be harder for me because I choose the bow. Several DA forum power posters have stated that if you want to be a ranged character your only true choice is mage. Hey, but your not Bioware, and maybe you don't feel gimped with your rogue archer. I have not finished DA, I would be interested to hear what you think of your rogue archer's abilities compared to the other characters when you finish. I quit both Diablo's several levels in....no tactics without parties. I play for the tactics. Thanks, great diary.

It's always amazing to me to see Bioware come up with another in-many-ways-amazing, well-written game that nevertheless retains that super-clunky KOTOR feel. The character models and animation simply have not cut the mustard for years now. God yes, the sense they have for human anatomy! Is it so hard? I understand, it's an RPG, not an action game, so maybe you wouldn't expect fluid, believable animation - that takes a lot of effort and money - but the difference between well-proportioned, relatively good-looking characters and obviously inhuman flipper-handed puppets just comes down to the skill of the designer. Why not contract a couple of the people from Aion for a month and get some pointers on how it's done? Small expense, big difference. Also, yeah: facial expressions. Take a look at L4D for an example of how it's done. When Zoey's hurt she looks scared; when she fires a gun, she grits her teeth. Makes a huge difference just to KNOW it's happening. This is one of those things everyone needs to steal now; the discovery has been made (before L4D, of course; that's just an example).

Bioware is wierd with the looting property of NPC's. They had it in BG1(NPC's became enemies when you pick any lock in front of them) removed it in BG2 and brought it back in the expansion Throne of Bhaal.

It's as if there is a constant battle to make a game for their hardcore fans then moving a step back to pacify casuals.

You do know that Dragon Age: Origins is an RPG, right?

How could you *not* want dialogue trees? They allow for rich storytelling and variety across playthroughs. And... I mean, that's just odd. How much simpler should it be? You seem like the kind of person who played Oblivion for the STORY or something.

And being mute is really important in these games because it DESTROYS immersion if a player can't identify with his/her own voice. Mass Effect is torture for that reason (ugh, especially since your only options leave you sounding like a hick). You're supposed to want to define your character in every respect. If they had six, ten, or even fifty voice actors record ALL of the dialogue for a PC, even one you think you can live with could drive you off at the slightest offbeat inflection.

I feel DA is like a Sword Coast game in Fisher Price mode. Classes are simplified and exclusive to a degree that players are forced to construct their parties in a certain way or simply miss opportunities to open certain doors or chests.

And you really want to have a punishment system for stealing? It seems like you only look for the tedious elements of roleplaying games or something. De-complicating the role of skills is supposed to encourage the player to focus on battle tactics and storyline.

I can't believe you wrote something so far beyond the realms of my imagining that I felt compelled to reply.