One thing missing from DA compared to Oblivion/Fallout 3

[elooocin]

I think the camera perspective had a lot to do with Fallout and Oblivion's success in that matter...whether you played in 1st person or 3rd person (1st 24/7 for me), you were always within close proximity to your character, and hence saw things in a relatively close distance to the actual character's vision (wow horrible sentence structure...hopefully still understandable). In other words, if something pops out of no where, it's much scarier than in Dragon Age's isometric camera angles.

 

Oh, and the other two games didn't have Tactics, so everything you did in them, you did on your own. The AI never took over or helped out to a large extent. So the knowledge that if you didn't do something, you're screwed probably helped also.

I totally agree with you on that! I remember going through the sewers in Oblivion at the very beginning and being freaked out even though it was my 2nd playthrough lol, I was constantly sitting on edge of my seat with heart pounding through so much of Oblivion! Though when I got my new computer and big screen I could not play that game anymore, for some reason I feel motion sickness whenever I try to play it now!

 

But I have to say during the time before the bloodmother with those whispering rhymes coming at me, my God the first time I went through that my heart was pounding and I was terrified ... though the fact I was playing at around 3am to a silent dark house didn't help matters! But even now on my 6th full playthrough (I have about 10 others I never finished so I have played the game without completing at various stages around 50 times or more :X) I STILL jump at the those stupid shrieks GAH!

[brokenergy]

The major difference between DA and Oblivion is that DA is basically the spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate series and to compare to Oblivion is kind of comparing apples to oranges. As much as I like Oblivion, I liked DA more because it was more engaging than Oblivion and a lot of work was put to make the game (over 120 voice actors for DA compare to 10-12 for Oblivion). DA may not be as scary as some of the other RPG game but it is just as good. The only thing I found disappointing is the lack of party members bartering in camp with each other, it broke the game a bit up I didn't mind it much. If they fixed that, then the game would improve to be on par with other great games out there (which are few these days *sigh*)

[VGfallout]

i'd have to agree with broken, well said

 

although i have a soft spot for OB/FO due to the endless of hours it helped me kill for months on end - mainly by experimenting and not even really playing - i believe dragon age is in an entirely different class of gaming...its hard not to be biased when the quality factor is In-Your-Face

 

the bethesda engine has always essentially felt like an W.I.P/Sandbox with extensive scripting capabilities i guess - that you can just run around and do meaningless activities in, over and over and over again.

 

everything "works", and there is a "purpose"..but it's kinda like...kinda like a screen saver....i dont know exactly what i mean by that either dont worry. the voice acting quality always lacked as well as actual dialogue itself. they get some hollywood "famous" voice for the introductions & that's about as engaging as the story gets. now go --- go and explore an empty world that feels abandoned until our modding volunteers finish the job

 

another thing that bothers me is the animation blending/events/visual aspect of overall interaction of...functioning entities overall. it feels so forced. hard to explain, but when an npc is like "follow me", you can almost see the the AI at work on a different level. Stand>turn>rotate 90 degrees, straight line, rotate again, sit". wow thats a colorful way of putting it..just picture doing the "robot" at a night club

 

the minute you start playing it out of the box you instantly accept the fact that the ending will either suck or feel as meaningless as the bowel movement you experienced 20 minutes earlier - who cares, its over, its done and it stank, Next? you never expect anything "big", and most can barely relate to the "characters". another thing is i could have sworn i've heard the "baurus" voice actor for the past 10 years, haha...come on man...please..someone....new...

 

if it wasnt for martigen's mod, and similar "overhauls", "three-dog" could easily have been confused with a man hallucinating on LSD, cause all these mutants, slavers and whatever chaos was being described was Less of a threat than taking fall damage, or crashing when you havent saved in 20 minutes.

 

if it wasnt for the beth modding community, i doubt many of us would even find the game worthy of discussion today unless we were talking about how bad it sucked, naturally

there's a certain emotional detachment combined with the random weirdness of their games that never sits well with me at the end of the day, a typical conversation in that game is like "Hey Billy" - "Hey there walter, im sick of these giant ants attacking me" "You sure enjoy eating carrots Billy". its like oh yeah? Right on. pretty sweet.

 

once you get mods like martigen's, or "in game utility/gadgets", i think the player finds him/herself caring less and less about the story and overall environment. their engines always prove to be good benchmarking to see how your pc is doing, no engine on earth uses your HD RPMS (in particular), gpu, system memory, processor bandwidth, Simultaneously, as big bertha does.

 

i remember using enclave commander with the feral ghoul rampage and staying stuck in those tunnels for months haha. it just becomes a world a random gaming greatness while accomplishing absolutely nothing.

 

DOA on the other hand....well now, this title is just special. ive never fallen for an RPG this hard...i am here on this forum after all for better or worse. i dont think ive ever replayed, or had the desire to reply any title in my 20 odd years of gaming as much as i have with this one, and i'm haaaard core FPSer

 

to sum up my endless monologue, dragon age is in a league of its own from my perspective, whether it be quality, attention to detail, amount of content and replayability of the RETAIL product with no mods-for-crutches etc, i say it scores a 9.5

 

need to work on trimming my posts down could have summed it all up in my last sentence :p

spel chek an-im-audi 5000

[VGfallout]

hahahaha dude...god no wonder why

i'd like to apologize for apparently not realizing this about an entire different topic, not which is better, tis' a bit embarrassing when i check a thread and realize its the one i just posted on - sorry about that

 

runs away

[SpellAndShield]

i'd have to agree with broken, well said

 

although i have a soft spot for OB/FO due to the endless of hours it helped me kill for months on end - mainly by experimenting and not even really playing - i believe dragon age is in an entirely different class of gaming...its hard not to be biased when the quality factor is In-Your-Face

 

the bethesda engine has always essentially felt like an W.I.P/Sandbox with extensive scripting capabilities i guess - that you can just run around and do meaningless activities in, over and over and over again.

 

everything "works", and there is a "purpose"..but it's kinda like...kinda like a screen saver....i dont know exactly what i mean by that either dont worry. the voice acting quality always lacked as well as actual dialogue itself. they get some hollywood "famous" voice for the introductions & that's about as engaging as the story gets. now go --- go and explore an empty world that feels abandoned until our modding volunteers finish the job

 

another thing that bothers me is the animation blending/events/visual aspect of overall interaction of...functioning entities overall. it feels so forced. hard to explain, but when an npc is like "follow me", you can almost see the the AI at work on a different level. Stand>turn>rotate 90 degrees, straight line, rotate again, sit". wow thats a colorful way of putting it..just picture doing the "robot" at a night club

 

the minute you start playing it out of the box you instantly accept the fact that the ending will either suck or feel as meaningless as the bowel movement you experienced 20 minutes earlier - who cares, its over, its done and it stank, Next? you never expect anything "big", and most can barely relate to the "characters". another thing is i could have sworn i've heard the "baurus" voice actor for the past 10 years, haha...come on man...please..someone....new...

 

if it wasnt for martigen's mod, and similar "overhauls", "three-dog" could easily have been confused with a man hallucinating on LSD, cause all these mutants, slavers and whatever chaos was being described was Less of a threat than taking fall damage, or crashing when you havent saved in 20 minutes.

 

if it wasnt for the beth modding community, i doubt many of us would even find the game worthy of discussion today unless we were talking about how bad it sucked, naturally

there's a certain emotional detachment combined with the random weirdness of their games that never sits well with me at the end of the day, a typical conversation in that game is like "Hey Billy" - "Hey there walter, im sick of these giant ants attacking me" "You sure enjoy eating carrots Billy". its like oh yeah? Right on. pretty sweet.

 

once you get mods like martigen's, or "in game utility/gadgets", i think the player finds him/herself caring less and less about the story and overall environment. their engines always prove to be good benchmarking to see how your pc is doing, no engine on earth uses your HD RPMS (in particular), gpu, system memory, processor bandwidth, Simultaneously, as big bertha does.

 

i remember using enclave commander with the feral ghoul rampage and staying stuck in those tunnels for months haha. it just becomes a world a random gaming greatness while accomplishing absolutely nothing.

 

DOA on the other hand....well now, this title is just special. ive never fallen for an RPG this hard...i am here on this forum after all for better or worse. i dont think ive ever replayed, or had the desire to reply any title in my 20 odd years of gaming as much as i have with this one, and i'm haaaard core FPSer

 

to sum up my endless monologue, dragon age is in a league of its own from my perspective, whether it be quality, attention to detail, amount of content and replayability of the RETAIL product with no mods-for-crutches etc, i say it scores a 9.5

 

need to work on trimming my posts down could have summed it all up in my last sentence :p

spel chek an-im-audi 5000

 

Hey, I agree. DA is my favourite RPG ever...come to think of it...

[grannywils]

I don't like first person perspective games either. I prefer to see my characters. The only thing that I found (and still find) scary in DAO is the sound effects of some of the baddies; i.e. the spiders dropping down suddenly, the ash wraiths and the shrieks. I just hate the sound of those shrieks. Even though I've played the game through several times, I still hate those sound effects. Otherwise, I agree that the game is not particulary scary, but I don't especially mind that. It is still my favorite game of all time. I only just bought Fallout 3. I've never played any of the Fallout games before, but so many people have mentioned it on this site that I thought I should give it a try. So I'm looking forward to trying it.

[SpellAndShield]

I don't like first person perspective games either. I prefer to see my characters. The only thing that I found (and still find) scary in DAO is the sound effects of some of the baddies; i.e. the spiders dropping down suddenly, the ash wraiths and the shrieks. I just hate the sound of those shrieks. Even though I've played the game through several times, I still hate those sound effects. Otherwise, I agree that the game is not particulary scary, but I don't especially mind that. It is still my favorite game of all time. I only just bought Fallout 3. I've never played any of the Fallout games before, but so many people have mentioned it on this site that I thought I should give it a try. So I'm looking forward to trying it.

 

I've been trying to play Fallout 3 again after a year'a layoff and can't really get into it again...don't know why...it is a very different game to Dragon Age...I guess I just have trouble going retro...

[brokenergy]

I don't like first person perspective games either. I prefer to see my characters. The only thing that I found (and still find) scary in DAO is the sound effects of some of the baddies; i.e. the spiders dropping down suddenly, the ash wraiths and the shrieks. I just hate the sound of those shrieks. Even though I've played the game through several times, I still hate those sound effects. Otherwise, I agree that the game is not particulary scary, but I don't especially mind that. It is still my favorite game of all time. I only just bought Fallout 3. I've never played any of the Fallout games before, but so many people have mentioned it on this site that I thought I should give it a try. So I'm looking forward to trying it.

 

Try to get your hands of Fallout one or two, they are much higher quality than Fallout3.

[verly]

I understand that fallout and Oblivion are creepier, but I agree with what was said above that it's because those are first person games, but I find many things about dragon age creepy.

 

I agree with elooocin about Hespith (sp) rhyming before you meet her and the broodmother herself is frightening. (if you're a female player probably a bit more because it's what you're character might become some day) I think the orphanage when you help out Ser Otto later on in the game is also creepy again more rhyming children)

[danscott84]

I caught this thread and figured I might add a little here. For me, a good game, whether RPG or FPS, needs a good story to propel the action along. KOTOR, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Half Life are amongst my favorites because the stories help make the game. For myself and my fiance we approach these games as if they are interactive movies. Dragon Age has the feel of a LOTR movie, but you are the central character helping to develop the story and move it along. Your actions help determine where the games goes culminating in a welll written ending that, although you know was already determined, you still helped develop while immersed in the game. The genius of Half Life is that there are no cutscenes, the story you learn as you play through the game. There are no hints as to what has happened because your character never was involved until later. But don't get me wrong, cutscenes can also really help the story like they do in Dragon Age.

 

Then there are games like Oblivion. I played through the main plot line expecting the game to end when I closed the gates, but intsead was left with the feeling of "that's it? is there more to this that I am missing?" For some gamers this is exactly what they want, and everyone has their own tastes, but I have to say that comparing two games like Dragon Age and Oblivion is like, what a poster stated earlier, comparing apples to oranges. Where one is solely story driven, the other is quest driven. Each has their strengths and weakness, but both also stand apart like different genres.

 

Well, time to get off the soapbox. Happy gaming to all. :)