Is DA the best RPG ever?

[SpellAndShield]

game that makes it so amazing and so much better than other RPGs?

 

Looking forward to hearing your opinions! :thumbsup:

[RustyBlade]

I can't really say for certain that it is the best ever because there are many RPG's that I have not played, however it is the best I have played. I think part of the reason is due to technology finally getting to the point where it is possible to do a game on such an epic scale without significantly damaging users hardware (although my cooling fans take a beating every time the memory leak starts in - sounds a bit like an old F-4 Phantom on takeoff...) or overfilling their hard drives (total space used on my machine is ~16GB - I remember 10 years ago when I thought that 6.4GB drive I bought was a monster.)

 

Technology aspects notwithstanding, kudos must go out to the writers, artists and actors for a job well done; software guys could have worked a bit harder/longer on some things but we can blame the bean-counters for that.

[SpellAndShield]

I can't really say for certain that it is the best ever because there are many RPG's that I have not played, however it is the best I have played. I think part of the reason is due to technology finally getting to the point where it is possible to do a game on such an epic scale without significantly damaging users hardware (although my cooling fans take a beating every time the memory leak starts in - sounds a bit like an old F-4 Phantom on takeoff...) or overfilling their hard drives (total space used on my machine is ~16GB - I remember 10 years ago when I thought that 6.4GB drive I bought was a monster.)

 

Technology aspects notwithstanding, kudos must go out to the writers, artists and actors for a job well done; software guys could have worked a bit harder/longer on some things but we can blame the bean-counters for that.

 

Yes, my machine is crap and it does not run well on it. Oh well.

 

Also, best RPG I have ever played but haven't played them all...

[Codifer]

I must agree totally with the previous comments. I too have an old machine and have not played too many RPGs. But, without doubt, i can say that DA:O is the best that I have experienced.

 

I can remember the fascination and joy that I experienced while playing "Ultima III" on a 128k Commodore. The characters were about three pixels (big ones) traveling on a flat plane. Enter a town.... change floppy. Any character backstory or portrait existed only in my head and in the notes and sketches in the journal that I kept (and still have).

 

One of the delights of DA:O is that I finally was able to create the look of those Ultima characters that I imagined so long ago and I can now see them move and interact.

 

Amazing.

 

I also agree with Rusty Blade about the fan sounds under load.... though mine sounds like the A4 Skyray as I recall them from the late sixties.

[elooocin]

What makes it the best RPG, to me, is the relationships and how attached I get to each and every character. No other game has ever been that way for me and it is why I was so disappointed with Awakening since I believe they stripped the game of the best part! Yes, the game is amazing on it's own, but without the in depth character development I would not have played it so many times that I can get through the quests with my eyes closed, so to speak!

 

The fact I can create a character, choose his/her hair & makeup and their facial features - then I get to develop my character as a person and make the hard choices that fit who my character is. Sure there are tons of other games & RPGS out there with some of these things, and so many with amazing fighting that I love. But there has never been a game like this that I flock to play over and over no matter how many times I beat it or finished particular quests.

 

So ... it's the relationships hands down that suck me in. For example, I read a series of books by J.D. Robb that really do not have the best writing in them since I'm not a fan of that woman, but the relationships hooked me into the books and I now own the nearly 30 books the woman has written because of this. It's because I care about the people she created and I want to follow their lives and the murder mysteries become only the supporting part to me. That is how I feel about DA:O too. I love the game on it's own without the relationships, I enjoyed Awakening and it had none of that heart tugging that the base game has, but because it lacks the true character depth I felt so let down!

 

So yeah, that is why I love DA:O and what makes it the best RPG to me.

[DarkeWolf]

hahaha I loved that comment about the cooling fans, Rusty! Mine start revving up like a set of twin turbos!

 

From a gameplay standpoint, I really like a lot of things about the games. The characters are extremely well developed, the storyline is really good, the world is large enough to be entertaining, without being so huge as to get lost, or take so much travel time *coff coff* Morrowind *coff coff* that you've spend half an hour just getting from one place to another.

 

From a technical standpoint... my opinion is that the engine is really poorly done, and needs a considerable amount of work. (I blame EA).

From a modding standpoint.... see ^ ^. That, and I call it the toolcrap for a reason.

[SpellAndShield]

hahaha I loved that comment about the cooling fans, Rusty! Mine start revving up like a set of twin turbos!

 

From a gameplay standpoint, I really like a lot of things about the games. The characters are extremely well developed, the storyline is really good, the world is large enough to be entertaining, without being so huge as to get lost, or take so much travel time *coff coff* Morrowind *coff coff* that you've spend half an hour just getting from one place to another.

 

From a technical standpoint... my opinion is that the engine is really poorly done, and needs a considerable amount of work. (I blame EA).

From a modding standpoint.... see ^ ^. That, and I call it the toolcrap for a reason.

 

What's wrong with the engine?

[DarkeWolf]

enormous save game files, cross savegame bleed-overs, huge system resource usage issues, usage of databases rather than folders that you can just drop new files into, seriously unorthodox meshes, use of obscure C++ rather than C##, ummmm.....

[grannywils]

Hey DW, how ya doin' today? You lost me a little with some of the technical jargon regarding the engines. But that's not unusual, since I'm just learning that stuff. But I do think this is the best RPG that I have ever played. I agree with the earlier poster who said she becomes involved with the characters she has created, regardless of how many times she has played through the game. And, with your help and by reading through these forums, I'm learning how to use mods, etc. So I have learned how to make each play through a little different and a little better. I now understand that there are mods for other games, and have just purchased Fallout 3 and will eventually try that one. But I'm not finished experimenting with this one yet. I'm truly addicted to it.

[SpellAndShield]

Hey DW, how ya doin' today? You lost me a little with some of the technical jargon regarding the engines. But that's not unusual, since I'm just learning that stuff. But I do think this is the best RPG that I have ever played. I agree with the earlier poster who said she becomes involved with the characters she has created, regardless of how many times she has played through the game. And, with your help and by reading through these forums, I'm learning how to use mods, etc. So I have learned how to make each play through a little different and a little better. I now understand that there are mods for other games, and have just purchased Fallout 3 and will eventually try that one. But I'm not finished experimenting with this one yet. I'm truly addicted to it.

 

Fallout does allow for character building, but of a much different sort to DA. Fallout 3 is great, don't get me wrong but I never really got emotionally caught up in it the way I did for DA (with the exception of the ending...which you will have to wait for and see...).