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Dragon Age: Origins | 
| From: Electronic Arts Category: Video Games
List Price: CDN$ 59.99 Buy New: CDN$ 47.99 as of 3/20/2010 08:29 EDT details You Save: CDN$ 12.00 (20%)
New (2) Used (1) from CDN$ 29.99
Seller: Amazon.ca Rating: 6 reviews Sales Rank: 129
Format: DVD-ROM Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP Genre: role_playing_games ESRB: Mature Media: DVD-ROM Edition: Standard Autographed: No Memorabilia: No Batteries Included: No Operating System: Windows Vista Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3 Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: 197183 Model: DragonOrigin-pc UPC: 014633190946 EAN: 0014633190946 ASIN: B001IK1BWC
Release Date: November 3, 2009 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description Dragon Age: Origins PC...Dragon Age: Origins represents BioWare's return to its roots in the form of a dark heroic fantasy game that combines deep and immersive storytelling with classic role-playing. As the spiritual successor to BioWare's popular Baldur's Gate series Dragon Age: Origins lets players acquire party members and interact with them while featuring a stunning amount of high quality cinematic dialogue. The pause-and-play combat system lets players make tactical decisions from an overhead view. Players that prefer a more "in-your-face" style of play can also take control of each party member to fight and explore in an over-the-shoulder view. Origin Stories are a major feature of the Dragon Age: Origins experience. Players choose their origin and from that starting point they will play through a unique prelude that lays the foundation for their adventure. The player's choice of origin defines how they will perceive the world and how the world will perceive them. Certain situations storylines and conversation options will change dramatically depending on the player's choice of origin and personal motivation. In Dragon Age: Origins the choices players make will change the world and affect the people around them making e
Amazon.ca Product Description
| From BioWare, the makers of Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur's Gate comes Dragon Age: Origins. An epic tale of violence, lust, and betrayal, Dragon Age: Origins is a single player role-playing game (RPG) set in a fantasy game environment, and featuring three playable character classes, accessible in the form of three races. In addition, the game features extreme character customization, a new game engine, party-based gameplay utilizing non-player characters and a built-in personal history system for each hero character rooted in a variety of possible origin stories.  6 possible hero Origin Stories. View larger. |  3 classes and 3 races to play as. View larger. |  Gritty, brutal action. View larger. |  Frightening enemies and bosses. View larger. |  Party-based combat using NPCs. View larger. |  Stunning 3D environments. View larger. | Story In Dragon Age: Origins the survival of humanity rests in the hands of those chosen by fate. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians who have defended the lands on the continent of Thedas throughout the centuries. Betrayed by a trusted general in a critical battle, you must hunt down the traitor and bring him to justice. As you fight your way towards the final confrontation with an evil nemesis, you will face monstrous foes and engage in epic quests to unite the disparate peoples of a world at war. A romance with a seductive shapeshifter may hold the key to victory, or she may be a dangerous diversion from the heart of your mission. To be a leader, you must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice your friends and loved ones for the greater good. Gameplay Dragon Age: Origins is a 3D oriented RPG based in a dark, heroic, fantasy realm where moral choices have a lasting impression on the people you meet, the members of your own party and the world around you. The inclusion of subtitle "Origins" in the game's title refers to the six unique origin stories available to new heroes as a new game begins. Each of these has an impact on the player's motivations and his or her experience, and renders a unique prelude, path, and possible ending(s) to the game. There are many different endings to the game based on the origin story of the character and the choices you make as you play through the game. The game features three character classes--warrior, mage, and rogue--and three races of being--Human, Elf or Dwarf--that can assume these classes. Although most game elements, such as weapons, magic, etc., are available to any character, each class and race has different strengths, abilities and affinities which lend themselves to better utilizing different elements. Dragon Age: Origins is a single player game based on party-based gameplay and combat where the player can join, control and quest with up to three non-player characters (NPCs). Players can also quest alone if they so choose, but with the chance of survival are slim. Convincing NPCs to join you, and treating them well may be necessary depending on the varying sentiments between the player and the NPC, or between the NPC's in the party based on the chosen history written into the origin story accepted at the beginning of the game. This uncertainty allows for a variety of possible dynamics within the party ranging from open hostility, all the way to romance. The game progresses in real-time via a pause-and-play tactical combat system that allows the player to check inventory levels, equip a character, etc. in a slight vacuum. Additional features found in the game include: a combination of a standard loot system and a currency system based on gold silver and copper; advanced character customization functionality; the use of poison, traps and herbalism; dual-wielding skills; and "spell combos," which allow players to chain together different spells to create a unique effects. Key Game Features - BioWare’s deepest universe to date with over 80 hours of gameplay and more than double the size and scope of Mass Effect.
- Travel throughout dozens of environments and fully immerse yourself in a shattered world that is on the brink of utter annihilation.
- An epic story that is completely shaped and reactive to your play style.
- Complex moral dilemmas offering no easy choices.
- Tailor your Dragon Age: Origins experience from the very beginning by choose from six different origin stories.
- Decide how to handle complex issues like murder, genocide, betrayal, and the possession/sacrificing of children without the security of a good/bad slider to tell you what to do.
- Full character customization allowing the player to sculpt a hero in your own image or fantasy.
- Elaborate character creator allows you to create your own hero unique from anyone else.
- Shape your character’s personality and morality based on the choices you make throughout the game.
- Engage in bone-crushing, visceral combat engaging in battle against massive and terrifying creatures.
- Unleash legendary powers and choose from over 100 different magical spells and skills.
- Experience the adrenaline rush of brutal combat, beheading your foes or casting spells that make enemies explode from within.
System Requirements: | Minimum | Recommended | | OS: | Windows XP with SP3 / Vista with SP1 | | CPU: | XP: Intel Core 2(or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater AMD X2(or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater / Vista: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater | Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent | | RAM: | XP: 1GB or more / 1.5GB or more | 2 GB (XP) / 4 GB (Vista) | | HDD: | 20GB | | Video: | XP: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater / Vista: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater | ATI 3850 512 MB or greater, NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater, AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 2.8 GHz or greater | | Other: | DVD-ROM drive for physical disc play; Mouse/keyboard/gamepad for gameplay | |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
The good and the bad and the INVISIBLE WALLS!!! February 17, 2010 Spidey (ON Canada) One of the biggest let downs for me. I can't stand invisible walls. When I see an area in front of me and I can't walk there it drives me nuts. It has crashed on me twice, but that has to do with my system itself I guess. I am well above the required, but my video card is half way between recommended and required.
The story is great. It is worth it for the story. The fighting AI is decent, but easy enough to figure stategies to beat. A few quirks. Feels like a game that is about 10-12 years old with the fighting style and the invisible walls and very very linear path you must follow to go anywhere. Why such a large hyped game was made this way is beyond me. I don't think you should have a pathway for you character that only covers 5% of the visible map. Not able to interact with the environment either. Anything that can be interacted with glows, so there is no mystery there. When you open a chest, it doesn't open, it is a fixed 2D world. Simulated 2D-3D, where the world moves but your character is really following a 2D path is a very old style of game play. I think overall Runescape is more fun without the graphics of Dragon Age. I would try to find a second hand copy of the game.
Character generation is more about customizing the picture of the character than variety in character class and attributes.
"Almost" Too Much Story!!! February 7, 2010 Reddog (Toronto, Canada) I have played most RPG stuff from Bioware so I thought I knew what to expect...
Little did I know they would give me so much story!?! Almost too much story!
I mean I sometimes sit there digesting cut scene after cut scene "almost" wanting to click through so I can get to some actual "fighting" because it it "almost" too much...
Notice I said "almost"...
Thankfully the scenes are well rendered, well written and well acted... This makes me sit through them and though sometimes almost too long I ache to go and smash some "Darkspawn"!
I played through every opening story for each race and class. I enjoyed them all. They eventually end up in the same place. I doubt I will go back and play different characters in this game but after playing all 6 opening stories and continuing on with my elf rogue I am well over 40 hours of playtime with maybe 3/4 of the story done...
Some of the negatives are moving the characters by clicking the mouse sucks! Especially if your destination isn't in a straight line with no objects blocking your path. Graphically the game is OK, it's not cutting edge but it is good! Lots of items and information to add to your journal can be both bad and good (I know they have a plot line area for items that you need but i am a pack rat and want to keep it all)
Too much stuff to read in the journals, many times I gloss over it... DLC or downloadable content is too expensive in my opinion... You pay 50 dollars for a game with hours of content and then they want you to pay 5 to 7 dollars for maybe an hours worth of game!?! Not me.. I've heard they have made well over 1 million dollars off the downloadable content alone so I guess it it here to stay :( The good news is it isn't necessary to download this content as it only adds back story and some items not essential to finishing the game...
All in all I give the game a 5 on story 3.5 on graphics and 4 on fun...So 4 outta 5 howls for me!
ArrrOOooo!
Do not buy this game December 28, 2009 Fore 0 out of 6 found this review helpful
This game has major problems. It doesnt work. The game causes a hard crash that will disable your system completely. You end up having to do a hard reboot to get your computer working again.
This is not an isolated problem. People with Nvidia and ATI video cards are reporting this.
If you dont believe me go to read the reports here:
[...]
Wait a few months before you buy this game cause I dont see how they can fix it soon as the problem is so widespread.
I cannot overstate how great Origins is at what it is trying to be. December 7, 2009 Neither 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Here is, finally almost after a decade of waiting, the spiritual successor to cRPG classics like Baldur's Gates, Torment and the likes. Hugely detailed and handcrafted living world, emotionally engaging characters, coupled with a gloriously tactical combat system. All wrapped up in one of the best written and expansive narrative in gaming that oozes old school every time it unapologetically throws Thedas rich history at you.
Sounds too good to be true? I thought so, that's why it took me almost a month since release to get this, after finally succumbing to the overwhelmingly positive word of mouth coming from the niche gaming circles. Better late than never.
This review doesn't discuss any negative aspects of the game, I didn't encounter any that mattered enough to stay in memory, having spend over 60 hours already and itching away to find the time to replay it. There are unique starting areas and many dialog choices throughout the game that deserve a revisit to see how the other outcomes shape the story.
You will also have to read the others reviews for details, no point beating a dead horse. Normally I don't write positive reviews because by that time there are multitude of already existing ones that cover it, but this isn't just a great game, more a long forgotten sub-genre risen from the ashes, in a spectacular fashion. This is what I thought of back in 2000 I would be playing in the near future when I was chasing after Irenicus. I just never expected it to take so long to actually come out, and gave up all hope.
Some people might not be happy about day one DLC, but that's because they assume it would have been included right into the game for free otherwise, instead of simply being cut during development due to lack of funds. Who knows. Who cares. It doesn't matter, the game is easily 80+ hours affair and if you like what you see, then paying only $50 is an outright steal, and as aforementioned, length isn't even the best part.
This is also a pc version review. I can't even fathom how you play this with a controller or no quick mousescroll zoom out/in ability during battles. There are some games that were made for mouse and keyboard, this is one of them. Not only does it play and look better, you will also have free additional content/tweaks created by the community down the road. As long as your system can run it, the choice is clear.
I pretty much gave up on Bioware, they have been going downhill in my eyes with each game since Shadows of Amn released. Didn't even finished Mass Effect because of its copy pasted and sterile areas, underutilized world and for the most part boring, although unique looking, characters. I'm barely even going to mention Oblivion or new Fallout, which I consider to be 10 hour long distractions at best before I started getting bored with each(copy pasting of areas to see how big it can get, with throwaway plot barely holding it together), just to point out that I was one of those that thought the good old days of cRPGs were long gone.
I expected Origins to be yet another let down. Now I'm going to have to go back to Mass Effect in the near future and finish it just in case Bioware's upcoming sequel will be as good as this gem. After so many disappointments in the genre over the past years, DA:Origins is nothing short of a little miracle to me. Praised be the Maker.
Dragon age December 4, 2009 Morgana (Montreal) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This game is incredible. The graphics are great and the story is very interesting especially since it change depending on the background of the character you choose. You can be a team of up to 4 characters and you control 1 of them at a time but you have the option of pausing the game during a battle so you can decide what each character should do: heal, attack, cast spells etc or let them fight on their own by selecting tactics for them. Once you start playing you never want to stop!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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