Yes, and I heard it would not have got an M rating if not for the sexual content.Those ESRB people are made of fail .. heck, they had to reclassify Oblivion due to complaints .. like they didn't know what was in it in the first place?See, DA:O was marketed as a mature game, so they had to make sure they got the M rating.Some content included to that end was quite unnecessary.The pearl, for instance .. and the blood spatters.We live in an age when a game like Modern Warfare 2 sold 7 million units on day 1 partly because you get to massacre civilians at an airport.Not quite sure how good that game is, yet .. but the second highest launch figures of all time was Grand Theft Auto 4 .. which was a good-but-not-great game.Devs say what devs say, and the bulk of pre-launch stuff is marketing.Just to drive home my point, dungeons & dragons 3rd edition has an open game licence. WoTC does not get a say on how those rules are used.
What I meant by the NPCs (yes, the ones that join your party) is the way you control them. It just didn't seem to be as smooth to me as what they had in the BG series. Maybe it's just my perception, or just brought back bad memories of NWN and NWN 2. I wouldn't say the graphics in DA:O are improved over BG II. Yes, they are 3D but many come off as generic. Perhaps by claiming DA:O is the spiritual successor to the BG series and having to wait so long for the game raised my expectations too much, but those expectations were met by the Witcher. That is my point. As for having the same combat as the BG series, yes I am disappointed in that. It's now been eight years since BG II, and I was hoping for an improvement. Like I said, DA:O is a good but not a great game.Dezired said:
I fully agree with this, and is one of the main reasons I feel DA:O is good but not along the lines of the Witcher or the BG series. The Witcher made a lot of improvements on combat (the timing and different types) as well as movement and panning the camera. Try DA:O with a trackball and you'll see what I mean.Tlazolteotl said:
Oh come now, at least attempt a new game. I too prefer The Wicher, but am always open to other games too.Maybe try it and then comment on the little good aspects you would like to see in here or something. I'm sure you'll find some use of the experience, good or bad.Josty said:Dragon Age sucks! i have played 10 + hours and every time i play i just miss the witcher. I now gonna delete DA and play the witcher one more timeI want The witcher 2 !!!
eace:I made a really hideous female character .. there's so many conversations when I couldn't stop laughing.Ok, maybe that's not very politically correct, but meh ..The game's flaws are certainly less annoying when the main character is wearing tier 6+ massive armour.
OMG I'm remembering some of the dialogue options from that first meeting ...If only the main character is voiced (during conversations), and I could pick something squeaky and obnoxious, I might literally ROFL.
I think they're both excellent games. Dragon Age is the slicker, more polished game, but the Witcher has loads of lovely detail to the gameplay and is less fairy-tale-ish, less cliched (despite the many interesting twists on the genre that DA has, especially re. politics), more original and quirky. The stories in both are really well written, however, and both are extremely immersive and absorbing. DA has better voice acting, and much better facial animations, which makes the conversations more like being in a film. The actual dialogue writing in DA is of a higher standard as well - i.e., although the concept and story is more interesting and original in TW, the detail of the writing (dalogues, character development as revealed in dialogues) isn't quite as good as DA.In some ways, they're not at all comparable, because the gameplay in DA is more based around party play, so the combat is "bigger" and more complex, more strategic. But the combat in TW has its own special feeling that's very addictive. Geralt's fighting animations are truly excellent - I wish all games had such a high standard of animation (or is it mocap?).Graphics-wise, the art design in both is about comparable - both very high quality, suitable to the subject. The characters are better done in DA, but the backgrounds are better done in TW. Audio-wise, both have excellent music, although again quite different in tone - DA's more epic, TW's more mystical, dreamy and characterful. Combat sounds in DA are better and more varied.So yeah, both are really, really excellent games that I'd highly recommend to anyone.
I enjoy them both, but I prefer The Witcher.In DA:O I appreciate the level of character customization and the extensive voice acting. The party NPCs are wonderfully varied, and I love the NPC banter. The combat animations are also quite good, though I don't notice any heads bouncing down the streets the way they do in The Witcher. The first time I noticed it happening in TW, I howled with laughter. In DA:O the heads of decapitated characters seem to disappear--tasteful but a bit jarring.In The WItcher I appreciate the fact that I am uncovering nuances in a pre-existing character as much as following a quest storyline. Neither DA:O nor TW creates a pc as blank as an Oblivion character, but TW really commits its storytelling to the fact that Geralt has a past whether he remembers it or not. It's hard to make that work well in a game that also wants to give the player real options, but I think CDPR succeeds admirably. I also like the dynamic weather, the day-night cycle, the lived-in feel of the various environments, and side quests and minigames that actually change the gameplay.
I'm about halfway through DA. The combat system seems a little more complex with all the skill and party choices. So replaying the game with a unique build and group like in BG2 seems likely. The story and characters are good, but not quite up to TW's. Geralt is just a unique cool character tough to compete with and the story and atmosphere were great. But replaying Witcher more than 2-3 times wasn't in the cards for me because there's not much variety in the fighting style you'll end up with; its more the quest choices you make.I think the next Witcher would be better if they revamped the combat to allow more varied builds. There's really only 2 signs worth investing into heavily, and igni is just superior to all.
Oh God forget it Dragon Age doesn't even Contend with The Witcher the Witcher is on like some other playing field.The Witcher is alive the world is alive there is detail in everything, the conversations the places everything is just in your face and you have to live and deal with it.Dragon Age really lacks detail. It's almost as if the Devs just forgot about all the little things that make something come alive, funny they didn't in Baldur's Gate 2.The Witcher the story is so personal so fantastic and full of twists and turns. Dragon age has some really good stories out side the whole of the main story. I am not far enough to really say what the whole story is please don't spoil it for me thanks!!!I really think that The Witcher is a better game though. Dragon Age is fun but it's missing a lot! Like Details and atmosphere that make places feel alive.
I've finished DA:O with a dwarven warrior, and i must admit: I love that game. I will try to play it again, this time as a mage - having opened up the Arcane Warrior specialisation, I can be something like Geralt (Magic & Melee).But I won't compare DA:O to the Witcher. There two different kinds of games: The Witcher is single-play (which I prefer, by the way; I'm always happy with only one character, makes it easier to identify yourself with that). That said, the Witcher is more of an Action-RPG, while DA:O is really a old fashioned RPG, with tactical battles. I like that style, too.There are a few things which links this games together: It's purely fantasy for adults. It's dark, and you have choices to made which make an impact on the future of the world. Both games handle that great, I think; but with DA:O, these decisions are mostly kind of good-bad-decisions, while TW knows no good from bad. It's more the "Both ways are bad and bloody, but you have to take one" kind of choice.I love both games, to be true. I love TW a little more than DA:O, but DA:O has one big advantage: IT RUNS ON WINDOWS 7!I'm trying to get TW running under Win7 for days now... it kinds of pisses me off. I would really like to play it again... *sigh*
I played 3 times through DAO and loved every minute of it. But the game was getting stale, due to repetition, so I decided to pick up the Witcher just a couple of days ago to see what all the fuss was about. Im sorry but I just cant get into it. I am currently in Act II, after having killed the cockatrice. Somehow, I just dont "feel" this game. The voice acting is atrocious, wooden, and delivered in machine gun fashion, with almost no nuance. Sometimes I feel like I am listening to Joe Friday. Moreover, the movement/combat mechanics are absolutely horrible. I really wanted to get into the story, but so far, it holds little interest for me. Yea its all gritty and spoofy and detailed, but the characters feel like characatures, from a bad Monty Python movie, and not real people....whereas in DAO, the characters felt very real and genuine. But my biggest complaint is about the combat mechanics, which are so distractingly bad that I just exited in disgust from the battle outside the detective's office, and probably will just delete the game from my hard disk. I dont get you people who say that the Witcher is so much better than DAO. I just dont see it. What universe are you living in?
Well considering you've completed so little of it, like maybe less than 1/10th, it's understandable you've not experienced the full flavor of the story and the character Geralt. I can understand the combat complaints. I actaully enjoyed it the first couple times through, but it doesn't allow alot of variety in specialization and combat style. It's your loss however, it really was one of the best stories ever for RPG's.I finished DAO. I loved the first 75% of the game. I really was disappointed in the ending, it felt a little flat and generic to me. And the forced interaction with an especially annoying character pissed me off. The combat was excellent and should be fun to replay and specialize in different classes and party make-up.So I'd recommend both games. If the Witcher sequel maintains the great story quality, attention to detail, and improves the combat system, it will be an all-time great.
This may have been mentioned already because I didn't real the thread, but I've gone off Bioware a bit. I mean I buy DA:O and install it, and what's the first thing I see? Ads in the launcher. Fair enough, I think to myself, they're just promoting stuff they think I might be interested in. It's not like it interferes with gamplay or anything...But then you get to the camp, and there's an NPC that offers a quest that YOU HAVE TO BUY SEPARATELY! And to all those who say ' well it's not like you have to buy it, you can just ignore it'. No! If I want to get all achievents and actually complete the game, as well as get it out of my otherwise impecably tidy quest log I do have to buy it. Keep the DLC in the DLC menu please so I don't feel like I've bought 95% of a game!And CDP Red let me upgrade to the enhanced edition with all the extras for free!I have far more respect for this company for that reason. And yes, I do think TW is a better game, so there.
It is a little underhanded, but I get their reasoning ..As far as PC games go, people steal more than they buy.Adding significant content that "everyone" gets, but only if they register and download, is good for the profit margins.(The content I mean is Shale and the Blood Dragon armour)Watcher's Keep, however, is retarded.To have an NPC tell you about content that costs money is annoying.But, a lot of people have bought the content because of that guy.Personally, I don't support that kind of in-your-face microtransaction selling ... it's in the same category as call centres and people knocking on your door trying to get you to change electricity company.It obviously works, which is why companies do that sort of thing, but stinks.Publishers are trying to make their money back, 'cos games are increasingly expensive to make.Financial losses lead to desperate measures, such as EA fleecing its two biggest franchises (Sims and Madden) for every cent.Madden 10: Microtransactions for consumables - pay real money for once-off plays, etc.So yeah. Publishers beware.Microtransactions may make you a few bucks now, but pissing off the customers will eventually bite you in the ass.
While I remain neutral on the subject of DLCs and such stuff, I must agree that DAO downloadable content is at the very least overpriced (15$ for Stone Prisoner?!) and intrusive (yes, the idea of promoting DLC in-game is... evil). I hope time and consumers will make this rip-off mechanism disappear. Nevertheless, DAO is an awesome game, just like is TW. Comparison would be unfair, these games are too different.P.S. The greatest part in DAO for me, which differs it from TW, is companions. Their dialogues and stories maybe better than any other features.