Ah at last, some properly good games to get behind! 2 weeks ago Borderlands was released, and last week Dragon Age: Origins was released. I thought I'd be stuck grinding away in Borderlands with my housemates looking for even more ridiculous guns to blow away bandits with but then Dragon Age came out, and my god is it a beauty.
There are very few games that really captivate me and make me lose track of time, and indeed Dragon Age is the first game to do it since Oblivion, and Morrowind before it (The Witcher came close, but just lacked a certain je ne sais quoi for me).
While touted as a successor to Baldur's Gate by Bioware it is far and away the successor to Neverwinter Nights. To me that's not an issue, while I loved Baldur's Gate I similarly liked NWN (if I have to play through that prison section one more time I might just break) but if you didn't like Neverwinter Nights or you are to Neverwinter Nights what the hardcore Fallout fans are to Fallout 3 then I'd suggest taking a wide berth around this one.
All-in-all you're looking at around 40 - 50 hours of gameplay depending on how many of the quite lackluster side quests you do. But what the game lacks for in side quests it makes up for in depth of story, choice of action and lore. When most games give you dialogue options you tend to make choices based on what you predict to give you the most reward, right? DA really made me pick the options that I thought right for my character, and these options are often important as they affect whether party members stick around, desert you or even attack you. I had two of my four man party leave me in the game, taking the awesome items I'd given them with them. Ungrateful beggars.
If you're looking for a time sink and enjoy linear DND-style RPGs then I whole heartedly recommend Dragon Age: Origins, which comes with a toolset at launch. Bioware; doing it the right way.
PS. if you're wondering why there isn't a Dragon Age Nexus, BioWare have released their own site to host mods for the game. I'm keeping a close eye on it.
I think Dragon Age Origins looks a little bit like Drakensang,
and Drakensang was a Awesome game, still i play it. hmm Dragon Age looks Awesome too maybe i'll buy it!
Hmm...from your description and the other accounts I've had from chums, this sounds rather promising. Definitely something to put on my games-to-get list. I'm still messing around with Borderlands at the moment, myself, hehe.
Good for you. I know the feeling. Just make sure that you eat enough and get some sleep from time to time, unless you don't wanna turn into a zombie or something.
Oh, this game rocks!! I just love it!
It draws me in like no other game before. (The closest to this I've gotten to being dragged into the story and lore of a game must be Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights.)
There's two things I really hate about this game: the loading time and the useless side quests. But other than that IT'S great game, you won't see the time passing!