The Compact Disc- The future of gaming?

A look at the technological advancements in gaming from the 90s to now

No, you haven't stumbled across some ancient blog in the depths of cyberspace. I am writing this on the 30th January 2012. Whilst rummaging through my collection of games last night, a friend and I happened to stumble upon the dusty ghosts of two brilliant titles. The first was Flicky (from the glory days of SEGA) and the second was Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. Being the age that I am, Flicky is a good example of the starting point of games for me. It didn't take days to complete a game and there was no such thing as a save file. You might get a game with passwords now and again but the majority of games could be passed around and shared, despite being 1 player games. You could have a five minute go on a game and then go about your day- something that seems ridiculous when you think about how ridiculously short an hour on Skyrim feels. Games were pixellated, 2D, simple, colourful and -above all- addictive.

With that as a backdrop, consider the next ten years in the world of games. 1994 gives us the first peek at the very ominous 'Project Reality' and come '97 it reveals itself as the Nintendo 64. With this comes the spread  of the 64BIT cartridge which means that we can play games with 3D characters in a 3D world! We can run around in circles and rotate a camera angle 360 degrees. This was a big jump and considering the fact that it coincided with the growth of the Pokemon franchise, Nintendo 64s were very popular with kids like me, hungry to get their mitts on Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Coliseum.We see the introduction of a console so futuristic and advanced that its games do not come on cartridges, but these new fangled 'Compact Discs'... Consoles the world over quake in fear as the most intimidating bit of kit bursts onto the scene and the era of the Playstation begins. During Sony's reign of terror, the SEGA Dreamcast is born and presents a lot of exciting ideas such as the first hint at online gaming. Unfortunately the world was not ready for the Dreamcast and so it didn't sell well and just kind of dissolved into the gaming fade. All in all, my childhood saw the making, breaking and advancement of many different technologies such as the Gameboy, GameGear, SEGA Dreamcast, Playstation 1&2, Nintendo 64 and XBox. What a childhood it was.

























So why all the rambling about the past? I just wanted to give a general feel of just how fast paced the market was in the nineties and early noughties. Naughty Dog released three Crash Bandicoot titles in under four years. Just think about that for a second. Three of the most popular games of the nineties were all developed  insanely quickly and in succession. If a game takes a year to develop now then it's a sure-fire bugfest and general letdown (cough cough- Dragon Age 2.) Skyrim- wonderful and complex as it is- took FIVE years to develop and it's still not flawless. That is the nature of gaming nowadays, true, but what a jump we've seen in the last fifteen years. People didn't wait five years for a game because in the time it took to make it, new technology would make the game obsolete. Imagine if Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped had been held in development until 2004. It might have looked a bit nicer and it would be bug free, but it would be on the shelves next to San Andreas on PS2!

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

The evolution of Final Fantasy

I don't want to go on about this for much longer, because I want you to read to the end and participate with your opinions, so I'll wrap it up. The trend, in my opinion, has shifted in the build up to, and since the introduction of the seventh generation consoles (PS3, 360, Wii). In the past there has always been a limit to what you could potentially do when making a game, so progress was usually in the form of pushing the machine to its limits. This could be in terms of versatility such as the varied level designs and play styles in the Crash Bandicoot series. It could be in terms of sheer amount of content and visual quality as shown in the Final Fantasy series. The point I'm making is that the emphasis was always on getting the most out of the machine and then making a better machine to keep up with your ideas. Now we have a set of machines that are equipped to deal with more than ever before and the fact that the seventh generation isn't going anywhere fast means that developers don't have to worry about being left behind. Rather than having a framework of levels and worlds and loading screens in which you have to contain your ideas, developers can now attempt to do away with limitations and divides between what you can see and do. There doesn't have to be a distinction between the playable area and the background any more, because as we see in Skyrim, it is possible now to make the 'background' playable if you walk far enough.

In an attempt to wrap this up again, I would just like to point out that this is not an essay and is incomplete without the ideas of others. I would really like for people that read this to post a response with their opinions because that makes it so much more fun for me! Please contradict me, challenge me or improve on what I've said. I need a third party to bounce ideas off, because my ideas aren't as inspired as they once were when I had people to discuss them with- I'm looking at you Jyggalag.

DannyDarko x

Final Fantasy VIII (8)

Time for something a little bit older here. Final Fantasy 8 is one of the many installments of Squaresoft's (now Square-Enix) Final Fantasy series. Most of the games are completely separate stories set in different fictional worlds. There are common features in all of the games such as Mogs and Chocobos, but there are also lots of recycled names and non-player characters. Final Fantasy 8 was originally released on PS1 in late 1999. Back then it was on 4 discs, which shows just how big this game was, considering that most games fit on one disc. This was also the case for it's predecessor, FF7 which was released in late '97 on three discs. After the commercial success of FF7, Squaresoft were regarded by many as master storytellers and brilliant game maker, but following FF8's release they became known for smashing the competition to pieces with their stunning cut-scenes. The cut-scenes in this game were so advanced that it is difficult to believe there was room for improvement. The characters looked more real than anything in any game or animated movie and I don't recall any other game of the time coming anywhere near as precise and lifelike as FF8. 

Cutscene

Like any gamer that revisits a treasured nostalgic game, I started FF8 with quite a knot in my stomach. I was wondering if it would be as good as I remembered. Would it be as good-looking? Would it be as encapsulating? Would it feel the same? This time round I have downloaded FF8 from the PlayStation network and played it on my PSP, which removes the element of undivided attention from the proceedings, because I tend to do other things while I am using my PSP. It was probably for the best however, because this game is very time-consuming. Back when I was 10 years old this was a huge plus, because it meant that for the price of one game I could be entertained for months and months. Now that I have other things in my life such as a job and a relationship and family etc., I do have to split my attention between more than just games and food. So, in a roundabout way I'm trying to say that the PSP allowed me to play for an amount of time I could not give to the PS3.

In-game

 The game was just as I remembered: lots of menus, drawing magic from monsters, equipping magic to raise stats, stealing, fighting, finding, reading and exploring. Each of the characters that I found along the course of the story were like old friends I was catching up with, scheduled and familiar because I knew when they all came into the story, of course. The story unfolded as I played and I knew what was going to happen at every turn. I found myself returning to a random corner of a house or stealing from a certain boss because I just knew that that's what I should do. It would seem that all of the habits and tricks I had picked up in the past had stuck with me over the last decade. Playing the game felt very much like de ja vu and I took delight in the fact that I had remembered to play cards with the boy in the blue top and the Trepe Groupie #1 in order to get my Minimog and Quistis cards. This might sound crazy to anyone who hasn't played the game, but if you have then you will know what I'm talking about. If you've played the game again recently then I'd really like to know if the game had the same effect on you. 

Battle

If I was looking at the game as a new release in 2012, then I would have to say that the cut-scenes look good, the in game graphics are grainy and the lack of spoken dialogue means the text boxes are a bit heavy on the eyes. I would probably think that the turn based battles were a bit slow and that the story was good, but the game's difficulty hiked up by the games complicated levelling and junctioning system was too difficult for a newcomer or casual gamer. That said, if you've enjoyed other Final Fantasy games then I would recommend this, as well as the others. If, like me, you haven't played this game for a long time I would say it's definitely worth a trip down memory lane.

DannyDarko x

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Here we go: MW3 post- Mark II

So I had already written the most beautifully crafted, hilarious, accurate and encapsulating piece on this game, but it somehow got deleted. This means that in true Tenacious D style, I give you the tribute to the greatest post in the world. (Just going to write another piece really..)

He's back and you actually control him this time

In the unlikely event that you are new to the Call of Duty series, then let me give a brief but accurate synopsis of any and all of the games in the series. Call of Duty: *insert number/subtitle here* is a fast-paced, first person shooter that sees military hard men parading round the globe shooting up anyone that looks even remotely eastern. The general gist for the Modern Warfare titles has been that a crazy, sadistic Russian terrorist by the name of Makarov has been traipsing around Europe killing folk with various technologies. Makarov wants to see Russia at war with America and has a pretty good go at making this happen. Modern Warfare 3 runs with this storyline and the whole game is centred around finding Makarov and his lackeys. I may as well not bother with any of this storyline lark, because it is all a ruse. The story is a very minor feature in this game, just like it was in the others. When I'm sneaking through the dusty streets of some African village watching civilians being executed as I stare helplessly, knowing that if I break cover I will be killed, my focus is entirely on the problems at hand. However, when I have finished sneaking through the streets, infiltrating a stronghold and killing the leader of this murderous bunch, the level ends and a loading screen comes up. At this point in time I have a moment to reflect and I wonder to myself... What the bloody hell did that have to do with anything? Oh it was the CoD version of chasing up a bit of intel. Right...

Minor rant aside, I don't mind that the story is so threadbare because quite honestly they could scrap the campaign altogether for all I care and give me twice as many Special Ops. This game mode is the best thing to happen to the series in my opinion because it does away with the silly problem that is plotline and allows CoD to do what it does best: brilliant set pieces that involve stealth, tactics, brute force, vehicles, allies, gadgets and any mix of the lot. The Special Ops mode allows you to feel like a proper military badass and the only bad thing about them in my opinion is that there aren't more of them. And yes, I do think Special Ops is better than zombies- 100% better.

 The graphics haven't seen much of an improvement since Modern Warfare 2, in fact I was shocked at how similar it looked on first sight. I do like the look of the rain dripping from things in the campaign and I'm going to try and figure out how to get a clip of that up just in case anyone else is as painfully sad as me. Not much else to say about looks really, because sadly not much has changed... big downer. On the plus side, however, the guns feel right again and when you look down the sights of an AS50 and pull the trigger you can feel the power. Recoil, bullet damage and knife lunging is all back to normal so for me the gameplay is spot on. One big problem for me is that Sledgehammer have turned the grenade launcher setting from terminate to tickle, which must be a knee-jerk reaction to Blandy's videos.

Multiplayer is obviously a big selling point for this game and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I know that a lot of people seem to have a problem with multiplayer sacrificing single player content (See fullyramblomatic.com) I'm going to leave multiplayer out of it for today, but I will come back to it. I like it, but I'll save it for another time.

The bottom line is that the game has it's flaws. If you want a deep, rich story with complex characters and intricate interlinked plot points then you should be looking at my Heavy Rain post, because you aren't going to find all that in MW3. The gameplay more than makes up for the lack of story, because it constantly entertains. It gives you set piece after brilliant set piece and never really gives you a minute to take a breath. The easiest thing to say is that if you liked MW2 you'll like this, because unfortunately it's very similar. The good thing about that is that MW2 was the best in the series and this one has survival mode too!

DannyDarko x

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So it's finally here after a huge five year wait. If you care about this series you probably already bought this game with the intention of making the character you've been thinking of for years. But wait... You only choose your race and what you look like. No more major and minor skills, no more star sign, no more setup. You pick who you are and you begin. What you are isn't decided by your 'class' but by how you play. Cool right?

This decision from the developers is very interesting and highly discussed, but the question is does it work, is it an improvement? Long story short: yes. You stumble out of the first town armeed with a bow, a sword, a shield, some spells and two hands. You can put a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. You can use a bow and arrows, taking up both hands. I put a sword in one hand and alternated between a healing spell and a fire spell in the other using the 'favourites' menu. So really, by removing a bunch of choices from the game and throwing you in the deep end, Bethesda have actually given us the chance to choose every time we play. I could be a greatsword-wielding tank on Tuesday and an armourless spellslinger on Wednesday with only a Mr.Ben-esque change in between.

Skills level up by simply using them which has been the case in the previous installments, Morrowind and Oblivion. You can raise skills using trainers and books, but the big change here is that all skills give experience towards your character's level advancement. Major skills, although technically being done away with are still cleverly incorporated because the higher a skill gets, the more experience you gain for raising it. I know I'm banging I a bit about the boring side of things, but that's what's brilliant about it; the boring task of planning your path by scrolling through menus has now become a sort of try before you buy. Are two-handed swords any good? In Oblivion I could have created a character, gone through the lengthy tutorial opening, made it a major skill had a little play. I could always make a new character if I didn't like it. Takes half an hour, an hour maximum. In Skyrim it's a simple case of relieving my latest victim of their huge sword and swinging it at their friend's head and neck. If I don't like it then I pick up the friend's staff and have a go with that. That's two little experiments in the space of a few minutes and becuase I'm not tied down to any particular skill set I could easily take a shine to a weapon or spell set and run with it for the rest of the game.

Ok, so I like the skill shakeup. That's clear, but that's just the beginning. The graphics in this game are very good. I do have to admit that the jump hasn't been the same as the mind-blowing change from Morrowind to Oblivion, but that's a cross platform jump, so tough competition. The little details are what count here. The fact that you can literally see for miles without fear of a broken or blurred image. The only thing that will affect the scenery off in the distance is the mist and cloud that rolls across the landscape, another nice touch. I think I read somewhere that if you can see a point, you can get there. I tried this out a little bit and ended up winding my way up a huge mountain, thus proving that the comment was quite right. Another nice touch is that you can still see the lanscape from within the walls of cities if you get high up, very immersive. There is one slight niggle in the 'see it, touch it' idea... the edge of the map. You can walk to the edge of the map to be greeted by a text prompt telling you 'You cannot go that way.' Slight hiccup in the immersion there, but to be fair to get to the edge of the map I did have to shuffle awkwardly up the side of a near vertical mountain side where no person has any business going... but still.

The combination of great graphics, great sound and improved voice acting means that the interactions that your character has with the physical world have seen a massive improvment from the previous installments. You will see doors actually open now, NPCs turn their heads to speak to you and actually mention their discomfort when you crouch down behind them in the hope of lightening their pockets. These little touches mean that you no longer get a mercant sucking your soul into his eyes or a beggar with a dual-personality disorder asking you for a coin one minute in a wobbly, wheezing voice and recommending his favourite vintage like a Cambridge elocution tutor the next. What you get is a huge, beautiful, complex world that damn near draws you in everytime you play it.

Act natural... They kind of do this time.

The absolute highlight for me about this game is one that will make many people question my ability to write these posts and have any stable opinion on games. But here it is anway: When I conjure my Dremora Lords and they kill an enemy on a ledge or rock face, if the next enemy is a small height below them, they just hop off the edge rather than walking along the designated path or simply skipping a few frames to get there. This means that when I've got one bandit backed against a wall, slashing at him with my bound sword and one Dremora Lord has another, I don't have to worry about the second Dremora taking a detour halfway round Skyrim. He hops off his ledge and advances on the next enemy, showing the urgency and pace of a real battle. Really? That's the best thing about this game? To quote Sawyer (From Lost, not Mark Twain's) 'It's all in the details, Freckles.' (Disregard the last bit... unless you have freckles.)

The gameplay is much the same as always, except that you can switch between weapons and spells more easily. You can swing a sword and cast some spells at the same time and you can cast more than one spell at once. Enchanting is back and there is a new Smithing skill which allows you to make and improve your own armour and weapons. You can sprint, sneak and jump your way around Skyrim, but Acrobatics is out so leaping tall buildings in a single bound is no longer possible, so put down the cape. Quests are completed, rewards are given, caves and ruins are explored. Life in The Elder Scrolls games goes on as normal and that's what I love so much about this series. The lore is still the same, the concept hasn't changed because it doesn't need to. Bethesda have taken a brilliant idea and painstakingly improved it over a massive period of time, paying attention to all the things that reviewers and fans have had to say. I know that this post is disgustingly positive, but there aren't many bad things for me to say about Skyrim.

Well, there are four:

1. The grind of raising Alchemy.

2. Overpowered bosses spanking me without warning.

3. Vampirism.

4. Deer stuck in a rock.

Discuss.

By DannyDarko x

Just a quick one to say that my laptop has been dead for a good six months now, but I'm reviving the blog. MW3 and Skyrim will be first in the firing line.

DannyDarko x

Dragon Age 2: A sequel?

BY JYGGALAG


Anyone who knows me will know how much I loved Bioware's dark-fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins and with that in mind, it's probably easy to guess to how much I was looking forward to the follow up. I won't go into too much detail about Origins, given how my contemporary Mr Darko just recently discussed Origins but I will say this: It is without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever played, with only the Metal Gear Solid saga, PokeMon and the Elder Scrolls being above it on my top games list. Now onto to Dragon Age 2.

When the game was first announced way back yonder I quite literally messed myself with excitement. After watching the trailer about a hundred times (and having to change my trousers after each viewing) I had worked myself up into quite the Dragon Age stupor and set about completing the "perfect" save-games I would transfer over to the sequel. However, in the last few months before the games release I became sceptical. I didn't stop to consider that Origins, which took several years to develop, had been released just over a year earlier and now Bioware were throwing a "full-blown" sequel my way. It was then that the promotional stuff started. "Sign up for this and you'll get this", "pre-order before the aforementioned date and you'll get this" and finally "just look at our website and you're eligible for this". EA and Bioware were giving away free in-game items more than a WoW fan faps away at the thought of getting it on with a lusty Night Elf. Why so much free stuff? I began to have doubts and after visiting the forums I saw I wasn't the only one. And now after buying, playing and completing the game myself I can safely say that Dragon Age 2 has been an epic fail on Bioware's part.

First I'll start with the story. Dragon Age 2 casts you in the role of "Hawke" a fully customisable character and a native of Ferelden; the setting of Dragon Age: Origins. Hawke is a refugee fleeing with his/her family to the city of Kirkwall in the Free Marches (a neighbouring country) as he/she escapes the Blight (the big bad threat of Origins). Along with a colourful cast of characters Hawke is determined to make a name for themselves in the city of Kirkwall, rising from refugee into the Champion of Kirkwall; the "single, most important person" in the Dragon Age universe. The story takes you through three acts, all of which are separated by several years and the total course of the game's storyline is ten years. The storyline (whilst not as impressive as Origins) is obviously good; this IS a Bioware game after all. It certainly drew me in and even though there seemed to be an awful lot of ret conning (such as characters that could be killed coming back to life with no explanation) it does a good job of making you want more. The characters are well written and you'll either completely love them, or absolutely despise them depending on how you play the game. This IS intended on Bioware's part so kudos for that. Despite the butchering of one returning character (a certain spirit-possessed mage) I loved them all and I, as with Origins, felt for these characters. But whilst talking about the storyline and characters is all well and good, saying a Bioware game has a good story and likeable characters isn't much of praise for a Bioware game as everyone knows it WILL have good writing.

The game play changes are definitely the one major thing has impacted how the game has been received. Now I played the game on a PS3 and so my experience of combat will undoubtedly be much different than a pc gamer. After all Origins on the PC and Origins on a console felt like completely different games. Combat is more action oriented and very fast-paced. You no longer have to watch your warrior struggle to heave a two-handed weapon, or grow bored as your mage fires their staff in a pew pew fashion. Warriors will now hack-n-slash at your opponents with a violent grace, whilst your mage does all sorts of flashy tricks and twirls when firing their staff. And, as for the Rogue, you can watch and enjoy as your rogue ninja leaps from opponent to opponent, moving in the blink of eye and backstabbing those troublesome hurlocks. As before you have a quick bar to assign spells and talents but on the console you're limited to six (as before). This won't really hinder you much as a Warrior or Rogue, but as a mage being limited to only six spells can be annoying. Of course you do have the radial menu to access even more spells and talents from, but if you're anything like me and you get really into your combat, pausing in the middle of it can be irritating. If you're playing it on Nightmare difficulty however then that radial menu will be your best friend... trust me.

You couldn't do that in Origins

Rather than an approval metre your companions instead have a Friendship and Rivalry metre. If you work to your companions Friendship (by doing things THEY want) then you'll get a nice party bonus once it’s maxed out. Working towards Rivalry will mean that your companion gets a personal bonus so they can prove they're better than you and they might just tell you to piss off if you try and give them a nice gift.

These are just a few of the changes made in Dragon Age 2 and they're all well and good but compared to the problems of DA2, these nice new features are sadly overlooked. Firstly Dragon Age 2 is a game that you can tell is rushed. Areas are recycled to hell. I have never seen recycled areas so much in a game (and this is coming from a guy who explored EVERY cave and fort in Oblivion). After the first Act I was absolutely sick of seeing the same bloody cave over and over again and I almost cried knowing more was to come. I don't know if its laziness on the devs part of if it's because the game was so rushed. But given the fact that not only were these recycled areas, but the majority of them were bugged, I think it’s safe to say it was the latter. I actually doubt if this game was even properly tested. Speaking of bugs, Dragon Age 2 is crawling with them. There are bugs that prevent completing certain quests, falling through walls and even a particularly annoying bug that lowers the speed and strength of your character to a game breaking level. The latter bug has been patched but the fact it was even there in the first place (it's a pretty major bug) says a lot.

As a frequenter of the forums I know that there are A LOT of people that wanted this game to be good and I know a lot of people have convinced themselves it is good. Newcomers to the series will probably like it, if they're into role-playing games. But with DA2, it's clear that EA didn't want just the role-playing crowd to get involved. The streamlined, more action-oriented nature of game is obviously an attempt to pull in other types of gamers (such as the COD crowd). But trying to appeal to those types of gamers through a role-playing game is a bad choice. It has resulted in a game that has isolated most of the Origins fans and the fact the game is rushed and bugged has put off a lot of the would-be new fans.

Dragon Age 2 has received extremely good reviews. OPM gave the game 9/10, PC Gamer gave it 94%, Official Xbox Magazine gave it 9/10 and GamePro gave it 4 out 5 stars. I can see why the game has been given such reviews but I just can't agree with it. It's clear that Bioware decided they wanted to change Dragon Age and reboot the franchise before it had even started. After all just look on the back of the case and it proudly displays one review quote that states "a great entry point to the series." If Bioware isn't making it obvious that they want to change Dragon Age then my arse can play the 1812 Overture.

I suppose my opinion of Dragon Age 2 is biased really. I absolutely loved the first one and with Dragon Age 2 I was expecting something akin to Origins. Many fellow enthusiasts have told me that I shouldn't look at Dragon Age 2 as an "Origins 2" but instead look at it as just a new game in the franchise. But I shouldn't have to do that should I? If you have to look at a game differently in order to enjoy it, then surely that says something about them game, and not those who play it? It's like saying if I look at dog turd like its chocolate I'd probably enjoy it... But sadly I couldn't see the chocolate.

Jyggalag

Dragon Age: Origins- Giving the word 'breastplate' a new meaning.

Dragon Age: Origins is another of the games that I got for my birthday. If you’ve read a few of the posts on this blog then you’ve probably realised that I don’t exactly jump on the new releases and give them a ‘first look’ or anything like that. Because of the usual factors (money, time and obsession) I don’t get through all the new titles when they are first released. I tend to only buy a brand new game if it’s something I’ve really been looking forward to or if it’s a game with heavy online-based play, because I’m a goon and play in teams on CoD (Go Clan NEIN!!) I’d like to say that’s about as sad as I could go in this post, but I am discussing Dragon Age: Origins so it’s probably only going to get worse from here. If you’re opposed to a bit of nerdiness then I suggest you turn away before it begins. We’re talking elf sex, more dialogue than an ITV costume drama and a lot of large, identical, aubergine shaped breasticles on both young and old women (sadly not on the men.)

Ok… I’ll give you a moment to try and shake off the aubergine comment… let’s go…

I was looking forward to Dragon Age before its release, but the fact that I knew very little about the actual gameplay and story made other titles come first. This can’t have just been me- the game places you in a world where there are strong political views and racial and class divides that you have no idea about until you’re part way into the game. I played as a City Elf which meant that I began my story (or Origin if you will) in an Alienage, which is where all the city elves were. I had an arranged marriage and was due to meet and wed my betrothed on the same day. I know, I know… pretty heavy for an opening.

Every time you engage in conversation with a character, you have a choice of things to say. There is usually a range of choices which take you down different paths. These usually include a diplomatic choice, a heartless choice and a heroic/considerate choice. More options include persuasion, intimidation or lying, but basically you can be mean, funny, nice or boring. For example: “What’s for breakfast today Darko?”

1. Whatever I give you, you SLAG!
2. A fine selection of homemade jams and a choice of fresh baked bread.
3. Because of the war we have to ration the goods. Every person gets a cheese string each and a can of Relentless.
4. (Persuade) How about you share your breakfast with me?
5. (Intimidate) How about you share your breakfast with me or I’ll stand on your face?
6. (Persuade) (Lie) The cupboards are bare.

How you respond will affect the outcome of the conversation and will also affect how your teammates relate to you. For example when I decided to help some starving people get a good deal on their car ins… I mean food… one of the women in my party liked me -5!! What a cow… Don’t worry though readers, she got what was coming to her: I seduced her, dumped her and killed her mum… take that Morrigan you heartless tart!



Don't get excited, everyone's rudey bits are covered.



These relationships do make a difference to the game and the fact that you actually have choices with real consequences is very refreshing. I may have talked a bit before about empty, meaningless choices in games, but if I haven’t then rest assured, me no likey. If you choose to kill rather than befriend certain people then you will have a smaller team when facing the final battle or if you make certain controversial choices your teammates may leave your party forever or attack you. Maintaining a positive relationship with your team also opens up minor perks such as higher strength or hit points, which is always nice. All in all, very choicey, but no real impending doom for a newbie (Unless you’re Jyggalag and will absolutely die if you don’t get it 100% perfect on your first playthrough). There are also other perks to maintaining a positive relationship with certain members of your party- you can do them. I can assure you right now that there is nothing to get overly excited about. You get someone to like you a bit and depending on how much of a hussy they are you will either get to bed them or enter a relationship with them (and eventually bed them.)

Combat is quite repetitive and consists of pressing X, followed by a variety of R1+square, triangle or circle. There is a radial menu where you can choose from all of your skills, but generally you pick your best skills and assign them for easy access. The combat’s saving grace is the levelling up system. You can choose your type of weapon or magic, equipment, skills and attributes which means you can play through as the same class and race, but still have quite a different experience, if that’s your kind of thing…



This is about as blatantly obvious the titillation gets...
Too bad for the pre-pubescant pervs- its an 18+ game



On to the main event. The main thing to harp on about here is the huge… HUGE story to be found in Dragon Age: Origins. There are very few cutscenes, so most of the story is delivered through conversations which means many more of those lovely choices and consequences. This is either what makes the game so amazing that you can’t stop your lower lip hitting the floor or what makes the game so boring you want to pull off your that same lip just so you have something to throw at the screen. Fortunately for me I loved the conversations and the revelations that came with them, but over time I became very aware that I was basically spending 75% of my time on the game getting talked at by a huge fleshy pair of aubergines badly hidden under useless skimpy “armour”.  

I find it hard to do this game justice, because of just how unusual it is. If you’re an RPG-hater then you should probably stay away (unless you really really like boobs), but other than that I think this game has to be played to appreciate. It doesn’t really match any description I can give it so I’ll just say that it has a little bit of everything. It’s definitely worth a go and even if you don’t love it, you’ll at least find it interesting for a while.


DannyDarko