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[ekim]

I know there is an (or tow) EA Access DA:I thread but it is mostly about the fact that the trial is available and technical stuff about EA Access so I thought a separate Impressions thread is a good idea.

Are we doing EA Access trial impressions in here?

I've replayed the opening level (tutorial level) a few times trying out different classes. I won't be playing the full game on X1 so I'm not going to advance past the tutorial level.

I'm loving warrior this time around. Tried human male two-hand first, and it was a blast! The melee combat feels really impactful, screen lightly shakes on strikes and you can swipe with each pull of RT. I was also able to gain a few ability points, getting the ball & chain (MK Scorpion get-over-here device) and a block/parry move. I found it really, really fun.

Tried female elf Archer, archer is cool this time. Its really nice how mobile it is, you can run around the battlefield and played a ranged role, and cloak out of danger when enemies get too close.

I tried mage out switching to Solas the first two playthroughs, and then I made a female human mage for a restart, and I don't know...I'm not really feeling it. Like Angry Joe said in his preview, you are rooted while casting, and you just hold down RT. Kinda lose that visceral effect of attacking with a warrior, mage is really ranged and sort of docile to play. I know some of the skills in the trees are insane though, especially Knight Enchanter. KE will probably make playing as a mage better given that you can melee and get in the fight. I usually play mage in DA games, but I dont know feels a tad too ranged for me this time.

I also played a bunch as Cassandra, and I have to say, sword n board might be my favorite of all the classes I tried. Its just insanely fun, especially with the ability to deflect with the shield. The sword animations are really awesome and quick, and again melee feels very visceral with the camera shake and whatnot.

Still need to try duel-wield rogue, but so far I'm 90% sure I'm going to be a warrior, which I've never done in a DA game. It just feels really great this time around. Hopefully this helps those who are sort of undecided on class.

This game is so good. And... Holy crap, it's now 2:00 am!

Lucky I preordered and had it loaded before hand.

Started the game up on Nightmare with friendly fire on. It's fucking rough son, but already feeling all the positive changes Bioware made in this game in the first hour of play.

Come 21st this game is going to destroy my social life haha. Dawg was absolutely right

looks good on xbone but it does have the horrible contrast filter.

also the dof effect is very low res... its pretty bad.

Played for a little over an hour, ten minutes of which I wasted trying to import my custom world state from Dragon Age Keep (initially, I got a message that family console settings were preventing the import), and another ten minutes I wasted redoing my character, as I had accidentally skipped over the custom name option.

The game is quite handsome, and other than one glitch during a cut-scene that necessitated a restart, my experience so far has been mostly pleasant. Not quite enamored yet, but I'm slowly starting to get drawn into the story.

I chose to start on hard, and the tactical camera (which I find quite fiddly) has taken me some time to get used to.

As noted earlier, you can actually start playing the game once your download is at 14% (the game's installation speed was positively glacial for me), but after completing the first boss battle in the "tutorial section" the game informed me that I would have to wait until the download was further along (at this point it had reached 27%) before I could continue playing. Unfortunately, as I was unable to save before this prompt appeared, I had to redo the boss fight.

Add your own!

 

[Altima]

Anyone try it on nightmare ? How about it ?

Also want to know more about tactical camera on console.

 

[ekim]

Anyone try it on nightmare ? How about it ?

Also want to know more about tactical camera on console.

3rd quote in the OP

Lucky I preordered and had it loaded before hand.

Started the game up on Nightmare with friendly fire on. It's fucking rough son, but already feeling all the positive changes Bioware made in this game in the first hour of play.

Come 21st this game is going to destroy my social life haha. Dawg was absolutely right

 

[CronosBlade]

Here's me streaming 1st hour on Normal as Warrior just to get used to it.

Tactical camera works fine on console. Up and down on DPad to select char (same as in real time battle), move cursor, use button to give command (A is attack, others are skills) and use RT to advance time in mode.

A few times I feel like I couldn't properly target an enemy on a ledge, but I wonder if the chars I was using to target was too far out of the battle to reach them.

 

[Altima]

3rd quote in the OP

Thank you, I skim over it too fast because of my excitement.

 

[ced]

Here's me streaming 1st hour on Normal as Warrior just to get used to it.

Tactical camera works fine on console. Up and down on DPad to select char (same as in real time battle), move cursor, use button to give command (A is attack, others are skills) and use RT to advance time in mode.

A few times I feel like I couldn't properly target an enemy on a ledge, but I wonder if the chars I was using to target was too far out of the battle to reach them.

Can you play the entire time with the tactical camera or does it just work during combat?

 

[Silk04]

Good stuff. Cant wait for the 18th.

 

[Dragonborn]

The game is all around great. Feels like a true sequel to DAO. My only complaint is that the graphics could be better and it looks awfully dark at times

 

[adj_noun]

My main question (because I'm weird like that) was what was going on with the codex? Why were reviewers saying they were lost (or that new players could be lost)? Shouldn't the relevant Dragon Age info have been available from the start for new folks?

Most of the codex is locked at the beginning. Now, I expected the majority of it to be locked, sure, but basic stuff is locked away too; I think may you get one "free" character specific entry (like the Circle for a mage) but other than that you don't have much.

I suspect Bioware was trying to give players a drip feed of information, opening up relevant Codex entries as they became story significant rather than providing a novella at the start. This could work, but I suspect they skimped out on entries more than they possibly should have; the DA/DA2 recap found in the Keep probably should have been an in-game extra as well.

The Keep, by the way, seems to work fine. A threat that hung in the air for years (real world time) finally came to fruition, albeit only in inter party banter, while seemingly fading from existence during a "real" conversation.

I was a little surprised to see a like/dislike reaction while going through a list of conversation topics, as opposed to making a response choice. If you're a completionist when it comes to topics of conversation, there's going to be some reactions you're just not going to be able to avoid, I suppose.

 

[JeffG]

I broke down and played just over an hr. Basically to the real "start" of the game.

Now I am a huge Bioware/Dragon Age fan, so they could get away with murder and I would still like the game.

Graphically, It swings from amazing to odd. Too many things (clothes/faces/armor) are "shiny" and those scenes just don't quite look right. (but its pretty easy to ignore once you get into the story and are used to it)


The character creator is top notch. You could loose yourself there for a long time, but with EA access I powered my way through it and was done in less than 5 mins.

Story...You go from prisoner to Inquisiter pretty fast, but its a fantasy game...get me to questing/killing shit. The party banter while playing is worlds better than DA:O or DA:2. This makes the characters come alive.

Gameplay, I am playing on casual (as a Mage) The combat is pretty easy. I am ok with that (but others would not) I just like the fast eye candy combat. It feels good to kill stuff in dragon age.



Also, lol Cassandra seems to disapprove of everything I say...I am going to have to work double time to get into her pants


Overall...I need to pace my 6 hrs over the next few days (thank god I have to play hockey for at least 2 of those nights), but I can see myself putting in 100's of hrs and multiple playthroughs.

 

[R3TRO]

I'm really enjoying it, it reminds me of DA:O which is great. I was surprised how well it turns, it feels refreshing to play a game that doesn't have a bunch of frame rate issues.

 

[Lockjaw333]

I guess I should have talked about visuals a bit for those interested.

I plan on playing this game on PC, and possibly get it on PS4 as well to play mp with friends, but I will say that the game looks phenomenal on X1. The 900p resolution is not noticeable really, and you can tell that its set to mostly high graphics options compared to PC for example.

Frame rate was extremely smooth. Small jitters during certain cutscenes or convos, but otherwise rock solid during gameplay. Felt extremely smooth.

Nothing to worry about with visuals. It looks fantastic on X1.

 

[PhatSaqs]

I suck at impressions but I played about an hour and a half last night. I've only played a little of the first Dragon Age and didnt really feel that one, never got into or followed anything relating to any of the others, and knew little about this one outside of some of the review scores.

That said, the story seems very intriguing and looks to be a definite strong point. I wasnt blown away by the gameplay or graphics but I could see myself picking this up and enjoying it for sure.

 

[shinobi602]

Gameplay, I am playing on casual (as a Mage) The combat is pretty easy.

I would certainly hope so

 

[User 479360]

How hard is it? I'm not great at strategy RPGs, because I'm new to them, and had to play Origins on easy after a while. It was too easy at times, but normal was a bit too hard.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

The game is all around great. Feels like a true sequel to DAO. My only complaint is that the graphics could be better and it looks awfully dark at times

That could be the XB1, not the game :/

 

[CronosBlade]

Can you play the entire time with the tactical camera or does it just work during combat?

Outside of combat the HUD etc is gone, so I never thought to see what would happen if I hit the tactical button.

 

[hwalker84]

My impressions.

Graphics aren't as good as I expected.
Character creator has horrific choices for creating a black female.
Lip sync is WAY off.
Jump animation seems off.

Everything else is awesome.

Xbox One.

 

[Slaythe]

Any info how it looks on ps4 ? Kinda losing hope in that console as of late.

 

[ironcreed]

I'll get to see later after I get done redownloading the entire game that I already had pre-loaded. I would not be surprised if it made me redownload again once it unlocks next week. Absolute bullshit.

 

[dofry]

If you post impressions, could you add the platform also. Thanks.

 

[ohlawd]

yo I need more Rogue impressions

 

[JeffG]

I would certainly hope so

lol Well It should be obvious...but nothing is obvious on the internet.

 

[antennaehead]

If you post impressions, could you add the platform also. Thanks.

EA Trial is only available on Xbox One as far as I know.

Any multiplayer impressions?

 

[The Last Wizard]

Any info how it looks on ps4 ? Kinda losing hope in that console as of late.

This is an Xbox only trial

Ps4 is 1080p 30fps iirc

 

[Footos22]

Any info how it looks on ps4 ? Kinda losing hope in that console as of late.

Why exactly?

 

[Dragonborn]

That could be the XB1, not the game :/

I know about the black crush problem but it just seems more easily seen herem not sure if it's my settings or something. 900p is also not normally an issue, but is it me or the does the game look very jaggy?

 

[SEGAvangelist]

That could be the XB1, not the game :/

Possibly. EA games using Frostbyte don't seem to have gamma issues.

 

[RPGCrazied]

My new PS4 is going to hate this game. lol

I have a new console rule to only play a couple hours at a time, to not stress it so much, but damn, don't know if I can hold off for this game.

 

[Kinyou]

Does the game have multiple languages? That's what currently interests me the most, because I played the previous Dragon Age with the English voices and I want to keep it that way.

 

[JeffG]

I'll get to see later after I get done redownloading the entire game that I already had pre-loaded. I would not be surprised if it made me redownload again once it unlocks next week. Absolute bullshit.

Did you buy the "normal" version or the Deluxe?


I have the normal version and it just ran my preloaded version. I was up and running within seconds. Didn't have to re-download anything.

 

[Tak3n]

Ok here goes


I did not think it looked that great TBH, in fact I was a little disappointed...

it is proper dark, when I was in those tunnels near the start it was hard to even see...

I also find the tactical view very immersive breaking, so much so I re rolled a mage as when I was a warrior and in the thick of a fight I felt it was a pain to switch to tactical view. ( I appreciate it might only be me who does not like it though)

I rerolled a Mage you get a better overview as you are on the outskirts of the battle.

TBH though I will now get the PC version as I suspect that will look substantially better

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I know about the black crush problem but it just seems more easily seen herem not sure if it's my settings or something. 900p is also not normally an issue, but is it me or the does the game look very jaggy?

Make sure TV (limited) is your color range setting in Settings on the XB1. PC (full range) has issues on TVs that auto select the correct setting for some reason.

 

[Sendero]

Story...You go from prisoner to Inquisiter pretty fast, but its a fantasy game...get me to questing/killing shit.

Yes, I understood what they tried to accomplish with the quick "Let's create the Inquisition". But I personally didn't like how the MC goes from suspect to The One. Unrealistic and does not feel like you really earned your stripes.

Lip sync is WAY off.

Have seen others saying this. I noticed a tons of janky animations, collition detection issues and odd head positioning during cutscenes, but Lip sync looked ok. Wonder if it's an XBOX thing or I'm just used to Bioware standards there.

 

[JeffG]

I know about the black crush problem but it just seems more easily seen herem not sure if it's my settings or something. 900p is also not normally an issue, but is it me or the does the game look very jaggy?

Didn't look jaggy to me. I found the shiny crap on their outfits (buttons on the shirts etc etc) graphically look "artifacty" (not really a word, but I hope it makes sense.)

 

[JeffG]

but Lyp sync looked ok. Wonder if it's an XBOX thing or I'm just used to Bioware standards there.

I would guess that they do not use face capture, but use some software to mimic the face while sound is playing. It would be tough when using 4 voices for the main character to capture the face for every line of dialogue.

 

[ironcreed]

Did you buy the "normal" version or the Deluxe?


I have the normal version and it just ran my preloaded version. I was up and running within seconds. Didn't have to re-download anything.

The Deluxe Edition. As soon as I clicked on 'try it free with EA access' it deleted my pre-load and started redownloding the game.

 

[JeffG]

The Deluxe Edition. As soon as I clicked on 'try it free with EA access' it deleted my pre-load and started redownloding the game.

What happens if you go to the store for the deluxe edition? Does it have EA Access?

Even though we all know it is the same game, as far as computers go, they are different games (and have a different license)

 

[garath]

yo I need more Rogue impressions

^^^

Need some dual wield rogue impressions!

 

[Mononoke]

My impressions.

Graphics aren't as good as I expected.
Character creator has horrific choices for creating a black female.
Lip sync is WAY off.
Jump animation seems off.

Everything else is awesome.

Xbox One.

Yeah. I would also like too add, at least on X1 there is a lot jaggies around the edges, and things looking kind of blurry (again around the edges). Keep in mind, I'm playing a 55 inch TV and not sitting across the room (it's in my room vs. a living room). Also, I'm not sure if PS4's 1080p resolution would get rid of these issue, or if it would be a major difference. But I definitely agree that the graphics aren't as good as I thought they would be.

At the same time, the more I played the game, I think if you step back and take in the entire scenery, it looks pretty nice too. It's not terrible looking. The actual art is pretty gorgeous (just things like hair look blocky still, and the technical stuff like textures could have been more impressive). But in terms of color, style, and overall atmosphere -- I actually think it's a pretty good looking game. That said, it took me a couple hours to feel that way. My immediate impression was that it didn't look like a next gen game should look like. But then I remembered it's a cross-gen port. So yeah.

I agree about cut scenes being buggy. You get fps dips. And it looks choppy in spots. So those aren't so hot. But fps is stable in actual gameplay, and that is what really matters.

Lastly, I just want to say...the story so far is amazing. I love the characters, the writing. The main plot etc. all of it. So far it's great. The gameplay is at least for me, as good as Dragon Age Origins (at least the mechanics). I have yet to play enough to see how far skills go, and how that will flesh out battles. But I had so much fun playing this game at least in my first 2 hours of gameplay. Those that loved Origins but hated 2, will get the same sense of wonder they did from starting up Origin. And based on what all the reviews are saying (the game is long, it has a ton of mission, the story is fantastic)....just what I played, I definitely think this is a true return to form, and not just talk.

 

[ironcreed]

What happens if you go to the store for the deluxe edition? Does it have EA Access?

Even though we all know it is the same game, as far as computers go, they are different games (and have a different license)

After it started reinstalling last night, I stopped the download and went to the store. Lo and behold, it said 'ready to install'. It deleted my pre-load, so I just started reinstalling from there.

 

[Dawg]

"Dawg was absolutely right "

Best impression right there!

 

[Xando]

Anyone else got the glitch where the game freezes for ~ 1 sec or is that my Xbone?

 

[Phreaker]

Thanks for the impressions, keep 'em coming! I'm torn...get it on Xbox One where I have friends that I might play MP with, get it for PS4, or get it for PC (Quad @3.5Ghz / GTX670 2GB).

 

[statham]

Wish the character creator let you adjust body sizes.

 

[Bessy67]

Anyone play as an archer yet? I feel like archers always get the shaft in RPGs but I'd love to play one that's actually viable. I've only played a little bit as a dual-wield rogue and I'm enjoying it, but if archer is decent I might switch.

Thanks for the impressions, keep 'em coming! I'm torn...get it on Xbox One where I have friends that I might play MP with, get it for PS4, or get it for PC (Quad @3.5Ghz / GTX670 2GB).

PC is most likely going to be the best version because of mod support. Although if the multiplayer ends up being half as addictive as ME3 you might want to have friends to play with.

 

[pixlexic]

I know about the black crush problem but it just seems more easily seen herem not sure if it's my settings or something. 900p is also not normally an issue, but is it me or the does the game look very jaggy?

The dof effect is very low res. Lower than 720 it seems. It makes the cutscenes look horrible.

 

[Killer]

is mp working in the trial?

 

[Mononoke]

Thanks for the impressions, keep 'em coming! I'm torn...get it on Xbox One where I have friends that I might play MP with, get it for PS4, or get it for PC (Quad @3.5Ghz / GTX670 2GB).

Didn't even realize this had MP.

 

[Bessy67]

is mp working in the trial?

It's not grayed out, so probably. I kinda want to try, but I also kinda don't want to wast a chunk of my 6 hours on it.