I think this is a
great game, I'm having a blast, but it's not a masterpiece in my opinion. I am really enjoying the combat, and being a serial pause/micro management freak, I have been having a great time. The story and interactions are usual Bioware fare, absolutely top notch.
The dagger bug & low res textures don't bother me at all. They can and will be fixed. The bowstring problem, where not ideal does not affect the game's masterpice status. Although I haven't seen it, if true, their handling of the dagger bug, i.e. use long swords, is shocking. I have used the dagger/bow/xbow/dexterity hotfix and find the improvement of the NPC's as well as my own damage to be better, why shouldn't they be balanced?
Respec is not really a feature that applies to this kind of singleplayer game (normally)
The fact that the PC starts with skills and talents based on origin is not ideal in my opinion, but it does make sense and was a valid decision taken by the devs. An
option to follow the dev's vision
or create your own origin skills and talents would have been better. Same goes for NPC autolevelling.
Leaving these additional character creation/levelling options to modders to implement (I have used the No NPC Auto Level mod for Wynne's skills) is pretty lazy, but again does not preclude the game from Masterpiece status.
What's your problem then? I hear you ask.
There is
nowhere near enough clarity or detail in regards to skills, talents, spells and game mechanics for my tastes.
We have heard excuses about localisation timetables dictating that they could not have accurate descriptions in their tooltips, as they were still balancing the talents after the tooltips were complete and "locked down".
That is no excuse. Why not leave the tooltips till last on your list of tasks, balance your game first, then create and translate the tooltips. Surely every other game I have played with accurate tooltips has followed this route. Seems like a clear case of bad task scheduling to me, and the issue should have been corrected before release. Not only that, but there are no plans to fix this outwith a mod fix, and that is completely unacceptable in my opinion.
This also gives weight to the arguement there should have been a respec option, but how could the developers have justified having a respec feature without saying "Our talent and spell descriptions are crap, so you might want to use this respec feature if you chose a few crap talents, and want to change to a more effective build"?
I also love feedback, to see who I hit or missed, for how much and why. I love to see my attack rolls, enemy defence rolls, resistances, armour rating, all that detailed lovliness that makes up a combat log. I am not a min/maxer in any way shape or form, I just love to view feedback and pore over the stats. It adds depth.
Alas, Bioware have decided that this information/depth is no longer required for their party RPGs, and although I don't agree with them, my opinion is based purely on personal preference, where their's presumably is based on market research and focus groups, so I can understand and respect their decision to cut the combat log.
Although I appreciate their honesty in admitting a combat log will never be added, and respect their decision to cut it, I find the resoning they have given for their decision to cut the combat log questionable. The factors taken into account in their decision, according to Georg were Accessibility, UI Clutter, Optimisation not being required, Combat Log being CPU intensive & Cost vs Benefits Analysis
Accessibility of the game could have been solved with an On/Off toggle
UI clutter could have been soved by adding the log to the journal ala KOTOR
Optimisation not being required is questionable at higher difficulty levels
Combat log being very system intensive seems questionable, and has been questioned directly by another poster working with the toolset claiming to be a developer that has worked on Hitman games.
That leaves us with one more reason they have given for cutting the combat log, and one which I feel, if they were being completely honest, they would admit it boils down to: Cost vs Benefits Analysis.
To conclude it is the lack of detail and arguably the dumbing down of the game that has stopped me awarding masterpiece status to Dragon Age: Origins.
I can see where the OP is coming from when he talks about his disappointment with Bioware, however, as an esteemed poster has already pointed out on this thread, they seem to be aiming for a new audience and drawing in new fans to their already swollen fan(boy?)base. I too have graduated from the school of realism, and have come to accept that things change and not always for the best for me personally.
Modifié par Sibelius1, 23 novembre 2009 - 03:12 .
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Being a realist can be a huge downer.
