Rating 8.5/10

The short review

This game is a cross between: Neverwinter Nights/World of Warcraft

It’s good because: • Great story • In depth NPC relationships • Cool combat animations

It’s bad because: • You must travel with a balanced party

The long version

Kick ass storyline

The storyline of Dragon Age: Origins is by far one of the best story lines from any RPG that I have played. For starters depending on your race and class the first chapter of the game is different.

I went with a Human Noble in an attempt to recreate my character from the original Neverwinter Nights. That’s all I’ll say on the matter as to not give away any spoilers.

Sex?!?

One of the rather odd things I found about Dragon Age: Origins is the ability to have sex with your companions. Som

e companions even swing both ways depending on how you want your character to act. These sex scenes are accompanied by some absolutely awful cinematics (with great ‘O’ faces) that just made me cringe.

On the other hand, the fact that the developers took the time and effort to allow you to do this did add an extra level to the game in terms of relationships.

[It doesn't get much cornier then this]

Great combat

I thoroughly enjoyed the combat and not once got bored of killing mob after mob. You are able to employ great tactics using the ‘Tactics’ options and you also have the ability to pause the game at any point and give each person their next order. I only wish that you were able to stack orders like The Sims.

Visually the combat looks fantastic. Each attack looks different and accurately reflects the description of the action. I also love how you can stun or knock down characters and then just bring on the DPS.

The only downside is that the characters I enjoyed traveling were all weapon users rather then magic users. While this was fine in terms of healing (you can make all the potions you want), it made some bosses quite difficult because I simply didn’t have the DPS needed.

Gameplay

In terms of class customization, you can really make your character exactly how you want it to be. Classes have access to both unique and universal class sets. You will however want to only select one combat/magic skill set to max out on initially as you will easily finish the game before being able to max out a second set.

The hardware running of the game was great. I haven’t done any major upgrades to my computer in 2 years and I had a smooth running game.

One thing I really liked was that I never got bored during any of the cut scenes or dialogues. The stories and information was genuinely interesting and I enjoyed finding out more about my companions stories.

[Dual weapon sweep]

Conclusion

This game brings a whole lot to the RPG genre. A lot of time and effort has been put into this game to create an easy to learn fun RPG with an in-depth story. On top of that it looks absolutely fantastic and features some of the most interesting NPCs I’ve ever seen in an RPG.

For all of these reasons and more I give this game an 8.5/10. Pick up Dragon Age: Origins on Amazon.com today for only $36.14

Dragon Age: Origins

[My character and his best friend before the finale battle]

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So I thought I’d put together a list of games that I enjoyed and that also took a while to complete (so as to put off another more withdrawals as long as possible). This is a list you should also consider consulting if you are new to the RPG genre and want to experience some originals.

So in no particular order, here are 3 games I would recommend playing to fill all those spare hours you now have:

Fallout 2

The first Fallout game was one of the first RPG’s I played. Although young, I loved it. Cool weapons, armor and bad dudes and plenty of ways to kill them. Fallout 2 builds upon that original greatness in a huge game with heaps and heaps of content.

As well as a large storyline, there are plenty of towns, side quests and interesting characters to meet along the way. Don’t be put off by the graphics, this is a seriously fun game. Make sure you save often as every decision you make has an effect on the game.

Neverwinter Nights

If you have read this blog, you know that this is one of my favourite games of all time. Perhaps it is my background of playing D&D as I was growing up that I always found this game interesting and exciting. This game provided me with 100′s of hours of fun over about 8 years.

Neverwinter Nights is based on 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules. The platinum edition consists of the original game, the two expansions and an official module (like a PDLC these days). There is also a boatload of community made modules that are great fun to play. The first expansion has a few tedious boring bits of just hack and slash but is worth playing as the story line for the second expansions continues on from it.

Diablo II

What better way to prepare yourself for next year’s release of Diablo III than play your way through all 5 Acts of Diablo II on normal, hardcore and hell. The online community is still very active too, so after beefing up your character jump online for some extra gameplay.

For those who don’t know, Diablo II is a hack and slash type RPG. There is a great backing story and an excellent skill tier for each class which will allow you to define your specialization.

Friends recommendations:

While writing this post at university, I also whipped around and asked my friends what games they would recommend. Here they are below:

• Oblivion [read reviews]
• World of Warcraft [read reviews]
• Baldur’s Gate I and II [read reviews]
• Morrowind [read reviews]
• Fallout [read reviews]
• Fallout 3 [read reviews]

Recommendations from around the net:

I also made a list of the games recommended from forums around the internet:

• Dungeons and Dragons: Online [read reviews]
• Final Fantasy XI [read reviews]
• Guild Wars [read reviews]
• The Witcher [read reviews]
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [read reviews]

Those should keep you busy for the next year or so. Add your recommendations for fellow gamers to play in the comments below. Check out my top lists for more ideas.

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EDT: Since this I have released a poll to gauge your top 10. Visit the page to enter your vote and we’ll see who wins.

1. Diablo
2. Dragon Age: Origins
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
4. Guild Wars
5. Neverwinter Nights
6. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
7. Baldur’s Gate
8. Wizardry 8
9. Might and Magic IV: Mandate of Heaven
10. Fallout 3

Based on Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition rules, this fantasy style game gives you the choice of 8 classes to choose from. The original game alone contains over 50 hours of gameplay not including online gaming. 2 expansions provide you with nearly double the content as well as epic level feats and skills.

The storyline is a typical save the world and kill all the bad dudes. There is plenty of options to create your character into a super being of your choice. Take the path of a heavily fortified warrior with many layers of armour or become a sorcerer who can blast away all of his enemies in one fireball.

This is one of my favourite games of all time. While the graphics are a little dated, the story and gameplay are still top quality. I really can’t recommend it enough.

Buy it on Amazon cheap:

Neverwinter Nights Diamond

Check out these screenshots:

Get Neverwinter Nights on eBay:

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