I feel like I should probably clarify that I know 'dragon age' is how the chantry tracks 'ages' and this is the 'dragon age' I was talking more about why they named the entire series that (like yes the games are during the 'dragon age' but there are precious few actual dragons involved in the games and what if they progress the game far enough that its a new age?). Judging by the amount of comments I clearly failed to convey my curiosity as to why they named an entire series (which might one day span more than just the one age in game) after just that one thing and I felt like the knowledge that old gods were dragons or at least worshiped as dragons etc had broader franchise/universe implications worthy of actually naming the entire series that.

I personally loved the city elf background at the time. I wish more RPGs had an origin story like this game. No other game has made me more invested in my main character.

Actually, the Ages in DA are named after an event of certain importance that happens at the beginning of said Age. For example, the Steel Age was named thus because a Queen of Antiva was found dead, stabbed with 4 steel swords. The Exalted Age got its name from the Exalted March. Etc. And the Dragon Age got it's name because Dragons, who were thought to be extinct, were spotted flying again

I had the opposite reaction to the landsmeet. In my eyes, they weren’t trying to make him seem better, it was only him trying to justify his actions. In the end, the only reason to consider loghain to be a warden is because skilled men are needed in times like this. Speaking with alistair before and after betraying him gave me those opinions.

I think the primary reason Loghain was so eager to get rid of Cailan is good old xenophobia. Not entirely unjustified, though. You glossed over "Cailan accepting help from other nations", but that other nation was _Orlais,_ who tried to conquer Ferelden a scant few decades ago. Loghain witnessed the horrors of that war first-hand, and fought against the invaders alongside Cailan's father, and would naturally feel like Cailan is invalidating his ancestors' struggle by making nice with a former enemy.

With regards to the performance: DA:O has a memory leak issue which means that every loading screen slows it down. In essence this means that every 1-2 hours you just have to close the game and start it back up to clean the memory. While this seem annoying, it actually starts up extremely quickly, so overall it's still a very fast game - if you know that little trick.

Dragon Age: Origins is without a doubt one of the best RPGs, I've ever played. I found myself going back to it multiple times. The only game that tops it imo is New Vegas. It's very close though.

This is a RPG for you to role play and immerse yourself in the story.

On combat. It's all a bit convoluted because DA, in general, tries to be an old school Bladurs Gate-like rpg but it also wants to be actiony and allow you to play it as a hack n' slash almost. This is present throughout the series. However there are some crucial differences going from DAO to DAI. Origins - Designed with friendly fire in mind and, as you noted, higher enemy numbers. The tactical camera can also zoom out a lot more. This means DAO is closer to the old DnD rpgs in the sense that positioning, ability placement, character synergies and tactics in general are a lot more important and ability/spell combos (like shattering frozen targets) only work with specific skills. There's also more to think about in terms of character builds, attributes, abilities, etc. DA2 - Suddenly the tactical camera is completely gone though you can still pause in combat. Frindly fire only exists on Nightmare difficulty but the game clearly isn't designed for it, combat is chaotic and opponents are spawning in from all sides. Combos become more common and gamified (the infamous "awesome button") and essential to being effective on harder difficulties. You have the option to pause and be tactical with combos but it's very streamlined, there are fewer abilities and with to tactical camera DA2 feels like it's meant to be a 3rd person action rpg or "beat 'em up". DAI - Tactical camera returns but the zoom level is very close, you can now strafe and jump, game still kinda wants to be a 3rd person action rpg. The core combat design philosophy from DA2 is still in place. Quick bar ability slots were initially limited even on pc in order to accommodate console controllers, even today you can't fit all your abilities on the quick bar. Friendly fire is completely gone from all difficulties though added as a special side option (the game is not designed with FF in mind ofc). Basically the game went from Baldurs Game-lite to a weird blend of tactical/action rpg that tries to appeal to a wide audience but ends up with pretty bland gameplay as a result. Neither Witcher 2/3 nor Neverwinter Nights 2 (for example). It tries to be multiple things at the same time but does nothing all that well. All this while also trying to capitalize on the Skyrim open world trend leading to a lot of generic quest drudgery and farming. So while all 3 games can be played as 3rd person action with AI controlled companions DAO did a much better job of accommodating the more hardcore rpg fans with proper tactical camera, long quick bar, more abilities, more tactical gameplay, etc.

However one feels about Loghain, I think that most would agree that the voice actor, Simon Templeman, did a great job. Probably my favorite scene from the whole game happens if you win the Landsmeet and Loghain proceeds to have a complete meltdown. The sheer rage and desperation he exudes as his plans finally collapse is something to behold.

Loghain can actually be the warden contact you look for in DAI if you turn him into a warden and don't have him do the killing blow. I still don't agree with what he did but for the last 10 years the man really has tried his hand at being a better person and truly work for his redemption

To my knowledge, the chantry’s calendar is split into ages and the reason the current age is called the Dragon Age is because: “The current Age is named after the first high dragon sighted in centuries.” Fun fact if you didn’t know (you probably did) T H E D ragon A ge S etting Thedas. The continent in which the games are set.

I finished this game literally yesterday. It seems there is something wrong with your computer, not with the game, because my pc is brand new too. I came across some bugs, but it never crushed. It's unfortunately that these technical problems spoiled your DA experience, because the game is really good in spite of all it's small issues. Love it.

I am almost 50. I played the shit out of this back in 2009, must have had 5 runs. Amazing story....Inquisition really fell short imo in this regard.

In regards to Logain, before the story happens Fereldan was ruled by Orlais. Logain and Cailan's father fought a war to gain independence. Cailan is working on allowing an army from Orlais to enter his nation to help fight the darkspawn. This is all logical and makes sense from an outside view. Logain however still lives in the war from his youth. He feels that Cailan is going to hand Fereldan back to Orlais with his actions and Logain cannot allow that. Understanding this come sfrom reading the lore you find while playing the game, which isn't something a lot of people are going to do, and I think that is a fault in the game. It's also fleshed out in a novel, but you aren't going to read that unless you are a serious fan. So while I completely get why you think it is poor writing on Logains motives, It wasn't the writers, per se, but how it was communicated in game.

Another motivator for Loghain's actions that you find out in-game is that he just has a deep-seated mistrust of neighboring nation Orlais, because Orlais was until fairly recently an occupying force that Ferelden had to throw off with forceful and open rebellion. This happened during the time of King Cailan's father, and Loghain himself was a key part of that rebellion. You can learn a fucklot more about that whole situation in the novels that the game's lead writer did as prequels to the game, but the core of that prejudice and the reason for it is expressed well enough in-game as it is. The thing is that Grey Wardens that have been brought back into Ferelden after this are themselves from Orlais (the reason they were kicked out of Ferelden to begin with is tackled in one of the DLC quests), so Loghain's mistrust of the Orlesians transferred to the Wardens: he believed them to be a threat to Ferelden and was convinced that the "blight" itself was a deception. It's important to keep in mind that that the Grey Wardens keep the most important parts of WHY their order is key to defeating the darkspawn close to their chest, so Loghain, like many outsiders, doesn't understand enough at this point to make a truly informed decision. The most interesting thing about Loghain's redemption isn't that he did "the wrong thing for the right reasons," but that he didn't know enough to recognize the right reasons, and thus his arc really only becomes interesting after he's redeemed and made a Warden. Once he's "in the know," in both Origins itself and Inquisition when he appears there, his responses to and behavior with regard to Grey Warden secrets and sacrifices stand as telling aspects of his character. He's naturally mistrusting, so when the Wardens fall to deception in Inquisition, he's one of the few who recognizes the danger and escapes it to fight back. He's naturally ruthless in pursuit of the greater good, so he's also a natural fit for the Wardens when they're functioning as intended. In a way, being made a Warden was perfect for the guy. I will submit that Loghain is a MUCH more interesting character when you at least read the first of the novels, "The Stonen Throne." His origin story really does establish his psychology, which makes his course of action in Origins a lot easier to swallow. Loghain essentially stands as an example of what a more ruthless, "Renegade"-aligned Grey Warden protagonist might behave like, and that's important to consider because Origins really does tackle the issue of "sometimes you can be ruthless for a positive cause." Another example is Bhelen, the "progressive" dwarf leader in the Orzammar questline, who is probably the guy a lot of players would side with if they didn't know from the Dwarf Noble Origin what a scumbag he can be when it comes to the tactics he employs. The other interesting thing about Loghain is that his "redemption" is less about his own personal remorse than it is more about him coming to recognize the protagonist party leader as being the kind of strong leader that CAN stand against the Blight and do what needs to be done. After you essentially overcome Loghain, assuming you force him into service as a Warden, Loghain himself recognizes your accomplishment and your ability, and genuinely respects you for it. It's part of why he follows you. He realizes that you can be trusted to recognize when the hard calls have to be made, probably even better than he does--maybe to the point of recognizing better than he does when they DON'T need to be made. So it's less that he turns good and more that he just recognizes you at being better at the same sort of things that he is. It certainly helps that the storyline involving his redemption forces the player to either have Alistair executed or exiled, or (if you're REALLY good), convince Alistair to marry Anora and become king. This latter might just earn *super* respect points for the player from Loghain, because it's the sort of ruthless political monarchy thing that he had to push Cailan's father into during the rebellion.

I've completed it 7 times and I'm replaying it right now. Ridiculous how I still find new dialogue options. The amount of care that went into this game is something else. My all time favourite video game Edit: The only garbage part of this game are the servers. For 3 years that they're offline

My the most favourite game, played it over 14 times ! Never had issues that you described.

Female rogue city elf. Numero uno. Everything else is a fairly distant 2nd. Being a rogue means you don't have to have Lil or Zev for locks. That's huge for allowing u to pick a broader range of other companions. Dual wielding daggers beats out warrior trees and archers generally, imo. Simply more fun. But the whopper is your return to the Alienage as a dual wielding Righteous God of Vengeance is the most satisfying part of the game. Epic. And females Elves are hot. Look out Lilianna hear I come. Guys break down of Loghain is spot on. Can't believe anyone defends him in the comment sections of these vids. He was truly heinous and in Multiple Ways. His side quests opinion was bs however. The depth and immersion of this game is one of it's huge plusses, side quests help flesh that out. This game is truly a Masterpiece

I got so hooked in the game when I first played it on Xbox 360. It was like being taken by the mass effect series again. I loved the characters and the world. What a game.

To be fair to Loghain he honestly believes he was doing the right thing. If you read stolen throne it gives some much needed information on how he became the person he is and why he is like that. He gave up everything for his homeland including the love of his life and his friendship with Calien's father Marric. Does it make him right hell no but it does give him a reason beyond hurdur evil.

I got the feeling you haven't played DA2 through your video. Anyhow... I'm playing Inquisition right now and I gotta say that my worst experience with this game is the character "ai" or customization. In Origins, ranged characters stepped out of harmful AoE. In DA2 you could set the "behavior" and a couple would avoid harmful spells whereas others would tank them. In DA2 the customization you could give your companions was absolutely amazing! - If enemy clustered 3+ enemies, use this spell, - if specific ally below X% hp, use that spell - if enemy rank X or higher, do this.. etc In Inquisition... OMFG. Half of my mage's barriers are completely wasted on a random archer while my tank and DW rogue get blasted in melee against a dragon. Dragon then pulls everybody in: Archer and Mage response? facetank it and auto-attack in melee while drenching themselves in potions, effectively killing my tanks in the long run. Also, 1 enemy attacking in melee... 3 enemies clustered in the back: AI uses AoE on the single dude for some reason.

It is strange, since I don't remember game crashing much (if at all) and I've replayed it about 3 years ago, when I got my Ryzen 7 CPU. For some reason you didn't mention spell combos. In DA:O you can combine spells to get new effects (kind of like Magika), for example: sleep and horror are both crowd control spells that are kind of useful but they just stop enemies for a little bit, but if you combine them on one target - suddenly it does decent damage, and still applies horror; in similar manner you can cause a nice AOE blast if you use Force Field on Crushing Prison. So it's really frustrating that in future entries this mechanics got heavily streamlined/dumbed down to obvious stuff like "oily surface burns better". Building upon this "spell combo" system further, I think, would've made the games really stand out.

I'm not sure if was clear from the lore you got from your play through, but Loghain's primary beef with Cailan was that Cailan was trying to enlist Orlesian aid against the blight. Loghain was personally involved in ending the Orlesian occupation of Ferelden, so this idea did not sit well with him. He felt that Cailan was opening the country to another Orlesian occupation if he let Orlesian troops anywhere near. Think of an east European state allowing Russian troops into their borders for 'peacekeeping'.

Not sure I understand the side quest comment. There were some filler quests for sure in origins, but overall there was story to most of them. Inquisition has side context that is more like a single player MMO. I loved inquisition, but I would have enjoyed it more if they had dropped 2 zones and spend that time adding 1 more main line story quest. I never had that sense with Origins.

The stupid side quests are "filler" to get average playtime to around 60+ hours. It's possible to get blood magic (most powerful builds in the game) before Awakening *and* save Connor for real if you're a mage with level 4 Coercion. The Warden must be a mage and enter the Fade, it doesn't work if another mage enters the Fade. It's impossible to get the best possible outcome if you sided with the templars in the Broken Circle quest. IIRC, you'll usually have the best possible outcome as an option if you consistently play as a "chaotic good" character: help and don't kill people who are good/innocent/oppressed (oppressed = elves and mages), don't talk your way out of fighting evil characters unless you can persuade them to stop their bad behavior, don't hurt people if it seems like their actions were reasonable, don't do something in a way that sides with authority/law/religion, side with Duncan's opinion if that's possible.

First just want to say I'm surprised you had so kuch trouble with bugs, my computer is only three years old and origins works great on it, better than other older games but I guess thats just our computers set ups, still the other thing I would mention is there is a lore reason these games are called Dragon Age, Dragons were thought extinct but showed and started the current age of history so that's where the name came from in game. Still just thought I'd mention this you gave a good review and I can't disagree with most of your thoughts nice job. 👍

Honestly, I consider Loghain a very well written character. There is one huge problem, though. His characterisation mainly happens in the Stolen Throne book. And it's never a good thing when in order to fully comprehend piece of media you have to go outside that media. Anyway, you misinterpreted his motivations a bit. He didn' do it all to save Ferelden, and he didn't leave Cailan to die because he didn't like him. He did it all to secure Ferelden independence from Orlais, which he and Maric fought so hard to achieve. Loghain is a nationalist, who suffered greatly during the time of orlesian occupation. He would've banished all foreigners from Ferelden if he could, and he strongly distrusts Wardens as most of them come from other regions due to being banished from Ferelden not long before events of the game. Cailan improving relationships with Orlais, potentially allowing their army to enter Ferelden under pretence of fighting the blight, expanding Grey Warden influence, all of that terrified Loghain, so he had to kill Cailan and usurp the throne, making sure that Ferelden remains free of foreign opressors. So yeah, he is doing wrong things for wrong reasons, but to him these reasons justify any atrocity he commits. But you can only understand that if you read the book, because the game doesn't explain any of this, there is barely any dialogue with Loghain even if you recruit him. Which isn't okay for the game's main antagonist.

The origin stories are by far the greatest evolutionary rpg feature in video game history. And it baffles me how underutilized and neglected this feature is.

I really love the combat in this game and i wish someone would come along and move this system forward. Its the perfect mix of old crpg made simple compared to the dnd games of old ( and new)

Loghain wasn't primarily concerned with Cailan's immaturity, he was mostly concerned with the fact that Cailan was allowing the soldiers/army of Orlais into Fereldan. Loghain spent his youth fighting alonside Cailan's father Maric to get the Orlessians out of Fereldan. When you consider that Loghain looks more patriotic then just power hungry.....he's still power hungry, but he's also concerned with his country's fate. All the means justify the end of his goals though.

One of the all time greatest games and rpgs ever, I always come back to this game every couple of years, a true great. Would love a remaster of Origins as the original ports on ps3 and 360 were laggy as hell.

DA Origins is one of my ALL TIME favorite games! The story is soooo good, that I do not care about its dated graphics! Actually, there are mods that improve the graphics, but I, on purpose, do not install them. Instead, I install mods that expand the story. :-)

Easy fix for technical issues on Win 10: Turn the graphic quality from very high to high and the textures to medium (no matter how powerful your PC is) and the game runs smoothly for the most part.

So a note on the Qunari, the devs fully intended to give them horns in DA:O but do to budget, engine and time restraints, they had to scrap them. If I remember correctly, in canon, sten is still the only hornless qunari right now.

Thank you for this wonderful review, it was truly a pleasure to listen to :-) One thing I wanted to add to the whole Loghain redemption arc: in the Return to Osthagar Dlc you can actually find some letters between King Cailan and the Queen of Orlais, dealing with the possibility of an allegiance against the Darkspawn. It is also hinted at, that Loghain took this as an act of treason and therefore decided to betray Cailan at the battle of Osthagar to prevent Orlais from deploying troops to Ferelden (or "invading" Fereldan) once more.

Great review. It's interesting to see the perspective of someone who played DA:I first and can look at DA:O without the nostalgia googles I can't take off. I do wish more RPGs did the origin stories like DA:O... that is the real main attraction for me and it really helps you get immersed and want to play multiple times for the different motivations and interactions you will see along the way. DA:I and that stupid wartable... I hate that wartable as much as you hate the kingdom management in Pathfinder:Kingmaker. Just bring back the origin stories and I'll be happy...

This was one of the best games i have ever played back on 360. A remake or master would be great

My first crpg experience although I've been gaming since Doom 2 and Half Life but Baldur's Gate series totally slipped by me. The characters, lore and music really bring this game together along with the neat AI system for your companions("Chug that health poultice Alistair! You too Leliana! Chug Chug Chug!"). Even the origin stories was an experience of itself and I liked that skill checks had some kind of animation tied to it like how you could chuck a knife at a guard mid dialog in the City Elf Origin. The amount of companion banter was great and I miss Zevran's longing for Wynne's magical bosom lol. I'd seriously love a remake of this as the animations and graphics could use more touching up. The music is still top notch as its composed by the legendary Inon Zur(Fallout 3, Crysis, Pathfinder).

I love the entire series, but I must say...Inquisition felt like a typical of the times open world checkbox marker rpg. Origins felt epic in scale due to the main quests being large instead of numerous smaller ones.

May as well review DR2 now

There was a memory leak on launch. It was mostly squashed. Since then, I have never had a technical issue of note running DA:O. I've only played it on PC. And it runs better than modern cRPGs ostensibly designed for multicore on my Predator Helios, which can run late game Stellaris without a hitch. And this is easily my favorite CRPG of all time. Bioware at its creative peak, a fantastic story with deep lore, rewarding gameplay, and the best balance between action and tactics of any combat system I've played. Add in some of the most memorable characters, and ...yeah. DA2 and Inquisition don't touch this game. Also, on the side quests: they feel different in Origins than Inquisition. Because in Origins, you have no resources beyond your party 95% of the game. No one to give orders to. No way to convince anyone of your good will but what you do, or don't do. So even Chanter Board quests matter. You may have a big destiny. But only the people around you see it. In Inquisition, from an hour in, you are a leader of a significant armed force with not insignificant political and intelligence gathering potential Sure, you need to do stuff to turn potential into kinetic. But there's no cause for the PC to be hauling around for crafting ingredients. Potions. The cursed Shards. It's dumb not just because they're simplistic. But because you *have an army.* They should be doing this. That's what being a leader is for. Hate on Kingmaker's Kingdom management. But it gets this fact right. You have people. Even if you are a royal who does stuff. The Warden can be forgiven for fetching. He can't tell anyone else to do it. The Inquisitor has *no* cause to be doing any of that nonsense.

Tbh didn't run to your technical issues regarding those crashes, I guess it depends idk

I love this game, specially because of the world and the companions but you definitely have to mod the hell out of it to work right

I love this game, it remains to this day one of my favourite games of all time, I also personally really liked inquisition. It had its flaws but it was a far better sequel for the series than dragon age 2, Unlike most people I do think that dragon age 2 is worth playing,I enjoyed it enough at release, but it is nowhere near as good as the first or third games and would have really done better if it was just marketed as it's own thing rather than a sequel to origins.

As someone obsessed with fictional politics, FINALLY someone said it: King Cailan was a good king. What Logain did was not only petty and outright criminal, it was idiotic.

I have to disagree with you on Loghain. Even though I despised him and in most of my playthroughs killed him, I liked the way he was written. I always thought of Loghain as being blinded and deluded by his hatred of the Fantasy French, because of the way they treated the Fereldens until he and Cailans father drove them out. Rather than doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, it was him doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, which make perfect sense to him, something I always thought was one of the hallmarks of a well-written villain. Cailan being (in Loghains eyes) soft on the Orlesians and bringing them into Ferelden to combat the Blight made him think they would use the opportunity to take back power (something he may or may not have been right about, based on the letters you can find when going back to Ostagar). Us being shown him struggling with the (evil, and often bafflingly stupid) choices he makes over the course of the game in the cutscenes between main quests keeps the twist from seeming too out of left field. If you recruit him, most of the party members either mock or rail against him in the party chats, and he also agrees with them that he screwed everything up and was the bad guy in the end. You can take every opportunity to tell him to go to hell if you want. Him sacrificing himself to save Ferelden is a good way to finish his arc, I definitely agree with you there, but I don't think his overaell story is as poorly thought out as you say. This went on way longer than I intended, so sorry for that, and I hope I didn't come across as confrontational.

I wish I could play DAO for the first time again. I play it every couple years once more. great memories and it still harbours feelings of being young for me.

I actually started a new run of this game recently and it runs fine but older games in modern computers is always a bit of a gamble. Sucks that you had so much trouble running it, its a great game. Happy that you enjoied it

I agree, though I patched it with mods to make things better. The 4gb ram patch and such. Great video! Looking forward to your thoughts on how difficult the combat is in Underrail. As well as the gameplay variety in the crpg as well as the variety of ways to navigate and stealth through the map.

Only thing I would add is that voice acting is really good. Guy who voiced Logain also voiced Kain from Legacy of kain series, he literally brought "real" voice acting to games in the 90s.

Btw lowering the resolution and textures to medium helped me with every crash and missing texture I encountered, just a tip for those thinking of trying this

Man, didn't even know you covered it; I was waiting for a 100%. Really wasn't aware you did non 100% reviews. I've been on a CRPG/RPG high for over 2 months now.

On the point of the hornless Qunari: Originally, this was a hardware limitation, they were always meant to be more like what we see in 2 & Inquisition. In those games, it is said somewhere (I don't remember exactly where) that Qunari that are born without horns are seen as having some great destiny, and our companion Sten was one of those. It also states that Qunari who have gone Tal'vashoth often file off their horns, explaining why other Qunari encountered in the game also don't have horns. It's a little thing, but I like that they fessed up to "Yes, this is a weird thing the hardware did but here's a fun in-game reason for it." Bioware is pretty good at that. Like how they acknowledged the "Krem standing on his chair" bug was given in-game meaning during the Trespasser DLC. Edit: When we first were hearing about the Trespasser DLC, and we got some confirmation that it would address [a particular companion] leaving the party at the end of the main game, the community often called it as "Wolf Hunt", in reference to the Witch Hunt DLC of Origins. The only other (non-Bioware) game series I have seen handle the main character's background as well as Dragon Age is Pillars of Eternity. While there is not different prologues for each one, there is a vast variation in possible backgrounds and there are so many little references back to your choice throughout the game and it is really well done.

I also played inquisition first. And origins is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Great video

Just recently I saw a tweet talking about how the best writing in the whole game was spent on Loghain after you recruit him. And I agree. Hell. But so few people actually gets to see that.

One of my fav of all time! Thanks for covering it!

I really appreciate you doing this review over a decade after its release. DA:O was the last computer game I actually went out and bought the disk for and it remains one of my favorites to this day. I've been replaying it recently and can confirm the game runs like hot garbage on modern PC's. My game crashed numerous times during my mage run but noticed I haven't been experiencing as many crashes during my rogue run so I'll have to play around with particle settings. I basically agree with everything you said with exception of the side quests. I feel like they serve their purpose to break up the more dense story quests while allowing the player to gain extra gold and experience. The story quests are DENSE, so I always appreciated the simplicity of going to an area to kill some bandits. Anyway, that's just my two cents. I have absolutely no faith in Bioware at this point and the series ended after Inquisition as far as I'm concerned. Inquisition was as good as I could've hoped for after DA2.

I absolutely adore DA:O. My favorite in the series and the one I replayed the most. Saying that, I wouldn't touch this game without heavily modding it first. I always keep the mods I use on my external storage for replays and we are talking about ~25 mods that are mostly QoL and bugfixes. I don't do fanmade HD textures, character morphs and so on.

It runs flawlessly for me. Have hundreds of hours in this game, and replay it yearly. I've never had a problem with it's performance, and play for hours long sessions. I'm not sure why you are having issues, but I've not seen many complaints about performance

For people looking to play this now - make sure you install the 4gb patch, it should solve all of your performance issues.

I could talk to you for hours about my bro Alistair. I couldn't tell you any of the names of the companions from DA2. Oh except Varric.

Nice video! I agree with you about Logain, some people like him and I even felt like I wanted him to redeem himself by killing the Archdemon but what he did didn't make sense to me either. They tried to make him complex because he was this great hero in a war against Orlais but like you say in the game he just came across as this power hungry and doing horrible stuff so to me he didn't even deserve to be a Warden. Btw I didn't have any technical issues and I also just played it for the first time, but maybe is because my rig is not that modern anymore, like 4 years old

this is the best game in the entire series and the best game Bioware has ever made.

When you played through did you check out any of the community "fix packs/patches"? The PC Gaming Wiki lists a few as essential. There one in particular that does away with the old 2GB memory limit. I'm curious if that would resolve or mitigate the issues you had.

So hyped for this review!! Never had a crash. Played for HOURS!

Glad you reviewed it! One of my favorite games of all time. Sorry you had the technical issues. I first played it on ps3 and it ran fine other than some frame rate dips - load screens did take forever (stayed in shape by doing crunches with every load screen). My personal preference would be origins > inquisition just b/c of the great character building, interactions, and choices were better I thought

My 5 year old PC is handling the game with no problems. I only had an issue with Denerim corrupting save files, but there's a very easy fix for that available that I installed and had no issues since.

Bought & Played the game thru the Origin App and had no technical issues play on PC, The text is too small at 4K resolution so I did scale it down to 1080p which may or may not have been the difference

This is, the ONLY Dragon Age game! Those other two shall not be mentioned.

I feel like I should mention that in-universe it is the Dragon Age by the Chantry Calendar. It's like the game being called "9th century AD". Basically, the way they keep time every century or so, they announce a new age and the calendar dates are Age:Year. We are near the midpoint of the Dragon Age, being named so for the first sighting of a High Dragon in centuries.There have been 9 Ages in the Chantry calendar: Divine, Glory, Towers, Black, Exalted, Steel, Storm, Blessed, Dragon. DA:O ended in 9:31, Trespasser occurred in 9:44.

Now I understand why Neverwinter Night had Dragon Age vibe. I played DA in 2009 and that's the first CRPG I played and left me a lot of impression. After that, to relive the impression I had on DA, I ended up played Baldur's Gate I and II, and Neverwinter Night this past few week. It made realize, both BD and NWN were probably the basic foundation for creating Dragon Age.

YASSSS QUEEEN!!! I watched your DA:I review and was so sad you didn't play origin.

I stuck so many hours into this game when it came out. Had to do all the origin stories. Had to do a good/bad/blood mage run. So much fun.

We all have games that we play again... and again... and again. This is one of those.

'Baldur's Gate 1.9' was what i thought of it back in the day. Nice set up and i did play it 3 times, but as much i liked it, DAO was still hampered by old flaws: We will present you with the illusion of several paths...only 1 and a half are really viable.

I've also had issues while playing earlier versions of DA:O on old hardware (Q9650 and a GTX 460). Then I "upgraded" to a i7 4790k and GTX 770 and later to a GTX 1070Ti and used a community patch and a bunch of visual mods. From that moment on it was stable. No more crashes.

One of my fav Rpg´s ever, actually did all achievments for it lol

I played DAO (on Steam) a few years ago, I must say, I did not encounter the performance/crash issues you described. I even modded the game quite heavily and it was still very stable.

Dude your entrance music is 🔥

I loved this game, I played it 4 times through although I haven't played it in several years (I'm now 64 by the way). I thought the NPC's were well done and interesting companions. If the dialog between NPC's would have been more expansive it would have been worth playing just to listen to the party banter. I think this is the best of the 3 games although I enjoyed the others as well. I hope they take their time and make DA4 the best it can possibly be. With DA4 and BG3 the future looks good for epic CRPG's.

Ive just started dragon age origins and i like it so far. It’s been entertaining great writing kind of timeless. The combat is a little clunky but I love the rpg elements. I’m playing as a elf rogue and I loved my start

My personal favorite game of the era

Very good video. I loved the first DA game even more than the other two combined, but I too didn't like how the Landsmeet quest was designed and the writing of Loghain as an antagonist in this game (Interestingly enough, he actually was the first full written character for DA:O). It is worth noting, that there is an option to confront him with his choices, if you progress only through the story quests all the way to the Landsmeet and leave the side quest to the point when you can acquire Loghain to the party - mostly because that way you can take him with you to the Ostagar Ruins (which are normally available to complete short after unlocking the world map and therefore mostly completed by players very early in the game, including me on my playthroughs). I can't say more bc I didn't complete that specific playthrough yet (I started it about a year ago, but due to the bugs encountered on the modern PC you mentioned in the video and the lack of time for gaming, sadly). I also heard about a short story written by Bioware designers, explaining Loghain backstory, personality and choices - but I think we can all agree, that all this basic lore pieces about the antagonist THAT important for the game, should be the delivered to the player by the normal game playthrough. I'm glad that Bioware learned a lesson from that for future character design. Thank you for reminding me about this title, maybe I'll finally find enough time to complete the first two games with my exported save and see, what Bioware had planned for Loghain in the Inquisition 😄

What is really disappointing is how no new Isometric RPG has made an attempt to do what DA:O did so well. Blend Isometric real time with pause combat and a third person camera for exploration. This isn't an "I'm a zoomer so Isometric games are lame." Complaint it's an "I'm old my eyes and mouse finger hurt and you are million dollar companies let me explore the map in a more comfortable convenient fashion." I still love going into the Isometric strategest view during combat but when I am not in combat let me walk around with WASD and see the world up close.

I feel like you and I are the only people who see how similar Origins and Inquisition actually are. Maybe it's because we both started late and with Inquisition that our perception isn't tainted by nostalgia. Both games are great imo but they both have their flaws as well. Origins isn't perfect either. Unpopular opinion, but I am personally NOT a fan of real time with pause combat (prefer action or completely turn based). It feels so clunky and slow in Origins, despite giving you tons of abilities. It's a quantity over quality approach imho. So the fact that 2 and Inquisition became more action oriented made the combat more enjoyable for me, even though it's still a clunky real time with pause system. Here's hoping that DA4 goes full on action combat, like Dark Souls or Witcher or something. Inquisition does feel like a more streamlined Origins imo, with added unnecessary filler side content that adds nothing to the experience. Still, it has a great story, fantastic writing and amazing characters, just like Origins. Also, Inquisition is super colorful and has a lot of enviromental variety in its level design. Origins is just brown forrests and towns. Not very inspired.

I think you might have enjoyed it a bit more if you played on a console (crazy I know).. Glad you've given DAO a shot. I'm replaying it again this week. This game holds a special place in my heart

Got through my 4th playthrough I highly recommend this game

I replayed it recently on xbox and it plays really well there. Although, no mods. I played this for the first time a decade ago and I still love it.

It took 3 games for me to redeem Loghain, he was the one who stayed in the fade nightmare in my playthrough , and even after what he did on the first game; I couldn't help but feel kinda sad for him at the end. Maybe we will learn what happened to whoever we left in the fade in DA4

The series definitely has its flaws, but I really love the overall worldbuilding and story they have. It's been interesting following it the whole way through and it's rare that I'm as engrossed with a fantasy world as I am this one. BioWare has been on the rocks lately but I really hope DA4 starts to turn things around and we start to see the conclusion of the story arc they've been slowly setting up over the last few games. Also I love the whole origin thing and it's amazing and sad that DA had it done better than Cyberpunk a decade earlier.

5:30 The 'human commoner' origin story was converted into Hawke's backstory for DA2. 14:40 I would never. Just give Loghain to Alistair.

It's REALLY hard to get into inquisition because of the exact reason you mentioned in your review: the hinterlands. I'm a huge, huge, huge DA fan and by golly did the opening section kill my motivation to play that game.

i played this game again in a new PC and havent gone through so many bugs like you, but i had some. I agree that Inquisition is not that different from Origins, and being the lore what i most like in this setting, i love all 3 games. Waiting for DA4!

I just want to say that cone of cold hitting that many people looked so satisfying.

The absolute best Dragon Age game

Unfortunate about the performance. I won't say its perfect but I definitely don't have issues at that level when I play. Glad you enjoyed it otherwise. I think most people's gripe with Inquisition is its structure and game design, not so much the lore. Despite all the ups and downs I'm still hoping for a solid outing with DA4.

This game was incomparable to DA:I; like comparing beef wellington to salisbury steak. The completely unique opening chapters, based on your character, are pretty amazing, and make the game replayable... I will never, ever, for any reason, touch DA:I again. I liked the human noble male and the dwarf noble female stories the most.

Worked perfectly fine on my 2-year-old PC

Depends what you class as a side mission the board quests were rubbish, but you can full on threaten a guy to give you his tavern, and then give it to the bar maid if you wanted, or keep it, And there's so many things like that, personally absolutely hated all the characters in inquis, but absolutely loved the ones in origin so that's why I prefer origin personally