Today was a truly momentous day in the jnlxandr household, as I managed to come back from Rockwell bearing the dual blessings of Dragon Age: Origins (the collector's edition, 2,850 cash) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (the standard edition, 2,495 cash), both of which just arrived at Datablitz earlier today. w00t! The store was packed with geeks trying to pick up either or both of the two games, as I expected.
I'm writing this impressions post at one in the morning, having spent the last 5 hours giving both games the business, and here's what I have to report.
Dragon Age: Origins - Collector's Edition (R3)I was actually sort of forced into buying the CE - I didn't know that preordering DAO required you to buy the collectors edition. All in all, it's a pretty decent package: you get some extra DLC (which I haven't tried downloading yet, but the code's in the jewel case), a nice wooden box with the Dragon Age logo and insignia, a reaaaaally cheap looking cloth map that looks like it took all of 20 pesos to manufacture, and an extra Blu-Ray with making of featurettes and other extra crap. You also get the extra DAO branded mug from Datablitz.
Now, I don't think it's necessarily 750 bucks worth of content, but if you're a big Bioware fan it's still not a bad deal. Hmmm... but when you think about it, for that money you could pick up a brand new Greatest Hits title like Bad Company or (ugh) Devil May Cry 4 along with your super cheapo Php 2,100 version of Dragon Age. *devil's advocate* Hehehe.
Anyway, back to the game itself. It looks very promising - I've played through about 2 hours's worth (the Human Noble prologue and a bit of the Grey Warden camp that follows), and I've been very satisfied thus far. It looks like a high quality Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which is to say, the world is very pretty and the characters are very robotic), with the same crappy framerate and the same gigantic install. What I like most about it is that the gameplay resembles a next generation Neverwinter Nights, except with a much better focus on story - the dialogue trees are well-written & fun to explore, and there's plenty of extra info lying around in books and chracter profiles if you want to learn more about the world of Ferelden. (Having previously read the prequel novel Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, a lot of the back story already resonates with me.) Still, people who are unfamiliar with Bioware RPG's (especially people who play mostly Japanese RPG's like Final Fantasy) should try before they buy, as this looks like the D&D system in all but name.
I'll have more on DAO soon, that is, as soon as I can tear myself away from...
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (R1)This was very, very impressive indeed. The single player campaign is really, really freaking awesome so far (the action scenes will absolutely blow you away!), but what really took me off guard was the Spec Ops mode. As you've no doubt heard, this mode is composed of a bunch of little mini-missions that you can do in solo and co-op mode, and it's dangerously addictive. No story, no frills, just you pitting your skills against Infinity Ward's devious challenges.
Next question: How's the online multi? Well, I wouldn't know because for the life of me I couldn't manage fucking log on, even after waiting for ten minutes. I'll try it out again tommorrow and hopefully it works by then. Ahh, it's Infinity Ward, they'll figure out a way to fix it.
Time to get some sleep! :-)
EDIT: It turns out it's a server side thing, Infinity Ward grossly underestimated the demand for the PS3 version's multiplayer and are adding servers as I type this. Whew!
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