Dragon Age™: Origins - Ultimate Edition

I love this game which I originally bought at that other place. I purchased it again here because I was having problems with freezeups. I installed this yesterday and it has been a nightmare! It freezes up even more than the other install. I have tried all of the suggested remedies:the 4gb patch, the LAA, tried reducing all of the video setings, tried to run it in 16 bit color, in compatibility mode,etc. Every origin story has a spot where it freezes.After rebooting, shutting up all unnecessary services,it still freezes a tht eexact same spots. This is a really enjoyable, immersive game:when it works!

great for the most part, but the battle system is dumb and sucks

Now 2/5 is harsh, seen how this game basically "works" and has many positive aspects, engaging side quests and so on. That said it is a AAA game. The basic ideas are flawed, crucial elements bugged, the execution half-hearted. It is an outright terrible game design that's just been "saved" by throwing 100x more money into it than it deserves. The Origins A good game always has a good start. This game settled for a number of mediocre beginnings... Now that's daring and tries for innovation, but it does not work. Some of the origin stories are plain bad, others hint at a great epic, only to be lost in transition towards a unified main plot. Since I started with the best origin (imo) I've been all the more disappointed it's basically just dropped. It doesn't exactly create an open mind for an altogether different epic if the epic that already began is abandoned but an hour later. Moreover the various origins suffer from some horrible tutorial elements, text-block-style forcing you to "do that". Well - let's try and give that main epic a shot, shall we? What do we have here: An epic cutscene! Oops... Graphics mess up, the whole epic scene is ridiculed by a flaw no AAA game should ever have. The german translation is totally butchered btw, so stick to english at all costs (AAA?). And so on... Game mechanics To cut the chase: Most classes offer little choices, the official add-ons throw balance to the winds, levels are horribly designed in terms of tactical layouts, the "increased party control" (that's the actually intriguing idea to allow "programming" your party's combat behaviour) doesn't even allow them to hold positions ("Dear skeleton - PLEASE move into melee with my mage!")... Etc etc... Playing very hard (solo) needs one to know the mechanics and level design intimately and I tell you: The game can consider itself lucky I'm out of space here. Overall mediocre at best (3/5) - horrible for a AAA title (-1). Possibly still enjoyable, but far from a good game.

An awful, bland, boring excuse for a fantasy RPG. Despite what others claim, this never even came even remotely close to the quality of the previous Bioware games set in the Forgotten Realms. Instead of a rich, interesting world, you get a rehash of boring, underdeveloped tropes, sewn together by the blandest writing that is only nowadays being challenged by worse writers. Stay clear, it's trash.

The last big budget game I can remember that had PC specific controls and interface, i.e. it didn't feel like it was built for consoles first. The game itself is decent enough but this is what I remember most about it. It's a shame that nowadays it only seems viable for Kickstarters and indie developers to develop RPG's built for mouse and keyboard, whereas a triple A developer like Bioware has gone the way of many other devs who used to specialize in developing more complicated gameplay systems, but now develop the same homogenized shooter/RPG hybrid that everyone else does these days.