Pretty funny review...average and I love the mundane.

Sweet review

sure beats "compelling"

:D

Headbiter:

So, as far as my unsignificant self can say, I like (yes, present, not past form) Dragon Age so far, although I do hope that there are not only six different beginnings but also at least several possible endings and hopefully even som unique references to the specific starting-scenarios.

All major decisions affect the ending (Fallout style "X Happened because of your decision"). And there are several choices which do affect the ending in a big way.
Also, towards the end, your Origin matters again (except for mage I think. That one already matters mid game).

Headbiter:

Pretty much yes. You have the typical bow-wielding elves from the woods, the bearded dwarves from deep below the earth who are always the first to be horribly raped when something evil comes and the humans who are practically incredibly average but pretty much awesome because of that.

Yes, elves wield bows. But considering that their only experience with warfare in the last 100 or so years are as hunters in the woods it makes sense. Its not as if they are all Legolas style superarchers. Its just the weapon they use most often (for hunting).
And you will be surprised when you enter the dwarven city when you see some not bearded dwarves (and no, they are not outcasts).
The dwarfs look more like the USA (political bickering) with a caste system thrown in. Not a really nice place to be.

And the humans being awesome...
Well, they do backstab each other to no end. Not a smart thing to do when the darkspawn knocks on the door.

He may not want to read this, but often the best way to get out of the RPG-standard bestiary is to go play a JRPG.

I imagine this presents itself as a Catch 22 for the man. On the one hand, he hates all Western RPGs that wear the Tolkien uniform (i.e. most of them not based around Star Wars) and likes their stories, but on the other hand he hates JRPGs for the stories but would probably like their assortment of non-LotR creatures.

Oh, dear.

I hated this game so much... Took me 12 hours to figure THAT out. I am disappoint!
*goes back to some Baldur's Gate and Morrowind*

i love avenged seven fold <3

this was sooo true dragon age is typical bioware + typical Fantasy and somehow it works! at least it worked well enough for me to beat it in 50 hours over 2 weeks so i guess i wasnt having sex with many girls

Because I already bought Assassin's Creed 2, I would not be able to buy a game for a long time. Long time until I can play Dragon Age: Origin. I was hoping that your review would disillusion my enthusiasm. Great Video like always; but no disillusionment. I'm still excited! A game that kept Yatzee up all night? Wonderful! Although its nice to know the format is not 'revolutionary'.

Wow, he actually liked it. I played a little bit, and wasn't impressed in the slightest. Not that his feelings on a game accurately reflect mine, but... wow. I really didn't like it at all. Maybe I just played the wrong part. Either way, it saved me £40 which shall go towards Assassin's Creed 2 on Friday.

Laughed at the whole "surprising" race and class choices.

Is this game any good? Yahtzee like it! This seems interesting.

You should review Demon's Souls, seriously. It's a fantastic game and while the difficulty would make for some hilarious review rage, I'm confident you will come to love the game like so many others have.

Teiraa:
Yahtzee liked a jrpg, the world is ending after all!!! run for your lives!!! *dash*

bioware... jrpg...

Get out

I do agrea it odd that he did not really talk that much of the game. It seems like he liked it.

Kstreitenfeld:

Teiraa:
Yahtzee liked a jrpg, the world is ending after all!!! run for your lives!!! *dash*

bioware... jrpg...

Get out

JRPGS can be still be awesome though.

I found the story at 1:34 "compelling".

This I found rather good, a nice measured jab at rpgs and role-playing. It seems he writes the best reviews when he somewhat likes something; and circles around to find vulnerable little appendages to nibble.

Teiraa:
Yahtzee liked a jrpg, the world is ending after all!!! run for your lives!!! *dash*

Yahtzee mentioned about two years ago that he liked Earthbound and the Paper Mario series, albeit as the only exceptions to his general hatred of JRPGs, but still... the world hasn't ended yet.

i realy enjoyed this episode, i especially liked the part about the D&D player with the starbuck chick, and then ending "Resume credits!" keeps making my lauch, =p
good job YZE!!!

Mr.Lucifer:
JRPGS can be still be awesome though.

I'm not saying JRPGs are bad, just that Dragon Age is not a JRPG

MowDownJoe:

Play Sonic Chronicles and tell me that doesn't feel like a JRPG, even with it being made by Bioware.

Thats completely your opinion, plus having a game "feel" like a JRPG does not make it a JRPG. Should I spell out what the J stands for?

-edit-
To think of it, I don't think Bioware played a large role in Sonic Chronicles. Calling any true Bioware games JRPG is just ludicrous, their RPGS are staple WRPG.

Catkid906:
Okay... So I like get Dragon Age then, but I also like sex with Girls.
But which is better?

There's only one way to find out...

FIGHT!

first let me say, "fight, fight, fight, fight!"
and second..........ok there was no second so.....fight, fight, fight, fight!

Headbiter:
I mean, yeah, we could turn the elves into bloodthirsty, meatbags with the manners and ethics of Orwell's dictator-pigs, but thinking about it all we would've done then was renaming and reskinning the stereotypical orc, wouldn't we? And if we don't go for extremes and make them rather...mediocre...then we would have the stereotypical fantasy-humans.....with pointy ears.

Actually thats been done quite a few times already. Everquest had evil elves. Lords of Magic did, and Kingdom Under Fire the Crusades to a lesser extent. Although they usually call them dark elves so I don't know if that counts.

What I found interesting is that there's only 1 human origin story, if you don't count the mage one. The rest are elves and dwarves. I'm thinking Bioware may have wanted the player to play as a charecter they don't usually play as in an rpg.

As for Leianna, well I picked a female dwarven noble for my character and I think Leianna may swing both ways ;) Dragon Age really is a great rpg and I think the best way to play it is to create a character you would normally never play as.

Also I'm suprised no one else has brought this up yet but, a bunch of the dwarves have cornrow haircuts. That's right the DWARVES HAVE %@#%#$ CORNROWS wtf?

tl;dr Dwarves with cornrows thats all I have to say.

Just so you know, I haven't watched the video yet, so I can't make a statement about it at this time. However, since I'm new to the Escapist forums, I have three words for you Yahtzee.

You. Are. AMAZING!!!!

Zero Punctuation is one of the best shows on the Escapist, and I always look forward to listening to you spew hate about some of my favorite games (Example: BioShock). Then there's the rare occasion when a game comes out that you actually like. In those cases, I'll be sure to play the game. Honestly, the only reviews of yours I REALLY take seriously are for the games you can recommend, and for the games I already know are bad. You know, I don't watch your show to take it seriously. I watch it because it's AWESOME!!! But, as you said in your review of Batman: Arkham Asylum, "No one watches this show for what's good."

Some of my favorite ZP moments include the limerick in your Wolfenstein review, and your fake review of Duke Nukem Forever. By the way, I TOTALLY agree with you about Portal. I don't have anything to complain about either with that one. At some point I'll also download Psychonauts from Xbox Live Originals. I heard that game was awesome from multiple sources, and when I heard that you liked it, I made plans to check it out.

Well Yahtzee, that's all I have to say. Don't ever stop being a cynical, pompous douchebag. It's what people expect, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

Kstreitenfeld:

Mr.Lucifer:
JRPGS can be still be awesome though.

I'm not saying JRPGs are bad, just that Dragon Age is not a JRPG

MowDownJoe:

Play Sonic Chronicles and tell me that doesn't feel like a JRPG, even with it being made by Bioware.

Thats completely your opinion, plus having a game "feel" like a JRPG does not make it a JRPG. Should I spell out what the J stands for?

-edit-
To think of it, I don't think Bioware played a large role in Sonic Chronicles. Calling any true Bioware games JRPG is just ludicrous, their RPGS are staple WRPG.

JRPG is a term for any rpg made in japan. Turn based rpg is the proper term for the gameplay that the majority of jrpgs have.

To be honest if your going the JRPG vs RPG content argument, no side is going to win.

JRPG's are gamebooks (a word I made up) basically meaning that you play through a set story. Like a book if its written well it'll keep you hooked all the way through. Having said that some people think a game should be more interactive, Yahtzee being a prime example.

RPG's are more like Dungeons and Dragons (duhhhhhh). Much more personal, and the story is often directed by the player to varying degrees (the most common way of doing this is a morale choice system, though not always. Other ways are heavy character class customisations, appearance customisation and MAGIC!!!).

Hooray for ranting

Mr.Lucifer:

JRPG is a term for any rpg made in japan. Turn based rpg is the proper term for the gameplay that the majority of jrpgs have.

Yes I know what a JRPG is, Im not sure why you quoted me while saying this.

I hope more goes into mention about the "moral" choice system. One of the best advantages about from removing that ethical nanny-meter from Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, etc was that you could make certain choices that at least had some gray area.

For once, a game with a choice system gives the player options that can manifest in being of no benefit to the player in the game, but to the soul and mind of the one playing.

Great review as always. Have played dragon age and can say that pretty much everything he said is true.

After all those people went to all that effort to create those games, he should have took more time to review the winner.

Awesome, can't wait for an AC2 one if it happens.

Kinda offtopic, but not really, I love Dragon age for its trailers, notably the Sacred Ashes and "This is War" made from that. It's probably the best trailer that I've seen since the original WoW trailer. Then again I am a sucker for fantasy+RPG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2903GwmMEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYfRt-hGpI

That's them if you haven't seen them.

Also, I don't think he was really complaining about the length, just giving it a mention, personally I think every game should strive to reach 60+ hours. Considering I pay 109 bucks for most console games, and 100 bucks for PC games I think I deserve that kind of playability. Anyway, back to Assassin's Creed 2 for me..

I think I will risk this purchase.

Not particularly revelatory or anything, but just sayin'

Dragon Age is awesome.