Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition

[owsf2000]

So I finally bought the game, new, at a price I considered reasonable for it. $19.99.

I consider this the "Almost Finished" version of the game, since although it has both the base game and it's expansion, and 7 DLC components, from what I hear they also added more dlc afterward. I'd have to verify that on PSN - it's possible the extra addon content it mentions are just PS3 themes and wallpapers.

There were no DLC coupons in the case for Dragon Ages, and there's just a single disc. I'm going on the assumption that this means everything is actually on the disc. It's a shame EA didn't have the sense to EXPLICITLY state this on the back of the box. This was the single most deal killing uncertainty for me as I was NOT going to pay 49.99 if the 7 DLC packs were just going to be offered as single use coupons. At 19.99, that's a bit more reasonable to pick up since it'd be like getting the base game for 10 dollars and it's expansion for another 10.

There WAS a DLC coupon inside however. For the blood dragon armor for Mass Effect 2. Since I don't plan on getting Mass Effect 2 I would have probably considered giving this coupon away but it wouldn't do anybody any good. That coupon expired on July 30, 2011.



For anybody in the know (someone who deals with limited edition games etc that routinely insert single-use coupons as part of their "bonuses") do all DLC coupons tend to come with an expiry date? Or is this the black sheep? I can't say I care about this particular expiry dated coupon since as far as I can tell it isn't advertised anywhere on the box. If it was, I'd probably be pissed right now.

I can also see it mentioning registration for EA's services being required for online features. Well, I have no intention of doing that, but I have a feeling this might be why they included the DLC coupon - bait for the unwary. :P

Comments

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

From what I've been able to glean from Google and Bioware threads, even though all the DLC is on the disc and you don't have to download anything, you still apparently have to sign in to the EA server shit at least once to "authorize" it, otherwise it doesn't work. :/ In other words, anyone who buys this game but doesn't have their PS3 hooked up to the Internet is just SOL, I guess. This is why I hate Internet activations for crap like this (or anything else for that matter). Why should an otherwise offline singleplayer game require a goddamn Internet connection?

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

Good thing I waited until it got down to this price I suppose. I'd have been far more pissed if I had paid full price for this. Under the assumption that the two main games aren't tied like that, then it's still 10 dollars for each. (Interesting point, getting either origins or awakenings by itself at gamestop is still 25-30 bucks each.)

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Also, if the UE is anything like the DLC in the original full-price beta version of Dragon Age was, you would have to be signed in every time you launch the game in order for the DLC to work, not just once to activate it. At least it was that way for me on the PC anyway. I recall more times that I'd like to count that I'd get the "fuck you, Bioware servers can't be accessed right now so the DLC is invalidated and will be deactivated, so piss off" message when I'd try to load a save game. Solution for me in those cases was simply to wait a few seconds and try again, but even so, it's still retarded bullshit.

Honestly, as annoying as it is, you're really not missing much by not having the DLC. All of them could each be finished in 2-3 hours tops, and were each fairly lame. The main campaign and Awakening should be more than enough. And if you ever do break down and decide to activate the shit, make sure you play them in the correct order (at least for the ones that allow you to import your character from the original game), otherwise it apparently fucks shit up as well. Order being: DA:O -> Awakening -> Golems of Whatever -> Witch Hunt. The other two stand alones, Leliana's Song and Darkspawn Chronicles, can be played at any point, but are better to wait until at least after completing DA:O first.

Well, in addition to the above, missing out on the DLC means that you won't have Shale, (http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Shale) which is kind of a shame. The rest of it, even the in-game shit like Return to Ostagar and Warden's Keep, you wouldn't miss all that much. Although, again, it kind of sucks that the party chest that was included with Warden's Keep (but not in the vanilla game for whatever retarded reason) is kind of a pain not to have access to, but that's about it. I would have said that there are fan-made mods to add that in to the base game, but you've got the PS3 version, so no mods.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

And you'll also have that douchebag hanging around in your party camp (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/06) who wants you to go to Warden's Keep all the time, I guess.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

And as I mention on Atari Age, since I still have no intention of signing up with EA's servers to authorize what I've legally bought and actually have on the disc, it means I've been cheated by EA and Bioware. I'm not going to let either of them point blame on the other. Both are taking it.

It says on the back of the box I need to register for online features, but I don't consider anything that is on the disc, in my hands, to be an "online feature". Looks like the EA boycott will be going up again. This time for good. That's what I get for buying new to "help the poor developers out".

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Bioware IS EA now, as far as I'm concerned (and as they have said themselves (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-03-bioware-ea-doesnt-tell-us-what-to-do)), since they seem to be willingly and enthusiastically embracing all of these bullshit things. (Despite the fact that prior to the EA buyout of them they never did asinine shit like this at all, but whatever.) Seriously, between requiring Internet connection to "activate" purely singleplayer content and including online codes that are useless because they have retarded arbitrary expiration dates that have already long since passed, I don't blame you at all for ignoring them. They essentially punished you for not buying new soon enough. ("Soon enough" that the game was still selling at full price is the reasoning for the expiration date, I would guess. I guess if you don't buy new at full price then you're "hurting the developer" or some shit?)

As for me, I will probably still get Mass Effect 3 eventually, simply because I've already got the first two games in the series and don't want to let one of the few multi-part series that actually concludes pass me by (assuming it doesn't end on yet another bullshit cliffhanger, of course, and I will be waiting for reviews to see if this is the case before buying it), but after this, I'm probably not going to be buying any more BioWare games either, myself. To think that it was Mass Effect that was the explicit reason I bought a 360 in the first place, back in 2007. Oh how far the mighty have fallen since then. :(

(As an aside, Assassin's Creed was another of the three titles I bought at the same time as I got the 360 initially, and just look at fucking Ubisoft now as well. They're actually even worse than EA/BioWare at this point, though admittedly not by very much. I haven't bought an AC game since AC2. Might still pick up Brotherhood and Revelations someday, but only if I find them at bargain bin price somewhere. The third game I got at the same time I bought the 360, BioShock, is the only one for which I have little reservations about getting the sequel, BioShock Infinite, at least currently anyway. At this point, who knows what all will be fucked up with that game between now and time for it to be released.)

[goldpseudo.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you need me to go down and slap some Bioware people around. They're just across the river, and right on the way to the comic shops so I can make a whole trip out of it.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

Do it. Tell'em Kane sent ya.