Mac Gaming

Dragon Age: Origins — Bioware’s return to fantasy. I’d been waiting for the release of DA:O ever since I first heard about it, and it’s one of the few games I’ve ever pre-purchased (Fallout 3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum being the only others). But what can I really say that others haven’t? You can read the reviews to find out how the game stacks up to others in and out of the genre. Needless to say, the game itself has lived up to my expectations and, in terms of its performance, it has exceeded them: Dragon Age: Origins runs extremely well on my Mid 2007 24” iMac.

My Settings

The Verdict

At 1440×900 resolution, DA:O plays and looks better than both Neverwinter Nights 2 and Drakensang: The Dark Eye. The frame rate is smoother and the graphics are better than both of these earlier games — you can definitely tell Bioware had a long time to polish and optimize the PC version of the game while the console version was in development.

DA:O is also a far better RPG than both NWN2 and Drakensang. Providing you with six origin stories and a main quest that’s easily 40-50 hours long (plus side quests), DA:O is an amazing value for your gaming dollar. The story is engaging; the characters and companions are interesting (and often funny); and the combat is challenging. The origin stories are somewhat uneven in quality and duration (the most interesting one so far, in my opinion, being the Dwarf Noble origin), but I’m looking forward to seeing how the later game is affected by these different beginnings (I was a mage in my first play through).

Overall, I can’t recommend Dragon Age: Origins enough. If you like this style of RPG… well, you probably already bought the game. If you haven’t, the holiday season is approaching — go and treat yourself to one of the best games of the year.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.4/10