The better Bioware RPG?

[unindexedsearchengine]

either both, i have both, and it's worth it!
if only one....well ME2 is a better game in total, but the PS3 version is quite different.
So if story and gameplay both matter equally, the ME2
If you have no care for story then DA:O
come on people, Mass Effect 2 just has a way superior story

 

[theriddlen]

ME2 is just awesomely much better.

Dragon Age is just boring, i couldn't force myself to finish it+Awakening third time. And i did it with ME2 dozens of times. Fighting is exhausting and boring, dialogues are boring and non expressive, your hero is mute which effectively destroys his personality, story is terrific and unpolished. It's not even dark evil grity game, as it was promoted, it's just normal, badly made unfinished rpg, with terrible gameplay and story.

ME2 on the other side, has great dialogues, enjoyable story (not as epic as ME1, but still great), very fun gameplay, best characters i ever seen in any game, and hell of a awesome voiceover. And it's quite polished.

 

[Trolldor]

Dragon Age isn't boring, you just have no patience.

And finishing it at least twice means you cared enough to rack up around 40 hours of gameplay.

 

[Vault101]

I plan on going to gamestop later to get either Dragon Age origins or Mass Effect 2 (both for ps3) and wanted to know which is better? iv heard alot of complaints about ME2 being heavily streamlined/dumbed-down but is that really an issue?
*Note:I have never played a dragon age or Mass effect game before, but i do know the basic mechanics.

well they are good for different things, DA is a great old school RPG that makes the tried and true formula feel fresh and interesting (coming form somone who usually finds high anatay bland I LOVED the story) gameplay is tactical (my skills equate to pressing the heal button over and over again and hope to not die) but it was the story and charachters that made the game for me, it also has a great balance between role play and your charachter being a charachter (unlike oblivion, I was empty space)

ME is less RPG and more shooter, but In my opionion the RPG elements (as in micro managing your crews gear) in the first didnt add much to the game and ME2 kept what was best (chrachters dialogue), ME2 isnt much of an RPG (well depending on your definition) but still an amazing game all the same

 

[Vault101]

The best one?

Um...I say mass effect, it's DLC is amazing. Dragon age Origins is good (DAMN good) But it's have some flaws mostly with the PC (Player character)

He have very little emotion and sit there slack most of the time
Combat is easy as hell even on Nightmare mode.
Mostly, Mages are overpower damn it, which sort of make sense, since Mages in-game caused the first darkspawn.

I think they did an excellent job of making the PC an actual "charachter" even without dialogue, so I could get attached to them (female city elf, total badass I like to call her "the bride") but I actually Suport the changes, I prefer them to talk makes them really part of the action, but even if they decided not to change things I wouldnt be that bothered

 

[LiquidGrape]

Dragon Age has depth.
Mass Effect 2 wants you to think it has depth.

Make of that assessment what you will. I like both, and Mass Effect is visually the most compelling IP. But Dragon Age is a demonstrably better written piece of work.

- And it has Leliana.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Dragon Age, it's just so damn great. Even on my filthy, dirty console.

The combat is hella fun, from a tactical standpoint.

Pinning shot the enemy, then summon a firestorm around 'em. Follow up with stun...Such good times.

 

[Trolldor]

Mass Effect 2 isn't a bad game. It's actually quite fun, either with a continued save or with Default Shep. The problem is that it isn't really an RPG. No matter what choices you make the end result is exactly the same, and the major 'consequences' aren't decisions you made in relation to characters, just whether you upgraded your ship enough.

 

[Deathfyre]

Dragon Age Origins. Mass Effect was superior to DA:O but ME 2 is just a FPS basically. The NPCs are there and some are cool but in DA:O are much more defined and have way more lines.

I didn't play them on PS3 (I'm mostly a PC gamer) so I can only express it from that point of view but I really couldn't call ME2 an RPG (which is what you wanted). (I may be lynched for this opinion however)

DAO however was a pure rpg, much bettter for replay value.

Wait what? You can say a lot about Dragon Age but the replay value is almost zero. Who the hell wants to go through the Deep Roads more than once?

There were sections I hated in the game, the deep roads andthe fade. But it was fun playing a DW rogue, archer, warrior and mage. Unlike ME2 where it was always duck behind cover and shoot. ME2 gameplay wise was a gears clone, and lets face it aside from paragon/renegade there is no reason to playthrough it again, unless you like doing the exact same thing again and again.

i will agree to this, the gameplay needs to vary a bit more i think, especially depending on what class you pick, so between that and having maybe a few more choices here and there depending on your class/moral choices, the game could have been better for re playability.

Moral choices dont matter in ME. Mainly ecause the devs decided to make everything black and white. Or Red and blue. And add they neverpunish paragons. And the punishment for renegade in 2 was looking like the terminator, and thats just the start. Thats another great thing about DAO they grey choices. look at horrowmont and Behlen for example.

yeah somewhat, but i dont think thats necessarily a horrible thing. (talking about your first sentence) they should have punished paragons a few times at least, like for being too noble the bad guy would get away or you wouldn't get the best gun or something.

ehh you can call that a gray choice, but i personally will always side with horrowmont every time. behlen can lick my human noble nuts.

They sort of did that (letting the bad guy go in ME 2) If you stop the guards from beating down the prisoner in Purgatory, he gets out and kills people, and says he'll come after you... So in Me3, he'll probably be back

OT: I didn't like DA at all, I tried it a bunch of times, with different classes, but I never actually cared about anything that happened at all. ME2 on the other hand, I loved the cinematic feel, and the way it gives you a bunch of choices that'll affect what happens when 3 comes around, though it sucks that because the PS3 didn't have ME1 that you guys miss out on a lot of stuff, like easter eggs and meetings, and eventually the rachni probably helping you out in ME3. I played through both 1 and 2 four times each, going a different path every time. It's not just Paragon and Renegade, it's the galaxy. The games are meant to be played as a trilogy though, so you'll feel like you haven't really done much throughout the game (other than saving the galaxy twice) and a lot of the consequences of choices won't really come together until 3 comes around

 

[bojackx]

I've never played Mass Effect before, but I have played Dragon Age, and from the 30 minutes I sat there playing it I thought it was terrible. The combat is dull and the characters aren't at all believable. I've not played it since then, cost me £20 too. So even though I've never played Mass Effect, I'd still heavily recommend it over Dragon Age.

 

[Trolldor]

Twenty minutes? So, not even past the prologue?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Dragon Age Origins. Mass Effect was superior to DA:O but ME 2 is just a FPS basically. The NPCs are there and some are cool but in DA:O are much more defined and have way more lines.

I didn't play them on PS3 (I'm mostly a PC gamer) so I can only express it from that point of view but I really couldn't call ME2 an RPG (which is what you wanted). (I may be lynched for this opinion however)

I agree. ME2 ws a TPS just with dialouge.
DAO however was a pure rpg, much bettter for replay value.

O RLY? *cough* Well dialogue is basically the only reason i play Bioware games and i really hated the shuffling towards enemies taking turns to kick each others shins gameplay of DA:O so ME2 had way more replay value to me.

"obligatory but everyone has opinions speech goes here"

 

[Xaositect]

Get Dragon Age Origins, since its actually an RPG, not just a glorified Gears Clone. Dont listen to anyone in denial about the game, its just almost a complete barage of constant cover shooter combat (never mind "haters gonna hate", how about "shitbrains gonna shitbrain" when they try and deny that the game is just all take cover/shoot enemy/return to cover).

Dragon Age has a lot more variety to it. Youll visit lots of areas where there are many things to do, in many different ways.

In ME2, youll either visit linear shooting galleries, or linear "shopping malls" designed to shepherd the player between said shooting galleries.

 

[meowchef]

They're both incredible.

Dragon Age Origins is an old-school tactical RPG.

Mass Effect 2, contrary to some people's beliefs, is just as much an RPG as the first game. The weapon inventory has been moved to the ship and the armor selection actually consists of selecting different pieces of armor instead of the same armor over and over with different textures.

Also, smoothing out the combat to not be mediocre is a good thing folks...

 

[faspxina]

Although both are great (I played DA:O on ps3 and I loved it), Mass Effect 2 is probably more console friendly.

Here are the main differences:

DA:O
- fantasy setting
- tactical rpg combat (pc friendly)
- highly customizable protagonist
- silent protagonist

ME2
- sci fi setting
- third person shooter combat (console friendly)
- less customizable protagonist
- voiced protagonist