Dragon Age: Origins PS3 second impressions

As per my previous entry I took another stab at DA:O with particular reference to those items I found lacking.


First off the lack of guides on the mini-map. There are little arrows that appear on the mini-map pointing to quest locations. These arrows only appear when the map you're on has them, which is why I've not noticed them this was the first truly large map I found myself in. They've missed a trick though, say I have the main quest marker with a white arrow pointing it's direction. I can also have a sub-quest arrow pointing to that direction; a white arrow. That's two white arrows, useful.

Okay locking on to an enemy, a read of the manual and the control page tells me I can lock onto an enemy with L3 then shift focus using the d-pad. It works, but it's a little clunky.

Another amusing incident with the cut-scenes when you lose your head gear; I had several where I didn't. So some it goes and some it stays.

A closer reading of the manual differentiated between Magic and Spellcraft, Magic is the root element that affects all Magic, Spellcraft is derived from Magic and represents your spell power i.e. the damage you do.

One new thing that's been ticking me off is the number of locked chests around. You need Lock Picking skills to open them Rogue's get a level automatically I'm told. Yet I had a Rogue in my party and he had no luck. Now I've lost him and have none they're even more barred to me. So I could do with obtaining that skill myself. A read of the manual tells me to advance the lock-picking skill tree, which I don't have. Is there some prerequisite Attribute level I need before I obtain it? The manual doesn't say.

Again I'll keep going, It's still quite fun what you can do - Encountering some highwaymen, I informed that it was a bad idea to try to go up against Grey Wardens, they Persuaded them to make a donation of 20 silver then Intimidated them into leaving. No fight, no battle; just talk.