Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition

by Electronic Arts

• Includes The 2009 ?RPG Of The Year? Dragon Age: Origins, The Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Expansion Pack, Plus All Nine Additional Content Packs
• Critically acclaimed winner of more than 50 awards including over 30 ?Best Of 2009? awards
• A tremendous $114 value at one low price
• Critically acclaimed winner of more than 50 awards including over 30 ?Best of 2009' awards. A tremendous $112 value at one low price.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0045ZB66I
• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: October 25, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (261 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,071 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #47 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Role-Playing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Get the ultimate Dragon Age experience! Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition includes: Dragon Age: Origins. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of this legendary order of guardians. With the return of mankind's ancient foe and the kingdom engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen by fate to unite the shattered lands and slay the archdemon once and for all. Explore a stunning world, make complex moral choices, and engage in bone-crushing combat against massive and terrifying creatures. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Expansion Pack. The story of the Grey Wardens continues as you are named their commander. Fight new enemies, learn new skills and spells, and explore an all-new area of the world, Amaranthine. All Nine Content Packs Extend your adventure with The Stone Prisoner, Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar, Feastday Gifts, The Darkspawn Chronicles, Feastday Pranks, Leliana's Song, The Golems of Amgarrak, and Witch Hunt. Collect new rewards, gain new party members, and more as you delve deeper into the Dragon Age storyline.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

148 of 152 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great game, and well worth the price. BEWARE THE DRM. January 11, 2012

By Talus

Platform for Display:PC|Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Just bought Dragon Age Origins (ultimate edition). After putting about 12 hours into it, I can truly say that it's a wonderful game in the tradition of Bioware's Knights of The Old Republic, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights; set in a new universe with dark fantasy and truly epic battles I haven't seen the like of since Peter Jackson's Return of The King. I'm not going to go into too much detail though, because there are many quality reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere on the internet. I want to share more the buying and installing experience.

First of all, there is no downside to paying an extra $10 and getting the "Ultimate Edition" Versus the standard "Origins". The Downloadable Content packs (7 packs) that are included in the ultimate edition cost about $15 a piece separately, so they are well worth it in the bundle. The DLCs themselves fit seamlessly for the most part into the main story, and add a great deal of adventure and added playtime to the story. Go for the Ultimate Edition by all means.

Installing... The DVD-disk physical copy version has two disks, both of which come in the box. They automatically patch the game up to 1.04 is it installs (the latest version), and install very easily and flawlessly. However, the DRM (Digital Rights Management, anti-piracy measures) is a nightmare. A NIGHTMARE.

As I read the terms of service (yes, I sometimes do that), I actually contemplated sending the game back. It was that bad.... The choicest bit of it comes to mind: "You agree that a breach of this License (disable the DRM, make a video for YouTube using the game, use a No-CD crack, etc) will cause irreparable injury to EA for which monetary damages would not be an adequate remedy and EA shall be entitled to seek equitable relief in addition to any remedies it may have hereunder or at law without a bond, other security or proof of damages".

Translation? If you do anything they don't like AT ALL, no amount of money or apologies is enough to fix the "irreparable injury" you cause to their $3 BILLION dollar-a-year company. They will have to put you in jail to ease the pain. So anyway...

Firstly, it uses two serial numbers: One for the main game, and one for the DLCs. You get three installs per serial number. The DLC serial code is expired as of 2009, luckily I didn't have any problems with it. Secondly, you are required to sign up for an EA/Bioware account to use the serial number for the DLCs. If you do this, you also must be logged on to the internet when you start the game. Thirdly, they use a disk-check (SecureROM) every time you start the game. Fourthly, the game collects info on your gameplay and PC. Goodbye privacy, because this game phones home like a momma's boy.

Lastly, ANY CHANGE to your system invalidates one of your three installs. Get a new computer, upgrade you RAM in your current one, put in a new cooling fan, replace the hard drive, buy a new graphics card... Any of these things invalidates one of your three installs. If you run out of installs, you have to buy a new game. So good luck playing it five years down the road.

In summary: It's a great game, but Electronic Arts (EA) is a horrible company with draconian DRM practices. This is the first game that I have bought from them since they started using DRM, and I almost didn't. I probably won't again. The companies punish honest gamers, because it is much easier to steal these games than buy and install them legitimately. Read more ›

105 of 121 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars THE RETURN TO THE AGE OF THE CLASSICS IS NOW COMPLETE! October 30, 2010

By NeuroSplicer TOP 500 REVIEWER

Platform for Display:PC

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

In the past I have chastised EA a number of times for its release of cookie-cutter games, crippled with atrocious DRM schemes. So, in all fairness, I now have to say this: DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS IS A GAMER's DREAM! It is an excellent game collection which (unfortunately...) does not come free of DRM madness. The original game and its expansion have only a simple disk-check; however, for some unfathomable reason, the DLCs/Packs in this edition have to be...downloaded (and activated) from EA's site. So, thank you EA for trying to listen to your customers but too bad you missed the cigar for not been able to hold it together to the end.

This is one of those games that are easy to control, a joy to roam through and fun to play at no end.
I am a huge cRPG fan and cannot remember such a great companion/squad cRPG ever since the Baldur's Gate Saga. And to tell you the truth, this is the game I was dreaming of being able to play one day while playing BG (yeah, by now we all know that NEVERWINTER NIGHTS never delivered).

There are about a dozen gender/race/class/background choices and a great many combinations in forming your party. The armor and the weapons are exceptionally made and everything shows on your characters. And the graphics are truly beautiful! You have to see the rendering of flames to believe them.
Nevertheless, what really stands out is the gameplay. Every battle is a puzzle to be solved, pausing ever so often to reallocate enemies to the best suited party members (a feature I loved in BG!). Of course one can always turn off the autopause feature and let the AI take over the rest of your party and turn the game into an hack&slash action RPG (not exactly my cup of tea but, hey, it's still nice to know it's there)....

Finally, this is a game made just like the classics in many ways, including duration. I have been playing the game for hours at no end and I feel the urge to start over the moment I reach the epilogue. Now DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS is one satisfying RPG!

My only gripe is this: I did not appreciate such short dialogue options. Most fit a single line and more often than not they consist of a couple of words. I like my RPGs to be wordy and challenging to my verbal imagination as well - and I want my characters to participate in the humor, not just provoke it or react to it. Remember the long dialogue options in BG? Well, expect to find DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS much more laconic.
I guess 10 years of fast-paced FPS and blitzkrieging RTS do take their toll...

This ULTIMATE EDITION not only contains both the original game and its AWAKENINGS expansion but also all nine Content Packs. For such an epic game to be sold at this price, this is a bargain not to be missed!

The blood sprays, the swords clang and the spells explode. The animations are beautifully made and add a lot to both enjoyment and immersion. There is a verse in Homer's Iliad I love: "the warrior fell, his armor echoing around him" - and I was reminded of it many a times throughout the game.

The game is now complete and it will stay with you for a very long time.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Read more ›

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Faulty download, but amazing game. December 2, 2010

By irrelephant

Platform for Display:PC Download|Amazon Verified Purchase

After spending nearly a day downloading this game, the installation failed at 70 percent. I looked it up and all sorts of people have been having this issue for over a year now and it's never been resolved. Apparently, it's due to corrupted RAR files in the download. I was finally able to circumvent the issue by downloading the game again, substituting good RAR files from the new download for the corrupted ones in the old download, and installing it from there. All in all, the process was way more work than I would have liked. Had I known about it beforehand, I would have just bought a physical copy of the game.

The game itself, however, is great! It runs perfectly. The story and structure are brilliant, the controls intuitive, the classic RPG feeling genuine, etc. I truly recommend this game if you're willing to suffer through some hassle downloading it.

I would have given this game five stars if not for the download process.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware, you may not be able to even install the game January 7, 2012

By A user

Platform for Display:PC Download

Bought this game on the packaged bundle with DA2 for $12.50 because the bargain was too good to be true. Turns our you really get what you pay for. It was my first (and last) game download purchase from Amazon. They had a chance to pull me away from Steam and failed. Your experience may vary as one can see from reading all the reviews on this game (for some people it works flawlessly, others encounter issues too numerous to list). I hope Amazon will not edit my review and at least 1 or 2 poor souls looking to get the game they paid good money for to work can make use of my experience described below.

The game file is big and aware of that, I downloaded it from work. Download speed there is faster and instead of taking days (meaning pauses to download etc...) I could get it done in a couple of hours while leaving the PC (docked and wired connection) behind for meetings. So I did try to take precautions given the numerous reviews mentioning file corruption.

Back at home I try to install the game and it fails with the least informative error message ever "DA:O failed to install" and some generic "Why don't you try again?" kind of suggestion for a fix. So I make sure I go to task manager and kill every possible task I can and try again, this time keeping an eye on the boring install window to try to catch the issue. At around 70% of the install it hangs up and I was quick enough to capture a screenshot. So I found my corrupt file. In my case it was "addins\dao_prc_ep_1\core\env\vgk200d\vgk200d_1216.gpu.rim", yours may be different. Shortly after the hang up the failed install message showed again.

Wondering if anything went wrong with the download I decide to try again.... Deleted all files from the PC and downloaded even a fresh Amazon installer, 2 days later I have a new file to try again. Did not work. The install failed again and *on the exact same file*. This is important because I would think a file corruption from the download process would be random. The fact it failed at the exact same file makes me wonder if Amazon is not just selling a corrupted game.

I then proceeded to try fix it myself, since I read enough about the lack of helpfulness from EA and Bioware in technical issues from both Amazon and other forums. And I wanted to avoid getting on EA's bad side since there are instances where even bans from forums locked people out of their games.

Forums did not help much. A lot of people mentioned "fixing the corrupted files with good ones" and I kept wondering "Where did they get these so called good files"? Others suggested using Origin. I refuse to install it on my PC on principle (you could say I'm a Steam fanboi) so not an option (I must point out I would have broken down and installed it if I had not been able to fix it any other way).

How I actually fixed my issue: using Google and WinRAR (which has just converted a free trial into a purchase). I googled the file name of my corrupted file. Needless to say, the results are less than savory sites. I was not worried about breaking any law since I legitimately purchased the game, but virus/spyware are always an issue. Given I have firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus installed I took the jump. And in the process I found out that I did not only have a corrupt file. There were at least 3 dozen files missing from my install folder (the unsavory site I used placed the files neatly into the correct paths so it was easy to see things were missing). I had to download these missing files one by one and make sure I got the folder path correct for each fie. I then used WinRAR to patch the downloaded files into the main corrupted RAR file (if you are wondering about free alternatives, 7-Zip at least will NOT work, I tried). I scanned all files for virus before doing the patch, for precaution.

Crossing my fingers I tried the install again and it worked! So now I'm able to play the game and hopefully it is good and makes me not regret going through so much trouble to get it working. By the way, EA's activation methods for both the game and the DLC are a pain in the backside. Not streamlined at all. I don't mind DRM, but if you want to do it, make it easier on the people who paid for your product.

A few last comments, mostly to Amazon:
1. You have the money to develop a download manager that checks for file integrity before jumping into the installation and can try to patch any issues if there is a problem. So do it! Games are only getting bigger and file corruption issues can only get worse.
2. Do check the file you are selling. Maybe it was EA/Bioware that gave you a junk file to upload, but either way, you are the one selling it so make sure it's in good condition. Read more ›