Game is unplayable

[Casey Steelspine]

The game is in a state now where it's basically impossible to play without fixes that need an associate's in IT... Steam should remove it from the store before more people waste their money on it. Love the game but if EA isn't going to take the time to make sure it remains in a playable state they should not keep leeching money from it.

[Oldmaid]

Agree! EA and NVIDIA have zero support for the game. Steam should place a warning that unless your PC is 4 or 5 yrs old the game will need a 3rd party mod and a lot of tinkering to your video-card. I could get the PlayStation from my daughter but I prefer PC for RPG games. Either way it doesn't look like the play-through will export to DA2.
I am enjoying DA2 but I was really looking forward to taking a saucy Dwarven rogue from the slums on a crazy adventure.

[Draco T]

Hello all newcomers to the game:)

Have you read the 19 pages of posts that ask or state the same things you are saying? Have you tried using some of them? Which ones? What are the specs of the computer you are attempting to play this game with? Central processing unit (CPU)? Graphics card? Operating system (OS), type and amount of memory?

You may find a solution if you give more information. I admit I have not tried all of the fixes. I have not refuted any nor given up on playing. I'm not a programmer, or computer genius. I've played this game at least 3 times with different computer systems. 6 times overall, lol.

I right clicked on the game in Steam, and chose properties. Searched the Dragon Age file in Bin_Ship in the local files from the game, then made the Dragon Age Origins exe file compatible with Windows 7.

Then I went to my video card (Nvidia) and made the settings at the Dragon Age Origins exe file as my "go to". I set my computer to 1920 x 1080. In the options of the game itself, I chose graphic detail high, antialising 2x, texture detail medium.

To me, the game issues all makes sense. I expected this when playing with my Windows 11, Ryzen 7 5700, which has 16 single cores, 16 GB of physical memory, 32 of virtual memory which is corsair by physical inspection just now. I think DDR 5. Video graphics card RTX 3080.

This game was much more compatible to play back in 2012 with Windows 7 when I first purchased this game. It was on DVD ROM. Anyone remember that? I do.

To me, and I may be wrong but, there are memory leaks since then, and newer systems are "obviously" going to have compatibility issues, and difficulties right? The ultimate edition came out 15 years ago right?

Therefore, keep trying. Read all of the other post that explain possible solutions to your issues. This game is awesome. It is worth your time to work it out. Dragon Age Origens UE,
Mass Effect series, and may others are the best RPGs ever made.

Try to figure this out. I hope you get to enjoy this gem!

Best regards

[harken23]

Is there a way yet to make the cursor bigger and/or more visible? I tried playing this several times, but was spending more time trying to find the thing than I did playing the game.

[JC]

The game will work on any modern system, You need to config your computer to get it working but it's possible to run it on the latest Fastest chip/5090 with a crazy big monitor but it takes proper set up. there are tons of threads about how to do this for your specific PC. Try making a new thread with your Specs and i'm sure someone will help you get it working.

Originally posted by Casey Steelspine:

The game is in a state now where it's basically impossible to play without fixes that need an associate's in IT... Steam should remove it from the store before more people waste their money on it. Love the game but if EA isn't going to take the time to make sure it remains in a playable state they should not keep leeching money from it.

In the end people should make personal choices on if they want to config a game or not. While i think this game has made more than enough money that EA should update it's support so it's back to an install and play state. There is Zero reason why it should be removed for people that want to make the effort or run legacy machines to play games. And again, I think EA/Bioware should update this game with the amount of copies they are still selling It would go a long way to giving them a better rep.

Consumers, PC gamer's specifically need to do a little bit of research with any PC game, to know if your PC will support the game or not. Even if they did update the game to work on modern PC's and widescreens at 4k, the game still would not work a vast number of brand new PC devices as it's not compatible.

Consoles are the easy mode for compatibility, PC's you need to be aware of what you have and what a games specs are. The good news, PC's you can config them to work, a console your only option is that specific console. (outside of a limited number of PS3's that will run PS1-3 but that's the exception not the rule)

[BOSS]

This game is absolutely playable 100% on steam, you just need to perform some fixes yourself. If you don't want to go with hassle of fixing this version than i suggest buying GOG version of Dragon age origins. In that version everything works out of the box. You don't have to do a single tweak to make the GOG version of Dragon age origins playable. I have this game on both GOG and steam as well

[JC]

Originally posted by BOSS:

This game is absolutely playable 100% on steam, you just need to perform some fixes yourself. If you don't want to go with hassle of fixing this version than i suggest buying GOG version of Dragon age origins. In that version everything works out of the box. You don't have to do a single tweak to make the GOG version of Dragon age origins playable. I have this game on both GOG and steam as well

Really? They updated the game recently to work with the latest 14000/200 series CPU and the latest 5000 cards? If so good on them.

[NeutronVortex]

Originally posted by harken23:

Is there a way yet to make the cursor bigger and/or more visible? I tried playing this several times, but was spending more time trying to find the thing than I did playing the game.

Yeah, there are several mods that do this. Just do a search for 'nexus mods dragon age origins mouse cursor' and you'll find some of them easily.

There is also a mod called Nathanael's 4K Resolution Mod that upscales most UI elements to be more visible in 2k or 4k resolutions.

[BOSS]

Originally posted by JC:

Originally posted by BOSS:

This game is absolutely playable 100% on steam, you just need to perform some fixes yourself. If you don't want to go with hassle of fixing this version than i suggest buying GOG version of Dragon age origins. In that version everything works out of the box. You don't have to do a single tweak to make the GOG version of Dragon age origins playable. I have this game on both GOG and steam as well

Really? They updated the game recently to work with the latest 14000/200 series CPU and the latest 5000 cards? If so good on them.

The issues this game had on steam are not specific to 14000/200 CPUs or latest 5000 cards. This game exe needs to be patched to 4gb to get rid of crashing but steam version is drm protected so using modified exe is the way plus unlocking every single piece of DLC also takes time, u have to manually install each DLCs through DOAupdater. The GOG version is already patched & all DLCs works right out of the box without doing anything

[clarkeveritas]

You just have to download this one launcher or patch. Only takes a minute.

[JC]

Originally posted by BOSS:

Originally posted by JC:

Really? They updated the game recently to work with the latest 14000/200 series CPU and the latest 5000 cards? If so good on them.

The issues this game had on steam are not specific to 14000/200 CPUs or latest 5000 cards. This game exe needs to be patched to 4gb to get rid of crashing but steam version is drm protected so using modified exe is the way plus unlocking every single piece of DLC also takes time, u have to manually install each DLCs through DOAupdater. The GOG version is already patched & all DLCs works right out of the box without doing anything

It's with out a doubt hardware related, Perhaps it goes back a little farther maybe the issue started with the 12000 CPU, the 12 series is the same socket as 14000, so maybe that was the start of the issues, or perhaps its a combo of that and the 2000 on RTX cards.

I know for a fact that the 10000/11000, 1000 series cards, do not need that patch. I run the game just fine on steam with out it. My system in particular is a win10 10600/1060 6GB, 64 GB SSD, never had a single issue running at 1080p. All the DLC is active and enabled as well. There is something that happens with later hardware/config that causes the issue.

Another thing that can cause issues is people trying to run at 1440/4k. Perhaps that will cause issues at with earlier chips, But at 1080 it's just fine with at least up to the hardware i listed.


That said, i knew GOG did update stuff, but i did not know it also updated again, unless their fixes from earlier work with the new 5000 cards. I also think that EA should update this wonderful game so people don't need to do extra work. It's still a great selling game that has made them bank and will continue to for another 20 years! Or just remaster DAO and DA2, i'd love to see 2 get a big pass with some polish especially adding some new areas so stuff isn't reused as much.

[BOSS]

Originally posted by JC:

Originally posted by BOSS:

The issues this game had on steam are not specific to 14000/200 CPUs or latest 5000 cards. This game exe needs to be patched to 4gb to get rid of crashing but steam version is drm protected so using modified exe is the way plus unlocking every single piece of DLC also takes time, u have to manually install each DLCs through DOAupdater. The GOG version is already patched & all DLCs works right out of the box without doing anything

It's with out a doubt hardware related, Perhaps it goes back a little farther maybe the issue started with the 12000 CPU, the 12 series is the same socket as 14000, so maybe that was the start of the issues, or perhaps its a combo of that and the 2000 on RTX cards.

I know for a fact that the 10000/11000, 1000 series cards, do not need that patch. I run the game just fine on steam with out it. My system in particular is a win10 10600/1060 6GB, 64 GB SSD, never had a single issue running at 1080p. All the DLC is active and enabled as well. There is something that happens with later hardware/config that causes the issue.

Another thing that can cause issues is people trying to run at 1440/4k. Perhaps that will cause issues at with earlier chips, But at 1080 it's just fine with at least up to the hardware i listed.


That said, i knew GOG did update stuff, but i did not know it also updated again, unless their fixes from earlier work with the new 5000 cards. I also think that EA should update this wonderful game so people don't need to do extra work. It's still a great selling game that has made them bank and will continue to for another 20 years! Or just remaster DAO and DA2, i'd love to see 2 get a big pass with some polish especially adding some new areas so stuff isn't reused as much.

To get older Steam games working properly, especially ones like Dragon Age: Origins, download the SteamSuperHeater app from GitHub. After installing the game, run SteamSuperHeater as administrator—it'll automatically detect the game and list all the necessary fixes. Just click "Install" in the app, and it’ll apply the patches in the correct folders. The game should then run smoothly without crashes.

However, to get the DLCs working, there’s one extra step you need to follow. That process is clearly explained in the Steam community guides for the game.

If you'd rather avoid all of this, the GOG version of Dragon Age: Origins doesn’t have any of these problems. Everything works right out of the box, including DLCs.

Its not hardware issue because i have even older PC gaming laptop with gtx980m GPU laying around and even that had issues with the steam version and ur mentioning gtx 10 series. I had to install fixes on both my older gaming laptop and the newer one to make the steam version of DA:O work correctly.

[JC]

Honestly, I have not had a single issue running any games on this system and do play a lot of older games as you can see from my profile. I play a lot of early 00's point and clicks, VNs/ HO's, Lots of Indy stuff like wajet eye and deadlic. But i will keep that in mind if i ever run into issues. As you can see if you click no my games list, I don't really play new games. :P

All i can tell you is, I bought the game on steam last summer as part of a package that had a ton of EA games for like 10 bucks I just figured i would use the steam version as I like the screenshot system. Prior to that i Just i had the origin version that i got from adding my Disk keys.

But for the steam version, Both DAO and DAII I just DL'd the games and both worked and both had all all the DLC active. I did have to manually download for them with the check boxes, but other than that it works just fine. I did not install the 4GB patch, just quins and skip fade. DA2 i didn't install any fixes.

I did log once once with each to my origin account to grab my old saves. But so far, no issues with anything.

So there must be something going on then if some people need the patch and some don't.

[BOSS]

Originally posted by JC:

Honestly, I have not had a single issue running any games on this system and do play a lot of older games as you can see from my profile. I play a lot of early 00's point and clicks, VNs/ HO's, Lots of Indy stuff like wajet eye and deadlic. But i will keep that in mind if i ever run into issues. As you can see if you click no my games list, I don't really play new games. :P

All i can tell you is, I bought the game on steam last summer as part of a package that had a ton of EA games for like 10 bucks I just figured i would use the steam version as I like the screenshot system. Prior to that i Just i had the origin version that i got from adding my Disk keys.

But for the steam version, Both DAO and DAII I just DL'd the games and both worked and both had all all the DLC active. I did have to manually download for them with the check boxes, but other than that it works just fine. I did not install the 4GB patch, just quins and skip fade. DA2 i didn't install any fixes.

I did log once once with each to my origin account to grab my old saves. But so far, no issues with anything.

So there must be something going on then if some people need the patch and some don't.

Most of the main DLCs work, but smaller ones remain inactive due to Bioware server shutdown. The fix for this is available on the Steam forums. I'm specifically talking about Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O) — not Dragon Age II.

If the game runs fine for you, there's no need to write long, confusing posts. I’ve tested this on multiple PCs, from 10-year-old hardware to 2023 builds, and all required fixes to get the Steam version of DA:O running properly. The crashes have nothing to do with new Intel CPUs — the issue is the outdated .exe in the Steam version. You need to install the 64-bit patch and replace the original .exe with the 64-bit one, which fixes compatibility with Steam.

[JC]

I checked all the DLC, they all work, Including the gifts/pranks, witches, lils, golems, and awakenings, along with the one that gives you all the items after you get to Lothering. But the game crashing and the DLC not being active are two different things.

My point is, Not everyone has this issue. So what ever special case lets me, if it's not hardware, then i don't know. I do know i started seeing people complaining about it around the time RTX 20/30 cards came out, and the issues got far more common with 40/50.

Not sure how saying it works for me and on what hardware config is confusing. I'd suggest people just try it before they start loading extra patches.

[BOSS]

Originally posted by JC:

I checked all the DLC, they all work, Including the gifts/pranks, witches, lils, golems, and awakenings, along with the one that gives you all the items after you get to Lothering. But the game crashing and the DLC not being active are two different things.

My point is, Not everyone has this issue. So what ever special case lets me, if it's not hardware, then i don't know. I do know i started seeing people complaining about it around the time RTX 20/30 cards came out, and the issues got far more common with 40/50.

Not sure how saying it works for me and on what hardware config is confusing. I'd suggest people just try it before they start loading extra patches.

Nope on steam version all Dlcs don't work, its even confirmed by PCgamingwiki website, ur just trying to sound relevant here by adding ur own nonsense, sure some DLCs work but i installed steam verion ultimate edition countless times on two PCs & i had to manually install many DLCs, i had a GOG version to confirm not all DLCs work on steam version.