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Posted by: Critias Nov 28 2010, 11:00 PM

I picked up the Dragon Age: Origins (Ultimate Edition) off Amazon for less than $40, the other day. I'd heard a ton of positive stuff about this RPG when it came out a year ago, the trailers for DA 2 have me all psyched, and when I saw that deal -- for $38.95 or something I got Origins, the Awakenings expansion, and all 9 DLC packs -- I just couldn't pass it up.

I think for my first playthrough I'll be going to my "default" of a Human Warrior, sword-and-board. Just like with Mass Effect (where I tend towards a straightforward play style with lots of armor and basic combat abilities), I find it's hard to go wrong with the good ol' human fighter, especially in a classic fantasy RPG, to keep things simple your first time through.

Posted by: Thanee Nov 28 2010, 11:08 PM

Great game! Have fun!

I only have the original DA:O, so I might pick up the Ultimate Edition as well, for all the extra stuff.

Bye
Thanee

Posted by: Critias Nov 28 2010, 11:15 PM

They've still got the sale going on ($39.95, I just checked, so oh well my memory was close), so if you're interested, it looks like now's the time.

Posted by: Thanee Nov 28 2010, 11:25 PM

For some reason it is a lot cheaper in the UK. Just £17.69 right now (instead of £24.99 regular) on amazon.co.uk.

Bye
Thanee

Posted by: Zyerne Nov 28 2010, 11:50 PM

It's not often that things are cheaper over here.

Still got a couple of things on my list before DA but I too have heard good things.

Posted by: Critias Dec 1 2010, 07:44 PM

So, yeah. I stayed up until 5:00 am playing it yesterday, all in one sitting. I think I like it okay.

Posted by: Doc Chase Dec 1 2010, 09:38 PM

Orzammar.

Enough said.

Posted by: WyldKnight Dec 4 2010, 06:47 PM

Did anyone else hate that witch you get in your party? I can't remember her name for the life of me, started with an M. She's just so rude and annoying. I've dated girls exactly like her and the moment I realized this I began hoping for a chance to kill her...but I'm a nice guy and won't do that so I just take extra pleasure in seeing her get downed.

Posted by: Karoline Dec 4 2010, 07:57 PM

Morrigan? You get her like right at the start of the game?

Yeah, she was kind of annoying, but I seem to recall her getting better as time went on.

Posted by: Critias Dec 4 2010, 10:35 PM

So far I've tackled the Mage Circle big quest, and I'm working on Redcliffe right now (part way done, I guess, I've handled some family issues and I'm off to go find the Urn, now). I also did one DLC quest, and got some swanky gear from returning to Ostagar. On my way to Denerim to handle the Redcliffe quest I'm not, but also Alistair and Leliana's personal quests seem to be leading me there, and a few side jobs, to boot.

Lovin' it!

This has been a really fun game so far, even if I can't help but feel I'm missing half of everything by going it "on my own" instead of slaving myself to a walkthrough and making sure I find every little thing. I'm having fun as a sword-and-board warrior (though I AM looking forward to getting a specialization, to open up a few more options), and just generally this has been a really cool gaming experience so far.

Posted by: WyldKnight Dec 4 2010, 11:45 PM

Thats the one! Oh really? Well I hope so, damn apostates

Posted by: Karoline Dec 5 2010, 01:33 AM

One thing that I kind of didn't like about the game was that there was all this lore about everyone hating/fearing blood mages, but you can become a blood mage and no one ever says anything about it.

Posted by: Abschalten Dec 5 2010, 01:35 AM

I really loved Dragon Age, despite its hitches and warts. I had tons of fun as a sword and shield fighter and found them to be surprisingly durable and tough. I also enjoyed the Arcane Warrior or whatever it's called, the mage specialization. Combine that with some blood magic specialization and you basically have broken the game. Have fun walking through the opposition.

One of my only beefs with the game is that I seemed to always end up using the same people: Leliana, Morrigan, and Wynne. Morrigan was my hardcare magic specialist that I gave the good debuffs and my area effect spells. Wynne I would make the primary healer and also give her some crowd pleasing spells. Leliana was there purely for ranged/arrow damage and the odd lock. Then I'd put my main character out front and call it a day. Very little stood up to my party as I had it set up.

Fun fact: you can get infinite gold if you're willing to make trips back and forth across the map. All those juicy weapons you slaver over can be yours without selling every single potion and possession you own. Basically get Morrigan's Herbalism up to max rank as soon as you can, then save up the gold to buy the formula for the top rank Lyrium Potions (I think at the magic shop in Denerim). Buy tons and tons and tons of Lyrium dust at the Mage tower, and then go to that bar in Denerim and buy the rest of your ingredients. Brew them there, then sell them back for a profit. It's incredibly tedious (especially browing the potions, then selling them) but you end up making ridiculous amounts of money over time.

Posted by: Karoline Dec 5 2010, 01:39 AM

Hehe, same team for me, except that I replaced Morrigan as I was mage and Alister replaced you, as he was the sword and shield guy. I would equip him with armor that would negate/absorb fire, then throw out firestorm and then that AoE blood spell which paralyzed people for a while. Was exceedingly effective.

Posted by: Critias Dec 5 2010, 02:28 AM

I've been using my primary (sword and board guy, and I just got the Blood Dragon DLC armor, and King Cailan's old sword and shield, so he's pretty ridiculously good), Wynne (with her AI tweaked to do nothing but heal and buff, pretty much), Lelianna (for archery and opening locks), and then either Alistair or Dog. I love the idea of Dog, I think he's a great little character, and even the RPer in me digs using him as my loyal warhound thanks to my Noble origin...but Alistair tricked out in the King's old armor is kicking a lot of butt, and the interactions with him and Wynne are pretty fun. We mostly get by through me and Alistair just grinding away at baddies while we take whatever they can throw at us, and so far it's worked pretty well.

Castle Redcliffe and similar terrain with doorways is a lot of fun, because we can actually block them for the most part, and just keep the two sword-and-board guys up front, kicking butt.

My plan is to run with the...uhh...less morally righteous crew, next time around. I'm not sure if I'll be a power hungry Mage or a stabbidy-stabby Rogue, but either way it'll make for a fun, DPS-oriented, crew with Morrigan, Zevran, and Ogrhen.

Posted by: LurkerOutThere Dec 5 2010, 05:07 PM

Well my impression is you don't wear a sign that says "Hey, ask me about blood magic!" plus your a gray warden so it is actually legal for you to do blood magic, just not very wise.

Also my first play throughw as a rogue, got really frustrated very early as I was sticking a fair number of points into stuff (like lockpicking) that didn't help make me a better fighter. But I didn't want to take another rogue along. Switched mage and was amazed at how much easier the game was (mob control spells for the win) then i got the advancement path that lets you use your magic value instead of strength for wearing armor and things got even more rediculous as I could actually take some hits. Started to play a noble tank at the end to see if i could get made king at the end but got bored with it mid way through because I'd already seen much of the game twice already. Maybe some of the DLC's will help that now.

Posted by: KarmaInferno Dec 6 2010, 07:16 AM

http://biowarestore.com/dragon-age/dragon-age-mens-tshirts/morrigan-disapproves-tee




-k

Posted by: StealthSigma Dec 6 2010, 02:56 PM

Sexy outfit Claudia Black mage?

--



Origins Companions:
Alistair: Whiny insecure little bitch.
Morrigan: Bitch witch who doesn't seem to care much about most lives.
Leliana: "Reformed" bard who was going to join the Chantry but still has an unabashed bisexual.
Zevran: Assassin for hire that is unabashedly bisexual.
Oghren: Drunkard who seems to want to get Wynne in the sack.
Shale: HK-47 in golem form.
Wynne: Motherly. First of three sane companions
Dog: Loyal companion. Second of three sane companions.
Sten: Strong silent warrior. Third of three sane companions.
Secret Companion: No comment, never got it.

Awakening Companions:
Anders: Runaway mage. Keeps running away just so one female templar has to capture him.
Justice: Not human, or elf, or dwarf.
Nathaniel: You killed his father. Prepare to die.
Oghren: Drunkard. Still. Spends his time trying to get Sigrun in the sack.
Sigrun: Dwarf of the Legion of the Dead.
Velanna: Bitch elven witch but more personable than Morrigan.

I swear.... very few of the characters don't have some sort of psychological issue.

Posted by: Critias Dec 6 2010, 10:09 PM

Well, yeah, but I'm okay with that. Normal, sane, stable, people don't take up a life of adventuring. "Murderous hobos," I called your average fantasy adventurer on another forum once, and I stand by it.

Posted by: Ramaloke Dec 8 2010, 08:51 PM

Yeah, Blood Magic + Arcane Warrior = Roll over Everything.

You just get a bunch of personal buff spells and activate them all, turn on blood magic and enjoy.

I gave every caster a heal spell and Blood Magic. Wynn, Morrigan, Myself and Leliana (as a Ranger so I could steal health from her pet). It worked out pretty well.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 22 2010, 05:30 AM

I've had this game for a while now. It's the first game I had to wrestle with my wife for to get my damn turn to play! Crazy lady, I tell ya'!

First time through, I did stick w/ Morrigan (who if you've got the right sense of humor and some patience can be hilarious), Leliahna, and usually one of the three tank types (Alistair, Sten, or Oghren). Still haven't DLd the extra set for getting Shale.

Secret Companion:

Don't worry about a walk through Crit. The game has real good replay value as a different origin, and different "alignment". You can play through just as well as a murderous thief. Which, incidentally, works really well once you ge tteh knack of the thief, with stunning attacks and two weapons. It's not to hard to take down an ogre without getting hit with a good rogue.

I love the mages though. The Cone of Cold/Frost/Whatever is the easiet trick, as it freezes a group of enemies, so you can beat them up/break them at your liesure.

A few tricks for mages:
Freezing spells + Force Cage = Busted enemies
Grease + Fire spells = nice inferno

Also for another nice free money break, albeit time consuming, in Lothren you can find a woman who pays you 30 cilver to make her some traps. Make them for her, then go to the bar and talk to the vendor there who sells you trap springs for something like a silver. Buy as many as you can, then make as many traps as you can. Then go sell them all to her. Rinse, repeat. With ten minutes of your time, you can get 200 gold and a couple of levels, because it keeps letting you repeat the quest.

The dog is indeed awesome. If you download the adventure that lets you play as darkspawn, yuo fight him in the end. His name is "Barkspawn", which is now my default name for him.

I personally hate Wynne because she burns through mana way to damn fast. I have to baby sit her to make sure she doesn't use it all up in the first minute of a fight.

Enjoy the game. Sadly, btw, the Dalish elf has the weakest origin story. Dwarf noble, human, and elf commoner are the best IMO. Soldier's Peak is also a good download for more gear , armor specifically.

The second one comes out in a few months.

Posted by: Ramaloke Dec 22 2010, 07:08 AM

The force cage and the one that crushes somebody is another good combo. It'll create an AOE effect as the cage shatters. Its nice to lock down a heavy and for a while, then blow up the cage and finish off the weaklings.

Posted by: Critias Dec 22 2010, 07:12 PM

I've made it through most of the game so far with my sword & board human noble (Templar/Champion specializations). I've got to hit the Dalish Elves area and add to my army, and then off I go to Landsmeet. I did the DLC stuff to get Shale, went back to Ostragar, claimed Warden's Keep, and did play as the Darkspawn guy in that little on-shot DLC mission...now it's time to knuckle down and get back to work.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 24 2010, 03:29 AM

Playing as an ogre is too much fun. Really is criminal.

There's some interesting alternate choices out there for the bad guy style. Dalish for example, you can side with the werewolves and wipe them out. You actually go into the camp with the werewolves and attack the elves en masse.

No win Situation spoiler for later in the game:

First time I played through I went for the Dwarf Noble, which was fun. Never did try going for the throne myself though. Not really sure if I could. One thing that really recommends this game for me, it really gets you mad at some of the Origin Story bad guys. The bastard in the Dwarf Commoner story line is just ....grrr.

Posted by: TheFr0g Dec 24 2010, 06:03 AM

The best thing about this game (though don't get me wrong, I loved it) is that it has distracted my wife for many hours, allowing me to play World of Warcraft uninterrupted.

In all seriousness though, I found the story to be very compelling and the world to be very interesting. I can't wait for the sequel. Also if you're interested in more DA lore, there are a couple of novels out which are also quite good.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 24 2010, 07:29 AM

I know exactly what you mean (with the exception of Wow. I still won't play that). My wife is addicted to this game, and has only stopped playing because she's done the game through with all the classes she was interested in. I read her your post.

I'd seen the books but had been leery of them, as I don't tend to enjoy books that intertwine with computer games (I read the books based off of DOOM back in ...'95?) . Maybe I'll give these a shot.

Posted by: Zyerne Dec 24 2010, 10:09 AM

Should be getting a copy of this tomorrow. Well, me and the kid jointly and I don't think I'll be getting much time with for a few days that doesn't involve watching over his shoulder.

Opinions from both of us to come

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 24 2010, 06:27 PM

Depending on how old the kid is, you might want to check it out yourself first. First, there's a setting for "Persistent Gore". Basically the fights are bloody, and the characters end up covered in blood , that remains even through conversations. You can have the Dog clean you up. Or you can turn it off in the options menu.

There's also some more serious things in the game, like mercy killings, possessions, torture, and off screen rape in one of the origins (alluded to strongly, but not direct). So it is a more adult game in some parts. Over all though it's not bad. Most of the game I don't have a problem with my kids seeing.

Merry Christmas!:D

Posted by: Critias Dec 25 2010, 02:18 AM

Finished up my "good guy who basically acts like he's worried about losing his Paladin abilities" playthrough last night (Sword and Board, going Champion/Templar), and started up a power-hungry elf (Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage)...having a lot of fun, so far.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 26 2010, 09:41 AM

That combo is pretty great. I never used Arcane Warrior for anything more than better equipment, putting levels into spells instead. Blood magic is great at the higher levels though. Especially when you can take control of ogres and turn them on others.

Two handed combat is pretty good to for dealing massive amounts of damage.

Posted by: Zyerne Dec 26 2010, 01:19 PM

He's 15 in 10 days or so. I don't imagine it'll be the worst thing he's played, anything his stepdad buys he gets to play so....

Posted by: KarmaInferno Dec 26 2010, 03:07 PM

Remember to remind him there's "nudity" in the game, then make sure to watch his expression when he sees the Broodmother.






-k

Posted by: Thanee Dec 26 2010, 11:36 PM

I hope you ordered the Ultimate Edition.

Bye
Thanee

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 27 2010, 05:26 AM

Ohhh yeah. Know how that one goes. Well enjoy then.

Posted by: StealthSigma Dec 27 2010, 01:33 PM

City elf?

I've played the Dalish, Mage, and Human Noble origins and I can't think of any part where rape was implied in those three. Rape doesn't seem to go along with either Dwarf origin. Probably because I don't want to think of an Oghren forcing himself on a Sigrun in order to make little blue and pink rocks.

*shudder*

Posted by: Doc Chase Dec 27 2010, 01:39 PM

City Elf, yes.

Posted by: Abschalten Dec 27 2010, 10:22 PM

I'm playing back through this again as a dwarf sword-and-shield fighter. I have to say, I enjoy it everytime my character does one of those spinning reverse sword decapitations upon finishing off the monster.

Posted by: Critias Dec 27 2010, 11:14 PM

Mrs. Crit snagged me Assassin's Creed II for Christmas (nice and cheap!), so I've been playing that for the last day or so. Just found out the new semester doesn't start for a good, long, time, though...so I'm sure I'll be back to stabbing and burning my way across Denerim before too long.

Posted by: Adarael Dec 28 2010, 02:04 AM

Jesus, you played the game *exactly* the way I did.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 28 2010, 02:32 AM

Quitter.

Posted by: StealthSigma Dec 28 2010, 03:37 PM

Compared to Altair, you will fall in love with Ezio. You will want to have little Ezio babies. Plus Ezio can swim. Damn Altair.

Posted by: Grinder Dec 28 2010, 05:50 PM

Posted by: Zyerne Dec 28 2010, 08:05 PM

Doesn't Mrs 4.0 already have her own handle?

Posted by: Critias Dec 28 2010, 08:14 PM

When you say "Dark Sun Game," Fisty, you mean the 4e boxed set? Or is there some video game or something I haven't heard about?

I'll be honest, but the main character actually being...well...a character...really helped draw me in, and early in the game. I'm a fan of the brooding silent type of badass as much as the next fan of badassery in general, but yeah. Ezio actually having something like a personality, a family, etc, etc, went a long way towards making the early stages of the game fun.

Just as important, of course, were the actual gameplay upgrades. I never finished AC1 because I was just bored with the repetitive missions, the uselessness of the pre-mission scouting stuff, etc, etc. The way you can meld with a crowd in AC2, the side jobs just to get money (the fact there IS money), picking pockets, the organic way you blend with crowds...I'm definitely diggin' it so far. They really did fix what issues I had with the first one, and made a sequel that's all around better than the original.

So, sure, I hopped on the bandwagon late, but I also got it for $15. I'm calling it a reasonable trade-ff.

Posted by: StealthSigma Dec 28 2010, 09:57 PM

I've been bugging my friends to just play AC2 already so I can friggin talk to them about the game. I hate having a game which engages my mind and having no one to talk to about it. It helps drive me mad(der). They're two games behind me in the series!

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 29 2010, 10:57 PM

SO many ways to answer this...
I hate 4th edition. Hate it. I still bought the 4th edition book. It was just nice to see Darksun printed again. Nice to see new art as well, although there's a good amount of it that's rather cartoony. There were also some things added to the setting that were nice additions.

If I could, I'd play Darksun 2nd edt. But the wife prefers/knows 3.5. It's not bad, works well. Just ... the lack of psionics... dissapointing.

There are Darksun games, but not since DOS (Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager). Classics but very outdated. There is a new novel out. As much as I hate to spend money on things I'm not thrilled about, I like Darksun enough to buy them anyway.

BTW, if you're digging more character to the characters, might want to look at DragonAge 2 when it comes out in March. The main character is supposed to have dialog added. Wow. Such a huge leap forward. It's such an obvious thing and so very lacking from the last one. I don't know what that means about different character options though.

Posted by: Grinder Dec 29 2010, 11:03 PM

We've used Complete Psionics in our Eberron 3.5 campain back in the days. Why don't you use it in a Dark Suns 3.5 game?

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 29 2010, 11:18 PM

I do. And the Expanded Psionics Handbook. What I'm missing is mental combat, brain to brain, construct to construct, the way it used to be. It was one of my favorite parts of Darksun, something so unique. I have a house rule system for it, but it just isn't the same, since the old Attacks/Defenses are now powers that do different things.

Essentially similar to an old version that was IIRC in the Skills & Powers book forever ago.If power costs X, (we'll say x is 3) then it can deal up to 2x in damage (so a power costing 3 psps deals 1d6 psp damage). Unfortunately it makes psionic combat very short at lower levels. And I hated the way they did it before , where it knocked points off of attributes. Still looking for a good system.

The powers themselves are good, and fun. I love Augmenting for one thing. The Mental Combat is hard to get over.

Posted by: Thanee Dec 29 2010, 11:31 PM

Do you have the D&D 3.0 Psionics Handbook... I think it still had the mental combat stuff.

Bye
Thanee

Posted by: Critias Dec 30 2010, 12:43 AM

I have yet to make it through more than one session of D&D 4e, myself. It just doesn't...feel right. I tried to make a Dark Sun character, but just can't manage to wade through it all. I guess maybe I'm not giving it a fair shake, or whatever, but I just don't want to.

More specifically, though, I was just trying to ask what the heck you got for Christmas. You said she got you a Dark Sun game, and I wasn't sure what you meant (if it was the recent Dark Sun stuff, or something else that I hadn't heard about).


Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Especially after having played Mass Effect, the lack of main-character dialogue being spoken in Dragon Age was really jarring. It's still an amazing game, etc, etc, and I can understand that having voice actors for every possible character build would've been a lot of work...but the way you just vacantly stare at everyone that talks to you, it really takes away from the experience somewhat.

From what I've seen of DA 2, character creation (at the start) is pretty simple. Fighter, Rogue, or Wizard, and then Male or Female...and that's it.

Posted by: Abschalten Dec 30 2010, 03:14 AM

Maybe it says something about me as an RPG player, but I didn't mind the lack of protagonist voice action in Morrowind and Oblivion, and I don't mind it so much in Dragon Age, either. In fact it lets me put their "voice" into what they're saying myself. That's just how I see it anyway.

Posted by: Karoline Dec 30 2010, 03:58 AM

Yes, many games do that purposefully, because the main character is supposed to be you, so why should they give a voice to you? You can already speak can't you? (Sorry mute people)

I know this was very specifically pointed out for Half-Life as to why Freeman never talks.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 30 2010, 05:46 AM

Oh, sorry, she's running a Darksun game, 3.5 for me. Now that's love.
Darksun's just an interesting subject for me. Lots to say about it.

Posted by: Critias Dec 30 2010, 06:43 AM

Ah, got'cha. The sentence makes sense, now. I was just trying to figure out what "Dark Sun game" you were talking about, and you had me thinking there was some sweet new boxed set, or skirmish game, or video game, or something that I hadn't heard about. I guess she had to convert stuff to 3.5 for it (no kiddin', that's love!), huh? I much prefer 3.0/3.5, myself, but I don't remember any Dark Sun stuff coming out for that whole edition.

The closest I came to giving the gift of gaming this Christmas was stealing our regular group away from Mrs. Crit (who's GMing a Dresden Files RPG game) for our last session before the holiday, and running them all through a Missions adventure I'd just gotten done writing. Two of them had never played any Shadowrun before, the other five were old hands at SR1-3, but hadn't played any SR4. Everyone had a blast -- even just running pre-gen characters, and trying to "hustle" to keep to a convention time scale -- though, so I think it might turn into a regular campaign.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Dec 30 2010, 08:44 AM

Athas.org has lots of good 3rd edt stuff, and there was a short series of stats and character builds in an issue of Dragon magazine, and creature stats in a few Dungeon issues. Those are a great help.

Typically for Christmas or Birthdays, I offer my players a chunk of karma or an "OH SHIT!" card. It's basically a Get Out of Jail Free card that they can use once, sort of like Hand of God, but a little more flexible. I have seen it go very 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' before as they just made more bad decisions though. Hilarious for me.


Sounds like a great way to really test it out for a conventions crew. I just started looking into Missions, and I'm pleasantly surprised. Thinking of starting a game in Denver or Manhattan now instead of Seattle. Feels like blasphemy just typing it.

Oh yeah.... Dragon Age rocks! Just got my sister addicted to it. It's like video game crack. *Yay topic save!*

Posted by: SinN Jan 26 2011, 12:12 AM

I just beat the high dragon on the mountain top at with all my chars at only level 11. Not gonna lie, as soon as i killed it, some fist pumping may or may not have taken place.

Posted by: SinN Jan 26 2011, 12:13 AM

I beleive I hold the record for using the most OH SHIT! cards.

Posted by: toturi Jan 26 2011, 03:45 AM

On Nightmare?

I finished the DA:O and Awakening twice now - Human rogue and elf mage. I completed all the origin quests, but I have only played the dwarf noble partway through DA:O. I'd say that there are certain skill/talent/spell combinations that are good and some that are really more for unlocking achievements than anything else. And some of the achievements are very difficult to unlock - especially the ones that require you to kill certain boss creatures on Hard or Nightmare.

Posted by: SinN Jan 26 2011, 04:13 AM

On normal setting. It was still hard as hell. I cant even imagen the headache nightmare wouldve been. At the moment im just running through human noble. Good storyline so far.

Posted by: Mäx Jan 26 2011, 11:39 AM

I would say it pretty damm directly stated that the cousin got raped, as you can state that as a reason why you killed the lord when the king asks about it the first time he meets you.

Posted by: Karoline Jan 27 2011, 07:23 PM

Just because you state it as a reason for killing someone, doesn't make it true.

Posted by: tete Jan 27 2011, 07:52 PM

Man I LOVED the sexual tension between her and Alistar if you keep them both in your party.

Posted by: KarmaInferno Jan 27 2011, 08:08 PM

MORRIGAN DISAPPROVES. -12 ♥




-k

Posted by: Faraday Jan 27 2011, 08:50 PM

The chatter between morrigan and just about every other party member is HILARIOUS. Especially Shale. And Allister.

Posted by: Doc Chase Jan 27 2011, 08:52 PM

It's pretty clear from the context that it happened. Both the cousin's thousand-meter stare and expression of shock and shame, and the duke's smug prodding will leave you a blood-spattered agent of vengeance in short order.

Posted by: Faraday Jan 27 2011, 09:01 PM

On my second play through, I often found myself blood-spattered in the name of vengeance.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Jan 28 2011, 01:02 AM

While DA:O can be very easily soloed by an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage (especially with the equipment from Ostagar if you're play 1.3, as they tried to nerf some buffs) DW rogues are still execeptionally strong. Archers are just sort of lackluster... until Awakenings. Dear. God. Try it out. Doesn't really matter if you use a warrior or a rogue base, you just need tons of dex (although rogues still get huge benefits from bard and cunning). Those DLC bosses? Piece of cake for an archer to solo that has done Awakenings.

Posted by: toturi Jan 28 2011, 04:40 AM

Some parts of DA:O can be soloed but I do not think that the game actually allows you to go truely solo until after the main quests are done. Soloing in the early stages at higher difficulties tend to be quite challenging. Some of the drops seem to be better at higher difficulties though.

I agree that a rogue archer is not really good until Awakenings, even with SoC and high Cunning. I suppose a rogue archer could take on the DLC bosses alone, although I never did try since I was doing Nightmare for both DLCs and was more interested in simply killing the bosses as fast as I could.

Posted by: StealthSigma Jan 28 2011, 01:37 PM

Oghren's chatter is some of the best.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Jan 28 2011, 06:42 PM

I love Oghren's chatter, but you need to hear Zevran and Wynne. Some really good stuff there.

<edit> as a challenge for fun, I think I will attempt to solo DA:O again. The old trick used to be abusing an XP glitch for a mage until you were 14 and could have arcane warrior and blood mage right from before the tower. These days you'd need to wait until after lothering and do some gear grabbing. I'm pretty confident I can do it with a rogue though.

Posted by: toturi Jan 31 2011, 06:51 AM

Oghren and Zevran - Broma Brothers. The 2 best reasons to get captured.

Posted by: Sixgun_Sage Feb 18 2011, 02:46 PM

I gotta admit, I have stuck with Al, Leliana and Morrigan as my party for awhile, I'm doing the Circle of Magi stuff with Wynne but.... meh. Al is my tank, he pulls them, my human noble origins rogue makes with the damage via dirty fighting and flurry, duelist is VERY nice for this and since I maxed out the unlockable skills with Leliana and her lockpicking I haven't encountered a chest yet that the game will allow you to pick that she can't. I'm also very pleased with the drakeskin armor, my main wears the perfected suit with Leliana in the first, imperfect suit you get. Honestly I'm not too far in but I tend to grind out the optional quests so I'm if anything a bit over powered compared to the area I am in. Gotta say once i am done with my rogue play through I will probably try out a spell slinger just so I can try out the blood mage/ arcane warrior combo though.

Posted by: Sixgun_Sage Mar 5 2011, 03:21 PM

Thread necromancy time!

I beat the game with my rogue and am working through as a sword and shield warrior, the mage was just not pleasant to play for me. So far it is fun and combat is alot cleaner for my side but it is frustrating waiting to unlock chests till you get Leliana, Daveth is useless for the brief period you have him. I'm going to focus on filling out skill blocks this go around and I'm getting all the dlc next week, so that should greatly extend the play time, I'm gonna hold off on getting DA II till I have everything done in Origins though, especially Witch Hunt.

Posted by: Tiralee Mar 7 2011, 03:20 AM

Started afresh (Elf tower mage - basically the "nicest" origin story IMHO) and decided to try a few new things....

God god, greasefire = instawin, even more fun when fireballing. Decided to head to the dalish and be a Hard hardass (I play paladin types in CG's, something my long-suffering wife finds endlessly amusing - "Go on, sell him out!") and suddenly they're all, "oh, you're hard but fair great one."

...Goddamned elves.

We (The lovely likes to watch me play while she perfects her Sim3 breeding program) enjoy the fact that elves are either tribal nomads or refugees, so much for the usual fantasy dreck.
And the dwarves are a lot more spiritual and industious than "Let's get drunk and hit things until loot comes out or we sober up" (except for Oghren).

Lots of depth to the game in the background details..you wish you could take a break from THE WORLD IS ENDING - GET HELP main quest and just, well, go slaughter a village in rebellion, or something

I liked it how people were proper bastards for the sake of success, power, etc, not because "evil is cool" (Apart from some of the mages, way to stereotype) but REALLY got tired of taking crap from people I couldn't blast apart at that moment because of plot.

And the Fucking Broodmother. Yeeeech. Rule 34 that thing and be prepared to weep

DA2 coming soon! Woot!

-Tir

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 7 2011, 06:18 AM

And by soon you of course mean Tuesday. The 8th. Not much longer to go... can't wait.

Posted by: Tanegar Mar 7 2011, 07:09 AM

Also started afresh, with a male PC this time for the purpose of eventually getting freaknasty with Morrigan. Mmm, Claudia Black's voice...

Posted by: Sixgun_Sage Mar 7 2011, 02:28 PM

I'm honestly surprised there isn't more rule 34 stuff about Morrigan....

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 7 2011, 04:43 PM

Too easy, there's no challenge involved.

Posted by: StealthSigma Mar 7 2011, 04:57 PM

There is a challenge. Try to come up with something about Morrigan that hasn't been Rule 34'd.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Mar 7 2011, 08:12 PM

Esp with her being a shapeshifter...

Posted by: StealthSigma Mar 7 2011, 08:38 PM

And her mother being a shapeshifter...

Posted by: Tanegar Mar 7 2011, 08:48 PM

And her mother being voiced by Kate Mulgrew... threesome with Janeway and Aeryn! Woohoo!

Posted by: Critias Mar 9 2011, 03:56 AM

Alright...who's got DA2?

Posted by: Stahlseele Mar 9 2011, 06:20 AM

i don't, but i read Bioware has an HD Texture Patch for it.

Posted by: Sixgun_Sage Mar 9 2011, 03:27 PM

I'm waiting to finish all the DLC for Origins which... will honestly take awhile, saving up for a wedding is rough on the gaming budget and most of my gaming budget is going to books these days.

Posted by: Stahlseele Mar 9 2011, 04:02 PM

poor? guy?

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 9 2011, 07:38 PM

I do, stayed up until 4am playing... then woke up at 7 to go to work. I'm still not tired. It was magical.

Posted by: Adarael Mar 9 2011, 09:09 PM

I do. I played 5 minutes of it before going back to Retribution.

Don't take that the wrong way: I did this because if I didn't, I'd play DA2 until the cows came home, and never finish Retribution! I owe it to THE EMPRAH to smash heretics unto the end of one campaign, at least.

Posted by: Stahlseele Mar 9 2011, 11:04 PM

*snickers*
i'm on my . . 4th play through of the Retribution campaign, i think . . doing it the imperial way this time . .

Posted by: Whipstitch Mar 10 2011, 05:21 PM

Really? I kinda want my money back. There's relatively little conversation to be had by bioware standards, the voice acting isn't so great and the level design feels like the worst bits of NWN2. The game isn't really outright terrible or anything, but there's so many good games to be played these days that I'm not sure I'm going to sink more time into it. Maybe it's just my self-imposed spending limits talking though-- I rather wish I had just gone ahead and gotten the Tactics Ogre PSP remake instead.

Posted by: Critias Mar 10 2011, 06:33 PM

If you're genuinely interested in ditching it, feel free to toss me a PM. I'd offer more than Gamestop would.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 10 2011, 06:45 PM

I picked up TO and Radiant Historia as well. I'm greatly enjoying all of them. It got the ME2 simplification process which isn't bad or good, just different.

Posted by: Whipstitch Mar 10 2011, 07:35 PM

Nah, steam version, unfortunately, or I'd consider it. I don't really regret my affinity for digital versions though in any case, since I have a bad habit or losing discs and registration codes. And as you said, gamestop doesn't exactly give you much anyway. This way I can never lose X-COM again.


As for the mechanics, I would say they're different and some of it is bad, but not in the way you'd probably expect. For example, I sort of wonder why they bothered including attributes at all given the extent to which they railroad you with equipment requirements-- as far as I'm concerned a feature that doesn't really encourage decision making (or even makes an aesthetic difference) is basically superfluous. The skill trees, on the other hand, are fairly spiffy and unlike stats they actually affect what you choose to do a bit, which is nice. That's all minor stuff though and not even really a hassle. What really bothers me is the level design and the spawning-in-waves from around and behind you BS. It gives the impression of being a bit too cheap and time consuming when you set the difficulty higher and waaaay too easy when set to the standard options. It's a bit like Jade Empire in that respect.

Anyway, I don't mean to come across as too harsh. Games are released at a pretty high standard of quality in general these days. I just wouldn't call my experience magical.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 10 2011, 07:46 PM

Well, I've been on an RPG binge as of late and it makes the perfect complement to SRPG (TO), traditional RPG (with interesting battle mechanic, Radiant Historia), Western RPG (Fallout: New Vegas), and now a more action oriented but still story heavy RPG, Dragon Age 2.

I do totally agree about the stats, they make you think taking cunning with a tank warrior would be useful for the defence boost... but then you won't meet the strength and Con requirements for the better armor and shields. Skill trees are a blast, I wish I had more points. I just finished in the deep roads, I really like how there are 3 different and major outcomes for the finale there.

Posted by: Whipstitch Mar 13 2011, 12:30 AM

So far the most striking thing to me about the overall Dragon Age 2 experience is not the game but its reception and the strong feelings it has aroused both from detractors and defenders. More than anything, it reminds me yet again that game reviews--"professional" game reviews in particular-- really ought to just be decoupled from numeric scores so that the writing can stand on its own merits. I say this because it seems that there's a real stigma attached to any score below an 8.0 or 80/100-- I rather get the impression that a big budget title would have to practically break into your house and start molesting your pets before getting a score below 7.5 from the review machine these days, something I find interesting since oftentimes what I read in a text and what I read in a score box often seem at odds. I say this not because I think Dragon Age 2 deserves a particularly low number or anything, but rather to point out that I think such standards contribute to how shrill the discourse on any given game quickly becomes. After all, we exist in strange place where one guy writing for a big game site reserves a 6 only for the gravest of sins while Joe Fanboy on gameFAQs may be happy to throw 0s and 10s around like they're going out of style.

Posted by: toturi Mar 13 2011, 12:34 AM

We exist in strange place where one guy writing for a commercial interest reserves a 6 only for the gravest of sins while Joe Fanboy with his own agenda is happy to throw 0s around like they're going out of style.

Posted by: Whipstitch Mar 13 2011, 12:40 AM

That definitely plays into it. I remember the Kane and Lynch fiasco quite well. Another thing to keep in mind is that for every writer who's not afraid of being seen as an idiosyncratic pedagogue ala Armond White we have another critic who's terrified of staining his own credibility. Beyond that, we also live in a time where a certain amount of polish is pretty standard these days. Even the movie tie-in shovelware is fairly competently made these days compared to past years, so to an extent I can see why some general ratings inflation might creep into things given that each generation of games usually at least looks better than the previous.

Plus, I hate to say it, but I'd rather trust the guy with commercial interest and an obvious bias than Joe Fanboy on the internet who nobody ever calls on their bullshit. I mean, for god's sake, I know a guy who ostensibly gave Mass Effect 1 a 0 because you couldn't bang Wrex. Sure, his steam page still said he played the game for 70 hours and I know he was taking the piss, but that was still the message he decided to send, for better or worse. I guess I'm just happy to have a few friends with similar tastes to lean on rather than really relying on the 'net.

Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Mar 16 2011, 07:41 PM

Got DA2. I have to say that, although I'm only a couple of hours into it, I'm not as thrilled as I was with the first. The game isn't bad, it's just lacking some of the things that I loved in the previous, mainly the way approval and dialogue between characters worked. It seems that if they had three options : keep it the same system, take it more towards RPing, or take it more towards combat, they chose the combat side.

The combat does work well so far, and looks pretty cool. Hoping that in the long run it'll shine enough. There still is an approval system. Just not as good. Haven't seen any of the Gifts yet either.