Dragon Age Options

[Tanegar]

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

[Sixgun_Sage]

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

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

[X-Kalibur]

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

Too easy, there's no challenge involved.

[StealthSigma]

Too easy, there's no challenge involved.

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

[Jhaiisiin]

Esp with her being a shapeshifter...

[StealthSigma]

Esp with her being a shapeshifter...

And her mother being a shapeshifter...

[Tanegar]

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

[Critias]

Alright...who's got DA2?

[Stahlseele]

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

[Sixgun_Sage]

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.

[Stahlseele]

poor? guy?

[X-Kalibur]

Alright...who's got DA2?

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

[Adarael]

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.

[Stahlseele]

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

[Whipstitch]

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

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.

[Critias]

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.

If you're genuinely interested in ditching it, feel free to toss me a PM. I'd offer more than Gamestop would. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[X-Kalibur]

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.

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.

[Whipstitch]

If you're genuinely interested in ditching it, feel free to toss me a PM. I'd offer more than Gamestop would. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

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.

[X-Kalibur]

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.

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.

[Whipstitch]

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.

[toturi]

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 is happy to throw 0s around like they're going out of style.

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.

[Whipstitch]

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.

[fistandantilus4....]

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.