Topic: Dragon Age (Read 169940 times)

KvP · « **Reply #450 on:** 12 Mar 2010, 15:51 »

Depends. ME2 and Dragon Age are very different games. ME2 is a a third-person action RPG. Dragon Age is a traditional party-based tactical RPG. I like ME2 more than DA not because I think it's a better RPG in some sort of technical sense, but because I found the setting and plot of Dragon Age to be pretty boring, and I strongly disliked the party influence system, which has been compared by a lot of people to a dating sim. In terms of sheer stimulation ME2 is more involved. But your actual preference may result from whether you like sci-fi or fantasy more (I like the former), whether you like to control your entire party or just your main character, whether you like third-person shooter combat or more tactical combat, whether you like full VA for the player character, etc.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #451 on:** 12 Mar 2010, 16:08 »

That's what put me off of DA in comparison to ME most significantly: it felt really really weird to have my character not say anything anymore. I know that the potential player characters in DA are much more diverse than ME, but I think that having the main character be fully voiced adds a huge amount to those games.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #452 on:** 12 Mar 2010, 17:46 »

Quote from: KvP on 12 Mar 2010, 15:51

and I strongly disliked the party influence system, which has been compared by a lot of people to a dating sim.

I just started playing Dragon Age yesterday, and have quickly become frustrated with the withering looks I get from Morrigan every time I rescue a cat from a tree and what not. You'd think this is something she'd get used to, but no, whenever I try and do something nice for someone else she takes it as some kind of personal insult.

I like the idea of the mechanic more than I like its actual execution.

KvP · « **Reply #453 on:** 12 Mar 2010, 18:43 »

I don't really mind an influence system, in fact I think it's something that more RPGs ought to implement. It's just that the "gifting" mechanic is specifically designed to, if gamed just right, essentially cancel out whatever mistakes you might actually have to feel the consequences of w/r/t influence. The only characters who weren't at +85 influence with me at the end of the game were the characters I didn't even bother with - the old woman, the stoic giant, and the fey elf.

LTK · « **Reply #454 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 05:48 »

Quote from: SWOON! at My Gravitas on 12 Mar 2010, 17:46

Quote from: KvP on 12 Mar 2010, 15:51
and I strongly disliked the party influence system, which has been compared by a lot of people to a dating sim.

I just started playing Dragon Age yesterday, and have quickly become frustrated with the withering looks I get from Morrigan every time I rescue a cat from a tree and what not. You'd think this is something she'd get used to, but no, whenever I try and do something nice for someone else she takes it as some kind of personal insult.

I like the idea of the mechanic more than I like its actual execution.

Don't worry, she'll soften up eventually. You get a lot of crap from her in Lothering but for the rest she won't nag on you as much. Besides, it doesn't matter much what they think of your actions, because that'll be nullified by what you can gain in gifts and camp dialogue. Just tell them what they like to hear. I've been playing like the pope would and I romanced Morrigan nonetheless.

snalin · « **Reply #455 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 10:01 »

Quote from: LTK on 13 Mar 2010, 05:48

playing like the pope would

Does this mean killing every mage you come over? Since that's what the pope would do, if he hadn't just burned the DVD in the first place.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #456 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 12:00 »

Also is this game supposed to be incredibly hard, because I am dying at least one for every single goddamn fight.

For some of the bigger encounters I just end up lowering the difficulty to easy, and the difference between that and normal is just so big it's ridiculous.

Johnny C · « **Reply #457 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 12:19 »

Not getting killed all the time takes a hefty amount of strategy and requires you to greatly consider the makeup of your party and the way you distribute attributes and skills.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #458 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 20:52 »

Well that explains it then, because my "strategy" usually consists of stabbin' stuff in the back as my main dude and switching to my party only for the purpose of healing.

Guess I'd better get acquainted with combat tactic slots and whatnot.

But damned if that quest to get the urn of Andraste's ashes didn't include one of the hardest dungeons I've ever had to get through in a video game.

JD · « **Reply #459 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 20:56 »

Oh it wasn't that hard.

est · « **Reply #460 on:** 13 Mar 2010, 20:59 »

If you think that's hard then you're fucked when you get back outside.

LTK · « **Reply #461 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 05:12 »

Hey, there's a patch out for Dragon Age. It's supposed to fix the long load times. The load times ARRRGGGGHHHH

Quote from: SWOON! at My Gravitas on 13 Mar 2010, 20:52

Well that explains it then, because my "strategy" usually consists of stabbin' stuff in the back as my main dude and switching to my party only for the purpose of healing.

Guess I'd better get acquainted with combat tactic slots and whatnot.

But damned if that quest to get the urn of Andraste's ashes didn't include one of the hardest dungeons I've ever had to get through in a video game.

You've got Wynne, right? It's easier to just set healing and buffing to auto in the tactics. Heal, Group Heal, Regenerate, Rejuvenate, Heroic Offense, there are enough slots to fill up with all those abilities so you don't have to issue any orders. Myself, I chose only the Spirit Healer and the two top rows of Creation spells for healing and the rest for offensive and mana spells.

A question: Did any of you actively craft and use balms, poisons and traps in combat? I never saw any use in them, and I only used Morrigan's herbalism for health and mana potions. Frostrocks and deathroots and glamour charms were just crap clogging up my inventory, and the only instances where I used poison coating was with Zevran, just because I had to do something with all of them. It made things die slightly quicker but it was never the deciding factor.

Also: I thought it was pretty funny that the Denerim guards were fooled by my guard disguise, but remained completely oblivious to my glowing blue and lightning arcing starmetal sword and Redcliffe shield.

KvP · « **Reply #462 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 05:23 »

As a melee rogue, poisons can make a lot of difference.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #463 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 05:55 »

Quote from: LTK on 14 Mar 2010, 05:12

You've got Wynne, right?

Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh...

snalin · « **Reply #464 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 12:16 »

uuuuh?

Are you doing Andraste's ashes before you've finished the alliance quests? Unless the "Uuuuuhhhh" is about "why should I care about an old bitch", you should go to the tower of magi first. A healer npc is neeeeeded for this game, so if you have her, use her, or respec Morrigan if you only want one mage around.

You also need to know how to tank, how to crowd control, and how to prioritize whom to target. After that, things get fairly easy.

And if you're having troubles with the dungeon before the ashes, you won't have a chance in hell against the boss.

LTK · « **Reply #465 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 15:31 »

Quote from: snalin on 14 Mar 2010, 12:16

You also need to know how to tank, how to crowd control, and how to prioritize whom to target. After that, things get fairly easy.

I have no idea what you just said, but in spite of that I was able to hold my own in combat fairly well. You learn as you go.

Anyway, I just finished the game as a male human noble warrior with shield skills and templar/champion specializations. Man, did that make an awesome looking character: Warden Commander Armor set, Helm of Honnleath, Starfang and Duncan's Shield. I have to say, when you've spent half the game fighting undead, werewolves and demons, the darkspawn can be crushed like bugs. The archdemon gave me a bit of trouble, it killed Wynne, Morrigan and Zevran but I was able to finish him off on my own because I spammed crafting health potions earlier. The rest of the darkspawn that it summoned would have given me more trouble if the archdemon didn't keep killing them himself, so I could easily take out the remaining 1/6 of its health with regular attacks and Holy Smite.

Well, that was fun. Maybe I'll replay it in a year or two, I'd like to do a Dwarf commoner rogue or an elf mage.

Alex C · « **Reply #466 on:** 14 Mar 2010, 15:37 »

Quote from: LTK on 14 Mar 2010, 15:31

Quote from: snalin on 14 Mar 2010, 12:16
You also need to know how to tank, how to crowd control, and how to prioritize whom to target. After that, things get fairly easy.

I have no idea what you just said, but in spite of that I was able to hold my own in combat fairly well.

It means to ignore that silly cunt with the shield until everyone with pajamas, 2 handers or dual wielding is already dead.

SWOON! at My Gravitas · « **Reply #467 on:** 15 Mar 2010, 13:39 »

So I've been familiarizing myself with the elements of combat that aren't using special attacks 'til the stamina well runs dry and pressing A repeatedly. It's created a noticeable increase in my ability to not die.

Also, I have Wynn now. She is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

snalin · « **Reply #468 on:** 15 Mar 2010, 15:06 »

She gets better.

Then better again.

LTK · « **Reply #469 on:** 15 Mar 2010, 15:15 »

I gave her Mana Clash, holy damn.

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #470 on:** 15 Mar 2010, 22:13 »

i actually don't use Wynne at all, i gave Morrigan the spirit healer spec for mass healing and she serves me better. Plus Wynne is an unbearably boring character to have in yr party

LTK · « **Reply #471 on:** 15 Mar 2010, 23:00 »

Well, only if you never hear her talking to Zevran. Or Oghren.

snalin · « **Reply #472 on:** 16 Mar 2010, 15:43 »

Zevran and Wynne is the best combo ever. She's quite funny with Allistair as well, although it gets a bit bizarre when they two minutes after slaughtering their way through thirty bandits start talking about if she can iron his shirts. I guess you get kinda used to killing after a couple of hundreds, but that used to it?

pilsner · « **Reply #473 on:** 18 Mar 2010, 07:27 »

I'm about 30 minutes into Awakening and already bored. Does it get substantially better?

Tom · « **Reply #474 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 14:54 »

Okay, so I just bought DA:O (Windows) through Steam. When I tried installing it on my Windows partition of my MacBook Pro 15" I was told that the launcher had "failed to detect a supported video card."
I know that my graphics card (NVIDA GeForce 9400m) is totally compatible - has something happened during the partition, have I not installed a driver or something?
What can I do to fix this?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #475 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 15:31 »

you're gonna need some goat's blood and at least 2 black candles with wicks made of virgin hair

the Necronomicon is optional, but couldn't hurt*

*nah, it's totally going to hurt.

KvP · « **Reply #476 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 15:36 »

Quote from: Tom on 19 Mar 2010, 14:54

Okay, so I just bought DA:O (Windows) through Steam. When I tried installing it on my Windows partition of my MacBook Pro 15" I was told that the launcher had "failed to detect a supported video card."
I know that my graphics card (NVIDA GeForce 9400m) is totally compatible - has something happened during the partition, have I not installed a driver or something?
What can I do to fix this?
Any help would be much appreciated.

First things first, go online and get the latest drivers. Go into the device manager and see what display adapters are listed there. Go to "screen resolution" and see what's listed. Beyond that I have no idea.

Tom · « **Reply #477 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 16:41 »

I found out which hardware pieces need a drivers.

Now, I gotta go find them.

KvP · « **Reply #478 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 16:44 »

Noooooo never let a website scan your computer. Nevar.

Tom · « **Reply #479 on:** 19 Mar 2010, 17:15 »

Relax, I didn't.

Anyways, so I stopped to think a moment and realised that I could just insert the OSX installation disk. Unsurprisingly, it worked.

Caleb · « **Reply #480 on:** 24 Mar 2010, 07:44 »

Free shield for Dragon Age PC.

http://www.alienwarearena.com/event/dragon-age-giveaway/

The only drawback is you have to sign up for an Alienware email account thing. (Everyone should have a junkmail email account by now anyways)

Man I have gotten a TON of free stuff for Dragon age. Has there been anything else that came out with the free expansion?

LTK · « **Reply #481 on:** 24 Mar 2010, 07:54 »

Quote

Sorry, this promotion is not open to your region.

Well, it's not like I was going to use it any time soon. You do get a ludicrous amount of freebies in this game, plenty of which you didn't know about. A ring with +1 to all attributes, simply for creating a character before the game came out? Thanks, I guess.

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #482 on:** 24 Mar 2010, 18:50 »

Plus, if you played things even medium-smart you should have a shit ton of stuff from Origins anyway.

I mean, in my inventory i have the dragon and drake skin armours, the juggernaut and tons of absurd weaponry.

Caleb · « **Reply #483 on:** 01 Apr 2010, 16:41 »

You can apparently spend 3 real dollars to buy a Protective Cone for your video game doggie. It will make him hate you.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/addon/

You can also give Morrigan an Alistair doll which she can make into a Voodoo doll. Which makes her happy and Alistair injured.

Of course. This IS April fools day.

KvP · « **Reply #484 on:** 06 May 2010, 00:29 »

Trailer for new DLC, "The Darkspawn Chronicles", in which you play as Darkspawn in a "what if?" scenario where your OC Warden dies in the Joining.

Short interview with the lead designer.

Johnny C · « **Reply #485 on:** 06 May 2010, 02:07 »

I feel like I'd be more stoked if it was less, "Play in an ALTERNATE WACKY WORLD" and more in a, "Play a short parallel story to one of the main events of the game." As it is, I don't really see how that DLC enriches the universe very much.

How was Awakening, by the way?

KvP · « **Reply #486 on:** 06 May 2010, 02:34 »

I hadn't played it but I heard good things about the back half of it.

Buttfranklin · « **Reply #487 on:** 08 May 2010, 05:44 »

I've been wanting to play Awakening (got it 50% off from that PAXEAST code) but the PS3 version of Dragon Age got bugged to hell by the 3.30 firmware update. =/

LeeC · « **Reply #488 on:** 15 Jun 2011, 21:47 »

sorry if I didnt feel like readin 10 pages worth of comments but is dragon age: origins worth $30 US? what game is it like in gameplay and narrative?

Tom · « **Reply #489 on:** 15 Jun 2011, 21:53 »

Yes, if you're playing it on PC. Narrative is big and bombastic taking you all over the game world, most of the stuff in game makes sense within context and the criticisms you may have heard about the sequel don't actually hold here. Basically it's just a graphically prettier update of Baldur's Gate.

Johnny C · « **Reply #490 on:** 16 Jun 2011, 00:57 »

it's also worth it on xbox, don't front. dunno about ps3. sequel isn't worth it though.

Tom · « **Reply #491 on:** 16 Jun 2011, 01:01 »

Truth

KvP · « **Reply #492 on:** 16 Jun 2011, 09:18 »

I would actually waffle about the console versions, since the game's actually a bit different, especially in volume and difficulty of fights. If you can get it on PC, do so.

(Also it's not really like BG much at all, it's more of a graphically prettier fantasy update of KOTOR)

Alex C · « **Reply #493 on:** 16 Jun 2011, 10:47 »

I often suspect that people have forgotten just how much BG1 emphasized exploration.

Johnny C · « **Reply #494 on:** 16 Jun 2011, 13:01 »

Quote from: KvP on 16 Jun 2011, 09:18

I would actually waffle about the console versions, since the game's actually a bit different, especially in volume and difficulty of fights. If you can get it on PC, do so.

(Also it's not really like BG much at all, it's more of a graphically prettier fantasy update of KOTOR)

pc's the superior version no question about it, i'm just saying that it's not like if you can't get it on pc you shouldn't bother with it at all.

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Author Topic: Dragon Age (Read 169940 times)