Fwuuuh? Why not?
Fwuuuh? Why not?
he probably wants the 15 million different DLCs to come out so he can buy the super mega ultra collector's limited edition deluxe box set war chest
Makes sense.
Really don't want to afford the time spent playing an RPG unless I have a gut instinct knowing it will be a masterpiece. Bioware and Bethesda have made some great games, but RPGs on the console are always bugged that it bothers me too much. There are other games I want to play such as Uncharted II and Asassasin's Creed II.Originally Posted by MalReynolds
And this. I will wait till the end of 2010 before purchasing. I'll give it a rent sometime because reviews and opinions sway me plus I have no friends that play these games. It's all about football and MW2 right now.
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
Albert Einstein
Oh it is a masterpiece thats for sure.
I can see why you wouldn't want to play it on a console though.
Once you toggle the L2 menu to open and close on click and not hold-to-open, the console controls really aren't inelegant at all. In fact, I would say the controls are one of the strong points.
But if you're expecting the level of control like BG or NWN and their sequels had, forget about it. You can pause the game and assign orders just fine, but there's not really an opportunity to get the wide-field perspective of the 3rd person isometric camera. Sometimes I begin casting area effect spells just so i can scan the battlefield and see where everyone is.
This is made up for by pretty good friendly AI and the addition of definable tactics, which at first irked me that I had to waste skill points in order to get more control over the AI, but now the lack of depth in the skill tree and the fact that the game is so much more enjoyable if you aren't micromanaging, makes me okay with it. I mean really, once you max herbalism and the mandatory combat skill, what else is there for mages to put points in? Survivalist?
That is me just encountering the first "downloadable content" part, I must say it sucks that you didn't get all of the game when you bought it.
Anyhoo, for those interested, I see there is an infinite gold/item duplication glitch in the game, I will stick it in spoilers for those who don't know :
Spoiler
I'd say that the game is complete, entirely, without the DLC. I haven't purchased anything, and I don't feel I've missed anything at all.
The next DLC pack, Return to Ostagaar, looks to expand on the storyline and is only $5, which is neat, considering.
The real bullshit thing about the DLC is not even that the game was released on day one with DLC, as though they couldn't just include the goddamn content (come on, it's just a way to make people shell out $65 for the game instead of $50 and make them feel as though they got something "extra").
The real bullshit thing about it is how the NPC that starts the Warden's Keep quest is in the game whether or not you have the DLC. So effectively there is a stealth adverstisement for the DLC as a part of the base game.
If you pay $50 for it, you shouldn't have to deal with a teaser ad. DLC should be as in most games, where if you don't have it then it is completely not present in the world.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
sycld if you've played any other EA game, then you know that DLC is most certainly going to be present in the game world regardless of whether you are willing to ever purchase it. All of EA Sports' titles now have DLC options that can never be hidden or removed unless they are purchased, effectively the same that you cannot remove the Warden's Keep quest from your quest list without buying and completing it. I, too, think it's bullshit, but unless Sony/Microsoft say something about it, it's not going to change.
surprisingly, i haven't played too many ea games since they've turned into the evil empire. frankly, i'm not surprised that this is the case.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
EA is far from the evil empire you make them out to be. Activision turned into the old EA, EA turned into... well, more of a money whore, but at least they take some time to develop interesting new IPs like Dead Space.
oh yes, you are correct. acitivision is setting themselves to be the new evil empire, if they have not become so already.
still, ea's practices are still terrible, and they have more leeway to get away with them due to how much of the gaming market and how many prominent IPs they control. perhaps they are not as bad as they once were.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
They've given their fair share of free DLC, like with Burnout: Paradise and Army of Two. I generally don't feel ripped off when EA puts up DLC for purchase, because they're generally not choades about it.
A few games doesn't make a company less shitty. The crap they pull with their DLC and DRM is terrible.
Certainly can't make them more shitty.
I can't speak to the quality, price, or frequency of their DLC.
I'm talking about the invasiveness. There are literally options in the middle of Dynasty (aka Franchise/Season) mode of NCAA that do not go away, EVER, unless you purchase the DLC to activate them. So if I'm not interested in their cheats (these are things like "pay $2.99 to improve one of your school's ratings" which is effectively "buy a cheat" as well as "recruiting reports" which summarize the actions of other players in your online league that should be fucking core functionality it is so fucking unbalanced) then I am stuck looking at the button in the midst of the things I can actually do, like an advertisement for DLC.
To be honest, I like the way Dragon Age treats the DLC (meet the quest-giver, appears in your quest book with the download link) but I think it's bullshit that I can't remove the quest from my book if I know I'm not buying the DLC. I don't mind it pushing notification of new DLC to the main menu, or during loading screens, but you can't invade the gameplay experience with advertising for DLC with no way to disable it. That's my issue.
so i'm playing mass effect, since my computer crashed before i finished it, and i hadn't bothered picking it up again.
all i can say is that the writing and voice acting make DOA's seem like shakespeare. i mean, damn... that's horrid voice acting. i really feel no connection to the characters at all.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Get off it's fucking cock Sycld. DAO isn't THAT amazing
no, i'm not saying that. i'm just saying that mass effect has really god-awful voice acting and writing, and, err, it was bioware's last release before DAO...
and even still, gamespot gave it a commendation for "terrific voice acting." amazing.
also, it's not that i'm claiming that DAO is the greatest game ever. i just think that atmosfear was criticizing the wrong aspects of the game, but i agree to disagree.
Last edited by sycld; 12-06-2009 at 04:35 AM.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Sycld, I'm a homophobe for the next ten seconds
You're wrong sinner
Yeah I mean CC hits it on the head. This doesn't even compare to Falloutboy 3. We've been calling it a lot of things, but the most telling title is Dragon Age: Snorigins. This story doesn't really ever diverge from generic high fantasy, and yet I'm still playing it. I think Zero Punctuation's review was spot on. It's bland, gray, run of the mill fantasy RPG and I can't put it down.
I just rescued Arl Eamon. I wish I could name my save games because there's so little linearity in the story at this point, I'd like to explore options like skipping the elves/dwarves' treaties.
I still intend to kill the High Dragon, but my inventory was full and my potions were low when I had the opportunity so I'm gonna have to go back soon.
well, even only amongst bioware titles, mass effect was also a better game than DAO.
The one potential saving grace that DAO had was tactically interesting combat, but then we all figured out how to break the game by using absurdly powerful spell combinations.
Even though this is a bit of an exaggeration--the game is still somewhat tactically interesting--this was the area where I was hoping for more from DAO.
i agree with you to a degree here.
about how i'm a sinner that's going to burn? i agree with you here as well.Yeah I mean CC hits it on the head.
Last edited by sycld; 12-06-2009 at 11:54 PM.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
I would hardly say combat was tactically interesting because game balance is so bad. This is a story of linear warriors/quadratic mages to the nth degree, except that mages started even stronger than warriors or rogues so playing as a non-mage was a handicap. And the skill tree for shield warriors is so fucked up that mages aren't even really glass cannons because your tanks are basically glass, too. I mean, seriously, you need 26 fucking dex for the shield talents? And Allistair starts with 20 str, 17 dex, and 13 con. There's no way to scale all three stats to keep up with loot and stat tree, so have fun trying to keep Allistair alive.
I guess in the interest of constructive additions to the thread, I'll tell you that what makes combat interesting is that your characters are always on the verge of dying because none of the viable character builds can afford to dump points in Con.
i agree with everything here.
and if you played as a non-mage, morrigan and wryne would be the characters you focused the most on during combat, not your main.
but classes are also imbalanced in terms of utility or talents. choosing whether your warrior is going to be sword and board or wielding a two-hander restricted you to two talent groups, and none of the talents were really either game-changing or all that interesting (oh goody, i have another way to hit enemies with my shield that i'll never use because i don't have enough stamina to do anything anyway).
i think for this reason a lot of people just use shale as their tank, though i refused to give up alistair even though he is so squishy. at least with some of the better gear in the game i don't have to constantly use poultices and have every other spell be a heal.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Okay, I'm going to clue you in on how to lie, cheat, and steal your way through every boss fight with your eyes closed.
Go craft 99 health and 99 lyrium potions.
Set wynne to drink a lyrium potion any time she is below 50%
Set wynne to drink a health potion any time she is below 50%
Set Morrigan to drink a lyrium potion any time she is below 25% (unless she has heal, in which case do 50%)
Set Morrigan to drink a health potion any time she is below 50%
Set your tank to drink a health pot any time he is below 75%.
You are at zero risk of dying and you'll beat just about any boss without even trying.
slow clap for the great tactics necessary in Dragon Age Snorigins
this doesn't work if you're playing on hard and alistair is your only tank because he gets one-shotted a lot
also it doesn't work because none of your characters give a damn about what tactics you've given them and will just do their own thing
Alistair can at least avoid getting one-shotted on normal, so if he pots a pot and then gets a heal either from you or wynne, he is back to full so he can survive another gigantic one-shot.
i've never had alistair one-shotted on hard mode, and i'm up to the final battle. are you gearing him up properly as you level?
yeah, that's pretty much been my experience...
speaking of the final battle, the night before...
Spoiler
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
to steal a line i found amusing from zero punctuation
we're a culture so steeped in escapism that we've found mundanity in situations that don't exist and never will
which can be tied into arguing about the mechanics of the game, which is to say either play the game for what it presents itself as - a (debately) high fantasy storyline that you interact with, and appreciate the escapism that provides, or play it as yet another game system and complain that you beat it, presumably because it was too easy, or foolishly laid out.
If you're in group A, you'll enjoy the game, because you'll enjoy pretty much any well-presented storyline in an area of your interest, although from what I've heard, the game is engaging enough even to gamers who don't like fantasy RPGs. If you're in group B, you'll always just complain about how easy it is to exploit a system, because I'm relatively certain that a game cannot have an engaging presentation and be sufficiently systemically complicated without alienating a critical mass of the potential fanbase so it ends up unprofitable.
basically i don't see the point in complaining, since nobody who is in the position to do anything about it is inclined to do it, and almost everyone who wants to effect such change won't due to any combination of smaller factors.
also, this post has been made approximately 17 posts too late
Last edited by coqauvin; 12-07-2009 at 03:48 PM.
coq you haven't actually played the game have you
and the answer to preventing a game from alienating its fanbase due to its difficulty is to have multiple difficulty settings.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
i don't mean difficulty of game, i mean complication of the game system itself, such as skill trees, stats, etc.
The only examples i can think of offhand would be the difference between, say, diablo 1 and dwarf fortress. The first is oversimplified in terms of actual gaming, but the presentation and storyline are fun if you're into that kind of thing. dwarf fortress has no storyline whatsoever and is hopelessly overconvoluted micromanagement, but even for that it's not a system that contains a couple of minor exploits that let you beat the game, it's being completely openended and letting you create whatever you can out of the many, many materials at hand.
also, no, i've never played the game, and i doubt i will.
oh ok
well when we make a thread about ascii based freeware or games from the 90's you can post here.
also have any of you noticed how hyperinflated pc gamer uk's ratings and ravings are when they are about blockbusters from big game coporations? they have named dragon age origins "RPG of the decade," which is more than absurd considering all the great RPG releases that have come out in the past 10 years.
Last edited by sycld; 12-07-2009 at 04:18 PM.
PANDAS
If you don't like them, then get the fuck out.
Just unlocked Shale. I appreciate that it was a short DLC because I was buying the character, not the quest, but if I had paid $15 I would've been pretty pissed.
Also Shale is gayer than sycld.
By the way, how long are your guys save games?
Just curious.
I think I'm over 20 hours now.
I've done Redcliffe, Mage's Tower, and ran around doing side quests in Denerim. Now I'm in the Deep Roads in Orzammar and I've killed all the dragons that I could at this point (got all the armors.) I also unlocked Shale, which was like a 45 minute setback.
I've noticed that there is an awful lot of just running back and forth between load screens in Orzammar, which is such a fucking buzzkill
Yeah atmosfear I noticed that in the pc version too. Try restarting your PS3 when it gets too bad, since on PC it's fixed when I restart the game
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