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Spoiler for the game's box.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Some places in America have broken the street date and are selling the game early so it's time to start a gameplay thread.
Looks like an awesome game.
Pre-load is out on Steam. (for those who bought it electronically)
I am watching the game at http://evaxephon.com/stream/
It looks pretty much like Mass Effect style, but you can have 4 characters and the NPC's interact with eachother and other things in the party. Two of them sounded rather like one of Frogeggbeast's partnerships.
I was going to wait for reviews because I wasn't sure it would run on my older PC/newer graphics card, but I broke down at the last minute and got the fancy Steam version.
I just played through part of the intro/tutorial as an Elfin Mage. I don't think there are any spoilers here, it's just a first impression.
I picked a mage to start, because I'm curious to see if the game can handle getting a party through a dungeon door with the mage leader protected at the back of the room, which was a frustration in NWN2. And if not, I'll re-start as a Rogue.
The intro/tutorial is specific to my mage character, which really makes me want to go back eventually, and see what the intro for the other classes are like! So far, it's very nicely done as an intro and tutorial for the game controls. If you've played the Flash game, the interface will be familiar and just more in-depth. Movement, camera controls, and combat are easy to pick up (at least for my mage, dunno about the other classes). Combat seems a little quick and twitchy, but there is a pause on the spacebar so you can do it in semi turn-based mode.
My first concern was how smoothly it would run on my old PC (Athlon 64 3800+, 2 Gigs RAM, GeForce 8800 GTS). So far, using default settings at 1280x1024 it's running smooth as silk through the tutorial intro, but the real test will be when a full party is fighting a room full of mages and the spells are flying. I can ramp it up to full 1600x1200 res, but I'm not sure it will handle things when the party and combats get larger, but we'll see. So far, it's encouraging for those of us with lower-spec PC's. All the cut scenes so far are running without hiccups.
The opening 2D artwork and the music is very good. First exposure to the writing isn't bad. It's throwing a lot of made-up words around to explain the background story, and there is a codex/journal to help organize that information. What I've seen so far leans heavily on generic Tolkein/D&D tropes (Elves! Dwarves! Bad things from the Bad Place!), but it's not too cringe-inducing. Could be worse.
With just a brief dipping of toe into the game, the engine looks solid. And now it will depend on the writing of the story, and how they're handling the RPG elements.
Have to double this sentiment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
My relic P4 3ghz is able to run this game just fine, which is amazing considering most places tell you flat out if you don't have a dual core you cannot play the game. Granted, i've had to turn a few options down but it still looks great on my dinosaur cpu. I cannot wait until my new case comes and I can install this new motherboard/cpu I have sitting next to me.
I'm about five hours into the game and I have a few comments. First off is any notions of DA:O being a "frat boy RPG" have been woefully blown out of proportion. This is a very serious game, with a very serious narrative. Secondly is combat could be a bit tighter, it feels a bit loose and its easy to get bogged down into a single character mind-set. Not having a "healer" character is really starting to bug me as I'm chugging potions like spring-water. (I think i just havent met her yet). That being said, its still tons of fun and very challenging. I've died four times and i'm playing on Normal. :dizzy2:
The Origin stories are not as long as I thought they would be, but they are still long enough to give you a glimpse into the past of your character. I like it, its short but it doesnt overstay its welcome - before you know it you're at the meat of the game.
That's all for now. :2thumbsup:
Oh, but one more thing:
EA are 'teh devil'. I have heard of tales of their systems before, but this? Wow. They nearly caused me to lose all chance of playing this game with their botched registration system. Basically, i registered my game on the Social site.. but then was asked for registration a second time in game. When i provided my key the game crossed its arms and informed me "sorry, that key is in use by someone else." ...
OF COURSE IT IS! I'M THE ONE WHO USED IT! :furious3:
How did you get around it?
Just so I know when I get back tonight.
Bugs! Bugs! Tell me if I should wait for the third patch please. :yes:
Pretty stable actually. Had a CTD last night after six and a half hours of play and its been the one bug/crash i've experienced.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
I've read there are clipping errors, arms that go into legs and the like... :inquisitive:
May be nitpicking but that's sort of a bug. When will they ever get things like that right? :sweatdrop:
Mine's here! I'll post some impressions of the xbox version tomorrow.
I'm going human female mage. Quite a departure from my usual sword-wielding characters; the concept of mages in this world is too interesting to pass by. Hoping Bioware managed to do as good a job with the female protagonists as they did with the female Shepard in Mass Effect; she was outstanding and, unlike most of Bioware's older female types, not embarrassing to play as. I have no interest in walking around in a chain mail bikini while being harassed by whichever soppy idiot NPC is the designated love interest. The one who always, always has a dead wife in his past and/or other tedious angst that he will whine about for 70% of the conversations. Yep, if the female protagonist is a return to Baldur's Gate form I will be restarting as a male. I can't endure tens of hours of frostbite in sensitive locations and Carth-a-like stalkers.
I haven't seen anything I could label a bug so far, unless it's something deep in the combat stats that I'm not noticing due to unfamiliarity. It has a very solid feel, like a game that's been in development for a long time (which it has been). The 3D engine might have been state-of-the art a few years ago, but it looks a little behind the curve now (at least compared to high-end PC games), which is a good thing, for those of us with older computers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
I did get one brief moment of choppiness in a melee combat scene (no magic, 3 in my party against maybe 6 or 7 enemy fighters), but I don't know if that's the game or something my computer was trying to do in the background outside the game. Still feels nice and smooth overall.
A few more quick impressions and comments. These lean a little on the negative side but nothing too serious. Just some minor gripes, and I'm still enjoying the game very much with my Mage just past the start of the main plot.
Bioware did a nice job with the camera, the clipping of ceilings in tight spaces, and the amount of scenery you can see at one time. I haven't had much time in open spaces yet... looks like it might still be a little tight to make effective use of an archery-based character, but we'll see. The world isn't seamless; there are disk loads between areas, but nowhere near as annoying as the constant loads in NWN2. Game save and load operations are very fast, even on my older computer. The game itself boots up quickly, and unloads from memory quickly. It seems to have a fairly light footprint for something this complex. I haven't noticed the arm/leg clipping issue Husar mentioned (I'm playing on PC).
A low-level party self-heals and recovers mana after a combat encounter very quickly. I mean, like within seconds. You don't have to stock up on mana potions for a mage like you did in the Flash game, and I'm accumulating lots of healing potions I'm not using, except once in a while during combat. Maybe recovery takes longer once you get to higher levels with larger stat pools to fill? It keeps the encounters moving along with no need to rest, but I wonder how the hardcore D&D fans will feel about this.
I bought it on Steam and there is no local manual. You don't need a manual to get started playing the game, but I miss having a manual for getting an overview of the different character development trees. Choices I'm making during leveling now in the early stages, may restrict what I can do later. I feel like I'm flying blind here. I don't hang out on the Bioware forums so I haven't been keeping track of how the RPG/leveling system works. Of course, this could turn out to be an "RPG" like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect where the choices don't matter, because you'll have enough points to just buy almost every skill and talent by the time you reach the end of the game. I hope that isn't the case. Boo, hiss! Bioware, for not including a PDF manual and forcing us to go online to scrape up the character tree info.
Speaking of restricted choices.... I know this isn't D&D and I'm trying not to make too many direct comparisons... but I'm getting the impression that this is a fairly loose, streamlined system for character development. I played through the Rogue intro just to see what it's like (and yes, totally different from the Mage, nice!), but it was odd to see a Rogue clanking around in light metal armor and being able to dual-wield right from the start.
Very minor spoiler, you'll know this if you've played through the Rogue intro:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Part of the fun with a D&D-based game like Baldur's Gate and NWN is having to deal with so many restrictions on character development, which can lead to some interesting builds. Ignoring the way multi-classing tends to smear those categories, it's still something Ive enjoyed. At least at the beginning, this game feels maybe a little oversimplified... more like the way you make choices during leveling in WoW, or yes, Mass Effect. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Maybe I'm too conditioned by previous D&D licensed games. It's probably good for game sales to a wide audience anyway.
Is there a way to force the character to walk? Your lead character and your party run everywhere, which is sometimes appropriate but often looks silly in areas where it isn't necessary. With a full party, there's a lot of herky-jerky activity with the party running and stopping, running and stopping behind my party leader. It's a little distracting.
I don't quite have a handle on how aggro works, but it doesn't seem to "lock" most enemies on the nearest target, or first person through the door. If I send a melee member of my party through a doorway first, then the rest of the group, a large group of enemy melee fighters will still swarm everyone about equally. Attacking an enemy that isn't attacking you (the character you're directly controlling) will make them turn and attack you, which is an interesting challenge for mage characters. There is an AI control to force your party members to protect the leader, but I haven't had enough combat yet with a group to get a feel for how well it's working.
Excellent! Good news everyone, thank you. It's good to see a company take their time and get something right on the first time out. Hopefully that business model will become competitive some day. The rouge sounds interesting. They do love their dogs in that world. Let's see if the world can handle an opportunistic rogue.
I've noticed that too. Target acquisition when combat is engaged can be a little random, much more so than I'd like. Once battle starts going however it tends to follow more rational rules. Tossing a heal spell on a party member will attract unwanted attention if a monster doesnt have reason to be smacking your tank. Ect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
Combat is tough in DA:O. Maybe i'm just used to simplified versions but I really got smacked around on the Redcliff mission. I had to bump the difficulty down to Easy until I could get the hang of managing the party, imho it's far more effective (once you get a healer) to focus your mico on your magic users and only direct your melee at what to hit, rather than what skills to use. Its been effective for me trying to learn the ropes. :yes:
Also a warning: If you guys are thinking about buying a digital edition, don't. Get a physical copy - the digital editions have some really messed up registration systems. (Basically what i outlined in a previous post. You can actually get locked out of your own game!) If you AT ALL have a choice, go to the store and grab a copy. Retail editions of the game only have a disk check as their copy protection (you can play without registration) from what i understand.
I rather like how difficult combat has been. I decided as a first character to play an elf rogue, I should have been comfortable with that, but I was constantly being the source for attention for every baddy, and would generally die within the first 30 seconds of combat.
Then I decided I'd have a go as a close combat character, so I picked the Dwarf Noble. And instead of tweaking my stats to mainly hover around Dexterity and Strength, I split them up between Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution. What a major difference that has been, I have to say so far it has been a nice change up from NWN and Baldur's Gate to actually make Constitution matter.
One other tip here for those new to the game, if you haven't discovered this already. I don't think it's mentioned in a tutorial (and we don't get a stinkin' manual with online purchase... grrrr):
If you press and hold "Tab" (on the PC version), the game will highlight and show a text identifier for any interesting or lootable objects within view. Some things like books are small, and are easy to miss with a mouseover scan of the area. You get small amounts of XP for each discovery, so it's important to find everything and search all rooms, even for this minor loot. Things like crates and bodies have glowy bits that show they're lootable, but I would have missed some of the small stuff like individual books sitting on altars if I hadn't used the Tab key.
Well my digital ended up working fine, not sure why I didn't run into the same problem as Monk. But then again he made me aware of it first!
Got all my DLC to work and am into the first mission outside camp now. Combat so far has been fairly easy even though I started the game on Hard. Playing as Human Noble Warrior. I should note that my henchies usually bite the dust fairly easily for some reason. I guess the DLC makes a huge difference in survivability.
A few bugs so far. When I wanted to use my pregenerated human noble Warrior from the chargen, the background story was listed as "Dwarf Noble" :shocked:
So I had to recreate...at least they managed to fix the stubble = hollow cheek bug.
The other issues have mainly been around slight clipping issues and loads of spelling errors at various points. Mainly in one-liners.
Also notice that I really need to run V-Sync with DA:O, without, the screen gets rather messy in cutscenes especially.
Liked the intro story a lot, though it was a bit sad.
Oh, that's just super...Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
/crosses fingers that the durned thing works when he gets back from night class....
What causes the lockout:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
As far as I can tell from piecing together experiences of my own and other users on the support forums, if you try to register on the social site before you start the game DA:O will see the registration you made but will not put 2 and 2 together. Instead it'll tell you that key is in use and lock you out. Instead, just input your keys on the game's start-up when prompted to. That's your best bet at getting it to work.
Other users have reported no problems (like FactionHeir), but this problem is wide-spread enough to get mentioned on our wonderful internets.
/ on the number pad. Go to options and then Controls, you should see it in the list of key bindings :yes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
I gotta stop watching the videos. They're too motivating. It's a pity that more of my friends don't get into PC games much; I could really geek out over this one.
I think I'll strap on the tin can to fight in Froggy's stead; pretend I'm a pally once again. We'll see. It depends on if there's more depth in playing a, flexible, character.
After seeing the tidal wave of glowing reviews, I decided to give the game a go. So far, so good. :2thumbsup:
For my first character, I finally settled on "vanilla"- a gruff, hardboiled human warrior. As soon as I had a skill point to do it with, I picked up dual wield and chucked the shield in favor of a dagger. It seems to be working pretty well for me so far- the stats tell me that my character does 54% of the party's total damage. I completed the "origins" segment without falling in battle and got a couple of nice achievements to show for it.
I'm really enjoying the storyline so far, even if it has been a bit predictable....Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
FYI, there isn't a direct equivalent to Paladin in this game. The closest thing to a Paladin is a Templar, a warrior specialization that exists to keep the scary mages under control. Templars get bonuses against magic users, but they can't use magic as healers. The Templar/Mage conflict will affect many interactions in the game. I'm playing as a mage, and I'm starting to really hate those guys.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
No problems on my end, but thats because I checked Steam's Dragon Age forumboard. And couldn't write in codes for DLC and pre-order stuff after another, had to load up the Redeem Code page when I wanted to write the next code in. I think I'll go for physical copy next game over Steam though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
Started my Human Noble Warrior and really enjoy the game so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xiahou
Spoil tastic! Don't read unless you're passed your origin story and at least 2 hours in game! (passed your origin story and the first plot quest)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It's also good to hear you all aren't having massive trouble with the Digital Ed like I did on my first day. :bow:
I rather liked the origin story, at least for the mage I'm playing as. Maybe it wasn't clear out of the blue, but I liked the setup and how it went through.
Also, major spoiler, don't peek unless you're a decent deal after the origin story:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Forgot to mention:
Dislike the camera, prefer the NWN2 one over DA:O. Not being able to rotate without holding the RMB is annoying.
Also, zoom in is quite limited. Can't appreciate the detail without greater zoom.
Lastly, they really ought to allow you to click through dialogue rather than forcing you to wait through it all. Mainly for subsequent playthroughs.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wakizashi
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Edit:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Looks like the game is pretty good despite the retard advertising. So I'm probably going to fall for it and buy it :-/
I understand people are interested in plot, story, and etc but what about depth? The thing I liked about switching from Paladin/fighter to rogue in DnD based games is the additional depth it offered. Instead of simply strapping on as much metal as possible and slogging through things I discovered how the use of diplomacy, stealth, ambush, and etc opened up far more possibilities. Now I'm more able to "lead" a group and obtain better rewards.
Does the base campaign in Origins offer this too?
You can do that on the xbox version. Thanks to the completely different control setups I can't guess what it'd be on the PC other than to say it's not ok and it's not cancel.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
I played ~2 hours last night and completed the mage origin story. The thumb for gameplay is tentatively pointed upwards, the one for presentation is slanting downwards. At the moment the lasting first impression is the considerable shock how archaic the game is in terms of looks, audio, style and atmosphere. I'd expected much more from the people behind Mass Effect.
Gameplay ... well it's Baldur's Gate in 3D. Enough said. Area of effect, friendly fire, a need for tactics if you don't want to turn into a pool of giblets, and a strong need for a rogue to open locked chests. I can tell it's going to improve vastly once I have more spells and a proper party; right now I've spent much of my time running about (away?) on my low-level lonesome wondering if my two offensive spells will recharge before my health runs out.
It's all terribly generic fantasy so far; I expect that to change shortly.
Presentation, yeah. The two year old Mass Effect slaughters this game blindfolded with both hands tied behind its back in all categories of presentation. The first thing that hit me when the game started running was that it looks like Neverwinter Nights 2, i.e. old, badly outdated, and filled with plastic people who look wrongly proportioned. There's some decidedly blergh voice acting on the minor people. Oh well, I don't care so much about that - I've played and loved worse and it's the experience which matters. The blood splatter overlays on the characters look stupid and there's no option to turn them off, which means they show up in cutscenes and conversations.
It's the conversations which are really getting me. Gone are the animated, dynamic conversations which made Mass Effect special. We're back to Bethesda style barely animated barbie doll heads paired with selectable lines of cringeworthy dialogue. I'm afraid I am skipping dialogue in all but the more important conversations; I read entire chunks of dialogue in the time it takes the mediocre actors to get three words out and there's no reason for me to sit and watch instead.
That said, there was one bit of conversation I did like (minor spoiler for the mage origin story)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The console version is definitely not an after thought or cash in and the people behind Risen's abysmal port should be forced to study it hard and learn from it. The interface and everything has been designed from the ground up specifically for the console, and the game works with the platform's strengths and weaknesses, just as I hear the PC version does. I'm actually quite interested in playing the PC version in order to see the 'other' side of the game. Probably when I can pick up a cheapish copy I shall do so.
Gah! I sound so negative when I did enjoy my play time! I spent most of my day at work thinking about what I would do in the game once I got home.
You can. Press Esc.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
That's the only key I didn't try, thanks!
Re blood splatter, in the PC version you can turn the persistent splatters off in the options menu. Alternative is to re-equip armor.
Another peeve I've been experiencing is how only rogues can lockpick but everyone can pickpocket. I mean why can't I invest in open lock like a rogue can ~:( Just seems a bit silly to have to leave every chest out there locked (the initial henchie helped a bit at the camp, but he can't open several of those...)
Well, it's definitely a tactics-intensive game if you want to play it that way. And in some boss battles you really do have to play it that way. You'll party-wipe if you just charge in with swords and spells blazing. How deep you get into the combat depends on how much you want to micro-manage using the pause key.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
Ambushes of a sort are possible. You can have party members hold position on one side of a doorway, then send a controlled character through to lead enemies back into the room where you're party is waiting. Outdoors is a little trickier because you go into combat mode at fairly long range, although that helps archers and spellcasters. One nice thing, although it's a bit of a cheat for the player, is that you can spot and target most enemies for a first strike, before they'll notice you. So it's possible to scout out the battle before it starts, and look for the best tactical position.
Remember with this type of game you can very easily swap control between the different party members. I'm playing as a mage because I think it's ideal for a tactical overview and control of the battles, but I'll often switch to the Rogue in the party (when there is one), for initial scouting, or to make the first strike and get things rolling.
There are opportunities to use diplomacy, in the form of threats or persuasion. I haven't paid much attention to how this works in terms of your stats (dialogs are always based around your main character as the leader), and it probably also depends on where you stand with all the various conflicts between factions. Anyway, I've been able to use diplomacy in dialog choices to avoid a fight, or achieve a goal through persuasion that could only be done that way.
Yeah, I understand the rationale for it (get a Rogue in your party!), but it's still frustrating. Even when you *do* have a Rogue in the party, you have to manually take control and have the Rogue open the crate. I remember another game (NWN? NWN2?) where if you tried to open something as a non-Rogue party leader, the Rogue would just push you aside and say "here, let me do that." Maybe it has something to do with encountering trapped chests later in the game? That auto-open design did get my Rogue zapped a few times in that earlier game.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Oh, and here's a possible bug. Or it could just be the way it's designed. Two of my current party members are turning on sustained spells during combat (bard song and threaten) and then not turning them off after combat is over. They'll walk around with the glowing effect, and the stamina bars partially depleted to run them, until I manually take control and turn off the effect. I suppose that might be useful in a situation like a dungeon crawl where you're moving quickly from one battle to the next. Maybe there's a tactical advantage in having something like Threaten running during the initial enemy aggro? I dunno. But it's annoying when we're just walking around and talking to NPC's between battles.
You'll need the Coercion skill which opens up the possibility of using Persuasion and Intimidation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
Persuasion is where you use your willy good looks and a Cunning check to smooth talk someone, while Intimidation is where you cross your arms, stare angrily and pass a Strength check to force someone to do what you want. Both can have the same outcome but with radically different effects. So if you've got a warrior as your party lead you'll probably be doing a lot of intimidating.
Yes, KOTOR had a similiar set up. If you ran into a locked door you had to manually switch to your security expert to slice through. I actually really loved how in Mass Effect you didn't have to switch, if you had the lock-picker in party you could just walk up and do it automatically. It's been a small annoyance.Quote:
Yeah, I understand the rationale for it (get a Rogue in your party!), but it's still frustrating. Even when you *do* have a Rogue in the party, you have to manually take control and have the Rogue open the crate. I remember another game (NWN? NWN2?) where if you tried to open something as a non-Rogue party leader, the Rogue would just push you aside and say "here, let me do that." Maybe it has something to do with encountering trapped chests later in the game? That auto-open design did get my Rogue zapped a few times in that earlier game.
Progress: 14 hours in game and I still am not even close to halfway done. I finally got my DLC to work and am enjoying that as I speak. I have to be honest, i was expecting the "60 hours of gameplay!" tag-line to be a bit of a joke. After playing this for 3 days I can safely say we're gonna need a bigger boat.
Discovered a possible bug with the Sten companion quest.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Found a bug with the Kennel quest
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Regarding people not turning off their passives, its to do with their tactics. Its usually set to make them enter a mode when something happens, but if you got space for another tactic, definitely have one at the very bottom reading if everything is clear, turn everything off or so. Not sure if that exists though.
18 hours in. Already surpassing every expectation i had (but.. seeing as I had very few going in, I guess that explains why I am so happy with the end result!). I'm thankful I have few plans this weekend so I can continue to hack at this game.
Really? I haven't felt that at all. Character models aren't as animated as Mass Effect but I wouldn't go so far as to deem them as bad as FO3's, where everyone uses the same two or three 'conversation animations' and it's hard to feel bad when you blow their head off. I've kept subtitles off for the most part since I know what it does to me, it makes me very impatient.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Edit: Retracted. They are stiff, I simply didn't notice until it was pointed out to me. Guess it doesn't bother me too much? :shrug:
@froggy's spoiler
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
@FactionHeir's second spoiler.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ahh excellent, thank you. One of the big selling points for me is the claim that in-character actions have a substantial affect on the game world.
Too bad there's no MP. Sounds like you guys could use a "troubleshooter." :sneaky:
Well, I'm about 14 hours in, and things have opened up a bit.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Sten companion quest is bugged, but you can see it to completion regardless without the quest updating.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
This game is very addicting, 21.5 hours in and I can safely say that nothing is ever simple in Dragon Age. There's always something in the way and by the time it's over I'm usually in no mood for mercy. I'm not evil, just tired! :whip:
Unfortunately the length of this game might have an unintended side-effect. I am wondering if I'll have the drive to play by the end, will I stand up once the ride is over and say "Again!" or cringe at the idea of spending so much time in the game again? I don't know. That was one thing I loved about Mass Effect. It was an amazing ride, great story and done in around 15 hours (or as few as six, depending on how fast you could go and how many side-quests you did). It was easy to jump back in.
Here I've done next to no side-quests, trying to see as much of the main story as I can as fast as I can. Companion quests, plot quests and DLC are all that get my attention.. and i've still got a lot left to go. Here's hoping i'm not a skeleton by the time I finish. :skull:
Orzammar spoilers.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I felt like crying. :cry:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Beskar
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It was akin to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAhrqKqK_cA
I am so glad they dumped Charisma as a stat. I have never, ever, majored investment in it in any rpg, through Baldur's gate to Fallout 3. In fact, i've always crippled the sociability of my characters in favour of their combat lethality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
I really liked the fact that in Fallout3 you had alternative conversation options based on other stats, skills or perks (how much time does Robotics expert save you in FO3!).
Maybe I've missed out on certain sides of games by not investing in charisma but I don't know if I would ever find it as satisfying to talk my way out of everything in a game -even if the rewards were equivalent...
Anyway, thanks for the updates guys, its great to find out about the game whilst waiting for my boxed copy to arrive from Amazon...
mmm... not entirely true...Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
I have to bring this up as this is the first thing I thought when I saw it.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
What do you mean by that?
Arl is a noble title and Eamon is one of the noble house's last names.
Think about it. They rhyme.
Anyway, is there a way to see an overview of approval?
In the character screen. Should be below the character model.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
10 hours in now; I ended up playing until 1am, then spending most of this morning playing too. It's gotten a lot better. I love the party banter and the characters I've acquired so far are brilliant, by far Bioware's best. The Alistare/Morrigan/dog combo is hilarious and by preference I'd have rolled with it to the end of the game if not for the need for a rogue. The plot's gotten more interesting, the world has opened up, and the game just feels like it has found its feet and its stride.
Reading the lore adds some flesh to the bones of the world. Leliana has some good historical stories once you get her to join.
However ... well, flies are in the soup and they're exasperating because they're so small and easily fixed, or because they're large and should never have been present. It's the large flaw which has prompted me to stop playing and hit the internet in the hopes of finding a way to mitigate it.
Character/party influence is proving to be a random feeling illogical headache. For each handful of points with a character I gain I seem to lose a larger amount with that same character plus a smattering with one or more others. That’s fine; I don’t mind it being hard to keep characters happy, and not being able to make everyone like me. The problem is that a around a third of those loses come from reasons which don’t quite make sense. I've seen (safely disguised from spoilers) "You agreed with me? I hate you!" "You disagreed with me? I hate you!" "You took my advice? I hate you!" "You asked me if I'm ok? I hate you!" "You tried to talk to me? I hate you!" "You did something I said I approve of? I hate you!" "You didn't do something I said I approve of? I hate you!" "You supported me in an argument? I hate you!" The dog's the only one who likes me, the rest are sulking around neutral and losing influence like a sieve loses water.
This is made worse by the conversations. Some of those lines of dialogue don't give the effect you'd expect from reading them and on multiple occasions things have gone a way I didn't want because I picked a line which meant something other than it appeared to.
"Would you like a drink?"
1. Yes please, I'm very thirsty. (Turns out to mean: Give me sixty bottles of your strongest because I'm going blotto and don't care if my entire party is disgusted by it :hiccough:!)
2. No, thank you. (Turns out to mean: I think everyone who touches alcohol is weak and feeble-minded and I don't care if I'm insulting the entire pub by saying it.)
The response I wanted would be closer to: “Give me a glass of whiskey and that’s all, thanks.”
:sigh: Both of these things are headaches because of the way they are presented. If the dialogue lines were vague like Mass Effects I wouldn't be so bothered by the unexpected results, and to be honest I never found ME's limited lead-ins to be misleading anyway. I have no problems at all with losing influence and being unable to keep every character happy, or with it being very hard to get people to like my character, just make it somewhat logical so I have a feel for what I'm doing.
Headache the third, aka the large flaw, is the combat AI. My party AI coped very well in the early fights. Now I have gone to ... let's say a village and a castle, and the system has shattered. I'm a mage. Low HP, low damage resistance, spells which get interrupted if I'm hit, no melee capability. So I need tanks to hold up the hordes and protect me. I've got 2 melee characters and one who can swap between ranged and melee. Used to work great; they kept the goons away from me while I cast. Doesn't work any more, for some reason it's completely stopped working. Enemies run right past my party and start beating me to death every single battle, and it's not one or two strays that get through, it's the majority of the enemy party. My companions ignore the situation and go after the couple of goons who aren't killing me.
Headache the third part 2 is the fact that once an enemy enters into an attack animation you're going to get hit no matter what, even if you've run away and are now on the other side of the screen. That means I can't even try to escape. The nemies move as quickly as my character does so hit and run is a no hope proposition.
Headache the third part 3 is that for some inexplicable reason there's no way to set the AI tactics to do anything useful if you're under attack. You can set it up as far as: "if [character] is under [attack type] then [?]" at which point it breaks down. There's no option for [attack that enemy], [heal [character]], [use distracting skill], or anything else which would draw the heat off or top up my health. Instead I've got options which make my party use special abilities on anyone and everyone who is not me. Or if then is a way to get them do help then the wording of the options is very misleading. "If [character] is under [attack type] then [use a health kit on yourself and wail in surprise as [character] dies in a spray of blood once again]"
So I'm currently casting one or two spells before running about being hit by melee attacks animating on the far side of the screen, frantically topping my health up and waiting for my party of idiots to snooze their way around to killing everything. It's boring. It's tedious. It's profoundly stupid. And I'm dying repeatedly for no good reason. It's so bad I'm gradually respeccing my mage into a close combat mage; I've got light armour now and aim to get a sword so I can at least hit back without being two-shotted.
I stopped playing in the hopes of finding AI settings on the internet which will get my party doing its job again. I can’t keep going like this; without the artillery and healing power of my spells each battle is tougher and tougher to scrape through and soon will come a point where it won't be possible. I barely managed to beat the first proper boss on my third attempt; I know I won't get past the second without my party pulling their weight.
And … um … well … the skills are boring. Each time I level up I struggle to find something that looks worth buying. The kind of effects I want I can’t buy (e.g. faster recharge time on my staple spells, or a healing spell which heals more than a tiny amount) or are limited to a single class (open locks!!!) or don’t seem to exist as discrete skills (locate and disarm traps)
This is annoying me as well. Especially as it's often paired with two lines of dialogue, the first being "I can do that!" when I select the locked item, followed by "I can't do that!" when Leliana gives it a go. Salt and wound.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
I don't understand traps either. There doesn't appear to be any way to get her to detect them, and then there was no way to disarm or even locate visually the single trap she did pick up on her own. "There's a trap ahead!" - great, where is it and what am I supposed to do about it? The only answer I found was to blunder about until I stepped on it, same as all the ones no one detected.
Has anyone else noticed that the prompt to leave for the world map is a nod to Baldur's Gate's famous "You must gather your party before venturing forth."?
Oh God, please no. Painful memories.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Re traps, they might be like those Chasind trail signs where they are pretty much invisible outside of being marked on your map and unless you have your mouse in the right spot (and a very tiny spot too) it won't change your cursor. I noticed that starting with the books in the origin story and how they were difficult to pick up because of that. They really need to bring back the item outline thats all clickable and lit up.
Good idea. Unfortunately I can confirm it doesn't work like that. On the console version items you can interact with have small gold sparkles coming out of them and they get highlighted with white text labels if you're standing near them and looking in their direction.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
I miss the days of manuals which went into exhaustive detail about everything. The Infinity Engine games came with such massive books ...
Last night I was close (or i thought) to finishing my third plot quest, I looked at the clock and it was 1 am. I told myself I'd finish this quest and go to bed, when i looked at the clock again it was 5 am. Nothing is ever simple. :skull:
Spoilers on Dragons. Tactics and their difficulty.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Found some quirky and buggy behavior in AI path finding, allied especially, in very narrow corridors. Your party has a tendency to get stuck or stop following you for a few seconds too long before they realize they should be behind you. It hasn't cost me death yet, but it's been enough to get me to sigh.
Moving forward with the influence system and I've got pretty much everyone liking me except Zevron.. who I hate, but will likely need if I want to finish a certain quest. It took a while to really get the hang of what characters expect from you and it can get rather confusing unless you know exactly what each of them expect. Morrigan, for instance, I had pegged for an evil character. When in truth she normally just hates it when you do things she sees as wasting time, or missing a chance at a powerful object. Allistar and Leliana are much easily predictable in their responses.
Remember to press tab (if on PC version)
Found a big bug in the PC version for me at least, I will put it in spoilers and if anyone who has done the Circle related stuff, did you get the same bug:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Edit: Fixed it by restarting the client. Weird.
Only got to first world map locale after world map unlock.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Just seems to me that there should be some reward for choosing a good path rather than reward only those who are evil and rob all.
Also, I was wondering if there's any use for standard gems? They are starting to really fill up my inventory and I don't know if they can be used for anything.
Btw, your dog can be quite useful
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Speaking of gifts, when can you use them at all? Can't seem to gift them or at least I haven't figured out how. And how do you gift a soiled and chewed on cake for instance? :grin2:
Several hours later and I've got some answers. This game needed a better manual.
Traps: You can spot and disarm traps, and it's dependant on the trap making skill. Levels 2 and 4 of the skill to be specific. Level 2 gives you the ability to spot and remove basic traps and level 4 more complex ones. When the trap is spotted it should appear as visible like any other item on the map. That makes me suspect that I was the unwitting victim of some misleading incidental dialogue earlier, and that Leliana engaged in general "I think we're walking into a trap." rather than one placed on the map.
Combat AI: I have a whole list of settings to try out. Seems like you have to be very specific in setting up tactics for each character; give them a narrow role on each overall tactics set and then create multiple tactics sets to swap between at the drop of a hat. Expecting them to multitask doesn't work. For example, have Alistair set up to heal himself at 50% as the top priority, then threaten, then taunt, then one of his defensive skills. That will keep him attracting enemies and staying alive and doing nothing else aside from the occasional swipe with his sword. If you need him to do something different, such as take down some mages with his anti-magic abilities, then you'll have to hop in the menu and change to the right set of tactics. Still no way to get AI members to come to your aid via scripts though.
There's also a control setting on the console version which makes it possible to set up and execute multicharacter commands. Helpfully it is off by default! Only one order per character per 'pause', but it should make a lot of difference.
Skills: The in-game descriptions are dull and lacking in the information you need in order to decide that something is going to be pretty darned good. Having read some player sourced descriptions I've now got a bundle of ones I want to acquire.
Conversations and influence ... I suspect I might be witnessing a bug. As far as I've been able to tell (I've been sifting for information while avoiding plot and character spoilers) my judgement of each character's personality is spot on, and what I expect to be the result should be the result. Thinking about it, most of my point gains have come when there's been voiced dialogue. The loss of points is nearly always when there's no acted response from the character and the result is given in text on the bottom of the screen, [Character] disapproves -X or [Character] approves +X. So while I gain influence with a certain character by [insert action here] when the response is voiced, I lose influence with that same character by making a very similar decision when it's not voiced. I also realised that it's only something I was seeing today after I'd downloaded my free DLC, so I'm going to try clearing the console's cache and see if that helps.
She's pretty much a less childish version of Nynaeve from the Wheel of Time so I had that figured out before she joined my party. It's part of why I like her. Looking forward to playing as a male rogue so I can have her and Alistair in my party for the entire game. Ah, the bickering!Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
According to my reading they're there to be sold.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
To use a gift you tab through your characters on the inventory screen until the one you want to give it to is selected and then click the left stick button. Not sure what the PC equivalent is I'm afraid; the only hint I can give it that it's a button that probably isn't tied to any other function.
You won't believe what happened, I was just casually talking to Morrigan in the camp, then something completely unexpected happened.
If you want that spoiler, you have to PM me.
Something funny with gifts. It seems I can gift anyone anything and the first gift always gives +5 and the next one 1 less until every gift gives only +1? Morrigan was very happy to get the chewed cake :laugh4:
Something else that's been a bit of a nuisance: All your companions seem to start at a decent level but 0 xp. So when I just got the rogue addition, she had 0/5000. Seems like it will take a long while to level her up.
Characters have different preferences for gifts. It ties in to their personality. I know that (minor spoilers about Morrigan's and Alistair's preferences)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I'm having a little trouble with that too. Just talking to a party member and making choices based on what you think they want to hear, based on what you know of their personality, does seem to consistently result in approval. And yes (just saw your second post below), the downgrades are mainly through plot choices. Although I've blown a few conversations with the wrong choices.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
What I don't like, is that I'll get downgraded (sometimes by as much as 10 points) for choosing an optional side quest that's a fairly major one, just because it's on the wrong side of a party member's preference. It seems to be roughly on an axis of "nice person helping out" vs. "ruthless, get on with it" axis. Not exactly good or evil. Reminds me a little of Mass Effect's "moral" choices, actually. But dammit, I want that quest because we need the XP (and the loot). I don't mind declining a very minor side quest to keep a party member happy, but it doesn't feel right to do it on a major one. At least offer me another quest with the same XP and loot potential, on the other side of acceptability for the majority of the party members. Maybe that does happen later, but I don't want to lose a party member in the meantime.
Quote:
Headache the third, aka the large flaw, is the combat AI. My party AI coped very well in the early fights. Now I have gone to ... let's say a village and a castle, and the system has shattered. I'm a mage. Low HP, low damage resistance, spells which get interrupted if I'm hit, no melee capability. So I need tanks to hold up the hordes and protect me. I've got 2 melee characters and one who can swap between ranged and melee. Used to work great; they kept the goons away from me while I cast. Doesn't work any more, for some reason it's completely stopped working. Enemies run right past my party and start beating me to death every single battle, and it's not one or two strays that get through, it's the majority of the enemy party. My companions ignore the situation and go after the couple of goons who aren't killing me.
Quote:
Headache the third part 3 is that for some inexplicable reason there's no way to set the AI tactics to do anything useful if you're under attack.
Don't give up the pure mage approach yet. I see in the later post you found some help. Here are a few more ideas that might be useful. I'm playing as a Mage with one other Mage in the party, a Warrior tank, and a Rogue. So, basically only two melee fighters to hold everyone off. I'm not afraid to admit that I've temporarily set the difficulty to Easy to get past one or two rough spots, and because I'm more interested in the plot and the RPG dynamics than the combat. But mostly I'm playing on Normal. Anyway, some tips:Quote:
It's so bad I'm gradually respeccing my mage into a close combat mage; I've got light armour now and aim to get a sword so I can at least hit back without being two-shotted.
- Having one extra mage in the party is a big help, if you're going the pure mage route. That means twice the magic-based damage, with only half the attracted aggro. I can briefly take over the other mage and direct ranged attacks on enemy archers or spellcasters, while I focus more on the closer enemies, and the two melee types take on the rest. If this game is like D&D where mages start out very weak and become uber-powerful later, I can always ditch the other mage (although it's an interesting character and potential love interest).
- You can burn one sustained spell while firing off others. I use Rock Armor or that other generic defense one (can't remember the name) if enemy fighters are near, and Spell Shield for enemy mages. It helps a little, and seems to be a better use of the mana burn than using a sustained spell that helps the rest of the party.
- There isn't the scripting I'd hope for, to protect squishy characters with stronger ones. Since there isn't, when my mage gets into melee trouble I'll often just take over my main tank and direct him to help out, then do the same with the Rogue. It at least pulls them back to where my mage is standing in the room.
- I use Winter's Grasp a lot, for delaying enemies near me.
- When it's mostly melee enemies and I'm not dealing with archers or casters, I'll sometimes use the Hold Position command to lock the other party members in one place. That lets me use them as a shield of sorts. The bad guys have to go through the party to reach me. Only drawback is I have to be careful with friendly fire effects with my spells.
I agree to an extent, although it's hard to ditch D&D preconceptions about what "should" be there. I had the same issues with The Witcher game, before I got used to the system and just decided to roll with it.Quote:
And … um … well … the skills are boring. Each time I level up I struggle to find something that looks worth buying. The kind of effects I want I can’t buy (e.g. faster recharge time on my staple spells, or a healing spell which heals more than a tiny amount) or are limited to a single class (open locks!!!) or don’t seem to exist as discrete skills (locate and disarm traps)
You can find out which character likes what sort of gifts by reading their Codex entries.
Sten, for instance.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Blew through the Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep DLC, must say that WK was much shorter than I expected but was very interesting nonetheless. Worth the price tag? Hard to say.
Shale, on the other hand, is an absolute treat. The rumors of his likeness to HK-47 were spot on, and while he won't call anyone a "meatbag" he is certainly a welcome addition to my party. He's a very versatile party member and one of the more durable damage dealers.
My suggestion is to get him early in the game, if you wait too long you miss out on something good and it's only hinted at later. :book:
Yeah, compared to previous RPGs you can end up with some eyebrow-raising approval increases or decreases and yes some conversations either have what I'd call "superflous" choices (although could be some hidden mechanics like approval for certain party members) or unintended outcome. And its also a bit harder at first to realize what party members like or dislike, but was also refreshing as it made you more focused.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Yeah noticed this too. Sword+Shield seems to have one or two sustained abilities that could have been merged into another. Magic so far doesn't have anything spectacular, but at least there is some small variety.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Just did Warden's Keep andQuote:
Originally Posted by Monk
its definetly NOT worth 15 $.Its 7 $ which is acceptable IMO.
And will do Stone Prisoner next. I will keep Morrigan & Leliana (dps/healer & rogue) and opted for Sten since I want to see how the quasari are, although might swap that sourpuss out for Shale. Although Alistair was a nice character so will keep him around when I play a mage later.
On a sidenote:
I got DDE of Steam and that gave me 3 rings, 1 helmet, 1 staff, 2 tomes and all DLCs available atm. The helmet, staff and blood dragon armour is stuff you need to be high up in the game to reach.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Also, I was under the impression if you bought Combat Tactic Slots with your main character it unlocked one for all others...boy was I annoyed when I discovered it meant for my specific character only. Which just echoes frogbeastegg's mention that this game really could need a better manual.
A handy tip for people starting it up: Read the Codex entries...they are helpful and in Kocari Wilds you have to read them to solve two quests.
YIKES! That was worth $15? I got the DDE off of Impulse with a coupon, so I really didn't pay much over the original edition's price for all my bonus content. I agree, there's no way WK is worth that sort of money. At the very most it should be priced at $5. :wall:Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
I've found Sten is a bit of a "glass cannon" he can hit pretty hard, especially after you do his companion quest, but he and the other damage focused warriors are surprisingly squishy. After i got Shale I swapped Sten for him and haven't looked back. A follower made out of stone is durable as it sounds. :yes:
I bought the DDE of Steam so I got Warden's Keep ~:) But my bad, its actually 7 $. :oops: Stone Prisoner is 15 $. I'll edit my post and rectify that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ah, i was about to say that's just plain robbery! :laugh4:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
Sten companion tips.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
27 hours into this game. I need a vacaion. :skull:
Just finished the village, made extensive use of Lelianna's rogue skills :grin:
Regarding gifts, thanks for the pointers, I noticed those give like +9 rather than +5, so quite notable.
Companions convos are fine for the most part. I find Morrigan's the most difficult, but they change the most too (usually +-6 or 7), while others go for around 1-4 each time.
Just entered camp for the first time too. So far I haven't died in the origin story and ostagar. Died twice in this section but reloaded each time since I think main dying should be game over.
Figured out the problem of sustained "auras" in conversations. As FactionHeir pointed out is a tactics problem that can be easily remedied. Go to your tactics menu and set: Condition: Self-> Surrounded by no enemies. Then set the action to: Self-> Deactivate mode: (aura) and then save your preset. This will solve the problem of being sparkly in conversations but will take up a tactics slot.
Its hard to believe a game I enjoy this much can be so backwards in its design.
Weirdness. I played several more hours last night and my party AI and influence was working in a sane manner again. In fact I redid one conversation where I got negative influence, picked exactly the same choices, and this time got positive influence! With a smattering of gifts and some functional conversation I have Alistair deeply fond of me, and Morrigan and Leliana to slightly friendly. They didn't have much dialogue for me to work through, and Sten had none so he still hates me.
Leliana is spotting traps all over the place and they appear visually on the game world, and by walking near them I am given the option to disarm them.
Maybe dragon age is a night game? Play it in the morning and it's half asleep? :tongueg: Regardless of the reason I enjoyed my time immensely.
I haven't done the Shale DLC yet; the achievements are broken on it and I don't want to bork my profile. The wardens keep DLC costs 560 points and I admit I am tempted, if only for the item storage. My inventory fills up with runes and ingredients so quickly. Again, the achievements are broken so I can't play it without needing to recover my profile later.
Setting and plot wise I'm still not seeing the dark fantasy, and definitely not seeing any trace of the song of ice and fire inspiration that the developers were talking about. It's basically a standard fantasy novel, which means it's less twee than your usual fantasy game and isn't in technicolour graphics and that's about it. It's very Tad Williams with added blood so far.
I own the DLC, but the problem is, can't even download it to play it.
It is quite annoying.
Even worse, I heard you cannot even play games with the DLC content, offline.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I thought that was only on my end. Did some convos to just look at what the henchie would reply with for giggles and then went back to pick a mod-high path that would fit with the RP. Thing is, sometimes a path seems to give you a boost once, but after a load, that path never gives anything, which is weird. I.e. the convo with Lelianna about the people in the convent and picking a certain option the first time got me +4 but each time thereafter 0.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Re Achieves, are they broken just for the xbox or also the PC?
That's true. My connection went down for a while yesterday and when I went to resume my game it told me that due to the DLC I can only play it logged into an account that has them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
Is this the PC version? I haven't logged in since I downloaded the DLC and I've had no problems using it.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Yeah, PC version
There was a patch for Dragon Age yesterday...maybe that fixed some stuff?
33.5 hours in. Thinking of taking my foot off the gas today and getting some real work done. This game can be very hard to put down at times.
I'm starting to wonder if Bioware has the "Big book of fantasy cliches" tucked away in their writers' office. The story isn't bad per say, it's just nothing special or revolutionary. Fun? Oh absolutely! Highly original? I really don't think so.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Yeah same here, I haven't had any trouble logged in or out in playing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xiahou
Something is bugging me and there are no answers anywhere.
Do the allied supply crates do anything?
Edit: yes, I realised they are for donating, but does that result in anything tangible or affect anything in the game, other than make you poor?
Just did Stone Prisoner...don't really know if it's worth 15 $. Then again, its there to torment the second-hand buyers most likely.
Entered Orzammar, but think I should head off to Denerim next. Seems to be lots of quests to do there.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Arg! These camera controls! :angry: Death by 1,000 paper cuts.
Did anyone else notice that the sound effect for changing heavy armour is the same one used for moving plate armour about in your inventory in Baldur's Gate? I got some new gear for Alistair and Sten today and had to equip/remove the chest portion a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
I do like Alistair. :yes:
No, I haven't seen a lack of points. I saw it hand out negative points for a conversation I did before quitting without saving yesterday, and then hand out positive points this morning when I chose exactly the same lines. To use your example, yesterday Lelianna would have given me -4 for the choice whereas today (and logically) she'd have given me +4.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Getting logical results based on what I'd chosen is a massive difference to my party and to my enjoyment of the game. Yesterday my party hated me, today I'm high enough in the esteem of all 3 romanceable characters that they're madly in love with me and the non-romanceable characters who have offered dialogue have recovered their opinion decently. Sten is stubbornly disliking me though; he's not offered any more conversation so I suspectbriberygifts are the only hope. Consequentally I'm half convinced he doesn't have a personality ...
Xbox only, and it was fixed this afternoon.Quote:
Re Achieves, are they broken just for the xbox or also the PC?
It's a semi common problem with DLC around release time, common enough that I always check to make sure they're working properly before I play new content. The central microsoft server hadn't been updated with them so obtaining the achievements added them to your profile list but did not award any points. The only way to fix that is to wait for the server to be updated, recover your profile to remove the problematic achievements and then go collect them again. If you're lucky then the achievement will pop correctly and all's well. If not it won't pop because the game thinks you already have it, at which point you're rather stuck.
Definitely. It's what I'd call fluff fantasy, the sort of thing I'd read in 3 hours because there's nothing worth thinking or slowing down for. Dragon Age is only different if you compare it to the stereotypical Terry Brooks or Raymond Feist style stuff, and that's a style of fantasy that's been heavily out of fashion for a decade or more,, and which wasn't omnipresent in the genre even before that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
The lore and notes sections of the journal are good to read. The material in there is a bit stronger than what is handed out in the course of the story. One or two of Lelianna's bardic stories are good too.
Doesn't help that some of the cliches are gleefully turned on their heads in a predictable way, such as (spoilers for the bit after the beacon lighting near the beginning)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: