Dragon Age impressions

[Gay-Lussac]

I'm assuming that was a rethorical question

 

[Black]

I'm assuming that was a rethorical question

I hope it is, or else it means his age is getting on his brain.

 

[Vault Dweller]

At least I have an excuse...

 

[Trash]

And it's as generic a setting as LOTR inspired fantasy can get, usually that sounds the death knell for my enjoyment. I don't think I have the energy to be that critical of anything anymore though, I have enjoyed some spectacularly shitty games in recent years (like Rise of the Argonauts) so take all my impressions for what they are, the opinions of a beaten man.

Ooooh, so that's why people like it.
After being beaten with classics like ME, FO3, Oblivion and other g(a)ems peoples' tastes simply began to rot.

What a relief, for a second there I was afraid I was wrong about DA but obviously it's impossible for me to be wrong.

Ever get tired of bitching?

You obviously don't have teenage kids of your own. :D

 

[Vault Dweller]

I have a 15-year old one. The attitude adjustment therapy does wonders though. It's a shame that the Codex doesn't have one.

 

[circ]

Here's a question for those who have advanced somewhat in DA:O. How are the cities and areas? Standard BioWare stuff as of late or is there some originality there? To clarify -- In Jade Empire you had two cities. One of which you couldn't return to afterwards. The Imperial City was pretty lively, and though a little confusing, that was one thing I liked about it. By contrast, Mass Effect main quest 'planets' were pretty forgettable and you had no reason to return to planets even though you could, unlike JE. So are there a lot of big city like locations and can you return to them and find stuff to do? And are cities largely static, IE, mobs keep saying the same thing and staying in the same place.

 

[1eyedking]

Goddamit filler dialogue is filler; I'm finding it very hard to progress in this piece of crap excuse of a game when every single NPC I meet wants to talk about inane shit for hours and hours.

What ever happened to the more with less mentality?

PS: The Magi library has a reprise of Storm of Zehir's launcher's theme playing in the background.

 

[Castanova]

That's because David Gaider and company are brilliant, talented writers and it is your mission as a gamer to spend the majority of your time reading their output.

 

[circ]

Remember, there are 800,000 words.

 

[Volourn]

" The Joining seemed like a pretty serious proceeding but I've watched way too much porn in my life to not laugh uncontrollably when some haughty Englishman is repeatedly commanding me to 'taste the taint' ... well played, fat man. Did he really have to run Jory through? Couldn't he have just shuffled him off to operation human shield? "I TOLD HIM THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK" "

This pissed me off. My character was all gung ho about joining the Wradens but with that one act, any respect he and for them went down the toilet. It was an absolutely unnessary act of cold blooded murder. L0LZ

 

[Wulfstand]

Spoiler

Right so to everyone who got to the elven ruins: how the fuck are you supposed to beat that fucking dragon? Are you even ment to beat him? With all the strategies I could think of instead of just running, I barely took half of his hp, I mean seriously, what the fuck? I'm a human fighter, got Morrigan, Sten and Allistar. Unsurprisingly none of my stuns seem to work on the fucker, so mostly Morrigan did most of the damage, using Vulnerability Hex and then Winter's Grasp and Lightning. I also use frost weapons, which seems to help (a little). I ask again: are you supposed to beat the dragon, or just run from him?

Damn elves, I knew I should've gone to the mages first...

Later Edit: Nevermind, did it.

 

[baronjohn]

This is the new shit.

 

[mediocrepoet]

" The Joining seemed like a pretty serious proceeding but I've watched way too much porn in my life to not laugh uncontrollably when some haughty Englishman is repeatedly commanding me to 'taste the taint' ... well played, fat man. Did he really have to run Jory through? Couldn't he have just shuffled him off to operation human shield? "I TOLD HIM THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK" "

This pissed me off. My character was all gung ho about joining the Wradens but with that one act, any respect he and for them went down the toilet. It was an absolutely unnessary act of cold blooded murder. L0LZ

That was pretty lame, but I didn't react to it too much since I was still shaking my head about having to suck down on Darkspawn taint.

Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying the game so far and was pretty happy that most of the marketing that made me cringe seemed to be somewhat off-base... but sometimes I'm not sure if some of the dialog's supposed to make you smirk or if the writer was just oblivious.

 

[Silellak]

Reviewers apparently can't decide if there's level-scaling or not:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/104/1041792p2.html

However, I had a couple problems with the battle system. First off, the game doesn't really scale enemies to match your characters' levels, so after a while, some fights are designed to overwhelm your party with size instead of skill.

Remember folks: at IGN, lack of level scaling is a problem with the battle system.

 

[Pseudofool]

This is the new shit.

That's you at the controls I imagine.

 

[MetalCraze]

Reviewers apparently can't decide if there's level-scaling or not:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/104/1041792p2.html

However, I had a couple problems with the battle system. First off, the game doesn't really scale enemies to match your characters' levels, so after a while, some fights are designed to overwhelm your party with size instead of skill.

Remember folks: at IGN, lack of level scaling is a problem with the battle system.

He makes a perfect sense for once, maybe you should re-read it with selective reading turned off?

 

[Satori (original)]

So how's everyone finding their characters? I managed to cheese my mage past the ogre by running around waiting for my mana to recharge and getting off the odd lighting bolt on normal and at Redcliffe village am getting my arse kicked even on easy at the enemy skirmish. Either I'm simply crap or maybe I'm suited to a fighter type, is my mage who specialises in lightning and fire gimped?

 

[Trash]

My warrior is kicking ass and taking names.

 

[CrusaderTemplar]

I'm quite enjoying it on Nightmare difficulty. However, those long loading times take quite a bit too long. Playing a rogue character .

 

[Darth Roxor]

As someone who genuinely liked the IE games (including their combat), should I try it? Or is it something very different?

 

[Satori (original)]

As someone who genuinely liked the IE games (including their combat), should I try it? Or is it something very different?

Combat-wise I find it to be more akin to NWN2 combat with increased difficulty although your spells are more MMORPGish with a cooldown instead of * many uses per rest. Dialogue is very bland and quests are bog standard, but give it a try and see how you fare, it's not quite my cup of tea but that's not to say it's bad.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Well, maybe I'll give it a shot when I'm properly done with Risen. This should take some time, so 'complete' opinions will probably start popping up, and perhaps the price'll lower a bit by then, and I'll consider it again.

 

[Silellak]

Reviewers apparently can't decide if there's level-scaling or not:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/104/1041792p2.html

However, I had a couple problems with the battle system. First off, the game doesn't really scale enemies to match your characters' levels, so after a while, some fights are designed to overwhelm your party with size instead of skill.

Remember folks: at IGN, lack of level scaling is a problem with the battle system.

He makes a perfect sense for once, maybe you should re-read it with selective reading turned off?

It still doesn't change the fact that some reviewers claim the level-scaling reaches almost Oblivion-levels of stupidity and others claim there isn't any whatsoever. And I don't honestly think trying to overwhelm your party with larger numbers is an issue once you reach higher levels - that's the sort of progression I expect.

 

[Satori (original)]

Anyone else miffed at the influence system in this? I'm trying to get Alistair's lord to help out with the Grey Warden crisis and to do so I need to defend his fief from marauding monsters but apparently Morrigan and the demon prison guy can't accept that we need to help the small people in order to get to the top, it's really fucking me off how these characters can't see the big picture when that's what they fucking signed up for. What especially grates on me is the fact that if your influence gets too low they leave, am I really meant to pander to the henchmen in order to be save the world? Fuck those cunts.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

OH GOD YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssssssssss

So would you say Dragon Age is HEAVAN?

I believe I would.

So Dragon Age is at least as good as a turd glazed in delicious honey, with whipped cream and a cocktail cherry on top?

At least!