Dragon Age impressions

[Mangoose]

[That's exactly it, you *can't* go after Loghain directly, the characters are being 'evil' for the sake of it. If you don't help the peasants well then fuck you you've gimped the war effort, helping them is the only sane option even if it's not out of charity they should understand it's out of necessity.

Er, I assume you can, if you go to Denerim first. You'd have to go against him anyways, because he'll oppose your efforts for gathering power. Plus by taking control from Loghain you'd have the support of a large human army.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Satori, maybe you aren't meant to keep everyone happy? It seems like it would be more fun to ditch the annoying faggots that don't agree with what you believe is the best course of action and stick with the ones that do. There is a good number of party members, seems like you can let some go down in influence and leave.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Over at the Bio boards there are about 5 threads from people asking how to respec their characters. The best part is that they are getting really annoyed with the 'start over' answers.

Good stuff.

 

[Solohk]

Says the guy who lies as he claims that DA has an influence system when, in fact, it has an approval system. And, quite clearly so as written in both the manual and the in game codex.

Fuck, you are dumb.

So because they slap a different label on it it's ok to still just be about kissing everyone's ass?

 

[Pseudofool]

I'm as cynical as any of you, but is there nothing to be said for production value? DA scores very high in immersion-quality. This is a line about writing fiction, but ala John Gardner, DA does little to interrupt the "vivid and continuous dream." To sustain such there needs to be high quality story telling, art direction, and game mechanics. We might quibble with a gratuitous dialogue option, a false choice, a lazily-written character, but there's a lot to like here. (It seems that fastidiousness is passing for credible analysis t/o this thread.)

 

[Vault Dweller]

The game has a lot of polish, but the outdoor areas look very bad. Judging by the fact that my 4 year old PC runs the game very smoothly, it was probably done to make it playable on older machines.

Also, posted Day 2:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/in ... l#msg36812

 

[Volourn]

"So because they slap a different label on it it's ok to still just be about kissing everyone's ass?"

You are an idiot. It's not just a matter of diffeirng labels. With KOTOR2/NWN2, Obsidian claimed you could influence your companions hence the 'influence' system. DA doesn't have an influence system. It has an approval system that decides how they'll react and how far you can push them ebfore they snap. HUGE difference.

And, no, you don't have to kiss their ass. It's your fuckin' choice. It's called role-playing moron. Just play your fuckin' damn character and the NPCs will either approve or disaaprove. It's not fuckin' complicated - it's the same system found in the BGs, FOs, and a host of other fuckin' names.

Idiot.

 

[Pseudofool]

The game has a lot of polish, but the outdoor areas look very bad. Judging by the fact that my 4 year old PC runs the game very smoothly, it was probably done to make it playable on older machines.

Also, posted Day 2:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/in ... l#msg36812

I had the same darkspawn reaction; and I'm just bit further along than you, but that seemed pretty small in the grand scheme of things. I thought there were a few diversions of merit in that area, and I feel like I missed more cuz I ran into the supposed-witchies too soon. I think I might have liked the ritual scene more than you, I got kind of sold when Jory got his due.

 

[Solohk]

"So because they slap a different label on it it's ok to still just be about kissing everyone's ass?"

You are an idiot. It's not just a matter of diffeirng labels. With KOTOR2/NWN2, Obsidian claimed you could influence your companions hence the 'influence' system. DA doesn't have an influence system. It has an approval system that decides how they'll react and how far you can push them ebfore they snap. HUGE difference.

And, no, you don't have to kiss their ass. It's your fuckin' choice. It's called role-playing moron. Just play your fuckin' damn character and the NPCs will either approve or disaaprove. It's not fuckin' complicated - it's the same system found in the BGs, FOs, and a host of other fuckin' names.

Idiot.

It's not good and evil it's open palm closed fist! Fuckin' your choice to kiss their ass or miss out on bonuses! Your fuckin' choice. How hard is it?

Idiot.

r00fles!

 

[Volourn]

You still crying? Go play FO3.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

All I can say is that I got home from bowling (not bad, 584 scratch series), started playing DA and looked at the clock and found out three hours had passed. And I must say I enjoyed the time I spent, too. I'm not far, just past the first quest hub village, but it's been a quality experience.

 

[MetalCraze]

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.

He didn't complain about the lack of level-scaling though.
He complains that game designers say fuck you to the encounter design after some time and try to zerg rush the player like this is the only way to provide challenge and that's his issue. And it sounds like a vaild complaint - a game with NWN2-like combat is not fit to be a Diablo.

The game has a lot of polish, but the outdoor areas look very bad. Judging by the fact that my 4 year old PC runs the game very smoothly, it was probably done to make it playable on older machines.

Like Xbox 360.

 

[roll-a-die]

This game was developed for PC skyway. They had to port it for the xbox 360. Which took a year and a half.
It was aimed at an release 18 months ago. Then EA bought them and forced them to do an xbox port.

On the xbox 360 it looks even worse and you can't zoom out.

the graphics were a trade off. Trying to make it run on most possible hardware. Because they accept that most people aren't willing to spend 950$ on a new game and computer to run it ala most Elder Scrolls games on release.

 

[1eyedking]

Cool story bro.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

So what is actually GOOD about the game? Can someone answer that simple question in less than 50 words?

 

[The Feral Kid]

I'm as cynical as any of you, but is there nothing to be said for production value? DA scores very high in immersion-quality. This is a line about writing fiction, but ala John Gardner, DA does little to interrupt the "vivid and continuous dream." To sustain such there needs to be high quality story telling, art direction, and game mechanics. We might quibble with a gratuitous dialogue option, a false choice, a lazily-written character, but there's a lot to like here. (It seems that fastidiousness is passing for credible analysis t/o this thread.)

Bio's games always had good production values and this is not an issue. The main elements that keep people from playing it - including myself - are regenerating health and level-scaling. I can live with stupid romances and bad voice-acting but not with this. So far views on these are a bit confusing. Some claim that their use is by no means as a bad as we imagine, and that it doesn't kill the game. However, I just can't find any challenge getting into a quest where you know you cannot die, and you find yourself healed after battle. I think it hurts the immersion-quality you mention very much. As for level-scaling, they were just looking for the easiest way to make battles challenging, instead of spending time balancing the game. They knew it wouldn't hurt them doing so since it's a mechanic popularized by Beth, meaning they couldn't alienate the mass market byer. The only difference is that Beth do so because they're incompetent in balancing a game, while with DA Bioware were just lazy.

I think this game lost the chance to turn into something good a long time ago when its development was halted because Bio set their priorities in making console games, namely JE and ME. Have the development gone as initially planned when it was revealed in 2004, and Bio had concentrated in finishing this game, maybe it would have escaped the next-gen shitstorm that occurred in the time between its announcement and release.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

So what is actually GOOD about the game? Can someone answer that simple question in less than 50 words?

Combat. Banter. Toolset. Anal sex.

 

[roll-a-die]

And further. Battle. Violence. Porn. Potential mods. Hookers.

 

[MetalCraze]

Combat - only if you like the awesome strategic combat of NWN2.

 

[Lesifoere]

Playing it now. Tried out the city elf female origin first in the hope of seeing lulzy rape attempt, but alas that didn't happen--city elf origin's pretty boring. Dropped. Started a new game with human mage, which provides a much more interesting opening vignette. I'm considering starting over again with a male character just to see the buttsex.

The game's nowhere as cumbersome as NWN2 was, though that's not hard to do, but as far as "tactical combat" goes... not really. You can't even queue up actions, which is annoying. Everything does feel quite WoW-esque and, except in some cases where rushing headlong into battle may get your party overwhelmed, for the most part you don't have to control your party members individually; their auto-attacks and AI-scripted special moves will do the job, more or less. Occasionally the combat is hurty due to my lack of a healer, but then at the beginning you can hardly get a perfect party configuration.

Mage origin story kept my interest throughout (except the horrible spider cave), but my interest started to peter out once I reached the warden bit. Banal shit bor--oh hey, a pseudo-epic cutscene of a mighty charge and a valiant defense ZzzzZzzz LOTR-ripoff time. Darkspawn look like orcs and really I've seen better in WoW. Voice-acting is hilariously bad all around (except for Flemeth), facial animations are absolutely terrible, characters' limbs still clip through their robes. Graphics are pretty enough but nothing special, and the swamps outside the camp are NWN2-ish material. When zoomed out for the "tactical" mode, I can see shit in terms of details, so everything becomes blobs of bloom-filled generica.

Oh, and the ASoIaF rip-offs are all there. "Ser Jory" (indeed "ser" at all), Duncan saving the protagonist by recruiting him/her as a Gray Warden (ala the Night Watch). When they swear you in, I half-expected Alistair to rattle off "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. I am the sword in the darkness, the watcher on the walls, the shield that guards the realms of men." What he does actually say is considerably worse. Hammy Gaider writing is hammy.

 

[Volourn]

Darkspawn look nothing like orcs, and they espicially have very little in common with orcs.


"So far views on these are a bit confusing. Some claim that their use is by no means as a bad as we imagine, and that it doesn't kill the game. However, I just can't find any challenge getting into a quest where you know you cannot die, and you find yourself healed after battle. I think it hurts the immersion-quality you mention very much."

Combat isn't super hard. However, a coiple of battles after a certain dragon were a lot more challenging than 99% of anything found in the IE games, FO, or any stupid overrated 'old skool' game. Seriosuly, being gangraped by nearly 10 skeles that continously knock you down/stun you is NOT fun. L0LZ

And, oh, I loathe the auto regen inbetween battle sbut it does not help during battles. You cna very much die in this game. So, don't bullshit. I've died more already then I ever did in certain popular games here.

R00fles!


" for the most part you don't have to control your party members individually; their auto-attacks "

I thoguht this too. It has changed. Though, I'm sure intelligent use of the 'tatics page' can help this.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Combat.

OH MY FUCKING GOD COMBAT IS GOOD? BUT ISN'T IT JUST LIKE IN IE GAMES? WHICH SUCK MASSIVE AMOUNT OF COCK BECAUSE THEY ARE REAL TIME AND REAL TIME IS SUPER SHIT?

Banter.

It's a Bioware game.

Toolset.

Irrelevant.

Anal sex.

Durrr hurrr.

 

[baronjohn]

Darkspawn look nothing like orcs, and they espicially have very little in common with orcs.

 

[Volourn]

Sorry, outside of the fact they're both ugly, they don't look alike. And, they espciially don't look like D&D styule orcs.

And, their background is different than both. They're not 'living'/humanoid creatures either.

btw, NEWSFLASH MORONS: Ogres, and other cretaures are also darkspawn. Idiots.

Do you even know what a fuckin;' darkspawn actually is?

 

[MetalCraze]

Darkspawn is an Ancient Evil™ waking up every time a Bioware game is released.