Games Discussion Thread

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I do agree that the earlier history of the Hawke family should have been explored better. Maybe they could have started them out at the battle of Ostagar, which apparently both the main character and Carver participated in. I know that the game is not called Origins, but that's exactly what's missing - an origin. You're just thrown into the game and are expected to care a great deal about those people that are supposed to be your mother, brother and sister - but it doesn't feel like it. A bond like this can't be forced. I know you can't possibly play through those 18+ years of Hawke's life, but give us the last few weeks at least.

The gameplay has been largely streamlined, and I actually can't complain about that. I've grown up on SNES action adventures and not old RPGs, so inventory management is not something I need to enjoy a game.

What I CAN complain about, however, is how the game just throws bosses from the first game at you like there's no tomorrow. Oh hey, you've played 10 minutes. Have a fucking ogre. That's a creature that killed a KING that had an army at his side, and a small group of badly equipped runaways kills it off with just one death? Also, Revenants everywhere. In the first game, you shat your pants every single time one of them showed up, and now they've been reduced to lieutenants. I've also probably killed of more dragons than there were in the entirety of Origins. Granted, they were only mature and not high dragons, but the battles still feel very much the same.

If I didn't have to leave, I'd get into (even more) detail. I may come back and edit this post, or make a new one, who knows.

 

[noman]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Character identification is definitely an issue.

In my first DA:O playthrough, I picked human noble origin. In just the short span of a few hours, I have lost my entire family to a traitor, and forced to live the life of a grey warden and dive head first into a battle. As if that's not enough, I was betrayed a second time, and branded a traitor to the entire country. The only friends remaining are Alisdir, whom I just met a few hours (game-world time) ago, and my dog. Under this kind of situation it's hard not to identify with the character and feel the urge for revenge.

As for DA2, you control a character that you hardly know. You know almost nothing of his background, and you find yourself in the middle of a battle suddenly. And when you finally find peace, you skip a whole bloody year forward in time. That really annoys me. I am finally starting to get used to the character, and suddenly I have to lose control of him for a whole bloody year?! It's like controlling a new character again! I just don't feel the connection with him as I did with the warden.

I am having trouble identifying with the companions as well. In DA:O all the characters had a very good reason for joining you in your desperado.
Sten: To reclaim his honour instead of dying in a cage.
Oghren: To forget his horrible past (and a crazy wife) and to make a new name for himself in the outside world. His reputation as a crazy drunk is very much carved into rock in the dwarven world.
Leliana: okay this one is a little shaky, but she is never in her right mind in my opinion.
Morrigan: Casted out by her own mother. Not much of a choice for her.
Wren: She feared that she doesn't have much longer to live, and she wants to contribute the remainder of her life to a brighter future for the youngsters.
Shale: Well, you sorta bought her, but the main reason is because she doesn't really have anyone else to go to.

Onto DA2 characters:
Aveline: She only just met up with you, and yet it already seems like she's family. Okay sure we worked together for an entire year - a year that's basically non-existent for me! What the hell happened during that time?
Anders: Why the hell is he joining me? Sure I helped "save" his friend, but that was a one time deal for the map. Why the hell would he stick his neck out so much for some mercenary that he hired?
Varric: He claims to be interested in me as a business partner, but so far he has done far more than that for me. May be he really is that sharp that he can see that I am meant for greater things, but otherwise he's offering me far too much than should be normal.
Etc. All the companions just acts far too friendly for my liking. Except for my brother. He's an ass. He also seems to have a brother complex.... (which reminds me. Your opposite gender sibling always die during the intro. I wonder if Bioware is worried about incest romance.)

As for the random bosses... well, I am a mage, and mages are feared for a reason, so I can live with that.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Your sister died because you're a mage.

Your brother dies regardless of Gender if you pick rogue or Warrior.

And despite my whining prior to having the game... I'm pleased. I may not like everything that they've done but I love the story, and I love where it's going. As a mage, I'm only doing things that help apostates (as long as they aren't blood mages) and generally running around and crusading for a better tomorrow for the Circle.... with Anders at my side >.> Because after his lover was lost... he was lost. Had nowhere to go. So why not go with the mage/man/woman who helped him?

I love the time skips, because you get to see the affect of your actions right away, instead of reading about it in some stupid epilogue. DA O took... a year. Less than a year, actually. A little more if you were a dwarf, but the blight was stopped in the fastest time EVER. That feels like a cheat to me. I like the long term, I like knowing that everything is going to be shown to me.

And i love the storytelling aspect of it. <3

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Those are all reasons I can respect for not liking the game Noman. Though I do have a question... if you dislike it so much why have you put 6 hours or more into the game?

 

[JohnDoe]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Also, Revenants everywhere. In the first game, you shat your pants every single time one of them showed up, and now they've been reduced to lieutenants.

Yeah, first time i saw one i panicked, it's a pain when the developers don't even care to keep a form of continuity in their own characters power levels, makes you feel like an idiot for caring. I'm gonna guess that's how comics fans feel like most of the times...

I still can't get over the lack of arcane warrior(soloing flemeth or the undead dragon was priceless), and the camera is pissing me off more and more every battle(damn you evil console players *shakes fist*), but i still can enjoy the game, varric is a great character and isabella is hot, warriors are still bad tanks and the story is fine(for today's standards...).

It's a good game, just not as good as it should have been, but they rarely are so it's fine.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I'm sorry, but I just have to pick this apart a little bit. Also, spoiler alert. I don't think there will be any of the major plot points in it, but I'm not going to dance around stuff that happens a little later.

Spoiler

Character identification is definitely an issue.

In my first DA:O playthrough, I picked human noble origin. In just the short span of a few hours, I have lost my entire family to a traitor, and forced to live the life of a grey warden and dive head first into a battle. As if that's not enough, I was betrayed a second time, and branded a traitor to the entire country. The only friends remaining are Alisdir, whom I just met a few hours (game-world time) ago, and my dog. Under this kind of situation it's hard not to identify with the character and feel the urge for revenge.

As for DA2, you control a character that you hardly know. You know almost nothing of his background, and you find yourself in the middle of a battle suddenly. And when you finally find peace, you skip a whole bloody year forward in time. That really annoys me. I am finally starting to get used to the character, and suddenly I have to lose control of him for a whole bloody year?! It's like controlling a new character again! I just don't feel the connection with him as I did with the warden.

Okay, it was a little rushed, but for anyone who's played the first one, there is plenty to pick up in the prologue to help set the mood. The Blight hits Lothering, where your family lives. Massive hordes of darkspawn engulf the entire town, you guys just manage to escape, fleeing to the hillside. You're effectively running around an area where the hero of Ferelden refused to go for the entire rest of the game (minus the Return to Ostagar DLC), because there was way too many darkspawn around. let that sink in for a second.

You meet up with another pair of people, a husband and wife, and find out the direction you were hoping to run is just as covered in creatures that want to tear you apart. not good. So you band together for the time being, and turn towards the only place that may just be worse than where you're standing: The Wilds. Even in happy times, nobody wants to go there, it's probably even more dangerous right now, but even a slim chance is still a chance right now. To top it all off, you don't even make it there before getting cut off and surrounded. An ogre shows up, you barely manage to kill it, and at the cost of your own brother/sister, no less.

Little aside here to talk about the ogre that killed King Cailan. When you watch the cutscene, it was one-on-one against the King, pretty much, then the same thing against the Warden. It's not like it crashed through thirty royal bodyguards to kill him or anything.

So, surrounded, all hope is pretty much lost, when fate slaps you in the face again and deals you a dragon. Fortunately, you don't wind up having to face it. Not so fortunately, it turns out to be The Witch of the Wilds, which is probably worse than a dragon anyways.

So, the whole thing is a pretty traumatic and emotional experience, at least I would think so. yes, you don't know too much about the main character to begin with, but it is constantly getting filled in as you play. I know at least as much about him as I do any character I played in the first one.

I am having trouble identifying with the companions as well. In DA:O all the characters had a very good reason for joining you in your desperado.
Sten: To reclaim his honour instead of dying in a cage.
Oghren: To forget his horrible past (and a crazy wife) and to make a new name for himself in the outside world. His reputation as a crazy drunk is very much carved into rock in the dwarven world.
Leliana: okay this one is a little shaky, but she is never in her right mind in my opinion.
Morrigan: Casted out by her own mother. Not much of a choice for her.
Wren: She feared that she doesn't have much longer to live, and she wants to contribute the remainder of her life to a brighter future for the youngsters.
Shale: Well, you sorta bought her, but the main reason is because she doesn't really have anyone else to go to.

RPG games are rife with awkward reasons for people to join you. I can hardly think of any good ones, really.

Sten: Was content to stay in that cage, as I recall. You had to be pretty persuasive to get him out of it, and I'm pretty sure his honour was the only thing that got him moving. Seems to me the logical choice for him would have been to stay in there, not get up and help someone who apparently bribed his freedom.
Ohgren: He's a crazy drunk with you two, his only real motivation was getting away from that wife, and having some rough fun following you around. Not exactly the best reasons either.
Leilana: 'God told me to do it.' Yep, pretty shaky, but at least people do that in the real world, too.
Morrigan: Plenty of choice, I say. The only thing that kept her around was her own plans for you. Otherwise, she could have wandered off on her own as soon as she was out of her mother's sight. She's done it on her own before.
Shale: Is pretty crazy in my opinion, and definitely not a normal case for pretty much anything, so I don't feel how she makes much of an example.

Onto DA2 characters:
Aveline: She only just met up with you, and yet it already seems like she's family. Okay sure we worked together for an entire year - a year that's basically non-existent for me! What the hell happened during that time?
Anders: Why the hell is he joining me? Sure I helped "save" his friend, but that was a one time deal for the map. Why the hell would he stick his neck out so much for some mercenary that he hired?
Varric: He claims to be interested in me as a business partner, but so far he has done far more than that for me. May be he really is that sharp that he can see that I am meant for greater things, but otherwise he's offering me far too much than should be normal.
Etc. All the companions just acts far too friendly for my liking. Except for my brother. He's an ass. He also seems to have a brother complex.... (which reminds me. Your opposite gender sibling always die during the intro. I wonder if Bioware is worried about incest romance.)

As for the random bosses... well, I am a mage, and mages are feared for a reason, so I can live with that.

Not saying they make much more sense than in the first game, but some of them do, at least as much as you can expect them to.

Aveline: You helped each other through the Blight, either you or her killed her last husband, and it's kind of hard to make friends when all the locals either hate fereldens, or are fereldens and are the kind of people she doesn't associate with. Makes more sense than most.
Anders: Chibi covered this one quite nicely.
Varric: he does see potential in you, it's quite obvious. Face it, it's what he does.

Incest romance also covered by Chibi. The Revenant thing i agree with, Rule's dragons not so much. Their power levels were kept about the same. yes there's more of them, but there's more pandas in China than Canada, is that wrong?

 

[Nunu]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

it is relevent as a 3 day ban says you can't play for 3 days, where as banning effectivly removes ownership of any products signed up under that account.

I mean it is still unacceptable but there is a difference between the two.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Alright, I DO have to take back the part about the emotional attachment, even though this doesn't happen until later on. There is one main quest that made me regret that I could never in a hundred lives kill that son of a bitch hard enough for what he did.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Alright, I DO have to take back the part about the emotional attachment, even though this doesn't happen until later on. There is one main quest that made me regret that I could never in a hundred lives kill that son of a bitch hard enough for what he did.

Who, Anders? I know, eh! God Dammit!

 

[Exofluke]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I'm too excited, so I had to bring you more. Here's a video from PAX east where they're showing off a new demo.

You must be registered to see the links

You will need to skip the video to about 13mins in before you start seeing the gameplay. That video should be a good dose of how the game plays out. There's less of the whole "tutorial planned" showing and more of the developers just roaming around and playing more like you would.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Who, Anders? I know, eh! God Dammit!

Even with what he did... I can't stop adoring him. >.>;;

Maybe I'm too sentimental, but after everything was said and done... I still told him we could run away together. -shrugs- I'm a sap. -shrugs-

Or maybe too much fanfiction warped my brain. Who knows, and who cares at this point. I had fun, and i enjoyed the FUCK out of this game.

 

[JohnDoe]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Spoiler

So, surrounded, all hope is pretty much lost, when fate slaps you in the face again and deals you a dragon. Fortunately, you don't wind up having to face it. Not so fortunately, it turns out to be The Witch of the Wilds, which is probably worse than a dragon anyways.

So, the whole thing is a pretty traumatic and emotional experience, at least I would think so. yes, you don't know too much about the main character to begin with, but it is constantly getting filled in as you play. I know at least as much about him as I do any character I played in the first one.

I'm just nit picking here, but those scenes didn't seem very emotional for the characters, most of the time it kinda looks like they are taking a walk in the park, they stop to chat leisurely, never looking around to see if someone is coming. It's like they know they reached a check point and relax and the characters in the background look dumbfounded till they have their line. For example at some point you have wesley and aveline standing there staring into the void after fighting an ogre and seeing a dragon turn into a witch, your character talks with her like it's the oldest trick in the world, see that all the time, didn't even scare me the first time, and after the nice little chat, boom, aveline remembers that her husband is wounded(and just cause the dragon mentioned it) and you cut to the emotional scene while more dumbfounded characters stare into oblivion.
This is the direction's fault, it feels rushed, it feels like a B movie, most of the time i find myself going for the sarcastic jokes simply because the situation doesn't feel very tense.
I've seen the same in DAO and mass effect tho, bioware just suck at making movies i guess.

I had fun, and i enjoyed the FUCK out of this game.

Haha, i see, the best part of the game is when it fades to black.

...
...
...
...damn them, where's my arcane warrior??? *Shakes fist and a cane*

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Haha, i see, the best part of the game is when it fades to black.

...
...
...
...damn them, where's my arcane warrior??? *Shakes fist and a cane*

Only when the black involves Anders after flirting with him, lol.

And I was ok without that, cause... my mages were bamfs without needing a sword, did you see those staves!? <3

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Who, Anders? I know, eh! God Dammit!

No. I'm talking about the Leandra quest.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

No. I'm talking about the Leandra quest.

Oh, that fucker. Yeesh. Yeah. x.x

 

[JohnDoe]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Only when the black involves Anders after flirting with him, lol.

And I was ok without that, cause... my mages were bamfs without needing a sword, did you see those staves!? <3

Staves are fine, but mages pretty much only get robes to wear and they don't look good, mostly following 2-3 patterns with different colors, my arcane warrior/blood mage wearing the DLC warden armor(forgot the name) and star sword and a very respectable look, some robes look like something peopel used to sleep with...

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Staves are fine, but mages pretty much only get robes to wear and they don't look good, mostly following 2-3 patterns with different colors, my arcane warrior/blood mage wearing the DLC warden armor(forgot the name) and star sword and a very respectable look, some robes look like something peopel used to sleep with...

God, i managed to be a magic Bamf and still wear the Blood Dragon Armor. I was AMAZING.

Going Rogue this time through, I made a Nathaniel Howe look-alike. -is hopeless-

 

[JohnDoe]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Well, i don't have the blood dragon armor and don't really care enough to get it, since there are robes that give out better stats. AW could equip the best armor in the game, not some random cosplay stuff, if i have to gimp myself to look better i'd rather go around naked...

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Announcing:

You must be registered to see the links

The end of this year can't come fast enough.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Well, i don't have the blood dragon armor and don't really care enough to get it, since there are robes that give out better stats. AW could equip the best armor in the game, not some random cosplay stuff, if i have to gimp myself to look better i'd rather go around naked...

Did you miss the part where i was still a bamf? Fights were over so quickly. Never had to restart anything.