Played an hour or so - some questions / comments

Originally Posted by JDR13
I think a sequel is pretty much guaranteed already with the sales they've gotten. Also, DA is a little more accessible to the mainstream than any of the IE games were.

Still, I don't think it will be the equivalent of BG, at least not in terms of impact. BG was released during a time when the genre was extremely stagnant, DA has a lot more quality competition to go up against.

Unfortunately at the moment there isn't alot of quality titles out that I can think of…Risen is good, but will not really compete with dragon age in sales or overall game. Drakensang was ok…divine divinity 2? different style of game….same with torchlight and borderlands….the biggest competition for it in the next few months is mass effect 2(scarey from the same company) would have liked to see the company stagger those two every year.

Back to baldurs gate….dragon age's combat is almost identical…except it feels a bit more responsive. I love that fact that spells effect each other(check grease) I think they took that combat and added their interaction(which is probably their best writing since BG2) from modern games.

Originally Posted by rune_74
Unfortunately at the moment there isn't alot of quality titles out that I can think of…Risen is good, but will not really compete with dragon age in sales or overall game. Drakensang was ok…divine divinity 2? different style of game….same with torchlight and borderlands….the biggest competition for it in the next few months is mass effect 2(scarey from the same company) would have liked to see the company stagger those two every year.

There's a LOT more out there compared to 1998, when Baldur's Gate was released.

Originally Posted by rune_74
Back to baldurs gate….dragon age's combat is almost identical…except it feels a bit more responsive. I love that fact that spells effect each other(check grease) I think they took that combat and added their interaction(which is probably their best writing since BG2) from modern games.

I really like the combat in DA, it's just a shame that their race and class system is so dumbed down compared to earlier games. I just can't help to wonder what it would have been like if there was more than just 3 races and primary classes to choose from. Still, the game is definitely good enough to overlook that imo.

I rather like the class system. Rather than have seperate classes for say Barbarian and Fighter, they are just different builds of the same base class. You can make a Barbarian type warrior, or a traditional Fighter type warrior. It gives you more freedom than D&D, I think. You could make two Mages and have them be very different, you can make a Cleric-style Mage, an elementalist, a Warlockish Mage, whatever, or you make a hybrid.

It seems like a sort of compromise between the D&D method of having massive numbers of slightly different classes to choose from, with limited customisation; and the Fallout/Arcanum system where there are no classes, and you just build your character however you like.

Also, one payoff of having limited races and classes, is that the game can be far more responsive to your choice of race/class/origin than the NWN and BG games.

Originally Posted by Badesumofu
I rather like the class system. Rather than have seperate classes for say Barbarian and Fighter, they are just different builds of the same base class. You can make a Barbarian type warrior, or a traditional Fighter type warrior. It gives you more freedom than D&D, I think. You could make two Mages and have them be very different, you can make a Cleric-style Mage, an elementalist, a Warlockish Mage, whatever, or you make a hybrid.

It seems like a sort of compromise between the D&D method of having massive numbers of slightly different classes to choose from, with limited customisation; and the Fallout/Arcanum system where there are no classes, and you just build your character however you like.

Also, one payoff of having limited races and classes, is that the game can be far more responsive to your choice of race/class/origin than the NWN and BG games.

Thats exactly the problem with the AD&D classes…too many were not much different then their counterparts. DA does a good job scaling these back. I would like to see more spells and abilities in the next one…but they definately got a great start here. Is there anything out there as cool as they did the fade? Would love to see an expansion just on that part of the game…planescape anyone?

New races would be interesting as well…with the success of the game you know EA will be throwing bucketloads of cash to get another out….

Voice acting….I haven't really commented on this but…man is there alot of voices in this game or what? I mean generally they are good to excellent…I haven't hit any that are plain bad…good job in that front…and the mod kit allows you to put your own voices in and lip synch top them I hear..wonder how that will turn out.

Lot more competition then when BG came out but maybe now the other companies will start throwing money behind some big games like DA and we can a resurgance of quality.

The voice acting really stands out as excellent. Some of the conversations I've had with Alistair in particular, there's one about licking a lamp post in Winter, that is just brilliant.

As for the Fade, yes, I like it a lot. The Black City could be an interesting place, it has a little in common with Sigil. It's the centre of the Fade, in fact all points in the fade seem to be equidistant from it. It's kind of like the spire the Sigil rests upon, Sigil appears a set distance away if you're on the ground in outlands, but if you try to climb the spire it goes on forever. It's central, but you can't just walk/climb there.

There are some parralels there. The cool thing is, that as far as I know… I might end up there while playing DA.

I have been massively impressed with the entire thing. Still working my way through all the origin stories, but love the way that the game is set up. The level of polish is amazing, the writing (although very much high fantasy) is well done and there's enough little touches with the gameworld history and backstory to keep it interesting. The origin stories have all drawn me in and left me with a bit of an attachment to a character and perhaps more of a sense of what character I'd roleplay.

Combat is also well implemented for my tastes, the regeneration between fights is good. The skill system looks good too, fairly limited starting options but looks like the scope to make some very different builds and I like the special abilities approach.

So far for me it absolutely shits over the BG games, just no competition. I'd actually say it really lives up to its hype, which I wasn't expecting to think and which is remarkable given the level of hype.

Minimal issues downloading the additional content, a bit annoying that the redemption code that came with the game didn't tell me to just install the game, load it up and have a look. Glad I went for the retail basic version + warden's keep, saved about £10 that way.

I've played it for probably 25 hours so far (though the first 8 or so were for my 'tutorial character'). Playing it hard and loving it. There's only been one fight that I've needed multiple tries to complete…

I think hard difficulty is perfect for my playstyle (don't think I'll try the nightmare difficulty though)

Originally Posted by wolfing
I've played it for probably 25 hours so far (though the first 8 or so were for my 'tutorial character'). Playing it hard and loving it. There's only been one fight that I've needed multiple tries to complete…

Spoiler

and it's not even a main story one! I think one of the chest side quests, to help some refugees from darkspawns. Man! there were like 7 darkspawns on the right and 7 more on the left, left side including an 'orange' caster sending fireballs and chain lightnings left and right. Took me like 5 attempts

I think hard difficulty is perfect for my playstyle (don't think I'll try the nightmare difficulty though)

According to my hero accomplishment record - after played 21.30 hours i only finished 14% amount of DA's content! My character is at level 9 now. My most powerful tank is Shale, doing huge damage with deadly fist, causing quake and slamming enemies away. He help a lot for battles in Soldier's Peak (Warden Keep quest). What annoy me (and my rouge) is the foot thumping noise he caused when walking around - luckily the enemies are not designed to hear the noise or else every monsters in the Redclife castle would thrown themselves at us (we're suppose to sneak into castle!)

This game is starting to sound very interesting. I'll probably play something different the
next few weeks (Thought I'd try a bit of sci-fi horror for variety) but this is definetely on
my radar again.

So who is doing the Watch's review (txa I guess) ?

So Shale is worth it? I didn't bother getting any of the DLC, since everybody's been complaining about what a nightmare it was to get the DLC. Most of the stuff didn't look worth the bother, really. I would maybe like to get Warden's keep, though, and Shale. At which point in the game do you get the Shale quest?

Originally Posted by RivianWitch
So Shale is worth it? I didn't bother getting any of the DLC, since everybody's been complaining about what a nightmare it was to get the DLC. Most of the stuff didn't look worth the bother, really. I would maybe like to get Warden's keep, though, and Shale. At which point in the game do you get the Shale quest?

I found the DLC incredibly easy to get from the in game launcher. And all the complaints about having to buy more points than you need have been unfounded too.

Cool! Thanks Benedict.

It took me about 3-4 hour to get the DLC on launch day.

Originally Posted by Rithrandil
It took me about 3-4 hour to get the DLC on launch day.

I got mine that night, took me 10 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones I guess.

I was trying to do it a few minutes after the game was released on the east coast, so I hit the initial rush of traffic.

I had some small amount of trouble getting it. But I just decided to leave it for a bit then try again. That way I was able to get it without frustrating myself. You can't play any of it until 7 - 8 hours into the game anyway. So don't stress over it too much, just try it once each time you launch the game, imo. DA alt-tabs really well. IIRC, ME would crash when I tried to alt-tab.

Originally Posted by Rithrandil
I was trying to do it a few minutes after the game was released on the east coast, so I hit the initial rush of traffic.

There were a lot of people claiming to have trouble 3-4 days after release.

im thinking im gonna have to get the Warden's Keep…. looks cool.

The Grimoire was pretty unspectacular - just basically gave me a few extra points to dump into my stats. Which, as sorta a purist i'm kinda feeling bad about..

the Dragon armor, well… I cant personally use it (and wont be able to as my main char is Rogue) i'll have to use it on whatever tank shows up. Have yet to get ol Shale

Warden's Keep does give you some very interesting history and characters. It's short, but good.

Yeah Warden's keep is short (same as stone prisoner), finished it in 2 hours or less with pretty nice story, bonus item and skilll.