What games are you playing now?

Fluent's let play of Lords of Xulima inspired me to give it another go. Now that I understand the mechanics a little better, hopefully Ill make it past that first rat cave this time before quiting. Seems like its a game I should enjoy

Originally Posted by Nukester
Fluent's let play of Lords of Xulima inspired me to give it another go. Now that I understand the mechanics a little better, hopefully Ill make it past that first rat cave this time before quiting. Seems like its a game I should enjoy

If you do not play on hardcore, you should be able to make it pretty far. Remember that speed lets you act first and more often, so keep upgrading this stat. It's the main thing Fluent is not doing "right".

Other than that, the game is quite forgiving as long as you manage your food.
Don't waste too much gold on items, but keep enough healing items with you so your units do not die unnecessarily.

The witcher 3. I'm depressed knowing this is the last one in the series.

Just arrived in skellige. Tried to hold that off to finish most quests in novigrad but as I'm almost level 18 I better check it out now.

Seems the actually intention is to hop back and forth. I had the opportunity to show Phillipa's crystal to yennefer, just didn't know where she was at the time

Starting a play through of DA:I, I was finally able to finish DA2 on my 6th try. Came close to getting sidetracked a couple times but persevered.

Any of the DA:I DLC worth getting?

Originally Posted by Pladio
If you do not play on hardcore, you should be able to make it pretty far. Remember that speed lets you act first and more often, so keep upgrading this stat. It's the main thing Fluent is not doing "right".

Other than that, the game is quite forgiving as long as you manage your food.
Don't waste too much gold on items, but keep enough healing items with you so your units do not die unnecessarily.

Yep! It's heavy on the resource management type of RPG, and that's a great and refreshing thing. If you like that then you will love the game, IMO.

BUT, one quick note I made about Speed over in my LoX thread in General RPG, is that I kind of disagree that it's that essential to increase at every level. It's nice, yes, but all the stats are fairly balanced, and there are many ways to craft a character and total party. Have fun and be creative! You don't want to slack too much on Speed, but I certainly haven't been upgrading it every level and am still doing fine some hours into the game…

Originally Posted by ilm
The witcher 3. I'm depressed knowing this is the last one in the series.

I know that feel.

The good thing is that with the 2 expansions you actually have two more stand-alone experiences before you. I'd suggest you to play them after finishing the main game.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Starting a play through of DA:I, I was finally able to finish DA2 on my 6th try. Came close to getting sidetracked a couple times but persevered.

Any of the DA:I DLC worth getting?

Trespasser resolves some loose ends and prep for the next game. It also add some new game options to increase difficulty and more ability upgrades.

If you got the GOTY edition you already have everything though.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Trespasser resolves some loose ends and prep for the next game. It also add some new game options to increase difficulty and more ability upgrades.

If you got the GOTY edition you already have everything though.

Unfortunately I have the deluxe edition which doesn't include the 3 DLC's. Sounds like trespasser may be worth it. Now to decide if I want to spend $15 for just trespasser or bite the bullet and just get goty for $40.

So I bit the bullet and just grabbed the goty edition of DAI with all the content.

A 1/2 hour in I was seriously regretting that decision. I didn't like not being able to assign attributes, no select all key, no key to take all loot ( why take out these conveniences), didn't like the new combat, no auto attack outside of tactical view, level requirements on weapons ( it sucks to get a great weapon only to realize you can't use it for another 3 levels and by then it's not all that cool anymore), poor balancing ( fights were never close I either breezed through it or my entire party was wiped in seconds, literally.) and I'm sure there's some niggles I'm forgetting. Needless to say I wasn't digging it. I figure I'd give it a little time and see what happened.

Fast forward 2 hours…..

I started getting used to the combat and most of the annoyances weren't really annoying me anymore. I found the setting to enable auto attack outside of tactical mode, I'd gotten used to using tactical mode to zoom all over the battlefield to get info on enemies and assign orders then seamlessly switch to OTS mode to get up close to the action. Hey, combat works and is actually quite fun. Companion were much better than in DA2 and the story was doing it for me. Maybe I could get through the game.

Fast forward 7 hours….

That's right 9 1/2 hours after starting my wife comes down to see if I'm going to take a break to eat. 9 1/2 hours, WTF. Now I don't think DAI is the best game ever. I'm not even sure it's a great game, if I were to make a checklist of what makes a great game it might not check a ton of boxes, but where the game absolutely excels imo, is in being addictive. There is always something to do. Between combat ( which I'm now enjoying), talking to companions, a crazy amount of quest, the constant war table quests, the notes you find, the mini game with the constellations, the endless number of collectibles and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting in all this stuff. It doesn't end, always a reward to be had, 4-5 carrots being dangled in front of you at a time and it's really good at the " I'll do one more thing then quit, ok maybe 1 more thing and over and over.

I can't remember the last time I've gamed that long straight. It's been many many years. I don't know if it can keep it up or I'll end up getting bored but for right now I'm really enjoying it, a bit shock by my 180 degree attitude change and can't wait to get done with work tomorrow so I can get back at it.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Fast forward 2 hours…..

I started getting used to the combat and most of the annoyances weren't really annoying me anymore.

It's called Stockholm syndrome.

btw, I had the same decision to make just as you and in the end I didn't buy any of DLC. Because undyable trashmobs aside, for all I know none of DLC contains Morrigan, and Sera who is the only sidekick in the game I adored, doesn't play any significant role while silly ME2 sonar remains as the most important game mechanic.

Originally Posted by sakichop
So I bit the bullet and just grabbed the goty edition of DAI with all the content.

A 1/2 hour in I was seriously regretting that decision. I didn't like not being able to assign attributes, no select all key, no key to take all loot ( why take out these conveniences), didn't like the new combat, no auto attack outside of tactical view, level requirements on weapons ( it sucks to get a great weapon only to realize you can't use it for another 3 levels and by then it's not all that cool anymore), poor balancing ( fights were never close I either breezed through it or my entire party was wiped in seconds, literally.) and I'm sure there's some niggles I'm forgetting. Needless to say I wasn't digging it. I figure I'd give it a little time and see what happened.

Fast forward 2 hours…..

I started getting used to the combat and most of the annoyances weren't really annoying me anymore. I found the setting to enable auto attack outside of tactical mode, I'd gotten used to using tactical mode to zoom all over the battlefield to get info on enemies and assign orders then seamlessly switch to OTS mode to get up close to the action. Hey, combat works and is actually quite fun. Companion were much better than in DA2 and the story was doing it for me. Maybe I could get through the game.

Fast forward 7 hours….

That's right 9 1/2 hours after starting my wife comes down to see if I'm going to take a break to eat. 9 1/2 hours, WTF. Now I don't think DAI is the best game ever. I'm not even sure it's a great game, if I were to make a checklist of what makes a great game it might not check a ton of boxes, but where the game absolutely excels imo, is in being addictive. There is always something to do. Between combat ( which I'm now enjoying), talking to companions, a crazy amount of quest, the constant war table quests, the notes you find, the mini game with the constellations, the endless number of collectibles and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting in all this stuff. It doesn't end, always a reward to be had, 4-5 carrots being dangled in front of you at a time and it's really good at the " I'll do one more thing then quit, ok maybe 1 more thing and over and over.

I can't remember the last time I've gamed that long straight. It's been many many years. I don't know if it can keep it up or I'll end up getting bored but for right now I'm really enjoying it, a bit shock by my 180 degree attitude change and can't wait to get done with work tomorrow so I can get back at it.

Great post. Sounds like a game I might try in the future. I liked Origins quite a bit but I didn't play DA2 and wasn't all that interested in DA:I…

Sounds like a similar situation when I recently tried Diablo III. I had very low expectations, went in and was annoyed for a bit, and then found myself having a bunch of silly fun with the game. That's always a nice thing to experience. Have fun!

You'll love it Fluent. DA:I has everything you need.
Skip DA2, it's mediocre and worth playing only if you don't have anything else. Luckily you do.

Originally Posted by sakichop
no auto attack outside of tactical view

Technically there is one, but you had to keep a key pushed down (R by default) when not in tactical view. I kinda remember them talking about changing it to a toggle in a later patch, but I'm not sure of it. And when you control a character, it won't do anything unless told to do so which means auto-attack breaks when mobs move away from you.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Technically there is one, but you had to keep a key pushed down (R by default) when not in tactical view. I kinda remember them talking about changing it to a toggle in a later patch, but I'm not sure of it. And when you control a character, it won't do anything unless told to do so which means auto-attack breaks when mobs move away from you.

Yep, I mentioned discovering that in the second paragraph of my long winded post. I might have put you to sleep before you read that far though.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Yep, I mentioned discovering that in the second paragraph of my long winded post. I might have put you to sleep before you read that far though.

I fast read after the first part, I must have missed that line.

Fast reading (i.e. speed reading) is a symptom of our information overload world.

I even now find myself doing it when I read novels, which can really ruin them.

I'm guilty of reading too quickly or skimming as well. So much to do, so little time.

I really enjoyed DAI for several hours. I think I gave up around the time that your characters change locations. I was bored with it by then but I probably had 40+ hours in it. I found the talky-talk boring and felt it detracted from the feel of the rest of the game. I also felt crafting was too cumbersome. If DAI had good mod tools, I feel that moving all those conversations so that they happened while exploring would vastly improve immersion. It just seems silly running around camp to talk to people you've been with for dozens of hours.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
It just seems silly running around camp to talk to people you've been with for dozens of hours.

This has been a problem for me with Bioware games for a long time now. They've been doing it since KotOR 1. Your companions rarely speak during missions, and you're expected to constantly approach everyone while in camp, your ship, etc, and initiate dialogue with them multiple times just so you don't miss out on anything. I've always found that to be one of the worst aspects of their games.

Originally Posted by JDR13
This has been a problem for me with Bioware games for a long time now. They've been doing it since KotOR 1. Your companions rarely speak during missions, and you're expected to constantly approach everyone while in camp, your ship, etc, and initiate dialogue with them multiple times just so you don't miss out on anything. I've always found that to be one of the worst aspects of their games.

Well, there was at least the "Jolee seems like he wants to talk …" prompts as you are running around (occasionally mid-battle) …

But aside from that I'd say it goes back further - because in order to get the 'henchmen quests' in NWN you had to swap people in and out and talk and explore and so on with them all … tiresome for completionists.