I'm back to the last bit of buisness before going up the tower in Fort Drakkon. Just freed the Market and onto the Alienage. I have Wynne, Morrigan and Alistar. Alistar STILL dies easiest mostly cause he seems to draw aggro unless my PC actively tanks. Leiliana seems to survive longer perhaps cause she sort of slips around a lot. I went back and ran the Shale quest, got her beefed up. Sten too though I never did take him out in the party so I never heard his story.
Should finish the game up tomorrow I hope.
I had a Dragon Age dream last night, sort of. Except I was a cop in a tenement in a gunfight and I was about ready to conjure a Storm of the Century to kill the dirty rats firing at me and my partner put her hand on my shoulder and asked "Are there any friendlies around?" Meaning that this Area of Effect spell will harm friend and foe alike. I looked over, saw a kid in the doorway and stopped. It was like a cross between The Wire and Dragon Age. I don't remember ever dreaming of a game before. Huh. Even odder, I think I was Morrigan in detective clothing.
I may be the only one here left playing this. But that shouldn't surprise anyone. I am a slow game player with anything but adventure games. Well even with adventure games. [Image Can Not Be Found]
But I am making progress. [Image Can Not Be Found] I went and did some stuff in Denerim and then some stuff in the Dalish Camp and Brecilian Forest (not as much as I need to do but got to the ruins and then stopped). Then I came back to Redcliff and won the fight in the town.
But I have to say my strategic and tactical skills are abyssmal. I am trying but not getting it right. But then I tell myself this is the first game I have seriously played where I have to manage a group. So I guess I am learning. In Redcliff at the end it was Alistair and I (a city elf rogue) just slugging it out with my constant eye on our health.
But we made it. So on we go to the castle. I am still loving this game even though it is very hard for me.
kay
Imagine life with no hypothetical situations.
Hi kay,
don't worry, I'm terrible and slow too so if I ever make progress I'll make some posts here. I think I got DA:O on launch day and I'm about an hour in still, hehe. I'd say it's due to the busy time of year, but who am I kidding? Life = constant busy. That and all my free time in the last two months has seemed to go toward two things: preparing for Mass Effect 2 on the gaming front, and preparing for Lost season 6 on the television front. Sad little me.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
I finally gathered up the courage to go forth and beat that Tower of Ishal quest ... my god that Ogre was hard to kill. Morrigan has (rather reluctantly?) joined my cause. I fear I'm in for a hell of a lot more of "your journey ends..."
I know this game will be a lot of fun. It's just really hard, and truthfully a bit disappointing, to go back to the "select from a list of long text responses" conversation method after getting so used to Mass Effect's conversation wheel, 100x more effective, I think anyway. The punishing difficulty should keep this disc in my computer for a long time though. I don't think I've played an RPG as hard as Dragon Age since ... I don't know, maybe Fallout 2.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
It's hard at the beginning but eases up about a third of the way through. Don't discount Morrigan. She will turn out to be your Liara. She can seriously wipe out whole mobs with the right skills and spells.
I actually liked Dragon Age's dialogue about as much as Mass Effect. Frankly, I think Bioware has too much dialogue in their games for what the writing is.
Scout said:
Frankly, I think Bioware has too much dialogue in their games for what the writing is.
That's a good point. They usually come up with decent enough characters and stories, but the writing does often seem clumsy. I'll be the first to admit I'm obsessed with all of their games but they certainly do nothing to stymie the trend of bad writing in mainstream gaming.
There really should be more games that don't talk to you at all. Maybe BioWare's next IP can be a wordless robot love story a la Wall-E's first third.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
I am still here and I am still playing this game. And I love it. It really has pushed me beyond what I could do. But I am now doing it.
I have learned how to form a party and get them to fight. I have worked a lot at getting my certain party people better skills. I have dropped a lot of things I might have pursued (like poison) since this is still too much for me when what I most need in injury and health kits and lyrium potions. As you can see I am still playing a basic game but I am moving forward.
kay
Imagine life with no hypothetical situations.
Tonight, marks my return to Ferelden. Awakenings just arrived.
Between now and tonight I need to decide if I'm going to continue my second playthrough with my female Dwarf Noble (I've yet to do the Return to Ostagar DLC) or jump right into Awakenings with my City Elf Warrior. Based on videos I've seen, I know there's a good chance decisions I made regarding Alistair in my original playthrough may not hold true in Awakenings if I continue with my City Elf.
Powered by PMS ™
Toger, I've heard bad things about Return to Ostagar... at least, in the sense that it's nothing but combat and doesn't offer any additions to the story. So if you haven't bought it yet you might want to save your ducats.
Amazingly, I just couldn't get into Dragon Age. It certainly seems like the kind of game I'd like, but my boat was never floated. I have to assume that it's me and not the game, since so many other people whose opinions I admire liked it. But it didn't do it for me.
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
It's you. [Image Can Not Be Found]
I'd heard the same things about Return to Ostagar, but I bought it anyway (back when it originally released) as DA is one of the few games where I loved the combat. And we all know I am a Royal Combat Weenie. It's an odd thing, very few games affect me the way that DA has. The games I've played between finishing and this expansion have felt like mere place holders until I could get back. Of course, with the exception of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, those games were just really bad adventure games so I can be forgiven for thinking they were place holders for good gaming. One day, I should put thoughts to paper on how many times I've been suckered into paying for some eyeball-clawingly-wretched adventure game. I really need to stop believing those gushing adventure game-centric sites. [Image Can Not Be Found]
Powered by PMS ™
I see what you did there, Steerpike. [Image Can Not Be Found]
Ilonka has returned as the Warden Commander. Awakenings dumps you right back into the action without much lead in. One minute you're on the road chatting up an initiate as you head to the Vigil (Grey Warden stronghold) and suddenly people are running in the opposite direction screaming 'cause darkspawn are chasing/killing them.
Took me a couple of minutes to remember what all the buttons do. Imagine my horror when I tried swapping weapon sets (game kitted my girl with a bow since she's an Elf) and not finding any steel in my inventory! Ilonka'd been spec'd as a dual wielder! Where's my Keening Blade?! And my lucky cheese knife?! What the hell am I supposed to do with this plonky bow and arrow? Luckily, Mahailia (or something similar) is a kick-ass warrior and managed to save my ass several times before I finally found an axe and shield to use. Shrieks and trolls do not go down easily with just a bow.
Talking, thinking darkspawn! The world is spinning off its axis!
We managed to clean out the Vigil - more or less; rumor has it there's more in the basement. Unlike the Alamo, the Vigil does have a basement. We met Anders, a smart-ass powerful apostate who may have killed his Templar captors. Ran into a room and who should we spy whacking the heads off genlocks? Oghren! That crazy, drunken dwarf actually stopped mid-swing to wave at me!
The love of Ilonka's life put in an appearance. They flirted. He had to leave. It was bittersweet. She misses him, but Ferelden needs him. There was a joining ceremony. Only two of the three made it out the other side alive. It's always the really eager ones that don't live to tell the tale. We've collected several quests and we're still mingling with the local dignitaries at the fealty party. Apparently, Ilonka is the equivalent of an Arlessa since she's the Grey's commander and the lands have been deeded to them. Oh! And we met Arl Howe's son, Nathaniel. He wanted to avenge his fathers death by killing me, so I conscripted his butt. That'll teach him.
That was just a couple of hours of play. I'm sure I've left out things.
Powered by PMS ™
Everything else I had in my inventory arrived intact, including armour. No blades, however. I have found what may be a suitable replacement with slots for runes, but that wasn't until after taking out the Withering and his minions. Now I just need a good blade for my off-hand and I'll be a happy camper.
I miss "Enchantment? Enchantment!" boy. The current enchanter is rather cut & dried, what with being some sort of diplomat. feh Bring back… um.. what's-his-name!
*edit: I didn't read up on what would or wouldn't move over to Awakenings prior to grabbing the expansion. Now that I have, I'm trying to remember if the Keening blade was due to either Warden's Keep or Stone Prisoner (wasn't Keening blade the multiple Revenant's quests?). I know that the cheese knife was part of Stone Prisoner, so that's why that was missing. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter to me as I think I've found a better sword. If I don't find a suitable knife, I'll just upgrade Ilonka's shield skills. I survived with that horrible bow, so I'm happy. Although, there's lots of "nerd rage" on the Bioware's social forums.
Powered by PMS ™
Most Users Ever Online: 252
Currently Online:
4 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Spike: 1187
Pokey: 894
Jarrod: 607
Finkbug: 468
Armand: 318
kaythomas: 307
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 9
Members: 15005
Moderators: 18
Admins: 6
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 4
Topics: 816
Posts: 18549
Newest Members:
Japreme, DanaNow, MusicJarge, RaymondGar, lumsefoFese, GeorgeStubyModerators: Jen: 631, Orb: 0, Scout: 1205, Toger: 1488, Yapette: 836, Dobralov: 17, xtal: 1685, Meho: 82, Tap-Repeatedly: 0, geggis: 1435, Lewis B: 214, Mat: 245, AJLange: 200, Dix: 483, Cheeta: 0, LewisB: 0, Amy Louise: 12, l0vetemper: 3
Administrators: admin: 2, MrLipid: 31, Steerpike: 3310, Helmut: 795, Synonamess Botch: 1127, heddhunter: 27