GreasyDogMeat

Forgot those. Also the beach section for a number of quests including the Q'nari mage quest. Even adding those it is still JUST hitting 30 unique areas. And yeah, the Dock House = the generic interior for the foundry etc.

How could they not have expected it 'to be such a big deal'? DA 2 has a MUCH smaller scope, yet it reuses areas far more than DA 1 did. Even when DA 1 reused numerous exterior random battle maps, even then they had SOME variety in the map. I can recall at least 5 distinct encounter maps and most dungeon/interior section maps were unique as opposed to DA 2 which has only one cave map, one Orzamar dungeon etc. Also take into account that this is fricken' 2011. I had thought they had learned their lesson. Mass Effect reused many areas, but managed to be large enough in scope that it wasn't too bad. DA 1 reuses fewer maps, then ME 2 comes out and almost every area is unique, then suddenly we are jumping back to design worse than any of their previous games. I'm going to try and list every unique area, just for kicks. -Pre-Kirkwall Areas Lothering Escape (Only used once in the game at the very start, if you played the demo you remember this one.) -Kirkwall Areas Kirkwall Arrival docks (Used only once in game when you first arrive at Kirkwall. Might actually be connected to Gallows section) The Gallows Templar HQ (Also acts as the Fade map) Lowtown The Hanged Man (Love the music in here btw) Gemlen's House (Used a few times for generic houses. Merril's house is also similar) Darktown City Underground (Reused over and over anytime you need to visit some section of 'undercity') Hightown Hawk's Estate Generic Estate House Underground Ruins (The one other cave design that is only used once or twice while generic cave is used over and over) Red Lantern District Inn (Forgot the name of it. The place where you can hire prostitutes) The Chantry The Docks Dock House -Outside Kirkwall The Generic Cave (Almost every major listed section has one or more Generic Cave. They all have identical layout) Bone Pit/Lower Bone Pit (One map, but you have to go through a generic cave to get to lower section) Wounded Coast Sundermount Sundermount Cave (wow, one unique cave I forgot about. Only one small cavern though) Deep Roads Orzamar Dungeon That is 24 unique areas I recall, some of which (Gemlen's House, Sundermount Cave, Dock House) are tiny one room areas. You have to visit and revisit these locations constantly in a 50 hour RPG.

As long as the single player doesn't include a forced Sheva type partner. I loved RE 5, but only in coop mode as the stupid AI partner really killed SP mode. Yeah, 4 did have the President's daughter, but she wasn't ever-present during the game. I would love it if they added a separate coop mode. Maybe Ada Wong could be the second player or something.

Remake of Resident Evil 4 & Code Veronica for PS3 & 360? I so hope this is true! I loved RE4, even though I played the horrible PC port.

I had obnoxious Anders hit on my character, but I never noticed Fenris hitting on him. I did notice an option for Hawke to hit on Fenris though... The Bio employee who reviewed his own game is a massive tool. One of the lines in his review says that anyone who said anything negative about the game was exagerating. “The immersion and combat of this game are unmatched! A truly moving and fun epic, Anything negative you’ll see about this game is an overreaction of personal preference. For what it is, it is flawlessly executed and endlessly entertaining.” Yes... I was truly immersed in the world after visiting 15 separate caves that all looked identical.

They do start mentioning your accomplishments in the later acts. Maybe not lick your feet and worship the ground you walk on the way I would have liked...

So the NYPD is in the game? Sweet. What I mean is that

That's just the start. Later in the game

Is that a dictator or a pop star?

Episode 27 is Gordon Freeman as a pirate. I can't breathe. hahahahaha This reminds me of what Spoony did with his walkthrough of SWAT, where he spoke as if he was a police officer doing an episode of cops. The part where he tazed the mother in the first section had me .

I tried it, but I couldn't even get it to run past the first inn/dungeon. When mentioning Descent to Undermountain you should really use it's full name as few people completed or remember it.

Wait... wait... wait... free? I got a day one copy... a pre-ordered day one copy. I got the black emporium free. Are you saying I just wasted $7 bucks for the Prince...? Edit: Just looked it up. It would have come free if you pre-ordered the Signature edition. I didn't. I still say this content should have been released with the main game, or with any standard pre-order copy at least.

49 Hours, 15 minutes and I'm done! Pros: -I like the new art direction. More unique than the first game. This includes the new race redesigns of the Elves & Q'nari. -The main Hawke character (Male or Female) is well voiced and the default appearances are great. -I like the new combat animation. Much more exciting. -Most companions are likable. Some are really good like Varrik. -Some good C&C between chapters. -The story gets very dark at points. Bad: -Having to mash the A button for every swing of an attack. My hand is sore after the final boss battle. I'm not kidding. -Glitches. The Merril companion quest glitches horrendously near it's end. This isn't a small glitch contained to a few players but one that seems to effect every player who chooses a certain route in her quests. Great playtesting. -Mobs. They spawn out of nowhere. Its not too bad early on but gets ridiculous later. -Why was the Prince DLC? DLC should be stuff finished AFTER the game, not something that comes out day one to nickel and dime. Would be more forgivable if the game wasn't so rushed... which leads to the biggest problem of all imho... -The areas are rehashed more times than I've ever seen in a game. There are less than 20 unique indoor & outdoor sections and they are used over and over and ****ing over. I visited caves in different areas of the game, every single one looked identical. Its like the entire game takes place in the city of Baldur's Gate, except with even less variety in environments. Before you say: That doesn't sound too bad... artificial doors are used to wall of certain paths to give the impression that this is a different cave, but the map screen is always the same. You will go down a corridor that shows a path on the map but will run into a dead end. This is unforgivable, and the game deserves low scores for this alone. CONCLUSION: I was much more optimistic early on, but the Merril bug and the insane repetition of environments wore me down. For every step taken forward, another one was taken back. Don't be a sucker like me and get the game at 60 bucks, wait for it to drop in price a bit. You will likely still enjoy it if you enjoyed the first... but sheesh... its no Mass Effect 2. That is Bio for you. They release an utterly fantastic game and you think they are made of gold then they drop a stinking pile and you wonder how they are so popular as a company. ME 3 will hopefully be a jewel and the next Bio game after will be a turd.

Let's take one of the more known missions from Alpha Protocol. The museum. The way it's build now is just your basic forced sacrifice. By that I mean no matter what you do, some are saved or killed. There ain't no option for failure, nor option for success. There's just 2 choices - Do you go left or do you go right. What I'm after is that based on your actions, there would be both the left and the right option, but also success and failure. You play your cards right and you might have a tiny chance to save everyone. Or if you totally mess up, whole museum is blown to dust. Bonus option would be of course that you blow up the museum and thus kill all the terrorist inside (I call it Chotic Stupid option, my all time fav). Or the Ronald Sung mission? I didn't mind myself, as it added replayability and it was refreshing that not every mission had a perfect solution. Extra choices like those would not have hurt, but most RPGs do have to tighten certain moments a bit to keep the game flowing.

True, in ME 2 you really had to put your mind to sucking to get the 'bad' ending. Its nice that it was included, but really, how many people are going to see it unless they are actually trying to suck? Bio has already announced that this ending will not function with ME 3 so it pretty much is just an extended game over play. The Fallout 'ending' where you get dipped is one of the 'you made the wrong choice stupid!' moments I've been talking about. Its just a fancier version of getting shot to death. Reload and choose the other dialogue option. Just because AP doesn't have a 'cinematic' version of Mike's death doesn't mean that it doesn't have 'bad' endings. The best example so far has been Bloodlines as you could play the whole game to the very end doing your best up to that point, side with the 'wrong' faction and get an true ending where you died during it. ME 2 'bad' ending takes real effort.

I'm trying to figure out where Ryu is going with 'you couldn't fail in AP'. That there is no 'death' ending in AP where you sacrifice yourself 'for the greater good' or something? Or where you make so many 'wrong' choices roleplaying that you are alienated and it is impossible to succeed? I never experienced a moment in AP where I thought 'Gee, this game needs a moment where I can **** up so royally that there is no out and I'll have to reload my game from an earlier save and be nicer to that one character so he will aid me because now I can't continue! How awesome would that be!'.

Because it builds a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise you'll soon end up with "no game overs" gameplay and can't even die. I'd rather see a sense of accomplishment built over seeing bad things happen to characters you care about and the story taking ugly turns you could have prevented as opposed to 'you picked the wrong choice, you die, reload and pick the right choice stupid!'. Which AP actually does a good job with IMHO.

I recently played through all the Tomb Raiders and Angel of Darkness features dialogue options (Only Tomb Raider to do so). At one point you can speak to a Parisian mobster and if you choose a snarky dialogue option he pulls out a gun and shoots Lara in the face. You then reload and have to choose the 'correct' dialogue option. Is that the kind of 'failure' we are talking about here? 'Cause I'm not sad to see that go.

Sorry. It wasn't THAT big of a spoiler... and you should do it to see what happens!

Unless you can give some sort of comparison between the games to support your arguments this is going nowhere fast. KoTOR is a superior game with better C&C, Companions, Role-Playing, Combat & Quests. See? I can do it too!

I didn't notice all the choices during my first gung-ho play-through, but I could really appreciate it in my second stealth play-through. Changing my play style, dialogue choices and location visit order resulted in a game that felt completely different.

Too many must have games this year. Four coming out in May alone.

'Cause it is still just as dumb when you do it as when others do it. I didn't like it when people said that Fallout 3 was lacking in roleplaying choices when I was seeing and experiencing them a-plenty. Didn't mean I started making up stuff about other games I didn't like.

Well, it is true. Charm, Intuition & Intimidation. Those are the only skills in the game. KoTOR = Computer Use, Stealth, Demolitions, Awareness, Persuade, Repair, Security & Treat Injury. That is not even mentioning all the Feats.

Fine, you win. I submit to your master debating skills. Jade Empire was the better game.