Maria Caliban

I haven't been on the ME board since the BioSocNet rolled out. Even previous to that, I avoided that board as it's rather unpleasent. That said: 1) I never thought anything was wrong with the combat, but like the improvements and adjustments they've made. 2) I found Garrus boring. I brought Tali and Liara wherever I went. I have no interest in romancing Tali. If I import my main Shepard, I doubt I'll romance anyone as I can't see her as cheating on Liara. 2.5) I'm fairly sure there is no female same-sex romance in ME 2 anyway. It will be bizarre. I may have to focus on stuff like combat and storytelling instead of pixilated action. 3) If they were attempting to please me then they'd toss DudeShep out an airlock. His voice bothers me, especially after Dragon Age.

What? Are you suggesting that my character can end a centuries old curse, defeat demons and abominations, destroy an undead horde, descover a lost artifact in the heart of darkspawn terrotiry, pull Ferelden from the brink of civil war, unite the people's of the world against the Blight, and kill an archdemon -- she can do ALL this, but she can't Morrigan ?! WARNING: That's a major spoilers above and below. Don't look at it! It's very simple how I did it. Don't tell me you didn't leave this in on purpose. It's too glaring to be a 'bug.'

~sigh~

is possible.

For years, I used to complain about Annah in Planescape's horrible fake scottish accent.

We can be friends again. And the voice actor was born in Paris. That's her real accent.

Prepare your ass for greater pain. An even bigger, badder boss is next, and then a slightly less hard boss fight.

I believe that random encounter is Warden's Keep only. And dragons are female. Drakes are male.

Like a plague of locusts, these threads multiply. I blame Monte.

Your graphics card needs some major tweeking.

I went Kenloch, Redcliffe, Orzimmar, Forest, Sacred Ashes. Next time I'll do Kenloch, Forest, Redcliffe, Sacred Ashes, Orzimmar.

TW may not be horror enough to be seriously considered dark fantasy, but it's pretty much the most low fantasy crpg there is. We could argue, do you have time? Well, the Witcher is not low magic and it's not set in the real world. It has magic, elves and dwarves as regular citizens, and tons of supernatural critters to kill. It's 'dark and gritty' but so is Black Company. I'd consider it far more sword and sorcery or even high (but not epic) fantasy than low fantasy.

The correct acronym for the game is DA:O.

Leliana seems to be the hardest of the four to romance. As a female PC I: Asked her about her past in the Chantry. There's a line where I say I couldn't imagine her as a priest because she was so attractive and charming. She notes that there are many good-looking women in the chantry and that they're attractive because they're 'forbidden fruit.' I then ask her if she's forbidden fruit, and she's tells me no. I continue to listen to her stories and eventually ask her about her past in Orlais and bards. She makes up an obvious lie that she was just a traveling minstral. Continue increasing her approval. Have conversation about shoes. At some point around ~70, she come up to me when I enter camp and confesses to me that she was once a spy. I can now ask her about her real past, and she tells me about her mentor. At some point, there's a random encounter that ends with her asking to go to Denerim to look for her mentor. Finish this quest. Conversaiton about how comfortable she is with me, and a story about the stars. (there's also a hair conversation presumably only for women) Confession of love and a sex scene.

Bad thing if you're trying to screw over Morrigan as much as possible. I think I botched the love-triangle-shtick yesterday. Leliana asked my PC whether there was something more between Alistair and PC (pretty weird thing to ask after kissing in front of her several times, but anyway) and I chose the straight-up honest answer. Yeah. I flirted with Alistair a bit and romanced Leliana. Then I slept with Zevran and Leliana accused me of loving Alistair. Alistair apparently agreed, and I had to pick between them. I decided on Alistair first, told Leliana and she wanted some time to herself. Then next time I talk to her, she cheerfully asks me how Alistair is in bed and gives me a few tips on how to get him well trained. This is disturbing, so I reload and dump Alistair. 17 hours later, I give Zevran a pair of gloves and suddenly Leliana accuses me of loving Zevran. What? I slept with the dude once and we agreed there was nothing between us. So I dump Zevran, but at the end of the game, he agrees to come with me on my travels as my cabin boy.

As I said in another post, it's about as dark as the ending of White Christmas. I can't believe that you'd compare the ending of the Orzammar quest line to White Christmas.

Are you trying to persue the romance?

Between the success of ME, FO3, and DA:O, I wonder if we'll see more publishers investing in RPGs in the future?

You mean you click on the door and nothing happens?

I have been lied to and betrayed. What the heck is BioWare going to offer that's better than virgin, agendered squid smurf side boob? I've already gotten the five different endings and the squeal doesn't come out until 2011. Besides, DYLHB doesn't give me the ability to run up to an evil alien, knock it to the ground, and unload my assault rifle in its face? It's not just the sex, it's the sex and destroying hordes of evil without breaking a sweat and having people adore and fear me because I'm a SPECTRE. Admittedly, I can’t have sex with my cousin or get urinated on in ME, but no game is perfect.

Several times I've left an area and then come back to loot bodies.

My favorite BioWare game. Possibly my favorite RPG, but I'll wait for the buzz to wear out before I say that.

Pretty much. I might be a throwback from the time when there were no health potions, but you'd think with a half-dozen writers, someone might have noticed the wrong term. Yes. There are intelligent darkspawn that can speak and make plans. The Architect even has his own plan for ending the Blights. They’re taking over the country while you cruise around it. If you look at the world map while you travel, the blackness that spreads from the bottom is how far they’ve gotten. I know ‘loch’ means man but don’t recall the rest. It takes over a year. For instance, if you go to Orzimmar after Redcliffe (part 1) and the Circle Tower, someone will tell you that the middle son (dwarven noble origin) died six months ago and his father soon after. The elven riots were also prompted by the PC in the city elf origin and someone tells you that it’s been ‘months.’

You can get the Storm of the Century combo with Blizzard + Tempest + Spellw.. (forget the entire name) I like that there's only one thread. And Leliana is still awesome.