Maria Caliban

Webs are good against dogs. They restrain them the entire fight. Or the bear. You'll be glad you have a net when a giant bear appears.

A short video on youtube (watch it on HD) showing mage combat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBR0w-89j3A As a number of people have inquired about gifts - here are some quotes from the devs. There are deal breakers. There are decisions you can make that will absolutely make characters leave or even attack you, no matter how much they liked you before. There are also a limited number of gifts. If all the choices you make annoy your follower, he's going to leave.

There are no mini-games in Dragon Age: Origins. There are puzzles though. (But no towers of hanoi)

Please tell me you're not refering to Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire as something you'd actually want to watch. You can play the game here. http://www.closerangegame.com/

For those of you who are still confused. Maria: Dragon Age is awesome taks: Maria is an idiot. Dragon Age is crap. Not an ad hominem Maria: I love Dragon Age. taks: Dragon Age is crap and everyone who likes it is an idiot. Still not an ad hominem Maria: Dragon Age = Best RPG ever? taks: **** you, you *****!! Nope, not an ad hominem Maria: There's nothing wrong with romances in RPGs. taks: Of course you'd say that. You're a BioFanboy! You would defend everything they have in their games. That's an ad hominem. An Argumentum ad hominem only applies when someone states another person's opinion is wrong because of who they are. Merely insulting someone and saying they're wrong is not an ad hominem. If you see someone use the term improperly, link them to this: examples.

Pidesco has 12 pupils and 3 victories, the lazy bastard. http://mariacaliban.mybrute.com/cellule

Tell me what you think of Assassins

Bloodlines is an awesome game. Upgrade your system and download the patches - it's worth it.

I really didn't want this thread to turn into an argument. Let's just agree that BioWare has chosen a specific type of RPG to make, and that not everyone will enjoy it. Anyways, here's a new article by Kutaku (who are these guys? I'm seeing them everywhere suddenly), on whether Dragon Age is high or low fantasy.

I don't recall a single IE game where one spell could hit 15 people at once. I'm playing BG right now, and the largest group I've fought against is 7 people.

Still playing Assassin's Creed. I find if I just play it for an hour a night, I can get over the horrible monotony of the gameplay and enjoy the 'run around rooftops' with the occational 'insane guy I have long conversation with after I kill.'

The romance threads are the longest lasting and most popular threads on the BioWare board. I've counted 16 of them since February, and 80% of the posters are female. The majority of the posters are also 20 or older. Women like romance. Adolecent guys? Not so much. Guys (and some girls) like half-naked women, but they don't form the bulk of the 'we want romance!' crowd.

It won't have a combat window. Damage is displayed as floating text (unless you turn it off). When asked why, Gerog said it was because there was too much information. The flame hurricane spell, for instance, could do damage to 15 different fighters at once at the same time and then damage over time while melee was going on, leading to a 'torrent of data.' I don't know what you mean by cheating. Difficulty can be adjusted on-the-fly so it doesn't effect things like mob health, but it does change the friendly fire value and how the AI processes threat. The system isn't as variable as d20, and there are no rounds. An attack is based on speed so a dagger might hit every 3 seconds, a two-hander every 6. Different armors have different penetration values against different weapon types. Spells have a mana cost and casting and cool down time. There are flanking bonuses, attack-from-stealth bonuses, etc. Does that answer your questions?

When they showed off the demo at NYC, one of the posters said she gave Alister a decaying arm. He didn't seem to like it.

I think you guys are going overboard on the gift giving. Seriously, if you hate the idea of parting with that diamond tiara, you don

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1yyGqAWZac That song makes my ears wish for death.

Legal ones? Like I'd waste illegal drugs on video games.

Elves are everyone's b*tches in Dragon Age, so that's more like the Witcher. Dwarves give lip service to honor and duty, but most noble houses use assasination and trechery to get ahead while casteless dwarves are thought to have no soul. I do recall a fantasy story like that, but I don't know which one. The humans of Ferelden are barbarians compared to their neighbors, which is more Conan. The quanri are a race of giant militant Buddists, while the human religion IMHO is a very cynical take on real world Christianity. I do agree that Dragon Age borrows from other fantasy works, even LotR, but disgree that it *is* LotR.

Cover is integrated. If you're behind a pillar/boxes, arrows fired at you won't reach you while damage from spells will be lessened. If you're on higher ground, you get bonuses to defending and attacking. Certain terrain slows movement. Or are you thinking something like Mass Effect where you're constantly ducking behind stuff for cover? That would be interesting, though harder to integrate into the tactical view. The big story is fighting the Blight, which is a evil, mindless horde - in that, it's like Lord of the Rings - but we've known that for over a year. I'm not sure what you're refering to when you say there's 'no doubt' that this is Lord of the Rings now. The more I learn about the setting, the less like Lord of the Rings it seems to me.

Glad to do it. It was? I never took a lot of companions because the combat gets crazy. I guess it depends on how overboard (or not) they go. PC VOs aren't bad in and of themselves, I just hate the way, just like NPC VOs, people come to expect it as a standard. There were certain items that, if given to your companions in Arcanum, would increase how much they liked you. I remember the drunken half-orc liked alcohol while the elven 'romance' female liked little elven religious idols. I

I liked having PC VOs in Mass Effect. I thought it added to the game. However, I don't feel that every RPG needs that element. If nothing else, you'd need a minimum of six different voices (three races, two genders) and the PC in Dragon Age has more lines than in ME, which would make doing so prohibitive. Gift giving was in Arcanum as well, and I thought it was fine. I wouldn

A great deal of infos coming from GDC about Dragon Age and the 30 minute demo they showed there. First, here's a 6 minute combat demo link. It has no narration; it's just 6 minutes of combat so it's spoiler free. In case anyone wonders, the player disabled the 'floating text' for damage and the circle indicators, and is playing

Assassins' Creed. For some reason, I'm enjoying myself. Probably because I'm on drugs.

Judging game narrative by the same criteria as novels and movies doesn't work. A story game has to stretch out over 15-20 hours, and unlike a book, the player can't just flip back to an earlier part, skim a page, and then resume. That said, people underestimate the level of storytelling in games. BioShock has some great stories in it