abaris

DA is maybe a crap franchise, but DAO is the best one by far. PoE's combat is just a crazy ankward mess. That's a bit of nostalgia here. The battles in DA:O were a mess too. The only thing I liked a bit better was the option to script certain behavior, so that you didn't have to babysit every step of the way. Well, they got rid of that too with the crap followups soiling the franchise in order to go button awsome.

Well, the Rennaissance was a rather long period. Some say, it started in the late 14th century. As with every historical period, the borders are fleeting. The fashion festures items of the 15th, 16th and 17th century, at least as far as headware is concerned. And there's still plate armor, which proved it's uselessness in the battle of Crecy in 1346 against long bows. The pistols are somewhere between 16th and even 18th century. So it's good to remember we're dealing with fantasy and a fantasy world here. And we don't know if they have printing presses. There's no mention of it one way or the other. Just books.

And it even earns you a whooping 5.8 userscore on metacritic. So what's not to like if all the game magazines do what's expected and bow down to kiss where the sun don't shine? Ad money goes a long way towards everlasting love.

Actually, I was looking for reviews for DA:I to see if Bioware was showing some signs of intelligent life, when I stumbled over Divinity Original Sin in the process and instantly got hooked. And after numerous playthroughs, I looked for something along the same lines and stumbled over POE. Same story. The so called AAA+ titles can get stuffed as far as I am concerned.

One time a had three escapes in a row, next time I had none. Security level was about the same. It seems totally random. Same with the attacks.

Yeah, and quest markers for good measure, so that noone has to employ that grey mass over the beer hole. 99 percent of so called AAA games have all these features. And I'm glad, this one hasn't hasn't taken this particular highway.

Well, my mentality changed when playing pen and paper D&D back in the 80ies. In fact, it never changed, since levelling, the sense of achievement and getting shiny new toys are part of the fun when roleplaying.

Same here. I always hit the 20 in the very last dungeon. It was perfectly balanced as far a levelling goes. But I suspect it had been easier with NWNII, since the game is pretty linear as opposed to POE where the side quest make for the majority of quests.

To be fair, melee classes are underwhelming as player characters in almost every game. They're vital to the party, but they're not offering much fun and variety to experiment with.

I killed them for the loot. Simple marauder approach. But I didn't take the front gate and rolled the thing up from behind. Courtyard came last before confronting Raedric.

I always give Durance a decent pistol. For the times when his more important faculties aren't needed. But he's invaluable as a party member. Since I'm not into playing a priest myself and don't want to create some bot to replace him, Durance is always with my party and the priest class is absolutely vital for those more difficult encounters.

I haven't dismissed Eder or Durance for that matter. Without them, the whole party would fall to pieces, since I'm neither into playing fighter or priest and I see no reason to replace them with self made bots.

Their best spells are their buffs and healing. There are encounters where Durance does nothing but buffing and healing, since otherwise the whole party would fall to pieces.

Hmm, let's see. A drunken brawl? I definitely wouldn't expect polite tea party conversation. Can't speak for DA:I though. I haven't played it, nor will I ever play it.

At his point they are completely unplayable. Speak for yourself. I just brought a Cypher to level 12 with 65000 total damage and the highest kill rate of all the characters. So either you expect to have some superhero or they aren't just not your cup of tea. And as far as mindblades are concerned, they're still my opener in most situations and they are still incredible powerfull. I honestly don't know what you expect. Instant kill?

That would make it far to easy. There are quite a number of rings and talents in the game, granting additional spells per level. I found them more than sufficient, although I'm only using Aloth for wizard and never actually had a player character going down that road.

Much ado about nothing. Some people simply want superman or wonderwoman without having to work for it.

Exactly. Nothing to add to this comment.

Yeah, me too. But I do create one or two for the above mentioned reasons. If for no other reason then to have them at the stronghold for bouncer duty.

Really depends on the situation you're in. Just read what they're doing and make your choice accordingly. I hope you know, you don't get to select your priest spells when levelling. They are just added.

Totally fitting in my book. No offense, but your alternative for Aloth is what I would find ridiculous. Yselmir didn't put it politely, so why should my character? And what's more, you don't have to say it. You just have to give it a rest with one of the other options.

There were no interesting games within the last three or four years, wether we're talking about PC or console. The last games I bought before D:OS and POE were Fallout New Vegas and DA:O. Everything else on the market was digital fast food with ultra short development cycles to rake in enough cash to satisfy the shareholders in the annual meetings and to grant the bonusses for the bosses. Yes, I'm looking at you, EA. That's the problem these days. Most developers aren't invested in their products anymore. Their bosses could just as well run a toilet paper company, since all that matters is beancounting. That's also why we see this abundance of catering to consoles as the primary medium. Because it promises the hhighest revenue in the shortest period of time.

Not necessarily making them stronger. Shaping them would be the more apt word. Having the option to develop them till the end credits roll.

It only ends with profanity if you choose the dialogue options leading up to it. I'm always playing it confrontational, since the self importance of that guy warrants that kind of approach. Characters don't use the F word if there's no reason for it. It's not as if the banter was full with profanity for profanity's sake. Apart from Durance and Iselmyr, but that's perfectly in character.

Yeah, voice acting bad feature, so to say. Costs tons of money and takes away from dialogue options, since to record insane amounts of possible responses isn't possible. What's left is the Bioware dialogue wheel with three options. Multicolored for those, who don't even want to read what their character is about to say.