alanschu

COuldn't you have just bumped it back to normal afterward?

To be clear, the game does NOT blindside you or do any "sneaky" actions to get you to buy something without realizing you're buying it. When you click on the Premium Content conversation option, you are notified that in order to play the premium content, you will need to purchase it. It then asks if you want to proceed. If you say no, then you continue on as if you had not picked the Premium Content conversation option. It most definitely IS clearly marked as premium content before you buy it. I disagree that it's trickery. You hear the story, and if you don't own the DLC, the option to accept the quest comes with "(Premium Content)" in front of it. When you select it, it asks if you want to purchase the premium content. As for your final statement, there's probably an idea that some people may not know that premium content has become available. I suspect that's why they've experimented with in game premium content hooks. This is always an issue with any DLC. Sometimes some people are just going to be SOL. I had slow internet for a long time which prevented me from playing games that I wanted to play like Diablo II or trying out MMOs. I think ti's safe to say that people that are not willing to spend the time downloading it, or have bandwidth restrictions on their internet, are not the target market for DLC. This is certainly a concern. It is possible (I hear) to permanently back up your DLC. Also, how significant is the consumer base that replays old games 5-10 years down the line? I'll wholeheartedly agree that there are technical issues with the DLC right now. Which is unfortunate. Hopefully easy fixes/remedies can be found. As an example, I found some typo errors in conversations, as well as some fact errors in the Codex depending on how you play through the game. I submitted them as bugs, and they were acknowledged but unfortunately listed as will not fix because of timeline issues, as well as localization issues.

That's amazing to me. It amazes me that BioWare's response to upset customers is "let me explain why you shouldn't be upset." How is an exchange like the one between Zoller and that site allowed to happen? I don't see why anyone chooses to discuss this in terms of what purchasers of a title are or aren't "entitled" to. BioWare and EA are in the business of attracting customers to pay for their products. If those customers are feeling angry or alienated, for any reason, they're less likely to remain customers in the future. That EA dropped SecuROM from Dragon Age means they perceived the wave of backlash against Spore (mainly in the form of its battered Amazon "star rating") as a credible threat to their business. Are EA or BioWare capable of responding to dissatisfaction expressed on a smaller scale, as with these DLC complaints? BioWare's customers felt alienated when there was an obvious expansion pack for Baldur's Gate. BioWare's customers felt alienated that people buying the collector's edition got access to better in game gear (which was quickly modded in). BioWare's customers felt alienated that KOTOR came out on PC after the XBOX version. BioWare's customers felt alienated when Jade Empire had no known PC release. BioWare's customers felt alienated when they decided to make an MMO in the KOTOR universe. BioWare's customers felt alienated in response to DLC. When aren't BioWare's fans being "alienated." I think it's an outspoken minority personally. As for Georg feeling "fine," I'm guessing (and stress guessing) that he's fine with it because he understands that fans will have grievances, but given the development of the project (which he's going to be much more intimately knowledgeable about than any fan) he understands and supports the actions that he and the team made with respect to the item limit. With additional resources, a dedicated team, and extra time, he understands and supports the actions of the DLC team in adding the chest.

I played through the entire game from start to finish with a rogue and had no real issues with it. I wouldn't recommend soloing with one, but disagree with many people that feel they are severely underpowered. I found the game hard to start, but given I don't have issues at the start anymore, it seems to be a combination of meta-knowledge as well as a realization that the game isn't KOTOR easy.

Are you referring to the end of the game?

Is this unlike an expansion? Because I see DLC as being pretty similar to expansions (I don't care for the Horse Armor type stuff).

Yeah, it's a guy that talks to you and when you get to the part where you can accept his quest, you get a dialogue option something like: "(Premium Content) Sure I'll help you out." When you click on it, a message pops up saying that you need to purchase this premium content in order to complete this quest (at least there's a message on both consoles.... I'm pretty sure it's there on the PC as well). It probably also says stuff along the lines of you need to be connected to the internet/XBOX Live/Playstation Network/what have you. It's been a while since i had seen the finer details haha.

Ah, well I believe the PSN still has points if you want to use it that way. I'm pretty sure when I was testing the purchase flow of PS3 DLC I was just adding points to my account. If they have a way that doesn't require points then that is

Blood magic is arguably the most powerful specialization to have, according to most people I have spoken to at work. Though I think it requires some metaknowledge at the start of the game for how you wish to grow your mages. It's a difficult specialization to unlock though.

As I thought about it, I realized you pretty much described Jagged Alliance 2, XCOM, and a lot of other "tactical combat games." Scaling enemy levels and all. Though, given the non-linear nature of how you can proceed through open world plots, would you rather the enemies not be scaled to your level? Essentially, this would mean that all but one open world area (the first one you go to) would become even easier given that your character would continue to rise in level. Unless you would have preferred a more linear approach to the story like in Baldur's Gate. Though your description of the combat most definitely reminds me of Baldur's Gate, which could be why a lot of the people seem to like it. Not surprisingly, you found a way to game the system. Despite it taking the fun away from the game for you, you continued to do it, so I would guess you're probably a min/maxer that did it to continue along with the story. However, did you not find ways to game the system in Baldur's Gate? What games out there actually give you combat that you enjoy, for reference sake?

Yup. Not buying the game ends the message that you aren't interested in buying the game. Buying the game and not DLC would send a greater message that it's the DLC specifically that you aren't interested in. So you're happy you didn't buy a game because one character in 40-80 hours of gameplay had a line of dialogue that said "(Premium Content)" beside it, and when you clicked on it a popup (which is not the NPC talking) mentioned you'd have to purchase DLC to do this quest? The really seems like a reaching rationalization. It's odd because based on previous posts, Dragon Age seems like a game you'd probably really enjoy too. I was (and have) going to express my mild dismay and surprise that people have simply transitioned from bitching about money grubbing expansion packs, to money grubbing DLC. Perhaps appropriately, expansion packs seem to be the "good guy" now. If you want to let BioWare/EA know that you don't care for the form of advertising that they have done with DLC, absolutely do not buy the DLC. Writing a letter (preferably by actual snail mail since it shows more commitment to the idea) probably wouldn't hurt either. Boycotting the game outright places a vote that you don't want 40-80 hour long fantasy RPG games more than it says you don't like how they advertise DLC.

Once I realized that inventory could get full and annoying, I quickly learned that I didn't value things like Rock Salves and so forth, and that duplicate forms of armor were quickly sold. It's important to note that armor types still take up 1 slot each, even if they are of the same type. Things like potions though, only take up a single stack and as far as I can tell, can be stacked indefinitely. I'd make it a point to try to cut down my inventory as much as possible whenever I had a chance, and as a result I found myself not having too much difficult with inventory after a while. It also meant I had loads of money haha. My trip through the Circle of Magi though had me skipping most items unless it was of particular value. Oh, and that ending video misses a lot of stuff still Will (plus parts of what was shown are going to be different depending on what choices you make, naturally).

I believe there is a level cap at level 25. I'm unaware of any places that respawn XP (respawning monsters for example), so unless you find a way to get unlimited xp through an exploit, I don't know if it's possible to actually achieve it. I did two playthroughs and my first (legit) playthrough I believe I made it to level 22. The speed-run I did I was level 19 or 20.

I don't think it was a very good decision to have it be this way, but toss skill points into combat tactics for the NPCs. I'd argue it's more valuable than most of the other skills, and you'll still have enough left over that you can still invest in other trees.

There's some trap heavy places at times. At the same time, if you've become a Grey Warden, you've passed at least 4. Level 2 stealth was invaluable at times as it let me go around and disarm the traps in some annoying places, allowing me to fight without accidentally blowing myself to smithereens.

Do you have a link you can PM me for the video? I'm curious what they constituted as "the ending."

Reaver Spoiler: You currently have 120 Fatigue to use. 40 Fatigue is currently in reserve, for sustained abilities. If you were to remove the sustained abilities, you'd regenerate up to 160 fatigue to use.

But I have been assured by some that the game plays itself

Exactly. Would people honestly prefer the Fallout DLC did NOT extend the level cap or let the player continue playing after the ending? I don't recall being able to continue playing after the end of the original Fallout (which is typically held in higher regard than Fallout 2, which did let you continue playing). I have heard a lot of the arguments against DLC before. Except at the time, they were arguments against expansion packs.

Did you just watch the video itself? Or did you actually beat the game?

Oh, and was alluded to by other posters, for larger fights, I set the party to hold position and micromanage them.

I think the percentage complete has to do with achievements, so it's probably not actually possible to do it with one play through. A quick test would be to start a new character, and see if you have a non-zero percent complete. I didn't really play around with the heroic achievements, nor the achievement system itself, so I'm not 100% sure.

No, that's not correct as the forum is not in the game while the NPC salespeople are. But they aren't making you pay for anything. At best you have a complaint about the immersion being broken. From a functionality standpoint, it's exactly the same. It's an advertisement for downloadable content. One is in game, the other is somewhere else. You can't cry because you "can't do the quest without buying the DLC" anymore than you cry about not having access to the quest without buying it off a webpage first.

It's no different than a posting on their message board saying "We have DLC available that unlocks the Grey Warden base." The idea that it seems different is purely a construction in your mind, that's built upon fallacious reasoning. Be against DLC sure, but functionally it is exactly the same in that, if you don't pay for the content, you don't get it. If you pay for it, you get it. The only thing that is different is the means of delivery. It can't be any more "cheap" than simply making an announcement on their website about it. At best you can argue that it's immersion breaking, but that doesn't make it any more "cheap." Unless you're trying to argue that it's unfair because people will be more likely to buy it or something.