Tale

Ahh, maybe I see the mistake. You hear "dark" and think it's the end of the world. It's not really dark and it's definitely not that kind of dark. Lothering (where the game starts) is not the world. He's a merchant prince in a fairly rich city.

Thanks for reminding me of that other thing I don't like about steam.

Well, for one thing, I absolutely fail to see the connection you're making. Beards are dark? How does that make sense? Second, that's why he's different from the stereotype. He was raised apart from tradition.

Varric was born on the surface.

Barney? Dinky the Dinosaur confirmed for companion in the DLC.

I still miss the detached camera. It's hard to position some AoEs on open ground precisely. However, it helps that if you pause, select an AoE, then change characters, you can aim the AoE from the other character's position. It's a brilliant little feature.

By foreboding I mean Cassandra's "He had to have known what was down there!" and "You know what he did!" It's that stupid Omniscient Council of Vagueness. It doesn't make me anticipate what's going to happen, it just makes me feel like I'm trapped in a room with a couple of pretentious douchenozzles telling each other in-jokes.

I've only heard them do it if you purchase one of the copies that are sent out to high piracy/impoverished regions. Those get extra low price points to try to fight piracy. I've never heard of them doing it to US copies. Just don't go buying from Southeast Asia or particular parts of Eurasia unless you live there. Where the copies cost maybe $20. Though I never heard about Fallout New Vegas doing that for Britain -> Poland. So I might not be well enough informed.

I will say this about the framing sequences. They're awful. It's 1/2 rapid fire recap, 1/2 vague foreboding. I make this judgement early. It may actually prove itself later, but the two that show up near the end of Act 1 were just painful.

There are helmets. There's just an option to turn them off and they're automatically off for cutscenes.

DAO also had a toolset.

Demo doesn't appear to have ever been actually tuned.

I think your very existence is offensive, Carlo.

Anyone know what's up with finishers? I don't think I've seen them. It's possible that they're in, but lacking a slowdown I've just never noticed.

If you're hoping they're more strategic and intelligent than DAO, they aren't. You can no longer do pre-emptive attacks against guys standing around by attacking them out of their aggro range. Their aggro range is line of sight. If they're spawned in and you can see them, they are going to attack (with rare exception). I kind of like this bit. A lot of the fights are wave based. Enemies will start appearing to reinforce. It nicely limits AoE, since they show up either after it's gone or don't necessarily run into it. Might make Glyphs more useful, too. Some people hated fights like this in DAO. I enjoy them. Encounters tend to be mixed. Most larger groups have Archers and/or Assassins mixed in. A few lieutenants (or so I assume, they have longer health bars). If you played the demo, the very last fight, against Hayder, is what most encounters are kind of like. Hayder was boss class, though. Most just have lieutenants.

What's the save corruption bug?

That's the one and only thing I don't like about Steam. I actually used to keep a collection of Counter-Strike patches. I always, and still do, like the idea of playing the version you want to play.

I'm not talking about the main quest heating up to the climax. I'm talking about running out of sidequests by act 2.

There are three types of side quests. Only one of those types feels like cheap filler. And they are literally find an object on the ground, now go find the guy it belongs to. You're running the bloody lost and found. This type of quest is called "side quest," but secondary quests and companion quests are also side quests in the traditional sense.

It's just like BG2, and everyone loved BG2, so that's must be good, right? Right? It's also just like Mass Effect 1. And simply too many games. They drop you in a major hub and put all the quest givers out there. So you spend the first half of your time (sometimes more) doing sidequests, then the second half wrapping up the main plot. It's just uneven. One thing I like about Mass Effect 2 is that it alternates. Companion quests, collector mission, companion quests, collector mission, etc. Maybe DA2 does something like that, I'm only in the first act. But yeah, they're definitely trying to channel Baldur's Gate 2. All these sidequests are you trying to earn money for a main quest.

Thoughts so far. Visuals + Everything seems more detailed. - Old models and textures from Origins stand out as incredibly bad. Quest + Lots and lots of sidequests. Quests are divided into main plot, companion, secondary, and side. Only side quests feel like cheap filler and they're easy to hit up while doing the rest. - It's a slow start. I've spent way too much time running in circles just to get quests. I don't know if this continues throughout. Companions - Everyone wants to get in my pants. I'm not a piece of meat, damnit! - Friendship/Rivalry is apparently an excuse to approve and disapprove of everything you do. Everyone is Morrigan. I lost points with Anders and Aveline just because I didn't bitch at someone using blood magic. This wouldn't be half as bad if I wasn't gaining points for everything else I do. Two steps forward, one step back, every single time. Combat (on Normal) + Faster and more interesting. Enemies feel weaker, with normals going down in 2-3 hits, but often come in greater numbers. - Sometimes too fast. When they don't come in greater numbers, a single lightning is usually enough to clear them out.

We all make mistakes. And by "we," I mean "not me."

I'm glad your crystal ball has told you that, since you can't play an uncracked version before Thursday. Unless he's proxied into a region that can. Or is playing on a console.

I always hate hearing about people leaving Obsidian.

Bioware released the medium textures. They say they did not have the high resolution textures ready by the time they sent out the build that became gold for certification.