RPGmasterBoo

That sounds like every RPG ever. I agree with you though, in fact a few of the ME2 quests have delighted me with an almost lack of combat on the missions. Yes but there is a difference between a compelling plot that makes the combat seem less tedious, and one that you can guess how its going to play out at the very beginning. Plus there is such a thing as more variety to enemies and locations that dont look like they were made in a random tileset generator. From what I've seen of DA so far, all the hubs are constructed in a similar manner, with very little to set them apart. That's probably the result of the player being able to choose where he'll go and having to make them all approx the same length and difficulty. I think it was a bad design choice. And Denerim is still a marketplace and three back alleys. I cant get into the alieange for some reason. There better be a breath of fresh air once I'm done with Redcliffe and the dwarves.

I'm starting to hate the game. Every major quest turns into a tedious dungeon crawl. It goes like this: you get the quest. You get to the area. The first one is a friendly resupply are, then one or two large areas follow, with plenty of combat. And just when you think you're almost there another two huge areas open up. It happened in the circle of the magi, it happened in the forest and now I'm at the temple in the mountain and after all that slaughtering in the temple the caverns open up into a new area twice the size of the previous one. I just saved and quit. It looks like a BioWare dev opened Morrigan's face in the Character Creator and pushed the "Explode" button. I would totally explode on Morrigan's face. I thought you liked Zevran more

I have trouble believing that an author can keep any sort of quality on a series that has fifteen books, where each book has about 800 pages. Either way, I don't care. Its all up to Obs now.

I recall there was one first person Wheel of Time game ages ago. I havent bothered to read the books because all my friends say they suck. Every one of them is enormous, stock fantasy stuff that never seems to end. You read one, you've read them all. So I'm neither excited nor disappointed. The only thing that counts is what Obs will do with the license after all.

Phantasmagoria has a good reputation. That's all I know of it.

Mage power in BG2 is great but limited. In Dragon Age its great and unlimited. A Mage can err in BG2 by having wrong spells prepared. A Mage cannot err in DA in that regard. There is a difference. Its not game breaking, but there is a lack of balance and it affects overall enjoyment of combat, once you realize that everyone but you is expendable.

Hawt "dryad" b00bz? Her hair was in the way. They really did try too hard to do a Witcher without doing the Witcher.

You're ignoring the obvious unavailability of all spells at all times, and the limit of spells per day. None are so deaf as those who refuse to hear.

I disagree. I'll elaborate on this later though, when I chew through more of the story - to make sure I'm not wrong. I finished the forest. So far there are some things I don't like: -Too much grind in areas dedicated to the main quest line. Both the elven and mage recruitment missions felt overlong with too many mobs to go through. -Too many random encounters against mobs, practically one per trip. -Leliana. The character is too schizophrenic. -Too many generic quests. Especially the boards, but much of the other stuff as well. -The PC's dialog options. Too short and to the point, reminds me of Shepard. -Design of the forest. What I like: -The resolution of the Witherfang quest. -Most of the game's joinable NPC's. They're mostly a bit on the dull and generic side but they're not emo, and they've got interesting storylines. Wynne in particular. I've yet to get the dwarf. -The way you learn the Arcane Warrior or whatever that mage specialization is called. -Design of the ruins in the forest. No. When my mage PC is doing all the slaughtering and all the rest are only used to keep the enemies busy something is not right. Spamming mana potions and dancing away allows my PC to dish out obscene amounts of damage, to the point where most of the other characters seem redundant. In DnD this power has limits, in the amount of spells you can dish out in an encounter. In DA you just have to keep potions handy and you can slaughter just about anything. And every spell is available, thus you don't have the possibility of being unprepared. No other available class can even touch a mage, if he's played with at least a little effort and stocked up on potions. -Also when you've gained sufficent levels, you always have a spell that has "cooled", and with enough potions you could more or less deliver an unending stream of spells.

I'm at the forest now... The whole werewolves, elves and ents thing seems so... deja vu. The visual design as well is less than inspired. Perhaps there will be a twist to the werewolf quest that might redeem the whole ordeal.

Every intelligence service tortures people and occasionally kills individuals. To presume otherwise is foolish and naive. Obviously they don't do it officially, their field agents do. I have in my possesion a KGB agent manual, (released publicly in Russia after the fall of the USSR) there is an entire chapter dedicated to torture methods. CIA and MI6 are no different.

Phantasmagoria and a Space Quest pack are out. Might pick up both when I get around to it.

Game keeps spamming hordes of these MMO type quests through job boards, kill x, gather y, deliver z. I'm working for like 10 organizations at the same time. Would have been much better to cut the number of quests in half and make them more involving/interesting. Before anyone says its optional, as far as I'm concerned -it isn't. I play thorough and wont have it any other way. Interesting. I'm not feeling much of the benefit since most combat starts with me flinging the best spells I've got... and everyone chasing me... but ok. Edit: you're right, I've noticed just now that everyone ignores Wynne, which keeps my healing steady. Weird.

There is a chance that the tech character will die regardless, its random. I heard he/she gets hit by a missile or something. Replay the mission and it probably wont happen.

That's true. Everyone ignores all my party members and heads straight for me, even when the fighters use Taunt. I was under the impression that its actually because enemies chase the first character that deals damage to them, and since I'm always the first to throw a spell, usually a big one... Another thing that allows them to do this is there not being any significant penalty for changing combat position. They can just run past my fighters and hound me easily. An irritating thing is having to go over areas twice because the Rogue type NPCs aren't much use in combat, which forces me to change my party after killing everything to chase down chests. Chests should have been made breakable with sufficient force at the risk of damaging the fragile contents. This is practically a convention, I don't know why they skipped it. Or is there a way to force open a chestt?

Sure but they're meant to be artillery - hard striking but fragile. With Improved Herbalism aka potion spam my mage can go toe to toe with more enemies than he should be able to handle. His longevity against melee enemies isn't significantly lower than Alistair or Sten even though I haven't invested a single point in his constitution. ...

I'm level 10 No wonder I got my ass handed to me. I wasn't expecting Athkatla but I didn't think the capital would be a marketplace, three alleyways and a brothel. Obviously there's more to come but as it is, it feels too... disconnected. Yeah, it costs a lot and can slow down a mob but unless you don't throw them a fireball or something, its next to useless.

Finished the Circle of the Magi, and got ambushed by Zevran. Been to Denerim for a little while, but am now trying to complete Morrigans quest. However I think I've bit off more than I can chew. I tried that fight once and got eradicated in seconds. There are some curious flaws with the combat system. Enemy combat AI fails to work sometimes. Isometeric view reveals enemies behind closed doors, well in advance (?). I can cast area effect spells through three walls, into a closed room (??). I slaughtered thugs like that by casing thunder storm or whatever its called into their room... twice - and they didn't react. Enemies don't see very far for some reason. I expected Denerim to be smaller than Athkatla, but actually it was even worse. The city is a tiny collection of completely generic areas. At least thus far. Strange lack of dialog in the brothel. I am under the impression that mages are overpowered. My elementalist slaughters everything in sight, and deals more damage than everyone else put together. The combination of petrify + that flying fist thing = instant death for almost everything. I've been in situations where its 4-5 thugs against me (all other companions are dead) and I still emerge alive through dancing away and throwing spells at them.

Ew. The Zerg must have something to do with it.

This talk over how long it takes them to make whatever they're making is pointless. The game will either be good or it wont be. If its good I don't give a toss if it took them one weekend to make.

Cant remember, I lost my forgotten realms campaign setting ages ago. If it is, lets just say this is another expression of Edwin's dislike for the man

Blasto? No, try again Volourn? Close but no cigar. Remember this is Edwin we're talking about. For all those irritating cameos.

Blasto? No, try again

My about to be level 8 mage. You can see his name in the left hand corner. A cookie for anyone who guesses what I named the Dog