Monte Carlo

^ I'm siding with the werewolves next time - they're cooler and, despite having a genuine greivance, moan less about it.

^ Yep, our Elric-inspired Elf discovers that The Blight is actually accelerated by Elven High Blood Mages who want Utter Revenge on the teeming, fast-breeding human untermensch who so thoroughly humiliated them all those aeons ago, which in elf time is only the Friday before last. Elves as Lawful Evil Nazis is so on the money it hurts. Elric-inspired Elf falls foul of elf stuff on a mission to Ferelden and (oh the irony) is recruited into the Grey Wardens. Then he heads back to Elf Tower On an Island to lead the GreY Warden strike force to take the place down. Epic. What did we get? Some eejits sitting around a camp fire feeling sorry for themselves. Discuss.

^ Another epic fail for DA elves is their appearance. NWN2 OTOH is an epic win - you can make some seriously Area 51 looking elves, which in my mind's eye is how they should look: alien, not-human, different.

^ Yeah, agree with the Divine Divinity / Ultima comparison. FWIW, I liked DD a lot. It's charming, quirky and old-skool. I could think of far worse gaming ways of killing a cold winter evening in front of the 'puter with a bottle of claret.

:: Gives up ::

D2 is also one of my favourite games, 'tis teh awesome. Put it like this, if Bio released a special 10th anniversay BG2 patch to (a) reward the faithful and (b) publicise a forthcoming linked title I'd be extremely impressed. Blizzard are simply doing the same, Diablo is an iconic franchise and little gestures like this are super-cool as far as this call-sign is concerned. Cheers MC

Speaketh Volourn, spokesperson for the human race. Try to put aside, for a moment, your bizarro logic and answer me this: Why did Bio do such a good job of taking a staple fantasy trope (dwarves) and giving it an original twist yet fail so miserably with elves? Forget the "that's how they should be." How shouldn't they be? Please, prove me wrong that it's not worth discussing anything with you.

^ That's what I mean, I get them in airdrops for free but I'm using lots of airdrops. For 200 munitions you can do a air recce / strafing run combo that can really ruin the day of crewed enemy weapons, especially werfers. My record is a clear three crew werfer wipeout, although you don't destroy the arty piece, just the crewmen.

^ Zevran is an elf, although DA elves are just slim humans with slightly pointy ears. So you could be forgiven for not noticing.

^ I know it's pointless discussing anything with Volourn, but where do his definition of vanilla fantasy tropes actually come from? Elves were, in many cultures, fairly sinister creatures. As were most fae or nature spirits. They could curse you, steal your young, poision the water... they were the original turnip ghost in many stories along with goblins and any other number of folktale critters. Vol's elves and dwarves seem to be solely from LotR filtered through Ed Greenwood. :: shrugs :: Look at Elric of Melnibone if you want to see how a genuinely imaginative mind envisioned 'elves' .... i.e. a highly intelligent, ancient race blessed with millenia long lifespans and access to magic become amoral, cruel, introspective and insanely powerful. Not in decline, just experiencing ennui. I get it that Bio wanted and probably needed traditional fantasy races in DA. No problem. And I get it that they needed to give them a twist and with the dwarves I think by and large it worked, Orzammar and the originis / lore are a labour of love. But the elves are a genuine disappointment. They should have been extremely insular, maybe like an organised criminal group, demanded outrageous blood sacrifice for their support and dabbled in all sorts of forbidden stuff. Not sitting around in their caravans feeling sorry for themselves. Cheers MC

The para inf squad costs 375 MP. You can drop them anywhere on the map, they can be 'pumped up' a bit like rangers and they can hurl satchel charges for 50 munitions. Equipping them with RRs costs 125 munitions. Two squads will easily take out a panther quickly, especially if they immobilize it and start throwing satchel charges. They are difficult to suppress when pumped up. They ain't rangers or sumper-infantry, but they are fast, durable infantry that punch above their weight. Ostensibly the airborne look the most fragile of the three companies - no calliopes, rangers, pershings or howitzers (in fact airborne's reliance on air support late in the tech tree is a big weakness, I find myself building mortars a lot). However, used skilfully the fact is you don't really need a support company or infantry barracks and can squirt tanks out hellish quick.

1. Enoch thanks for linking to what is an extremely amusing thread. 2. Grom, interesting and it depends on where you come from but from my cultural POV I thought Dalish = Balkan disposessed. Mournful and sort of stoic... I didn't think Native American because they fought their own badass wars and stuck it to The Man a bit more. But I can easily see why North Americans see it that way. 3. Have spent the last 3/4 hour doing the Dwarf Noble origin with my new 2H warrior. It's very impressive as an opening to a game for setting the scene... and odd as a level one no-mark being grovelled to, having groupies hurl themselves at you and ordering people assassinated. Makes what happens later even more bitter and ironic. Kudos to Bioware for putting it in. 'Tis the best origin, bar none. Cheers MC

Your input as a scion of the family / recognition is diminshed oon the pretext that you were banished.

Yep, the elves as a race of bitter, not-very-nice terrorists who have decided on a nihilistic existence of vengeance and spite. Instead we get the usual poetry and camping. Yawn. The dwarves should have been even nastier, I want to play one but someone said as a noble dwarf you get airbrushed out of the Orzammar scenario. WTF? It's your brother.

^ Aristes, you only unlock the Champion by completing the Arl Eamon quest cycle - i.e. Redcliffe Village / Castle / Urn of Sacred Ashes! There's a lot of elf hate here. Yeah, the DA elves are pretty pathetic. The Dalish should have been feral, revenge-driven psycho barbarians, that would have been more fun.

I'm a complete downloading n00b. However, I found THIS French website for Mysteries of Westgate, have used it since and found it to be reliable, easy-to-use and not at all invasive. Have heard great things about D2D as well. Steam is reportedly invasive but great if you want to integrate your online gaming into one portal. I won't be touching Steam, personally. As for DA - what the other guys said. Strongly suggest a physical retail version. Cheers MC

I am 85% of the way through with my human rogue, it's been good fun, recommend it to anybody looking for something a bit different from tanking and spell-slinging. I am doing one more playthrough then I think I'll be giving it a rest. This one will be a two-handed weapon specialist - seen some interesting posts about this on the Bio boards. The mentat POV over thereis that the trick is how you use the talents as much as the build - we shall see. There is a Maul which apparently is a bit of a win button, too. What origin would you all suggest - was sorely tempted to go dwarf but apparently you don't get a lot of feedback in Orzammar. Which would be pretty poor, given the strength of those two origin stories. How do the elf ones play out throughout the game? Cheers MC

Like I said, this thread might as well be entitled 'Ask me about Fascism.' All play nicely with the wordy authoritarian, but I'm out of this thread.

Re-speccing now allows me to make Sten a sword and board guy --- therefore I don't even need to take Alistair anywhere. He can just sit in the camp whimpering before I marry him off.

IIRC the game is being consistent with regards to the Crimson Oars quests - the guard sergeant asks you to resolve the matter peacefully if possible. Ergo you should get more XP for doing so.

^ My bad. I'd go coercion, it can have lots of uses. You can scam an elf messenger who you'll find talking to the Ash Warriors in camp, near the King's tent. Talk to him and he'll ask you if you are the person he needs to deliver a sword to. Of course, you say yes and that's it. Probably a coercion and / or cunning check.

^ If you want to go with a plain cost / benefit analysis go locks - the junk you can pick up and sell will see you heading off to Lothering with up to 10 gold in your grubby mits. A point in coercion will allow you to solve two quests IIRC in Ostagar, the mage's chest is particularly worthwhile (although you can also solve that one with stealing or coercion), the other gets you a nice early game longsword. I went one point coercion / one point locks and got everything. I was a human noble though, but I didn't feel any rush to get momentum - early game dirty fighting and dual weapon sweep are pretty good.

^ I agree, polish / optimize the engine and go for it. EA will want to build on momentum in fact I'd be amazed if milestones weren't established a long time ago for DLC > XP > Sequel. I don't know the figures, but in my local gaming store this morning it was number 3 in the (PC) gaming chart a month after release. How's it doing on console? Anyhow, I'm pleased, it shows the still impressive market for single-player CRPGs.

Collective Farm 76 made 57,000 of those watches last month, comrade. The workers are getting some extra gruel to reward their diligence and effort for the People's Democratic Government!

The ending was great, in my humble, but for me the clue is in the word 'ending.' It's the end. Finished. Over. Epic Level DA? Hmmm. No thanks, let's have a new story set after the funeral of King Alistair (who died in the bath aged 85 staring at his navel) and just crack on as a level one whatever you are. Preferably elsewhere in Ferelden. DA is nothing like, say Baldur's Gate where at the end it was pretty clear that your story as a child of Bhaal was incomplete. One of the good things about DA is the closure. Don't spoil it.