Monte Carlo

^ Spell Spammer My team heroically fixed bayonets and charged, like the heroic but doomed halfwits we are.

^ I loved the Deep Roads, they could have been twice as big but with more battles like the one on the bridge. Am a bit disappointed that there isn't more variety of Darkspawn Enemies, that would be my only criticism...

I'm currently playing a dual-wield warrior (Human) and it's a pretty good build - I'm keeping DEX & STR on a par (OK, dex a bit higher) and wearing fairly heavy armour - feats like Punisher (comfortably achievable by level 9/10) are great for finishing off tough boss monsters and dual-weapon sweep is great for post-spell crowd control / putting critters out of their misery. I burn through stamina so have to pick and choose when I use them but my passive DW skills make up for it in that I'm dishing out decent baseline damage anyway. Ironically, he survives longer in combat than my walking panzer sword and shield guy, even when Sten is with me as the only other tank. Go figure. If you put Wynne and Sten together they're not a bad combo - Wynne keeps him (and everybody else) alive whilst Sten can put down large amounts of damage. It's just not optimal. I'd say, having tried out all three, the DW warrior is my fave build - haven't got to DW Mastery yet so I can use two full-size weapons but there are lots of decent daggers anyway. DW Warrior, therefore, has it all - high DPS, survivability and interesting skills that stun / knockdown / lacerate opponents. I've not yet enchanted any weapons beyond +2 electricity, but that will only add to the carnage. Cheers MC

Dragon Age (dual-wielding Human warrior - very good option) Company of Heroes (Wehrmacht or US airborne, baby!) That is all I've got time for, both are excellent, up-all-night games for totally different reasons. CoH is the only MP game I've ever fallen for. MC

I saw the THQ package in my local store for a silly cheap price... was going to get it for Titan Quest and XP. Is it any good?

There needs to be some gimped spells to reign in the uber-power of mages. I refer you back to my experimental re-specc of Morrigan, which I deleted because it was too easy. And now I've got Volourn on 'ignore' I can say this - the metric to determine the 'difficulty slider' on a game shouldn't be which class you choose - at the moment it's EASY (Mage) NORMAL (Warrior) and HARD (Rogue). Cheers MC

Before this thread gets locked down due to size, I thought I'd play cultural influence spotting. Dave Gaider really has been an intellectually superior Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms) with DA:O and I salute him for it. Although I'm not a big Codex reader in the game, there's clearly a lot going on "under the hood" that you pick up by osmosis - the hallmark of a superior homebrew RPG setting. It is, however, a bit all over the place but hey, it's a game. --- DA:O Cultural Influence Spotting --- The Tevinter Imperium (Rome with a smattering of Byzantine Empire / late Ottoman Turkey) fades as it gorges on Blood Magic (i.e. pagan worship and decadence) that gives way to a shaky but growing world religion (The Chantry) that wants to curb paganism (magic). Meanwhile, in Dark Ages / Celtic Ferelden (Tolkien's Rohan filtered through Welsh and Irish mythos) they've developed high medieval armouring technology, probably due to the dwarves and magic. The Darkspawn is Revelations writ large, every early Christian's worst end-of-days nightmare. The warring Banns are straight out of late Dark Ages Briton or even high medieval Scotland. The architecture in most chantry buildings can be seen in Canterbury Cathedral, about 60-odd miles from where I live. Meanwhile, in faraway Qunnari land, a mystical, technologically advanced people with a rigid theological doctrine (er, the Almohads advancing on Poitiers, or the Turks advancing on Constantinople if you want to factor in the cannon) scare the Franks (sorry, Fereldens). Any takers?

Does that mean lots of cliched NPCs with laser guns can be recruited to fight the Darkspawn? Because that would be so cool my head would like explode. Or something.

^ I'm familiar with the argument, which is about as valid as burning left-handed people at the stake. In the UK the game has an '18' (adult) certificate anyhow. "Don't look son, he's left-handed!"

DA2 should be called Dragon Age: Deities, where you become a god and build cities, transport infrastrucure, power, light transit networks and culture / entertainment facilities for the people of Ferelden. You can then post your virtual Ferelden on a special website with all the other virtual Fereldens and argue about who has the biggest Chantry / aqueduct / tavern.

Hey, they had a Gay romance in a game and guess what? The sky didn't fall in. Obviously, I'd rather there were no romances for anybody whatsoever, but at least I'm completey equal opportunities about that

^ Ostagar, not (I think) Orzammar. Y'know, the place where you join the Wardens.

Er, bags of holding hold more than ten items. Alan, go on admit it, it was a bit of a mistake.

--- Rucksacks in Dragon Age --- LOL, this is easily the most obtuse decision I've ever seen in a CRPG. Inventory and loot is basics in a game like this, it's like gimping healing potions or crafting. It's not entirely ruining it for me, I've become like one of those TV style gurus who implore us to throw away any item of clothing I haven't worn for six months. No, the bit that gets me is the cost of rucksacks. It can't be one of those hilarious, paranoid anti-DLC arguments where they will eventually charge you RW money for them - heck the modders will probably sort this or the developers could have made rucksacks dirt cheap. If indeed there is some sort of technical reason (ha ha ha) why they didn't work then double the argument to make them dirt cheap. As it is, I can buy a beautifully crafted suit of armour more cheaply than a bag made out of hide with some straps on it. For chrissakes, I'm not precious about immersion but sheesh...

^ I found the Knight-Commander's helm for the first time, tucked away in a crate in the courtyard in front of the Tower of Ishal. Too late for the backpacks, sadly.

Er, isn't there only one merchant in Ostagar? He's never had backpacks in stock when I've played that part of the game.

The holy grail of decent CRPG goodness, and what makes BG1 & BG2 so awesome.

How many times will you ask that? *** DW Warrior (builds used / what worked / progression?)

^ You have to deploy units for mutual support - StuG is great for blowing up bloody great holes in defences and area effect damage / supression... but they are very vulnerable to infantry with sticky bombs, PIAT or bazooka. Try building a couple of halftracks and putting some infantry with MG42s in the back - this is a cheap and mobile supression platform against enemy infantry (you can also reinforce from the half-track, an under-used but very handy ability). Alternatively, flakpanzers are good for this, they shred infantry. Lastly, always have a sneaky Goliath lurking to the rear. When you see enemy infantry, rush forward with your StuG to draw fire (it will last longer), of course if you are playing with a team-mate using panzer elite you will have a Tiger recovery vehicle right behind it repairing it in the field... when the inf take the bait flank with your halftracks and suppress or storm in with your flakpanzer. The StuG can then blast the area with those slow moving high explosive rounds. If a fresh AT blob appears, especially rangers, and whilst they scent blood... zip the Goliath in - by this point, even if they see it and shoot it, it will explode and take out 3/4 of the blob, which can be mopped up with your halftracks. This sort of gameplay is where CoH shines, especially in MP when you have team mates putting the pressure on, allowing you to develop tactics that might be too fiddly in a 1V1 game.

Hmmm, I think the final shapeshifting power turns you into a swarm of crazy insects doesn't it? Am unhappy that you have to have a point in shields as human noble.

OK, how do we feel about the following? *** DW Warrior (builds used / what worked / progression) *** 2H Warrior builds (ditto) - I found them so sloooow *** Archer Warrior build - possibly the most contentious given the melee heavy nature of this game - is there any point, at all, in having a warrior go down the archer route and what party would best support him? *** Jack-of-all-trades warrior build - has anyone experimented with a warrior who has taken melee and ranged skill trees? What worked, and was the character slightly gimped? Cheers MC

How do you unlock blood mage?

There is, although it is tricky. i had maxed out Coercion, by the way... Here's how: SPOILER

^ Ha ha quite correct, am thinking of re-gimping her and taking full shapechanger route for a bit more of a challenge!

Er, re-specced Morrigan just before she hit the modest level 8, pumped magic to 35 and took the full fire magic route. Ahem. It's sick. No wonder people are finishing the game with 1 x mage & 1 x rogue! And it's not as if I've made the game 'easier' as I only ever have one spellcaster in my party (it would be too easy with two) and that could have been a built-from-scratch PC mage. Cheers MC