Monte Carlo

^ Hmmm, I followed the dialogue option that allowed him to stay, I just asked him very nicely at swordpoint to moderate his prices. The lack of merchants is a bit of a problem, am buying hundreds of flasks to make potions!

^ That's not entirely fair, in fact the tactics slots allow you to tab fairly simple AI models to the NPCs (scrapper, defender etc). I've not really tinkered with the tactics slots yet, only assigned three or four actions but if left to their own devices Morrigan does crowd control, Sten activates his 2H weapon feats in a non-annoying way and Imoen Elf chick (please can another rogue come along soon?) switches naturally between archery and melee when approached. Cheers MC

Alan, I think you'll agree I've been pretty positive about the quality of the DLC and I'm not that bothered about the rather outre marketing of it within the game. All in all, for me, I've been a model of fairness. I'm just trying to see it from the other guy's POV. XPs used to come out after the main game (TotSC is an excellent example, even if it was made at the same time as the main product - look how it bashed down the fourth wall by taking you back before you completed the main game!). Everybody was on the same page and had done broadly the same things. Of course, this is only noticeable in gaming communities like this, if I chose not to go online to discuss games I'd not be bothered by what anyone else was doing. These people are the mainstream majority. So this is new and there are birth pains. In a couple of years time everyone will be wondering what the fuss is about. Cheers MC

It took me just over an hour, it's two-and-a-bit (small) dungeons, two interesting characters with lots of dialogue which I more or less went through. The loot is good - especially the armour for your tank fighter. The special abilties are neat, would suit a rogue very nicely, augmenting melee combat abilities. They have a sort of nasty supernatural theme. All in all, yeah it could have been a bit longer but then again the vanilla game is massive and the guys who put this together did a pretty good job, they should make more modules. Bottom line? This cost me the same as a pint-and-a-half of beer in a pub. So it's perfectly good value for money IMO. Cheers MC

^ Soldier's Keep isn't particularly long, but the story is interesting, you get to make some meaningful choices and there's some moral ambiguity around the history of the Grey Wardens. Plus did I mention how nice my new armour looks? And there's about 3/4 of a level's worth of experience in it. The skill tree reminds me of the Slayer in BG2. It would complement the Reaver warrior sub-class I'm considering.

Seriously, even I, lover of BG and TB games, had forgotten the patience required for this type of thing. I've been Neverwintered into letting my party get on with it. It feels good to be back the way I like it.

^ Vol, try to look at it this way... extra content, encounters and items? Cool. Unique and (frankly) twinky skill tree unique to that product? You can see why some people might freak.

I've articulated my (mixed) views on the effect the Soldier's Peak bonuses you can get in my dedicated DA thread, it's slightly but not totally spoilerish. Some people will freak when they see the twinky skill tree you get for spending the extra money.

*** OK Soldier's Peak spoiler *** I'll be general. In SP, there is an item that you can use which opens up a pretty cool new skill tree for your character. Hint - your achievement is called 'Diabolist' (obviously a homage to the game ) OK, there's a DLC debate going on elsewhere, but at this stage I'm in possession of one set of uber-cool armour (looks cool, is cool), a sword, a mage's staff and a boatload of experience. The combat to win this stuff wasn't particularly challenging, although I've not yet completed the boss-fight. There's no getting away from it - buying DLC means your game pans out differently - I have skills and items that will impact on the wider game to my advantage. Cheers MC

Yeah the inventory is a pain if you're a bit of a packrat. The only way to deal with it is to be brutal, I sell everything at the moment, and TBH it's not like you can make lots of money (and I'm level , all my cash goes on healing poultices and injury kits. I can only gaze longingly at all the Gucci armour and kit I'll never be able to afford ::sniff:: *** SOLDIER'S PEAK TEENSY SPOILER *** After my, ahem, issues with a certain creature in the werewolf ruins I thought I'd go to Soldier's Peak to toughen up a bit and see if there was any lewt to be had. It's rather good, I'm getting a Where Eagles Dare vibe with nazis replaced by undead and a pinch of Durlag's Tower. It's worth the four quid I paid for it. Cheers MC

I'm opening a book on when somebody mods a bag of holding.

^ @ virumor. honestly, you kill me.

Sure, every game has unintended tactics that = win button. BG1 - archery, cloudkill cheeze, backstab BG2 - sequencers, horrid wilting cheeze And so on. FWIW, I'm pleasantly surprised by the combat, I'm just not sure that the skill trees are particularly intuitive. This game would have rocked if on day one the design team had envisaged a game without classes and let me make a warrior with a bit of stealth and a couple of spells.

***SPOILER*** . . . . . . . . . . . Anybody care to share dragon-slaying tactics, level 7/8 party, werewolf ruins?

^ You're just teasing me, aren't you?

Trying that with level 7 & 8 party - got my arse handed to me, I'm coming back later!

How does the stealthed-up rogue avoid triggering the rambling, exposition-laden cutscenes? I can see that being a nightmare. Rogue is my favourite class, and in DA I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole. Apart from not being able to bash up locked containers, I'm not missing being a rogue. In fact, if you made DA classless and allowed people mix and match skill trees it would be an even better game for me.

Sorry to repeat myself (esp. to Slowtrain because we mentioned this recently)... Tales of the Sword Coast was locked down when BG1 went Gold. There was the mystery space for disk 7 when the game was released. TotSC was announced as indecently fast as a guy bedding a widow at the wake. It wasn't a scandal, it was an XP. The delivery method has changed, that game was released during the Reign of Dial-Up internet connection. As Hurlie says, it's the way you present the product, not the method. And, yeah, Bio and EA are being pretty in-your-face about it. But I always said that about Bio. It just doesn't really bother me, but understand why it would others. Cheers MC

OK, a question. What does "120 Fatigue" (40 in reserve) mean? Anyway, am kicking the snot out of werewolves, hit level 7 and couldn't unlock any specialist classes, I want to be a Reaver. How do I do that? Spoils plz. Cheers MC

Heh, just found myself back in agreement with Hurlie again. Which was a relief.

Good point. I've got to level 7 in Dragon Age and encountered one trap. And I'm not even sure a rogue would have spotted it or even been able to disarm it. In a combat RPG the rogue should be a 'light fighter' / scout / archer / commando type. Almost a ranger but without the nature schtick. DA, so far, doesn't provide enough opportunity for the rogue to shine. I'm hoping by the time I pick up the elf assassin bloke I'll have a tough enough party to explore the classes usefulness in this game. As it is, at low levels, the rogue is the DA version of the vanilla 2E AD&D mage. Hopeless. OTOH my fighters absolutely rock and even the mages are life-savers (that frost spell Morrigan has is brilliantly overpowered for the level / cooldown time). Cheers MC

^ Although I couldn't disagree with you more regarding combat in this game, I take your point. The new patch makes it a smidge easier on normal, much easier on easy. Think about it - in so many games over the past 10 years grinding and speed-bump combat encounters have been screensavers. You could go and make a cup of tea, chat with the postman, answer the phone. Come back and your party is standing there surrounded by corpses. Now those same encounters in DA are difficult and the learning curve for atrophied combatants (i.e. most of us) is steep. DA combat hinges on (1) having a melee meatshield, with stacks of armour, to draw the majority of the bad guys (hell there are even skills that allow you to play duty target for the rest of your party), (2) another melee dude to dish out more punishment, a spellcaster for riot control / healing and either (a) another tank or (b) another healer or © just the dog for chrissakes, he's excellent dump all his stats in STR and watch him charge people. Tactics also involves a fair bit of kiting and, yes, running away. And it does take a while to get back into it, personally kudos to Bio for risking it. Given you like so much else about DA why not just turn the game difficulty down to Casual for the grinding / speedbump encounters and then whack it back up when you start finding it too easy. It's your game, why not? Look at it from my POV: I love the combat to bits but find the dialogue and cutscenes really, really painful. You've done better out of this game than me Cheers MC

About 70% of the long conversation cutscenes are as dreadfully oppressive, long and occasionally tedious as I feared. They are getting in the way of the game.

I hope rogues are fixed in either a patch or modded. They don't need to be tank fighters, but a bit more ooomph wouldn't go amiss. Was planning on dwarven commoner rogue but the class is so gimped am giving it a miss.

OK, of course I restarted bit with the same origin. I rushed through to the Tower of Ishtar just to get a grip on the game then realised I wanted to do it again more thoroughly. I'm getting to grips with tactics - and rogues aren't really coming into it. Two sword and shield fighters, a two-handed lunatic hiding behind them but stepping forward to lay on some serious smackdown and a mage on buffing and crowd control will kick the snot out of most combat scenarios. Rogue? Hmmm. Poisons are nice, archery is very average. Dirty fighting? Hmmm yet to be impressed when compared with the ownage of shield bashing (etc). Most annoying feature? You can't bash chests. I'm guessing it was the only way of tempting people to take the totally underwhelming rogue class. Cheers MC