Monte Carlo

Am still putting in the hours and getting my ass kicked, like all truly brilliant games CoH has the ability to delight and DRIVE YOU MAD with equal measure... the design loopholes are the stuff of munchkin fantasy (engineer spam, arty spam, AT infantry blobs, panzer rush...). Am getting slowly more adept at playing, c'mon there must be a few Obsidianites here who are up for a game? Cheers MC

Best review so far... The fighter skill tree includes "Biting People's Faces Off."

Maria and / or Alan, Just a quick question, but do either of you know why the party in all the ads was chosen? That is to say Imoen Chick, Sten, Morrigan and slighty Aussie-sounding PC warrior dude? Is it the 'iconic' DA party, inasmuch as the BG version would invariably involve Jaheira, Minsc etc? Just curious, apart from Imoen Chick it's quite a cool party. Cheers MC

As if to confirm my lingering suspicions of Bioware's thirst for power, the sort of ambition that makes Microsoft look like a small suburban computer store, I noticed that they have now declared themselves a supra-national entity, second only to Hungary. There are two teams left in the competition - Hungary (go Hungary, GO!) and this new nation, "The Bioware Community." Ah, The Bioware Community, a country dominated by aggressive marketing, annoying cutscenes and people desperate to become romantically involved with computer game characters. I say we nuke the site from orbit. Cheers MC

People get confused by the United Kingdom, Great Britain and all the rest of it. I won't bore you with the Act of Union (etc), Devolution (yawn) and so on... all you need to know is that London is capital of the UK and it's in England.

Watched the intro. Why do North Americans always say "London, England"? You see, I subscribe to the view that Americans aren't thick at Geography. To the contrary, most of them know exactly where London is (although they might get confused about the status of England apropos the constitutional arrangements within the United Kingdom, for which I do not blame them at all). And in this case there was a visual clue, to wit the Houses of fricking Parliament in the background. It was hardly London Ohio or London soemwhere else was it?

Do you think we are going to see the distinction between MMOs and SP games simply vanish? You buy the core product for World of Zorg* or you DL it for free. You then pay for the MMO module with MP functionality, or the SP quest pack or the add-on NPC pack (etc). Hell, the game even upgrades itself if you subscribe. Not saying I'm liking it, but Dragon Age is quickly becoming a DLC whorefest and I'm sure EA are seeing dollar signs. It sounds like the future, which, unsurprisingly, sucks. Lots of people here tell me I'm living in the past for wanting a physical product when I buy software, being suspicious of web-purchased content, not wanting to surrender to Steam and so on... can you see where I'm coming from now? Don't get me wrong, as a way of delivering content I'm happy with the internet, I just can't get away from the uneasy feeling that the games industry has looked at user-created content and modding and thought "we can charge for that." Cheers MC * Easy, this games design, isn't it?

^ Bears, sure, but the witches have a Baba Yaga feel to them and the Beserker Lodge guys need names like Boris and Yuri.

Here in Yoorup we get it 3 days after the World's Greatest Democracy which means that they'll have finished it several times before I even install it.

If you don't like the epic schtick, just make a single class high WIS / INT / CHA whatever monk. Monks get loads of passive abilities so you can concentrate on the story rather than the fighting. Naturally, I went with a complex, munchkin weaponmaster RDD build and concentrated on the fighting, but that's just me MotB gets the official MC thumbs up. It has everything, love the Rashemen setting which sort of reminds me of Russia for some reason.

What do you rate him? Whaddya mean, out of ten? I think he's got a good heart, he's creative and he's made stuff I like. :: shrugs :: I wish him well, but that doesn't mean that I have to like everything he does.

^ sorry to disappoint, but I actually rate Dave. And I guess you have to have a bit of an ego to write, which is what he does. It's just that I don't really like Bioware's take on 'story-driven,' I find it intrusive. So maybe I'm guilty of using 'Dave' as shorthand for the Bio design ethos when I shouldn't. Cheers MC

Most people will just switch friendly fire off, although there are detailed NPC behaviour settings. I'll keep it on, it ruins it for me if my party are immune to bloody great fireballs, it's like throwing hand grenades and not having them harm you 'cos you're not a 'baddy'.

^ the GUI and radial controls for spells look very well done, am looking forward to the battles.... altho' I imagine friendly fire will be a bit of an issue.

Dragon Age's setting is fully fleshed-out and yeah, some of it will never get used but is sitting there in the background like the stock in a well-prepared broth. But... I like the gist of jjc's argument a lot. As DA stands, Dave Gaider has had the opportunity to live the Dungeon Master's dream and make the ultimate homebrew campaign world. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I get the impression that we MUST love Ferelden and it's marvellous NPCs, the games mechanics spring from this. It's the ghost in the machine. Thr NPCs are in a camp... is this a gameplay consideration or a 'LOVE THESE DEEP NPCs?' consideration? Probably a bit of both. OTOH, I love the BG series but loathe the Forgotten Realms. Go figure. It was for the reasons jjc articulated better than I could. Anyway, imagine my character is (say) the Dwarf peasant rogue dude from DA:O. Why should he know anything about anything? Why not just drop him into this huge, intricate, swirling world and see what happens? On one level the character might not be interested in legends and the Chantry and the Grey Wardens... he might just want food, loot and action. Alternatively, he might become obsessed with the minutiae and politics of the world (which is there if you wanted). He can investigate, find out more, be rewarded in other ways. As it stands, the gamer is likely to be fed Ferelden lore like a foie gras goose. I'm about to go completely off-beam now so bear with me. Do you like The Wire or Generation Kill? I do, a lot. They dump you in an alien world (a squad of American detectives, a Marine Recon platoon) and make no allowances for your ignorance of their mores. You have to catch up. You have to think (it took me until mid season-two of The Wire to figure out waht a Re-Up was). It's challenging and demanding. I know that sort of entry into a game is probably a bit too strong, but to capture the essence of the approach in a CRPG would be deeply cool. I'm not a Planescape fan, but this was one of the things it did well, and allowed me to discover at my own pace. Shame there wasn't any action to get in the way but that's another story. Cheers MC

Perhaps, but hardly true of the movies quoted - for example Star Wars is one of the most obsessively detailed settings ever and is all the duller for it. We know exactly who Indiana Jones is (OK, elaborated over a lengthy story arc) and so on. Big Trouble in Little China is an old favourite of mine, though, and it is laden with ambiguity. In fact, Kurt Russell's character is an everyman wanderer type.

I enjoyed your post, and this bit intrigued me. Would you mind elaborating / expanding on it a little? Cheers MC

I am already hording tinned food and bottles of water, already have the Mel Max beyond Thunderdome mullet.

^ There's the future for Oz... Escape from New York but with sunburn and really bad haircuts.

"Spiritual successor to BG" equals, I would imagine: large-scale, single-player, party-based fantasy CRPG with tactical RTwP combat. Dragon Age ticks all those boxes, and yeah a lot of the BG faithful are romance-crazy and DA ticks that box too. Personally, I think it means a bit more than just that. Bio has poured more marketing energy and love into this, I think they are trying to refresh the genre on a number of levels, so in much the same way that BG took Bioware in a certain direction I think they reckon DA:O will take them in the next direction. Whatever that is, but I suspect it's original fantasy IPs / franchises with multiple spin-off products. I'm expecting to see in the future DA: Tactics (I'd buy that for a dollar), maybe a DA FPS-style console game, DA 2, 3 & 4 and maybe even a Ferelden MMO. Super Morrigan Cart on the Wii would be cool. Cheers MC

...and it has the art direction values of South Park. Did like the Gorion / Sarevok tribute at the start, though.

You'd have to be deeply in love with Dragon Age to play that flash game. However, if we were talking Dragon Age Bubble Shooter....

^ No, the attic. My version of the UK is divided, broadly, into: London (home) - dirty grubby magnificent world city that has already gone all Bladerunner on my ass The M25 Londonopolis (home-from-home) The A303 magic carpet to the West Country (home-from-home with comedy accents and nice beer, but don't stop 'til your WELL west of Swindon!) THE REST (Thar be Dragons!) Honestly, I've heard of the North of England but I'm not sure I've ever been there, although I spent ten minutes at a WH Smiths at a railway station in Manchester. Cheers MC

Yes.

^ I ordered mine from Game, with my loyalty card bonus and their sale discount it was only a couple of quid more to get the CE.