Monte Carlo

What, by Odin's Beard, is "Dragon Age Journeys" when it's at home? Am genuinely baffled and require enlightening.

I'm as sceptical as the next person with regards to DLC. But. The economic climate is changing. The way people buy and interact with digital media is changing. Technology changes faster than a formula one car dropped off a cliff. This is the future, a sort of a la carte gaming experience where you buy into and out of different portions of a core product depending on your tastes and preferences. I see DA as a sort of hub product with different adventure products (via DLC) radiating from it. Modding adds a different dimension (release of end-user tools is an act of not inconsiderable generosity, albeit self-interested in that it adds to the longevtiy of the game). So, although I'm not entirely unsympathetic with Ramza's POV, and certainly wouldn't criticze his opinion, I can't actually agree. Because (1) this is The Future and (2) I remember all the BG 1 & 2 fans wishing something similar for that franchise almost ten years ago (the IE engine being a hub product for various D&D games). Lastly, this ain't exactly new. When Baldur's Gate 1 went gold, Tales of the Sword Coast was locked down IIRC, if not actually ready to go. Cheers MC

Hmmm, have been playing a lot of online CoH. As a complete online gaming noob, something has occured to me. I have a pretty standard broadband connection, and my last online gaming was NWN1 (which I found to be of average stability and extremely laggy)... and CoH is incredibly stable for me. A little bit of lag now and then and not one crash. Relic's servers must be made out of some amazing piece of alien metal or something. What have other's found, who has the best online gaming servers / stability? P.S. What CoH has taught me is that online gaming can be fun, albeit a bit hit and miss. It's also taught me that online RTS / wargames are gonna be my thing, not online RPG / MMORPG. Phew! Cheers MC

With regards to the Red Dragon Armour and the 'synergy' between it and ME2. Oh dear. Blimey, this game is a literal roller-coaster ride between very cool, reasonably cool, meh and utter bollocks.

@ Maria, I've not been an ass with you previously, why would I start now? Of course that wasn't aimed at you.

^ One of the things that was brilliant about them was that they made games good enough to define what was or wasn't 'traditional.' BG being a classic example, even with NWN they were going places that others thought was crazy (even though I hated the end product I'll give them that). I want to see them return to that form. Cheers MC

The reasons I liked the trailer a lot are: 1. It was purdy, very purdy. 2. It felt epic. And polished. This makes me happy. 3. This will make Maria scream, but I got more of a feel for the characters in that clip than I do from the cringe-worthy fake interviews (etc). Crazy Imoen chick talks to herself whilst slotting people like a sniper; Morrigan is like a fighter who uses magic... the look on her face is like a sergeant in an old war moive enjoying the fact that he's pinned down by enemy machinegun fire; Stenn is a machine warrior, quietly professional and not making a fuss about the carnage. As for the PC - so what? It'll be your character, fleshing him out in the trailer is superfluous. 4. Obviously it ain't gameplay footage, but that trailer gives an excellent idea of what your combat options are - shapechanging, combat styles and moves, spells, archery (etc). 5. The LotR love is too much, though, that Darkspawn mage dude was Uruk Hai. Period. Maybe they'll release a really exciting trailer full of poorly animated boobs, love by the campfire and Fakespeare cutscenes to keep the knitting circle over at the Bioboards happy later on Cheers MC

^ Ha ha ha, I liked it you didn't, quel surprise! What didn't you like about it? Fantasy-game-as-war-movie? It does focus on the OTT superhero element of the genre. As for the bland hero, well as many have said before (a) it's gonna be your hero so the generic one needn't be remarkable and (b) hey, it's a Bioware game. Cheers MC

^ Actually, the trailer was great. Memes included Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, LotR (duh), X-Men and Band of Brothers - hey look at that steadicam, impactive .50 cal spell effect. Morrigan looking sneery was great, I liked Imoen chick's Legolas impression and Sten using his sword as an escalator in the side of the dragon was a nice touch. Shame the beast only had about 12 hp. Honestly, I've kicked ten tons of merde out of this game but I liked that a lot. Cheers MC

Dunno, ridiculously over-powered gaming rig might help, not that I've a clue how it works.

^ shouldn't it be virtually locked down and waiting to go gold by this point in the dev cycle?

Wals, I'll be taking you up on that I've taken my first foray into CoH online and it hasn't been too bad, although the grinders who lure noobs into their 'noob friendly' games only to ambush them and tear them up into tiny pieces of bog roll are a bit of a pain. I've found that there are some pretty cool people out there who, like me, just like co-op versus the CPU. I still get a childish thrill dropping gliders everywhere though There are terrifyingliy pro CoH gamers out there, they invariably play as Germans and are able to build swarms of panzers in the blink of an eye. Avoid. Maybe the community isn't too feverish because the game has been out awhile, but I've been pleasantly surprised and was up into the wee small hours typing ACHTUNG PANZER!!! into the chat function. Cheers MC

Credit where credit is due, that's a really good idea. Kudos to Bioware.

Was disappointed to note that there is no "Consumed eight cases of decent red wine whilst completing game" which is my most likey achievement.

^ Yeah, the dwarf ones look like the most interesting and I like their takes on Dwarves = The Borgias. Similarly, I noted that in DA the demi-human races look very human. The elves look like humans with pointy ears; the dwarves simply stocky humans. It was obviously a conscious art direction decision, I'd be interested to know what influenced it. Cheers MC

^ Hey, if it's really good I'll get around to them. I like re-playing games. Having said that, there's one or two origins I'm very unlikely to play through.

I know I'm going to be accused of being a backwoodsman... but it's true that commercial success and popular appeal erodes and destroys all sorts of cultural endeavours. It's particularly egregrious in gaming. However, it also depends which side of the divide you're on. For example, I really can't stand the theatre, mainly because you can't do a ten-handed slo-mo gunfight on Broadway, or a carchase, or a siege. So movies are for me. Sixty or seventy years ago theatre people were aghast at cinema, it really was barbarians at the gates. People who hate comics wish that folks would also read books, but the two happily co-exist (doesn't take a squillion dollars to write / develop a comic). Haute cuisine lovers hate McDonalds. Coffee snobs hate Starbucks. Yadda yadda yadda. So you win some, you lose some. As CRPGs become progressively crappier, I move onto other genres and games. The wheel will turn and hopefully smaller indie developers will prosper like the humans in a Terminator movie. I think technology will make that viable, and FWIW I will aggressively support smaller developers as much as I can. Cheers MC

^ Let's face it, we'll play through a couple of times and watch the others on YouTube or something. In other news, Exposition-Imoen Chick NPC is at it again. "This is Denerim blah blah blah."

^ By current standards, 'difficult' usually equates with not having a SPESHUL POWA marked 'WIN' on the toolbar.

So, they liked the 'climate' of Dragon Age. Does it come with a heater, a pina colada and a pair of sunglasses?

I don't often play games online / multiplayer. However, I am so smitten with CoH that I was wondering if anybody here was up for a game? I'm really easy to beat, utterly rubbish at MP and honestly it'd be practice for you. Although I have been practicing a Goliath rush-tactics trick that might be fun in a 2000lbs of high explosive kinda way. Send me a PM if you're game. Cheers MC

Been lurking on this thread and not commenting because (a) I've not played Mass Effect, (b) I'm unlikely to and © I know I'd hate it. However, I rolled a natural '1' on my WILL save when I saw this question and thought I'd reply. Bioware is the most famous and prolific CRPG developer out there. Bar none. It's like there were only three restaurants in the world and one of them was McDonalds. Thing is, Bioware used to make really good games (this is what a lot of the Bio scepticism is about, BTW). Then success reared it's ugly head. For a lot of us, NWN1 was the knife in the back because it was so freaking awful, and not what was promised. Their success turned them into the Borg of CRPG-dom, the Micro$oft of gaming. EA FFS? So, it's a love / hate thing. We all want Bio to 'come home' with Dragon Age, time will tell (although I think they'll be lucky to make it halfway, I'll be happy with 60%). As for Mass Effect, I haven't played it but the reviews and screenies scream console-orientated, linear, not-my-cup-of-tea meh. None of this, by the way, should detract from the commercial success that Bio has enjoyed. I think Greg and Ray deserve every penny, I honestly do. It's just that a lot of people who were with them at the start (i.e. customers) felt an affinity with the company that was lost after NWN1. In fact, I suspect that some Biowarians feel that the passion the company evokes is a part of that success, be it positive or negative. If there's one thing worse than people talking about you, it's people not talking about you. Cheers MC

I'd forgotten quite how good the main theme to was. Cheers MC

The thing is, my 'puter us defaulting to the one functioning card so I can still do stuff. Problem is, I'm missing the raw power of running everything with all video options maxed out. I know, poor old me. Cheers MC

^ Hey I think we are posting at the same time. See above, there is a anti-civilian case the cards are ensconced in. If I touch it I reckon a huge stone ball will chase me through my house with darts shooting at me and stuff.