Nepenthe

How many recent Bioware games have you played, again?

Yeah, do all you can to make the new member feel welcome. Ah, the ultimate in PC gamer elitism. The guy who joined two years ago is "the new member"

As usual, Eurogamer is pretty much on the money: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-...-arrival-review 5/10 seems more relative (in comparison to the main game and especially LotSB, as pretty much spelled out in the game) than absolute - at least I enjoyed it somewhat more than that. Or, could be the inverse, it really is 5/10, but because of my investment into the franchise, I was willing to forgive the less-than-stellar (made by a literal B-team) effort just for the story implications. And I didn't mind the "forced choice" either, because I'm glad that, just for once, Shepard doesn't have an easy way out. The choice "that is made for you" is literally the only option he has at that moment.

Excellent piece of news. While this has been a source of amusement, this is just wrong... You can't rate individuals on a team effort. Establishments of education over the world disagree with you.

I'm guessing blowing up a mass relay would require at least one dreadnought, if not an entire fleet, and the Council would never allow such a fleet to enter the Terminus systems since it would trigger an intergalatic war (and that's content saved for ME 5, 6 and 7). Well, as mentioned in Arrival, conventional wisdom is that mass relays are indestructable. The Mu relay from ME1 was blown out of its system by a supernova. That's not even half of it. See above. Apart from the fact that nobody but Cerberus and Shepard even perceive the Collectors as a problem.

Better than Overlord, worse than LotSB. Play Arrival and find out.

Not always, but it could be bugging. I had at least one special dialogue option show up with the olive branch. But yes, generally all special dialogue options, whether stance-based or completion of a previous quest are marked with the star.

The tone you "mostly" use opens up new conversation options in some dialogues (not necessarily the same ones - it's often the lower left-hand corner one) and affects your "non-chooseable" lines across the board. I don't think it's class related, at least haven't heard/noticed that myself.

It's been rock-solid for me (a surprise in itself, considering what I'm running), so I can't help you there. DX11 issues?

Yes, but the main "give" is a new teammate and a new SMG, neither of which will net you much joy post-completion. The mission itself is fine, albeit very short (pretty much standard loyalty mission length, imo, so ymmv), and the major part of its innovations were rolled into later DLC (really just a charitable way for saying flashbang using enemies).

That's because you're _halfway_ through it. The ending is kinda disappointing, after Act 2. Too bad it's buggy for you. I went through with only one crash in 30 hours, and had only one bug... the only one that seems to be universal. If crashes are the issue (and not in-game bugs), it's kind of the be expected when playing a game with a multicore minspec on a single core rig.

Yeah, I wasn't really planning on visiting these forums any further, nor had I any illusions that I could get an alternative mode of thinking into your thick skulls (ironic, considering the subject matter of the game). /exit

hmmm, what you just did is called everyone in this thread liars I see contradictory points in your post No, I just read the thread and the two people who apparently were playing the game seemed to agree with me. Obviously it is just my subjective opinion, any name-calling I will result to will be directed solely at you. And maybe some moderators, who appear to be enforcing a culture that is against the written CoC of the forum. Somebody asked me about the level of polish, I ran into 1 definite in-game bug, 1 possible loot drop bug (I could have just missed it) and had 1 crash during the ~40 hours (I replayed a section - and no, it wasn't a completionist run). The scripting bugs of Origins are well documented, and I had about bihourly crashes with it (mostly related to the automatic screen capping system bugging somehow, apparently), just for comparison.

After scanning the thread briefly, it looks like you guys are still going on with your circle jerk. Hence, my thoughts will be brief: I have no completed my first playthrough of the game (37h17min for those of you counting). My initial impressions are that it is a very good game, much better than DAO and much more RPG than ME(2). I'm still not sure just how impressive the C&C is - certainly based on one playthrough it's considerable, more so than in any Bioware game I have played before, but it could just be brilliant railroading on their part. Hat's off to them, no matter which it was. The combat is fun, but the multiclass combo system seems like a pain to set up. The major thing I would mark points down for the game would be the area recycling (and, I can't help but feel that the whole time jump storyline is an excuse to recycle major areas 3-4 times, as well). I can't remember the last time a game has managed to surprise or even shock me. This game managed to do it multiple times. I can't bring myself to give this game a 10 due to the abovementioned area recycling (and occasional tunnel running that borders on tedious, never quite reaching into it unlike DAO did). 9/10. Now back to your mathematical X > * equations...

I think the idea is that you can only do combos between characters this time around. That all the three classes have a special "state" in which they put enemies, which the other two classes can take advantage of. Also, I believe finishing animations are out. Still a couple of hours away from getting it myself.

Strange, that seems a lot more strategic and tactical than DAO ever did.

Classy. I could probably get him some jail time for that around here.

I lack a reference point, I've never even tried any of the other facebook games. None of my friends have been in the closed beta, so it tends to be 5-10 minutes of activity and then waiting for the 6 default NPCs to regen. It smacks heavily of them trying to sell you "crowns" (which are a currency for special upgrades and resetting immediately the abovementioned regen cooldowns) for cash money. Mostly just a treadmill of turn-based combat encounters, where enemies show up in waves. Somewhat addictive, and I like a bit of turn-based every now and then. But I doubt that people with my initial positive feeling would like it even to the degree I do. Not sure if I'll play it at all now that I have all the unlocks - certainly not before the beta ends... So, I guess, worth a try if you like turn-based combat and flash-based FB games.

I've heard a Steam rumor, but nothing else.

They've certainly reached new heights with the amount of "unlockable bonus content". I haven't bought anything that would give me extra stuff, I haven't gotten the game yet and yet my bioware social profile tells me: Ivo Family Crest Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Air of Confidence Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Evra's Trophy Belt Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Evra's Might Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Blood Dragon Armor Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Of Things Not Lost Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Hindsight Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info The Far Cliffs of Kirkwall Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Lothering's Lament Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Hayder's Razor Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info Staff of Parthalan Dragon Age II PC/Mac More Info :D

Mass Effect 2 styles basically. They did recycled the mails (and the jokes in the mails) after all. I dunno, I always got dialogue in ME2. In DAO, no (and entertainingly, a lot of those quests were bugged, so if you did initiate by finding the "item", you couldn't finish it).

You'll have to wait for the Let's Play. Who's doing the Let's Play again? Since I just got an info on my preorder that they are "still waiting for product", I think all of you will have played it before I get it. If there's a snafu with my SE, this will be the third Bioware Special Edition version of a game that won't be available on release day - in a row.

For some reason, I find myself going to the Eurogamer.net reviews. I think there's a certain Britishness in the writing (that I enjoy immensely), and they tend to have what I view as a pretty balanced viewpoint (at least into the kinds of games I'm interested in). I wish I could have the same faith as Monty. I don't think there's anyone here who I'd ask for a game recommendation (I haven't had the time to take CoH for a spin - that might change).

I'm glad your crystal ball has told you that, since you can't play an uncracked version before Thursday. Unless he's proxied into a region that can. Or is playing on a console. See, I know I shouldn't post when hungry.

I'm glad your crystal ball has told you that, since you can't play an uncracked version before Thursday.