Niten_Ryu

There were no tough moral choices in DA but I don't think it's even possible to create 'em for me, or to anyone who roleplay their characters. Of course one could roleplay total neurotic character who'd doubt EVERY choice in the game, no matter how trivial. For my Dwarven rogue commoner, utilitarian option was always there, as clear a day and choices were really easy to make. For my disgrunted and disfigured mage there was often "positive" choice or no choice at all. I couldn't figure out how to make worst choice for example in Orzimmar dwarven chantry quest. In the end, I didn't turn in that quest at all. Now you could get dwarf killed in the end credits if you choose to turn in that quest, but that's metalore. Same for all those o'bag sidequests. Didn't have effect on one way or the other. Should have gut those cheap bastards for giving me only few pitiful gold.

How about morally ambiguous MoH: Iran-Contra First DLC - The Tower Commission

What would CRPGs be without that brilliant feature. Enemies positioned so good that Carl von Clausewitz himself would be proud and you just happen to wander right into most unoptimal position imaginable. I couldn't stop laughing on some of the Dragon Age encounters.

These sales are great. Consoles make sure that game tech can't move forward untill next generation. All game released untill then are more or less equal how powerful computer you need. It also means that it's better to wait these great deals then to buy game right away (unless of course you really want some game like I did with Dragon Age... stupid me, as it was just 3 weeks later 25% off on Steam).

Mirror's Edge 3,74

I love how some like to blame democracy when they get "poor" choice by majority vote. Tyranny by majority is interesting end result of the democracy. Vote was close this time and will be overturned in near future as immigrant populations are getting bigger and bigger in Europe. Ottoman Empire and Moors tried and failed but time is running out of Europe fast. We're too liberal and kind (me included) and thus those who are not will be the winners.

And why is that? From Gold Box games till Icewind Dale 2, default party size was 6. Sure there were four party member configurations like in Eye of the Beholder. Games like Jagged Alliance had 8 person party. I could be wrong but Bioware moved to max 4 man party with NWN because of 3rd edition rules (was something about encounters are balanced for 4 person party who use certain % of their spells, skills and resources). Mass Effect has 3 person groups. World of Warcraft have 5 person groups, 10 person small raids and 25 person large raids. Actually I think 6 person party could work fine in game like Dragon Age, especially if designers could plan encounters for 2 tank, 2 dps and 2 mage configurations. Sure you could still do 3 mage party but it wouldn't be as overpowered as it's now.

Just finished 2nd run. Dragon Age has definately been worth the money (first run was nearly 80 hours and second was about 50 hours) but I think I've reached my limit and I won't do another run in the near future nor even check rest of the origin stories. Unlike in most games, first run was better for in Dragon Age. Rogue was a gimp in combat but from roleplay perspetive it worked much better. Mage was more fun to play because of better combat mechanics but it didn't help much sice there wasn't any challenge at all, even on nightmare difficulty. Game didn't allow my kind of "chaotic stupid" character, unlike in majority of the most CRPGs. I guess Bioware did listen their fans I'm not sure how'd I rate Dragon Age as there haven't been too many modern CRPGs. Because of technical design limitations, lack of balance (especially since it's original IP ) and boring world, I'd give it 7/10, but if those issues don't bother you, then it'd be 8.5 or maybe even 9. I hope that Dragon Age continues to sell ok, as it might encourage some other developer to create party based CRPG.

If it ain't easy, it should be easy and someone has made bad design choices with the engine. Disable "banter" triggers globally. Then again, I think I hate Dragon Age engine even more then Gamebryo so it'd only make sense if something as simple as that would be hidden under tons of code

Speaking of vampires - Like Conan O'Brien say, there's huge vampire boom going on right now. True Blood, Vampire Diaries and Twilight movies. Bloodlines happend few years too early

Both games are nearly equally uninteresting but solid bargain bin material. Maybe Elder Scrolls V if they don't use Gamebryo engine anymore and/or have better writing (I won't hold my breath).

I just can't seem to find the world of Dragon Age interesting. I'm near the Landsmeet on my second run but I haven't felt this indifferent about the settings world since the Morrowind. I felt same way about Mass Effect too but finally got into that world a bit during my second run in that game. I guess Bioware just design their original IPs so that they don't feel interesting to me. Then again, I like most of the companions in Dragon Age. They have that absurd, out-of-the-place "buffy the vampire slayer" thing going on - You can chat with 'em casually even when they are burning and bloodied. Alistairs "gay ramp" hairsyle to Stens ideas of sexual encounters. All campy and funny. I couldn't stop laughing when Alistair got into rant mode and started to accuse me of just about everything (might have something to do with -100 reputation or maybe some of choices I made in Redcliffe). In context of games plot the rant was so bizarre and absurd that it was quality humour.

From publishers perspective it'd be stupid to release expansion pack. Expansion pack is

I'd be very suprised if there wouldn't be team already working on Dragon Age 2. Solid 2 years of crappy DLC, then sequel. While graphics quaility is poor, it's still works in this generation of consoles. Personally I'd expect much shorter main campaign for the sequel but much more optional DLC that increase overall lenght of the game.

It's best to think these games as (semi)interactive versions of Michael Bay movies. Sure he makes movies but he could be scene creator rahter then director. Nor do his movies have to make sense and still millions of people want to see 'em.

edit - double post

I wonder - How far you could take this? Let's use Dragon Age as example. Normal game

Oh look at that. Another worthless DLC I was actually happy that stayed dead and didn't return as some type of tvtrope cliche way. Hopefully Bioware is smart enough to resist that in this DLC.

Origins are fun fluff for players like me who do multiple runs. I bet we are very tiny minority and I'd expect someone high up in EA's hierarchy fuming about this issue of wasted development resources I would have cut origins down to 3, chopped about 50% of the combat encounters (and 75% near the end) and merged warrior and thief in one class. Also I would have merged 3 different talent trees into 2 (thus creating more powerful talents for melee). Mage, as a class, is fine if not compared to much weaker warrior and rogue. If you do compare to 'em, mage is stupidly overpowered but from game mechanics point of view mage is fun class to play. Started mage origin run on nightmare difficulty. So far (I'm currently at level it has been much much more easier then my dwarven commoner rogue run on hard difficulty. I actually had to check several times if I'm playing on nightmare difficulty because encounters felt so easy. AoE, healing and CC make all the difference.

Pandemic offically axed. Say hello to Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood and others in the void I bet someone is not happy at EA. They wanted Bioware but had to buy Pandemic too

Just finished the game. I think total playtime was about 80 hours, with majority of the side quests done. I skipped few in the end because of the roleplaying reasons as it was suggested that I was in hurry. Probably game wouldn't have advanced even if I'd choose to do those last side quests. Then again, those quests and many other side quests were your typical MMOG fedex quests so I don't think I missed much. Definately a very long game. I might write review later on, but lets put few things in here. Dragon Age is extremely combat heavy game. To the point where even gamer like me, who has several top level characters in various MMOGs (all inactive now), gets overdose. I think at least 50% of the combat encounters could have been cut on editing stage. Endless waves of zero challenge thrash mobs get old really fast, especially toward the end. Got bit same feeling as in KotOR 2, but thankfully Dragon Age had better ending. From roleplaying perspective this game was great for me. Most of the choices I wanted to make were available. Even the end. I chose . Based on how I played the game and choices I made, I couldn't have asked better ending.

My dwarven commoner rogue is now level 18 and unfortunately I found out that difficulty of the game goes down (on just about all type of party configurations) after level 12 or so. What's strange is that traditional AD&D games break down around those levels too. Game mechanics and combat mechanics are nothing like AD&D (at least pre 4th edition, dont know nothing about that one) but same thing happens. Weird. I've kept difficulty at hard all the time and I'm not going to change it untill next run. Now I just let computer handle NPCs and control my own character and zerg rush most of the encounters. Also tiny apology to Bioware. I was sure that Shale would be seriously underdeveloped character compared to rest of the party members but she seem to comment on various situations as much as the rest of the gang.

Like I've said before, Modern Warfare and now Modern Warfare 2 are probably games that define this generation of games. They certainly are not games for me, but they are games for the majority. Activision hit the sweet spot and EA got left behind. Now EA tries to resurrect their Medal of Honor brand

Vanguard learnt a lot of new tricks. That interupt system worked great on that Salarian video. I love how pissed off Shepard is all the time