Azure79

Diablo 3. I've tried the TES games starting from Morrowind and the initial idea was exciting, but I quickly found myself bored and the game seemed to have no point. Never finished Morrowind or Oblivion, but I did enjoy Fallout 3, so its a maybe. Diablo 3 is definitely a must buy. I enjoy the setting and I'm interested into where they're taking the story after the 3 prime evils have supposedly been destroyed (or banished back into Hell). Of course it will eventually turn into a click fest, but I've always greatly enjoyed my few initial playthroughs of D1 and D2.

Get Batman, its well worth it.

Slug: Sorry you feel that way. I'm really enjoying the game, but I've been craving a strong single player RPG for a while now and DA hit the spot for me. Could you elaborate on what you mean by quest structure? Are you talking about having to go to 4-5 different places and solve everyone's problems to advance the main plotline type structure?

Tom Selleck in his Magnum P.I. days is the definite winner here.

Ah, I did not know that. When I walked into that room with Ser Cauthrien, I did think how in the world I was going to beat all those soldiers, mages and a 'boss' character. It didn't seem possible, but thanks to some bad AI, blizzard and waking nightmare, it was easy to divide and conquer.

How well is DA doing financially? I really want the game to do well so we can see more single player RPGs come out. Probably nowhere near Modern Warfare 2, but hopefully still good across all platforms. Started another game with a Male dwarf casteless rogue. I'll have to eat my words earlier, the rogue class is actually quite fun to play.

When I played on Normal, waking nightmare seemed to work great on her. I actually ran into a semi-bug when my party killed her when she was dazed and she refused to die, just standing there with zero HP while my party attacked her for no damage. Eventually Dog did an overwhelm on her and knocked her down which killed her. But, yeah, she is artificially too overpowered.

Actually I wouldn't mind my character being whisked away to the one of the other nations in Thedas after being ambushed or something.....wait that's BG2. Well, at least then the devs won't have to worry too much about whatever political outcomes in Ferelden too much. They could just have the major triggers like who is King in Ferelden, Orzammar etc.

So how are gonna they make a sequel for this game with so many possible endings? Will Bioware just arbitrarily choose an ending for us? Or will the game take place far away from Ferelden like the Tevinter Imperium? I seem to remember reading that the origins will be expanded upon in future games, but that could be my imagination.

Fireball is the answer to all terrain

PC of course

I started a new game with a female human mage on hard, and I'm finding the game easier. I have fireball and cone of cold as my main spells at the moment, and its a deadly combo. I usually lead in with my mage and cast a well placed fireball that knocks most enemies down and puts them on fire. This usually puts all the aggro on my PC and as the enemies all rush towards her, she unleashes a cone of cold which freezes most of them. Then my melee fighters come in and mop up as my PC retreats for another well placed fireball. Its almost too effective. Maybe I'll change to nightmare.

Story wise clarify for me if you would... the big tenticle boobie boss.. from the whispers of the former capt insane dwarf you meet I though the elder dwarf I was looking for turned into that monster. That was what I thought all the hints were. Then after the monster I actually meet the elder dwarf. So... perhaps epic fail for me but I dont get the connection of the elder dwarf I was on the hunt for and boob boss...? Spoiler (should really be in the discussion thread) I think if you listen carefully, Branka says, Pretty messed up.

I finally finished the game yesterday. I don't know if its because I came back to a dramatic point in the game after a week, but the final battle was fun, but felt a little less dramatic than I was expecting. I guess its because the main antagonist always felt more like Loghain during the course of the game, and the big bad dragon was more of a far away menace that patiently waited until everything was nicely resolved before attacking. It never taunted you, or sent assassins after you or tried to seduce you with promises of power, or kill/kidnap your love interest. The other aspects of the ending I really enjoyed and I'm looking forward to starting the game again with a different origin to see how things play out. I think I'll play every origin first before deciding. The first time I just jumped in with the human male noble.

I can definitely see the potential in that party. I think my biggest gripe about rogues is not that they're not effective frontline fighters. I don't expect them to be. Its the general lack of options I have when I enter combat with the rogue. They are good for scouting out areas with stealth and disabling traps beforehand, but once combat is initiated they take a backseat. For one thing, they can't enter stealth again in combat mode, even if the line of sight between enemy and rogue is broken. I remember in BG, where one my favorite things to do was micromanage my thief and have him/her break line of sight, stealth and go backstab. Can't do that in DA. Of course its not as crucial in DA since backstab occurs even out of stealth, but it was fun confusing enemies and having my thief disappear and popping out to finish someone off. I think rogues should be given their own combat tree that specializes in quick in and out attacks that confuse and hamper the enemy. The reason the other trees(besides archery) don't work as well is because you need to be on the frontlines, where the rogue's who aren't defensibly equipped are quickly overwhelmed and killed. I can think of a couple. Hamstring: The Rogue flanks his opponent and delivers a blow to the legs. If hit the enemy is unable to move for the rest of the encounter, unless the injury is treated. Cripple: The rogue flanks the opponent and delivers a blow under the arm. The arm is crippled and the enemy cannot attack unless injury is treated. Confuse: The rogue uses his guile, movement and insults to confuse enemies into attacking each other. If this happens on a critical, all enemies in the immediate vicinity of the rogue attack each other for a short time. Invisibility: The rogue uses the chaos of combat and his acrobatics to make it seem like he disappeared. Enemies will lose sight of the rogue, and the rogue is free to flank, or run away to heal. Knockout: While stealthed the rogue delivers a jarring blow to the head and temporarily knocks an opponent out. I mean does it say anything when in the game a 4th tier rogue skill is 'Feign Death'?

I guess female Grey Wardens get nothing then? Male Grey Warden = canon? Well, I thought that too, but there are (BIG SPOILER)

I think you will see the Morrigan end-game content regardless of whether you romance her or not. Its part of the story and explains why Morrigan is in your party in the first place. I think she will approach your character with certain options regardless of whether you romance her or not. However, if you do romance her, that particular portion of the game is more meaningful for your character. Seems like you want to experience as much as the game allows during your first playthrough, so perhaps romancing Leliana will expose you more to the game, since I'm pretty sure the Morrigan end game content is an integral part of the story and sequels and will happen no matter what.

Have to agree with most people on the Rogue. Leliana was an archer and Zevran was a dual blade rogue. Whenever they were in my party, I spent a lot of time trying to keep them alive. I found the best party was two sword and shield fighters and two mages. I really do like scattershot though.

I didn't have any issues with the controls and I didn't use the tactical combat slots at all. I just got those skills because they were prerequisites for some other ones. My basic tactic was to first retreat, because why fight the enemy on the their ground which they prepared, with those goddamn archers and mages lurking behind barricades. I would have Morrigan throw a waking nightmare spell at the archers which made them attack the mages, and then while retreating I would have her throw a blizzard spell not on top of the enemies, but right down a path they would have to walk through. This was an excellent way of dividing their forces. My fighters would mop up any stray fighters while my mages did long distance attacks at confused archers and mages. Sleep, Waking Nightmare and Blizzard is a good combo to use.

You have to finish Redcliffe completely. That's how I got it. My character went Templar/Berserker, but I think Champion/Templar would be the most powerful combo. Templars are very effective in fights with mages and the Champion increases abilities etc. I didn't find the berserker's skills very useful. I think they were going for increased damage output at the cost of reduced defense & stamina, but enemies have so much HP anyways and they tend to swarm so basically you just die. I think a good defense is much better than a good offense in DA.

I just got to that part with Morrigan, near the ending, and it is very intriguing. Has me wondering what the inevitable sequel will be about. I would say definitely stick with Morrigan your first time around. I think it works with the story better. Leliana will definitely not give you the options Morrigan does at the end. Start spilling the beans alan. Will Superman make an appearance in the sequel?

I shut off my cell phone Friday evening and did some very long play sessions over the weekend. I'm done with collecting the armies and off to the capital for the political intrigue stuff I guess. So far DAO has been really enjoyable. I think the characters are all pretty likable, although some of them were annoying at first, they grew on me as the game progressed. I rather like the combat, although there are some areas where I think Bioware just made it so you had to use some cheap tactics. I guess the enemies scale with your party, so later on I had enemy archers positioned behind barriers or on highground, all using the scattershot ability, which auto hits, then the arrow explodes dealing damage to everyone in your party, and then stuns for a short time. Its even worse when there is a mage lurking behind them. I had to resort to running away and luring them out one by one, which always felt a little cheap to me. Its not fun when you're surrounded by rogues, and your party gets hits with 3 or 4 scattershots. I eventually found a way around this with some of the nifty mage spells and battles became a lot easier. Now that I think of it, I should make a party where everyone has scattershot and make life miserable for the enemies. I laughed when I discovered that the proprietor of the inn at Denerim was

Played for a few hours, before the responsibility part of my brain kicked in to do some work before bed time. I started as a human noble, and the origin story is pretty much what you would expect. I enjoyed it though, thought the voice acting was pretty good and it was a nice set up for the character having some personal motivation to hurt some people. I'm at Ostagar right now fighting my way through the tower and I actually managed to die a few times, until I remembered my BG game habits of keeping my party together, forming a line with my fighters and letting the magic user do his thing. I was actually quite pleased upon dying. I guess I had gotten used to just rushing in and killing everything and am anticipating some great set combat pieces later in the game. I really like the over the shoulder view for running around and exploring and the isometric view for combat. Its something I've wanted for a long time, and DAO pulls it off quite smoothly. Too bad for the console versions. I think this feature is the best part of the game so far. Ok, back to work then back to the game.

Oh Poo, Steam version unlocks in 16 hours. Well, more sleep time for me I guess. I'm going to be totally unoriginal and name Dog, Dragon.

Me too. I plan on playing SnS style, because I find the prospect of smashing enemies with a shield very enticing. How effective is the shield as a weapon and do different shields do different damage, or is it the same all around?