Dragon Age series

Soooo looking forward to it! It was originally slated for release last October, but they pushed it back to develop for the next gen consoles. I think it's the only game I'm really looking forward to for the rest of this year. I've got a gaming PC, so hopefully it'll play it as well as the next-gen stuff, but I'll have to wait until we get the specs. My PC plays Skyrim on Ultra with numerous graphic mods, hopefully that's enough.


1. I usually start as Rogue. DAO was mostly archer-based, where as DA2 was dual-wield melee. After that, I try out the mages. Not a big fan of the warrior ones - too slow.

2. DA:O was Dalish Elf first round. Then I found out for the ending I wanted, I picked the wrong origin - so I had to start again as a Human Noble.

3. At some point, absolutely - just probably not as my first char. The Qunari female looks bad-ass in particular.

4. Romances, ah. DA:O was Alistair - he was just too damn adorable to pass up. I've yet to get through another playthrough far enough to romance anyone, but it will be Zevran next time around. For DA2, first playthrough was Anders - mostly because I had played Awakening and liked him in that. Not sure how I felt about it, to be honest. Second playthrough was Fenris - liked that romance more. Third playthrough isn't there yet, but it'll be Lesbian!Merrill.

 

I only started playing DA:O late last year (or earlier this year), but I enjoyed it a lot. Straight-forward story and gameplay, but the world, the world! The world is absolutely fascinating. I loved learning all about its history and conflicts, but I haven't finished the game yet. I got kind of bored of the quest format and the combat somewhere around the Dalish elf quests, but I have DA II all ready and waiting to go when I do finally finish, so I can be all caught up by the time Inquisition comes out.

At first I tried playing a Dalish archer, but I got bored, so I restarted with a noble dual-wielding rogue and went most of the distance with him. I was also going to play a mage of some kind, but I finished the origin story and then wanted to change my race so I discontinued her pretty quick.

The only romance option I really felt anything for was Alistair, but as I was playing a dude, I couldn't do anything about it, so no romance for my nobleman.

 

It isn't that I don't like Anders in DA2 - I just preferred his character in Dragon Age: Awakening, so I wasn't as attached in DA2, I think.

Yes, that is my major complaint about Dragon Age: Origins - the first round of questing feels very slow. If you stick with it though, the second "half" has better pacing and is more interesting, in my opinion.

Conversely, DA2 does have faster pacing - but they did recycle environments and the world isn't as big, which disappointed fans. I still like it though. They've taken this all on board for Inquisition, so hopefully we'll see a nice marrying of good points from the two games.

 

Yeah, I totally played on normal difficulty, right up until I hit that part. Tactician, I am not. Rage-quitter, I am. So I lowered the difficulty to keep trucking through and never looked back.

 

That quest is a p in the a. Darn you all now I want to play DA again.

 

Still the best game ever.

Tip: don't form up for the final mission without someone who's able to raise the "dead." That's one long final battle, and I just can't get through it without losing someone at some point-- which soon makes the whole team fall apart.

And yes, I enjoyed DA II too. Smaller, with more recycling, and an annoying storyline, but it's got some good moments and a skill system that's better (if smaller) than the original.

 

Dragon Age Origins was truly great, one of the last (semi) old school BioWare RPGs made. Dragon Age II was an average game and a poor sequel. I hate the new art direction and the combat was too unrealistic for my tastes. Even Kill Bill had less gore in it than ten seconds of DAII combat. I mean, if you stabbed someone in the back his arms, legs and head popped off. It was just so ridiculous it broke immersion completely. The re-used environments, the lack of interesting or hybrid specializations and the uneventful main quest made it difficult to like it. It's a story that never really took off and any choices you made never really mattered.

I'm a bit scared Dragon Age Inquisition will share these flaws. The art is an improvement over DAII but still not as charismatic as DAO's. And that grappling hook skill for warriors is just so... dumb. I hope they'll use a skeuomorphic UI, unlike DAII which used an ugly Ipad-ish design. Like seriously? Who wants to see a sleek, black Apple design when they're playing a medieval fantasy? DAO had the most beautiful UI and loading screen design. But nowadays all the games seem to go for a bland, lazy, ugly UI. First DAII and Skyrim and now Total War: Rome II (don't get me started on that last one, that game is a disaster)!

I just laziness. All the major studios are trying to maximalize profit (under pressure from EA/SEGA/...) and they're cutting as much effort out of the process as possible. I mean most DLC is just cut-out content nowadays. Just another example of how the gaming industry is extorting their customers. Releasing unfinished, buggy games seems to be the norm nowadays.

 

My power team is always MC for melee dps as a rogue (either daggers for close or bow/arrow for ranged), Alistair for tank, for Morrigan for magic DPS, and Wynne for Heal/Revive. I feel kinda bad I didn't give there rest of the characters a chance, but I got kinda stuck in the old party-role ways...

 

1. Rogue. My hoarding problem cannot let me miss the one or two treasure chests in the beginning of the games.
2. Human or Elf, usually.
3. Hell yeah! Gonna love watching that giant sonofabitch running around with a set of daggers, sneaking around and picking locks in open mockery of the laws of physics.
4. Morrigan and Isabella. I had some great times with Merril as well. Leliana was a sweet girl, but our opinions on the French monarchy-analogues were just too different. Viva le Revolucion! Down with the Orlesian monarchy! I don't know whether that first slogan was french or spanish!

 

Love the Dragon Age Series and very excited for the new game! I'm still playing through origins but my bro played trough origins and 2. He spoiled some but I didn't mind because it was awesome.

1: Love playing as rogue.
2:Elves. gotta love a dalish.
3:Maybe in a second playthrough. they look really cool.
4:Alistair. He's sooo cute and funny and omg the way he flirts is hilarious but sweet at the same time. *sighs* if only he were real and I were older... and I haven't played 2 yet so I dk who you can romance in that game. I hope we can romance Alistair again in inquisition or at least someone like him.

oh and some things I would like in inquisition:
being able to be a werewolf
better romance options ( I hate how I had to sleep with Alistair to 'be in a relationship' with him. plus he kept asking and it was annoying)
gifts that only help one's relationship (I once gave Zevron the chastity belt as a joke and I got like -50 in our relationship)

 

I absolutely have to replay that game now. Any chance you can tell me where to find the chastity belt?

I wonder what other members of the group would think of the chastity belt? For example, I'd like to see Morrigan's reaction to it!

 

Yea I bought it from the dwarf merchant in the camp.

 

I bought it from the dwarf merchant and his 'son' at the camp.

 

Now that Inquisition has been released, thoughts?

I personally love it. I find myself glued to the game. That and Shadow of Mordor.

 

I'm looking forward to playing Inquisition. I hope to get it for either Christmas or buy it myself after Christmas. I finally played 2 and in that game I romanced Anders. He was cool but I like Alistair a lot better.

 

I'm about 35 hours into Inquisition, and a touch more than halfway through the main storyline.

The game is amazing. It's huge in an overwhelming sort of way. The amount of content they've created for this one is unbelievable. I don't think it's possible to even come close to seeing it all in one playthrough.

The story is great so far, and while I don't find it incredibly original, it's very well crafted and feels truly empowering. Choices are hard, with never a clear right and wrong, and they almost always have consequences.

Writing and characters are up to the usual BioWare standard, maybe even better.

Overall, great game. Probably my GOTY for 2014.