Dragon Age.

[Ozbenno]

Im level nine, and what Im confused about is why I didnt get a specialization at level 7....

You have to unlock the specializations. Morganna can teach you shapeshifting, you should be able to find a list where the others are found (I haven't played through very far yet).

 

[PhroX]

You have to unlock the specializations. Morganna can teach you shapeshifting, you should be able to find a list where the others are found (I haven't played through very far yet).

Here's a list (SPOLIER ALERT)

BTW, given events that can happen near the end of the game, as well as some that occur in the prequel novels, that's an interesting misspelling of Morrigan's name...

 

[Rub'Rum]

dude you can definitely speed-up conversations..

on the Xbox you just press "X" button.. probably the Square button on PS3.

On PC you just press "escape". It skips the current line of text or makes the next choices appear right away.

 

[Yeekim]

I understand this, but I think DA fails on the tactical combat too. There's no way to block an enemy. Put 3 characters in front of a door and 1 in the back, and enemies manage to get through!

I agree that's pretty stupid.

In the end, in difficult combats I will control more than one character, but if I switch from one to the next, the ai controlling the rest of the party goes nuts: Particularly if I keep an archer far away and control him, then the melee characters will decide they must go near him where they are worthless so I must take back control and tell them to keep fighting in melee...

Couldn't this be solved by fiddling with their stances on tactics screen and/or setting them to "hold" rather than "follow"?

 

[scherbchen]

I found it useful to disable the tactics set for the characters and control them all myself. might have to pause a bit more than with tactics enabled but at least I get my guys to do what I want them to do...

 

[Riffraff]

I found it useful to disable the tactics set for the characters and control them all myself. might have to pause a bit more than with tactics enabled but at least I get my guys to do what I want them to do...

Hmm I really wouldn't like that. It's easy to somewhat automate the warriors, meaning you can get through >75% of the combats by simply controlling the mage and occasionally using a controlled stun skill from another char. Keeps the game fast and the flow up in my books.

 

[Leonel]

I think you can also learn shapeshifting at that elf camp in the forest. There's a book someone sells.

 

[jUmpSt0p]

as far as unlocking the specialities... Once you unlock them, they are permanently unlocked for all characters!!

so, for example, you unlock Blood Magic from the Demon in the Fade during the Castle Redcliffe (possessed little boy) quest.

just Save your game before you talk to the demon, choose the Blood Mage unlock, and then you can go back and reload it and choose the free skill!!

also, you can buy lots of the specialization books from merchants. same thing. just save, buy the book, read it, and then reload your save (and buy all the other books)...

once it's unlocked, it's permanently unlocked!

 

[scherbchen]

yes, that is correct. one of the problems your first run through will be the assassin specialization though. only available very late in the game as a book and you have to get Zevran onto your good side to unlock it the other way round.

 

[Harbringer]

Cant you not get a few of them on your first playthrough

 

[scherbchen]

afaik the only assassin tome is available in the elven alienage. if you start as a city elf you can't access the store (nevermind that you don't have the coin).

 

[GoodGame]

I don't really mind linearity. The Witcher is quite linear, but it doesn't give you that feeling because there are a few significant choices here and there. I find the Elder Scrolls series lacking in terms of story and interaction with the world.

.

If you're talking about Oblivion, lolwut???!??!?! The only weakness would be that it throws in a world full of peoples, but quite a few of them don't add much to the plot, nor have meaningfull sub-plots (that'd be a great mod though random sub-plots for every single character in the game). But that doesn't make it weak against most CRPGs.


So anyways, how would DragonAge compare to NWN2? In character generation, NPC interactions, tactical combat, HUD/console?

 

[MobBoss]

DAO wins PC game of the year at Gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/platform-awards/index.html?page=2&tag=topslot;img;1

 

[jUmpSt0p]

DAO wins PC game of the year at Gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/platform-awards/index.html?page=2&tag=topslot;img;1

I'm actually quite surprised. but then again, Bioware's games consisently get overrated, because they were so consistently awesome in the past..

but Mass Effect was hugely overrated... boring combat, repetitive, dull worlds... they actually sent off to Korea and all those planets where you drove around the stupid vehicle and then fought a lame battle in a cookie cutter building... all that was farmed out to some podunk graphics house in Korea, and I'm betting a lot of the lackluster environments in DAO were also made in Korea.

the story and characters and dialogue are always fun, and the combat in DAO is waaaay better than Mass Effect.

but still.. game of the year??

just shows the overall crappy state of PC gaming in general. and personally I think we have Bittorrent to thank for a lot of it.

either that, or the PC version is just a helluva lot better than my Xbox version.

 

[Fëanor]

Yes, bittorent is definitely to blame for how game sales figures are steadily growing and new records are set on a yearly basis

 

[jUmpSt0p]

^I said PC GAMING. there's no disputing that the market, and the overall number of games available for the PC has shrunk enormously in the past few years.

those records and figures are almost all from handheld gaming, portable gaming, and console gaming, and the lion's share of the console profits go to the Wii.. the whole new world of 'casual gaming' and 'family gaming' .. all at the opposite end of the gaming universe from the world of PC gaming, which has been enormously damaged by bittorrent on top of the bulk of the industry jumping ship for safer and more profitable waters.

 

[LDiCesare]

If you're talking about Oblivion, lolwut???!??!?! The only weakness would be that it throws in a world full of peoples, but quite a few of them don't add much to the plot, nor have meaningfull sub-plots (that'd be a great mod though random sub-plots for every single character in the game). But that doesn't make it weak against most CRPGs.


So anyways, how would DragonAge compare to NWN2? In character generation, NPC interactions, tactical combat, HUD/console?

I was talking about Morrowind and the previous E:S games. I never touched Oblivion due to reviews and opinions from people I know.

NWN2 is probably worse than DA in my book. NWN2 expansion is definitely worse.
I think I'll replay DA:O at least to see the various origins and maybee once through the main quest because things seem to become interesting in the end game. I'd rate DA inferior to the Baldur's Gate II, the Witcher, or Arcanum however.

Character generation in DA:O is ok.
In my opinion, tactical combat sucks. I prefer Baldur's Gate 2 or Arcanum there, as the tactics of "Let's send our wizard through the middle of 6 fighters so she can get a better angle for her cone spell" is lame. Lack of serious consequences to death of party members also doesn't help. I understand the rationale, but still think it's not a good design.
NPC interactions:
-Interactions with party members in DA:O are great, except for the fact they arren't ergonomic if you turn off the sound. Still, it's a very good part of the game and DA:O is a success from this point of view.
-Interactions with non party members tend to be less satisfying. When going into the late game, I start hating bad guys, so that's a good thing, but the game is really slow in getting these interactions coming. Early on, it feels bland but becomes better as the game progresses.
HUD/console: I don't know what you mean exactly. To me the user interface is rather awkward, mostly due to the cameras which sometimes don't react as you'd like because there's a building behind you for instance. The shortcuts for spells etc. are nice but since you end up with way more skills than what fits in the bar, I often end up pausing to just find what I'm looking for.

Story-wise, the story is really very linear but the real issue is that the tricks used to constrain you are so big. Like freeing XXX in the castle, you find her, you want to get out and, oh, my! there's someone just in the way who wasn't there 5 minutes ago, they are uber-strong, do you want to die or surrender? Doesn't feel like a choice. Trick me into believing I had a choice if you must, make the choice have only minor effects, but at least pretend I have some control over my character's fate.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

The shortcuts for spells etc. are nice but since you end up with way more skills than what fits in the bar, I often end up pausing to just find what I'm looking for.

You can strech the bar left-right as much as you want.

I had a mage so i needed the bar to go all the way to the right. The game would have sucked HORRIBLY if this was not possible.

 

[Harbringer]

Im having mad trouble with that bloody sloth demon thing, I think at around about from 9000 he finally shanked my last guy? And the worst part is I didn't even want to do this crap, I was just trying to help out a possessed little boy the clean way and end up getting dragged into helping these tard wizards retake there playhouse.

 

[Fëanor]

^I said PC GAMING. there's no disputing that the market, and the overall number of games available for the PC has shrunk enormously in the past few years.

The only reports of shrinkage in PC Gaming industry are by those whom decided that World of Warcraft and similar PC games with an online subscrition are no longer part of PC Games figures but now have their own Online Games category/figures. But if you re-add those numbers back to the PC Games figures, where they belong since only idiots do not consider WoW is a PC game, PC games revenue has never shrunk.

As for the availability of games, while its certainly true that increasinly more developers choose to make their games for both PC and Console, so perhaps there are less games exclusively for PC, but overall less games, no.