Dragon Age

[Tawmis]

As great a game as DAO is, I pity anyone who played it without playing the expansion set Awakening. I understand why DAO ended where it did, but Awakenings gives you the True Ending of the story.

I hate the armor glitch that happens with Awakening... I was wearing the special armor (forgot the name of it - the name of the King from Return to Ostagar) - and when I imported - my character only had underwear and no armor.

[Flightpath07]

yeah, that didn't happen to me, but my rogue went from a kickarse sword and knife, to just a knife. That made the game "more challenging", until i could buy another sword and get it enchanted! lol. Actually, it made my character extremely weak, as i was a duelist and had all my specialties in two-weapon attacks, and I lost ALL those while I was only armed with the knife.

And that would have been King Cailan's armour. In my DAO, I had Alistair wearing that...and when he shows up in Awakening, he was still wearing it.

[Flightpath07]

Playing DA 2 now, and am already LOVING the way the game looks and handles. I forgot, in amongst the complaints people have about this game (and, admittedly, most of the complaints are the same we here at this site thrive on in regards to Alpha Flight - "it isn't what we were thinking it would be"), that the improvements made to an already great game, blew most other games out of the water when Dragon Age 2 came out. The dialogue radial wheel style is awesome, very easy to maneouver (however you spell that), and the fighting - WoW, the fighting is just FRICKIN' AWESOME in this game, So Much Better than in DA Origins. And the graphics - ah, the beautiful graphics...

Also, it very easily loaded in my last save game from Dragon Age Awakenings, the expansion pack to Dragon Age Origins, and already I have come across areas where the dialogue that has come my way made use of my saved information from the other games.

Lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it!

[Flightpath07]

My Dragon Age characters.

First up, my Human Male Rogue, Garrison Cousland, who I played all through Dragon Age Origins, Witch Hunt, the Golems of Agmarrak (?), and Awakenings.

He is in the photo below, on the left, speaking with King Alistair of Ferelden (on the right) during the Awakening expansion pack.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UM1VKSrlIf...g+Alistair.bmp


Next up, below is a photo of my female Human warrior, Lepethto Hawke, near the beginning of Dragon Age 2. She is on the left in the photo, talking with her brother Carver Hawke shortly before his untimely death.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YK-wa5ftrx...rver+Hawke.bmp

[Tawmis]

Playing DA 2 now, and am already LOVING the way the game looks and handles.
So Much Better than in DA Origins. And the graphics - ah, the beautiful graphics...
Lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it!

Misguided mortal. DA2 is inferior. So freaking inferior.

However, if you love Dragon Age, can't recall if I shared this before... a fanfic I wrote that happens the same time Origins goes down.
http://neverendingnights.com/archives/1930

[Flightpath07]

Oh, i completely disagree in regards to DA2, i am completely immersed in it right now.

I read some of your fan fic, its good if a bit "dark" - by which i mean, your main character comes off as a hothead (I prefer heroes and those who do right; and if i don't feel like playing that type of character, then i usually choose a dwarf who just wants to drink and slaughter people), and your bloodmage..well, I never abide with bloodmages much in DA, except for Anders in Awakenings, but then when we see him again in DA2 he's back to being okay (at least for a while, anyways).

Anyways, not the characters, at least from what i read early on, that i would typically want to read a story about, but i am sure i will find time to give it a more deep read at some point soon.

[EccentricSage]

But the graphics weren't even finished in 2, much less 'good'.... The armor and cloths are great, and then everything else is just kind of blurry and brown. And the combat in 2 is hack n slash... no strategy involved. I'll agree Origins combat moved a bit too slow, but you actually had to think about what you're doing. I also hated the dialogue wheel because I felt like my character never said what I thought he'd say, and it pissed me off a lot. I'm not really sure how you can honestly say 2 is better than Origins.

[Flightpath07]

" I'm not really sure how you can honestly say 2 is better than Origins."

I didn't. I had previously said that if Origins was a 990 out of 1000, then Dragon Age 2 was a solid 800. One is fabulous, the other is very good. One lets you adventure across a whole large country while you save that country and become its hero, while the other has you within a city and its very near-abouts where you adventure within it and become its champion. They are both very different games set in the same world (Thedas).

Again, most people's problem with DA2, was that they wanted it to be a continuation of DAO. I understand that, and I felt it myself the first time I played 2. But going back and playing it again, after all this time, even after having just finished Origins and Awakening? I'll tell you what, it is just an awesome game!

I'm not sure what you mean about it being blurry, except when the game focuses in on things in the foreground (like your character's face), on purpose, acting like a camera would. that's the only evidence of 'blurriness' that I can find. And I find the combat to be quite stimulating, and I love the new ways of showing the power moves and whatnot in battle, the effects are truly out of this world. And I generally find battling the most boring part of gaming.

[Tawmis]

Oh, i completely disagree in regards to DA2, i am completely immersed in it right now.

Do you remember everything about DA2? It could have been good. It really could have. But NONE of your choices really have any true baring to the world. NONE. Talk Anders out of doing what he is going to do? Do everything to make him happy? So what. He still does what he does. Side with the Mages? So what, they turn on you. Side with the Templars? So what, they turn on you. The ending sequence, no matter your choices, being almost exactly the same. The dungeons? All the same - which just some doors locked/open to make it seem like you're going in a new area - but it is LITERALLY the same dungeon! Literally!

I read some of your fan fic, its good if a bit "dark" - by which i mean, your main character comes off as a hothead (I prefer heroes and those who do right; and if i don't feel like playing that type of character, then i usually choose a dwarf who just wants to drink and slaughter people), and your bloodmage..well, I never abide with bloodmages much in DA, except for Anders in Awakenings, but then when we see him again in DA2 he's back to being okay (at least for a while, anyways). Anyways, not the characters, at least from what i read early on, that i would typically want to read a story about, but i am sure i will find time to give it a more deep read at some point soon.

Heh, well it's not based off my own characters. It was based on a story in my head, that what if someone else had survived that siege? I don't feel the hero is dark - I feel the world of Dragon Age is a dark one. An entire battalion slaughtered because someone turned their backs and decided not to help. Your friends slaughtered. I could see being a little dark. The Blood Mage is there to counter the Priestess they will meet later, and then a Rogue joins the party as well. (I never, sadly, did finish it). I was hoping DA2 would inspire me to continue writing (but DA2 did anything but inspire me). So I hope DAI will bring back that desire to write in the world of Dragon Age again.

[Flightpath07]

Yeah, I read All of that fan-fic, and I take back the dark part about the main Warden character. He just had me confused, at first, with how he reacted to Morrigan and how he stormed out into the Wilds. As the story goes along, i can see his heroic side coming out, although he seems a little "unguided" without the plot from DAO to follow, since he cannot make any major differences by what he does to that plot (ie. go kill Logain).

I will also give you what you said about the dungeons being the same in DA2. You are correct on that; they should have taken some more time before putting it out, i guess? As far as your points about your choices not affecting the plot at the end...well, it is obvious that each story has certain elements that HAVE to be there, no matter what. The story of Thedas continues on through each game, always leading to something else down the road. To be fair, in DAO, you had to kill the Archdemon (or at least, Somebody did), its not like you could end the game by deciding to walk away, leave the Wardens, and not stop the Blight. Actually, in that sense, Awakening had more choices to be made, since whether you decide to let The Architect live or die (i killed him) should have major consequences for the Darkspawn in the future. So, altho some choices are taken out of your hands, how you get there is still up to you; so, i still find DA2 quite enjoyable. As i said before, AS enjoyable as DAO? NO!

Here's hoping, tho, that 3 is a good mix between the two. Graphics were so much better in 2, as was fighting skills and dialogue and levlling up process, etc. Even character creation was cooler in 2, you just didn't have choices in race to make. But the pure breath and scope of the original, with all the traveling and the different races to visit and things to do? Purely awesome.

[Flightpath07]

I'm disappointed that one of the companions in DA:Inquisition isn't going to be Regalyan D'Marcall, the mage from Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker. He was pretty cool.

The books have been a revelation, filling in the gaps between games, etcetera. Having been written by the game's designer, they actually reveal things that make the games make more sense. New book comes out in September of 2014, details where Morrigan has been since Awakenings, amongst other things; looking forward to that!