FormallyMegadrive
Member
hahah that's amazing. I like you.Planet_JASE said:
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AusGAF 2.0 - Twice the price, a year late but still moving forward
- Thread starter VOOK
- Start date
- Status
On Dragon Age:
For a game I dont like that much, I sure have been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins.
For starters Im doing it wrong. I picked it up for the 360 simply because I found the collectors edition in a bargain bin at JB and the entire suite of DLC was on special on XBLA. Why not? I thought my cohorts in AusGAF whose gaming tastes paralleled my own had fair praise for the title, and there didnt seem to be any major concerns with playing the console version. I soon found the lack of vocal misgivings on the console port to be deceptive the game does a poor job of hiding its PC-centric core design no matter how well the Mass Effect-styled interface attempts to streamline the experience for the gamepad.
Theres plenty more thats wrong with it too. The setting and mythology is too generic and does little to stand out from the slew of countless other Tolkienesque WRPGs that have been spewed out over the last 20 years. The core races follow the exact same tropes theyve always been associated with: the dwarves are dwarvish and dont use magic; the humans are all humany and treated with disdain by non-human races the elves are still an effeminate bunch of tree-dwelling softcocks with an overbearing sense of hoity-toity arent we all noble and graceful hurr hurr hurr. Sure, theres a tonne of stuff to pore through in the games exhaustive codices but I really couldnt arsed reading through all when theres Darkspawn that need a-killin.
Worst of all its slow, and by slow I mean sloooooooooooow. Im twenty hours in and all Ive done is sort some shit out at the circle of mages and helped exorcise a demon out of some snobby cunt royal kid and now his whinging lazy parents want me to go find their fucking urn for them. Inventory management makes attempts to escape the archaic Diablo-style setup by having a Junk option, but I still find myself getting halfway through a dungeon and having to offload kit I would have preferred to sell for coin.
My initial impression was that the game didnt necessarily punish nor reward the player for sticking to a particular moral path for the entire game. The grey area the game travels with its range of moral decisions was refreshing, but it soon became apparent that I was better off at least trying to stick to a good/bad path in my dealings. As such, because of the approval system, I get the impression that the game prefers I stick to a key group of characters of similar moral disposition. Thats okay I guess, but the much-advanced Mass Effect 2 is still fresh in my mind and that game benefitted greatly from encouraging the player to mix up their party frequently depending on the mission allowing a lot more variety in combat depending on Shepards team.
Why then cant I stop playing it? Well, its an RPG so it caters immediately to my OCD leaning tendencies as a gamer. If a game at its core still relies on skill and a bit of forethought for the player to be successful, but also allows shittier gamers like me the opportunity to progress through sheer investment of time, then I find the experience much more inviting. I knew that if I spend enough time I could get my crew to contain a roster that would function the way I wanted to and that there would be some tasty loot on offer. Having picked up Wynne into my party, my go-to team proves pretty damn effective on the battlefield (Wynne:Healer, Alistair:Tank, Leliana:Bow archer, Bern Baum the Dalsih mage: Offensive Magic). In addition to that, I like how the game makes the player consider what party members can contribute outside of combat such as having a teammate to lend a hand with cracking open that treasure chest.
So whats the real hook? The combat. Ive played my share of dungeon crawlers in my time and Dragon Age still follows a core DnD ruleset but hides it under an evolved and efficient interface. My traipses through castles and realms of the abyss arent a point and click repetitive affair (with the exception of a few sequences where the player acts alone) and each scenario plays out quite differently depending on the type, mix and number of enemies present in an encounter. I dont feel like a lone hero with a few chums along for the ride, but more like a battlefield manager with a flexible level of control over how combat pans out. Theres a lot to consider in each fight where are the enemies placed?; what distance is there between my guys and the baddies?; are there any hostile mages amongst the enemy?; is my healer a safe distance?; is there a mix of fire-resistant or fire-prone enemies?
I love how much flexibility is presented to player in managing their team on the battlefield a high level of granularity is allowed by using the tactics slots, but it isnt entirely necessary. The radial dial makes all the attacks, spells and buffs reasonably accessible (the PC layout is of course superior) and the freedom of pausing the game at the pull of the trigger gives the player enough breathing time to consider their next move, cycle through characters and stack their actions.
Dragon Age: Origins is a game that I will play in chunks over the course of this year. I dont care for any of the characters and the story is (at least so far) disposable high fantasy fare, but the combat has sunk its teeth in and will be the main draw as I consume this game over the next few months between 2011s big releases.
For a game I dont like that much, I sure have been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins.
For starters Im doing it wrong. I picked it up for the 360 simply because I found the collectors edition in a bargain bin at JB and the entire suite of DLC was on special on XBLA. Why not? I thought my cohorts in AusGAF whose gaming tastes paralleled my own had fair praise for the title, and there didnt seem to be any major concerns with playing the console version. I soon found the lack of vocal misgivings on the console port to be deceptive the game does a poor job of hiding its PC-centric core design no matter how well the Mass Effect-styled interface attempts to streamline the experience for the gamepad.
Theres plenty more thats wrong with it too. The setting and mythology is too generic and does little to stand out from the slew of countless other Tolkienesque WRPGs that have been spewed out over the last 20 years. The core races follow the exact same tropes theyve always been associated with: the dwarves are dwarvish and dont use magic; the humans are all humany and treated with disdain by non-human races the elves are still an effeminate bunch of tree-dwelling softcocks with an overbearing sense of hoity-toity arent we all noble and graceful hurr hurr hurr. Sure, theres a tonne of stuff to pore through in the games exhaustive codices but I really couldnt arsed reading through all when theres Darkspawn that need a-killin.
Worst of all its slow, and by slow I mean sloooooooooooow. Im twenty hours in and all Ive done is sort some shit out at the circle of mages and helped exorcise a demon out of some snobby cunt royal kid and now his whinging lazy parents want me to go find their fucking urn for them. Inventory management makes attempts to escape the archaic Diablo-style setup by having a Junk option, but I still find myself getting halfway through a dungeon and having to offload kit I would have preferred to sell for coin.
My initial impression was that the game didnt necessarily punish nor reward the player for sticking to a particular moral path for the entire game. The grey area the game travels with its range of moral decisions was refreshing, but it soon became apparent that I was better off at least trying to stick to a good/bad path in my dealings. As such, because of the approval system, I get the impression that the game prefers I stick to a key group of characters of similar moral disposition. Thats okay I guess, but the much-advanced Mass Effect 2 is still fresh in my mind and that game benefitted greatly from encouraging the player to mix up their party frequently depending on the mission allowing a lot more variety in combat depending on Shepards team.
Why then cant I stop playing it? Well, its an RPG so it caters immediately to my OCD leaning tendencies as a gamer. If a game at its core still relies on skill and a bit of forethought for the player to be successful, but also allows shittier gamers like me the opportunity to progress through sheer investment of time, then I find the experience much more inviting. I knew that if I spend enough time I could get my crew to contain a roster that would function the way I wanted to and that there would be some tasty loot on offer. Having picked up Wynne into my party, my go-to team proves pretty damn effective on the battlefield (Wynne:Healer, Alistair:Tank, Leliana:Bow archer, Bern Baum the Dalsih mage: Offensive Magic). In addition to that, I like how the game makes the player consider what party members can contribute outside of combat such as having a teammate to lend a hand with cracking open that treasure chest.
So whats the real hook? The combat. Ive played my share of dungeon crawlers in my time and Dragon Age still follows a core DnD ruleset but hides it under an evolved and efficient interface. My traipses through castles and realms of the abyss arent a point and click repetitive affair (with the exception of a few sequences where the player acts alone) and each scenario plays out quite differently depending on the type, mix and number of enemies present in an encounter. I dont feel like a lone hero with a few chums along for the ride, but more like a battlefield manager with a flexible level of control over how combat pans out. Theres a lot to consider in each fight where are the enemies placed?; what distance is there between my guys and the baddies?; are there any hostile mages amongst the enemy?; is my healer a safe distance?; is there a mix of fire-resistant or fire-prone enemies?
I love how much flexibility is presented to player in managing their team on the battlefield a high level of granularity is allowed by using the tactics slots, but it isnt entirely necessary. The radial dial makes all the attacks, spells and buffs reasonably accessible (the PC layout is of course superior) and the freedom of pausing the game at the pull of the trigger gives the player enough breathing time to consider their next move, cycle through characters and stack their actions.
Dragon Age: Origins is a game that I will play in chunks over the course of this year. I dont care for any of the characters and the story is (at least so far) disposable high fantasy fare, but the combat has sunk its teeth in and will be the main draw as I consume this game over the next few months between 2011s big releases.
codswallop
Member
This was pretty much my opinion after 25 hours last year. I picked it up again after you guys started talking about it and after I did those first three "alliance" quests (getting the dwarves, elves, human problems sorted, with all the side quests that go along with them) -- only took a few hours since I'd put in the effort in the past, I found it picked up a lot. May have been me, may have been the game, but once you've done that section it seemed to be a lot more focused to me, which it really needed.Bernbaum said:
That said, the final fight I found dull as hell. Glad though that I picked it up because in my opinion I'd only played the crap part of the game. It had plenty wrong with it, but I found the story engaging enough once it started actually showing itself.
Edit: Coming straight from Mass Effect 2 certainly made it look a lot more shit than it was. Coming from Fallout 3 (which I finished only a few weeks back) didn't show it's faults nearly as much.
Planet_JASE
Member
Kritz said:
Suits me. I like to watch.
I have a funny story about that.codswallop said:
Libarian at my old school hated the shit out of it. Always got kids to turn it off etc.
Anyway one day everyone was gone and it was on one of the computers- it was about to be turned off when he had to inchime he liked the sound.
:/
BanShunsaku
Member
I remember him jumping in the back of the ambulance with the Beaconsfield miners. Classy guy
BanShunsaku
Member
evlcookie said:
Not taking a shit for 2 weeks can do strange things to your brain
AnkhWeasel
Member
I've seen Stefanovic drunk - with hilarious results - which leads me to wonder what Kochie would be like drunk.
But yeah, he's annoying at the best of times.
But yeah, he's annoying at the best of times.
untoldhero
Member
At least Karl is entertaining, he says some funny shit sometimes re: long stabby thing.AnkhWeasel said:
BanShunsaku
Member
Has anyone spotted de Blob 2 on shelves yet?
codswallop
Member
I played through about the first third on my own, then restarted and played the entire thing co-op with a mate.Omi said:
If you'll play single player, I would say buy if you're interested and it's cheap. If you'll play co-op and have a good mate to play it with, buy it right now.
-Deadpool-
Member
Omi said:
Finished it not long ago in local co-op, brilliant game.
OneMoreQuestion
Member
Just got a call from EB Games in Brisbane letting me know that Killzone 3 broke street date today, yay! 
I'm gonna watch the shit out of that. I love seeing what people pay for these sorts of things.Choc said:
In a related note, some jerk is selling an old Pentax lens on eBay that I want, but it's serial no is #777777 and the starting bid is about 8 times what I'd pay for it. Stupid fancy serial #s.
AnkhWeasel
Member
Choc said:
That's just the first-party press release, there'll be other stuff, like the Ubi titles. Ghost Recon and Rayman.
Doncamatic
Member
Bernbaum said:
I picked up the ultimate edition during the christmas steam sale and you mentioned a couple of points that I definitely agree with. I've spent about 50 hours in it according to steam (had to redo the Urn of Sacred Ashes to unlock the
Reaver specialisation
the Landsmeet in Denerim
I love that there is some grey area but for the most part I can't help but feel a little tired of the, you've completed this chapter so here is the capstone, a binary choice. It feels forced and my xenophobic, secular dwarf rogue should have the option of saying, words to the effect, of I don't care with your human issues If you don't honour this treaty then stay out of my way, and be more careful with magic. That being said I felt the Dalish capstone was a step in the right direction
the werewolf curse was interesting because it made me want to toe the line between offing the keeper of the Dalish elves (can't remember his name) because he was a vindictive bastard, but at the same time I wanted to side with the rest of the elves who had done nothing wrong.
Now the final point I have is with the formation of the player's party and the way the game guides the player to complete the portions of the main quest. Starting off I had Alistair as my tank, Morrigan as my offensive mage/cc-er, and Thule the dwarf rogue-archer as dps. Once I left Lothering I had picked up Sten as another dps because fuck humans, anything that kills them is A-OK in my rogue's book. My first main quest was painful. After completing my origin story, getting through Ostigar, Kokhari Wilds, and Lothering. I inferred that the next logical step was to head to Redcliffe, apparently I read the queues wrong because without a healer I was making a lot of use out of saves. Each time I was attacked by a large group I was having to get everything done correctly, else I burn through too many of my healing potions. Being too poor to afford a lot of ingrediants, and my herbalist (Morrigan) not skilled enough to make anything but lesser health potions I was often surviving on the smallest slither of health. The mother killed, blood mage utilised, anything that annoys templars and the chantry is again fine with my rogue, they tell me I have to get the Urn of Sacred Ashes. So off I went. Throughout the entire quest I am again barely getting through encounters. Anytime there was a blood mage with that chain-lightning spell I raged, exploded them as quickly as possible, thankfully I could by this stage, and continued onwards. After this annoying few hours I decide to do the Mage Tower .... I picked up Wynne,
Morrigan should be thankful I did because otherwise she would be dead many times over given the boner mobs get over mages who melt faces
Also on the Mako discussion I played it first on the 360 so maybe that has something to do with it but I just loved the goofiness of it. Drive up mountain, no problem. Jump jets on, shoot over ridge that is coming up ahead. It wasn't ever hard, but it certainly helped to disrupt the corridor shooting, to the same degree that the conversation heavy segments did [read: Noveria is great Edit: except Benezia]
I don't understand why everyone feels it's necessary to run two mages in every party in Dragon Age. I dominated every fight in the game with two warriors (one defense, one two-handed), a rogue archer/bard with Song of Courage and a mage specced with cold spells, hexes, crushing prison and healing spells. The two warriors and archer were self-sufficient with tweaked tactics, which leaves the player mage to coordinate offensive spells, healing, positioning and potion usage.
Running two mages just doubles the amount of micromanagement you have to do as the tactics do a mediocre job of managing a mage correctly.
Running two mages just doubles the amount of micromanagement you have to do as the tactics do a mediocre job of managing a mage correctly.
You are ahead of me so I can't read your spoilers. Consider that a minor indication that I might care just a little about the story.FreeFallin' said:
My offensive mage is a bit pissweak on the defense side and I have a low-fatigue spec Leliana running around firing off arrows, hence the inclusion of Wynne.Agyar said:
Yes I feel the combination of two mages can be redundant, but I find it handy casting my own healing spells if Wynne is having a rough time. Otherwise my offensive mage is running 'disruption' against the enemy, casting paralyzing spells or ranged attacks that knock them out of combat for a while. Alistar is there to be a big suit of armour and suck up all the enemies in one spot whilst the three ranged characters deliver death from the sides. It gets interesting against big boss-type enemies which change their targets and deliver paralysing attacks, but figuring out ways of dealing with that is half the fun.
If I were to pursue any alternative, it would be a paired warrior set-up like you've suggested, but Wynne is now such an integral part of my strategy that I can't remove her. I would sooner roll a new character and play as a warrior/noble/whatever similar to Mar's approach but I become less of a battlefield manager by doing so, which as mentioned in my previous post is the major appeal of the game for me.
Bernbaum said:
The best magic defenses are offenses - Cone of Cold, Crushing Prison, Mind Blast, the one that traps a guy in a field, the Blood Mage AoE, Winter's Grasp... the list goes on.
The cold line is a must-have and Walking Bomb/Virulent Walking bomb coupled with Crushing Prison are enough to get you through most fights in the game.
-Deadpool-
Member
Going to grab it off Ozgameshop.Stackboy said:
Was initially going to wait, demo was fun, but I thought it'd probably get old fast - but renewed interest as well as the generally positive reviews around GAF today have me rethinking the wait.
Doncamatic
Member
Agyar said:
I think that may be why I feel that a double, or even triple mage group with mods to allow breaking locks, is so appealing to me. During combat I switch back and forth between pausing constantly and just chilling while playing as my archer just letting him auto-shoot. I have Morrigan's tactics set up to make sure that the group weakness hex is used on cooldown and that the single target ice blast spell is used on cooldown as well as drain life. Whenever combat started I would pause, place blizzard, unpause, pause, place death cloud, unpause, crushing prison the most dangerous enemy death hex a suitable target in the cloud then I would switch to my archer. If combat was still going by the time the spells were off-cooldown I was in a boss-fight so I didn't have to utilise aoe again given that all the non-boss mobs were dead.
Also when you are in Denerim and you are going between areas and you
get ambushed by a tonne of archers, 3 seperate times, that each have scatter shot
Bernbaum said:
Before I picked up Wynne I was doing the dual warrior set-up (Sten+Alistair) the lack of excess stamina early on made it pretty boring. Now having an archer who is stamina starved keeping up aim, song of courage (the crit+dmg+attack spead one) and a bear/wolf means that I don't really do anything but auto-attack with him either. With the mage I get to do something other than bring my party into the room, make sure that alistair starts beating on the most dangerous mob before he uses his taunt, and then watch as they kill dudes and get occasionally healed by Wynne.
Edit: Also can I unlock the blood mage specialisation if my grey warden isn't a mage, or do I have to wait till awakening to pick the book of it up? Currently my Morrigan is unspecced apart from shapeshifting so if I can't get blood magic I'll just go spirit healer or arcane warrior for the stats.
Pimpn Drop Bear
Neo Member
Yo Ausgaf,
NT represent woot.
Mostly an xbox360 gamer, no glorious pc master race crap.
I like long walks on the beach and cuddling after.
NT represent woot.
Mostly an xbox360 gamer, no glorious pc master race crap.
I like long walks on the beach and cuddling after.
AdventureRacing
Member
Bernbaum said:
What sort of attiude is that? Why can't it be both!
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