Dragon Age Catch-All

stupidhaiku wrote:
complexmath wrote:

An extra $15 for a few in-game items and a soundtrack? Forget that..

I plan in getting the SE just for the extra quests. This "DLC items" thing really bothers me. It feels too much like cheating, or at least too much like a disingenuous part of the game.

At least you can just not use them if you don't want them. (Maybe even eBay the codes if you are so inclined.) Frankly I expect that by halfway through the game, we'll be acquiring items superior to the DLC items.

kuddles wrote:

Ah, what the hell. I'll probably buy this on Steam even though I already pre-ordered a physical copy of the collector's edition. I wanted the cloth map, but the more I think about it, the less I actually genuinely care about stuff like that. Plus, I'm getting pretty pissed off at my experience with the pre-order. Note to everybody: Even if we're talking physical copies for mail delivery, and even if we're talking about a really great price, never buy from the EA store. It still turned out to be a nightmare for me.

I just went through this decision process yesterday, except that I had ordered mine from Amazon (I got to my local Gamestop after they stopped taking orders for the PC collector's edition). In the end I decided that instant, convenient delivery, a lower price, the free piece of DLC, and not needing a disc in the tray were worth more than the cloth map, but a part of me is still just a bit bummed out.

imbiginjapan wrote:

Seriously, the question for me came down to whether it was worth 10 bucks to get a magic ring that I could just mod into the game if I really wanted it. As far as the CE content goes, it's so unlikely that I will be seeing everything the base game has to offer that I can't justify spending the extra cash.

The thing is that the Castle you get as part of the DD CE edition is a... umm... a house? Basically from what I understand, if you complete the quest line for the castle, you get to keep the castle as your base of operations. I.e. it becomes your house in-game.

zeroKFE wrote:

I just went through this decision process yesterday, except that I had ordered mine from Amazon (I got to my local Gamestop after they stopped taking orders for the PC collector's edition). In the end I decided that instant, convenient delivery, a lower price, the free piece of DLC, and not needing a disc in the tray were worth more than the cloth map, but a part of me is still just a bit bummed out.

Yup, this was going to be the first physical version of a PC game I bought in ages too. I guess I really fully embraced the digital download age. The only thing I'll really miss is none of the "digital deluxe" versions mention whether they come with the Making Of videos, but I'm sure if I went back and watched all the promotional stuff on Gametrailers that I've been avoiding for the past year would serve the same purpose.

I just sent my girlfriend the steam page to purchase the DD CE version. Maybe she will get the hint.

What I wonder is if the steam version is going to give issues down the road when it comes to modding, DLC etc.
Steam doesnt have the best track-record there.

Shadout wrote:

What I wonder is if the steam version is going to give issues down the road when it comes to modding, DLC etc.
Steam doesnt have the best track-record there.

Huh? Steam is great with mods, at least in terms of other games. Can't speak to NWN, though.

MoonDragon wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:

Seriously, the question for me came down to whether it was worth 10 bucks to get a magic ring that I could just mod into the game if I really wanted it. As far as the CE content goes, it's so unlikely that I will be seeing everything the base game has to offer that I can't justify spending the extra cash.

The thing is that the Castle you get as part of the DD CE edition is a... umm... a house? Basically from what I understand, if you complete the quest line for the castle, you get to keep the castle as your base of operations. I.e. it becomes your house in-game.

True, but it's not worth it to me to add ~25% to the price of the game (remember, I'm getting it for $40) just to get a castle-house, given how much content the game has without it.

Nevin73 wrote:
Shadout wrote:

What I wonder is if the steam version is going to give issues down the road when it comes to modding, DLC etc.
Steam doesnt have the best track-record there.

Huh? Steam is great with mods, at least in terms of other games. Can't speak to NWN, though.

It really varies. If the mods or patches cant figure out the game is placed inside steam it will often have issues, or in the case of some older games, if the mod needs to change the .exe as well, or if new official content for some reason stops being released through steam.
Its probably not Steams/Valves fault at all when some games fail here, but rather the developers not making their game work well with steam. For the customers the result is all the same however.

I was just going to rent this for 360, but it being available on Steam is really tempting me to go PC. Especially the additional content.

What the... I thought the prices for DA on Steam were $40 and $55, but apparently they're $50 and $65. That's too rich for my blood. I'm going to wait for the Steam sale.

Shadout wrote:

It really varies. If the mods or patches cant figure out the game is placed inside steam it will often have issues, or in the case of some older games, if the mod needs to change the .exe as well

Seeing as how the game is built from the ground up to accept mods, and is actually shipping with the developer's toolset, I don't see that being a problem.

Farscry wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:

Seriously, the question for me came down to whether it was worth 10 bucks to get a magic ring that I could just mod into the game if I really wanted it. As far as the CE content goes, it's so unlikely that I will be seeing everything the base game has to offer that I can't justify spending the extra cash.

The thing is that the Castle you get as part of the DD CE edition is a... umm... a house? Basically from what I understand, if you complete the quest line for the castle, you get to keep the castle as your base of operations. I.e. it becomes your house in-game.

True, but it's not worth it to me to add ~25% to the price of the game (remember, I'm getting it for $40) just to get a castle-house, given how much content the game has without it. ;)

But you can put your weed in it!

complexmath wrote:

What the... I thought the prices for DA on Steam were $40 and $55, but apparently they're $50 and $65. That's too rich for my blood. I'm going to wait for the Steam sale.

Sonofa...

Guess I'm going to Impulse now. I checked that literally 2 hours ago and it WAS $55.

Keep in mind that the Warden's Keep DLC on its own is going to cost $7. As far as I can tell, the digital collector's edition pretty much only adds that and those three items. Seems like you'd be better off buying the regular edition and then just getting the DLC by itself. Or get the physical collector's edition that will come with a tin, making of dvd, and map for the same price as the digital

NSMike, go for Impulse IMO. For a game that is strictly single player, I rather not have an online application running in the back ground. I want to enjoy the game all by my lonesome self, darn it!
(Really though, there are some good points of impulse: you can choose where to install the game, backing up the game is easy, installing the game on another PC doesn't require Impulse, at least in my experience)

Back to DA. There are actually some similarities between ME and DA. In particular the skill system (inventory system is similar too, in term of how it looks. However, there are some big differences: shared inventory for your party, but you are still RESTRICTED by the carry weight of your party members. Having a shared inventory screen just greatly facilitate the loot distribution and comparison process.).

The specialization works similarly to that of ME.

DavidSims found on SA forum wrote:

You gain specialization points by leveling up. I don't remember the exact levels, but 7 sounds about right for the first.

Theoretically You can unlock specializations at any level, provided you can complete the story content to unlock them. You can also start the game with all specializations unlocked if you've unlocked them in other playthroughs. Having a specialization unlocked provides no immediate benefit.

Spending a specialization point to take a specialization provides a one time stat bonus. It also unlocks new spells/abilities unique to that specialization.

Abilities unlocked by a specialization are purchased with the same talent points that are used to purchase all other abilities.

All points, not just specialization points, do not have to be spent right away. Unlike NWN or KOTOR you do not level up one level at a time if you have multiple levels saved up. DA is more like ME in this way. You level up automatically and points are added to their respective pools to be spent whenever you want. Other than maybe specialization points, there doesn't seem to be much benefit to saving points up for a long time though. At least that's been my experience.

Very minor mage origin spoilers follow.

Spoiler:

The player does not unlock any specializations or gain any specialization points after the harrowing. The player probably will gain a level however. The preview confused the issue somewhat by talking about specialization in schools of magic when they were spending talent points on spells. They also looked at the possible specializations, which you can do even without any points to spend.

NSMike wrote:
complexmath wrote:

What the... I thought the prices for DA on Steam were $40 and $55, but apparently they're $50 and $65. That's too rich for my blood. I'm going to wait for the Steam sale.

Sonofa...

Guess I'm going to Impulse now. I checked that literally 2 hours ago and it WAS $55.

Wow, glad I bought it last night.

zeroKFE wrote:
NSMike wrote:
complexmath wrote:

What the... I thought the prices for DA on Steam were $40 and $55, but apparently they're $50 and $65. That's too rich for my blood. I'm going to wait for the Steam sale.

Sonofa...

Guess I'm going to Impulse now. I checked that literally 2 hours ago and it WAS $55.

Wow, glad I bought it last night.

Argh! I saw the $55 price last night and opted to sleep on it before making a decision.

Darn. I could swear that Impulse price went down to $55 as well. For a few hours. Now it's back up to $65.

Gunner wrote:

Keep in mind that the Warden's Keep DLC on its own is going to cost $7. As far as I can tell, the digital collector's edition pretty much only adds that and those three items. Seems like you'd be better off buying the regular edition and then just getting the DLC by itself. Or get the physical collector's edition that will come with a tin, making of dvd, and map for the same price as the digital :D

I believe Wardens Keep the DLC comes with all digital pre-orders, not just the collectors edition. People who buy the physical copy get the coth map of the world. People who download get some extra DLC. They're supposed to be equivalent.

Bullion Cube wrote:

I believe Wardens Keep the DLC comes with all digital pre-orders, not just the collectors edition.

No, only the digital deluxe version.

Direct2Drive also has this game, by the way.

Bullion Cube wrote:

I believe Wardens Keep the DLC comes with all digital pre-orders, not just the collectors edition.

Nope, just the deluxe.

I stand corrected. Guess I'll be downloading that in the near future.

Gunner wrote:

Keep in mind that the Warden's Keep DLC on its own is going to cost $7. As far as I can tell, the digital collector's edition pretty much only adds that and those three items. Seems like you'd be better off buying the regular edition and then just getting the DLC by itself. Or get the physical collector's edition that will come with a tin, making of dvd, and map for the same price as the digital :D

I changed my order from the regular edition to the Digital Deluxe one on Impulse because I don't want to buy the DLC from the EA Store. The extra convenience of having it on Impulse is worth $4.

Crap they must have just changed the price! When I last posted it was 55 for the CE.

Dang! I knew that $54.99 price was too good to be true.

As folks already mentioned here, with the 20% off coupon, the game is cheaper on Impulse. Is that coupon not working anymore?

lethial wrote:

As folks already mentioned here, with the 20% off coupon, the game is cheaper on Impulse. Is that coupon not working anymore?

It doesn't matter to me, because
A) I don't feel comfortable using a coupon code for a survey I didn't do.
B) I hate using Impulse.

It worked for me two days ago

How do i get a coupon?