Dragon Age 2 - Catch All

I'll replay it as a rogue, and that's what I played through it with in the first place.

I'm not finished with the game yet, but my impression is that Bioware wanted to make a vast intricate city, which would be a waste of effort if the party wasn't intended to use it as a hub. The re-used tile sets are disappointing and give the impression that the game was rushed a bit, but the quests themselves are excellent. I'd like part 3 to be the epic journey of DA1 plus the intricate plots of DA2.

I think they should play PS:T a bunch of times and try to figure out how to improve on that model instead. But then, my interests are not quite the same as Bioware's are they?

PS:T?

IMAGE(http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/planescape-torment/art-023.jpg)
The game so good it breaks your HTML.

gotchaaaaaaaaa.

double post

Jeff-66:

Spoiler:

There's a bunch of leadup to Meredith's having the idol and being crazy with it, but you'll need to have brought Anders with you to the Bertrand Mansion so he can help Bertrand not lose it and so Varric won't have to kill him. There's a bit of exposition there that puts a bit more of a spotlight on what's going on behind the scenes - you'll notice Meredith's description when Bertrand tells you who he sold it to - a bit obvious, if you ask me, since Meredith probably wouldn't make a personal appearance for such purchases.

There's also a plausible manner for Orsino to have gone crazy with the blood magic, but that bit of exposition only gets revealed when you side with the Templar (that choice tends to be narratively smoother, IMO).

Oh, and Fenris isn't hardcoded to betray you, regardless of whether or not you're Rivals or Friends. You can be Super Rivals and he'll still side with you, whatever you choose - you just need to be extreme in either direction (since either direction can get you the romance). Fenris is really, really conflicted - a broken person in many ways. His only true personal motivation is his irrational love/hate of mages. If you pursued his backstory on how he got freed, you'll see why - which also explains why he goes meekly if you... ...er, that's a bit of a spoiler.

Lara shoots it straight when she says that you can only really get a gist of what's going on by playing the game multiple times, with multiple Hawkes, through multiple choices and love interests. It's a strength or a weakness, depending on who you ask.

Thanks, Larry. That helps clear up some things. I appreciate the write-up.

Felicia Day's new DA2 Web Series just launched with the new DLC. Pretty well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-093SQo9NWM

It's neat to see that the whole Chantry vs. Qunari thing is getting fleshed out a bit.

Watched it last night........watched it again just now. Very fun, and my love for all things Felicia Day grows stronger.

So is the new DLC worth getting? It is out yet, isn't it?

I grabbed it, just getting started.

Ms. Day's likeness and voice over is more distracting than interesting. I'll reserve judgement until I see how it plays out though.

Have yet to buy any DLC - $10 is a lot for me atm.

I played the DLC on Tuesday when it came out. Very well done, actually... much stronger than Legacy. There's a lot of attention to detail in this one, like Hawke actually initiating some party banter, and other neat little things they've added.

Xeknos wrote:

I played the DLC on Tuesday when it came out. Very well done, actually... much stronger than Legacy. There's a lot of attention to detail in this one, like Hawke actually initiating some party banter, and other neat little things they've added.

That's good to hear. I bought it, but haven't played it yet. Been a bit worried about it.

Played through it yesterday. Some challenging fights, some fun puzzles, some witty banter. In one area they have you sneaking around rather than fighting, which i found drawn out and a bit annoying. Overall, it was a solid play experience, and introduced more lore about the world - info I assume will help set up DA3. One and a half thumbs up.

Wakim wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

I played the DLC on Tuesday when it came out. Very well done, actually... much stronger than Legacy. There's a lot of attention to detail in this one, like Hawke actually initiating some party banter, and other neat little things they've added.

That's good to hear. I bought it, but haven't played it yet. Been a bit worried about it.

Are there any mage/templar decisions to be made?

SallyNasty wrote:
Wakim wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

I played the DLC on Tuesday when it came out. Very well done, actually... much stronger than Legacy. There's a lot of attention to detail in this one, like Hawke actually initiating some party banter, and other neat little things they've added.

That's good to hear. I bought it, but haven't played it yet. Been a bit worried about it.

Are there any mage/templar decisions to be made?

No.

I haven't been paying attention, is there going to be any more DA2 DLC? I want to do a full run when the game is fully "out".

They seem to be keeping a short lead time between announcement and shipping now. They say some of the DLC is testing the waters for aspects of DA3, so that's in the works as well.

Now that I look at things, I have reason to believe there will be two more DLC adventures.

Each house you wind up residing in has a room dedicated to DLC chests and the like. There are large statues called Memento of (DLC Name) sitting on floormats. There are two empty floormats around the room.

I will be buying DLC when a sale hits. I'm too cheap to spend $10 on short expansions at this point, but I do enjoy the core game and plan on going back through it again for a second time before too long.

Just finished my second runthrough (as a rogue this time), and there was still plenty of dialogue I'd not heard before...having Isabela and Bethany in the same party is a particular joy in Act I. Oddly enough, I think the hardest fight of all is the one at the end of the Memento DLC, that is quite annoying, and as DLC it isn't quite as satisfying as Mark of the Assassin.

Spoiler:

Nice to bump into Leiliana at the party in MOTA, I wonder if we'll find out where her and Tallis had met before ?

The DA2 DLC just seems to hit the sweetspot for me-- it's short enough that I can actually play through it, but meaty enough to give a satisfying gaming experience.

Plus, I got all up in a lesbian make-out session with Felicia Delf.

Good times.

SommerMatt wrote:

Plus, I got all up in a lesbian make-out session with Felicia Delf.

Good times.

Bioware can credit you for the $10 they are about to receive.

Speedhuntr wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

Plus, I got all up in a lesbian make-out session with Felicia Delf.

Good times.

Bioware can credit you for the $10 they are about to receive.

To be fair, I might have oversold it a bit.

SommerMatt wrote:
Speedhuntr wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

Plus, I got all up in a lesbian make-out session with Felicia Delf.

Good times.

Bioware can credit you for the $10 they are about to receive.

To be fair, I might have oversold it a bit.

Lalalalalala Too late!

There's a lot of conversation about party composition and Hawke build choices from a mechanics standpoint, but I'm wondering about how Hawke choices tie into the storyline.

It seems likely that I'm only going to play once, and it would be a shame if I missed interesting story or relationship beats because I made a bad class choice and ended up needing to use an uninteresting companion for mechanical reasons. Bioware's done that to me before, so I end up overthinking class choices. I've heard that the story is more interesting if you play as a mage, but that seems to mean that I would either be stuck with Aveline and Fenris in my party (for good or bad) or be a healing mage and only be stuck with Aveline. Is this untrue? Are those characters interesting enough that I won't mind having them in my party?

Also, is any of the DLC good enough that I'm going to want to pick it up now? I didn't pre-order, so I don't have The Exiled Prince.

ChrisGwinn wrote:

There's a lot of conversation about party composition and Hawke build choices from a mechanics standpoint, but I'm wondering about how Hawke choices tie into the storyline.

It seems likely that I'm only going to play once, and it would be a shame if I missed interesting story or relationship beats because I made a bad class choice and ended up needing to use an uninteresting companion for mechanical reasons. Bioware's done that to me before, so I end up overthinking class choices. I've heard that the story is more interesting if you play as a mage, but that seems to mean that I would either be stuck with Aveline and Fenris in my party (for good or bad) or be a healing mage and only be stuck with Aveline. Is this untrue? Are those characters interesting enough that I won't mind having them in my party?

Also, is any of the DLC good enough that I'm going to want to pick it up now? I didn't pre-order, so I don't have The Exiled Prince.

If you scale it down to Easy, or even a reasonably well played Normal, party composition doesn't really matter, mechanically.