Gaming The Inquisition's Here and It's Here To Stay: The Dragon Age Series

I'm thinking about just stopping by Best Buy on my way home from work, seeing if they have any copies of the LCE in stock, and canceling my Amazon order. Screw this crap. Hell, I'm probably even willing to buy the regular version at this point.

As for the Xbox graphics, I hear they're par/sub-par compared to games like Fallout and Mass Effect, but definitely are not bad. The game is far too deep and immersive for the graphics to really be an issue, I keep hearing. Plus, would you rather have this, or a game like Lost Odyssey, which had stunning graphics, but was a run-of-the-mill JRPG? (Which I love, but while I'm a scumbag that gets off on those games, I wouldn't put it up against this one for a moment.)

 

Finished the main campaign last night. I wasn't entirely happy with my character and her skill set, as the battles were starting to get frustratingly hard. So I changed it to the easiest setting, ignored the side quests and just went for the end.

For my next game, I'll be paying closer attention to my character and party skills now that I know what party options I have.

As far as the graphics go, I think it was the last Giant Bomb podcast that touched on that issue. They basically said that the main reason the game looks dated (on all three platforms) is because it's been in development for so long.

And yeah, it does look a dated compared to modern games. For the 360 version the textures are the biggest letdown, but I guess you can only squeeze so much into a DVD. The PC version is about 15-20GB, versus the 6.6GB 360 version... they clearly had to cut back in some areas.

Having said that, I've just spent 33 hours over the past 4 nights playing it, so clearly the graphics aren't a big issue for me.

Edit - Ye gods Leto, that's almost a week of waiting. I'd have bought it days ago by now, to hell with Amazon.

 

Yeah, if what happened to Leto happens to me with ME2, I'll just go buy the game at BB.

 

The graphics were really jarring, especially as I had been playing Fallout 3 and GTAIV before starting it.

 

I have the PC version and a crappy laptop (fairly new, but not designed for gaming), and to be honest I think I'd take lousier graphics for smoother gameplay. I've got all the settings down to the lowest possible as it is.

 

I just chose the easy option and gave the guy a wolf pelt I already had in my inventory. Being a Dalish Elf I was extra nice to the elves and short tempered with everyone else.

 

You could say my character is more of a "chaotic neutral" character.

 

Why don't you say that to my twin blades!

 

Hah, my mage is going the exact same route Jello, though rather than true psuedo Roman, I'm going with naturalized Barbarian (elf mage.)

 

Just went to Redcliffe village. Saved the village. Infiltrated the castle and confronted Connor. Can I still save Connor if I slaughtered the mages at the Circle Tower? Is there some other way? I ended up killing the lad for his own good and Alistair and Isolde will never forgive me. I worry about what Eamon will think when I finally find that stupid Urn.

 

Redcliffe spoiler talk.

If you've killed off the Circle, your only options are to kill Connor or sacrifice Isolde to enter the Fade, I believe.

 

Redcliff spoilers: To be precise, if you can't call upon the Circle, your other option is to have Jowan use blood magic to send you into the Fade, sacrificing Isolde in the process. If you've also executed Jowan, you're out of luck.

(Possibly?) finale spoilers: Just started the battle for Denerim. I have to say, the sequence right after you pick your Final Four to get the archdemon is surprisingly powerful - every one of your companions comes up and has some parting words, and then you walk into the city amidst soldiers cheering. Veerrry cool.

Half the people seem to think Alistair is king though, even though I installed Anora as Queen (including Alistair himself, oddly enough). It's a bit strange, but the inconsistencies are few enough that I can ignore them. Actually, the inconsistencies in general increase as time goes on ... but in a game with almost limitless options I'm faintly surprised it's as consistent as it is.

Also, LOL Jello, I managed to skip that sidequest because I couldn't be bothered doing anything for that lovesick puppy, so I said "Good luck" and left him alone.

 

Thanks. I let the blood mage go and so I didn't have a choice. I guess I could have let her do it but I decided to man up, knocked out Isolde, and killed the kid. Felt bad about it...but it got me some Morrigan approval.

 

Bought the PS3 ver. It is quite fun so far. They do have alot of little glitches however.

 

Already one step ahead of you. Picked up a copy of the LCE late last night after heading home from work (at the second Best Buy I went to), but won't be able to finally sit down and enjoy some quality time with it until tonight. Looks like BioWare slimmed down the collector's edition case design a bit, which is always nice. I should have my stats uploaded some time this evening for you all to peruse/heckle.

Whoever has my copy from Amazon, down in Alabama or wherever...I'm happy for you. Or something. Mazel tov.

I'll be starting my Templar character tonight. This is very interesting information. Those damn mages are the reason I'm thinking about having Alistair work his way through the Templar tree. The second and third abilities are rather meh, from what I've read, but that fourth one sounds great. I'll set up his tactics to have him nail mages with that one on sight. And hey, at least the game designers managed to indulge Jello's Roman-fetish, too. It should keep him relatively happy 'till The Elder Scrolls V finally hits.

I hear the "Crushing Prison" spell sucks when it's used against you.

(Also, Jello -- are your characters registered over at the BioWare social site? I'd enjoy seeing how you tackled certain things. As in, object lessons for moi.)

 

Yeah, if you let Jowan go I guess you've got no choice. That's one of the things I really like about this game, actually - how your choices can and do dictate what your options are. It sucks sometimes - I managed to screw things up by going all roleplay-y and then realising later that I actually kinda wanted the specialisation you unlock by picking the other option - but it's cool. And it makes more sense this way.

 

Poor Jowan... when asked what should happen to him, I selected "We should show mercy" or something like that... it was late and obviously I didn't read it correctly, because it actually said something like "We should show no mercy." And he was sentenced to death.

But I was too lazy to reload.

 

As far as party characters go, Zev and Sten are my favourites.

I kitted out Sten with all the Blood Dragon armour and he's almost an unstoppable juggernaut. I say almost because sometimes Wynne just phases out and refuses to heal anyone, even though she's got enough lyrium. Maybe it's a bug.

For Zev, I don't find him all that useful since I'm a rogue anyway, but I just love his accent and character. And I successfully wooed him from his killing ways.

 

I've got to play some more tonight. Didn't get the chance to do so this weekend.

I want to say in regards to the Circle thing, if you side with the Mages (basically don't commit to either side...just say you want to see for yourself what's going on and then use the chant to save mages from becoming abominations), both the Mages and Templars will aid you. The Mages right away and the Templars will send word to your camp through the Tranquil who starts hanging out at camp.

And I went ahead and signed up on the social site, as some of you already know. Same name there as here.

 

Holy cow, I love this game to death. I haven't been this taken in by a game in a while. I don't know about the rest of you though, but the archdemon is a real pain to beat. I got to him last night, and had to hit the sack before I could beat him. I still haven't!

This is a fantastic game. My character now is a human noble, but I think I'll be a Dalish Elf next. I'm really hoping that Bioware will this into a series, as the "origins" in the name might indicate.