So I finally got my code for DA2, and...

[raixel]

Hm. So after waiting over a month, I finally got my code for Diablo...I mean Streets of Rage...Oh no wait, Dragon Age II. Um, I'm just past the tutorial (like 5 mins in, just after the first fight), but I seriously hope it gets better than this, at least combat wise. This is not an RPG. This is um...I'm not quite sure what it is. I can take a Hurlock down in 5 hits as a level 1 rogue, my health bar constantly regens in battle real fast, and I levelled after the first battle in the game (on normal). And its way way faster and less tactical than the first one. Oh, and the diablo-style skill tree blows ass. You also cant really design your char beyond class and cosmetically. There are no other races besides 'human' to play, and the story appears the same for every class (although if you import your old save from the first one, things you did there can affect this game. Could be cool.) I love the Mass Effect series, but DA2 really really feels like Mass Effect 2, but fantasy. The speedy combat and action feel work for space age gunbattles, not so good for a fantasy game. Why is it RPGS are getting so dumbed down?

If you want to play a REAL RPG, I'd reccommend Drakensang: River of Time. You can get it off Steam for 20USD. That game is great, although the company that produced it (a german company, I believe) no longer exists, due to the fact taht they localized this game in a million different languages with full voice support but no international marketing. Its a pity, as this is seriously one of the best RPGs in a long while. I just found it trolling Steam, and then read the reviews online that could be summed up as "Die hard RPG fan says 'OMG ROX'!" Its action-ish (similar in feel to the first Dragon Age), but you still need lots of pausing and tactics for battle. Theres also a million stats, and it has 3 'creation' abilities (alchemy, blacksmithing, and bowmaking) you can use to make cool stuff. You can also pick herbs and skin animals ala WoW, and then use the creation abilities to make cool items. Its worth a look, but dont buy any later games in the series as (I heard) they are crap. One thing some people hate (I happen to love) is that the money system is very realistic. 60 gold pieces is a LOT, and you probably wont be getting any magic items ay time soon, as the world is very low magic, although mages get cool spells. I guess theres a pen and paper RPG called Dark Eye this game is based off of. I have never heard of it but some of the reviews I read said that this game is true to the feel of that system, as magic items are hard to come by.

[Sphenx]

The only thing I remember about the Dark Eye is that it is where I got my first d20 ... (black of course).

About DA2, combats look like in an arcade game or jrpg. One best combat system I liked was in Severance Blade of Darkness (not RPG but exploration through different levels in fantasy world); your chance to kill creatures really lied in your ability to control the hero movement; levelling up was just giving more HP and better hits. Some combats could last for a really long time, but that was quite much fun!

[raixel]

Hm. Well Ive never played that one. I'll check it out. I am RPG starved ATM. Why Drakensang was such a welcome find.

So ive played DA 2 for about two hours now. I have to say...It's ok. Not Bioware ok. EA ok. Its kinda weak for a Bioware game. And definately not worth the giant hassle I went thru to get it. (See the thread about buying this game used and EA's 'anti-piracy' BS.) Personally, I think it lost more than it gained. I do like the fact that theres a lot of merchants in the main city, although the lack of cool little descriptions on the inventory items is a huge blow. It just feels...stripped. Like it needed a month or two more of development to really flesh it out. Amusing, when wandering around, a random townsperson sad something along the lines of "Do you feel life is getting simpler? Things like eating and combat just arent what they used to be." It wasnt exactly that, but it was something along those lines. I LoL'd. I happen to wonder if it was some Bioware employee's subtle dig at the way the game ended up. From what I understand based on what a friend in the gaming industry told me when I called him to bitch, the game was not intended to be as "dumbed-down" as it is, but EA wanted to make it 'accessable'. Basically make it appeal to the broadest range of people by watering down the **** out of it, were my friend's exact words.

Bleh. Soon it'll all be casual facebook games. I hope my "writing on the wall" doesnt come true. 5 years ago, when the Wii and the travesty of games it has became the hot selling thing, I said "Oh crap. This is just going to ruin real gaming when other companies see how much they can make if they can make games appeal to non gamers". Why I stick with pre 2000 games for the most part, I guess.

And has anyone else noticed that the gold haired warrior chick who is the wife of the templar who dies in the intro is the SAME voice actress as Morrigan from DA1? She didnt even try and change her voice. It would be cool if it turns out she is Morrigan in disguise or something, but if she isnt i'm just gonna be like ... . Oh. And BTW Flemeth looked rocking with her hair out like that. So, I think I'll play this, but I seriously doubt im gonna drop 115hrs into it like I did on the first one. And I just realized i cant resell it, either. Poo. Oh well. Heres hoping Elder Scrolls 5 rocks the black abyss!

On the other hand. Portal 2! OMG OMG! That is everything a sequel SHOULD be.

[Sphenx]

... the game was not intended to be as "dumbed-down" as it is, but EA wanted to make it 'accessable'.

Classic, when it becomes an industry with investors and such, then the goal of the companies is to make profit; as there are financial risks to make a product not selling well, the 'game' must be saleable to a wide audience. That's the way it is ...

Originality can come from independant developers (with new concepts) but they are not big enough to make big astonishing 3D games; the other come from modders using game engines to make them more interesting, fun, complex ... like .. we know

Anyway, it depends on how much entertainment we are expecting on a game.

Heres hoping Elder Scrolls 5 rocks the black abyss!

.. and have a good levelling system ..

[oh_brother]

Sad to hear that they may have ruined what could have been an amazing franchise. As I mentioned before I thought DAO was fantastic, and the background, history and "feel" of the gameworld was great - I wanted to explore the world and see more.

But you are not the first person to give that kind of a review, I am not in a hurry to play it. Maybe DA3 will be better, but the next time I get a chance to properly play a game I will go with ME2.

[Ameena]

Have you tried playing "The Witcher"? I'm partway through it atm and it's pretty good. It's a third-person RPG where you run around with two different types of sword (plus up to two other miscellaneous weapons, like daggers and shortswords and axes and torches and stuff) and do quests for NPCs and stuff, and umm...ohh yeah you can harvest bits of dead enemies (skin, fur, brains, etc) and from plants to mix together to make potions to buff yourself and stuff. And there's loads of areas you can put skill points into when you level - you have a steel sword (for "normal" enemies, like humans) and, a bit later on, a silver sword (for "monsters", like undead and other unnatural beasties). Both swords have three combat styles - Strong (for hacking slow and hard at tough opponents), Fast (for slicing quickly and stuff which can dodge the Strong style), and Group (for umm...groups...). Each style has different skills in it to increase damage or give other effects (bleed, stun, knockdown, etc), and there are also sort of "spells", called Runes I think, of which there are five and which are like the sword skills in that you can put skill points into them to give them extra abilities (so, you can enhance the Knockdown power so that it has a greater chance to knock down enemies or does more damage or whatever). And umm...what else...well, yeah, it's pretty similar to some other RPGs...the story progresses in chapters (I'm only on chapter 2 right now) and takes place (so far, anyway) in different locastions with each chapter. You can talk to, threaten, bribe, kill, and sleep with plenty of people, relevant to the main plot or not, and there's tons of little side quests that you can do to earn some extra cash. Oh, and a mini-game called Dice Poker which I think is a bit like Yahtzee (which I played a few times when I was probably about 10 so I can't really remember the rules too well ) and is a great way to earn some cash if you want to buy something cool.
I'm only spamming about this game 'cause it's my current, but there's plenty of others I've played. If you're after something else to play maybe at some point I can recommend something else (though don't expect it to necessarily have been released at any point within the last decade or so ).

[raixel]

Yeah, Ameena, Ive been thinking about getting it. I think its on Steam. I know I can pre-order the 2nd one which comes out in like a week or two. So I fig if I wait till the 2nd comes out, then Steam ALWAYS does a sale on the first in the franchise. So I can get it cheap!

And OB, ME2 is good. They stripped the inventory system, which is a loss. But it doesnt impact it all that much, as the rest of the game is WAY good. The combat is more action based, kinda ike DA2, but it feels 'right' in that game. Like I said earlier, space aged gunbattles work good in action-style. Its still WAY more tactical than DA2, tho. The sidequests actually work this time, too, as you aren driving all over an empty planet looking for a tiny facility with 10 people hiding in it. Instead you 'scan' a planet for resources, and you can also get 'weird signals' that you can then go down and look at. And the story and plot is !!!! especially if you import your character from the first one. All in all a good game. But now I'm terrified ME3's gonna be crap.

I knew this was gonna happen eventually when I saw that EA bought Bioware. I went 'oh, one of the last great RPG developers, and look who bought them. Great.' EA has a horrible reputation in the gaming industry(as Im sure most of you know) for watering games down, forcing developers to do dumb stuff (like turn the 4th game in an action franchise into a lets say tactical sim, for example, because the suit's market reserch heard tactical sims were selling good) , and releasing games way before they should have been released to push sales. They also go 'do it, or we will dissolve you as a developer and find someone else who will.', if a developer goes 'what the hell are you thinking?!'. And then they get mad at the developers when the game doesnt get as good of reviews as it should.

Well, maybe *fingers crossed* its a fluke. The Xenosaga series on PS2 had a similar problem with the 2nd in the franchise, but by the 3rd they had figured out what went wrong and the 3rd rocked. And there's always Bethesda, although I have my own problem with them *fallout* *cough*, although at least they arent EA.


[sidenote]
I LOVE the Elder Scrolls, and have been playing that franchise since Arena. I heard Skyrim is gonna be a lot closer to Morrowind in terms of story and gameplay. One of Bethesda's guys said something in an interview like 'Yeah, we know Oblivion was kinda boring as far as the world-style. We are really trying to recapture the feeling of alien-ness and 'stranger-in-a-strange-land' Morrowind had for Skyrim." I dont know how they can do that with Vikings as opposed to the weird Dunmer, but hey. Personally, I think they should go back to Morrowind after the Tribunal went down and Red Mountain exploded and that floating chunk of rock that Vivec lived on(forgot the name of it) landed on their main city. But set it on the main continent this time and not Vvardenfell.
[/sidenote]

You can also get Arena and Daggerfall for free off Bethseda's website. I dont see EA putting their old games on for free any time soon! It just sucks cuz I have EA games on my Apple2e. They SHOULD be a proud old video game company that has been around for 20+ years and understand what gamers want.

Instead...they are....something else

[Ameena]

Ooh, Arena and Daggerfall free? I've never played either of those - I'd never heard of the ES series till my dad got himself Morrowind (GotY edition) for Christmas some years ago. Then I started playing it, of course, and found it was fantastic. Oblivion is good but I definitely prefer Morrowind. When did Arena and Daggerfall first come out, anyway? Do you know? I just wonder how old they are. I've heard very little about Arena but I gather that Daggerfall has a much bigger game-world than Morrowind but that the dungeons are randomly generated or something. If Skyrim is gonna be more like Morrowind and less like Oblivion, then it already sounds more interesting . I might look into getting it at some point after it comes out, though it'll depend on what I'm playing at the time .
As for the Witcher, I got the "Platinum edition" (Enhanced Edition with loads of extra stuff - a second disk with a load of extras on it like a map and the soundtrack and stuff) for only a tenner on Amazon (um not sure what that is in US moolah but it ain't a lot over here ), so maybe you could look into that. It also comes with a Game Guide (book) in case you get stuck - it's basically a walkthrough of all the quests but I've not been using it except once or twice, I think, when I really couldn't find something. Oh, that's another thing about the game - day and night actually mean something. Apart from the fact that towns switch from "Safe" to "Dangerous" (because a random undead creature might spawn at a certain place in town), certain NPCs might only be found in places at certain times of day. The game is dynamic - NPCs don't just magically appear in a pub at 4pm, for example - you can actually see them leave their house and walk to the pub, and take their usual seat.
You can also complete some quests in different ways - when you have a choice, it affects stuff later and when you get to a point where you encounter something that's been affected as a result of your actions, you get a brief sort of flashback to the decision point, with Geralt's voice speaking over a still image of the moment, saying stuff to the effect of "This is happening because I did this - if I'd done something different, maybe it wouldn't have turned out this way..." etc, so you can actually see that your actions have made a difference (whether to your advantage or not) and the point at which this was decided...by you.
I haven't actually made any progress in the game for several weeks now, due to a certain DnD game taking up rather a lot of time and my updating the OP page for it and stuff, filling the Wiki with all kinds of info on NPCs and stuff...of course, usually it's stuff that's not even come up yet in-game so I hide it until it does. So technically maybe that means I don't have to write it yet, but oh well. So anyway, yeah...to some extent, the Witcher plays a bit like a single-player version of DAO (you can even do a tactical pause with the space bar...well, that may not be the default key but I know it's what mine is set on), though I think it unpauses if you make an action. Oh...it has one similarity to Morrowind, actually, in that you need to rest (it's meditation rather than sleep in this case, though) in order to level up, at which point you can spend your Talent points to improve your skills and make yourself all the more ubererererer .
Anyway...yeah, plenty of other cool games out there besides. Ever played the Might and Magic series? I've played VI, VII, and VIII, the former of which is definitely my favourite (for numerous reasons). Heroes of Might and Magic III is brilliant as well but that's more of a turn-based strategy game than an RPG. Umm...actually I've gone blank for now as to other cool RPGs but there are plenty out there, lol. Ooh, Ego Draconis...that's another one. Sorry, no, Divinity II is the proper name. Ego Draconis is the basic game without the expansion (Flames of Vengeance), but the set that contains both is called the Dragon Knight Saga - that was the last game I played before I started on the Witcher and I very much enjoyed it . That's like a single-player DAO, but with some differences, obviously. I can give you more info if you want it. Good fun game, that, and with some cool humour here and there too (like, references to actual RL stuff, like character names etc, but the game never calls attention to it or makes a big thing out of it - you either get the reference and laugh, or don't get it at all in which case it makes no difference you never notice because there's no big sign going "Hey, this is a joke, it's a reference to a character from a famous story, therefore it is amusing, please find it funny, hahaha" ). And plenty of room to develop your character in different ways since you don't choose a class at the start but more kind of build into one (or several, if you prefer) as you go .

[raixel]

K, so I d/led the Witcher enhanced edition from Steam for US$20. I think thats about 13pounds(cant make pound symbol on my keyboard easily), but dont quote me on that. Its pretty fun. I definately think its on par with DA2, only better cuz its not made by EA and I didnt end up paying 6$ above retail and have it take a month. Favorite line so far. A dwarf when asked why someting is a certain way says " I dunno, why do p

Spoiler

ri

cks go in c

Spoiler

un

ts? Thats just the way it is.".

The fighting and camera took a LOT of getting used to tho. Maybe it would be better if I had a papaer manual. I never bother to read steam's online ones. And for me at least, it seems sometime in combat that the clickzones dont work/are off. I will have my cursor over the enemy and click on him, but nothing. But yeah, unlike DA2, I dont feel ripped off on this one. Thanks Ameena.

Latest DA2 b**ch:
You cant change your companions armor!!!! WTF! Oh and rogues can only use daggers n bows, warriors can only use sword/shield or twohanded swords(mauls ect) and mages get staves. So basically unless you play as a fighter, heavy armor is useless and so on. And it seems to me anyway that similar to the first Dungeon Siege, usually when you find an item or weapon drop(which are super-rare anyway), its required ability points are way higher than what you have at the time you got it. So you end up carting it around forever. Its just too bad cuz the game has a well thought out story. Its not worth 50US$ though. Especially if you loved the first one, you WILL be disappointed. If you find it in a bargain bin, go ahead.

[Ameena]

Lol oh umm yeah, that's another thing about the Witcher - the language certainly ain't censored . That rather caught me by surprise the first time I heard a character swear - I was like "Oh wow, there's actual proper swearing in this, it's not toned down or whatever for a younger audience...wow that's actually quite cool, I've never had a game like that before". And when you think about it, if you're in some seedy district of a town speaking ot someone of ill repute, they're not gonna be saying stuff like "Things look bad down here...", they're gonna bloody well say "Oi, things ain't 'alf f*cked up 'ere..." or similar . You get plenty of random comments (from passers-by in the street) that are rude, and there is one character I've met who seems to like injecting a certain swear word into practically every sentence. He's quite funny, actually, and I earned enough money off him playing Dice Poker to buy some better armour .
Don't have any problem with the camera or whatever myself. I play in the most zoomed-in view. Shame there isn't a first-person view as it's always my first choice in games like this...though for some reason most games these days don't seem to let you get in any closer than an off-the-shoulder view. I'd prefer stuff to be at least like the ES games (the two I've played, anyway ) where you can choose between first person and third person. Anyway...as for fighting being tricky, maybe I changed around the hotkeys - that's likely as I tend to do that. For some reason a lot of games these days seem to automatically put movement keys to "WASD" rather than to the arrow keys, /shrug. So I remap those and then move around other controls based on guesswork, then usually move them around again later once I actually start using those commands and finding I've put the hotkey somewhere really awkward.
Oh, and don't worry about not having a manual...I didn't read mine and I'm coping just fine . There's enough info in the initial tutorial to give you the basics, plus the various screens and stuff are fairly straightforward to use. The journal area is very much like DAO's Codex, in that entries are added as you read books or talk to people or whatever (though monster info you don't get when you meet a monster - you tend to have to read about them in books to learn their weaknesses and stuff, but you can make educated guesses based on what they look like etc), and the talents and other stuff is pretty straightforward. Haven't done much alchemy yet, really - made a few Cat potions but that was about it. Don't have any high enough quality alcohol on me right now so I can't mix up anything new. I think my next stop is gonna be a boss fight so I hope I don't end up needing anything more . Having to read about monsters in books means you can find a book before you've even heard of a monster, but then be able to research exactly what kind of stuff will best kick its arse when someone later gives you a quest to go and kill one, or something . You can find out plenty of alchemical formulae in books too, though some people give them to you as the result of quests. And buying books, at least at the beginning of the game, doesn't half eat into your money reserves, such as they are. But then again, there's always Dice Poker .
Anyway, yeah...it's a good game overall. Hopefully will maybe get back to it at the weekend in between sessions of DnD with Wuffy . I'm right near the end of Chapter 2 right now but I'll let you know when I get further...you can PM me or whatever if you wanna talk about the game withoug spamming out a thread in-forum if you prefer .

[Ameena]

Just got a really random e-mail from Amazon. Seems genuine. It's thanking me for pre-ordering "The Witcher 2" and gives me a code thingy to enter to enable some free DLC. Um...? I even checked my account, just in case I'd managed to do something completely by accident - nope, haven't pre-ordered anything, got no outstanding orders. Maybe I automatically got the e-mail because I bought the first Witcher from there and some kidn of system assumption has been made . Oh well, if I ever end up getting the second Witcher game, I've now got a random free code I can use to get free stuff .

[Jan]

Lucky you!

Seems genuine.

Is it from amazoon@narod.ru? Is it in pidgin English? Does it say you won 1000000000 GBP in an Australian lottery? Is sending your card number and PIN to a poor disabled 17-years old girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo the only thing you have to do to get the money on your account?

[Ameena]

Lol no nothing like that...it's from amazon.co.uk and it's laid out in the usual way their e-mails are. Doesn't contain anything that says "Clink this link to activate your free stuff" or anything. I definitely haven't pre-ordered anything - haven't even been on Amazon since my copy of "The Witcher" arrived (probably a couple of months ago now). Weird. Oh well...if I ever get "The Witcher 2" then I might as well try the code and see if anything cool happens. I have no plans to get the game at the moment (if it's even out yet, though I presume not from the "pre-order" mention in that e-mail) but I'll hang onto the code in case I ever do.