Dragon Age: Origins

[davejm]

I don't think they are separate awards. It's one category, that can include RPG's or MMO's - at least it would appear so.

[spaceyjase]

Theres a mod where she slaps you back as well

It should go straight into a sex scene after a quick exchange like that

[Talk Show Host]

I don't think they are separate awards. It's one category, that can include RPG's or MMO's - at least it would appear so.

But why? What does one genre have to do with the other? It's totaly ridiculous.

Are these our serious awards?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

They have more in common than 'strategy/simulation'.

But pretty much all video game awards are laughable right now.

[Talk Show Host]

They have more in common than 'strategy/simulation'.

But pretty much all video game awards are laughable right now.

I agree.

I just can't believe that they can't even have proper categories...

[choddo]

I'm starting to get this now. I'm very much liking the Sleep/Horror combo. Pausing regularly in combat seems to be critical for me in order to make sure (even with decent tactics set up) that people do what I want them to. They seem to heal ok but they don't intelligently attack the same baddie in order to kill them quicker.

Can you set up tactics that will have someone attack the same baddie as the lead character? And how are actions chosen if multiple things in the tactics list are true? Does #1 override? This is probably in the manual, which is about 1.5 feet from me, for shame.

[V3zna]

How hard is this, difficult even if I start on the lowest difficulty level?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

You can indeed make characters attack the main character's target - this is particularly helpful for NPC rogues, as it makes them more likely to get backstab damage if your own character is a warrior or similar threat-generating class.

Tactics are approached in the order they appear in the list.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Yes, you can, it's surprisingly nifty once you delve into it. Though of course there will always be the odd spazzy moment where your archer decides she just wants to run up and twat things in the face with a hatpin if you don't remove some of the pre-existing conditions.

Sleep-Horror is good but what you really want is Grease-Fireball and Blizzard-Spell Might-Tempest. Those two are hilariously fun (and gamebreakingly overpowered but hey)

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Sleep-Nightmare will always be my favourite, personally.

[Mr Ben]

Spell combos in action

Blizzard-Spell Might-Tempest in action

2nd one looks like it may kill your Gfx Card though on a PC

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Storm of the Century. Killing Darkspawn, cities and graphics cards since Andraste was a wee nipper.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I don't think anything in Dragon Age is likely to kill a graphics card, really!

[Mr Ben]

I don't think anything in Dragon Age is likely to kill a graphics card, really!

There are some mods out there that modify the game so heavily that it might, but otherwise I'd agree.

I cant wait for the xpac to come out so I can go kick more Darkspawn butt. I'm hoping a certain character is in the game as well, and I dont mean Oghren.

Morrigan better be in it as she's supposed to be in Orlais according to one of the games endings.

[locke_211]

I'm starting to get this now. I'm very much liking the Sleep/Horror combo. Pausing regularly in combat seems to be critical for me in order to make sure (even with decent tactics set up) that people do what I want them to. They seem to heal ok but they don't intelligently attack the same baddie in order to kill them quicker.

Can you set up tactics that will have someone attack the same baddie as the lead character? And how are actions chosen if multiple things in the tactics list are true? Does #1 override? This is probably in the manual, which is about 1.5 feet from me, for shame.

The best thing I've found is to press both shoulder buttons at once to select all four characters simultaneously - then when you press 'x', then will all attack the same person. You can even pause in combat, keep the radial menu button held down, press both shoulder buttons to select everyone, press 'x', then unpause. They will then all charge the same person. This is much more useful than arranging the same thing via the tactics, which I've only really found useful for healing.

I'm finding the difficulty much more manageable later on, even though it's still on normal. Some earlier random encounters took me nearly an hour of retrying, but now I'm pretty confident. The boss in the Deep Roads would have stumped me a while ago, but only took two tries now I'm used to zipping between everyone and pausing to plan good strategies. I think sticking with normal is worth the sense of reward you get when it all clicks.

Plus getting a spirit healer is invaluable!

[sprite]

How hard is this, difficult even if I start on the lowest difficulty level?

Not hard on the lowest difficulty at all. I'm a bit pants at games now so I do tend to chicken out a bit and play through on easy (I don't get a lot of time to play so I want challenge to come from learning and stuff rather than just hitting brick walls, and if a game really is good I'll go through it on harder difficulties later).

I started off on normal though, then reached a bit where I got my ass kicked a bit so I turned it down to Casual and played through that way.

I seem to remember someone saying that casual on the PC is normal on the console versions. So casual on the consoles is even easier.

It sounds lame, but I completely understand why. On the PC you can have keybindings, on the consoles you have six 'hotkeys' (buttons) outside of the radial menu so it is a bit more laboured and limiting.

[spaceyjase]

That's it, I'm starting again as a mage!

[Stolly]

That's it, I'm starting again as a mage!

I'm finding that second time round its very smooth going (on normal) and thats playing as a Warrior along side Alistair, Morrigan and Leliana as my core team as often as humanly possible. As a mage with Morrigan in tow (or potentially even Wynne and Morrigan) I reckon you'll absolutely breeze the game. As it is I think my main character has had two injuries in 35 hours of this playthrough whilst morrigan, who can attract more heat has had maybe 20 (which she never ceases to moan about).

[spaceyjase]

It's go time! (thanks to AvP STILL downloading...)

Love how the story ties into the main Circle of Magi quest. And the Harrowing was pretty cool too. Great writing again from Bioware. Good stuff!

[choddo]

The best thing I've found is to press both shoulder buttons at once to select all four characters simultaneously - then when you press 'x', then will all attack the same person. You can even pause in combat, keep the radial menu button held down, press both shoulder buttons to select everyone, press 'x', then unpause. They will then all charge the same person. This is much more useful than arranging the same thing via the tactics, which I've only really found useful for healing.

I'm finding the difficulty much more manageable later on, even though it's still on normal. Some earlier random encounters took me nearly an hour of retrying, but now I'm pretty confident. The boss in the Deep Roads would have stumped me a while ago, but only took two tries now I'm used to zipping between everyone and pausing to plan good strategies. I think sticking with normal is worth the sense of reward you get when it all clicks.

Plus getting a spirit healer is invaluable!

No shoulder buttons on my mouse & keyboard

I've sussed it now - most battles going fairly painlessly as long as I apply some vague intelligence, although the Sloth Demon in the Raw Fade was a total get. His last incarnation slaughtered me. I see patch 1.02a fixes a problem with the scaling of some battles. I wonder if that was one of them. I did it in the end (before I installed the patch) but it took about 15 attempts.

[Mallet]

I kinda liked that there were sections of the game that handed my ass to me on several attempts, am I the only one? Some of the boss battles felt like proper old school boss battles with the deep roads being a personal highlight for me.

Like I said before I'm glad this has sold so well as it will encourage Bioware to keep making these games.

[locke_211]

No shoulder buttons on my mouse & keyboard

I've sussed it now - most battles going fairly painlessly as long as I apply some vague intelligence, although the Sloth Demon in the Raw Fade was a total get. His last incarnation slaughtered me. I see patch 1.02a fixes a problem with the scaling of some battles. I wonder if that was one of them. I did it in the end (before I installed the patch) but it took about 15 attempts.

There must be an alternative 'select all characters' thing?

I found the Sloth Demon really tough too, along with a fight soon after. The Deep Roads boss fights were much more managable.

[Wickedkitten]

I kinda liked that there were sections of the game that handed my ass to me on several attempts, am I the only one? Some of the boss battles felt like proper old school boss battles with the deep roads being a personal highlight for me.

Like I said before I'm glad this has sold so well as it will encourage Bioware to keep making these games.

Yes, like bloody

Flemeth

[footle]

There must be an alternative 'select all characters' thing?

I found the Sloth Demon really tough too, along with a fight soon after. The Deep Roads boss fights were much more managable.

The = button.

The fight difficulty really depends on when you do certain things, and how high your level is (because that means you have more options available).

[Padlocked]

Jesus, doing the human noble origin and coming to the game for the first time is a sub-par experience. Charater models are lacking, voice acting is terrible and the script is full of cliches (which are still exactly that even if you mock them). It seems to have gotten better now I'm at Ostagar, but it's a definite B side to Mass Effect.

[Rikku]

Yes, like bloody

Flemeth

This was the first encounter that made me very, very tempted to turn the difficulty level down. Change of tactics saw me dance in victory though, after weeping softly on my 12th load and I realised Leiliana wasn't actually attacking, she was hiding behind myself and Wynne. Scaredy rogue.

Not really sure where to go next on this. I don't want to trigger another massive quest event just yet. Completed Broken Circle last night, then did some schmoozing at the camp, wandered the world map triggering random encounters to try and get some stuff to sell for cash and to replenish my plant supply for pots. Can I go to Denerim and do side quests without triggering anything massive?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Yes, you can, although be warned that Denerim is a minimum-level-10 area, so any combat may be quite hard if you're below that.

The market district should be safe enough though.

[spaceyjase]

Quick question... on my replay, I've started out quite, er, 'ruthless' ("I prefer the term ruthless"). Alistair, naturally, hates me and the little tool-tip on the like/dislike graph says characters will leave your party. So, any advantage to just pissing everyone off (other than short term gains in items and weaponry) or am I forced to maintain the balance between like/dislike so I at least have some party members (e.g. buying them off with gifts)?

(Morrigan freaking loves me already though, the harpy)

[Wickedkitten]

Alistair will never leave your party unless you fuck up and choose the wrong option at the Landsmeet

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Never heard of someone getting their approval so low that anyone would leave them but there are certain decisions and circumstances along the way that can cause companions to turn on/abandon you.