Videogames

[arrowfan]

Just got dragon age origins, intend to make my first playthrough. Any character creations that are no-no? I'm thinking of a human rogue, want to learn/see as much of the gameworld as possible on first playthrough.

Seriously?! Well you're in for some RPG fun. The only starting character types I'd avoid are the dwarf ones.. because you end up exploring that same area later in the game no matter what. The elf and human starts are great and unique.

If possible play at Hard difficulty. And make full utilization of the Cone of Cold spell for your caster.

I couldn't stand DA:O at first but give it some time, it's a great ride. Really great voices and story. And once you get the hang of the gameplay it rocks too.

[Jon AS]

I've gone forward with my human rogue, just finished the tower/battle mission, and already I run head-on into the wall that plagues all my games: I can't throw anything away. Everything seems to have at least ssome possible purpose, or might be useful later on - especially gems and craftable items (at least, I think they're craftable, but I don't know).

I also can't decide to specialise in ranged weapons or double daggers (I refuse to double-wield anything else than daggers, it just seems so wrong), and I can't stick to any pre-determined role - one minute I'm the arrogant atheist noble, the next the warm brother/whatever. Not necessarily the games' fault, but my own flaw. I do already know I'm going to romance morrigan, because who can resist officer Sun?

As for stats, do I gimp myself if I stamp all points into dexterity and cunning, or what would be necessary numbers for the other stats? Currently level 6; str13 dex26 wis12 mag11cun 25 (+3) con 14. Lastly, is it useful to max stealing in the game, or does it boil down to a somewhat unnecessary additional source of income?

Apart from healing and lyrium poultices/potions and the mini quest involving poison in Lothering I never bothered with crafting. Limited-use items are something I inevitably never use (there might be a more challenging fight just around the corner!) so I end up selling them. The only gems worth hanging on to are the "remarkable" ones that are gifts and garnets for a sidequest.

Weapons are really just a matter of taste, but unless you have a respec mod you really need to decide what to use early on, putting points into two different weapon trees is a bad idea.

Lastly stealing: if you mean pick-pocketing then there is only one use to the skill: if your main character has it it unlocks a series of sidequests in Denerim that will net you a lot of money. But you don't have to do the stealing yourself during that quest (and occasionally you can substitute coercion for it) so having, for example, Leliana pick points in it will be sufficient as long as you have one point yourself.

I wouldn't ignore constitution for your rogue, it's important to up your HP through the game, but only spend a point every few levels. With Str it depends on whether you want a melee rogue or ranged rogue. If melee then you'll want enough str to be able to equip decent armour and do decent normal damage. If ranged then Str isn't such a big deal. If you go for the assassin specialisation then cunning gives you extra damage for backstabs. Obviously concentrate your stat points on dex and cunning, but not exclusively IMO.

Really, don't waste points on CON, ever. One point gives you +5HP, which is nothing. Put that into DEX and suddenly your chance of not getting hit in the first place goes up, your attack and dagger/bow damage goes up (well, it does on PC...) and it adds the same amount to physical resistance.

Strength isn't important to a melee rogue since you'll be taking the talent to substitute it for cunning anyway, and cunning also adds to armour penetration (and various rogue abilities).

RE the extra talent thing, I was thinking more about the extra stat points you get from the mage only sub-quest as the reason Mage is sort of the best class to be, I wasn't thinking about extra talents. BTW I went with Arcane Warrior for a specialisation. That was fun.

That's not a mage-only quest. The only thing mages can get exclusively is the extra talent point or blood mage specialisation (or some useless other stuff).

[Inigima]

Won a HoN match in MM mode for the first time last night (single draft, lawl), I picked Pyro (other options were Blood Hunter and Deadwood, I suck at both all carries and Deadwood). Died more than I'd like but was extremely valuable to my team -- bought both couriers, shitloads of wards, and lots of dust to counter Night Hound, landed some really clutch stuns. Never been so glad to have bought Striders. Was also pretty great to play alongside a Hammerstorm for the double stun. Managed to evade a Moon Queen gank by stunning her while she chased, got away safely.

[The Anti-Targ]

That's not a mage-only quest. The only thing mages can get exclusively is the extra talent point or blood mage specialisation (or some useless other stuff).

Isn't it? I thought you had to choose between Wynne, Morrigan or, if your character is a mage, you. I read somewhere that if you aren't a mage then you have to send in Wynne or Morrigan, in which case one of them will get the extra stat points. Is that not right?

You can't use cunning to wear armour / use better weapons can you? So upping Str a bit is needed if you want to use the good weapons. I ended up getting Leliana up to Str 27 so she could dual wield one of the good longswords and one of the better axes. But if you're gonna be a traditionalist and stick to dual wield daggers for your rogue then yeah, Str not so important. I guess always looking to manouver into backstab positions means mostly avoiding direct attack anyway.

I'll have to get started on my rogue playthrough. Almost finished the last battle with the mage, which has been fun.

Anyone go past cone of cold and use blizzard on a regular basis? I never did for any of the mages.

[Tyrellius]

I finished off Dragonage on the PC a week or so ago. What a different game compared to playing it on console. I could actually use my mages effectively. Paralyze, mass paralysis , infernos, blizzards and the lighting aoe spell. I got to a level 23 dual wielding warrior. I upgraded my wardens set of armour multiple times by selling it to a vendor and then buying it back. Same was done with Calians armour so at the end, both sets of armour were Tier 7. I finished the game on hard difficulty, but honestly I think I should have cranked it up to the max. I used the potent lyrium potion selling to have a shed load of gold and equip the best of the best.

I'm a big bummed that the Wardens armour set and Starfang(?) arent able to be carried over the the other DLC, but I've got a save right before the Archdemon so I'll probably go back and swap Topsiders with Alistair. Also got the Duty Armour set knocking about in my bags should I really want to carry on with my warrior in the other DLC.

I started Mass Effect a week or so ago and I'm digging it so far. I abandoned the female character I built (she looked too much like a duck from a side view) and went with the premade Sheppard PC. Currently on some Ice World looking for the Matriarch. Can't wait to get into Part II and see all the improvements I've heard about.

[Jon AS]

Isn't it? I thought you had to choose between Wynne, Morrigan or, if your character is a mage, you. I read somewhere that if you aren't a mage then you have to send in Wynne or Morrigan, in which case one of them will get the extra stat points. Is that not right?

No, there is a different (optional) Fade section in which you get a choice of a variety of characters to use, and if you're not a mage yourself you can't go. Using any NPC will however limit what you can do there (Blood Mage unlock or bonus talent in that case).

You can't use cunning to wear armour / use better weapons can you? So upping Str a bit is needed if you want to use the good weapons. I ended up getting Leliana up to Str 27 so she could dual wield one of the good longswords and one of the better axes. But if you're gonna be a traditionalist and stick to dual wield daggers for your rogue then yeah, Str not so important. I guess always looking to manouver into backstab positions means mostly avoiding direct attack anyway.

No, you'll need ~STR 22 to wear the best light armour. Daggers have the highest DPS, quite comfortably beating out swords and axes so there isn't much point in raising it further. Unless you absolutely want to, obviously. Nothing wrong with creating sub-optimal characters, I do that a lot.

Leliana is really best left as an archer, she starts out with archery talents and gets her own unique tier 7 bow.

Anyone go past cone of cold and use blizzard on a regular basis? I never did for any of the mages.

Those big area effect spellst can have their uses in some places, basically whenever you know that a big horde of enemies will be coming at you from a particular direction, but it's obviously of much more limited use than Fireball or Cone of Cold due to the long casting time.

The most important spell however is Mana Clash, an area effect mage killer that like Blizzard, Inferno et al can be used without having line-of-sight to the target. Being able to take enemy mages out before the fight starts tends to make things much, much easier.

I finished off Dragonage on the PC a week or so ago. What a different game compared to playing it on console. I could actually use my mages effectively. Paralyze, mass paralysis , infernos, blizzards and the lighting aoe spell. I got to a level 23 dual wielding warrior. I upgraded my wardens set of armour multiple times by selling it to a vendor and then buying it back. Same was done with Calians armour so at the end, both sets of armour were Tier 7. I finished the game on hard difficulty, but honestly I think I should have cranked it up to the max. I used the potent lyrium potion selling to have a shed load of gold and equip the best of the best.

I'm a big bummed that the Wardens armour set and Starfang(?) arent able to be carried over the the other DLC, but I've got a save right before the Archdemon so I'll probably go back and swap Topsiders with Alistair. Also got the Duty Armour set knocking about in my bags should I really want to carry on with my warrior in the other DLC.

I'd always advise playing games on maximum difficulty, you can always turn it down if it's really too much for you.

Even without any kind of exploits you end the game with hundreds of sovereigns you won't know what to do with, btw, so I think that's more a waste of time than really necessary. The only place where you can buy really expensive and useful items right at the start is the Circle Tower, anyway.

You don't have to load a save before the final battle, just load the final one, go back to camp (and Warden's Keep if you've got anything in that chest) and equip the stuff you want, save again and use that to import your character.

[Sheep the Evicted]

I don't usually pay attention to trailers but this one is particularly well made.

[The Anti-Targ]

Even without any kind of exploits you end the game with hundreds of sovereigns you won't know what to do with, btw, so I think that's more a waste of time than really necessary.

Yeah, not me. I only had about 50 sovs to my name at the end. I never bought anything I couldn't use, and I didn't horde anything valuable on a "just in case I'll need it one day" basis. Maybe I shouldn't have bought so many tomes to get extra spells/talents/stats. I'd probably have >150 sovs if that was the case.

[Jon AS]

Yeah, not me. I only had about 50 sovs to my name at the end. I never bought anything I couldn't use, and I didn't horde anything valuable on a "just in case I'll need it one day" basis. Maybe I shouldn't have bought so many tomes to get extra spells/talents/stats. I'd probably have >150 sovs if that was the case.

No no, I meant after buying all those tomes (except the "Mortal Vessel" ones, those are almost useless and completely overpriced). The Crime Wave quests in Denerim (for which your main character needs Pick Pocket skill) and the Lyrium smuggling between Orzammar and the Circle Tower (for the best outcome you'll need high Coercion) will net you a lot of money. It does help to realise that the game won't reward you for modestly turning down payment.

On the PC you can waste a lot of cash if you want to upgrade DLC items to a higher tier later on, which I never really found all that useful. There are more than enough high-end heavy and massive armour sets in the game already.

[Wras]

Finally got my Dragon Age Platinum. It's weird how I've played through a Warrior three times (and am well into a fourth!) but getting a mage to 20 was the only thing I needed for the Platinum and for some reason it felt boring to me. Never mind that I steamrolled through almost every fight because of mana clash and the occasional storm of the century.

But right now I'm going through one last time, trying to do everything, and then going through as much of the DLC with my warrior as possible. Witch Hunt here I come.

[Galactus]

That's not a mage-only quest. The only thing mages can get exclusively is the extra talent point or blood mage specialisation (or some useless other stuff).

One of these "useless other stuff" is a Tome of Ethereal suggestion that gives you +1 talent.

[Space Bandito]

Don't know if this has come up but there will be a Dragon Age 2 Demo Test

Tuesday, February 22 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm (not exactly sure what time zone that is :unsure:)

Dragon Age players, this is your call to arms! We need one million players of the Dragon Age 2 demo and we want you to rally the troops to reach this monumental goal. Tell your friends, tell your family, talk about it on Facebook, Twitter, talk about it at school and at work. We want One Million downloads of the Dragon Age 2 demo and we need you to rally the troops to reach this goal.

If we reach One Million downloads, we will reward players with 2 new in-game items the Lothering's Lament and Far Cliffs of Kirkwall tomes. And don't forget, anyone who completes the demo will get the in-game item Hayden's Razor. All 3 items will be available on all platforms for Dragon Age 2.

[Jon AS]

One of these "useless other stuff" is a Tome of Ethereal suggestion that gives you +1 talent.

If you read the sentence you quoted again you'll see that I mentioned the talent.;)

ETA: This special promotional bonus item crap is really getting out of hand. At least this time around they won't give everything to you on character creation, I think.

[Ardamin]

Lots of new screenshots have been released for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and they're looking pretty awesome. The first post in this thread has gathered most of them, I think. May 17th can't come fast enough.

[TrueMetis]

Don't know if this has come up but there will be a Dragon Age 2 Demo Test

Tuesday, February 22 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm (not exactly sure what time zone that is :unsure:)

Going to the Bioware website it says.

February 22, 2011 marks the launch of the Dragon Age II Demo and a Call to Arms for all BioWare fans. We are actively recruiting an army of Champions, and if we get over 1 million demo downloads and logins on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 combined before March 1st, we will unlock two in-game items for the entire community to use in Dragon Age II. Demo download progress will be tracked on this page, so check back often!

So presumably the timezone doesn't matter.

My link

[Kosciuszko]

I really need to play Dragon Age on PC. I have it on PS3 and steamrolled through on Nightmare as a Dwarf Warrior w/ 2-Handed Weapons. I actually found Mage more difficult but I suspect it has to do with the lack of isometric view on console.

My build basically spammed Strength and Dexterity, only enough Cunning to get the full Coercion line of abilities. Reaver and Templar specs. In Awakening went for Spirit Warrior. For a tank I used Shale, then used Wynne and Morrigan for magic. I started spamming Willpower after awhile because... well, I really felt my defense and strength were high enough so I wanted to see what'd happen to my DPS w/ more stamina and the increase to my Templar AoE thingie. Decent results for trash slaughtering.

Got Mass Effect 2 for my PS3 recently. Loving it, using a female Adept and using lots of Renegade dialogue :D Not encountered the save glitch, thank God.

[haLobEnder]

Not to pick on you Kosciuszko, but I have to ask, why do people play on 'Nightmare' and similar modes? Is it for bragging rights? Do you end up dying often when playing these modes or are you skilled enough that 'normal' or even 'hard' don't present enough of a challenge?

To me, Dragon Age: Origins on consoles was frustrating enough on 'normal' mode. The controls just weren't designed for strategy like the PC version so I mainly just ignored my abilities and spells in favour of direct hack and slash. My sole reason for playing was for the story.

[Poobah]

Not to pick on you Kosciuszko, but I have to ask, why do people play on 'Nightmare' and similar modes? Is it for bragging rights? Do you end up dying often when playing these modes or are you skilled enough that 'normal' or even 'hard' don't present enough of a challenge?

To me, Dragon Age: Origins on consoles was frustrating enough on 'normal' mode. The controls just weren't designed for strategy like the PC version so I mainly just ignored my abilities and spells in favour of direct hack and slash. My sole reason for playing was for the story.

I played Mass Effect 2 on insanity for fun. Edit: as in, for the gameplay.

[kungtotte]

Most modern games really aren't that challenging. The inclusion of healing-over-time, frequent checkpoints and so on means that you can usually blast through them very quickly if you've any experience at all. So you play on the toughest difficulty setting to make it more fun. Basically if I never feel pressured by the game, or never have to restart a section, it means it's too easy.

Dragon Age is one of the few modern games where I actually feel like Normal is an OK difficulty setting, the way things ought to be. Used to be the casual minority played on Easy, the masochists played on Hard and everyone else on Normal.

[Jon AS]

Not to pick on you Kosciuszko, but I have to ask, why do people play on 'Nightmare' and similar modes? Is it for bragging rights? Do you end up dying often when playing these modes or are you skilled enough that 'normal' or even 'hard' don't present enough of a challenge?

Challenge is the major factor for me. If I'm going to spend 40+ bucks (and 30+ hours for one playthrough) on a game I want there to be some difficulty. And it seems to be a fact that "normal" difficulty is designed for people who are noticeably worse at games than I am, so I usually go for the highest setting.