Dragon Age

[stray]

I listened to that whole reel. She's got a great voice.

[sidereal]

Hearing Leliana trying to pitch you shower gel is a little bit awesome.

[caladein]

Oh God, can't stop laughing...

[stray]

I'm a Texan. I'm allowed to love the French. Gotta a ton of worse things to make up for.

[eldaec]

a brand new Grey Warden from the land of Orlais.

Looking forward to more comedy accents already.

You mean more french accents perpetrated by. . native French speakers?

Yes, real French accents are funny in real life too.

Fun fact, French women, when they need to exclaim politely, really do go around saying "Oh la la!" all the time in actual real life, despite it sounding hilarious to English speakers. I suspect they had to tone down Leliana's accent and speech patterns just to stop it coming across too much like an episode of Allo Allo.

[stray]

I never hear stereotypical things like "Ooh la la" or even Au Revoir, but Toodles is common.

[BitWarrior]

So they're calling it "Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening". What the fuck is wrong with people and naming products?

[tmp]

Specializations in this case refers to class specializations. I'm guessing with Orlesian we'll see Chevalier as a specialization. I don't know much about the Amarathian(sp?) area but I'd guess at least one specialization will be related to it somehow. So, maybe regional themed specializations this time out?

Given the Chevaliers apparently get a "license to rape", the skill tree for that specialization could be... interesting 

Amaranthine is part of Ferelden. It's an arldom which may be actually familar to some players -- it used to be ruled by Rendon Howe and the Highever (player's estate in the human noble origin) was originally a part of it. It's located north of Denerim, along the coast.

[Teleku]

a brand new Grey Warden from the land of Orlais.

Looking forward to more comedy accents already.

You mean more french accents perpetrated by. . native French speakers?

Yes, real French accents are funny in real life too.

Fun fact, French women, when they need to exclaim politely, really do go around saying "Oh la la!" all the time in actual real life, despite it sounding hilarious to English speakers. I suspect they had to tone down Leliana's accent and speech patterns just to stop it coming across too much like an episode of Allo Allo.

Yeah, French just sounds hilarious.  Accents are wacky enough, but its one of two languages (the other being Chinese) that I have to struggle to keep from laughing out loud when I hear two people having a conversation in it.  Well, mainly the women actually.  They have all these wierd little exclamations like you mentioned that are just hilarious sounding.  Men tend to sound less comedic.  This makes it interesting every time I go to Paris 

[Malakili]

Ok, I'm getting to the point in the game where these sorts of  "story" RPGs start to wear on me.  Its just one long fucking endless line of "I help you, but first" errand running.  I think it hit a fever pitch when Branka just said basically "Oh, are you an errand boy for some king, well thats lame...ok I'll help you but first FIND THE ANVIL"   Fuck that, I'll come to this after a week or two off form it after I've gotten over being annoyed as fuck at the hours of doing one task only to, instead of being rewarded for it, be given another task.

[01101010]

Ok, I'm getting to the point in the game where these sorts of  "story" RPGs start to wear on me.  Its just one long fucking endless line of "I help you, but first" errand running.  I think it hit a fever pitch when Branka just said basically "Oh, are you an errand boy for some king, well thats lame...ok I'll help you but first FIND THE ANVIL"   Fuck that, I'll come to this after a week or two off form it after I've gotten over being annoyed as fuck at the hours of doing one task only to, instead of being rewarded for it, be given another task.

[Ironwood]

At least they made a joke of it.

In honesty, I quite liked the 'presentation'.  The spells felt powerful from the get go.  That's kind of important.

[Malakili]

At least they made a joke of it.

In honesty, I quite liked the 'presentation'.  The spells felt powerful from the get go.  That's kind of important.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the gameplay, I'm just getting a bit frustrated with the quests.

[Surlyboi]

Yeah, it's a grind. And they know it.

Hell even Alistair says so when you go to meet with the Dalish. Something along the lines of, "Let me guess, you need our help with something..."

[Velorath]

Interview over at IGN regarding the expansion.

[Ironwood]

I understand completely.  This is just a reskin of a great many RPGs before it.  Put this and the Neverwinter stuff side by side and it's only the frigging Graphics that are different.

For me, I preferred Neverwinter (Not the Original Campaign !  It was BAWS) to this.  I took an Rogue all the way up to Epic levels twice.  Great series of games.  It really showed what the engine was capable of.  Shame about the whole thing.

NWN2 was just rubbish tho.

[stray]

What do you mean by "shame"? That NWN2 was the sequel?

[Ironwood]

Well, yes, but No.

The whole NWN idea of a toolset to create adventures was actually a good one and there were a couple of modules done by creative people that were good.  However, it was tooooo limited in scope and failed.  The actual initial campaign was utter fucking reek, but the follow ups (Udrentide, Underdark and whatnot) were extremely well done and showed the capabilities quite well.  I particularly like the Mimic maze.

It's a shame it failed as an ongoing thing.  It's a shame that the legacy of NWN is simply an engine to pour out more and more CRAP reskins of RPGs with fairly formulaic plot and character.  Let's be honest;  Dragon Age is just NWN is Just KOTOR is just NWN2.  There's nothing that stands out as 'new' or exciting.  With the Toolset, the initial premise of NWN did.

Rambling.  Rambling.  Rambling.

[Tebonas]

[Sky]

I was very excited about NWN, having DMed many a campaign back in the day. But yeah, the limitations were awful. I really should've skipped it for a couple years until people had created enough 3d objects that you could maybe do something interesting. I threw together a bunch of little zones to test things out, but once I tried to create the module I wanted to recreate, it was a total failure. I forget which one it was, maybe G1.

To sum up what Ironwood is saying, Dragon Age is just a Splinter Cell knock-off.

[Engels]

Wait, wasn't Arkham Asylum the Splinter Cell knock off this week?

[Slyfeind]

Have they said how you'll be able to continue a previous DA character that, um, died?

And by the way, NWN2 confused the hell out of me. It was something to do with a Renaissance Faire and you go find a boat or something. Freaking weird little game. I loved NWN because of the dearth of player mods. I don't think it was necessarily limiting. I mean, I tried to make a mod where you escape a bad guy by jumping out a window (it was from an old D&D module, Curse of Xanathon) but of course you can't jump through windows, so I had to kind of hack it on. But you could do some fun monster bashes with it.

[eldaec]

Have they said how you'll be able to continue a previous DA character that, um, died?

I don't know, but I'd hope you create the Orlesian guy then use the save file for the plot flags.

[01101010]

Have they said how you'll be able to continue a previous DA character that, um, died?

And by the way, NWN2 confused the hell out of me. It was something to do with a Renaissance Faire and you go find a boat or something. Freaking weird little game. I loved NWN because of the dearth of player mods. I don't think it was necessarily limiting. I mean, I tried to make a mod where you escape a bad guy by jumping out a window (it was from an old D&D module, Curse of Xanathon) but of course you can't jump through windows, so I had to kind of hack it on. But you could do some fun monster bashes with it.

Magic! 

[Sky]

Magic! Enchantment! 

FIFY

[Riggswolfe]

Hmmm...Awakening sounds potentially cool but I'm not sure I like the thought that only one of the old companions will continue with you. I'm hoping it'll be Leilana but I fear it might be Zevram. I don't dislike him but he's not nearly as interesting to me as she is.

[tmp]

Have they said how you'll be able to continue a previous DA character that, um, died?

I don't know, but I'd hope you create the Orlesian guy then use the save file for the plot flags.

They confirmed on their forums that's how it'll work, yes.

[Rasix]

To sum up what Ironwood is saying, Dragon Age is just a Splinter Cell knock-off.

Heh, Dragon Age doesn't really play that different from NWN.  Doesn't really play that different from BG1 or 2 really.  It just tosses away the shackles of D&D for the new ones imposed by Bioware and it comes complete with other Bioware standard game systems.  I don't think anyone's really tried to refute that DA is just a generic fantasy rehash of everything Bioware's done before.  It's just a very good Frankenstein's monster.

Still a better game than NWN1 (with expansions) even if based entirely on that having 4 party members is better than 3.  

edit: In other news, John Fogerty's solo career sounded a lot like CCR.

[Sky]

I don't think anyone's really tried to refute that DA is just a generic fantasy rehash of everything Bioware's done before.  It's just a very good Frankenstein's monster.

It was an interestingly generic rehash.

Robert Plant does not sound like Led Zeppelin.

[Riggswolfe]

DA is just a generic fantasy rehash of everything Bioware's done before.

I don't know if I agree with this part. The game systems are pretty much a rehash of, well, any fantasy Western RPG but the game setting is quite unique while being similiar enough to feel familiar.

[schild]

but the game setting is quite unique

D&D set in Western Europe?

[Ingmar]

I don't think anyone's really tried to refute that DA is just a generic fantasy rehash of everything Bioware's done before.  It's just a very good Frankenstein's monster.

It was an interestingly generic rehash.

Robert Plant does not sound like Led Zeppelin.

Yeah, he moved on to making Adult Contemporary garbage. Should have stuck with what was working, maybe.

All this "oh no the structure is like their other games" complaining is ridiculous. Put aside your goddamn cynicism for once and just enjoy yourselves people, jeez. This game has the best character writing and voice acting they've ever done, in the most detailed and coherent setting they've had to work with. This game is a goddamn joy, easily up in the top 10 gaming experiences I've ever had.

Mozart wrote ~41 symphonies. They pretty much all have the same structure. That doesn't make the later ones 'rehashes', or bad, and it certainly doesn't make them unenjoyable.

Maybe I'm the only person on this forum who believes that innovation isn't the one and only important thing about game making.

[sidereal]

but the game setting is quite unique

D&D set in Western Europe?

GHETTO ELVES

[Tmon]

Have they said how you'll be able to continue a previous DA character that, um, died?

What they say in the interview is that you import character from any DA save. Characters below the module starting level (18-20ish) will be  leveled up to the starting level and you will be able to assign the attribute and skill points.  They are also introducing a respec mechanism so that you can re-assign abilities, spells and attributes on imported characters to allow adding the new skills and abilities.  Also, there will be references to events in DA based on the plot flags in the save that you load your old character from. 

[schild]

but the game setting is quite unique

D&D set in Western Europe?

GHETTO ELVES

I beat them to that, publically at least.