Dragon Age 3

[Khaldun]

Hey! That reminds me. I assumed the Avvari scout was going to be a playable character since he has a lot of the kinds of dialogue that you'd expect for a recruitment. But when he just says he's going to help the Inquisition, nothing really seems to come of it except for the goat-throwing thing. Is the scout somewhere in Skyhold? Seems almost like a feature they buggered off of at the last second.

[Ingmar]

That one can bug out a bit. If you talk to him after finishing the zone story there he's supposed to be recruitable.

[jakonovski]

Sooo did I just get myself irreversibly stuck? At the  on hard, level 6/7 like the mission suggested. Yet I have no chance against it.

edit: never mind, found a supply cache that I had missed previously. What a "great" mechanic, the fight was trivial after full potions. I miss DA:O.

[Paelos]

Elven rune puzzles can go fuck themselves. Janky ass mechanics made that more ridiculous than it should have been.

[jakonovski]

The shard cave is pretty rad. Much better way to do collectibles than ubisoft's model of no reward for anything.

[jakonovski]

20 hours in, I'm starting to really dig this. It is a proper DA game, despite the combat being way worse than before. Exploration is super great however, so it evens out. About the plot:

[Phildo]

[jakonovski]

I have to admit, I would've played it but it took them too long to get it on Origin (and you still have to pay Bioware points for some idiotic reason). It's like Steam without the convenience. EA seems like they always ape whoever's on top, but in a half assed way.

[Nija]

Did you know that you cannot do any main story quests while the PSN is down?

I think this is the complaint everyone had about offline mode in games. Why on earth do I need the PSN to be up in order to do 'decision making quests'?! I couldn't do anything other than bear ass collection quests last night.

edit: spoke too soon. Tried just now and I still can't do any single player story quests on PS4.

[Ginaz]

Still wishing I was a little quicker and able to get my money back from purchasing on Origin.  Oh we'll, it won't be first I wasted money on a bad game.  Worst combat in an rpg I've experienced in quite some time.

[rk47]

How em-bear-assing. 

[Paelos]

Still wishing I was a little quicker and able to get my money back from purchasing on Origin.  Oh we'll, it won't be first I wasted money on a bad game.  Worst combat in an rpg I've experienced in quite some time.

You played as melee didn't you? Melee is horrific. Ranged was fine in my mind. I ran with absolutely no melee players in my party other than the tank.

[Ironwood]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

[Ginaz]

Still wishing I was a little quicker and able to get my money back from purchasing on Origin.  Oh we'll, it won't be first I wasted money on a bad game.  Worst combat in an rpg I've experienced in quite some time.

You played as melee didn't you? Melee is horrific. Ranged was fine in my mind. I ran with absolutely no melee players in my party other than the tank.

Yeah, but I wanted to play as melee.  If the combat and controls are bad, I won't play, which is why I never made it past the 10 min mark in Dark Souls.

[Merusk]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

[rk47]

[Rasix]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

Would you have expected a different reaction? 

Game does have flaws.  They can grate, especially on someone that's prone to it. 

[Reg]

For what it's worth, having finally upgraded my PC I've been playing the game for the last 3 weeks. The people who normally enjoy and post about Bioware games are messaging elsewhere these days which I think is kind of a shame. This is the first time I've had to go to another site for info on a game I've been interested in.

[Maledict]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

Its my game of the year on my PS4. First Bioware game since MW2 that really hits all the appropriate spots for me, and am shocked how at their first attempt at a "big world" RPG Bioware manage to make Skyrim look like utter junk.

Larger, more varied world with more interesting characters and better writing,.

[Ironwood]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

Would you have expected a different reaction? 

Game does have flaws.  They can grate, especially on someone that's prone to it. 

Um, thanks ?

I had no clue about this game at all and Wife decided to purchase it for me for xmas.  I hadn't read this thread (I now have).

The game came on 4 DVDs that took longer than downloading to install.  It also put some shit client on my machine that I have now read Schild considers Cancer.  Whooops.

On playing it, it took fucking ages to load.  It tries to hard to look good and therefore looks ass.  Every fucking bit of armor looks like Beetle Scale.  Shiny and shitty.

The combat is awful tripe.  The 'Tactical' thing is an abortion.  For some reason, it wouldn't let me give myself more skills on level up.  The monsters were boring and, frankly, stupidly shit.  The companions just as much.  The story was already hackneyed and fuck awful the minute it started.  Also, I have amnesia, apparently, or backstory just doesn't fucking matter.  Onwards to Glowy Hand.  Oh, Look, First 'end fight' is a 'Boss' I have to figure out 'The Mechanics' of.  I can't wait till the QTE cutscenes.  Or 'Story' as I think they're called now.

It grinds.  It gronks.  It's like Skyrim on a rail.  I can see the story coming a fucking Mile Away.

Why, why, why would I play this apart from trying really, really desperately to prove to my wife that I love her and I love this fuckawful pressie she's given me ?

I'm just glad it doesn't run on Steam or you could all message me with my torment.

So, no, not really anything to ADD to this thread as such.  It's just tripe.


Tripe.

[satael]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

Its my game of the year on my PS4. First Bioware game since MW2 that really hits all the appropriate spots for me, and am shocked how at their first attempt at a "big world" RPG Bioware manage to make Skyrim look like utter junk.

Larger, more varied world with more interesting characters and better writing,.

Calling Skyrim junk and holding DA3's story on a pedestal is a bit too much for me. I thought that the plot in Inquisition is mediocre at best with no real tension in the finale part (though some dialogue and sidequests are good) and the "big world" is just a collection of maps from hot sand desert to icy mountains with no real transition worth calling the experience a "big world".

[Maledict]

This game is garbage.  Utter shit.   

Whelp guess I dodged a bullet. Anything more than what's been laid-out already?

Its my game of the year on my PS4. First Bioware game since MW2 that really hits all the appropriate spots for me, and am shocked how at their first attempt at a "big world" RPG Bioware manage to make Skyrim look like utter junk.

Larger, more varied world with more interesting characters and better writing,.

Calling Skyrim junk and holding DA3's story on a pedestal is a bit too much for me. I thought that the plot in Inquisition is mediocre at best with no real tension in the finale part (though some dialogue and sidequests are good) and the "big world" is just a collection of maps from hot sand desert to icy mountains with no real transition worth calling the experience a "big world".

Its story isnt amazing by any means - but its far better than Skyrim's which was just terrible. I've always found bethesda games to be more about the "promise" of the game rather than the actual delivered product - they can build a great world, but their storylines, characters and quests within that world are very weak IMO.

[Khaldun]

I'm still waiting to hear what some of you regard as a Western RPG with a great story that also has an open world and an excellent combat system and characters that you don't think are cliches.

[satael]

I'm still waiting to hear what some of you regard as a Western RPG with a great story that also has an open world and an excellent combat system and characters that you don't think are cliches.

I (personally) don't think there is any game that fills all 4 of those requirements as even the best fall short on atleast one of them (or usually 2).

[jakonovski]

Oh boy the combat system really takes a dump in the random ass dragon fights. It's impossible to get your dudes to do anything halfway sensible thanks to the terribad UI. Aggro seems to not exist.

[Phildo]

Same thing happened in DA2 when bosses would spam AOE attacks and you'd need to manually control your entire party to move them out of the way.  The only real trouble with dragon fights is when they're flying around, lobbing fire at you.  Just switch to tactical and issue a move order to each guy, then swap back to regular mode.

[Miasma]

I got the game for Christmas but haven't played it yet.  Is there a consensus on "things I wish I knew or would have done differently in hindsight".  It sounds like I shouldn't make my guy the generic melee tank I usually do but go ranged instead?  I heard I could re-loot chests if I leave one item in there does that still work?

[Paelos]

I got the game for Christmas but haven't played it yet.  Is there a consensus on "things I wish I knew or would have done differently in hindsight".  It sounds like I shouldn't make my guy the generic melee tank I usually do but go ranged instead?  I heard I could re-loot chests if I leave one item in there does that still work?

1 - Almost everyone who hates the combat started a melee class knowing that melee sucked, then bitched about it. Don't be that guy. Play an archer or a mage.
2 - Once you are about level 6, leave the Hinterlands. You will want to complete it. You can't. There's shit in there intended for you to come back to. Move on and enjoy other things.
3 - Advance the story as you can, at least until about level 15. It opens more zones. More zones mean more different stuff to do. Don't just try to complete every zone as it pops up or you'll drive yourself nuts.
4 - Don't try to complete everything on the first playthrough. You'll drive yourself nuts. If you find you're about 50 hours into the game, finish it. Worry about completion when you know what choices you want to take.
5 - Don't do shards on the first time, you'll waste your time. Do that on your completion play through because about halfway through you'll just say fuck it.
6 - Decide on a party beforehand and stick with it. You're better off gearing and going with your major guys because it doesn't matter if your other guys are geared at all. Don't waste your time gearing them. You'll never need it.
7 - Do craft. The best items in the game will come from your crafting efforts. It's tough to understand at first, but just learn how the tiers work and make sure you have the best tiered weapon available to you, with attachments/mods.
8 - Make sure you get this inquisition perks that give you more inventory space, then start getting the ones that open up story dialogues. If you don't have those conversation options, you miss stuff and witty banter.
9 - Don't bother fighting dragons until you are in the mid-teens on your character. You'll be underleveled and likely have shitty gear.
10 - Guard on hit is the most overpowered thing in the game. Put it on your weapons for your ranged characters. Watch as they become unstoppable gods.

EDIT: Two more things

11 - Money is mostly useless for buying shit, except for a vendor in your castle that sells influence. You can dump your cash into that guy to get more inquisition perks. That's the bees knees.
12 - Make sure not to have your mesh settings set too low or you get plastic looking hair. Also, turn down the shine. Everything is way too fucking shiney.

[Ironwood]

I'm still waiting to hear what some of you regard as a Western RPG with a great story that also has an open world and an excellent combat system and characters that you don't think are cliches.

Yes, I too am holding out for people complaining about one thing to produce a perfect elixir of youth and vitality.

What the fuck are you on ?

To answer your question if you're not just being a fucking douchebag, I can't think of ANY game that fits that description.  Doesn't detract from pieces of shit that have tried.  (To answer more completely, the Neverwinter Story that had underdark and udrentide was pretty much a lovely game.  Shame it wasn't open world or it might fit your bill.)

Oh, and it's HARD for Skyrim to do story properly because the way they craft an actual game is to give you a world to fuck around in.  Really, really hard to make a story that'll carry you along if you decide "Fuck the World Ending SOON, I'm off to Learn Blacksmithing."   

[tmp]

For some reason, it wouldn't let me give myself more skills on level up.

When presented with the "level up, spend a skill point!" tutorial early on, did you cancel that without spending said skill point? Supposedly that might bug your character in this manner. Don't know if there's any fix for it.

Or do you mean you can't increase the character's attributes (strength etc)? That's by design, then. Attributes are increased through equipped gear and bonuses tied to passive skills you can take.

[tmp]

11 - Money is mostly useless for buying shit, except for a vendor in your castle that sells influence. You can dump your cash into that guy to get more inquisition perks. That's the bees knees.

There's two vendors who sell tier 3 schematics which are pretty useful, so money is good for that. Beats trying to game the rng to obtain this stuff just so you save some money you don't otherwise need, any day.

[Ingmar]

Re: dragons:

Invest in elemental resist potions corresponding to the dragon you want to kill. With that you can pretty much do all of them at-level or even a little early.

[satael]

One important thing I wish I'd known that differs somewhat from previous Bioware games: there's no need to get friendly or equip companions you are not going to use, they play no part in the ending so do yourself a favor and don't try to be friends with everyone.

[tmp]

Re: dragons:

Invest in elemental resist potions corresponding to the dragon you want to kill. With that you can pretty much do all of them at-level or even a little early.

Alternatively if you play in tactical mode you can just keep people on the sides and the tank right against the dragon's front and avoid all the elemental damage altogether. Your tank can deflect the oncoming fire/ice balls with their shield, too.

[Phildo]

Pay attention to the text during map table missions, using the fastest specialist does not always give the best results.