Dragon Age Countdown

Squee · 2009-10-30T18:48:40.000Z

Oh, cool. Reminded me to check my email, preordered Dragon Age for $25 with overnight shipping from EA’s store about half a year ago with a freakish deal that was going on, and it just shipped today.

Soon I’ll be calmly talking to people while covered in blood and having dirty dirty Bioware sex in no time!

jpinard · 2009-10-30T18:52:49.000Z

Will I be missing a lot of good content if I don’t go with the Collector’s Edition?

Squee · 2009-10-30T18:55:37.000Z

Not really, unless the cloth map is important which I really doubt.

idrisz · 2009-10-30T19:04:30.000Z

I just picked up the game for 360 at Gameplay on Venice(they still got 10+ left when I left the store), I even got the collecter edition book which is about the size of Daggerfall strategy guide except it’s hardcover.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2009-10-30T20:04:00.000Z

idrisz:

I just picked up the game for 360 at Gameplay on Venice(they still got 10+ left when I left the store), I even got the collecter edition book which is about the size of Daggerfall strategy guide except it’s hardcover.

I ordered the SE strategy guide from Amazon, but I’m dying to know if it’s any good. Could you let us know if it’s any good? Information, Page Layout, Content, that sort of thing?

Lizard_King · 2009-10-30T20:06:43.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I ordered the SE strategy guide from Amazon, but I’m dying to know if it’s any good. Could you let us know if it’s any good? Information, Page Layout, Content, that sort of thing?

I would also like to know that.

Bahimiron · 2009-10-30T20:09:07.000Z

We’re really in the new renaissance of the strategy guide. When I was looking for Borderlands in Barnes in Noble the other day, they had huge, gorgeous strategy guides for just about anything imaginable. I remember seeing shitty black and white strategy guides at Barnes and Noble, but these massive, full color things full of beautiful concept art and behind-the-scenes stuff were really impressive.

Almost (but not quite) tempts me to splurge on the guides for the games I love most.

kerzain · 2009-10-30T20:14:13.000Z

The last Strategy Guide I ever purchased, let alone cracked open to read, was for Age of Empires 1 back in 1997 or so. I was on dial-up and searching out strategies on the net was too time consuming for me.

What do these strategy guides offer than fan-sites don’t, earlier access to the information before it’s parsed out and published on the web? Are they mainly purchased for the art and stuff now?

I have nothing against them (except when patches change stuff), I’m just stingy.

Mordrak · 2009-10-30T20:21:53.000Z

Bahimiron:

We’re really in the new renaissance of the strategy guide. When I was looking for Borderlands in Barnes in Noble the other day, they had huge, gorgeous strategy guides for just about anything imaginable. I remember seeing shitty black and white strategy guides at Barnes and Noble, but these massive, full color things full of beautiful concept art and behind-the-scenes stuff were really impressive.

Almost (but not quite) tempts me to splurge on the guides for the games I love most.

Huh? Weren’t the old Nintendo guides in color? Most of the strategy guides I’ve seen have been in color. Really, I don’t care for strategy guides. They rob us of good manuals and multiply the collectibles in most games considerably to give you a reason to buy them.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2009-10-30T20:23:39.000Z

kerzain:

The last Strategy Guide I ever purchased, let alone cracked open to read, was for Age of Empires 1 back in 1997 or so. I was on dial-up and searching out strategies on the net was too time consuming for me.

What do these strategy guides offer than fan-sites don’t, earlier access to the information before it’s parsed out and published on the web? Are they mainly purchased for the art and stuff now?

I have nothing against them (except when patches change stuff), I’m just stingy.

I like them if they are well designed and have detailed info on how the game mechanics work. Sure, some of this can be got from sites like gamefaqs.com and the like, but the full color, the art, the page layout and the detail coupled with having a physical book you can put on your shelf is hard to beat. Plus, some of my guides are REALLY nice - like the hardbound Fallout 3 guide I have, or the Final Fantasy XII guide that has a nice hard board unfolding cover. I have some great guides that I picked up just because they looked really nice, like Fable II, but then it proved really nice to have on my lap while I was playing/stuck rather than having to pause the game and dash into the PC room (or alt-tab out of my game).

SirTomster · 2009-10-30T20:30:10.000Z

stusser:

Just thinking about it popped my nipples out. You could cut cheese with them now. Soft cheese, but still. Brie for sure, maybe a goat cheese button or some nice gouda. Not cheddar.

Alas, there’s no chance this uncaring universe will get the game in my hungry hands until tuesday after work.

I plan to make the rounds on Sunday just in case. Just in case.

Morberis · 2009-10-30T20:41:35.000Z

I’m not even going to bother looking, up here in Canada I’m lucky if they get it by noon release day. Usually they come a day or two later.

Lizard_King · 2009-10-30T20:47:44.000Z

kerzain:

I have nothing against them (except when patches change stuff), I’m just stingy.

I can’t stand sifting through gamefaqs in most cases. For games like this, I just think of them as glorified manuals that include everything the game should have come with originally plus bonus walkthroughs and the like for replays. Also, I find that leaving them around is a great way to lure the SO into giving them a try.

Game wikis like Demon’s Souls’ give them a run for their money, but the main idea is that there is a limit to how much I am interested in finding out via trial and error or in-game instructions/tutorials.

HighPlainsDrifter · 2009-10-30T20:57:36.000Z

For some absurd reason, I really want that cloth map. But the download CE includes the Warden Keep DLC which I also want.

Decisions, decisions…

Morberis · 2009-10-30T20:59:55.000Z

Well you could save a few bucks, buy the normal edition and buy the DLC. There’s no real reason to get the digital CE, is there?

Murbella · 2009-10-30T21:04:36.000Z

Morberis:

Well you could save a few bucks, buy the normal edition and buy the DLC. There’s no real reason to get the digital CE, is there?

Not unless you enjoy paying $10-20 extra purely for the dlc equipment .

idrisz · 2009-10-30T22:03:58.000Z

I took a few picture of the book, you can use my hand as a sample size.

it’s in full color, about 300 pages worth of guides plus 100 pages with arts/game history and stuff.

I started a female dwarf common warrior(least played race/class ever!!!), I wish they had the pc version, so far the only thing I hate is lack of hotkeys on console, only have 6 skills binded total.

JAGuarinc · 2009-10-31T00:08:49.000Z

Woo-hoo! Shipped and it should be here by three p.m. Monday.

does happy dance

Squee · 2009-10-31T00:14:56.000Z

idrisz:

I took a few picture of the book, you can use my hand as a sample size.

it’s in full color, about 300 pages worth of guides plus 100 pages with arts/game history and stuff.

I started a female dwarf common warrior(least played race/class ever!!!), I wish they had the pc version, so far the only thing I hate is lack of hotkeys on console, only have 6 skills binded total.

That book is tempting. Picked up the vanilla versions of Fallout 3 and this since I didn’t really care for what was in the collector’s editions, but damned if the game of the year limited strategy guide for FO3 and the collector’s guide for Dragon Age don’t look cool.

Really tempting, even though I never buy guides.

Sarkus · 2009-10-31T00:17:38.000Z

Squee:

That book is tempting. Picked up the vanilla versions of Fallout 3 and this since I didn’t really care for what was in the collector’s editions, but damned if the game of the year limited strategy guide for FO3 and the collector’s guide for Dragon Age don’t look cool.

Really tempting, even though I never buy guides.

I bought the strategy guide for Fallout 3 and was very happy with it. However, I don’t see myself doing it for this game, if only because the game isn’t as open of a world and I don’t think will require the extra help. However, the talk of history and lore has me interested after looking at some of that stuff on the official site last night. As such things go, it was well written.