So, I ordered it from Direct2Drive, download it last night. I got up this morning, restarted my pc for my recording work and then Direct2Drive pops up and starts downloading it again from scratch.
I’ll never use this service again.
Lorini
2962
For today at least (or maybe I should say right now-Amazon will change prices at any moment), the hard cover strategy guide is $18.89, nearly half of the MSRP of $35.99 on Amazon.
Okay, I’ve belatedly got my order in. I’d been willfully assuming Dragon Age was some terrible, generic, fantasy RPG so I wouldn’t have to add it to my list of games. Who has the time? But reading the articles and this thread makes it clear it’s something I’m going to need to see for myself. What sold me? Party based RPG with deep(ish) tactics. Gritty and realistic (for fantasy) setting. Tom’s diaries. The Eurogamer review even with its negatives.
That said, I never really went for BioWare’s stuff. It felt too limited, forced and constrained in terms of my ability to define a character’s role as opposed to Bethsoft’s games. I never really took to the hub system either as I prefer open worlds to explore - less artificial and gamish feel to them.
So I go in hopeful and wary, both, and…we’ll see where we end up!
I saw that yesterday and ordered it. I was going to get the regular strategy guide, but the “Collector’s Edition” was only $2 more so I figured, “What the heck?”
Ok so now I’m stuck in the great what class to pick debate…
Rogue?..can only use daggers, want to work towards a duelist dual wielding swords
Fighter? apparently too many already
Mage? Arcane fighter is difficult to get and mage origin story is weak
Enidigm
2966
Really? Virtually every RPG released recently has been skin= AP, boobs = str, anorexia = MP.
By comparison that armor doesn’t seem that bad. It helps that there never really was armor made for women in history, so there was never an evolution of armor styles to balance coverage vs. useful weight a women could reasonably bear. There is still a bit of wiggle room, and even the light armor isn’t that unrealistic from a late classical perspective.
Enidigm
2967
STOP IT QT3 god. Sooo much game crap bought these last couple months. I’m going to stop coming here just to prevent OCD game-related purchases!
To be clear, IIUC rogues aren’t prevented from using swords or any other weapons or armor. [EDIT: it’s not like D&D where equipment is class-restricted.] But all equipment has stat requirements and the heavier weapons & armor have high Strength requirements (don’t know what it is for longswords). Rogues are oriented towards having high Dexterity and Cunning - a number of their talents & skills are dependent on those stats - but you can dump points into STR as well if you want. However, note that the dual-wield talents require high DEX, so you may end up spreading your points too thin.
Hi JackBurton! My name is Calvin, and welcome to every RPG I ever play!
No, seriously, why is the arcane warrior difficult to get (and the mage origin being weak sucks)?
I am mostly back to my dual wielding warrior idea at this point unless someone really convinces me that the blood mage or arcane warrior is all that and the chips-and I fully understand it is highly unlikely anyone has a real vested interest in convincing me!
Xemu
2971
Yup, screwed by Amazon. They now say my copy (which was with Release Date Delivery) will be shipped sometime in the next business day, and they’ll update the estimated delivery date then.
Argh.
I guess it’s time to see if Gamestop has extra copies. Man, I would so love to not give them my business, but until someone else is as reliable for release date copies of games, I guess I don’t have much choice.
Did you guys see this comment appended to Tom’s latest Dragon Age diary? For those that haven’t read that particular diary, Tom criticized EA/Bioware charging $7 for Warden’s Keep, which includes a chest to store items.
Hey Tom,
For what it’s worth, ‘EA’ has nothing to do with this (apart from being the parent company of BioWare).
The game was designed with limited inventory for a number of reasons, the least of which being to limit savegame size and therefore loadtimes.
Originally there was a small storage chest in the party camp, until we realized that due to the fact that there are several versions of the camp area (for reasons evident in the story) and that people were losing their items (as they were stored in the area).
By the time this problem was discovered, we had not enough time to fix the problem, plus, we decided that it was not really necessary anyway since the item limitation was rather generous compared to the initial designs at least.
The game was finalized tested without a storage chest. The item limit was never questioned or brought up during the QA phase, after all, it was part of the design.
The ‘storage chest’ in Warden’s Keep DLC was added by the DLC team as part of their ‘hey, what would be a cool feature for your own keep’ brainstorming.
I’m fine with you being upset about the item limit design in the game - and fine with you being upset about the chest being included in the DLC, but I must protest the ‘Oh, EA is pushing the limit for more money’ tagline, because that’s just not what has happened.
I categorically reject that any features or game systems in this game were designed or removed to ‘bilk users for more money’
– Georg
Lead Systems Designer
Dragon Age
georg@bioware.com
I am not crazy about some of the choices I was pigeonholed into selecting, but as it basically serves as a tutorial, I am willing to overlook it as long as it does not come back to haunt me (as I have a sinking feeling it will).
Cubit
2974
Thanks for posting that, Steve.
Without getting into spoilers at all, can’t you be an elf mage and get the elf origin story?
I’m an elf mage and at least in the opening story, the fact that you are an elf is almost completely ignored.
Making an assumption based on this post:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1952283&postcount=2867
I believe that if you select mage, regardless of race, you get the mage origin.
Thanks Lionel, I am reading more and more about the mage origins and some of the difficulty progressing elsewhere, and I’m starting to think that I might enjoy the specialized party NPC’s doing that job more. Keep it coming!
Kael
2980
It’s cool of the developer to respond, and I believe that Bioware isn’t a bunch of mustache twirling meanies. But whenever you allow for-fee DLC to get around a game restriction you have entered a dangerous area. Intentional or not its little different than paying for game credits in the facebook games.
Regardless of intention, for-fee DLC shouldn’t meaningfully boost the party. If no storage was really a part of the design then it shouldnt be allowed in DLC. If it was a gap that noticably improves the base game then it should be included in free DLC.
DLC is great for more to do in the game, its great for cosmedic adds. It should be used for “upgrade your characters fireball spells, only $5” or documentation. Im cool with DLC that adds new characters, but they should be balanced with the existing.
So though I understand the developers statement, I agree with Tom that regardless of how it got where it is, it isnt right.
