1961

Whatever I did last night was not right. They would bolt to another enemy before the initial target was killed. I thought all I had selected was “nearest visible enemy” and most of the others I only added the health potion.

I am enjoying dialog that you do not always have the option to select a response, go back do the next, 3rd and 4th. You may actually miss out on one. And the choices, at least on the surface, actually make a difference. I think Alistair is funny. I was afraid of the voice acting to start with. Since I started in Dwarftown. NONE of those voices matched Dwarven characters. Once I got above ground, it is all much better with humans and elves. Just through in some English, Irish and Scottish voices and we are back to my happy place.

Nervous about the mass murderer I was sort of guided towards freeing.

I think the story thus far is pretty good. I may get tired of killing the same darkspawn, but I am assuming the bad guys begin to vary.

Great fun after having sooo many false starts with NWN2 and several others that were not worth remembering.

1962

You have a lot of fun ahead (and seems you are enjoying it right off the bat!).

I just wrapped up doing as much of the DLC as I cared for (everything except the one where you fight as the Darkspawn), plus finished Awakenings (which I thought was pretty well done as a sequel and gave about another 30 hours of gameplay).

Time to retire good old DA, and move on to the next retro gaming project (Bioshock 2, which I got the cursed Games for Window Live shit working right too, through Steam, man, what a pain in the ass!).

1963

Is it actually retro gaming when the technological platform hasn’t changed?

1964

I hope so. I seem to hit a Gamer’s wall, now that I am older, where there is some point at which I decide the effort is too great and I just go back to some pick-up-and-play game. Then once I have not played for a week or two, I do not go back.

1965

You’ll have plenty of chances to hit a wall. Just play as much as you want.

You write this sentence as if fantasy dwarves are real and must have Scottish accents! Most people thought it was a nice break from that.

1966

FWIW I turned tactics right off aside with the minor exception of statuses I didn’t want to forget to turn on, haste for rogues with haste, threaten and shield wall for tanks, etc.

In DA2 on the other hand I allowed a fair amount of tactics to stay on, (although I still did a lot of all-party micro)

1967

I guess I was wanting them to be more gruff or gravely or rough around the edges. That is, the same dwarves I am used to as I loves me some Dorfs in all games. They all spoke like prissy surface dwellers. Didn’t work for me. Once I got to the surface and there was just me who only has like 7 lines all outside of the cut scenes, the world was righted.

Dwarf “royalty” made no sense to me so I was not about to take that route for my dwarf. :)

1968

Dwarf Noble is an awesome origin story actually. I’d suggest running all the origins at some point, but Dwarf Noble for sure.

1969

NOW you tell me. :)

If I somehow run it with each, I will give you $20. ;)

EDIT: Oh, you just mean only up through the origin. That I can do.

1970

12 hours in and I am not exaggerating in saying this is the most fun I have had with an RPG in years. I know I am WAY LTTP, but I am just pleased as punch. Just entered the Redcliffe Castle basement. Damn I don’t want to go to bed. I wish I could explain what makes it different, but I have no idea. I keep thinking it is partially the technology, which was not available to me with my 7 year old PC. I think I am just “getting into it” more easily.

I feel like a giddy moron. This is one of those posts I should delete. :D

1971

Too late ;)

This experience you’re discussing is largely why both myself and many others were so let down with DA2, although it did some things well. Hopefully they learned their lessons and DA3 will work to recapture that magic. Anyway, keep enjoying it. I loved the Mage origin and game myself, but they’re all great.

1972

I just read an RPS interview with someone or other discussing the new DA2 content that sounds like it will make very minor changes in the hopes of making DA2 a better experience. The guy states something to the effect of people wanted X like AD:O and we decided to go in a different direction. This new content should make some of those who had issues with DA2 very happy. HA! “Different direction”. I translated that to mean ‘we screwed up in not making DA:O 2.0 a sequel patterned more closely after the original, which most people loved. Um, maybe this bandaid will make 10% of the people happy, but we realize it is too late’.

EDIT: Here it is.

Seriously, I am not sure about the role of a Senior Producer. Do they do a substantial amount of PR work? Because this guy sounds like a PR politician and then some.

1973

Eh I thought it was fine. I appreciate that they’re talking frankly about catering to a different audience instead of how they used to do it: pretend like it was an artistic decision where new teams need to break new ground and make things “better.”

Too bad they weren’t this blunt before everyone bought it, but oh well.

1974

Definitely getting ahead of myself, but I guess the major complaint that I was most concerned about was the fact that the sequel is “on rails”. DA:O seems to have the right balance of quest choices and and enough structure guiding you forward. While I like the idea of the Bethesda titles, it is too overwhelming. As with most games nowadays, if I had more spare time, that view may change.

I fully realize, the “on rails” criticism may be blown out of proportion and/or that, without playing it, I cannot grasp the extent to which it would actually bother me. After all, the people that bitch are much louder and more likely to appear on the radar than those who enjoyed it and would show up to defend it.

1975

If you want a similar excursion, perhaps River of Time would be more to your taste than DA2? Why not check out its thread when the time comes…

1976

Is that an alternate name for the original Drakensang or the sequel? I had 2 false starts with the original.

1977

RoT is the prequel.

1978

Oh, I wouldn’t characterize DA2 as a linear experience - in fact, like Mass Effect 2 the majority of the game effectively consists of sidequests. But it’s fair to say that the -plot- is on rails. You can make a lot of choices, but they have next to no actual impact, particularly in act 3 where a bunch of people do really stupid illogical things no matter what you try to do to change matters.

1979

I haven’t played the prequel, but play nwn2 & expansion instead/first. The original Drakensang was basically a mini-me of nwn2 and nwn2: mask of the betrayer is better than nwn2…

1980

I re-purchased NWN2 on Steam and had another false start with it as well. I think I may not be a very dedicated gamer. :)

Part of it is that I am not a big fan of fooling with mods and so, even though I think I now have all of the expansions, I have only played the vanilla campaign. I hate going out of order, which makes no sense if I am not going to play the vanilla one…

One mod I am getting TO-NIGHT, is the damn “don’t show stupid helmet” mod someone linked to in this thread. I certainly never install cosmetic mods even with WoW where I did break my no-mod rule, but those friggin’ things look ridiculous. How can you be a badass, darkspawn killer when you have a leather towel on your head?