Anyone else looking forward to Dragon Age? (Spoilers and plot discussion here)

[Grey Fox]

My save is clocking in at 35 hours & I haven't left Lothering. I need to stop leaving it on pause all nite.

[viper37]

The rest of the initial story was absolutely predictable.  I knew as soon as I heard the battle plan and got assigned to go to  the top of the tower what would happen on the way there and what would happen when I got to the top.  It is what seemingly happens in every game like this.

Well, you know from the beginning who's bad and who's not.   It's clear from the beginning that Arl Howe is a bad guy, so is Lothair.

So far, I would rate this game so far as a 7.  It has its moments, but in none of them did I feel any emotional commitment.  It is all far too predictable and the presentation and graphics are not nearly good enough to be immersive.  Fun?  Yes, but in the way that War in the Pacific was fun, not in the way that Morrowind was fun.

Graphics not good enough?  Hmm, do you play with high/very high settings everywhere?
As for the game being immersive, I think you should give yourself time

[viper37]

Agreed.  It was so painfully obvious that I think they must have made it so on purpose.  Maybe the writers think people like having their egos stroked when they "figure out" what's going to happen in advance due to the foreshadowing.  I know nothing about writing theory so I dunno if this is something writers strive to do on occasion or what.

Ah, and there I thought I was being so clever.  Thanks for ruining my fun 


Like you&Grumbler, I was surprised by the Grey Wardens   I was especially shocked when I entered their tower!
But most stuff, yeah, you can guess it miles&miles in advance.

[crazy canuck]

Marti,

Spoiler alert,  Spoiler alert!!!!







The mass battle is dead easy.  All you need to do is lead groups of bad guys back up to where the Knights are up the hill.  Kill them off then go back for the next group that gathered while you were away.  This becomes even easier if you have mages that can cast the various mass sleep and disorient spells

[crazy canuck]

Like you&Grumbler, I was surprised by the Grey Wardens  

When Duncan drew his blade and then said "I am sorry" as the guy was dying, I knew I would like this game.

[Valmy]

But most stuff, yeah, you can guess it miles&miles in advance.

I figured most of the forshadowing at the beginning of the game was intentional.  I mean it was pretty obvious bad things were going to happen both during the origin stories and the prelude part and most of the time who the bad dudes were. 

It is a bit more interesting with anything dealing with the dwarves I mean you KNOW whatever you do will probably blow up in your face and everybody is not as they appear but you are just rather curious how exactly things are going to suck.

As I said you know roughly what is going down and who is going to do it you just are not sure why (well besides malicious evilness)...or maybe you guys do

[viper37]

BTW, are the long loading times just a feature of my system, or is it endemic.  I see a few mentions of it here and there, but nothing consistent.  If it is endemic like it was in The Witcher, then we can hope that it will be fixed, as The Witcher was.

I have long loading times.  My system was high end at same time last year... now...
I still hate it though.  Knowing a better processor would do the trick, I'd do it right now.

[Valmy]

rebooting my machine does help with the load times.  Stupid memory leaks.

[viper37]

I'm lost in the Fade with my first character - I can't get to the second hub.  I keep going in circles between portals and mouse holes.  I have mouse and spirit forms aquired but not the other 2.  It's partly out of frustration over this I rolled the other toons.

Keep searching...
The mouse will let you travel through the mouse holes.
The spirit will let you travel through spirit doors.
One of these will lead you somewhere you've never been.
Then you can get the Golem and start thrashing doors.  Or the Torch and go Flame on all you like through the fire.

[Valmy]

Yeah it took me awhile to figure out the spirit door thing.

[grumbler]

rebooting my machine does help with the load times.  Stupid memory leaks.

You know that you can get software that recovers memory, right?  Rebooting the machine isn't necessary.

[Valmy]

You know that you can get software that recovers memory, right?  Rebooting the machine isn't necessary.

I did not know that.  It is hardly like rebooting my machine is a huge inconvenience or anything it just gives me time to handle other business for a few minutes.  How does the software work?

[grumbler]

http://shareme.com/details/finitysoft-memory-manager.html

Here ya go.

[Cecil]

Yeah it took me awhile to figure out the spirit door thing.

The spirit form is probably the least useful form. You need it yes but only in 2 places total. I´d advice to go the other way instead and learn Golem and burning man form. They are useful  and needed in dozens of places. So go clockwise 2 steps then back and counterclockwise. Last but not least do the nightmares and finish up where you began. The demon fight can be pretty harsh though but doable, just make sure you got a good bit of healing.

[viper37]

The spirit form is probably the least useful form. You need it yes but only in 2 places total. I´d advice to go the other way instead and learn Golem and burning man form. They are useful  and needed in dozens of places. So go clockwise 2 steps then back and counterclockwise. Last but not least do the nightmares and finish up where you began. The demon fight can be pretty harsh though but doable, just make sure you got a good bit of healing.

Actually, they are pretty easy.  All you need to do is this:

[spoiler]
If they are non-fire people, use the fire form, send fireball, then flame on.Swith to golem, hurl rock, knock them.Switch back to human, hack away.If they are fire-people, use the golem, send rock, knock them.Switch back to human, hack away.Take a potion/elixir/crystal to protect against fire if there's a lot of them.[/][/s]