Hey, glad you liked it! Then it was money well spent for you. I won't go into why I disliked the game. Suffice to say I didn't hate it, but I was very disappointed with it. But if you thought it was great, then that's all that matters. Game on.

Because IMO it would have been a lot more powerful, if Meredith's actions hadn't been guided by her madness but had been based on rational, defensible decisions. I would have at least been able to sympathize with her. But with the final reveal, every action she's taken is in doubt, and unnecessarily so IMO.

What the game desperately needed was a better definition of who these people are to get me properly invested in the conflict. Especially Orsino is almost a non-entity and a missed opportunity to flesh out the mage side of things.

And in my opinion there's a lot more wrong with the game than just the finale, but that is something I could write a friggin' term paper on. A long one.

*making a little victory dance*

Just wait until I'm back on a proper keyboard....:-).

Where -are- you, anyway? I'm waiting for you to properly discuss this serious shit and you're never around! I really think you should let this be a lesson for you. All.

I'm not going to comment about plot devices or characterization but one thing I found really, really disconnected and immersion breaking was the final boss's moves. In one instant from a relatively realistic world of fantasy I found myself fighting an enemy right out of anime. Huge leaps up in the air, gigantic glowing sword, floating etc. Let alone the recharging phase with the statues coming alive.

Otherwise I was surprised when I heard the complains about the ending. I think it fits right in with the rest of the story. ;)

This hooker and blow lifestyle I fancy doesn't support itself, ya know. Sometimes daddy gotta work ;-).

I should have time to get into this on sunday, or at least tuesday. And then I will not only discuss the shit out of this game, but I will show you why you will also learn to love DA:O... ;-).

Now you got my attention. I have actually downloaded and started DA: O right after finishing DA II. I chose a mage for a change, and ... Started killing wasps ... In the fade. I got bored really quickly.

You know what, if you press a button, something awesome has to happen. Button, awesome.

Remake a character to a rogue or fighter instead if you don't like the fade. I thought it was weird at first, a bit cheap but then I grew to like it. :)

I've already tried all classes and all races. This was the first time I was trying mage. Dwarf Origin story still takes the prize.

Well, I got a few minutes on my Laptop before we hit the bar, so I'll try to entice you.

The interesting fact about DA:O is not its lame background story (save the world.again.) But that actually is intentional, as they want this feeling of familiarity, so the "new stuff" stands out.

What Bioware tried to do, is to provide you with an experience which is based on the single premise: Do what is necessary. It doesn't matter that you save the world in the end, but what you have to do to achieve this. It wanted to provide with a setting were "good and evil" is meaningless. Because if you fail, everybody dies.

In the end, they did fail with this, as there was always an "easy way out" in most cases. They chickened out of the really hard choices. There some very masterful storylines were doing the good, actually hurts the grander course and aim you want to achieve. (The only proper "big" storyline that was really done in that case was the Orzahammer one. Which sadly is from the point of gameplay the lamest,imo.)

There are still many small stories of certain characters that show this better, however. Yet again, this is where Bioware games shine, in the individual storylines. You have to invest a bit in the characters, as it takes a few hours of gameplay until the stereotypes start to break down.

I think Bioware tried to make a big deconstructer of the RPG genre which they helped to create with BG (I'm not saying BG created RPGs, but the "mainstream RPG success" was a result of easy accessability of BG). But ultimately they chickened out of the really interesting decisions. (Considering how people bitch about changes, I don't really blame them. A game with such a budget is hard to use as an expertiment).

DA:O could have been a the RPG of RPGs. Even though they fell short of that, it still has a lot of remaining tidbits of that ambitious goal in it.

Personally, I also like the "team based combat" (those magic combination are sweet). Generally I liked the magic as it brought some nice ideas into it. It also has -a lot- of background stuff to read, which I always fall for.

It might not be the RPG it could have been, but it is worth a playthough, to see what they aimed at.

Well if that's the point of Dragon Age, it did an incredibly good job of hiding it from me troughout the first 10 hours I got in. And then I just had to stop because I was bored of the combat - I stopped at some point where every door I opened unleashed a horde of enemies that somehow got all stuck in a single room. Which meant another boring encounter to me.

First ten hours ... that is probably the mages tower I guess. Not really where the game shines.

Well, I got a high pain tolerance when it comes to a lot of things in RPGs. Heck, I finished the first Wasteland and spent countless hours on the Bard's Tale. So DA:O doesn't really phase me. (And I really did like the combat).

When the premise and story of a game entice me, I can stand a lot of things. And DA:O did entice me.

Ooooh I've got a high pain tolerance. When I have played DA: O for the first time, I have played a dwarven warrior, got all the way to the
*spoiler*
sick king that needed the chalice or whatever to be cured. I have nearly finished that plotline, but then got really sick of combat and story just didn't give me sufficient motivation to carry on.

And so, some time later, I have started a new character: Human noble, archer. I really liked this origin story, and thought hey, maybe I disliked the game quite simply because the first location I picked sucked. So, I got trough the boring ostangar, boring wilds, and picked mage tower to go to next. It was horrible. Gave up on the game at that point.

But, even more time later, I was really sorry I didn't finish the most expensive game my wife ever got me, so I got into it again. Elven rogue this time. I have dropped the game somewhere along the wilds bit this time, didn't even like the origin story all that much.

And now I have started a mage and got sick of it instantly. I think no one could possibly claim I didn't give the game a fair chance at this point.

I remember that being optional? I chose the elf forest on my first playthrough then mage tower second. Reinstalled a few months ago for a third but I ended up not continuing. I chose Orzammar startpoint there.

Anyway, the only fault DAO had in my opinion was the blackspawn. I don't know but it just felt like a demonized version of zombies, mindless enemies and I hate zombies. Everything else shined. I do agree though that bioware usually goes for a straightforward main plot then filled with all these other side plots that strengthen the game.