The Bean Footage Episode

[fishbang]

Our secret recipe is available at the following link (http://www.ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20100722.mp3).

Dragon Age has, for me, become the sort of gift that won't stop giving, though I'd sure as hell like it to. There's a conversation somewhere in which that line is a back-handed compliment, but you won't find it in this week's show. My thoughts and feelings are well documented, and haven't changed overmuch since the end of the campaign, despite a broad failure of imagination during the game's final hours. But the Awakenings expansion pack demands my attention, the flow of DLC continues unabated, and I'm awfully tired of my own comings and goings now. I can't bear to walk away when I'm so close to the end (again), but I want nothing more than to plant this story in the ground and forget about it until the sequel.

I've begged for larger portions in the past, sure, but this thing has become a bit "Ole 96er" for me, and I'm not sure it's worth it for the t-shirts.

[nabokovfan87]

Listening to the DA:O conversation, hearing Jame's purest of hatrid of the dwarves, I must say I am glad I listened to the spoilers.

I played as a dwarf, and want to know if the guy I played with is the guy who's wife you killed, or what the hell is going on. The story is the one thing in that game that keeps me intrigued. Not the whole destroy the blight stuff, but moreso the how does event a end up with person here. Which, well.... would be the point of the "origins" aspect of the game. The betrayal and so forth is all interesting, and every single wierd side story I roll up to has me intrigued, but seriously that is some shit combat. Then they announce the sequel, and say that the CONSOLE version will have a better camera and revised combat to make it more action-like. James, how do you feel about the combat, compare it to something like demon's souls and the whole ME/ME2 combat thing (don't know which you like better, I believe it was two).

For those who have played, what do you think of the combat in that game?

I don't mean the click here to kill whatever, that pisses me off, but isn't an end all be all. What irks me is how the game wants me to build the AI through the tactics menu, how everything needs to be paused to actually be feasable, and the gigantic mountain of impossible difficulty you have to be climbed when you go to place x at the right (in this case wrong) time. Every single place I go I end up wishing I was 5 levels higher and it takes forever to upgrade, blah, blah, blah...

[hunterx280]

Ugh, I made it 26 minutes in and had to stop to avoid DA:O spoilers. I really need to finish that game.

[nabokovfan87]

I was talking to James about it yesterday, and I started thinking about this right when I went to bed/woke up, did you try any mods on DA:O?

If so, which ones?

Ugh, I made it 26 minutes in and had to stop to avoid DA:O spoilers. I really need to finish that game.

I know everyone is particular about spoilers, for me 99% of what people tag as a spoiler, isn't. I would give it a listen. Just like with Demon's Souls you might end up saving a lot of headaches by giving it a listen. Knowing what to do and not do is an advantage for me in rpg's, but I understand not wanting to hear the ending (of which, I think it is vague enough to warrant not spoiling anything, just gives a skimline of what happens and goes very deep into one scenario).

[hunterx280]

I know everyone is particular about spoilers, for me 99% of what people tag as a spoiler, isn't. I would give it a listen. Just like with Demon's Souls you might end up saving a lot of headaches by giving it a listen. Knowing what to do and not do is an advantage for me in rpg's, but I understand not wanting to hear the ending (of which, I think it is vague enough to warrant not spoiling anything, just gives a skimline of what happens and goes very deep into one scenario).

You have a good point. Previous episodes drove me to the Mage's Circle Tower first. Funny thing is, I didn't know you could kill Wynne. I was in a mood and decided to listen to Morrigan and I ended up killing Wynne. Sufficed to say, I played through the tower without her until I mentioned it to a friend. He said you should get her at the beginning and I suddenly remembered, being a dick never pays off in an RPG.

[kyrieee]

Didn't listen to the DA:O spoilers but I might later. I'm like 25 hours into the game and I still don't care about the story one bit

[nabokovfan87]

You have a good point. Previous episodes drove me to the Mage's Circle Tower first. Funny thing is, I didn't know you could kill Wynne. I was in a mood and decided to listen to Morrigan and I ended up killing Wynne. Sufficed to say, I played through the tower without her until I mentioned it to a friend. He said you should get her at the beginning and I suddenly remembered, being a dick never pays off in an RPG.

I play as a dwarf common, no idea if wynne is the same guy (think he is the royal one), but I think ostagar is in need of a re-visit. Punch some fools!

EDIT: Heh, just hit the wikia, very different person. My brain really hurts.

[Iron Past]

Is it really a spoiler if you can see it coming a mile away? The spoilery part is desribing how certain characters react to certain events, not really the events themselves, since they're all cliched tropes, really. I mean, you're given the mission that ends the game right at the beginning so... However, I didn't know about Meghren's wife, and that would have had some more impact if I hadn't heard it. Cover your ears when you get to that part. :)

As far as the resolution, I see where you're coming from. It's something that seems prevalent in many modern games: not holding you to your choices--unless, in this case, it's how you want to spec out your character. In many games, I get a badass opening cinematic and then some story explanation and a 'big twist' after I hit the final boss on the head for the last time with little in-between. With Dragon Age, it seems exactly the opposite; it's all about the journey (like the excellent dialogue trees) and how you see your character and tying the the gameplay to the story, as opposed to the resolution the game throws at you.

At any rate, if they had forced you into a certain ending based on decisions made hours before the event they likely would have had people bitching about that as well (in fact, wasn't there someone on the show who complained that Fable II auto-saved after every big decision?), but that doesn't mean the story doesn't lose some weight when the seems come apart enough to see through to the inner workings.

Overall, Dragon Age has been a great experience for me, much more what I've played on PC as opposed to the dozens of hours I've put into the Xbox version (I'll probably finish that just so I have something to import for part 2), but it does have some pretty rough edges. Seeing the jump in polish that Mass Effect got from original to sequel would be great.