Dragon Age Three (3)

[GrimReality]

My clock was at 21 hours and I did everything.  But I go fast.  I also quite enjoyed Dragon Age II, where most thought it was lukewarm.

John, whenever you post a game time I AT LEAST double it to get the much more likely result for me. I've never understood how you play through games so quickly. Especially when you say you did extra stuff. It boggles my mind. Rpgs especially. It's like you somehow know at all times exactly where to go and what to do, with zero down time. Or you're just a snap decision kind of guy that keeps on trucking while everyone else(or just me?) takes a lot of time to think about things. You'd still think it would only be a couple hours difference. Bizarre.

[Annubis]

Maybe John plays RPGs with empty water bottles and socks next to him.

[Eusis]

Maybe John plays RPGs with empty water bottles and socks next to him.

Pointless for just a low hour count, you could easily save and quit in many games when you take a break and thus keep those hours from mucking with the results. I'm thinking it'd make more sense to just speed read everything and skip past spoken dialogue to get that fast.

[PaleRobbie]

We've talked about this on the podcast a few times, actually.  John tends to read the dialogue rather than watch the cutscene.  You would be shocked how much this can cut down on the playtime.  It also depends on how much you like to explore.  I love to search out every nook and cranny in a dungeon, meaning I get a longer playtime than most in that area.

Also, thanks for pointing out the "Skip the Fade" mod.  That was a cool experience the first time, but I hated going through it again and again. 

[John]

We've talked about this on the podcast a few times, actually.  John tends to read the dialogue rather than watch the cutscene.  You would be shocked how much this can cut down on the playtime.  It also depends on how much you like to explore.  I love to search out every nook and cranny in a dungeon, meaning I get a longer playtime than most in that area.

I'm thinking it'd make more sense to just speed read everything and skip past spoken dialogue to get that fast.

Bingo.  I don't listen to dialogue, I read it.  In fact, non-skippable voice acting is one my biggest pet peeves.  The way most RPGs are set up there's not anything going on during dialogue aside from dialogue, so I don't need to pay attention to anything but the text.

Maybe John plays RPGs with empty water bottles and socks next to him.

I always wear socks.  My apartment has no carpeting.

[Monsoon]

Part of my wants to buy a bunch of DLC, then replay Origins, Awakening and DA2.  Another part of me wants to just work through more backlog and save money.  Decisions, decisions....

[(Tunnels)]

Part of my wants to buy a bunch of DLC, then replay Origins, Awakening and DA2.  Another part of me wants to just work through more backlog and save money.  Decisions, decisions....

I know how you feel. I never finished DA2, and now all I want to do is play it and prep myself for the next game. Or just do as you said and replay Origins and do that dwarven play-through I keep meaning to do.

Speaking of races, I certainly hope we'll see some more variety in when it comes to choosing who we play as. I enjoyed Hawke a lot, and thought he/she was a great character, but I missed being able to choose my race and origin. If they bring anything back, I really hope its origins.

Also, the news story was updated and it looks like they're aiming for a late 2013 release.

[Ranadiel]

Hmm I guess I am looking forward to this. I personally thought the hate for DA2 was more than it deserved. However after ME3, this is probably going to be the last saving throw that Bioware gets.

I do like the leaks that I just looked up. I just hope the game gets the development time it needs because this seems to be a rather large scope for a game. Then again I guess DAO had a fairly large scope as well.

I guess I should probably see about getting Mark of the Assassin and get around to figuring out what if any changes I want to make in my transfer file. Oh well I am sure I have some time to figure that out.

[Ashtrot]

Sorry but 2 was bad enough to make me lose hope in this IP =/

DA2 in a nutshell

Code:

Templar butch: We need these mages locked up like lowly dogs
Mage dude: Hawke help us, we are but lowly law abiding mages. We'd never consider blood magic or a rebellion against the templars.
*2 seconds later*
Mage dude: BLOOD FOR THE OLD GOD!
*2 seconds later*
Mage dude: WE SHALL REVOLT!
*2 seconds later*
Templar butch: I killed all the mages... because this rock told me to.
*facepalm*

Merryl: Blood magic is good and I'll never get used by it.
Hawke: Blood magic is bad and you should feel bad.
Merryl: I'm not listening!
*2 seconds later*
Merryl: Oh no, I've just killed my whole village because of blood magic!
*faceplam*

This makes about as much sense as saying Final Fantasy VII was about "ECO TERRORISM *2 SECONDS LATER* METEOR CRASHES ON THE PLANET BUT LIFESTREAM STOPS IT"

[Taelus]

Yeah, I didn't think DA2 was nearly as bad as the hype made it out to be. I liked it a lot better than DA:O, and I enjoyed the dialogue a lot more. It was just clearly rushed, and the area design suffered for it.

I'm pretty sour on Bioware right now, but I'll probably check this out, if only because the concept and all the stuff from the leaks sounds really great.

[Yggdrasil]

This makes about as much sense as saying Final Fantasy VII was about "ECO TERRORISM *2 SECONDS LATER* METEOR CRASHES ON THE PLANET BUT LIFESTREAM STOPS IT"

Code:

Aerith stopped Meteor with the help of Cloud and all the other dudes after defeating Sephiroth.

[Kevadu]

Yeah, I didn't think DA2 was nearly as bad as the hype made it out to be. I liked it a lot better than DA:O, and I enjoyed the dialogue a lot more. It was just clearly rushed, and the area design suffered for it.

This is pretty much what I've been saying since the day DA2 came out, but at the time it didn't seem like there was anyone who agreed with me.  Seems interesting to me that after it's been out for a while there seems to be a lot less hate...

The game was definitely rushed, no question about it, and it did suffer because of it.  But from what it sounds like DA3 has already had more development time than DA2 did and it's still not going to be out for a while.

[Annubis]

This makes about as much sense as saying Final Fantasy VII was about "ECO TERRORISM *2 SECONDS LATER* METEOR CRASHES ON THE PLANET BUT LIFESTREAM STOPS IT"

At least Barret never blew up Aeris' church while it was full of innocents =/

[Bleaker]

I'm really going to listen to the reviews this time, I ignored them with DA2, and...well the preorder probably shouldn't have happened. I admit I never beat DA:O, but that was just because my save got corrupted when I got to the final battle. DA2 was just...the combat was more fast paced, but it wasn't as fun as the original's more strategic combat.

The story was...eh. Your choices didn't really amount to much. I gave up about half way through. In fact, I'd go as far to say that ME3 was a better game. You may think its weird comparing a high fantasy game with a sci-fi one, but DA2 borrowed so much from ME2, it drove me mad.  ME3, even being worse than ME1 or 2, at least had me gripped throughout it.

[Bytor]

Probably day one...I am one of the few, the proud...I loved DA2! I thought the game was simply awesome!