247 replies to this topic

[Archmage Silver]

And to some of us here, too - at least from what I saw this morning. I might even start playing it tonight.

Thus my suggestion: maybe it's worth it to put a [NO SPOILERS] tag on this thread, and open another one, for spoilers? Or I(or someone else) can open a spoier topic, once we've started playing.

Awakening launch party thread will serve as the discussion topic for gameplay, spoilers etc. as it has been with the other launch party threads. Adding more threads would make things more confusing IMO.

As for spoilers, it's pretty easy to just highlight the target text when posting, click "Other styles" next to "Fonts" and select Spoiler, which creates nice spoiler tags for it (new design with this board upgrade as well).

It's pretty much granted you'll see some sort of spoilers in this thread though, given the fact that most news posts contain a few in order to be informative. I'll skip adding SPOILER to the thread name on these grounds.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 16 March 2010 - 07:34 AM.

[Kulyok]

Oh, okay, makes sense.

Anyway, just saying that I got the game, and played for an hour or so. I'm very slow, as I save all the time, reload to choose different conversation replies, and new abilities and items all take time to get used to. I hope to play through it this week.

[Crazee]

Kulyok, do you know if you choose to start as an Orlesian Grey Warden, you can pick French-sounding soundsets? If you can't, it'll be a real immersion-breaker, and I might have to give it a miss.

[Kulyok]

I don't know, to be honest. I'm very scared about the patch 1.03, which is said to be broken, so I'm trying not to experment - I was awfully relieved that my Cousland girl imported correctly.

[berelinde]

From what I understand Awakenings ships with patch 1.03, so you're going to get it whether you install it or not. But if that's the case, why the statement about patch 1.03 being necessary to prep your game for Awakenings? Confusing.

FWIW, I'm using it and yup, stealing is most definitely broken, but everything else seems to work OK. Load times are greatly reduced.

[Kulyok]

Yes, I decided to build a "honest" char this time(no stealing and no Well-Connected Bartender quests), and while I told myself that a Cousland cannot be a thief, it was really partly because of the broken stealing in 1.03. (sigh) Ironic, isn't it?

I am disappointed about these various "Promotional items", though. Apparently, there are two promotional Awakening items, a ring and a bow, and some people who get Awakening get these items, and some don't. Same thing was for Origins, I assume. To me, it just seems unfair - these redeeming codes and all this trouble. Why can't everyone get _all the items_ with the game, and not just in the beginning, but via the stores/chests/enemies? Because in Origins all this Blood Armor business feels like cheating: you're a level 2 rogue, but you're already wearing a Tier 6 dagger, you've got a 15% doge and a +4 bonus to cunning.

[Cal Jones]

How is stealing broken? (I haven't downloaded the patch yet and my Awakenings hasn't arrived yet either).

[berelinde]

You can pickpocket money, but you can't pickpocket items. It always displays "Target has nothing to steal," even if you played the game a dozen times and got loot of the guy in the past.

[Archmage Silver]

News:
Review @ IGN
Review @ 1Up
Review @ GameSpot
Review @ Eurogamer
Review @ Video Gamer
Review @ Game Informer

New Launch Trailer @ BioWare
Exclusive Nathaniel Howe Trailer @ GameTrailers

While you may have seen some of this content before, if you stay till the end, you will see a glimpse of a new Awakening villain we have not revealed previously that plays a MAJOR role in Awakening. BUt maybe I have said too much? Check out the video!

[Archmage Silver]

News:
Expanding Current Games Line-Up @ GameInformer
BioWare's Vision Statement
Fernando Melo Video Interview @ GameReactor

[Kulyok]

That's a lot of news! Thank you.

[Archmage Silver]

No problem. There's an article at the Grey Wardens about the morality in Dragon Age, which I think you could find interesting. I think the comments after the article are actually a bit more interesting than the article itself, but perhaps that's just me...

[Kulyok]

Indeed, it is interesting. Me, I think that the game very clearly tells you which choice is "good", and that's what I feel uncomfortable about.

- For example, Connor the abomination. It's clearly a "good" path to go to the Circle and ask for their help. But this abomination kept sending undead to Redcliffe _each night_. I'd kill him without hesitation, but 1) Alistair and 2) Lady Isolde's melodramatic scene are really, really annoying. Sigh.

- Werewolves. Angry, atrocious beasts: even when made intelligent, their first move was to attack the Dalish(not Zathrian!). Sensible path is killing them all and telling Zathrian he'd been an idiot(which he knows), but the game insists that breaking the curse is the way(although "de-cursed" werewolves have very suspicous yellow eyes). Sigh.

- Golems. Being an immortal powerful moving statue? GOOD! Control rods? Ha, neither Shale nor Caridin seem to follow them. No slavery at all. Some people become golems against their will? Yes, and some become Grey Wardens against their will, so what? When the world is about to be destroyed, there have to be decisions such as these. Yet the game implies that keeping the Anvil is EVIL, EVIL, EVIL! Sigh.

- "Loghain betraying the king". From what I got, Loghain was waiting for the signal, but because Genlocks took over the tower(and Loghain didn't know that!) the Warden only lit the fire when it was too late to save king Cailan or the wardens, the battle was lost. So, Loghain decided that he'd been betrayed, and withdrew the field, although he felt pain for the men he'd had to abandon. Yet, the game tells you(practically to your face) multiple times that Loghain is a filthy betrayer and Arl Eamon is a good man, although I never noticed that he was: Arl Eamon never took part in his son's upbringing, Arl Eamon abandoned his village to councel Alistair(and grab power!), Arl Eamon could not even side with Loghain when Warden asked him about it. Sigh.

[Archmage Silver]

Heh, contradictory information indeed, isn't it?

You actually have to make up your own mind about what's good and evil, or fall in the grey area between. If I take up one of the cases, let's say the Brecilian Forest, my thinking follows this pattern:

The game tells us that killing the werewolves might not be the only way, might not be the best way - but honestly, would you trust them so much as to let them go free? The best of intentions can lead to bad consequences... was my mage decidedly evil in destroying those werewolves? I think not. But was he good either? Not entirely. This all apparently ends up back at the word "grey". Ah well.

Ending the curse would be the obvious path for a noble paladin-like character, but what would you do later if you found out that the werewolves you "cured" actually attacked human settlements (as seen in a possible epilogue)? That's right, you'd feel like the naive fool you were. "The best of intentions..."

From a personal viewpoint, it's interesting how I set out to play an obviously good mage, and ended up with someone so paranoid of what might happen later on, that he has to destroy all he sees as evil to avoid possible future consequences of letting them go free. Even at the cost of some other lives in the war effort against the darkspawn.

[Kulyok]

From a personal viewpoint, it's interesting how I set out to play an obviously good mage, and ended up with someone so paranoid of what might happen later on, that he has to destroy all he sees as evil to avoid possible future consequences of letting them go free. Even at the cost of some other lives in the war effort against the darkspawn.

Absolutely! Oh, I can just imagine. Each time I have to "kill someone or spare someone"(blood mage woman in the tower, Sten, bandits or Loghain soldiers in Lothering), I spend several minutes staring on my screen and thinking about a reply and, ultimately, consequences.

I also like how, if you marry hardened Alistair to Anora, it says in the epilogue that people were SO happy to get two such beloved rulers, they said that it was worth the Blight and the civil war. Like: "Hello, player! Congratulations, you made the right choice: hardening and marrying Alistair to Anora was a right thing to do!" Sigh. They could just mention it in the Official path, methinks. "Please pay attention: Good Wardens go here, Evil Wardens go there! Thank you."

[Archmage Silver]

Heh, I always assumed the blood mage was lying, but I still felt a tinge of guilt for declining to accomodate her request of parting from my immediate company on good terms.

They could just mention it in the Official path, methinks. "Please pay attention: Good Wardens go here, Evil Wardens go there! Thank you."

Ah, but that's the magic of the game! BioWare's bag of tricks always has something to make you want to play their games again. It usually ends up being summed up by "What if..."

[Cal Jones]

- "Loghain betraying the king". From what I got, Loghain was waiting for the signal, but because Genlocks took over the tower(and Loghain didn't know that!) the Warden only lit the fire when it was too late to save king Cailan or the wardens, the battle was lost. So, Loghain decided that he'd been betrayed, and withdrew the field, although he felt pain for the men he'd had to abandon. Yet, the game tells you(practically to your face) multiple times that Loghain is a filthy betrayer and Arl Eamon is a good man, although I never noticed that he was: Arl Eamon never took part in his son's upbringing, Arl Eamon abandoned his village to councel Alistair(and grab power!), Arl Eamon could not even side with Loghain when Warden asked him about it. Sigh.

This! Honestly, this hacked me off more than anything. I saw it as you did, yet the game won't give you any responses where you can voice this concern, argue with Alistair or Eamon and so forth. Sure, Loghain did do some bad things, but he did them for the right reasons. It just...argh. Well it frustrates me that we're railroaded into bringing him down so harshly. I'd have liked other options.
Eamon I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw him. (It's a shame we can't use those letters from RtO as evidence at the Landsmeet, heh).

[Kulyok]

Heheh, I wish we could! "Hey, see these documents? Arl Eamon tried to depose your queen and Cailan wanted a pact with the Orlesians! How about executing Eamon for treason?"

But at least in Awakening Loghain looks happy. Although I wish we could fight the darspawn in Awakening together, Loghain and my PC. I mean, if anyone came and tried to take Loghain from the Vigil's Keep, PC could just kill them, right? Because PC kills everything.

[Archmage Silver]

GameBanshee's Awakening database is up and running, and they have also begun their walkthrough for the expansion.

[Archmage Silver]

The second batch of Awakening reviews is here for you to chew over. Most of the reviewers seem to have settled for 'mediocre' but not bad overall.

Reviews:
Review @ GameArena
Review @ GameCritics
Review @ Game Revolution
Review @ Playing with Words
Review @ Associated Content