Wastelander-75 played Dragon Age: Origins

Always a +1 when this game is involved!

it's a shame the sequel didn't live up to its predecessor.

I dunno, I prefered the sequel's combat and the sequel had less annoying areas like the Fade.

Though it did recycle a lot of the enviroment and the characters while good weren't the same as Alistair, Lelianna and Shale : /

Both had their ups and downs really.

The graphics on the second one were much superior than the first, but the first one had a better story... I prefer a game with a strong story and moderate graphics, than the other way round, at least in RPGs! Not to mention the whole "mage uprising" didn't fit storywise...

I just don't get why Orsino decided to go all Hulk out despite the fact that we were mopping the floor with templar infidels.

Hawke: Woot! We just spanked 20 templars like they were red-headed step-children!"

Orisino: All is lost (stab) RAaaRAArARArrraRRrrr!

Hawke: ........wait....wtf?!

Eh, the first was generic "Bad guy tries to destroy world, you stop him with/out a huge loss"

At least the 2nd tried to be different, it may have fallen flat but still, points for trying :P

And Orsino while stupid to the point of no return did kinda have a point. Sure you might kill the Templars there, but what about the rest of the chantry? Still, no reason to actually give them a reason to wipe the floor with you, more so when it turns out that most of the Templars don't even agree with Meredith >_>

I believe Orsino exaggerated by resorting to blood magic. On all three chapters, it showed both how mages were oppressed by the templars and why blood mages were reviled. In the end, by becoming that huge undead behemoth, Orsino lost his point, no matter how desperate he was...

On my next playthrough, I'll kick Anders' ass for being an idiot and I will side with the templars, even if I play a mage. Had it been on my hand, I'd stop the whole mage rebellion as well and kick Meredith's ass too, she's as dangerous as Anders.

Dragon Age: Origins prooves that mages can be free from the Chantry and the templars, all it needs is just a Blight a mage player to save Ferelden... ^_^

@Qaldim I came SO close I came to running Anders through, and I quite agree, I will see him pay for what he did next time. I sided with the mages to honor Bethany's memory (I lost her during the deep roads expedition ::sadness::) because I thought the templars were going too far in their persecutions. She was the perfect example of why their policies were overly tyrannical. On the flip side, Anders was the reason why I didn't feel completely at ease with that decision as he was the perfect example of why mages needed some form of control. I'm actually more in favor of a mage's conclave (similiar to the one used in Dragonlance) as there were plenty of examples of wise mages to lead them. Incidently, I actually played DA2 FIRST, and I enjoyed it enough to go back and get the DAO-UE. Although I really wish they hadn't taken the gore out of the second one >< (And am I the ONLY one that though Varric was the BEST character of all of them? I can't go ANYWHERE without him)

characters never really grabbed at me like they did in the first one. Believe it or not, I liked Sten over all of them. Interesting character.

Aveline was OK if a little too.....manly at times. But that was about it.

Sided with the Templars while Bethany was in the Grey Wardens.

Frankly, when Anders blew it up and the mages started getting all pain in the ass, I simply had to go "Well Ima purge you" of couse I saved anyone who came along (Cullen ftw for helping) I mean every bloody mage you come across turned to blood magic, you know, the thing you had to learn from demons?

I ran Anders through for blowing up the bloody tower full of innocents, even snarky Hawke doesn't tolerate that shit. Merril was sad and that made me kinda sad though I did Rivalmance her.

I liked the fact that they expanded on Isabella and Merril from the first, was fun. Though I did miss Shale and Lelianna.

And yes Varric was the best companion more so with snarky hawke xD I think I took Varric, Aveline and Bethany at the start then started taking the previous and swapped out Bethany for Merril.

I didn't get Isabella on my first playthrough :(

I thought Varric was a riot. Merril's niavete was amusing, albeit grating at times. I actually rather enjoyed the banter between Alistair and Morrigan, I just wish I had had more room in my party for Shale lol. Awakenings was sort of funny for me though. I ended up putting Oghren on my A squad because he was the most familiar to me, despite the fact that I never used him in Origins. It made me feel like me and him were the "grizzled veterans leading the children around". I dragged Anders' whiny butt around because I kicked Velana's witchy arse to the curb. Could not STAND her. Funny story: Alistair convinced me to let him be the one to slay the Archdemon. So imagine my surprise when he greets me at the gates of Warden Keep in Awakenings lol. Continuity? Uh uh!

Hah, known bug sadly :P

I took Morrigan's deal because even though she was a pain in the bloody ass for my character, they got along well normally. Turns making your Warden Lawful Neutral in DAO means you get along well with everyone xD

Anders in Awakening was good compared to DA2, not to mention the whole Justice thing, I mean. Justice died by having rocks fall on his head from the keep man >_>

Not to mention Anders said he would stay with the Grey Wardens forever :( liar.

Also Sigrun was fun to drag around in Awakenings, I think I had Sigrun, Anders and Justice while Velanna can eat dirt for all I care >_> though I did manage to get her to like humans due to all the gift forcing I did.

Aye, DAA was rife with bugs. I had to dl a user made patch to be able to do Sigrun's friendship quest. The only one I couldn't do was Oghren's because I ended up not having enough friendship items for him when I transferred to awakenings. I was short by a really small amount too. My A squad was me and Og as the beefsticks (i made him the brick wall to replace alistair so I could keep swinging my Starfang / Vigilance) Sigrun to replace Leliana, Anders to replace Wynne / Morrigan (at least until the end, I replaced him with Velana for Blood Wound). I sort of regret not being able to use Og in Origns. I really liked him in Awakenings. Now I can't play Bulletstorm without thinking my character is a red haired dorf.

@Ravenknight816 had mine on the 360 >_<

Blood Magic was fun in the original DAO part of the franchise, there was even meant to be a cut part in the Mages Tower where they would call you out on it.

Oghren was so so in Origins, I never really had that much use for him as Sten was just as good although he could only learn 1 AC.

Still Oghren had some good lines, more so if you are a female character in a relationship with Lelianna and drag him along to hear about how Isabella, Lelianna and the Warden are all going to have a threesome xD

HAH yeah that's Oghren all right. Rude, crude, and proud of it. Perhaps one day I'll get back on my mage I started. Probably have to restart him now though, its been so long I cant even remember where I left off in the story.

I can't stand doing the Mages Tower part and o a lesser extent the Deep Roads, kinda annoying >_>

Still, worse places to have to do I guess.

Good old DAO team, I never got the chance to buy Awakening for 360. :( My Origins team was Alistair as tank, Leliana as dps, Wynne for healing and I was an elf mage dps. Oghren was very fun even if he never made it on the team except for the quest to find his wife. I tried to be the "good and righteous" Warden, so the other characters could hardly fit in my group.

I agree with Mishy that Mage Tower and Deep Roads were annoying. I was mostly bored of the Fade part and well... Deep Roads were big and intimidating for an alienage elf like me!

I guess people should play DA2 first and then DAO+A, if they don't mind the graphics. I played DAO first, just to import my ending, but I can't say it really mattered, unless I missed something. :-S

It was mostly different dialogue really, no game changing decisions such as the ME series (yes it did mess with shit even if the ending sucked)

It was nice to hear Cullen talk about the Mage Warden or Merril talk about the Dalish Warden etc etc. Was a nice touch.

Still, I was expecting something more... Must have something to do with how much time they had available to develop the game.

By the way, what are the current plans for the DA series?

DA3 TBA and it'll be followers can equip armour and it'll change their appearence to a degree so if I give say a templar companion heavy plate armour, his look will change to a certain style.

So armour is useful but everyone won't look liek copy pastes.

Thats all I know.

That sounds an interesting addition. I peeked the YouTube video a bit. If I got the right one, I think they need to work the graphics a bit. I really liked those in DA2. And current story will be in Orlais with a civil war brewing with mages and templars...

I liked the graphics in DA2 as well. Until they took away the blood that is. Excessive people complained. Too many exploding bodies is ruining the experience for me, they whined. So now I'm left with "Bowling with Fireballs" and "Rock em Sock em Swordfights". Not even so much as a slider to appease the weak kneed. I preordered the game after playing the demo. The bloodletting was one of the major selling points for me. The other of course.. was Flemeth m wielding a weapon whos size dwarfs my target, and lay into it / them with full force, I would expect nothing LESS then to be showered with various peices of anatomy. If I am hurling a giant ball of flaming force at an opponent, with the intent of causing as much damage as possible, you bet your sweet bippy I expect to see gouts of blood and flying appendages. It was very satisfying to turn hordes of darkspawn into fried, flash frozen, electrified, or plain sushi kibble. I sort of lost interest in the game after watching the combat became a rather bland and pedestrian affair.

Speaking of darkspawn, I hope they tweak their design back a little to more of the DAO look rather than the He-Man Skeletor "Clownspawn" look they had in DA2.

I see you there Wastey ;)

I think it was more that your basic attack with a bow or dagger could easily just gib enemies into many small chunks when realistically, that would never happen. Of course fireballs and whatnot probably would gib people.

Also yeah I miss the old Darkspawn design :(

Shhhh shhh, it's OK Bianca, they don't mean anything by it. They just don't know you is all. No, I won't tell Varric. Bianca says if realism includes large autonomous flaming balls hurled about by old hags that talk to much and turn into dragons at will, then by the Maker she should be able to make a man's head explode at a hundred yards!

Or maybe start a campaign named "Bring the old Darkspawn sprites back!". But then Bioware might confuse the sprites with the ones from the fairytales and then it's going to be hillarious. DAO darkspawn looked mean, the only one I liked from DA2 was the ogre!

Oh no, Bianca can do it because she's Varric muthaf*cking Tethra's Crossbow.

I was referring to Hawkes inferior weapon :D

Hawke had a weapon?! That's shocking... ^_^

Yeah, it was electrfied as well :P

Well, I played a mage, so all I cared for was the weapon statistics, nothing more. Even though I wanted to play a Blood Mage in DA2, I switched to Force, because it was less "item specific" specialization in general. :(

@TheArtofBalance I thought you were dead. BTW drop me a line.

And read my blog. Most viewed on BPC.org.

Speaking of item specialization, was I the only one that went through the game too poor to afford any of the high end vendor stuff? I finished the game wondering where I had missed the big money.

you need to get the dwarven belt early on, do some sides in Denerim, then head over to Orzamar, do some sides there, save up about 40 or so gold, make sure you have a high speech rating, then go to the Dust Quarter.

A guy will be there wanting you to ship some illegal lyrium to the Mage's Tower. Talk him down from his initial 50 gold to 40 to purchase the shipment (hence you need a high speech rating), travel to the mage's tower, head to a closet that is...I think it's on the second floor? A mage on the inside will offer to take it. This is where you can extort him for a lot of money (and a dagger).

Also, even if your main character isn't a thief, put at least one talent into your "stealing" skill. There will be a guy in Denerim later on that will give you jobs to break in and steal from houses or people. That can net you some serious coin once you sell your ill gotten gains to the various vendors.

Also, it helps to have a really good healer in your party (Preferred is Wynne but if you can want Morrigan to do it just spend some talents into the Healing school). That way you're not having to spend so much money on healing potions and the like.

But for the most part do as many sides as you can before taking on the vital missions. That way you can save up and earn as much gold as you can for the good stuff later on.

Oh also, when you hit like, level 13 or so, you'll get invited to help out the Crows. Take them up on their invitation. They don't give out gold directly, but they do give some good items than you can use yourself or sell for a tidy profit.

@Qaldim Force was so bloody OP >_>
@Ravenknight816 I wouldn't know, I never really brought much equipment and just sold most things as I had armour sets which really carried my ass throughout the game :D

I also never buy healing potions because I am to pro for that :D

My problem with DAO was that I never found the inventory bags on vendors, just two or three of them, upgrading my carrying capacity to 80 out of 100... :(

Money never was an issue once you start doing the side quests, just a bit on the begining... :)
@Mishy: I found force troubling in the sense that it's more of doing control effects than direct damage, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

I can help with that too.

Ostagar - 2. One before you go into the Kokari Wilds. One after you return.

Bodahn - 2. One at camp, one after you do the Nature of the Best main quest.

Circle of Magi - Vendor.

Denerim - Gorim. During the Landsmeet event.

Dalish Camp. Complete 3 main quests, one of which needs to be Nature of the Beast.

@Qaldim Bah, you just froze someone then used Fist of the Maker to turn them into meaty chunks :D

Also what Waste said is true about the bags :D

@Mishy: I never had any freezing spell... (I think! >_<)
@Wastelander-75: I'll keep those in mind next time I play the game! =]

@Qaldim You never took Winter's Grasp the basic level ice spell as a mage?

HERESY!

Its really good, more so when its got like a 100% change to freeze an enemy

I had done too many respecs for my sake to remember all the spells I used... Looking at the talent builder, I did take it, but I don't remember using it very often... >_<