The Glade 4.0

Varric, without question, is the best character ever written for a video game.

The interactions between Isabela, Aveline, Carver (Bethany is boring), and Merrill are awesome, too.

Anders and Fenris are a bit...broody and angsty over boring stuff. Which Varric makes fun of (especially Fenris.)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yes. Normally the best conversations in the game involve Varric. Or Hawke going down the purple path.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

This +1. Aside from Carver. Don't like him. Phe has a crush on Varric.

I don't like Carver, so much, as I like Varric making fun of Carver.

FarSky...

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Well I might be the minority here, but so far the most redeeming quality about DA2 is it actually motivated me to finish DA1.

It'll also be the last time I buy a Bioware game on week 1.

I'm curious as to why.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

is junk just junk? or may I need it at a later point?

Junk is junk.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

so no gifting, no putting gems in boxes, no quest items?

there are quest items. They just don't show up in your inventory. Also, gifts are now quest items, they basically initiate a quest to go give the gift to the appropriate party member.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Also, don't worry about getting friendship points for people when giving them gifts. If you are trying for a rivalry with someone and you give them a gift, as long as you are into the rivalry side of the meter, it will give rivalry instead of friendship. That info is from a dev post on the social.bioware.com site.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

ROTFL

I'm kind of with you. I'll definitely be waiting to see on DA3.

1) Story
-The good
The story back drop is great. The tension for the Qunari and the Circle/Templar drama makes for a great background drama for the plot. The characters are likable for the most part. A couple are pretty single minded, but the banter is entertaining.

-The bad
Except... there is no plot. Hawke has no reason to be there and there is nothing really moving the story along.


You also have no affect on the outcome of the story, unlike DA:O.

2) The story taking place in one city isn't a bad idea. we see epic world saving setting all the time, so this is a welcome change. The saved some time using just the city too, this makes the reuse of the dungeon area a heinous offense. ME1 had it in only the side quest areas reused over and over and people complained. They fixed this in ME2, but seem to have forgotten this in DA2. Once you've completed the expedition in Act 1, you've seen every environment asset in the game. Wow. Ruins immersion.

So does staring at a dead end and seeing a stream of enemies spawn in out of nothing and run at you. Seriously lazy.

There's no one big thing that makes the game unfun, I enjoyed it while playing, but it's a big step down from DA:O and ME2. Speaking of which, the time between ME and ME2 was about 2 years, but DA:O and DA2 was like one year... I sense game that was rushed. It's the death of a thousand cuts. If it were a developer that I expected less of it wouldn't be as bad. Also the lead dev that was on DA:O and BG And KOTOR was on the new Star Wars MMO instead.

If one liked DA:O, I'd recommend waiting until you can get DA2 out of the bargain bin. I can't vote with my dollars this time, but I won't be picking up DA3 immediately and I may eye ME3 suspiciously too...


Carver is a whiny douche. He's jealous that he's the boring brother. **** you, Carver.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It may depend on what you say to them during the giving I gave Anders something and if gave me +friend anyway.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I cannot bring myself to finish a second playthrough of this game, now using Hawke as a mage.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Which is explained by your status. The whole point of going to the deep roads is to get that status to kind of...hide behind it. It becomes even less of an issue once you finish Act 2 and become the Champion.

As for the specialization...the same can be said in DAO. It's kind of a lost opportunity there.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Being a blood mage doesn't really seem to benefit the mages anyway. They're no harder to defeat than any other mages, except they summon demons I guess... Wait, I thought the demons needed to posses someone to come into this world.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Being a blood mage certainly benefits the player character or their companions. (See Merrill...the indestructable godlike powerhouse that never stops casting spells.)

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Not at all. There are several instances of mages summoning demons in both games. It's just a really powerful spell and probably not possible without blood magic. What's his name from Warden's Keep summoned several demons with those summoning circles. The problem was closing the door once it was opened. Also, demons are capable of crossing over on their own, or at least influencing our realm, where the "veil" is weak enough.

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

DA:O also did this, you know. You could even make Wynne a blood mage in DA:O and no one would care. It's something you just have to ignore, and I can see why they did it. It's going to piss people off a lot more if they do, "Oh, you picked Blood Mage spec all the way back in Act 1? Well from Act 2 onwards, the game is this much harder because everyone hates you and you're locked out of the good ending."



I found Force Mage to be much stronger, it's much better to be almost completely uninterruptible.

Hawke can be both, so it doesn't really matter. The +100 fortitude talent is the only good talent out of Force Mage, anyway.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Fist of the Maker is really good, combo with shield bash to get the 900% damage every 10 seconds and since it doesn't ignore damage resistance you can cast it right on top of your tank. I also don't see how you would ever want to play without spirit healer.

I played through nightmare with Hawke as an archer, Varric, Aveline and Merrill. Healing is 100% overrated in this game.

_________________
Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick