my short dragon age rundown

[dhex]

it is a bioware game.

however, it is also the best bioware game in recent memory. they temper their sophomoric and impossible attraction to "romances" with some good stuff. still a bioware game, so you have some silly romance options and the like, and every ending tries so damn hard to recreate the end of star wars for whatever reasons.

however, how they're tied together at the end was remarkably better than anything they've tried to do previously. (romances in crpgs are still bullshit, though, but these were far less bullshit as there's some really wacky and not just evil for the sake of evil choices to be made) lots of plot twists, good choice and consequences, and an epic-enough epic end battle that was actually fun to do. even the voice acting, with one notable exception, is good. even their willingness to comment on rpg tropes in a humorous manner was reasonably handled. the art design, while too brown-y, is solid as well.

their approach to dlc is completely fucking retarded, though, and while the dlc character and location you can buy at the moment are both excellent, they both should have been included in the main game. the one jokey crossover/note you find about mass effect 2 (the armor you buy in da can be used in me2 apparently) is a little too fourth wall breaky.

[FortNinety]

So what's your take on the sex scenes, primarily the music Mike?

Sorry, but that's as far as my knowledge regarding the game goes.

[dhex]

awful.

the music overall is not bad. it's mostly cinematic strings n' things, but not particularly overwrought (for the most part).

[isfet]

this is a game that i've been mildly curious about.  i feel like with Demon's Souls, i already sort of have the medieval action RPG thing covered for a while.  i also just hate everything i've ever played of Bioware's, but i'm still always tempted to give their games another shot.  i wonder why that is?

anyway, maybe i'll give this guy a rental.

[dhex]

despite being real-time w/pause it's not really an action rpg. one of the saving graces that elevates it over bioware games since bg2 is that the combat's actually got a semblance of tactical requirements to it. that's a pretty big changeup from most of what they've done since the infinity engine days of bg and bg2.

i think they picked up quite a bit from what obsidian has done with nwn2 and especially the critically lauded mask of the betrayer expansion, particularly in the writing department.

but still, at its heart it's a bioware game, with the necessary flaws that entails. the romances, which are very options, are an unfortunate tacking-on of what's otherwise some really good npc interactions and consequences.

[isfet]

oh, neato.

so, if i wanted to, i could avoid the bizarre "love" scenes without any detriment to what else happens in the game?

if the combat is some fun turn-based stuff, then my interest is considerably more piqued than before.  maybe i'll swing by Blockbuster after work.

[dhex]

it's not turn based exactly, it's real time w/pause. so there are rounds in there, a la turn based, and you can pause and change orders during a battle. but it's not like fallout or older rpgs with "you go, i go, you go, i go" type play.

this is a great, but spoilertastic, overview:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,1176.0.html

[dhex]

to expand a bit on the non spoiler aspects of da, it's also one of the few satisfying and coherent storylines for an "evil" character. and not evil for the sake of cackling, but evil as in self-interested and motivated beyond their own sense of compassion. (that this is portrayed as evil in many western rpgs is one of those weird "dear lord ayn rand was right" things we'll gloss straight over)

one of the better "what the hell" moments is near the end involving one of your companions and a beautifully woven deal with the devil style choice. but there's several points in the game that companions will leave you or fight you, and one in which one of your companions will attempt to usurp you. in my playthrough, i did the "right thing" politically and ended up alienating my most used npc, who just up and left.

the heavy fixation on combat is the only real downside, and even that's not terribly done in the end battle sequence, which is appropriately epic and reflects a lot of your choices leading up to that moment. the post battle slideshow of "you did this, and x happened. you didn't do this and y happened." had a bunch of neat choices in it.

the only other game in recent memory which does this well is mask of the betrayer.* in that, your evil is really just motivated by the way the central game mechanic/curse can be manipulated by your choices, though those choices end up manipulating you right back.

as an aside, have jrpgs gone anywhere near this kind of choice matrix?

*the witcher does, to some degree, but it's more about consequences since you already start out as an
amoral cad beyond petty human concerns.