Played for a few hours on MP and it ran smooth on ultra w/ 1920/1080 and decent on 3840/1920. I havent crashed yet but the occlusion in MP is terrible!
Not far in but one thing I don't like is seeing my character face in cut scenes and it not be me. Happened at least 3 or 4 times and it's slightly annoying.
Top 50 in MP rankings as of this post. The MP is really fun, lots of grinding to get gross, got lucky with a blue weapon on my second map which helped. I'm going to try the second difficulty setting tomorrow and see how it goes, 1-9 on the standard difficulty wasn't too bad, we almost beat the map at level 5 if not for two randoms being tards in the group.
I am. I restarted 5+ times on other difficulties until finding a starting setup I liked then I restarted one more time on Nightmare difficulty. Feels easier then it did on Hard difficulty. I'm playing as an archer.
Seems like games for the most part are starting to get away from the good loot-I-tang that make all of us get hard outside of D3 type games which lack any game play. Sad from my perspective
Also, god I miss the old M&M games where shit was hard but if enemieis were XXX levels ahead you didn't just hit for 1; let the people that try hard to have at least a chance to fight even if the odds are heavily not in their favor. Hard coded level gap caps and "ilvl's" in MMO's/games are like my biggest complaint anymore. It makes everything seem so damn artificial and on rails.
Completely disagree re: the loot, completely agree re: lvl vs. lvl.
Meaningless, generic shit that lasts a few hours (minutes) is central to Diablo (and arguably roguelikes) but you can't be saying that loot in Diablo was BETTER than in Baldur's Gate series or Planescape:Torment? Ofc, it comes down to what you're playing the game for: single-player RPGs are, for me, something that builds on pen and paper RPGs, and generic shitloot is such a bleh desu experience in a tabletop game. This comes from the genre fiction tabletops emulate. Gandalf did not wield a generic +5 defender of orc slaying and a +3.7% fire damage ring, he wielded Glamdring and in his finger he had Narya, the ring of fire.
Now, for mass combat genre +0.6% betterer makes more sense: 'SIR, after issuing the new rifles, our riflemen score oh-point-six percentage points better on the range, SIR!' Still, in fiction you'd say that they were issued a b-revision that had better sights.
Generic shitloot is easier to design and, more importantly, easier to keep to a standard that ensures that challenges and rewards of the game do not deviate from what the DEV on high has seen fit for you to experience. Which is what you bemoan about lvl vs. lvl equations.
I'm going to say that D&D in its various incarnations, with all its idiosyncrasies and idiocies, was a more enjoyable GAME ruleset than anything CRPG companies have been able to put together. Of course, D&D was made by extremely dedicated people who didn't have to worry about profits. And, yes, a shitton of stuff in D&D doesn't work in a computer game. How do you implement a Wish spell? Or, for starting levels, are you really going to implement having to buy spell ingredients? (80's CRPG staple there) Does your bat dung still work to produce a Fireball if it rains and it becomes sludge you can't shape into a ball? (It's pouring, and the bat shit runs through your fingers, the orcs approach... You gonna spend time re-molding that runny shit?) Then there are other rulesets, like HERO or GURPS, that are head and shoulders above anything I've ever seen in a computer game.
I've been waiting for a game that does away with the illusion of stats and reduces your character's prowess to a single number, let's call it 'level,' and calls it a day, since the reasoning behind RPG stats is gone anyways.* SWTOR is a particularly egregious example of this. (been playing it now with the 12xp boost, and the stat system is retarded). Also, make the challenges a lvl vs. lvl pass/fail check while you're at it, or a sheer action game? The current crop of RPGs is the worst. (Hah, just remembered DA:O, where stacking one stat broke the system. But then, BioWare.)
*in many games, stats are the unskilled limits of your character, which combine with trained skills to produce the current abilities your character has. E.g. SWTOR has nothing of the sort going on: stats have no bearing on the story (Planescape: Torment feels especially relevant here, but ofc not an MMO) nor does, say, willpower help in resisting mental Force effects, or do anything much, really, unless your class stat is willpower, in which case it's all you ever need for everything your character does. In other words, why not call the stat 'Inquisitoring/Consularing' or, more bluntly, 'Level' and just show the secondary stats - which are mostly stuff that would be calculated from skill and stats in a Role-Playing Game.
While SWTOR is one of the worst, let's recall that DA:O had a talent whereby a rogue could substitute Cunning for Dex, and Mages could use Magic for Strength for melee fighting. (The latter was supported by the text, though, so it isn't really in the same category: but it does illustrate a trend).
I was planning on diving into this, but I am unexpectedly playing the new WOW expansion and also enjoying it immensely. Soooo, this might be waiting a bit. My winter suit also came in the mail today so I can go back to the skies again. There isn't enough hours in the week my friends.
Top 50 in MP rankings as of this post. The MP is really fun, lots of grinding to get gross, got lucky with a blue weapon on my second map which helped. I'm going to try the second difficulty setting tomorrow and see how it goes, 1-9 on the standard difficulty wasn't too bad, we almost beat the map at level 5 if not for two randoms being tards in the group.
I fully intended to jump right in and not bother with customizing my character. Then I decided I wanted to change just his hair... an hour later I was able to actually start the game.
Well, it's a $40 guide typically, comes with a mount, ring and multiplayer chest. I don't buy guides very often, but with as much as this game has going on and as nice as the guide is, seemed like a deal worth mentioning.
So I've played enough to get a feeling for the game but I'm not super far in.
Graphics are good.
Audio is fair. Lip sync issues at times with character mouths, surround sound was done on the cheap but overall its decent.
World is actually pretty good so far. Its zone based and its kind of lame that its a straight up port to the area you want to go to but the zones themselves so far actually feel pretty well done. No clue past hinterlands but the area is pretty open, there are a number of different side quests that you'll encounter on your way and at least thus far its not a real chore to complete them. I've found that I'm wandering around completing this in no particular order and I enjoy that. There is also a feeling of the area being wide open with some areas to explore for materials / POIs.
Combat is pretty good. Tacticle mode could do with a make over. Just adding the ability to queue moves for each character instead of one and allowing the cursor to remain over the enemies when you swap characters would be a huge plus and make it less tedious.
Slotting gear is a PIA for the characters and having to compare is extra button presses that shouldn't be necessary.
Story is typical of DAO so far. Earn their trust type shit but the dialogue is mostly interesting. I've had 2 gay options for love at this point and 1 hetero. I'd say the story is ok at this point. Not great but good enough.
They do reuse a lot of faces / models. This bugs me. They shouldn't use the same model for your war council or yourself in other parts of the game unless its actually the character. I've run across myself in cut scenes that wasn't me and I've seen my ambassador twice in towns now and it breaks immersion when you realize its just your / her twin who is some regular peasant.
Haven't played multiplayer yet.
Overall happy with the purchase. I wish the game had full co op, through the story. Some minor nit picking to be had on a lot of things but the game is actually worth buying.
It's definitely part of the DA series. If you haven't played the first two then you won't get much of what's being talked about. The controls are frustrating on PC. I am weary of playing it with the controller though.
It's definitely part of the DA series. If you haven't played the first two then you won't get much of what's being talked about. The controls are frustrating on PC. I am weary of playing it with the controller though.