Dragon Age Origins

[EvilGenius]

I finished the game last night. Very cool ending and story. I'm going to leave it alone for a while and then maybe play through with a different character and make a few different choices.

[Jonkga]

Deb finished it the other night, also. She really enjoyed it as well, and is also thinking about a future play-through. Alas, I am not nearly that far along.

[Hardcorhobbs]

My comment was because I beat it yesterday. Now I'm even more excited for Mass Effect 2! Which I pre-ordered this weekend

[erilar]

So have you guys heard about Dragon Age: Awakening? It's supposedly an expansion for DA:O, set to release on Mar 16th for $40. Apparently, it's nearly a full game unto itself. Players can either continue with their existing DA:O character, or make a new one.

This is pretty cool, and I'm enjoying DA:O enough that more content will be very welcome (assuming it's as high quality and enough content to justify the $40 price tag).

[Jonkga]

Yeah, I heard about that, and I am very psyched. The smaller DLC was very nice when playing through the game, and bigger, more robust DLC is certainly welcome.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Yeah man! The trailer looks awesome! There was a smaller expansion due this week: Return to Ostigar... but it was delayed last minute...

[erilar]

I've been playing a lot of DA this week and am totally addicted. Ken, were you able to find Leliana eventually? I hope so, as she's super-effective, and her story/personality is really cool.

I've been wanting to ask you guys which characters you keep in your party? Do you switch them up or always use the same ones? (Following info should be spoiler-free.)

I use Allistair, Leliana, and Wynne, and my main char is a city elf melee rogue.

How about your specializations?

I took Duelist for my dual-wield/dagger/Cunning build main char. I picked up Ranger as Leliana's second one. I kept her a ranged specialist, so summoning the animal companions made a lot of sense. Plus Assassin and Duelist are very melee focused. I took Champion for Allistair's second. Wynne will be a Spirit Healer only - the other specializations make no sense for her.

[Jonkga]

Well, as for me, I'm not super-far into the game yet, I did the intro stuff, and the DLC, but the only quest related thing I did was the elf vs. werewolf bit. So, I haven't met all the supporting characters.

I am a human mage. The only specialization I have so far is Arcane Warrior. The other three choices don't excite me, so not sure what I am going to do about those.

I adventure exclusively with Leliana, Alistair, and Sten. I have my dog, Morrigan, and the golem as other options, but I haven't been using them. I keep Alistair and Sten as sword and board and two handed weapon melee fighters, respectively, and Leliana as my archer. None of them have leveled enough to get specializations yet.

My plan was to try to keep to mostly one party set this play through, and choose differnet folks on subsequent play-throughs.

[Jonkga]

Deb played a city elf rogue, and went Assassin and I think Duelist.

She's finished the game. She adventured mostly with Alistair, Wynne, and the dwarf guy.

[NukeHavoc]

I've been playing a lot of DA this week and am totally addicted. Ken, were you able to find Leliana eventually? I hope so, as she's super-effective, and her story/personality is really cool.

No, I think that when she's gone, she's gone. I did get her with my alt character though.

I haven't played in weeks -- having the 3rd floor disassembled (and thus, Sue working downstairs on her stuff) has been hell on gaming. Of course, work and the holidays haven't helped either.

[EvilGenius]

My first playthrough was with a human noble warrior. He was mostly Dual Weapon but dabbled in sword & shield and two handed weapons. I wasn't sure what to focus on the first time through because I didn't know what the cool weapons were and what the cool weapon styles were. I ended up with the Champion and Berserker specialties but I only took Talents in the Champion line.

I mostly played with Morrigan, Lelianna and Alistar. I did sometimes switch out Alistar for Sten, Shale, my dog, or the dwarf, but mostly I stayed with Alistar. I didn't really use Wynne unless I had to, like in the Tower. I never used the gay elf, and didn't get the final possible party member.

As for party members' specializations, there were some that seemed to fit. Like Wynne was already a Spirt Healer, Morrigan was already a Shapeshifter. Lelianna became a Duelist/Assassin. The dwarf was a berzerker. Alistar and Sten were Champions.

On my second playthrough I'm a human wizard. I liked the combat stuff but even with the tactics scripts, I felt like Morrigan and/or Wynn were not fully utilizing their magic. So I kept pausing and switching to them for a few spells, then back to my main. So playing through as a wizard will allow me greater control over the magic, I think.

[erilar]

Holy crap this is a long game! I finished gathering all my "armies" via the Gray Warden treaties last night, thinking that would be the end of the game, sans big final battle. But nope - here comes Denerim Part Deux and the Landsmeet. I'm at 72 hours played!

Here's to hoping Mass Effect 2 is this content-rich too!

PS - Did any of you guys fight Gaxkang (the Unbound quest in Denerim) yet? Holy friggin' Moses was that guy tough! My party is lvl 18, and I still had to set the difficulty to Casual to beat him - I couldn't even come close on Normal!

[Hardcorhobbs]

Holy crap this is a long game! I finished gathering all my "armies" via the Gray Warden treaties last night, thinking that would be the end of the game, sans big final battle. But nope - here comes Denerim Part Deux and the Landsmeet. I'm at 72 hours played!

Here's to hoping Mass Effect 2 is this content-rich too!

PS - Did any of you guys fight Gaxkang (the Unbound quest in Denerim) yet? Holy friggin' Moses was that guy tough! My party is lvl 18, and I still had to set the difficulty to Casual to beat him - I couldn't even come close on Normal!

Common Lance! You got a week before ME2! You can do it! Haha yeah this game is so awesome! I had the exact same reaction when I got to the Landsmeet: "WHAT? More? Damnnnnnn! Such a great game!"

If I'm thinking of the right guy yeah I fought him, and heck yeah he was tough. Of course by then I was playing the whole game on casual...

[erilar]

Common Lance! You got a week before ME2! You can do it!

Well, I may have a few extra days. I pre-ordered ME2 on Amazon, but went with the free shipping instead of paying the $6 Release Day Tax. We'll see how long it takes to get to me.

I did this as an experiment. I've been getting many things almost next day using Super Saver shipping here lately, so I figured I'd see how fast a new-release game arrived.

Even if I beat DA:O earlier than that, I still have Batman:AA, Shadow Complex, Assassin's Creed 1, and Half Life 2: Ep 2 all partially along. I think I'm good.

[Hardcorhobbs]

I get release date shipping for free because of my accidental subscription to amazon prime. Might as well take advantage of it while I can.