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Dragon Age: Inquisition
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Nov 23, 2014, 10:17 PM
 
No chatter about this at all? I just got it for the 360. Enjoy it so far, but I am not that far into it. Heard some gripes about bugs, but gameplay and story are solid. Anyone else playing it?
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The Final Dakar
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Nov 24, 2014, 12:01 AM
 
I was interested in it since the character creator is getting some buzz and the co-op is supposedly good, but then I watched a video of the co-op and it was boring as hell.
     
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Nov 24, 2014, 04:59 AM
 
I have talked about it in the discussion thread, but essentially: Played DA:O and loved it, but DA2 was the most disappointing game in recent memory - and this was after buying it on a sale after a few months, when I was forewarned that it was probably not Game of the Year.

The thing is that DA2 got pretty decent professional reviews, even though the end-user reviews and forum chatter mirrored my experience, which made me naturally suspicious of any reviews for the new one. I will probably get it eventually, but I want to read up on some user reviews first, to get a better understanding of the combat system. It is supposedly a merge of "the best from DA:O and DA2", and that is worrying. There was nothing about DA2 combat system that I want to experience ever again.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Nov 24, 2014, 06:28 PM
 
Pricing on this game is hilarious, btw. Not quoting specific prices because I'm in Sweden so I'm getting them in four different currencies, but Origin is by FAR the most expensive. Just going to a local store and picking up a physical copy is at least 25% cheaper. I can match that price almost exactly by doing the rebate dance at GMG, but why is EA's own store so much more expensive? All of it will be delivered from Origin anyway.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
drchimrichalds
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Nov 24, 2014, 08:33 PM
 
I've been playing it. I think it's awesome. Too many side quests though, it distracts from the main story.
     
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Nov 25, 2014, 11:03 PM
 
I haven't had too much time to play yet. So far I like. I decided to go with a Qunari mage. I still haven't tried multiplayer but plan to do so on Saturday. I actually plan to put in a whole day of gaming on Saturday.
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Cap'n Tightpants
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Nov 27, 2014, 02:18 PM
 
Best RPG since Oblivion (SoM is an adventure game, IMO, not an RPG), very immersive and epic in feel, IMO better than the original.
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Nov 27, 2014, 02:54 PM
 
I have been skimming the Bioware forums, where normally reasonable people have reviewed it, and while the world-building is great and the story doesn't suck, the mouse&keyboard interface appears to be essentially broken, it crashes a lot, the NPC AIs are terrible at combat, and the tactics interface is gone, dumbing down combat yet again. The first points will apparently be addressed in a patch, but no word on the combat system. Since the combat system in DA2 was what caused my ragequits in that game, I don't think I should dive in just yet. Wait for the patch and maybe pick it up on a sale.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants View Post
Best RPG since Oblivion (SoM is an adventure game, IMO, not an RPG), very immersive and epic in feel, IMO better than the original.
What RPGs have you played? I think Oblivion is one of the all time greats, but it was in 2006. There has been a few good games since then, NWN2:MotB and Fallout:NV to name a couple.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Nov 27, 2014, 04:22 PM
 
I try to play all the AA+ fantasy RPGs, even if I don't finish them all. So far, I'd place DA:I up with Skyrim (it had slipped my mind), maybe a little ahead due to the lush graphics and main story arc. There are a couple performance quirks (dips in FPS down into the 30s) tied to running maxed out AA with everything on ultra settings @1440p, I run SLI Titan Blacks, but cranking it down to MSAAx2 fixes those without really impacting visual quality. I expect that will likely get better optimization with a future patch.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
     
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Dec 9, 2014, 10:40 AM
 
Any more impressions of this? Big patch dropping today, so if reactions to that are positive, I might buy it. Is it OK to play on the PC with mouse&keyboard? Reactions to that have been mixed at best.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Dec 10, 2014, 09:48 AM
 
I didn't have any problems to begin with, aside from 2 crashes (that may have been more my fault than the game's, due to me switching out of it so often) and the occasional odd texture flash. I think KB & mouse is great, I did rebind everything from the start but who doesn't?
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
     
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Dec 12, 2014, 09:26 AM
 
So I bought it. I know that I usually enjoy Bioware games, DA2 being the glowing exception, and they really do seem to want to respond to the PC issues. My reflections:

* Pretty. Very pretty, in fact, with highly realistic and distinct faces. GPU fan is working overtime, but then I have it at Ultra on everything, so it is to be expected, and I play with headphones anyway. Could probably drop to High with only minor appearance differences, but it runs fine at current settings.
* Story seems a bit far-fetched, but then I've only started. Bioware was never very good at the big stories anyway.
* Dialog options are not so bad. Not PS:T, but so much better than DA2. I guess about ME3 level.
* Mouse&keyboard control scheme is absolutely terrible and almost made me leave the game. The setup is that you control the main character with WASD essentially emulating the left analog stick, and the mouse controlling a pointer. What is different is that you can no longer click on an enemy to run to and attack, an item to run to and pick up, or the ground to just run there. All you can do is click to attack or pick up when you stand close enough that you don't have to move. This is so stupid that is almost hard to explain. In fact it isn't really a mouse - it is just an action button, because you can only ever use it on one thing excluding the chrome
* No ability to rebind mouse buttons - cannot use mouse buttons beyond the first two (the button under the wheel having been standard for ten years or so...) without a mouse driver directing them to keyboard buttons.
* Default keyboard bindings are moronic. Who put jump in spacebar? You jump about once an hour, why dedicate that one big button to that when there are so many things you do more often.
* Search sonar effect is annoying
* Combat seems too simple, but they have avoided the worst DA2 excesses.

All in all, if they were to fix the mouse control, I could enjoy myself. Either change it to "ME3 style" - ie third person shooter, where you can show the mouse pointer in special cases, but it is mostly mouselook - or go back to the DA:O style where clicking something means that the character moves towards the object and then uses it. Either way, but the current setup is so stupid I'm going to try playing with a controller.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Dec 14, 2014, 08:21 PM
 
Further reflections after playing off and on for a weekend:

* This is a BIG game. Skyrim-big. Speaking of which...
* Someone has Elder Scrolls-envy. The Fade rifts are effectively the Oblivion gates from that game, and so many of the things you do (riding, mining for resources, etc) seem to be there only because those games do it. No big deal, you can mostly ignore that, but still
* Mouse&keyboard control still sucks, but I have adapted. Fiddling with the camera angle as the elevation changes makes a lot of difference.
* The first batch of companions are bland, but the second round are a lot better, so dont stay in the Hinterlands too long.
* Disabling the Origin overlays in the game improved my experience immensely (no slowdowns when they show up), but as some sort of revenge, Origin now plays little sound effects whenever I trigger an achievement. Finishing a moody scene and the screen fades to black... And plays a happy tune! Immersion-breaking doesn't begin to describe it.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Jan 12, 2015, 03:16 AM
 
Having finished the game, I felt the need to write something up.

DA:I is a game of compromises. On the one hand, you have the story - on the other, an open world exploration. The two things don't fit together well, so you have push hard in places. You could probably make a game out of just the Hinterlands map, at least if you make Valhammar a bit bigger and not lock Redcliff village early on, but Bioware dreamt bigger. You have 10 areas like that, with fetch and collection quests. My savegame counter told me that I had played 80 hours by the time I ended, but the last bit of that was pushing myself because I wanted to see the end, and most of the middle bit was running around looking at environments and doing quests to open new maps. This completely removes the urgency in the whole "world is going under" storyline - a story that moves so slowly that I kept forgetting the details in it.

On the one hand you have the big organization build, and on the other the very personal exploration. The bit where you build up a castle and the organization is ripped from NWN2 - except NWN2 did it in the second half of the game only, and it wasn't an 80 hour game to begin with. you can upgrade three buildings in DA:I, and it has almost zero effect on the game. What does matter is what you gather and craft - flowers, ores, bits and pieces of creatures, to make equipment. This comes from Skyrim, almost entire, and again the pieces don't fit. If you are the leader of this new Inquisition and the only person who can close rifts, should you be out picking flowers?

On the one hand you have tactics mode and controlling a team, and on the other you have console controllers. This feels more like limited time in testing, that they spent so much time working on the console interface that they didn't bother working on the "easier to make" PC interface.

On the one hand you have an action oriented game, on the other the specialized classes and deeper game a la D&D. The action game probably widens appeal, but with very few locks to pick and no traps to disarm, the rogue is just a fragile variant fighter (it is much closer to a ranger than a rogue now). The mages are limited because they only have 8 quickslots to fire off things, and with the cooldowns, this means that you spend way too much time just firing off bolts from whatever staff you have.

I think Bioware recognizes that their stories are no longer good enough to carry their games, but what they replace it with is just not interesting. They need to decide what they want to do and not compromise to squeeze everything in - and get an original idea once in a while. DA:I cribs from so many sources that it's getting embarrassing.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
   
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