Dragon Age 2 Incoming.

[Drz]

How tied into DAO is this game?

Is it necessary to play through it for this one to make sense?

Not at all.

Man feels baT,man right now. Spoilers from Act 2 regarding what happened to my family:

Spoiler

That white lilly guy got my Mother! And i was too late to save her.... Now i'm alone since my sister Bethany is with the Circle.

I'm also liking Merrill, but whatever i try to be kind to her she just gets rivalry points! I really like her voice actress, she nails this shy cute outsider living in new culture. Does anyone else btw get a Na'vi vibe from the elves now? With those big eyes and small noses and all.

 

[Soapy]

Yeah, it seems like Bioware Avatar'd the Elves up a bit. More than their appearance though, it's that they refer to themselves as "the people" often, and the way they pronounce elven as el-VEN with the strong emphasis on the second syllable really drives it home.

Also, yes, Merrill is great.

 

[Benstamania]

Took down the High Dragon... YEEEEEAAAAH!

 

[Benstamania]

How tied into DAO is this game?

Is it necessary to play through it for this one to make sense?

It's "tied" to the first game, but not anything huge. I mean, it's not a direct sequel. It gave me several nods to my imported save, Alistar is king of Ferelden, ect. Also just met one of the Howe girls (daughter of a main character in the first) who wants me to help her brother (who was in Awakening).

So.... if you played through the first you'll know these things... if not, no big deal. You can choose several outcomes from the first game if you don't have a save to import.

 

[Drz]

I met Alistair drunk haha. In Act 2 however Teagan comes to talk some sense into him, the drunk-tair talk is just hilarious! He still hates Morrigan lol and even blames her.

 

[Benstamania]

Well as far as I've got and I just NOW see that my save import wasn't ported over right...

I met Nathaniel and he said about "When the Warden Commander let the Architect live"

...No. I killed the Architect in my save.

Crud.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

I read this, and found it interesting. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/11/does-ea-still-own-games-you-buy.aspx

I know I ran into problems with DLC with EA Games before, but this one's a little different.

 

[Benstamania]

Was it for the DLC? I originally read that he downloaded the PC version of the game from the EA store.

If he did download the game from the EA store or whatever, this is further proof that digital downloads should NEVER become standard... Ever. Digital downloads are no more than a "clever" way for a company to charge you for something that's never really yours.

If I was the guy I'd have the DA2 charge canceled or whatever. If EA won't let him play it, why not? Granted, I hate reading people B&Ming about things as much as the next guy... but EA doing what they did is wrong. Ban his account from the forum, do not TOUCH the game he paid money for.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

The article doesn't mention if it's for the PC, but it does point out that DLC would/is a problem too. And I'm not entirely surprised, because I had issues when my brother and I bought DAO brand new and I used the Blood Dragon armor code and he used the Stone Prisoner code...each piece of DLC got attached to our respective PSN ID's and were unusable again, so I would have needed to purchase the Stone Prisoner if I ever wanted to play it under my name. Same for my brother if he ever wanted the Blood Dragon Armor.

Which is an underhanded way, it seems, for them to control everything entirely to the point of forcing players to purchase something they already actually own.

The DLC being tied into our EA accounts is clearly becoming a problem if being banned from they're forum means you can't even access something you purchase.

 

[Master Chief]

lmao EA just keeps getting more horrible. I'm surprised they haven't pushed things to the point of, "If you don't redeem your online pass, you can't play the game! Codes are only available if you pre-order 2 months in advance."

hahhaha

All that aside though, it depends on what those people were banned for. And even then I don't think they should be denied access to content they paid for, that's friggin nuts.

 

[Benstamania]

For every step EA takes in the right direction they seem to take two steps back. They allow developers like BioWare and Visceral to act on their own without any major input (well.. minus the online modes) and they get praise for doing that.

Then they'll do something stupid like Online Activation passes where if you buy an EA Sports game used you won't be able to play it online unless you give them another 10 bucks... or stuff like this.

I wouldn't say they're as hated as they once were... but they still have issues.

 

[Benstamania]

I just had my first freeze in the game. I'm pretty sure I'm near the end... and I was in the middle of a battle and... well... it froze.

Awesome.

 

[Soapy]

I'm of two minds about the EA situation.

On one hand, even though it's legal, it's a pretty sleazy thing of them to do.

On the other, I'm all for anything that allows trolls to receive their due comeuppance.

 

[jacobed]

I read this, and found it interesting. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/11/does-ea-still-own-games-you-buy.aspx

I know I ran into problems with DLC with EA Games before, but this one's a little different.

The thing that made this whole story was the one guy calling EA the devil or something and then he got banned but it turns out that it was just a glitch.

http://kotaku.com/#!5781198/player-banned-from-dragon-age-ii-for-calling-ea-the-devil-a-glitch

 

[Benstamania]

Beat it.... Kind of annoyed that it just ends. I wanted to continue on ala DAO. Oh well, excellent game. Bring on the eventual DLC/Expansion... Just let Merrill come along, since my Hawke more or less married her.

Not a major story spoiler... just kind of based on the one your "romance" in the game but happens at end game...

Spoiler

I do believe if there is DLC (duh) or an expansion (hopefully) that your romance (in my Hawkes case, Merrill) will be the only one accompanying you as in the epilogue Varric states that due to circumstances after the fight between the Templars and Mages they all had to leave the Champion's side, "Except Merrill of course" rI assume that changes based on who your character romances.

Nice surprise at the ending Varric's epilogue though.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I read this, and found it interesting. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/11/does-ea-still-own-games-you-buy.aspx

I know I ran into problems with DLC with EA Games before, but this one's a little different.

I think If he/she had a problem with EA or the content of the game, then he probably shouldn't have a bought it. We know EA's history regarding DRM, Bioware forum members seem to complain about all year round (yet still buy the games regardless) and Bioware indicted from the start the game would be "push a button and something awesome will happen", console focus, Mass Effect features e.t.c.... Stuff alot of people hate. They put out a demo as well, it's not like anything worth complaining about was a big surprise. Having the ability to lock content would probably cause forum users to behave, as many just run riot. I wish the steam forums used it, linking game to accouts. Most of the posts and rage and one line spam or *****bags just giving snarky comments for the sake of it.

 

[Benstamania]

EA should stop by the GameFaqs forums....

 

[Drz]

Game Over! Here's my ending and last decisions, tons of spoilers since i'm rambling my thoughts here:

Spoiler

So i was a Warrior Hawke friends with Anders, Isabella, Varric, Aveline, Fenril and the rest we're more or less neutral, i decided to side with the Mages because ultimately not all mages are evil, even tho what Anders did was disgusting and i wanted to kill him, i needed him as a healer so i let him stick around hoping i'd get a choice to put him in jail afterwords.

So yeah Orsino ultimately USING blood mage enraged me, poor guy. THo i gotta understand Meredith due to the blade had gotten truly crazier and crazier, so yeah... I have a save up on Hawke estate so think i'll give a playthru with my same char how the fight goes if i sided with the templars. Anyhow so Meredith dies, the Champion escapes with Isabella whom he loved and the story ends, bam! Benstamania is probably correct that we will get DLC on the aftermath, it was nice to see Leliana aswell again, i saw her earlier while doing a Sebastian quest, oh and Sebastian is bringing his army to Kirkwall due to me letting Anders live lol. But then i wondered, where did my Warden go to? My Warden stayed with Anora, yet Cassandra tells Leliana that he's missing.

 

[Benstamania]

Spoiler

I couldn't bring myself to side with the Templar's no matter what Anders did. I disagreed with him and I was tempted to kill him... but in the end I figured I would need him.

Regardless of what the idol/sword did to Meredith she and the rest of the Templars still treated the Magi like dirt... less than dirt even.

Orsino doing what he did ticked me off to no end. I was like Really? REALLY? He rallied and preached against Blood Magic yet when he was backed in a corner (just like the Templar's said) he turned to Blood Magic... and didn't do anything but attack me and my party. Yeah, thanks for that Orsino.

 

[Speedball]

Not at all.

Man feels baT,man right now. Spoilers from Act 2 regarding what happened to my family:

Spoiler

That white lilly guy got my Mother! And i was too late to save her.... Now i'm alone since my sister Bethany is with the Circle.

I'm also liking Merrill, but whatever i try to be kind to her she just gets rivalry points! I really like her voice actress, she nails this shy cute outsider living in new culture. Does anyone else btw get a Na'vi vibe from the elves now? With those big eyes and small noses and all.

I like the redesign of the elves, it sets them apart from the rest of the races in Thedas more than just being short and having pointy ears.
And Eve Myles is amazing!
I finally got the game and got Merrill as soon as I could. But no matter how I talk to her, she always gets rivalry points.
I like the dialogue between her and Varric.

 

[Drz]

Yeah it seems you gotta be rude to Merrill to get friendship points lol, she just apologizes and so forth.

 

[Soapy]

I've been nothing but nice to Merrill and her friend/rival meter is almost all the way to friend. Weird.

 

[Benstamania]

Ditto... I was super nice to her and she buddied up to me real quick. I'm a Mage though, maybe that helps.

 

[Drz]

I was a Warrior and kept helping her with her quest, which led to my only regret of my playthru:

Spoiler

So i wanted to get her mirror fixed and everything, so we went to Sundermount and you know with the demon killing the Keeper and all, but then when the Dalish come for Merrill, i just told them to standown and the whole clan attacks me! I KILLED the whole clan!

 

[Soapy]

Ditto... I was super nice to her and she buddied up to me real quick. I'm a Mage though, maybe that helps.

I'm a mage too, so that may have something to do with it.

How did you spec your mage by the way?