The Drunken Lizard Pub

But they could afford advertising for it on A&E during the Criminal Minds reruns.

I like this game very much, however I am also sympathetic to anyone who is frustrated with the combat. I'm having a blast, but I'm not playing it the way it was intended to be played.

I find that this kind of RTwP party combat is a bit much to handle even with Bioware's good combat scripting system. So I have made the game sort of TB. I used a keyboard macro program, AutoHotKey, to link the actions "unpause"..."wait 6 seconds"..."pause" to my right ALT button. So now during combat if I hit R-ALT I automatically get 6 seconds of combat followed by a pause to micromanage (I love micromanagement).

Now obviously this could be done by manually hitting the space bar every 6 seconds, but somehow having the computer do it for me feels very different and gives me the freedom to enjoy the combat animations without the tactical situation getting out of hand.

The combat is challenging even on easy difficulty. If you are having real trouble with a boss or combat situation you may want to switch to easy. But do not expect combat to be a cakewalk even on easy.

O.k well I've cooled down now and have been reading everything here and there and come to the conclusion it's "ME" and not the Game that is at fault, the style of play and rule system of the game is somewhat new to me so I need to learn the "RULES" so for the second time here I'm asking for some help - what is the best way to set my party up? what spells should I be getting ? etc etc how should I been playing

There seems to be a fair bit of debate about EA's DLC policy with Dragon Age.

Some people aren't very happy about paying $5 for an hour of game at most. And the latest DLC announced looks like it's going to be both shorter than Warden's Keep (which I understand some people can complete in under an hour) and mostly (or entirely) set in pre-existing areas of the main game.

I've nothing against DLC so long as it isn't taking the piss, and I'm feeling that Dragon Age's DLC might well be doing that - and that's hurting my leaning towards buying the game. If EA allow Bioware to do what Bethesda did with their DLC (package it up as a compilation), then I'd be interested in it. But as it stands, I'm disinterested towards the DLC content.

Sslaxx wrote:There seems to be a fair bit of debate about EA's DLC policy with Dragon Age.

Some people aren't very happy about paying $5 for an hour of game at most. And the latest DLC announced looks like it's going to be both shorter than Warden's Keep (which I understand some people can complete in under an hour) and mostly (or entirely) set in pre-existing areas of the main game.

I've nothing against DLC so long as it isn't taking the piss, and I'm feeling that Dragon Age's DLC might well be doing that - and that's hurting my leaning towards buying the game. If EA allow Bioware to do what Bethesda did with their DLC (package it up as a compilation), then I'd be interested in it. But as it stands, I'm disinterested towards the DLC content.

The less people that buy DLC, the quicker it will be forgotten. Unfortunately, since it is selling like hotcakes, it is more likely any future game will be smaller, with even more DLC after the game is released, in the future. The companies are onto a cash cow, and gamers are happily snapping it up and giving the green light for more at the same time.

I will not fault EA, Bioware or any one else for giving people what they want. DLC seems to be what people want. The point is that you do not have to buy the DLC. Dragon Age plays fine without it. DLC is a way to expand or add to the game world without having to create a new game or large expansion. It is simply mini-expansions that you may or may not buy. The point of any company is to make money. You vote with your dollars. People seem to be voting yes to DLC.

Iane wrote:...so for the second time here I'm asking for some help - what is the best way to set my party up? what spells should I be getting ? etc etc how should I been playing

And once again I ignore you.

Why? Because I can't play the game myself! Grrr... .

But I found your Zombie story amusing... even though I'm almost sure it wasn't/isn't amusing for you. Oh, well. But.. lemonade, and all, right?

After playing awhile, I'm still hooked. The combat can be annoying, especially due to the poor AI. But, 20 hours in I'm still enjoying it just as much as when I first went through the origins.

There is a memory leak, I believe. The longer I play, the slower and slower it gets, until I get an out of memory error and a reboot. This is the first OOM I've had since the 386 days! At any rate, other than that and a few random CTDs, it's been fairly solid. For a modern game, it's comparable to a slant six. As always, save often, you'll be happier.

So I picked this up as my first game of the... decade, actually.

It is... amazing. Simply amazing. I can already see the hours of my life being eaten. The combat is surprisingly tough, but that is just how I like it. Very few games in general, let alone RPGs, are brave enough to offer up a challenge. It's refreshing, really.

Finished this one a few weeks ago. Really nice, especially great with the mimics and voiceovers. It was a pleasure to play it through and was interesting and diverse enough to keep me going without feeling the usually occuring "getting tired of it". I begin to like the quick travel system it presents. With the little time I have, it was fun to avoid long walks in the wilderness.

Bought the collector's edition of Dragon Age (and a couple of add-ons) for the Playstation 3, in a fit of over-confidence in how much I would love the game.

I didn't.

Mostly, I think it was the platform. Turns out that game controllers are the wrong tool for a complex RPG -- I want my mouse & keyboard! Playing on the PS3, I felt like it was "just a game"; I couldn't take the same care with inventory, equipment and character skills as I could on a PC.

I did have one serious annoyance with the game itself though (as opposed to the platform) -- I usually play as a Fighter, but I expect to have a Thief in my party before I get started, so I can loot to my heart's content. Dragon's Age did NOT accommodate me. In the early chapters (which is as far as I got), I was passing locked chest after locked chest, with NO WAY to get into the damned things. Most annoying...

Unbeliever wrote:Bought the collector's edition of Dragon Age (and a couple of add-ons) for the Playstation 3, in a fit of over-confidence in how much I would love the game.

I didn't.

Mostly, I think it was the platform. Turns out that game controllers are the wrong tool for a complex RPG -- I want my mouse & keyboard! Playing on the PS3, I felt like it was "just a game"; I couldn't take the same care with inventory, equipment and character skills as I could on a PC.

I did have one serious annoyance with the game itself though (as opposed to the platform) -- I usually play as a Fighter, but I expect to have a Thief in my party before I get started, so I can loot to my heart's content. Dragon's Age did NOT accommodate me. In the early chapters (which is as far as I got), I was passing locked chest after locked chest, with NO WAY to get into the damned things. Most annoying...

There's a recruitable rogue in the first town that's fairly tough to miss. Leliana, I think is her name. I never use her since I'm a rogue, so I don't really care about her.

May or may not be of interest to anyone but Direct2Drive is offering Dragon Age (Mac) for 50% off right now.

http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-mac-download

macdude22 wrote:May or may not be of interest to anyone but Direct2Drive is offering Dragon Age (Mac) for 50% off right now.

http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-mac-download

Great. And I was doing SO well controlling my addiction and trying to wait now until Book II was out.