Video & PC Game Discussion

James wrote: Hmmm. PC or console?  Just curious. This is why I'll wait for patches.  Some of the game mechanic issues may get sorted out.  I bought it on Friday and I've not even installed it yet. Do you know roughly how much HDD space it needs?  I have about 20 gb left.  I read an minimal install is about 9 gb but I don't want my laptop to slow down too much due to lack of HDD space. And I rarely play mages.  I'm one of those boring people who just like to bash with melée weapons.

PC. Install is more like 5-6GB, I think, though you'll still need boatloads of space for the saves (like DA:O). Warriors are much-improved in DA2, being quite valuable to the party this time around, so I think you'll be quite pleased with that.

I don't see any of these issues being sorted out. They do seem to be deliberate decisions rather than bugs which will be altered. For now, I'll just assume that you're stuck abusing dessicate+cleave+mighty blow to get through half of the game on Nightmare.

I finally got around to installing Dragon Age 2 due to pressure from my mate (and watching him playing it).  I've not got far in yet as I was just having a quick look at it and seeing what it plays like.  Obviously with further play I'll find its faults.

So far, I'm pleased at the speed it runs at on my PC (on Medium settings and still using Direct X 9, as my Video Card won't support Direct X 11) and also the fact it only seems to take up just over 5 GBs of install space.  This is very surprising!

Combat does seem to be fast too, as they said.  I like it so far.  One small minor down point so far is being unable to change armour on henchpeople.

I'm actually now back playing Origins so I can finish it and be able to start DA2 over with a saved game.  I realise this is not necessary to play DA2 but I want to finish DA:O anyway, as I'm sure some story elements will transfer over.

I'll let you know how DA2 goes when I've played it more.


Edited by James - March 18 2011 at 07:58

TheProgtologist wrote: NecronCommander wrote: Anyone else excited for the release of Homefront?  Should be a fun one.   I pre-ordered it after reading about it in Game Informer.Looks like a good game.   Anyone else looking forward to Rockstar's next magnum opus LA Noire?

I kind of know who they are but I do have Awakening, so I'll definitely try and play that before progressing further.  I've been playing DA:O a lot over the past few days and still have a lot to play!

Edited by James - March 18 2011 at 07:58

I just started a fresh new game of Baldur's Gate.  I've owned the trilogy for almost a decade and haven't even finished the first game.  I intend to do that before the year is over (making sure to hang on to those pantaloons!).

Stats:

Fighter-Mage
STR: 18/00
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 18
WIS: 5
CHA: 7
 

James wrote: I'm sure those friendship bugs will be fixed with a patch.  Actually, I noticed an unnofficial BioWare Patch was out already but it's for DX11 rendering issues, I think, i cannot remember. My GeForce Go 7950 GTX is about 4 years old but according to a site, it's still a pretty good card, even now.  It's not the SLI version though.  It's 2nd Tier. I've created one of each class so far.  I'm not sure yet which one I prefer as I haven't had a chance to really level any up beyond about Level 3.

Yes, it will inevitably be fixed, but it's goddamn frustrating when games hit full release with such game-breaking bugs.

Mmm, class sorta depends on difficulty level. You'll spend a lot of time babysitting everyone if you play on Nightmare, so I really don't recommend it unless you're big on patience and pausing. Teammates regularly defy your orders even when set to passive mode with no tactics active, so you really have to watch as not to have a particularly-squishy mage sneak into your scythe range and get 1-hit. It's also wisest to use a mage on Nightmare for reasons previously mentioned. Saves you a lot of headaches. As for patience, I'd like to note that it took me about 1.5hrs to wear down the final boss of act 1. Seriously. 30-minute battles abound on Nightmare. More than a little annoying, I assure you.

On lower difficulties, playing a two-handed warrior is pretty awesome as it involves showers of blood as you mutilate everything nearby. Problem is that you have a two-handed warrior companion whose unique spec is just plain awesome, though it might not necessarily hurt to use two of them when there's no friendly fire to worry about. Warriors aren't good for most bosses, though, so beware.

Once you get above Normal, playing a DW rogue gets frustrating as you're terribly squishy and not nearly as damaging as you might otherwise hope (due in no small part to an utter lack of AoE skills). Not that they don't do great damage against single targets or anything -- they do, obviously -- they just tend to require a lot of micromanagement when you're busy dealing with more important issues. They're utter trash on Nightmare when you want to use a two-handed warrior who would invariably cut the rogue to ribbons. Abusing brittle + cleave + mighty blow / scythe -> stagger + chain lightning was my bread-and-butter for thinning the herd, and the rogue can't be near any part of that combination lest he spend the rest of the battle having a dirt sandwich. Bow rogues are certainly good and all, but it's just hard to justify sometimes when you have your primary companion and the DLC companion with excellent bow specs.

//EDIT: Oops, accidentally used a character name which could be construed as spoilers.


Edited by Gamemako - March 18 2011 at 22:53

Was that 30 minute battle due to the Isabella/Sebastian bug?

And although there's not an official fix for it yet, there is a way of avoiding but it's awkward and time consuming.  Apparently all you have to do is make sure Isabella and Sebastian are in your party when you save the game and also any games you load, then you won't experience the -5 animation speed bug.

You can then swap players in and out freely without an issue.  The bug only occurs on saving without them in your party, apparently.


Edited by James - March 19 2011 at 03:31

James wrote: Ah, you have the The Exiled Prince as well?

Yes.

James wrote: Was that 30 minute battle due to the Isabella/Sebastian bug?

No, it wasn't, and there are several battles which can take that long. The one that took 90 minutes would have taken much less time if you had the ability to attack him while he was vulnerable. Unfortunately, the game sees to it that your hands are full when he can be injured, and when he leaves that state (only occurs 4 times during the entire battle, IIRC), he inherits some insanely-high damage resistance which makes 3 ranged attackers constantly attacking take FOREVER to finish him. Didn't help that he's immune to lightning and any kind of status effect (meaning no CCC for you).

sleeper wrote: ^Must be PC issue, that doesnt happen with the PS3 version. Cant say I've tried Nightmare difficulty yet, I get my arse handed to me on Hard.

The issue does happen with the PS3 version and it is entirely unfixable there. You can avoid it as James noted, but you cannot fix it once it has taken hold. I'd imagine the game would be tougher to manage on a console, though I'm not sure what's going wrong for you. Maybe you need to abuse Chain Lightning better?

Super Mario Bros. Wii is an excellent revision of Super Mario Bros. 3.