Video & PC Game Discussion

James wrote: Yep, that's pretty much it. Although I was pissed off about Fable 2 not being on PC.  Not that I played the first game but any desire to do so went with that news.  I think Fable 3 has been ported to PC though. I gather there's a few minor differences between DA2 on PC and console?  I've only played the PC version. I think though if Mass Effect 2 and Dragon 2 had been ported from PC to console, we may not have gotten so much FPS/Hack 'n' Slash type gameplay.

Fable 3 isn't out yet for PC. It's supposedly in the process of being "customized" for PC. Molyneux has a tendency to promise too much, though.

There are a lot more differences between the PC and console versions of DA2 than many games. BioWare, to their credit, tried (and failed) to please the PC crowd who flocked to DA:O's old-school sensibilities. The PC version's control, camera aside, is generally the same as DA:O. BioWare offered some rather neat graphics options for those who could manage them (DX11 + hires texture pack = decent-looking game) as well. It's the core game that is horrendously broken, with downright bizarre combat design decisions like magical super-rogues and 90-minute fights, lack of any compelling story, hilarious repetition of environments, and deliberate removal of actual consequence in decisions (every decision you make is filtered right back into the exact same outcome).

James wrote: My mate prefers it to Origins and loved the dark storyline of it.  I've still not had a chance to play much of it yet though.  I forgot to ask him about the long fights and the rogues.  I will when I speak to him next. I'm currently treading carefully through the really broken Awakening (although with mods, I've not experienced any major issues -- even the Silverite Mines was fine). I am still deciding about the Mass Effect 2 conversation system...

Dark... storyline...? What? There's nothing dark about it. There's a huge lack of ulterior motive. It's really up-front about everything. Even gangs are pretty clear in their intentions: they attack everyone without any reason all the time (you'll kill about 1500 of them just wandering the streets over the course of the game). The only "dark" incident in the ENTIRE GAME is the very end, which is utter nonsense from any perspective (the entire last hour or two of the game is a DISASTER). The game only occasionally briefly touches upon more than black-and-white issues. When you could justify in DA:O requesting a reward to help your cause, you have absurd wealth in DA2 and have no reason to care. You just extort money from people to be a dick and line your own pockets. Unlike DA:O, your opponents have no redeeming qualities; they're pretty much all just legions of thugs. You'll never take the time to question whether killing TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE is wrong or necessary, which is even funnier when you're a "diplomatic" character.

Man, there was just so much I hated about DA2.

James wrote: I'm only conferring what my friend said.  Once I get further in the game, I'll be able to give my own thoughts.  I'm only up to the first shack you get, which is barely anything into the game. In fact, he said the ending was quite "fluffy" compared to the rest of it.

Sorry, hard not to rant.

I'm deeply awaiting Mortal Kombat 9 for 360....I haven't bought a game since the day New Vegas came out, so MK9 will be my third purchased game in the last 4 years or so.

I've gotten out my Sega Genesis and have been playing lots of Mortal Kombat 3.  It's damn difficult 

James wrote: Gamemako, there's a patch been released today for DA2, just so you know.

I know. Fixes the game-breaking friendship bugs (saves me the time required to edit my saves), fortunately, but a lot of things still don't work, including things that are supposed to be fixed. Also may have broken Lacerate, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since the skill allowed you to two-hit an enemy that it took me about 30 minutes to kill.

Unfortunately, the thing I was most hoping would get repaired, importing, is still buggy due to some shoddy flag management on the Origins DLC end and a host of dialogue bugs on the DA2 end. The import into DLC causes your approvals from Origins to be lost, so the DA2 world states invariably will say you didn't romance anyone. This is an issue in only my third playthough set, incidentally, as the other two can borrow their fates to rebuild reality. Of course, caring at all would require that I play through DA2 twice more, which is... unlikely. Reportedly, Zev has the most bugs, but I never completed my city elf, so it's not an issue for me. The entire final act of Awakening got messed up as well and may not be fixable. Ugh.

James wrote: There's a fan made patch for that import bug (for DA 2) but apparently there's still issues if you romance Zevran (why you'd romance him, I have no idea...) and most people report it works pretty well, even with Awakening imports (and of course any DLC ones you may have made). Of course, there's still issues with Origins and Awakening in terms of importing and romances but I doubt they'll fix those now. And most of the bugs seem to be due to Awakening.  Imports from Origin seem to work a lot better.

That one will fix the romance issues, but not the Awakening ones (not sure you if you finished Awakening yet, so spoilers in white: the Keep is still considered to be destroyed and the people inside killed, contrary to the epilogue, so Nathaniel will be set to the "left the Wardens' state and won't show up in a quest where he is supposed to. Anders will also be "dead" if you leave him there, which I didn't realize until I actually read the zz_vault_debug states in DA2 ).

//EDIT: Zevran also suffers from dialogue bugs, so it's not just the import state.


Edited by Gamemako - April 12 2011 at 21:38

I've been playing The Saboteur for the last couple days.  It's pretty much Grand Theft Auto meets James Bond, set in Nazi-infested Paris.

Gamemako, I finally finished Awakening.

Weirdly, I didn't have any issues with Oghren's friendship and got it to 100% I believe.  The diminishing returns for gifts somehow didn't trigger, so when I gave him gifts, he got 6 for all of them (so the bug from importing from Origins is still there, as he's supposed to get 10 and the diminishing returns).

Now I'm playing Golems of Amgarrak and getting immensely annoyed with The Harvester.  I always play on Normal and never turn to Easy... so it's quite difficult.  I got him into his phase where he's easier to hit but his skeleton minions really hurt instead!

Argh!

Oh and all my part end-up dying and it's just me tanking.  I wish I'd kept some equipment from Awakening, as I feel that's what's letting them down.


Edited by James - April 14 2011 at 09:34

James wrote: Gamemako, I finally finished Awakening. Weirdly, I didn't have any issues with Oghren's friendship and got it to 100% I believe.  The diminishing returns for gifts somehow didn't trigger, so when I gave him gifts, he got 6 for all of them (so the bug from importing from Origins is still there, as he's supposed to get 10 and the diminishing returns). Now I'm playing Golems of Amgarrak and getting immensely annoyed with The Harvester.  I always play on Normal and never turn to Easy... so it's quite difficult.  I got him into his phase where he's easier to hit but his skeleton minions really hurt instead! Argh! Oh and all my part end-up dying and it's just me tanking.  I wish I'd kept some equipment from Awakening, as I feel that's what's letting them down.

I've had Oghren's approval work properly and not work on the same import file. I'm not sure what causes the bug, but it is certainly annoying.

The Harvester is funny. He won't do jack to you, really. Oh noes, 20 damage from my health pool of 500! But then his skeletons start dealing 400 damage per hit. Not cool. I only play on Nightmare, and the lack of 100% displacement really hurt my first go. Had to use the Bronto to taunt and drag enemies around so they wouldn't eat me. Jerrik dealt most of the damage with a bow and Brogan was used to grab enemies who came too close and drag them away (thank the Maker for the 50% displacement from Spirit Warrior). Not an easy fight if you aren't geared up for it.

My second playthrough, my HN rogue had 100% displacement, so the skeletons couldn't touch her. She just plinked away for 350 a hit and never took any health damage (a bit of stamina damage with Endure Hardship when he used his AoE nature attacks, of course, but not health damage). Took a good solid 60 seconds to down him like that, even without Jerrik's help.

If you're really patient and have a bunch of stamina potions, you can set up any warrior to just grind him down over time. A spirit warrior can easily hit 100% displacement because he starts with 50% from the sustained mode. Any warrior can do it with just 3 pieces: 25% from Evon the Great's Mail with 3 Evasion Runes, 20% from Cailan's Greaves, and 5% from the Quicksilver helm. Arcane Warriors can do the same with just 5% more displacement, so replacing the Quicksilver helm with the First Enchanter's Cowl (Origins version) or a Spellward will finish the set. Rogues only start with up to a 20% bonus from Evasion, so they're easily the weakest choice. That said, I managed just fine.