SHP Forums

Tawmis wrote:Awesome! I keep thinking I get close to the end; but then it opens new things (and I am anal enough that I have to do EVERY War Table mission that appears...)

So at the moment, I am following Samson - and I am in the Elven Temple. I have decided to follow the path of the Elves rather than just jump in the hole to follow Samson.

Yes... I tried following the path of the Elves, but simply could not work it out - so in the end, I just jumped after Samson. Did I miss much?

And yes, watching the end does reveal quite a lot... but also raises new questions.

I agree about the hairstyles - they look godawful. Skyrim had better hairstyles, and it's a much larger game - but Skyrim hair looked like hair. The hairstyles in DAI look like someone took a shiny plastic mold and stuck it on their bare scalp. It's a fairly minor thing, perhaps - but...

Personally, I was much more annoyed by the incredibly huge number of side-quests, and the fact that it would take so! Long!! To!!! FINISH!!!! ARGH. ARGH. ARGH. For instance, the temple in the desert - and the fact that it requires all those shards, after which your "reward" is a paltry +2% resistance to fire/frost. Finding enough of the blasted things takes ages, which is not helped by the fact that they are all situated in areas that are very hard to reach. The mini-map doesn't help any, either. You'd often reach the spot on the mini-map where you think the quest target is... and it's not there... and you search, and search, and turn this way and that way, and can't find anything and get frustrated, and then the camera changes view and you can't SEE anything and get even MORE frustrated, ad nauseum, until you finally think "Sod this! Am I playing a role-playing game or puzzle game or a hunt-the-pixel game? Where in the name of sanity are these tiny little THINGS that I'm supposed to find? Shards, books, puzzles - whatever!"

I appreciate EA put a lot of effort into making the game more "believable" and "realistic", but there's a fine line between realism and obsessive pedantry. I did not and could not enjoy trying to find all those tiny little things. Having said that, I did enjoy finding new and more powerful items (rings, weapons, armour etc.), even though I knew that there would be others just around the corner.

The main story, the backstory, the challenging combat, and the detailed NPCs, are this game's strong suits. The side-quests - with a few exceptions (such as getting yourself a horse) - are not. Most of the side-quests, I found, were an utter waste of time. Again, Skyrim showed how to do side-quests: be brief. Most of the Skyrim side-quests are simple: speak to character A, find item B, bring item B to character A. Bang! Done. I hope I'm not coming across as impatient, but for just one side-quest - fully exploring the Forbidden Temple in the desert map - I had to find seventy-two shards (tiny items, often in nearly inaccessible locations), often while under attack and fighting for survival, with a flawed map and an often malfunctioning camera-view. No fun at all. And even once I found six of the blasted things, my "reward" was a paltry +2% to fire resistance or +2% to frost resistance. Whoop-de-doo.

All in all, DAI is still a major improvement on DA2, but miles and miles behind DAO. (And yes, Tawm, even considering DAO's Deep Roads - which I always thought was very fun, if extremely disturbing).

Comments?

Rath Darkblade wrote:

Tawmis wrote:Awesome! I keep thinking I get close to the end; but then it opens new things (and I am anal enough that I have to do EVERY War Table mission that appears...)
So at the moment, I am following Samson - and I am in the Elven Temple. I have decided to follow the path of the Elves rather than just jump in the hole to follow Samson.

Yes... I tried following the path of the Elves, but simply could not work it out - so in the end, I just jumped after Samson. Did I miss much?

Uh. Well - you would have missed a whole cut scene with the Elves you see fighting Coreryfis (sp?) and the exchange between them, yourselves, and what Morigann does. (Which in the grand scheme, isn't much, as I don't see how it impacts much - other than talking to the Elves).

The only path that should have been "difficult" to "follow" would be the one that requires you to pull a level (twice) in order to complete. Once I saw the lever I figured it out in my second try.

Rath Darkblade wrote: And yes, watching the end does reveal quite a lot... but also raises new questions.

Can we say Dragon Age 4?

Rath Darkblade wrote: Personally, I was much more annoyed by the incredibly huge number of side-quests, and the fact that it would take so! Long!! To!!! FINISH!!!! ARGH. ARGH. ARGH. For instance, the temple in the desert - and the fact that it requires all those shards, after which your "reward" is a paltry +2% resistance to fire/frost. Finding enough of the blasted things takes ages, which is not helped by the fact that they are all situated in areas that are very hard to reach.

That does take forever, I admit. I wish that it took "X" amount of Shards - but not required that you get ALL of them from each map. (Say that maybe it took 30 shards, and there's 40 available total to find). That way if you missed some you could still open the final door. I think that would have helped that quest some.

Rath Darkblade wrote: The mini-map doesn't help any, either. You'd often reach the spot on the mini-map where you think the quest target is... and it's not there... and you search, and search, and turn this way and that way, and can't find anything and get frustrated, and then the camera changes view and you can't SEE anything and get even MORE frustrated, ad nauseum, until you finally think "Sod this! Am I playing a role-playing game or puzzle game or a hunt-the-pixel game? Where in the name of sanity are these tiny little THINGS that I'm supposed to find? Shards, books, puzzles - whatever!"

Weird. The mini map (for the shards) was always pretty dead on for me. Also, you know if you go to the mini map and click the shard - it will do that "blue light" so when you're moving around, you can see exactly where it is.

The only problem I had with the shards was in the desert; because it would show the location - but you don't know if that's on the ground, level 2 or at the very top of the cliff. That's the only part that was driving me crazy with the shards.

Rath Darkblade wrote: The main story, the backstory, the challenging combat, and the detailed NPCs, are this game's strong suits.

Yes, especially if you frequently spoke with the "party." Because you would see, as you complete their various stories, that their "cards" (party select screen) would change.

Rath Darkblade wrote: The side-quests - with a few exceptions (such as getting yourself a horse) - are not. Most of the side-quests, I found, were an utter waste of time. Again, Skyrim showed how to do side-quests: be brief. Most of the Skyrim side-quests are simple: speak to character A, find item B, bring item B to character A. Bang! Done. I hope I'm not coming across as impatient, but for just one side-quest - fully exploring the Forbidden Temple in the desert map - I had to find seventy-two shards (tiny items, often in nearly inaccessible locations), often while under attack and fighting for survival, with a flawed map and an often malfunctioning camera-view. No fun at all. And even once I found six of the blasted things, my "reward" was a paltry +2% to fire resistance or +2% to frost resistance. Whoop-de-doo.

Sounds like you had a WAY more difficult time with the shards than I did. I had no issues, especially with the camera view?

Rath Darkblade wrote: All in all, DAI is still a major improvement on DA2, but miles and miles behind DAO. (And yes, Tawm, even considering DAO's Deep Roads - which I always thought was very fun, if extremely disturbing).
Comments?

Well, it doesn't take much to beat Dragon Age 2. That thing was a heap of bat dung. When I first mentioned playing the game, I had said it felt like a "single player MMO" - with all the quests ("Our people are cold, go bring us 10 goat skins!") - but I think by the time you reach the end, it all comes together nicely (and it does a nice job reminding you that you were a no one - someone who was responsible for killing someone from the rift (avoiding spoilers here), and that you become a leader, leading a bunch of heretics, then you continue to grow in force until you become what you do. It took a LONG time to get there; but that's because I did every side quest, every War table mission; everything I could. Some people started the game AFTER I did that I know from work, and finished it before me, because they mainly stuck to the main story.

Get the Bard songs free - until 2/9/2015!
http://www.dragonage.com/en_US/news/inq ... s-giveaway

German:
http://assets.dragonage.com/content/tav ... ngs_DE.zip

French:
http://www.dragonage.com/fr_FR/news/inq ... s-giveaway

Interesting songs. I remember hearing some of these before - "Sera" is a favourite of mine, but it is particularly tricky to perform (which is why I like it!)

Nice find, Tawm.

Rath Darkblade wrote:Interesting songs. I remember hearing some of these before - "Sera" is a favourite of mine, but it is particularly tricky to perform (which is why I like it!)

Nice find, Tawm.

Knew folks here would enjoy the songs.

But probably only of interest to Rath - I forgot I had these - musical sheets to music from Dragon Age: Inquisition. Was on their site eons ago.

Went down a rabbit hole and never realized they released DLC for this... and quite a few of them...

The Descent: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... he-descent
Trespasser: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... trespasser
Destruction: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... estruction
Spoils of War: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... -the-avvar
Spoils of Qunari: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... the-qunari
Dragonslayer: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... agonslayer (And is it me or is that Isabela?)
Black Emporium: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... k-emporium
Jaws of Hakkon: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dra ... -of-hakkon

Meh. I haven't played DAI since 2015 (and uninstalled it back then), though I still have the discs lying around here somewhere.

Questions:

1. Do I have to install Origin to play this game? I did last time, I think. Is it possible to play it on Steam or GOG -- without buying it again?

2. Once I have it again (if I wish to), how much to these DLCs cost? (8 of them -- wow).

3. I tried to reinstall DA2 from DVDs, just to try it again -- but I'm told that no, I can't. Any ideas why?

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:09 am Meh. I haven't played DAI since 2015 (and uninstalled it back then), though I still have the discs lying around here somewhere.
Questions:
1. Do I have to install Origin to play this game? I did last time, I think. Is it possible to play it on Steam or GOG -- without buying it again?
2. Once I have it again (if I wish to), how much to these DLCs cost? (8 of them -- wow).
3. I tried to reinstall DA2 from DVDs, just to try it again -- but I'm told that no, I can't. Any ideas why?

1. No. Because Steam and GoG have their own client.
2. No idea. Didn't look up DLC costs. Was just cleaning out my hard drive, found the sheet music, thought you might be interested, googled to see if they were still online (rather than just what I had saved), and came across the DLCs. Never played any of them, that I am aware of (anyway).
3. Would need more than "it didn't work" - an error message would really help.

Tawmis wrote: ↑Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:43 am

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:09 am Meh. I haven't played DAI since 2015 (and uninstalled it back then), though I still have the discs lying around here somewhere.
Questions:
1. Do I have to install Origin to play this game? I did last time, I think. Is it possible to play it on Steam or GOG -- without buying it again?
2. Once I have it again (if I wish to), how much to these DLCs cost? (8 of them -- wow).
3. I tried to reinstall DA2 from DVDs, just to try it again -- but I'm told that no, I can't. Any ideas why?

1. No. Because Steam and GoG have their own client.
2. No idea. Didn't look up DLC costs. Was just cleaning out my hard drive, found the sheet music, thought you might be interested, googled to see if they were still online (rather than just what I had saved), and came across the DLCs. Never played any of them, that I am aware of (anyway).
3. Would need more than "it didn't work" - an error message would really help.

All right ...

1. I don't understand. If I wish to install it on Steam or GoG, don't I have to buy it on Steam/GoG? I'm only asking because, when I tried to install it for the first time, it told me to install Origin, or else I couldn't play. (Huh. At least it didn't say the word "sucker").

2. Found it! Here are more details about it (from the Dragon Age fandom site, a bit like a DA wiki).

3. Oops, sorry. I know that "It doesn't work" is unhelpful. *blush* Let me try again ... so, I tried to install DA2 now and play it.

The installation worked as normal ... maybe I just had the serial number wrong. Everything looked normal, and then then, at the end, it said:

Updating DirectX June 2010 (this may take a while)
Execute: "D:\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe" /silent

This caused me to raise my eyebrows a little. June 2010??? Way out of date. All right, DA2 is a 2011 game, so that answers that.

Anyway, installation is done. Let's try to play the thing. Running through the DA2 config utility... fine. I pressed play -- and got a dialogue box that said:

"Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to your computer?

Program name: Release Control
Verified Publisher: Sony DADC Austria AG
File Origin: Hard drive on your computer"

I pressed "No", because I wasn't sure what it was -- and got this error message:

Error:
To complete the installation & activation you must have admin rights.
Please log in as admin and restart the application.

Then it went back to the desktop. The same thing happened every time I tried to run the game.

So, what is this "Sony DADC Austria AG" and its "release control"? Is it dangerous? I did a quick google and found the same thing was happening for games like Dead Space. As for DA2, I found this answer -- which boils down to "It's DRM. Put up or shut up".

Well. If DA2 wants to install DRM, it can forget it. But is it DRM? Do you know what this is?

Thanks...

Actually, most games published by Electronic Arts requires the Origin client even if you purchase the game on Steam. It's weird, but one of the requirements from EA that Valve had to agree to (in order to sell their games on Steam) is that Origin is needed in addition to Steam. This is similar to what's done with Ubisoft games that require UPlay or some games on Steam even needing an XBox Live account. DRM beyond Steam seems unnecessary to me, but apparently those publishers feel differently.

So if you bought DAI on Steam, you'd have to have both Steam and Origin installed in order to play it. When you try playing DAI through Steam, it'd automatically launch Origin as well.

This means you NEED to have a separate account for Origin in addition to your Steam account. If you don't, Origin will ask you to log in with your account and you'll need to create one. Given that you've played DAI, you must already have an Origin account.

You might ask, "Why buy it on Steam if I have to use Origin anyway?" Good question. I think it's because Steam and Origin don't always have the same prices and sales, and Steam's refund policy is generally more lenient.

Just to make this more confusing, there are some EA games on Steam that don't require Origin. These titles, like Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Origins or Dragon Age 2, only need the Steam client itself to run. Why? Presumably because those games were released before Origin was created.

You won't see any EA game that requires Origin sold on GOG. Despite the complete mishandling of Galaxy combined with the horrible launch of Cyberpunk 2077, GOG is still (at least for the moment) mostly committed to DRM-free gaming. I say "mostly" because it's well-known that DRM does exist in the form of needing Galaxy to play some online multiplayer titles.

As for Dragon Age 2... just install Origin since that's EA's client. Yes, that's DRM, but it's benign compared to any sort of DRM that comes packages on a disc, especially an older title like DA2. You have no idea what sort of DRM it might install, so you're better off with Origin in this case.

Huh. Since Steam and GOG both have DA1 and DA2 without DRM, is there any reason why I should buy them on Origin?

As for DAI -- all right, I can't play it on Steam without installing Origin. That's weird. Yes, I probably have an Origin account, but when I finished playing DAI, I uninstalled it, uninstalled Origin, and never played it again. I just found the Origin client to be slow, clunky, and (worst of all) full of ads, compared to Steam or GOG. What's your experience been like?

I've only used the Origin client while playing The Sims, but I've never had any complaints.

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:50 am Huh. Since Steam and GOG both have DA1 and DA2 without DRM, is there any reason why I should buy them on Origin?

As far as I know, GOG doesn't have DA2, just DA1.

Does Steam have DA1 and DA2 without DRM? Some games on Steam really don't need the client (other than to download the game itself) so it's possible. I didn't play either on Steam, so I don't know.

As for Origin... no, I can't think of a reason unless you're looking to buy a digital-only copy and the price is currently lower on Origin than it is on Steam or GOG.

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:50 am As for DAI -- all right, I can't play it on Steam without installing Origin. That's weird.

Yeah, it is, but it's not new. Ubisoft has been doing this with UPlay for a long time and recently some games have required an additional XBox Live account as well.

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:50 am Yes, I probably have an Origin account, but when I finished playing DAI, I uninstalled it, uninstalled Origin, and never played it again. I just found the Origin client to be slow, clunky, and (worst of all) full of ads, compared to Steam or GOG.

I don't particularly like the Origin client (mostly because it's a less user-friendly bare bones copy of Steam), but I've never found ads in it. Were these ads at least related to the games offered on Origin?

DeadPoolX wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:48 am

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:50 am Huh. Since Steam and GOG both have DA1 and DA2 without DRM, is there any reason why I should buy them on Origin?

As far as I know, GOG doesn't have DA2, just DA1.

Does Steam have DA1 and DA2 without DRM? Some games on Steam really don't need the client (other than to download the game itself) so it's possible. I didn't play either on Steam, so I don't know.

As for Origin... no, I can't think of a reason unless you're looking to buy a digital-only copy and the price is currently lower on Origin than it is on Steam or GOG.

Whoops, you're right -- GOG only has DA1.

Steam has them both without any DRM, except for the fact that you need an Origin/BioWare account to redeem the game key and DLC key.

DeadPoolX wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:48 am

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:50 am Yes, I probably have an Origin account, but when I finished playing DAI, I uninstalled it, uninstalled Origin, and never played it again. I just found the Origin client to be slow, clunky, and (worst of all) full of ads, compared to Steam or GOG.

I don't particularly like the Origin client (mostly because it's a less user-friendly bare bones copy of Steam), but I've never found ads in it. Were these ads at least related to the games offered on Origin?

Hmm, I don't remember to be honest. It's been a number of years since I used Origin, so I've probably misremembered why I didn't like it. As you say, it's basically the same as Steam but less user-friendly.