It’s highly frustrating to me that I haven’t gotten to spend more than six or so hours with Dragon Age yet (and Werit reminded me to grab the new patch!). I do hope that they tweak combat and/or potion drops somewhat to make fighting less of a chore at times, but I’m still having great fun and really getting into the world and characters.
One of the interesting things to me is that I’ve been reading the prequel novel to the game, The Stolen Throne, and DAO references the events of the book like crazy (although as I’m in the middle of the novel, the game’s already spoiled the ending!). It’s weird that a major “good” character of the novel is revealed to be — possibly, probably — an evil dude in the game, but this could be a Snape-type of situation. You never know, with the BioWare folks. They love to mess with your mind.
I’m finding myself challenged to come to an opinion about various aspects of the game world, and to start molding my gameplay and dialogue selections around that. For instance, am I hostile toward magic and mages, or not? Should I be sympathetic toward the elf plight or… well, you know my eternal stance on elves, so that’s a bad example. What about the Chantry, DAO’s version of the Catholic church? As a man of faith myself, I’m actually pretty suspicious and antagonistic toward Chantry folk in the game — I feel like they use their position more for abuse than for good.
And what is a really good sign of character building, I am constantly torn over what characters to have in my party, and which to cultivate, erm, “strong” relationships with. It’s really hard to not have the dog always in my group, as he’s a terrific fighter, but he doesn’t talk too much, and I enjoy listening to my party members bicker and banter as we go about.
Right now I’m checking out one of the two pieces of DLC, The Stone Keep, and I’ll let you guys know if the $7 was worth it or not.
Let’s pass the mike around the table to chat about Dragon Age, shall we?
Bio Break 
I feel exactly the same way about the dog! Since I rolled a warrior and am committed to keeping two specific characters in my party this playthrough, I basically have to give up all locked chests and/or healing spells to keep the dog, so I guess it’s not going to last long. When I play through again as a rogue or mage I expect I’ll be able to keep the dog with me though.
Sadly, I too have only put about 6 hours in, but already I’m impressed. The only problem I’ve had with the narrative so far is how much they forecast the deaths of supporting characters. Basically, if any character says “I love you” or even worse, “I have a family”, they are DEAD, just as surely as a Joss Whedon character in a happy relationship is doomed.
Psst I think you mean the Warden’s Keep. The other DLC is the Stone Prisoner. 🙂
I got both of those with the Deluxe Digital version, but the prices seem odd. *My understanding* is that the Warden’s Keep is, well, a Keep, with a quest line attached and additional storage space inside. And it goes for $7.
The Stone Prisoner is just an NPC that can join your party, and it goes for $15!?
I must be mis-informed or missing something here, right? $7 for a ‘house’ and a quest line seems ok, but $15 for a party member you may or may not wind up using seems pretty steep.
I’m not sure I’ve even hit 6 hours yet. 😦 Thank goodness the weekend is here!
Ah shaddap, I AM working on NaNoWriMo.
Curse you, conscience! 😀
Beware the patch if you have Vista 64 or Win7 64. The tech forums are full of: “I installed the patch now the game won’t start” threads.
@ Pete – Actually I think it’s called Soldier’s Peak, but yeah.
yes; let us know about the dlc worth; i got the Shale guardian thingey; but haven’t had too much time to play either.. only got to the part with having Morrigan in the party
Hrrg. I still just want to get the game. Its even harder to get game time in without the disc.
It sucks. I was given a launch date for my new project at work, and I have been working like a dog for the last two days. Despite the game being unlocked 2 days ago, I still haven’t even seen the intro because I am working about 16 hours a day till next Wednesday.
*sigh*