Three Computer Games

I've been having a blast with Mass Effect 2 recently, and got to thinking about which of my three more recent roleplaying games I liked the most. So here are the contestants:


Fallout 3 - This was the first one I played recently. A post-apocalyptic world, sandbox-style game. Great theme, great graphics, and all around good time. Have to stop an evil massive group and figure out a way to help bring life back to the DC region.


Dragon Age - Next came the Dragon Age series. Classic fantasy setting with a wide-open character creation. You can move through a very vivid storyline making choices that will determine things like who is king, all while fighting massive dragons in a huge war against evil.


Mass Effect 2 - The most recent one on the block. I realize I'm about a half a year behind on this one, but I figured I'd try a sci-fi bend to the roleplaying game, and I'm glad I did. Large cast of characters, learning all about their back stories, all while dealing with a sci-fi/horror/conspiracy plot that keeps you on your toes.

So which is best? Well, each one has their own benefits and drawbacks.

Genre. What can I say? I love post-apocalyptic worlds. They're dismal, depressing, and all around good fun. I'd give the nod to Fallout 3 here. When it comes to Sci Fi or Fantasy, I'm really pretty flexible. I like them both at different times. Once I've played enough fantasy, I want a switch, and vice versa. I can't really favor either one over the other.

Gameplay. All three games are so vastly different here. Fallout 3 is a pure first person shooter. Dragon Age is a squad-based tactical battle map. Mass Effect is a combination of the two, controlling your squad as you go through a shooter-style game. Overall, I liked Dragon Age the best with Mass Effect 2 coming in second. I guess I just like the tactical gameplay more in the long run.

Main Storyline. Okay, here's there's really no contest. Mass Effect 2 takes it easily. Part of this could be the freshness of the game, but I don't think that's it at all. There are tons of sidequests, and each time the main story advances, it feels right and escalates. I see twists and turns blindsiding me all the time. Dragon Age comes in second here, with Fallout 3 taking the last place.

Side Storylines. Again, no contest, though this time Fallout 3 takes first with Mass Effect 2 sitting in second. I'm counting all the side missions for each character as "side storylines" since you technically do not need to complete them to continue. Though why wouldn't you want to?

Enemies. It's a tough one to call here. If I'm talking about single enemies, it's hard to talk trash about a dragon. If I'm talking about massed enemies, I think the ones from Fallout 3 will win out. I'll just call it a draw there and put Mass Effect at the end.

Overall. Well, sitting back and taking stock of the three games, I'm going to have to rank them as such:

Fallout 3 takes first for a lot of reasons, though primarily for the theme and the sandbox way it plays. Everything about the game was great, from the music to the atmosphere. I really felt like I was there.

Mass Effect 2 takes second, this one mostly for the characters in the game. They each have such vast and deep stories to them that keeps me wanting to learn more about the world. Plus its main quest missions come across quite unsettling. From the derelict space ship to the attack on the colony, all good times.

Dragon Age takes third, and that should not be a knock on the game. All three of these are top shelf. Dragon Age has a great interface, being able to control an entire group of four very easily, all with vastly different abilities. The storyline is good, but I feel like the game lacks deep characters and interesting side missions.

Anywho, that's my take. Hope you enjoyed.

Dragon Age 2

I've been looking around online and found a few places where they have some rumors about what's going on with DA:2 coming out next year. Enjoy!

This first part deals primarily with the character that you play in Dragon Age 2, a guy (or girl) named Hawke. This means you don't have the same flexibility in creating your character however you want as you did in DA:O, but I guess that's the trade to make the story more immersive.

5 facts about DA2

1. Hawke will be a voiced character.
Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the player's character in Dragon Age II will be fully voiced. This opens the door for a more cinematic approach to dialogue and creates an identity for the character outside of the text you see on-screen. It also eliminates those awkward scenarios where you feel like your character should be reacting, but instead just stares blankly without so much as a grunt.

2. Hawke is human.
Yes, that means that you won't be able to select Hawke's race. However, just because that one aspect of Hawke's backstory is set doesn't mean BioWare is eliminating character creation. You can still choose your class and customize your appearance. When we visited BioWare's studio, we only saw (and heard) the male Hawke in action, but the team promises that players can select either gender for the character.

3. Hawke didn't just survive the blight...he escaped it.
As the Grey Warden from Dragon Age: Origins was fighting darkspawn, Hawke was living in Lothering. Fans will remember that the small village was raided and destroyed (an event that occurred off-screen in Origins), and Hawke was one of the survivors. However, rather than stay and fight the darkspawn menace, Hawke flees Ferelden and heads north.

4. Hawke is the Champion of Kirkwall.
Kirkwall is a major population center in the Free Marches, a collection of city-states north of Ferelden. This means that at least some of the action in Dragon Age II will be set in Kirkwall itself, though Hawke will also spend time in other areas of the Free Marches. What exactly Hawke does to earn the honorary title of Champion, however, is up to you.

5. Hawke drives the story.
Dragon Age II is not about killing an ancient evil or about quelling another blight; Hawke is the driving force behind the narrative. Over the course of the game's 10-year timeline, players' actions and choices will determine Hawke's history, relationships, and regrets...all in service to answering the larger question: Who is the Champion of Kirkwall?


Someone else put up a summary of what they read in Gamer Information magazine.

1) We will be able to import our DA:O games into DA2.

2) We will see Flemeth at some point.

3) Pissing off party members won't always be a bad thing. "They won't necessarily leave. They may still join you, but they're going to try to show you up, and that may influence battle in a different way."

4) We're getting the ME2 conversation wheel, but this time instead of having some dialogue be a particular color the center of the wheel will show a symbol to show what kind of reply it is. (The article uses the examples of them being something like aggressive or sarcastic)

5) The way the story unfolds will be very different compared to the past Bioware games. "Dragon Age II has a framed narrative structure, which means that the exploits of Hawke occured in the past, but are being retold in the present." "Narrators with unique insights into the events in question tell the tale of his past adventures."

6) We may get to see some of the DA:O events at the start from a different perspective. "Dragon Age II begins as the events of Origins are still taking place, so you may see some familiar events from a different angle."

7) Because of the game spanning a decade, we get to see the consequences of our actions sooner, rather than in a little text at the end of the game.

8) The PC version's combat system remains mostly the same. "The PC version implements the same strategic approach afforded by a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme." "Rather than try to mimic the PC experience on consoles, Dragon Age II has a battle system more tailored to the strengths of the PS3 and 360."

I don't know how you can have your DA:O games loaded into DA:2 given that you don't follow the same characters or anything. I wonder if your actions in the first game and what happened as a result might influence what options are available to you in this one.

Dragon Age: The Roleplaying Game

I went by the Game Parlor yesterday and saw the new Dragon Age pen-and-paper roleplaying game available. It came in one of those old boxes like from the old school Dungeons and Dragons. The first box covers levels 1-5 and comes with a 64 page Players guide and a 64 page GM's guide (which includes a mini-adventure in the back).

The game is very similar to 3rd Edition D&D, though with a few things thrown in from 4E (like no skill ranks - you're either trained or not).

First, I'll start with how the checks are made. Every check uses a Trait (which is numbered between 0 and 5 or so - basically the bonus number from the 3E stats) and a specialization (which is essentially a skill). So if you're making a Communication [Intimidation] check, you roll 3d6 and add the value of your Communication plus 2 if you have Intimidation. Simple.

First, I like using 3d6 to make checks instead of 1d20. I like the idea that you're far more likely to get the mid-ranges and that there's a distinct bell-curve to your odds. Makes it more likely that your character will succeed when he's supposed to (easy-to-moderate stuff) and fail when he's stretching too far (need an 18 to hit).

One of the three dice that you use is called your Dragon Die (I know, sounds a bit lame). It will be distinct from your other two in some way. In situations where you need to know how well you succeeded, you check your Dragon Die. If you pass but roll a 1 on that die, you barely pulled it off (you made it across the cliff with a jump, but barely and are holding on to the edge now). If you pass and roll a 6, maybe you jumped so well that you cleared a couple yards beyond.

The Dragon Die also helps with actions in casting spells and fights. I haven't read this part as much, but what happens here is that you can get a certain number of "Stunt Points" based on the die roll and each one will allow you to tailor your action a little. Instead of just succeeding, you could cast the spell and it costs no mana. Or you could hit and get the advantage so well you get bumped to the top of the initiative order from now on (allowing you to go again before some of the people in the order). Things like that. I think they'll make the game pretty interesting.

Now let's talk characters a little. Like the computer game, you get a background that gives you some bonuses, and then you add a race and a class to it. There are only three classes: rouge, warrior, and mage. Each class gets a new ability that comes up every level, so you're constantly getting new things to do. Every few levels you get a new Talent (which is kinda like a Feat) and that's pretty much that.

Other minor things I remember:

- Armor reduces the number of wounds you take from a hit.
- You start with a lot of hit points (30+d6+Constitution for warriors, down to 20+d6+Constitution for Mages).
- There are not a ton of spells yet (mages only start with 3).


Of course, the system for the game isn't the reason to buy the books, I don't think. It's a clean and fast system that is close enough to other things we've played that it will be easy to pick up, but the real reason to play is the world.

There is a decent chunk of the book that goes into detail about things like the Chantry, the Circle of Magi, the Elves, the armatages, etc. There's so much to this world that would make for a great story to run. If only I didn't have so many other stories already in mind...

Dragon Age: Awakening - Complete

WARNING: Some spoilers about the plot below, I guess. If you don't want to know about it, don't read this post.

On Friday night after I got home from work, I decided that I should try to finish off the Dragon Age: Awakening game. It's been on hold for a couple months as I've been involved with other things. The game wasn't holding up as well as the original one, but it was decent enough and I wanted to see what would happen next.

I picked up where I left off, in the haunted harbor town. I had already conquered the elven forest and the dwarven mines. All three of the locations were pretty interesting - more so than most of the ones from the original Dragon Age, but the characters and their interactions really lacked a lot.

I was able to defeat the last stage and found perhaps the most interesting of all of the new characters: Justice. I ended up in the Fade again, though it was much less annoying than the first game. While there, I found a spirit called Justice who was trying to help a bunch of people from the haunted village who had been trapped. I joined with him and tried to defeat the evil baroness, but she cast a spell sucking everyone out of the Fade and back to the real world, herself included. Justice found himself inhabiting the body of a dead mortal near where we had been sucked into the Fade. He spent a lot of time trying to rectify his situation as "undead" with the fact that he still had longings and wishes from the dead man's memories. I liked him a lot.

There were two dragons to be defeated this time around. I had to turn the game down a notch against the second one (that's the guy at the top of the screen) in order to defeat him. That's okay - I'm not ashamed.

Soon after the haunted village, though, I found myself in the last couple stages. I had to choose whether the city or the keep would fall, and I chose to defend the city, letting my keep collapse under a two-pronged Darkspawn attack. Then we got word of where the Mother (main bad guy) was and went after her. The stage itself took me about 45 minutes to clear, and I was able to beat Mother on the third try. Then the game ended.



Overall, I enjoyed playing, but the game felt very short. It may have been that I took a break between the beginning and the end, but I was able to, after picking it back up, defeat the game in probably 4-5 hours more of playing. I'm interested to see what their next game is going to be, though. I did like the way the story shaped up.

In My Hot Hands

When I was at my brother's house, I was reminded of how much I like living in the DC area. Being half an hour outside the city in the sprawling suburbs is pretty nice. Eric's up in Pennsylvania in a big house on a huge lot (compared to here, anyway). His kids can head outside and run all around, play in the yard, etc. It's perfect. Except there's nothing near it. Head down the street and you'll find a farm complete with cows and barns. To reach the closest grocery store, you're taking a twenty to thirty minute drive.

I like being here. I can decide I want to build something and within ten minutes, I could be walking into any number of locations to get what I need. There's a grocery store around the corner, several gas stations within a couple miles, two hardware stores, an electronics store, a Walmart, a Target, bookstores, a movie theater, and many, many restaurants. I like the convenience of being able to go where I want with ease.

Take today, for example. I was working, decided I wanted a little break, and instead of just walking around for ten minutes, I took a trip over to Best Buy, picked up Dragon Age: Awakening by BioWare (and the second season of Sex in the City - I promised Laura I would... I swear it's not for me!) and got back.

Good thing I did head out to Best Buy - they were already down to only three copies of the game left! I was hoping they'd have a guide book for it too, but no such luck. I wanted something to glance at as I was waiting for reports to run at work.

But I did grab the instruction manuel on the way up to the office. Not much in it, sadly, but it's something to tide me over until I can install it.

First off, if your character died in your playing of Dragon Age: Origin, you can still play him in the expansion. It just assumes you didn't die. If you're not level 18, it automatically bumps you to that. If you play a new character, you start at level 18. It sounds like the story's going to focus on rebuilding the Grey Wardens after the events of the first game. Good stuff!

They have three new skill trees, 56 new talents/spells, and six new specialization paths (two for each class). It doesn't look like there are any other new classes added in to the mix (I was wondering if they'd try a cleric-type class, but the healing mage kinda fills that role). Looking forward to giving it a spin!

Almost Here

Dan let me know yesterday, and now I have to make sure everyone is aware and ready. Tomorrow, March 16th, marks the arrival of Dragon Age: Awakenings, the sequal to the mega-awesome Dragon Age: Origins. If you want anyone to think your cool ever again, go get it.