Dragon Age: Origins

Reformat fixed the issues for me, yaaaay. I can put up with a lot of stuff, but messing with my screenshots ain't one of 'em. ;)

The Ostagar DLC is delayed for unexplained reasons. Was hoping to play it today, but no biggie. The expansion for March has been officially confirmed. Picks up where you left off. Gamestop is taking pre-orders now. Waiting on Amazon to do the same.

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=76824

Here's the trailer video for the expansion. (You might want to wait until you finish one playthrough just in case, to avoid spoilers. )

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonageoriginsawakening/video/6244913

Article talking about the expansion.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6244898.html

In a nutshell:

1. Pick up where you left off or play their brand new character (article specifies what the new character is, but I left it out for those who don't want it spoiled).
2. Level cap raised.
3. New mobs. (Kind of a given.)
4. New spells and abilities.
5. 5 new recruitable characters.

My party chest finally filled up with gifts and runes, so I went on a gifting spree. I really don't like Morrigan now. See, we were walking through Lothering back in the day (this sounds so weird), and she mentioned to Leliana that she doesn't like sharing, and other catty things, so I uh... kissed her. I assumed she meant that she wasn't sharing me, so what the heck, right? The option was there. But nothing became of it... until I gave her like 50 gifts and all of the sudden she's all BUT WHAT ABOUT "US" HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME YOU SPEND TOO MUCH TIME WITH LELIANA IM GOING TO CASTRATE YOU etc, and I ended up losing 25 (!!!) approval rating with her. I had to revert to a previous save and try to mitigate the damage.

I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen with Zevran, and so I haven't given him anything yet. He asked me once if I would mind if he said I was attractive, and I said no... now everytime I ask if I can talk to him, he says "Okay, but I'm going to stare at you luridly while you do". WTF? Apparently the game designers think if you're not a homophobe, you must be gay.

That's my rant for the day. I'm like 1000 hours from beating the game still, so I'm sure I'll be back with more -_-

If you have both Morrigan and Leliana interested in you, they're going to be catty to each other in party chat and at some point, one of them will make you choose. That's what happens if you're a playah! =p

I had the same problem with Zev. I didn't want to romance him on one character, avoided all the "triggers" that would indicate any interest and then when we got to the part where he asked if I minded being called beautiful, I said no. It didn't seem like flirting to me. But there was a slight lag and I checked the approval meter and sonofa--, it flipped his status to interested. I had not saved my game at camp because I was speed-talking to everyone in the camp and raising approval/handing out gifts. I didn't want to do all that over again so ugh. I just don't like having to say, "We need to end this" or reject him when he wants it to progress beyond a backrub.

FYI, Morrigan is catty and possessive. Zev is easy going if you have other relationships going on. He's actually the one that suggests that you may be hurting the other NPCs' feelings by continuing to carry on with him.

Heh, bring it on! I just ordered the CE version of DAO because I'm still playing this game and my husband has been waiting patiently for his turn. OK, this game is good enough for both of us to have a copy. I'm already on my second dwarf noble as a "do-over" because she is my favorite character and the one that I want to play first for DLCs and the expansion in March. The other characters are just to pass time or expore different scenarios. I've started a city elf (the one with the wedding in the origin) because I read that when you return to your home later in the game and you have a Zev romance going on, there is a reaction from him when he finds out that you were getting married. (The same is true for Alistair and Lel if they're the primary romances. Dunno about Morigan.) I'm curious enough that I must see this for myself!

Aww, look at your sig. That's awesome sauce!

Thanks! Do you know how hard it is to find a quote from the game that doesn't spoil anything? =p

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE EXPANSION!! I may have to do a playthrough where I kill a character in the end so I can start in the expansion as a brand new Grey Warden from Orlais. (With the gameplay choices of my dead character carrying over, of course. I want to see if there's a monument to my character somewhere rather than just start fresh with a canon background.)

It seems like since I turned Morrigan down, she's gotten even worse. She used to pick on poor Alistair all the time, but now she's just relentlessly assaulting poor Leliana. She's got a lot to say on the topic of religion. :ohmy I wonder if it's just coincidence, my imagination, or something the developers intended. The bitchiness, I mean... not the religion thing. She sounds like she was written by a Catholic school dropout.

I'm trying to get some friends of mine from work to play, but when I try to explain the in-game "social" aspect, they act like I'm crazy. They are finally figuring out how to play WoW, after 2 years, so maybe it will take a while longer to convince them. For a bunch of IT guys, they really don't understand much about video games.

I got tired of being broke and used the console "cheat" command to give myself 1000 gold. I'm a bad, bad man. :(

Did you tell them about the sex scenes at the very least? =p

And there's another way to get gold legit if you don't want to worry about your files being corrupted (I've heard saves for some people got corrupted when you do the console bug): Just make a bunch of potent lyrium potions and sell them for 22 silver profit. (If you are dwarf noble, sell to Gorim since he pays double.) Buy the recipe in Wonder of Thelas (sp) in Denerim, get the mats from the bartender from Gnawed Noble, and sell the potions back to him. (Lyrium dust in Circle Tower so stock up before you head back to Denerim.) It took me about an hour to get over 1,000 gold and I bought all the expensive items I could find from all the vendors. Sort of took the fun out of the game at that point so I sorta wish I didn't do it, but at least the money came from crafting so I don't feel too bad about it.

I was doing the drake scale armor thing (you get the quest, sell the scale, get the armor, buy the scale, get the quest, sell the scale...), but it took FOREVER, so I went with the console. Your way sounds a lot better :P

Restarted AGAIN with the city elf female - wow that storyline is violent. With the Erl/Arl/whatever's son raping her friend and threatening to rape a bunch more of your friends. I was so pleasantly surprised I got to kill his stupid ass and then get conscripted, thus avoiding certain death. Whee!

Finally finished the Urn of Ashes quest - found a cool cheat to avoid all the stupid mobs in the caverns by using Zevran to sneak all the way up. Lied to dumb ass dude and then killed him later. Good times. The dragon age wiki is helping TONS.

Anyone played the Return to Ostagar DLC yet?

Don't think it's out yet.

Fun: Get captured at Arl Howe's estate, and then instead of trying to escape, tell Alistair that you're sure Dog will come to rescue you. Send someone else with Dog. Let Dog use Persuade options to get through the fortress.

Finished the Circle of Magi FINALLY. Sheesh.

Circle of Magi is so incredibly long, but it was quite enjoyable especially with the character development.

Well with the dragon age wiki, it made it so much easier.

Started the dwarf female noble to see what her story was like. Man her brother is a dick!

I am exhausted. Got to the Anvil of the Void part, where you have to fight the crazy paragon chick (I chose Caradin's side) and I'm just too tired to concentrate. This game is so addictive.

Hehehe. I need to get back into this game, but I REALLY don't need another distraction (despite what a lovely and incredible distraction it is).

I finished my mage and tried to play WoW and found it too boring. Now I'm playing a human rogue, and trying desperately to play him "evil", but for whatever reason, it's REALLY hard. I don't get it. I have an easier time being an asshole to people in real life than I do in a video game, wth?

I'm also cheating and giving myself 9 extra skill points and 3 extra talents. If I could figure out how to give myself more attribute points, I would get even more talents :x

Nice - I played as a mage - then made a human rogue that I swore was going to be evil, but I couldn't do it either.