170 réponses à ce sujet

[jellmoo32]

I can forgive the fact that the story seems bland when compared to the epic tale of Origins.

I can forgive the fact that my companions seem rather dull and I lack he attachment to them I had for those in Origins.

I can forgive the fact that they essentially cloned Allistair and made him a Mage.

I can forgive the fact that I felt like I was doing chores for people rather than saving the world.

I can forgive the fact that the game is short and amazingly easy.



All of that I can forgive.



However...



I can't forgive that my frickin' dog has disappeared without a word.

I can't forgive that the DLC content I purchased might as well not exist.

I can't forgive that the game seems to have completely ignored all of the choices I made during my run in Origins.

I can't forgive the incredibly lame way the game ends...



And most importantly of all:



I cannot forgive the sheer amount of bugs in this game. I spent 3 years as a QA Tester and Coordinator, and I would be exceptionally embarrassed to have my name associated with this expansion. Origins ran great with relatively few bugs. Awakenings gave me:



- Started the game wearing nothing but my underwear and a helmet. (???)

- Each and every cut scene stutters like mad.

- Enemies that simply "stop" in mid battle.

- I cannot see the character on the character creation screen.



And many more...



If you are not experiencing these bugs, count yourself lucky. But add these up with the other weaknesses and I have to say that I was seriously, seriously disappointed with this expansion.

[captininsanoo]

jellmoo32 wrote...

I can forgive the fact that the story seems bland when compared to the epic tale of Origins.
I can forgive the fact that my companions seem rather dull and I lack he attachment to them I had for those in Origins.
I can forgive the fact that they essentially cloned Allistair and made him a Mage.
I can forgive the fact that I felt like I was doing chores for people rather than saving the world.
I can forgive the fact that the game is short and amazingly easy.

All of that I can forgive.

However...

I can't forgive that my frickin' dog has disappeared without a word.
I can't forgive that the DLC content I purchased might as well not exist.
I can't forgive that the game seems to have completely ignored all of the choices I made during my run in Origins.
I can't forgive the incredibly lame way the game ends...

And most importantly of all:

I cannot forgive the sheer amount of bugs in this game. I spent 3 years as a QA Tester and Coordinator, and I would be exceptionally embarrassed to have my name associated with this expansion. Origins ran great with relatively few bugs. Awakenings gave me:

- Started the game wearing nothing but my underwear and a helmet. (???)
- Each and every cut scene stutters like mad.
- Enemies that simply "stop" in mid battle.
- I cannot see the character on the character creation screen.

And many more...

If you are not experiencing these bugs, count yourself lucky. But add these up with the other weaknesses and I have to say that I was seriously, seriously disappointed with this expansion.

I agree that the ending was short changed by bio wear big time. 

[Tinnic]

I am bit amused by how people are complaining about the lack of romance. That's a bit... much and I for one am glad they didn't try to squeeze a romance in. It would have been half-baked at most and a source of great disappointment. I mean, firstly, if you imported a warden, there high chance was that said warden was already in a relationship. Even if your particular warden was not, I think given that the majority of the peoples wardens would have been is probably reason enough to drop the feature instead of trying to do it in a way that might not be entirely satisfying. I mean, I would expect consequences for affairs and the likes.



Secondly, who was there TO romance? Oghran? He's married to Felsi and ran away from her and his child. He still hasn't gotten over Branka and is too drunk and too... let's just say Oghran is great and all but not romance material. Sigrun? She's "dead" and she points that out to Oghran when the latter keep flirting with her. Plus she does not strike me as someone who would romance her commanding officer.



Justice is... a fade spirit in a rotting corpse. He can make the body move but he can't make the body not rot. Plus in many ways he's a child just getting to know the world and things like love, lust etc. So no go there.



That just leave Anders, Velanna and Nathanial. All three of them become grey wardens in order to join you and you are there commanding officer. So it might not be entirely appropriate for you to pursue a romance with any of them. Besides which, all of them are with you for too sort a time for romance to blossom given how pre-occupied they are with issues in their lives. Nathanial - imported warden killed his father, he is more focused on restoring Howe name then pursuing romance. Velanna - obsessed with her sister and focused on getting her back. Anders - Despite his talk, I suspect that last thing he wants is to involve himself in a relationship. A proper relationship.



In short, I am happy to accept that romance was dropped because you are suppose to be focused on the mission at hand. Everything was more "hurried' then in Origins. I mean, while events of Origins seems to have spanned about a year (from the point of recruitment onwards, as many people mention that you were gone from X place a year), Awakening seems to occur over... I don't know 2 months max? I mean, I doubt it was more then a few hours travel time from one place to another. Not like in Origins where it probably took you days to walk from place to place. One top of it all, much of that is go, go, go. I don't know about everybody else but just as I finished recruiting the last of my companions, it was time to start end-game. There really didn't seem time to pursue anything other then the mission.



So I for one am glad they didn't have a romance. I think if they had tried to add that in, no one but no one would have been satisfied. Sometimes "more" doesn't mean better. I think romance in a contracted game like Awakenings would just have made the game worse.

[Special_Agent_Goodwrench]

One thing everyone seems to forget, There is ALWAYS time for romance. ALWAYS.

An army is burning down your camp? Your soldiers getting slaughtered? First, you gotta finish off what you started in your tent, THEN you can attend to other things.

[Yrkoon]

^that, and I can utterly see a working romance with  Nathanial, Anders   or Velenna.  It w ouldn't be that hard to write up

Especially Nathanial and Velanna.  With Velenna you've already got a huge plot opening.   You'd be able  soften up a hardened B****y chick  and  coax the warm side out of her.  Bioware did that masterfully with Viconia in BG2, and Morrigan to an extent in DA:O.

And Nathanial is a no brainer.  His past is so rich, and he's already a friendly guy as well as being tall dark and mysterious....

Anders...  You practically DO already have  the start of a romance with him...  He gushes and gushes about how you're the best thing to happen to him.   In his case,  Just change the language a bit from friendship to romance and there you go.


But the point is, Bioware skipped all of this.  They skipped it and then some.  You can have 100 approval with  your traveling companions.  Only to  click on them and hear:  "lets go" or whatever nonsensical, lazy dismissal.    Very ameturishishly done.

Modifié par Yrkoon, 21 mars 2010 - 06:40 .

[thegreateski]

Romance in general

[Yrkoon]

How your companions treat you in Awakenings:



Vulcans.  All of them.

[Tinnic]

DrunkDeadman wrote...

One thing everyone seems to forget, There is ALWAYS time for romance. ALWAYS.
An army is burning down your camp? Your soldiers getting slaughtered? First, you gotta finish off what you started in your tent, THEN you can attend to other things.

Firstly, that's a good way to get court marshalled and not to mention a good way to lose the confidence of your men and support of your allies. Secondly, that's not a romance, that's more getting laid. If getting laid was the objective then that could have been solved by inclusion of a brothel in Amaranthine.

As I said, actual romance was not possible in Awakening. Not with the companions you were given. You can argue all you want but that's the undeniable truth. There were way too many issues for any of them to be general romance option. Someone like Velanne is unlikely to romance humans or dwarves. Even with elves, she is likely to only go for Dalish elves. Simply put, none of them are with you long enough for romance. Friendship? Sure but romance? No. Don't think of the +100 approval in Awakening as "adored". In the context of that game, its really just "friendly".

Modifié par Tinnic, 21 mars 2010 - 06:54 .

[Nassegris]

First of all, Dragon Age: Origins is my favourite RPG, beating even Morrowind which held the throne for many years. I loved it. I played through six times. I bought all the DLC and was happy with what I got, secretly hugging every morsel of it, just looking for reasons to replay the campaign again.

And so Awakening.

I will be the first to admit that I had too high expectations. I was looking to the expansions of other games I've played and they've felt as complete as the games themselves (thinking of Neverwinter Nights right now), only shorter and of course using the shortcut of an already existing system rather than making everything from scratch like in a new game. I was thinking about my six play-throughs and how I could now play Awakening six times over, once for every character, hardly able to contain myself. I sat updating Steam every minute until it was released, downloaded, installed, and practically threw myself into the game, and…

… was disappointed. It took me a while, about halfway into the expansion I suppose, to understand why. See, there have been other games with great storylines, so that wasn't what set Dragon Age apart. There have been other games with the type of battle system and the kind of intrigue it has, so that wasn't it either. These two things were still present in Awakening so I have no complaints there. What I realised after a while was, there have been no other games where I got the opportunity to live into the character with such depth. His or her relationships with people as well as surroundings and situations became important to me, like reading a very, very good book. I was excited, sad, happy or miserable about the things that happened to my character. No, I'm not just talking about the romance aspect, there's more to it than that. I genuinely cared about each and every character when I reached the end of Origins and I was sad to see the story end and with Awakening, I guess I was excited at the prospect of the story continuing.

And I guess that's it, that's where the problem is. The story doesn't continue. Not really. Even Oghren is behaving like he wasn't my Cousland lady's best friend, rebooted from the start as though they're only fleeting acquaintances. I'm trying to grasp for straws and pretend Zevran hadn't promised to stay by her side and rebuild the Grey Wardens, while new characters are paraded as her new friends, but won't even talk to her unless she's pointing at some random tree or handing gifts over, as though bribing people really make them your pals. It feels like it's another character altogether, completely detached. It started out nicely with me being SO excited but I've had this heavy, sinking feeling for hours now into the game, and I'm realising that it's a good expansion… but hey, I won't bother to play through it more than once. Well, maybe I'll try with a new, Orlesian character so I won't feel so stupidly detached to my own character's storyline, but I definitely won't go for any of the other five I played through the original campaign. What's the point?

A few small things would have made a major difference for me. Just a note to explain why Leliana has gone. Why Zevran isn't helping out though the end credits clearly stated that he would. Why my Dog is mysteriously vanished after having survived through all of what we've survived through. A shift back to the original conversation system so I don't have to run around poking at beer barrels or pointing at books to connect with my companions. Oghren remembering that we lived through hell together and came out on the other side as best pals.

Why am I given a sort of conclusion on my friendship with [insert name of character appearing in Awakening, former companion] but not a word of what's going on with the others, specifically the ones that were perhaps developed in greater depth in Origins?

Any other game and I'd have said, 'great expansion!' because it really is good, but hey, Dragon Age: Origins was EXCEPTIONAL and the parts that made it so brilliant for me are just completely lacking here, which is why I feel a little let down. Story great, environments great, design great, character development? What's that? I think that was abandoned at the side of the road. I really like it but I can't say I love it, which is weird considering how obsessed I was with the original.

Oh, piff… bother… I think I'll restart without having finished and just play a fresh character so I won't be so upset by these things. I think I'll be better off. Sorry for the overly long post, I just felt a need to rant a little. I've been so miserable all day over this.
 

Modifié par Nassegris, 21 mars 2010 - 06:55 .

[Special_Agent_Goodwrench]

At least Anders let my PC flirt with him a bit. If not that, she would be tearing out her hair.



Also, I freaking hate Vulcans...

[Auresta]

LOL @ YRKOON.



I agree. I felt near to no attachments with my companions, though I did feel some stuff for Justice, Nathaniel, and Anders..



but I personally felt they could have gone a LOT MORE into Justice's life and how he develops; him being slapped in towards the end of the game gives him no room to develop as a character. Justice had a lot of potential..



Anyway, just beat Awakening and I have to say that I didn't think this was worth $40, and I'll be even more upset if there isn't another expansion/the sequel doesn't compensate. It was a step down for sure: I expected more out of it, but again it is just an expansion..

[InvaderErl]

Yrkoon wrote...

How your companions treat you in Awakenings:



Vulcans.  All of them.

That's totally unfair considering that Kirk and Spock were good friends.

[Auresta]

@Nassegris: I agree with you. I've never been so immersed and attached in a game before that the expansion, filled with my own high expectations, just disappointed me.



I suppose they were just trying to focus on the story more, which I am not ignoring and I found it to be GREAT, but it receives little development in this expansion with how short it is..

[Tinnic]

I wondered why none of my friends ever wrote to me I had a private just standing around waiting to give me letters but after she gave me a few letters that were quests and another letter of thanks and reward in response to the first set of quests... nothing! Would it have killed Zevran and Lelianna to write? Sten I don't expect letters from. Alistair we see if you make him king but if you made Anora queen and Alistair remained a grey warden, apparently you don't hear a peep out of him Wynn you also see and you know has issues to deal with so that I expected. But I was really hurt with lack of communication from Zevran and Lelianna! I thought we were friends!

Also, I suspect Sten stole my dog. Why else would my faithful mubari not be with me.

Modifié par Tinnic, 21 mars 2010 - 07:05 .

[Special_Agent_Goodwrench]

Tinnic wrote...

DrunkDeadman wrote...

One thing everyone seems to forget, There is ALWAYS time for romance. ALWAYS.
An army is burning down your camp? Your soldiers getting slaughtered? First, you gotta finish off what you started in your tent, THEN you can attend to other things.

Firstly, that's a good way to get court marshalled and not to mention a good way to lose the confidence of your men and support of your allies. Secondly, that's not a romance, that's more getting laid. If getting laid was the objective then that could have been solved by inclusion of a brothel in Amaranthine.

As I said, actual romance was not possible in Awakening. Not with the companions you were given. You can argue all you want but that's the undeniable truth. There were way too many issues for any of them to be general romance option. Someone like Velanne is unlikely to romance humans or dwarves. Even with elves, she is likely to only go for Dalish elves. Simply put, none of them are with you long enough for romance. Friendship? Sure but romance? No. Don't think of the +100 approval in Awakening as "adored". In the context of that game, its really just "friendly".

First off, it's a game. Second off, this is a fantasy setting. Third off, that stuff HAPPENS.
The tent part was a joke and it does not exactly have to mean getting laid. You could be doing a lot of things in the tent, not just getting laid.

I don't mind having no romance in Awakening as it is just an expansion, nor would my PC be unfaithful to Leliana.

Now, Velanna. She maybe, just maybe would go for a human. When Nate calls her pretty, she's actually flattered. So things like that can happen.

[Auresta]

Nathaniel x Velanna would work.. They had it going on.

[Tinnic]

DrunkDeadman wrote...

Tinnic wrote...

DrunkDeadman wrote...

One thing everyone seems to forget, There is ALWAYS time for romance. ALWAYS.
An army is burning down your camp? Your soldiers getting slaughtered? First, you gotta finish off what you started in your tent, THEN you can attend to other things.

Firstly, that's a good way to get court marshalled and not to mention a good way to lose the confidence of your men and support of your allies. Secondly, that's not a romance, that's more getting laid. If getting laid was the objective then that could have been solved by inclusion of a brothel in Amaranthine.

As I said, actual romance was not possible in Awakening. Not with the companions you were given. You can argue all you want but that's the undeniable truth. There were way too many issues for any of them to be general romance option. Someone like Velanne is unlikely to romance humans or dwarves. Even with elves, she is likely to only go for Dalish elves. Simply put, none of them are with you long enough for romance. Friendship? Sure but romance? No. Don't think of the +100 approval in Awakening as "adored". In the context of that game, its really just "friendly".

First off, it's a game. Second off, this is a fantasy setting. Third off, that stuff HAPPENS.
The tent part was a joke and it does not exactly have to mean getting laid. You could be doing a lot of things in the tent, not just getting laid.

I don't mind having no romance in Awakening as it is just an expansion, nor would my PC be unfaithful to Leliana.

Now, Velanna. She maybe, just maybe would go for a human. When Nate calls her pretty, she's actually flattered. So things like that can happen.

I am sorry, what's your point exactly? The best fantasises mirror the real world. Same goes with the best kind of fantasy games. More importantly, in terms of interaction with your companions, those things have to be... for lack of a better word, realistic. Nor else you won't buy it and complain about how badly written everything was. It's one thing to accept a compliment. Another thing to start a romance with someone. Complain all you want but the time frame was not there for a romance. It's as simple as that. You can say that something would develop in the future between Velanna or Nathanial and the PC but during the course of Awakening, it is pretty clear that they have other things in their mind through out the whole of it. Trying to romance them and them being responsive would have been unrealistic. 

I really hate the "it's a fantasy setting" argument that keeps getting thrown around. Yes, I know its a fantasy. But there is such a thing as too much disbelief to suspend and frankly, its not that hard to generate too much disbelief to suspend.

[dbkkk]

jellmoo32 wrote...

All of that I can forgive.

However...

I can't forgive that my frickin' dog has disappeared without a word.
I can't forgive that the DLC content I purchased might as well not exist.
I can't forgive that the game seems to have completely ignored all of the choices I made during my run in Origins.
I can't forgive the incredibly lame way the game ends...

And most importantly of all:

I cannot forgive the sheer amount of bugs in this game. I spent 3 years as a QA Tester and Coordinator, and I would be exceptionally embarrassed to have my name associated with this expansion. Origins ran great with relatively few bugs. Awakenings gave me:

- Started the game wearing nothing but my underwear and a helmet. (???)
- Each and every cut scene stutters like mad.
- Enemies that simply "stop" in mid battle.
- I cannot see the character on the character creation screen.

And many more...

If you are not experiencing these bugs, count yourself lucky. But add these up with the other weaknesses and I have to say that I was seriously, seriously disappointed with this expansion.

Yeah I was one of the luck y ones. But I have to agree from what people are reporting it is very disturbing to have bugs that crash or block your gameplay.

The only thing I beg to differ is that while DAO had far less overt bugs, it's combat system was notoriously buggy throughout. It is just that many of these defects were not as obvious when playing. Many of the combat talents  were not working correctly in-game. In many cases the player had access to 'pretty' icons that didn't function even remotely close to what was supposedly intended. Sadly most of these never got fixed in any subsequent patches.

Fortunately for me Combat Tweaks seems to work fine in Awakenings and it fixes virtually all of those bugs, though I suppose many of the newer Awakenings talents / spells tend to deprecate their DAO counterparts.

[Special_Agent_Goodwrench]

Tinnic wrote...

DrunkDeadman wrote...

Tinnic wrote...

DrunkDeadman wrote...

One thing everyone seems to forget, There is ALWAYS time for romance. ALWAYS.
An army is burning down your camp? Your soldiers getting slaughtered? First, you gotta finish off what you started in your tent, THEN you can attend to other things.

Firstly, that's a good way to get court marshalled and not to mention a good way to lose the confidence of your men and support of your allies. Secondly, that's not a romance, that's more getting laid. If getting laid was the objective then that could have been solved by inclusion of a brothel in Amaranthine.

As I said, actual romance was not possible in Awakening. Not with the companions you were given. You can argue all you want but that's the undeniable truth. There were way too many issues for any of them to be general romance option. Someone like Velanne is unlikely to romance humans or dwarves. Even with elves, she is likely to only go for Dalish elves. Simply put, none of them are with you long enough for romance. Friendship? Sure but romance? No. Don't think of the +100 approval in Awakening as "adored". In the context of that game, its really just "friendly".

First off, it's a game. Second off, this is a fantasy setting. Third off, that stuff HAPPENS.
The tent part was a joke and it does not exactly have to mean getting laid. You could be doing a lot of things in the tent, not just getting laid.

I don't mind having no romance in Awakening as it is just an expansion, nor would my PC be unfaithful to Leliana.

Now, Velanna. She maybe, just maybe would go for a human. When Nate calls her pretty, she's actually flattered. So things like that can happen.

I am sorry, what's your point exactly? The best fantasises mirror the real world. Same goes with the best kind of fantasy games. More importantly, in terms of interaction with your companions, those things have to be... for lack of a better word, realistic. Nor else you won't buy it and complain about how badly written everything was. It's one thing to accept a compliment. Another thing to start a romance with someone. Complain all you want but the time frame was not there for a romance. It's as simple as that. You can say that something would develop in the future between Velanna or Nathanial and the PC but during the course of Awakening, it is pretty clear that they have other things in their mind through out the whole of it. Trying to romance them and them being responsive would have been unrealistic. 

I really hate the "it's a fantasy setting" argument that keeps getting thrown around. Yes, I know its a fantasy. But there is such a thing as too much disbelief to suspend and frankly, its not that hard to generate too much disbelief to suspend.

All I'm saying is let us have our fun. If we want to have our character romance one of his/her men, let him/her do it. If not, don't do it. What matters is the choice we get. 

Also, I already admited that I don't have much problem with no romance in Awakeninig as 1. It's an expansion and 2. My PC is Leliana's only.

And do we really have to get into the too much disbelief thing? If we make DA more "real world", next thing we know, in DA2 the Chantry will lead an Exalted March on all the gays/bisexuals of Thedas.

[Tinnic]

DrunkDeadman wrote...

All I'm saying is let us have our fun. If we want to have our character romance one of his/her men, let him/her do it. If not, don't do it. What matters is the choice we get. 

Also, I already admited that I don't have much problem with no romance in Awakeninig as 1. It's an expansion and 2. My PC is Leliana's only.

And do we really have to get into the too much disbelief thing? If we make DA more "real world", next thing we know, in DA2 the Chantry will lead an Exalted March on all the gays/bisexuals of Thedas.

O you can have the fun with your men but as a dark fantasy, I would expect consequences for having said fun. In short, I still fail to see what you are on about and again, a brothel seems more in-line with what you are asking for.

Secondly, do you have any proof the Chantry has any problems with gays/bisexuals? I mean, certainly the Chantry appears to be based on the Roman Catholic church but it is not an exact copy of it, is it? So how is the game made more realistic by the Chantry having something against gays/bisexuals? Not all religions have something against gays/bisexuals and indeed not all sects of Christianity do either. So really, the "real world" aspect doesn't come into that discussion at all.

[Layn]

i'm okay with having no romance in awakening. There should probably be more flirting, but not romance.

In Origins my warden went through hell and Alistair was always there to support her. The romance just flowed naturally and a good pace, and apparently it took over a year for them to get married.



In Awakening everything is already happening too fast for me. First i suddenly get companions thrown at me (it seemed almost random to me) then one goes almost instantly from wanting to kill me to being best pals, I guess if there was romance, by now the sex scene would have already come up and then suddenly no more relationshipy dialogue anymore.



and somehow inverted, Oghren isn't all "we're like family" anymore and it's been somewhat hard for me to do or say things that he won't disapprove of.

[dragonolim1990]

this to me does not feel like an expansion instead i think i will call it a side story which do not really influence much of the origin main plot haha

[jsachun]

I hate the cheesy ending where the warden stabs the intelligent brood mother in the mouth. A massive slash through her belly with all her guts falling out would have been more appropriate ending. A Dark Origin my ass bioware.

Modifié par jsachun, 21 mars 2010 - 11:16 .

[Layn]

jsachun .... it says (no spoilers) at the top. something about the ending sounds like spoiler

Modifié par Crrash, 21 mars 2010 - 11:30 .

[Cell1e]

I don't see why there could have been some flirting for those of us who love romance stuff, there are too few games out there that let you have 'romance/flirts' in games.

Personally I don't think it is unrealistic in such an intense situation for flirting/kissing to occur, especially for the orlesian warden who suddenly is surrounded by three very tasty males who spend long hours with her in close proximity.

Of course there could be flirts. Goodness when I was a single gal I would have flirted with such tasty fellas! Not waited two months to get to know them better!



It is a only a game but there are so few games that cater for the romantic at heart, flirting options are choices, so if you dont wanna you dont have too.



It would have been nice to have the choice. You certainly don't get the choice in many other games out there.