One last bit for now on Dragon Age: I call total bullshit on the difficulty levels. If Easy is supposed to be the difficulty where you can play through all or even most combats without having to constantly use the pause feature and copious amounts of healing potions, I will never play this game on any higher difficulties. Because I still have to constantly use the pause feature and copious amounts of healing potions, and not just on the fight with Flemeth.
I wouldn't want to fuck any of our team out of a spot, but thanks. If we had even like a couple more lives we probably would've made it, so I'm sure we'll get it.
ETA:
One thing is that we always failed the bonus round, but I just saw this video of how to get like a jillion points easily, so there's some extra lives right there.
The more I play this game, the more I enjoy the combat system, and the more frustrated I get with the lengthy (20-25 hours long, from what I've read) "tutorial" portion of the game, where I can't freaking use all the options. Also, I am going to write an open letter to all game designers and convince them how lame arbitrary caps are. Listen, designers, if you can't manage to design combat and advancement systems that can accommodate me choosing to, say, dump all my points into Commando instead of spreading them around, then the answer is to design better systems, not implement caps on how many points I can spend on each role per chapter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Megatron
Finally, the presence of DLC on release day just strikes me as horseshit. If this stuff was ready on release day why wasn't it on the disc? I've heard some attempts to justify this and frankly, none of them satisfy me. Especially the Warden's Keep bit since it's so short, and other than the bank, VERY unrewarding.
The free day one DLC is an attempt to cut into the rental and used sales markets. If you buy a fresh new copy of the game, you get the full game. If you rent or buy used, assuming whoever had the game first used the free DLC code that shipped with it, large but non-essential portions of the game are missing, and you have to pay for them as DLC to get the full experience. Mass Effect 2 went the same route (unsurprising, as it's the same developer and publisher), and I wouldn't be surprised if this became fairly common. It's irritating, but I understand their intent.
I actually thought the chest was the least rewarding part of Warden's Keep. The story was a cool little vignette, and the extra talents you get are fun (for a mage, anyway). I thought the chest would be cool but, in practice, once I figured out that I didn't need to carry around twelve extra situational weapons, I never visited it again. The story and talents were totally not worth the price of the DLC, though, and the decision to have a vendor selling the DLC in game was annoying as fuck.
__________________
"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
So, Civ IV Colonization... One of the new games I recently acquired. For those that don't know, it's Civ IV, but in the Colonial Era. Discovery of the New World, building of colonies, rebelling against the parent nation and founding your own, etc.
So far, pretty fun. Definitely not like regular. For example: Many more resources. Basic ones, harvested directly are Food (mostly same function), Lumber (used for production), Sugar, Tobacco, Ore, Furs, and Silver. Town members only produce ONE of the possible resources on every square. So, a forest square can normally produce food, lumber, and furs. When you assign a villager to harvest that square, you must choose which of the three he gathers. Since you can still only have one villager per square, you must plan this out carefully, fully exploiting any special resource boosts the square provides. Sugar, Tobacco, Ore, and Furs can be further manufactured in a settlement's buildings into finished goods, which sell for a lot more. Sugar makes Rum, Tobacco makes Cigars, Fur makes Coats, and Ore makes Tools. Tools are very important, as many buildings require tools to finish production on, and are also turned into Guns if you build an Armory. Food can be used to produce Horses once you build a Stable (which requires Horses to finish, like other buildings will require Tools).
Guns and Horses are important because they are the only limiting factor on raising armies, besides population. Any and every citizen of a settlement (aside from the last one) can be taken out of the town and equipped as a soldier or a dragoon. Cannons are built specially and cannot be added to the settlements population. Speaking of which, settlements are not only grown by surplus food, but can be added to directly by acquiring new units from various sources, the main one of which is immigrants from Europe. Units come with specializations, such as Fisherman, Farmer, Tobacco Planter, Blacksmith, Carpenter, etc. If you assign the unit a job that matches its specialization it performs better, but you can assign any unit to any job. You not only have the squares immediately surrounding the settlement to assign people to (only the first layer is workable around settlements in this one), but you also have to assign someone to work in a building if you want it to do anything. e.g., your Armory will not produce guns unless you A) have tools in your city and B) have someone working in the Armory.
The main thing to do with towns in this one seems to be to specialize as much as possible. In my current game I have a town that I built next to some Sugar resources, and its primary function is to pump out copious amounts of Rum which I sell in Europe or to the natives. Everything else is minimal in that settlement. So, multiple, interconnected, specialized towns is the way to go if you want to do well.
Surplus goods, and treasure from native ruins or gifts, are sold in Europe for gold, which in turn is used to buy specific units, including ships and cannons, which require a great deal of resources to build yourself.
Your faction's King will rear his head at random intervals asking for donations to fund the Navy, or demanding you pay him for the privilege of kissing his ring. Refusing lowers your standing with him, making him less likely to help if you need it. You can ask the King for help and he will sometimes send military units and such. He's more likely to if he likes you, which he will if you keep kissing his ring all the time. He will also show up and inform you that he is increasing your tax rate. This is a flat percentage taken off every transaction you make in Europe. You can refuse, but every time you do you are no longer allowed to trade a specific resource (determined randomly, but more likely to be one you've bought or sold a lot of in the past) in Europe. This is because your colony forms a 'Resource X Party' and destroys it in protest of the tax. Be very careful when you refuse a tax increase. Make sure it's a resource you can make enough of yourself, or that you won't lose your primary export and source of revenue.
The natives are there, all the major tribes. They all initially start friendly, at least on the lower difficulty, and if you send scouts to their villages they will often give you gold or treasure, and will send gifts of resources to your nearby settlements. They have a limited amount of gold to trade with and each village will desire a specific resource. At first this is mostly Tools, Guns, and Horses, but after you trade a batch of one to them, the village wants a different, random one. Their villages cover most of the new continent, so expansion without warfare will be difficult. If you try to build a settlement too close to one of their villages they will ask you to pay for the land. If you refuse it lowers your standing with them.
Victory conditions are to be the first colony to declare Independence from your homeland, and defeat the Expeditionary Force your former King deploys to crush your rebellion. As the rebel sentiment increases throughout your settlements (this is done by assigning villagers to work in the Town Hall and is counted in Liberty Bells) the King will add units to the Expeditionary Force, and one screen will always show you what comprises the current force, as well as the sum of your own military units. You must have at least a 50% rebel sentiment to declare independence.
There's more, but that's the most basic overview I can give, which really ought to tell you something right there.
TL;DR: If you really liked Civ IV and want a new experience in the same format, or if you liked Civ IV but thought it didn't have enough micro-managing or require enough scribbling on scratch paper to remember what you're doing in each town, play this game.
I can never decide what I think about Colonization (either the remake in the Civ IV engine or the original from the 90's). I like all the nitpicky micromanagement stuff, but the endgame is a weird scenario. I sort of wish there were an option to play as a loyal colony.
__________________
"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
Finally, the presence of DLC on release day just strikes me as horseshit. If this stuff was ready on release day why wasn't it on the disc? I've heard some attempts to justify this and frankly, none of them satisfy me. Especially the Warden's Keep bit since it's so short, and other than the bank, VERY unrewarding.
The free day one DLC is an attempt to cut into the rental and used sales markets. If you buy a fresh new copy of the game, you get the full game. If you rent or buy used, assuming whoever had the game first used the free DLC code that shipped with it, large but non-essential portions of the game are missing, and you have to pay for them as DLC to get the full experience. Mass Effect 2 went the same route (unsurprising, as it's the same developer and publisher), and I wouldn't be surprised if this became fairly common. It's irritating, but I understand their intent.
I actually thought the chest was the least rewarding part of Warden's Keep. The story was a cool little vignette, and the extra talents you get are fun (for a mage, anyway). I thought the chest would be cool but, in practice, once I figured out that I didn't need to carry around twelve extra situational weapons, I never visited it again. The story and talents were totally not worth the price of the DLC, though, and the decision to have a vendor selling the DLC in game was annoying as fuck.
The 'free' DLC (Shale, etc) included with the game didn't bother me, and I understand that concept. I don't altogether like it but I can see why they would do something like that since they get no money from used game sales and this provides them an avenue to do so.
The Warden's Keep bit, however, pissed me off. This shit was ready on launch day, and while it wasn't BAD it certainly was not worth the price. Further, something like an item chest really should have been included on disc. Hell, the whole thing had no business being DLC at all.
...and yeah, the vendor NPC was the piss icing on the shitcake, for sure.
__________________ Father Helel, save us from the dark.
I can't get Shale without paying, apparently, since I didn't buy a copy until now. It was new but I haven't found any codes to redeem for it. That really, really blows. I want a golem in my party, damn it. I had a ton of fun running around the Fade as one in the mage tower.
That's what it looks like on all the wikis and stuff I've checked out. Day 1 only, so any subsequent shipments wouldn't have them, even if they are purchased new. Bullshit, if you ask me.
On the 360, I thought the codes would be packed in until April 2010 or something... my copy was bought on Black Friday, and included a code.
If you buy a game from places like GameStop, always get a factory sealed copy. Those things tend to disappear when everyone has access to open boxes on the shelves and employees are allowed to play the games and then the store turns around and sells them as "new".
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