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glad 2 see that there are still tedious contrarianism about how dark souls 2 is actually a good game and not a stinky turd 69 years later
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Mar 31, 2018 17:28
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errr dragon age 2*** lol
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Mar 31, 2018 17:30
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snoremac posted:I am sick of boys like Anders and Blackwall getting me all hot and then being like 'oh I'm too much trouble you can't be with me' so I dump them right then and there. Who should I bang out of Sera, Iron Bull and Josephine? In terms of entertainment value. I actually liked the Josephine one but it helps that she's actually attractive, at least for a computer game character. The Sera romance is weird and she's full on abusive if you're an Elf. It's a bit like dating a kid.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:08
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Josephine's romance is weird but not bad, it's just... it's kinda weird.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:13
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Taear posted:I actually liked the Josephine one but it helps that she's actually attractive, at least for a computer game character. My only issue with the Josephine romance is how painfully gender neutral it is. Nine Bioware games with romance options for queer women, and the options remain very spotty if you want a romance that feels like it's written by and for women and isn't one of the most unlikeable characters in a game replete with jerks and morons.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:16
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Taear posted:I actually liked the Josephine one but it helps that she's actually attractive, at least for a computer game character. One of the biggest fights you have with her is her running away and screaming at you for what you did in her dream.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:31
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Dienes posted:One of the biggest fights you have with her is her running away and screaming at you for what you did in her dream. And if you're an elf, she demands you give up your religion, family, and friends, and never speak to them again if you want to be with her - very classic emotional abuse. And she laughs if your clan gets wiped out.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:33
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Dienes posted:One of the biggest fights you have with her is her running away and screaming at you for what you did in her dream. It's like when you watch the undateables (on TV in the UK) and two mentally ill people are together. Where it's all very surface level and INTENSE as all hell.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:33
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The Crotch posted:Allowing a woman under your protection get sacrificed by her estranged husband in a blood magic ritual sadly can not be ranked as a pointlessly evil choice in DA2, because you don't actually have any say in that. Hawke just does it regardless. For the life of me I can't recall what you are referring to at all.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:41
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Cythereal posted:My only issue with the Josephine romance is how painfully gender neutral it is. To be fair, Bull's is also pretty much gender neutral. Anders and Dorian are pretty much the only men in DA with specific romance lines for male PCs. I don't really know how the bi/lesbian options are in Mass Effect, though.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:45
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ApplesandOranges posted:To be fair, Bull's is also pretty much gender neutral. Anders and Dorian are pretty much the only men in DA with specific romance lines for male PCs. Dorian is exclusively male-PC only, which was really nice. He'll still flirt with your lady Inquisitor if you're friends, though. 
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Mar 31, 2018 18:47
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NikkolasKing posted:For the life of me I can't recall what you are referring to at all.
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Mar 31, 2018 18:52
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ApplesandOranges posted:To be fair, Bull's is also pretty much gender neutral. Anders and Dorian are pretty much the only men in DA with specific romance lines for male PCs. Liara and Suvi never mention Shepard's gender or use gendered pronouns (Liara's bi, Suvi's lesbian). Traynor (lesbian) does - she's the one romance for queer women by Bioware I'm reasonably happy with, even if the game can never resist an opportunity to have her in her underwear romanced or no (so male PCs also get to see it) and she suffers badly from only showing up in the final game of the trilogy. Silk Fox (Jade Empire) and Lana (TOR) also fall firmly into the gender neutral bi romance mode.
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Mar 31, 2018 19:07
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Dienes posted:screaming at you for what you did in her dream. I know irl couples who've been here
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Mar 31, 2018 20:32
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The Crotch posted:It's from the third-act quest where you have to round up some apostates for Meredith. One of them is an elf who's been stalking his estranged wife. You basically use her as bait to catch him. There's a cutscene of him murdering her for some blood magic ritual thing, and then the camera pans back to show you just... slowly walking up to him, a few feet away. This can not be avoided in any way. I remembered that quest but forgot the details. Now you mention it though I think I do remember reflecting on how nonchalant Hawke is about that poor lady dying... Then again, it's been six years in Kirkwall. Hawke is probably just used to this. So, I mentioned I only started playing the Dragon Age games in 2014. Having talked with long-term fans, apparently Origins was supposed to be "dark fantasy"? This came up in another thread on here a few months ago where we were talking about "dark RPGs" or something. I really think Origins is a pretty idealistic and happy game. Outside of the Deep Roads, it never really dips into any type of true horror and most every character ends up happy and fulfilled. There's not a lot of dark stuff in the game at all.
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Mar 31, 2018 20:44
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NikkolasKing posted:I remembered that quest but forgot the details. Now you mention it though I think I do remember reflecting on how nonchalant Hawke is about that poor lady dying... Then again, it's been six years in Kirkwall. Hawke is probably just used to this. The city elf origin story is a nobleman busting up a wedding in the alienage so he kidnap and rape the women
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Mar 31, 2018 20:46
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Ainsley McTree posted:The city elf origin story is a nobleman busting up a wedding in the alienage so he kidnap and rape the women The dwarf commoner's sister is a prostitute, you can ritually sacrifice people (including your own father if you're a city elf) for magic power, being raped figures prominently in Leliana's backstory, etc. "Dark fantasy" is usually code for lots of sexual violence, racism, swearing, etc.
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Mar 31, 2018 20:51
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Ainsley McTree posted:The city elf origin story is a nobleman busting up a wedding in the alienage so he kidnap and rape the women Yep, my second Origin. It's also a fraction of the game and does nothing to represent the overall tone, which is distinctly optimistic "everyone will come together and everything will work out." Of course, the Warden can do some hosed up poo poo but at the same time the game so heavily leans on you to make peace between the Elves and the Werewolves, to destroy the Anvil, etc. that I don't think it is at all unfair to characterize the game as pretty idealistic.
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Mar 31, 2018 20:51
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NikkolasKing posted:Yep, my second Origin. It's also a fraction of the game and does nothing to represent the overall tone, which is distinctly optimistic "everyone will come together and everything will work out." Everything about the grey wardens is pretty grim though isn't it? Like, the induction ritual has a chance to literally kill you, killing the archdemon also kills you (unless you mary sue your way out of it with a magic baby, but you know, generally), and even if you survive all that, your taint eventually slowly compels you to crawl into the deep roads and die. Like, it's not ASOIAF or First Law levels of grim, but I don't think I'd describe Thedas as an optimistic place. e: there's also literally everything about being a mage
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Mar 31, 2018 20:58
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Ainsley McTree posted:Everything about the grey wardens is pretty grim though isn't it? Like, the induction ritual has a chance to literally kill you, killing the archdemon also kills you (unless you mary sue your way out of it with a magic baby, but you know, generally), and even if you survive all that, your taint eventually slowly compels you to crawl into the deep roads and die. It's funny you mention ASOIAF. I'm not any sort of expert on modern fantasy but I did read all the ASOIAF books so that's kinda my measuring stick for a grim, hopeless setting. I guess we're in agreement that Thedas isn't quite Westeros. But I mean, when you look at the ending of Origins, you could be the new King or Queen of Ferelden, you're at least an Arl, and Mage was my first Origin and I used my royal request to have all my Circle friends freed. (this was retconned so far as I know but talking just about the game here) I think Origins really does feel like "hey, I accomplished a lot and everything is so much better." Contrasted with ASOIAF or DA2, that is kinda what I meant by optimistic. The world can be improved and you can be the one to do it. You're not wrong of course about how hosed up the Grey Warden stuff is. I think both DA sequels made an effort to show us that it's actually really lovely being a Grey Warden. And there is plenty of other bleak stuff in the game. But it doesn't end on that bleak stuff. You can fix a lot of it.
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Mar 31, 2018 21:05
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The Descent is great. Classic Origins gameplay I wish the base game had more of. Oh and Solid Snake is there too.
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Apr 1, 2018 11:45
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snoremac posted:The Descent is great. Classic Origins gameplay I wish the base game had more of. I really enjoyed Descent because it's discovering a huge mystery and it had a nice end too. It felt like it really mattered.
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Apr 1, 2018 13:46
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I like the Grey Warden stuff because it demonstrates what a bad state Thedas is in that there are people willing to make the sacrifice to stave off an apocalyptic scenario one more day. Criminals forced into the Wardens is pretty hosed up but makes sense for the settling, I guess the Anvil was meant as a parallel (given people in the right place of power can just send whoever to the Wardens, it’s a death sentence regardless). The Sera romance only makes sense to me if your Inquisitor is meant to be around the same age as Sera and if you acknowledge how harmful her attitude is, especially toward an elf. I always took her “abandon everything to be with me” a result of her hosed-up upbringing. Hmm, that makes two romantic interests in the game who want you to abandon your elfy ideas to manipulate you into a romance, except Solas full well knows what he’s doing. Not that it excuses Sera, but I’m more willing to chalk her abuses up to being young with issues best sorted out while not in a relationship as opposed to the humanities professor who pines for his gifted undergrad (that he manipulated into being mentored under him for a better chance at getting close to her so he can later deny he did so).
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Apr 1, 2018 14:10
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I romanced Jusephine in Inquisition but I hosed up and never completed her quest. And if you finish off Cory before that, tthen it acts like the romance never happened. I was not happy. I played a female Elf so while Cass was my favorite character in Inquisition, she was off-limits to me. Sera I was put off just by her entire demeanor and the fact I barely understood what she was saying during her introduction. I never got to see why she's so bad first hand but I've heard plenty of stories. She's supposed to be better in Trespasser I guess? I've only played Inquisition once. If I get a better computer and can just cheat my way through it, doing story stuff and blazing through gameplay, I'd like to play it again. I've played Origins and DA2 each three times and I've romanced Leliana, Zevran and Alistair in DAO and Anders, Merrill and Isabela in DA2. I'm all for Friendmancing Merrill, probably my favorite DA romance.
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Apr 1, 2018 17:58
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Breath of the Wild was quite inspired by Hissing Wastes hey. It’s a credit to how well crafted the zones are that there are three desert areas that are each distinct. I really dig HW’s aesthetic.
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Apr 3, 2018 14:08
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Origins does have grim stuff in it but I think the meme of Origins being grimdark comes entirely from the fact that it unapologetically "borrowed" from Game of Thrones and also around that time was peak usage of the term "grimdark"
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Apr 3, 2018 20:19
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Actually it was because of this. Yes, this was an official trailer for the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOq6-1OLIyQ
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Apr 3, 2018 20:22
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snoremac posted:Breath of the Wild was quite inspired by Hissing Wastes hey. meanwhile Andromeda has two desert planets (plus an ice desert planet) and they all feel the same
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Apr 3, 2018 20:31
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Andromeda’s ice planet was neat I thought. I liked how when you were out in the cold, your armor got snowy
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Apr 3, 2018 20:34
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exquisite tea posted:Actually it was because of this. Yes, this was an official trailer for the game. Oh wow for some reason I thought Dragon Age 2 was THE NEW poo poo
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Apr 3, 2018 20:37
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It's so uniquely terrible that I think everyone retroactively Mandela Effects it to Dragon Age 2.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:42
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Ainsley McTree posted:Andromeda’s ice planet was neat I thought. I liked how when you were out in the cold, your armor got snowy You gotta check out the Frozen Wilds DLC for Horizon for dem  snow effects.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:43
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Ainsley McTree posted:I liked how when you were out in the cold, your armor got snowy I would have liked how, when you were out, your companions spoke to each other, or you met other people and heard them talking among themselves. Unfortunately whenever they started they were interrupted by the vital news that Sam was reading a temperature decrease.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:44
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I definitely remember when da:o came out, lots of talking points about how GRRM-influenced it was. Looking back now though, it’s not quite on that level, on the whole. I think maybe if they actually forced you to make choices more often (elves and werewolves, etc) instead of giving you so many middle road escape hatches it would have felt a bit darker. Cowards
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Apr 3, 2018 20:46
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Your experience with the darkness of Dragon Age depended a lot on your Origin story. If you were City Elf or Dwarf Commoner things were pretty drat GRRMdark.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:48
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exquisite tea posted:GRRMdark. I just Bing'd it and I'm disappointed you didn't come up with that term because lmao
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Apr 3, 2018 20:51
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exquisite tea posted:Your experience with the darkness of Dragon Age depended a lot on your Origin story. If you were City Elf or Dwarf Commoner things were pretty drat GRRMdark. Dwarf Noble, too. That was my first character, and it was rather startling.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:52
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Tonal similarities and differences aside, I feel like the Grey Wardens borrow pretty heavily from the Night's Watch.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:55
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Female city elf is probably my favourite start to a videogame ever. Slaughtering your way out of your kidnapper's keep in a blood stained wedding dress is just so goddamn 
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Apr 3, 2018 20:57
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Ainsley McTree posted:I definitely remember when da:o came out, lots of talking points about how GRRM-influenced it was. Looking back now though, it’s not quite on that level, on the whole. We were talking about Fallout in another thread and it reminded me of Fallout 3 where it totally looks like you are getting that golden middle ground solution with the Tenpenny Tower folks and the Ghouls. It's straight out of a BioWare game and very reminiscent of Elves vs. Werewolves. Then you come back and find the Ghouls killed everyone while you were away. Cythereal posted:Dwarf Noble, too. That was my first character, and it was rather startling. gently caress Bhelen. When I returned to Orzammar I met up with him just to see if they at least gave me a "Try to attack Bhelen]" option. But no such luck. He just rationalizes away what a piece of poo poo he is and then you leave. Rather anticlimactic to be honest.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:58
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