en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1177068 Comments by stevegarbage http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453672799 The timeline may or may not fit, depending when Redemptions occurs in relation to Mark of the Assassin. And I'm not 100 percent sure if either has been established of happening before the other. At the end of Redemption it is hinted that Tallis is going to abandon the Qun. In MotA, she's acting to protecting the Qunari and (if I'm remembering correctly) she was going to use her actions to help bring her back into the good graces of the Qunari, which would indicate it happens BEFORE Redemption - where she is redeemed from her position as Athlok and again made Tallis for her mission. Also Dawn of the Seeker is unclear. The mention of Kirkwall (as clarified by David Gaider on Twitter) is in reference to the deposition of the former Viscount Perrin Threnhold and not specifically to Anders. However at the end she receives the book, which appears again in DA2 hinting that it occurs after. It could be a different book or it could have been filled in at a later date, again, it's unclear. Or, it could be continuity errors. But concerning the Fiona/Alistair issue, a conflict like that doesn't explain the Goldanna issue (addressed in my comment to Suenus above). Tue, 2 Oct 2012 14:54:46 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453672799 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453660768 Another hitch is the whole Goldanna question, however. They supposedly share a common mother. It could be that she was paid off to pretend that her and Alistair are kin, but from the conversation you have with her during Alistair's companion quest, it doesn't seem like that explanation makes sense. She has no reason to keep pretending that Alistair is her half-brother. Tue, 2 Oct 2012 14:32:51 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453660768 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453658615 If you don't get all the upgrades for Vigil's Keep and you choose to save Amaranthine, the keep is overrun and everyone is killed. Therefore, every Awakening companion may or may not be dead, depending on your choices. Tue, 2 Oct 2012 14:28:33 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453658615 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453019838 I've done some looking into the Fiona/Alistair question, and while it seems logical for that to be the mother/son relationship, apparently the timeline doesn't exactly work. Although the other pieces fit - raised as a human, son of Maric, looked over by Duncan. Mon, 1 Oct 2012 18:33:59 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453019838 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453018036 Well if those initial "leaks" are to be believed, you may get up to 10 companions. That would bust the whole thing wide open. The other trend, however, that you see is there's one "good" mage and one "bad" mage - Wynne/Morrigan and Anders/Merrill. Mon, 1 Oct 2012 18:30:44 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453018036 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453016597 I love Jowan, but unfortunately since there are a couple instances in which he can be killed on-screen, I can't see how they would justify it. That'd be more of a stretch that Anders and/or Leliana magically coming back to life. Sigrun too, has the possible death issue from Awakening. Mon, 1 Oct 2012 18:28:07 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453016597 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453015515 Charade was OK, hardly memorable, however. She had what, maybe five minutes of screen time. On top of that, her character design was pretty gross with the heavy makeup. They'd have to do a significant redesign. Mon, 1 Oct 2012 18:25:52 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453015515 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453014653 I think Tallis being modeled/voiced by Felicia Day is a strike against her reappearing. Not that she's a mega star or anything, but somehow I don't see it working out. Also, I personally thought her performance was pretty lackluster in that DLC and hope she's not brought back. Mon, 1 Oct 2012 18:24:07 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/interesting-companion-possibilities-for-da3/#IDComment453014653 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/where-are-our-characters/#IDComment444058269 First Enchanter Irving is alive and well in Asunder, which occurs after Kirkwall. So I'm taking that as a canon source, negating any decisions from Origins in the same way that Wynne is alive in that book, even if you killed her in the game. I had some trouble tracking down information on Eamon. In some epilogues I know he is in Denerim and then later leaves Redcliffe to Teagan. I couldn't recall if there was one instance where he dies. In the second child epilogue, it says he visits the child often in the Circle but does not mention him dying. As far I can tell, in every epilogue, Eamon is alive. You are right about the Isolde one, however, and I'll have to update that. Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:13:47 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/where-are-our-characters/#IDComment444058269 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/where-are-our-characters/#IDComment443467548 Probably need to add the same note as with Varric, that (although I can't remember now) it's unclear whether the frame of DA2 (Varric and Cassandra) comes first or the comics. Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:26:14 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/where-are-our-characters/#IDComment443467548 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/dragon-age-3-announced/#IDComment442618399 Eh, there's no guarantee the new systems will be out then (except for Wii U which launches this year). Also, as people pointed out, it would create potential issues with imports for console players so maybe not. Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:25:06 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/dragon-age-3-announced/#IDComment442618399 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/is-obsidian-teasing-dragon-age-3/#IDComment439385561 Same, heh. I've always liked what Obsidian puts out so I'm willing to follow it no matter what it is. Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:25:43 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/is-obsidian-teasing-dragon-age-3/#IDComment439385561 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438537703 I'm ambivalent about Kickstarter projects. On the one hand its good to get the public to help support development for a project it believes in. At the same time, it handcuffs your development to the project you promised. I know many proposals are written purposefully vague, but if you get a couple months into development and have an epiphany about your game, you can either make a drastic change and risk alienating the base that built you (and can thus destroy you in the future) or you decide to forego it and stick with the original plan. It's a great way for small studios to get a boost to create a project. But then again, many of the wildly successful Kickstarter projects *aren't* new ideas. They're old ideas and old game mechanics that nostalgic fans have decided to fund to see again. One good example of this happening is Legend of Grimrock. The indie team took an old mechanic (dungeon crawler) and tried to update it for the modern day. But once you get into the game, you realize that even with the new coat of paint and that nostalgic effect, the mechanics feel incredibly dated and the game just isn't that fun. I like Kickstarter and what it's doing right now, but I think the jury is still out on whether that kind of crowd-sourcing is going to be a game changer in the small games market. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:33:00 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438537703 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438531431 I've disliked the advent of the MMO for a long time. For a good period everyone looked at the WoW Cash Cow and thought "I've got to get a piece of that action!" from subscription fees. Even now that the subscription model is dying in favor of free-to-play, supposedly F2P still rakes in the cash, possibly even more than subs. So we may see a lot more MMO content in the future instead of good, single player RPGs, which makes me sad. I have to agree that RPGs seem like a bad fit for EA. EA, being one of the major players, has to keep investors happy and keep profits flowing, and you do that by punching out your big titles on a fairly constant schedule. The problems is that large RPGs take a bit more time to grow than other games due to their sheer size. If you try to push an RPG out the door too quickly, it shows, and never in a good way. Hopefully the response to some of BioWare's latest offerings is getting through that a 2-year dev cycle is not enough to give fans what they want in these series. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:24:45 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438531431 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438528045 Certainly there are some studios and some games that can pull it off, although I do buy into the idea that the AAA title doesn't have a good outlook with the advent of free-to-play, downloadable titles and indie development which is picking up steam. What we're either going to see is there are going to be less AAA titles or that developers will have to find new and interesting ways to deliver those "blockbuster" titles while keeping development costs in reason. The problem is that as technology keeps increasing, so do demands on development. So actually, game tech may soon outpace the capability of studios to develop for it within reasonable cost. Could be a glass ceiling effect that games will "top out" until something changes to help reduce development costs. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:20:11 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438528045 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438525142 I never buy into the thought of any aspect of gaming dying out any time soon. Is single-player dying out? Are PCs dying out? Is the $60 game dying out? Is the MMO subscription model dying out? Is the WoW formula dying out? Obviously some answers are yes - quicker than others. But gaming has shown itself to by somewhat fad-like, for lack of a better description. Think of the rise and fall of various genres — platformers, adventure games, FPS, MMO — obviously there is a lot of innovation in the games market. I don't think PCs will ever really die out totally, mainly because they do contain the best hardware and there are some games that just don't currently translate well to console (for example strategy games like 4X strats and RTS). However, it may occur that PCs become a minority in the industry. One aspect that hurts is that now that consoles are Web-connected and downloadable games are available on console, they somewhat serve the same function for those smaller titles as a PC. With greater visibility and player base, that could hurt computer gamers even more in the coming years. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:15:56 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/09/opinion-consoles-are-good-for-pc-games/#IDComment438525142 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/the-depth-of-cullen/#IDComment428217865 I've seen it. But since it's a mod, I chose not to include it. Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:38:54 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/the-depth-of-cullen/#IDComment428217865 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/the-depth-of-cullen/#IDComment428217584 I think Evangeline is way way more pro-mage than Cullen is. While Evangeline seems to try to do her duty to the purest sense, Cullen is quite harsh in his treatment and attitude about mages. Although he looks fair in comparison to say, Meredith, he's a way harder taskmaster than say, Knight-Commander Greagoir. Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:37:59 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/the-depth-of-cullen/#IDComment428217584 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/dragon-age-3-leak/#IDComment425948244 It could be, but considering that the Divine and many of the other higher-ups of the Chantry are alive and well for both Asunder and Dawn of the Seeker, both of which occur after Anders-plosion, that doesn't seem to fit. Especially since the Templars don't separate until the end of Asunder, as well. Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:21:52 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/dragon-age-3-leak/#IDComment425948244 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/dragon-age-3-leak/#IDComment425946640 Ummm, I sided with the mages. A lot of bad apples shouldn't condemn the whole. Besides, it's the templars who drove them to it. Anyhow, inquisitor doesn't necessarily mean anti-mage. All it means is you're out there to get to the root of a problem. Whether that is the Chantry, the mages, the rogue templars, demons, whatever. I think it sounds like it gives a lot of options. Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:19:00 +0000 http://greywardens.com/2012/08/dragon-age-3-leak/#IDComment425946640