Jump to content


Lord Ernie's Content

There have been 12 items by Lord Ernie (Search limited from 29-March 23)


By content type

See this member's

Sort by                Order  

#480298 Loves & Hates

Posted by Lord Ernie on 26 February 2010 - 01:02 PM in Mass Effect Series

Why do people hate Aria so much? I thought she was a well-voiced example of what a mafia boss should be like in the ME galaxy, namely a ruthless member of one of the long-lived races, complete with former rivalry with one of the other long-lived races. Adding to that that she came across as an intelligent, if somewhat overly dramatic character; plus, she's helpful to Shepard, basically giving you everything you need every time you go ask for her help.

As to her lines: I personally found the "Boss, CEO, Queen..." line the worst, and the "Don't fuck with Aria" line perfectly positioned (and voiced in a way that reminded me of Spartans), and it's not like the game is without swearing otherwise (Jack, Joker, and Renegade Shepard come to mind).



#480254 Loves & Hates

Posted by Lord Ernie on 26 February 2010 - 03:51 AM in Mass Effect Series

I've found not sleeping to be a solution for the 'hours in a day problem'. Also, if you have the 'long service' (or something) achievement and import a Rich character from ME1, there's enough money to buy everything (not that you need to, really, just buy the upgrades that affect Shepard and your regular companions).

Also, Vikacis, while the absence of a gay male option bothered me (more for the fact of its absence than anything else), you can (and I have) perfectly play a lesbian FemShep, by romancing Liara in ME1, ignoring the males in ME2 and going for Kelly Chambers.

Anyway, likes:

  • The distinctness of the new classes. Playing an infiltrator now really makes for a completely different game experience from playing a vanguard, which is different again from playing a sentinel. Awesome!
  • No more driving the MAKO up mountains, and palette swap planets. Yay!
  • Tons and tons of continuity nods.
  • The new NPC's. Some of them are surprisingly deep (Grunt, Jack, Mordin)
  • The interrupt system
  • The new Garrus, while overruling what you pushed him to do in the first game (if you're Paragon) is also a lot deeper.
  • Wrex's welcoming moment made me all warm inside.
  • Minor, but there: most cutscenes are skippable, which makes replays have much less 'coffee-time' (for the beginning, you can alt-tab out and the movies keep running)
  • Tali :wub:
Dislikes:
  • The planet scanning (Duh)
  • Unable to customize the unique armors
  • Probably more stuff, but nothing I can think of right now.



#472201 Bug list *spoilers*

Posted by Lord Ernie on 23 December 2009 - 06:43 AM in Dragon Age Series

Just to be a voice to the contrary: I've played through the game three times now, and I haven't had any of these issues. The game seems indeed to have an excellent memory, and stuff I kill stays dead (exceptions are, of course, "you didn't kill me, you just got me badly wounded enough to intimidate me").

Hell, my last playthrough I console-hacked my human noble into a mage with very few issues (the only one came at the end of the game when
Spoiler
.

On the other hand, my gf claims that my experience with any given game is simply invalid, cause I seem to have the Epic talent "Dodge Gameplay bugs".



#471594 ME2: Voice Cast Announced

Posted by Lord Ernie on 17 December 2009 - 02:04 PM in Mass Effect Series

Adam Baldwin made me go squee, which made my gf look at me strangely; the fact he seems to voice a particularly ruth-mouthed Quarian just adds to the awesome.

But yes, ME2 looks to have an incredible cast. Martin Sheen, Yvonne Strahovski (big Chuck fan here :)), Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan,... they really hired some top sci-fic actors (although, I too, will have an image of Col. Tigh in my head at first when I hear Hogan's voice). I can't wait to play this game - I've got the collector's edition pre-ordered :)



#471256 ME2: CE Revealed

Posted by Lord Ernie on 13 December 2009 - 11:26 AM in Mass Effect Series

I've seen Chris Priestly post about problems in pre-ordering the CE in the Netherlands, but here in Belgium, everything seems fine, as I've got mine pre-ordered at the local gamestore. It lists Icisor Sniper Rifle and simply Collector Armor & Collector Weapon as items. Not sure what those last two are.



#468040 DONE! @_@

Posted by Lord Ernie on 14 November 2009 - 02:39 PM in Dragon Age Series

Well...

Spoiler



#467921 DA: Mods

Posted by Lord Ernie on 13 November 2009 - 04:36 PM in Dragon Age Series

Just something I figured I could share with you. These are some of the first mods made for the game.

First off, the dexterity mod, made by Georg Zoeller, lead system designer of DA. It's sort of a testrun for a future patch; this fixes the issues with dexterity and daggers (making their damage 0.5 str / 0.5 dex, as they are supposed to be, rather than 1.0 str), and makes bows significantly stronger, as well. Rogues, don't leave home without it.

Second, Character Respecialization, which allows you to completely respec your own and any of your companions with ease. Look for the Raven in the camp after installing it. Warning: make sure you have unlocked their specializations before you attempt this, cause you need them available as a choice to be able to pick them at all. Make a backup save for security.



#467902 DONE! @_@

Posted by Lord Ernie on 13 November 2009 - 12:15 PM in Dragon Age Series

I finished it with my Elven mage a while back. Given the fact he was a ruthless, manipulative bastard, I thought the ending I got was pretty good for most people, except for himself (romanced Morrigan).

I forget what you started out as (if you mentioned it) but I've tried out all the origins just to see how they played and my favorite is the Dalish elf so far.

Interesting. I loathed the Dalish elf origin, and that's the only one that I really didn't like. It was so... bland. Both dwarven origins make the PC out to be a badass (especially commoner, but the noble one is unique with the whole politics thing), the mage origin has a nice sadistic choice even in the beginning, and the human noble one pokes fun at RPG clichés ("Killing rats? This sound like the beginning of the lamest adventure ever...", or something); the City Elf one made me wince several times, especially when playing a female.

The Dalish elf one was so... bland. Nothing much interesting happens, the PC gets caught in the events by coincidence, and s/he survives in much the same way. Meh.



#467886 The Tactics Thread

Posted by Lord Ernie on 13 November 2009 - 06:44 AM in Dragon Age Series

I just finished the game with my Elf mage (specializations: Spirit Healer & Blood Mage), and my party consisted most of the time out of Alistair (tank), Sten (secondary tank and damage dealer), and Leliana (lockpicking + sniping of important targets). My tactics consisted mostly of drawing all the enemies on Alistair, and using my mage's powerful battlefield control spells to make sure none of them were fighting with maximum effectiveness.

Spell advice:

As said before: the two Blood Mage spells are just meanly good, and are really the only reason to become bloodmage except for some of the more extreme blood mage + arcane warrior combo's. Blood Wound is awesome, stunning enemies and killing them over time; Blood Control is just fun, and I've managed to take control of elite and boss monsters several times... it's hilarious.

The horror/sleep/nightmare series of spells are really good battlefield control. Horror disables a single enemy that decides to go after your mage, sleep makes sure the usual barrage of enemy archers stands around not doing anything useful, and nightmare is great for throwing into the melee, as it makes 2/3 of the enemies fight each other or just stand about. Very partly friendly spells, too.

Fireball. It's not party friendly, but it's great for knocking down and damaging large groups of ranged enemies while the melee fighters close in for the kill. Inferno (the bigger version) takes a lot of time to set up, but since you can cast it without line of sight, it's great for burning the enemies in the next room to death without having to run in there.

Every spell in the Mind Blast/Forcefield/Telekinetic Weapons/Crushing Prison series. Mind Blast is a good 'stop hitting my mage' panic button, Forcefield has several applications (Taunt + Forcefield + lots of area spells is my favourite), telekinetic weapons let your melee warriors hit where it hurts, and Crushing Prison is great for taking those annoying mages out of the fight.

As Ananximander said, the hex line of spells is great once you have enough options for crowd control, as they really ruin a solo creature's day. Misdirection hex makes them hit squat, and death hex turns every one of your melee fighters into crit machines.

Out of the Creation spells, the only really useful ones I've found was Heal. Spirit Healer gives some more options, as Group Heal and Revive are great, Life Ward is a good setup for big fights, and the healing aura ultimate clears any injuries off your party members (although I never was lacking in injury kits).

EDIT: Note that almost all of these spells are 'fast-cast', which I feel is a requirement for most good spells. I tried the paralyze school of spells, but the Miasma aura just sucks, and the Mass Paralyze spell is one of the 'long-cast' spells, and only lasts a couple of seconds. Totally not worth it, IMO.



#466613 Which origin are you going to choose first?

Posted by Lord Ernie on 30 October 2009 - 02:30 AM in Dragon Age Series

My girlfriend played in the DA Contest (the Warden's Quest one discussed by T.C. Dale in the general forum) on team Bioware, and the Bioware crew was gracious enough to let me hang around at the event (they are a really, really cool bunch of people). I played through all the origins using the XBox 360 machines that were available.



#466604 Which origin are you going to choose first?

Posted by Lord Ernie on 29 October 2009 - 11:48 PM in Dragon Age Series

I can personally really recommend the dwarven origins; I'm usually not a big fan of dwarves, myself, but the dwarven noble origin is by far and away the coolest one in the game, with the dwarven commoner one not far behind.

The Dalish elf, IMO, was the least of the lot. Mostly cause all the other origins make the PC out to be a badass, but the Dalish elf one mostly gets caught up in events by accident.



#449982 Ummm, hello...

Posted by Lord Ernie on 29 May 2009 - 01:18 AM in Fade

Hrmm... First of all, let it be noted that the fact it took me almost two weeks to notice this topic has more to do with my modding/BG2 interests lately than anything else.

Second, and much more importantly: Welcome back, Elysia, and congratulations on becoming a mother! :D I recently got a niece myself (she's almost a year old by now), which mostly means I can get the cuteness of a baby without having to deal with the stress :P.

Great to hear you're doing so well, and just as great to hear you're planning on getting to work on Fade again. I might even play BG2 again and do some beta-testing once you get to that stage :)