The Guildmasters

Well i’ve received my copy of the new Dragon Age 2 and I must say it’s awesome.

I’m not going to say it’s better than the first one, at least not just yet as i’ve only been playing it for about 4 days, but it is pretty cool.

For the most part nothing has changed, the battle system is the same as before as are the upgrades and items, weapons and tactics are all the same, just tweaked a little which is how you want it really, no new stuff to try to get used to.

Totally different main story which is a refreshing change even though there are plenty of references and characters that pop up which you recognize or remember from the first.

The game is much quicker than the first one, fighting is extremely fast paced compared to the first.

As you progress through the game quests become more lengthy and harder which was a good thing for me as in the beginning I started to think it was a little too easy.

One thing to keep in mind, before you finish the last part of the main quest at any time make sure you finish everything else first, companions to visit (who can give you quests), sidequests and secondary quests. If you don’t, once you finish the main quest and move on to the next section the previous subquests will not be available.

I love the fact that you can upload your previous character from the first one although I haven’t tried this yet. I will do this on my second playthrough.

If you want to platinum this one be prepared for multiple playthroughs like the first one.

Tony:)

As mentioned in a much earlier post on the blog Dragon Age 2 is now upon us, releasing March 8th.

While browsing the playstation store I noticed one of the new demos was for Dragon Age 2, i’m sure it wasn’t there yesterday but I decided to download it anyway.

The demo is huge, it’s a massive 1804MB and for just a demo that is fairly large, even on my high speed it’s taking a couple of hours, a little disappointing but I can’t wait to try it out. I just have a good feeling about this game, and after playing the first Dragon Age, which was a very cool game, i’m convinced that this demo will only confirm that my purchase will be worth it.

It seems I still have another 10% to download and then it’s got to install but by tomorrow night I should be able to give a first hand review of the demo and also give some insight into some of the features, weapons, abilities etc…

Until tomorrow then, good gaming.

Tony:)

For fans of the Dragon Age Origins this will be a have to. Dragon Age 2-Bioware signature edition is available for pre-order at amazon now. As usual comes with the pre-order price guarantee (meaning if they lower the price by the time your order ships you’ll get it for the lower price).

Here is the item description, also available for the PS3, scroll further down for the ultimate edition of Dragon Age Origins.

Item Description:

Dragon Age II is a single player role-playing game (RPG) for play on the Xbox 360. Epic sequel to the BioWare developed 2009 Game of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II continues the adventure with a new hero, Hawke, and utilizes the choices made by the player to affect a story that spans ten years worth of time in-game. Additional game features include: the ability to choose your character’s class and sex, a new cinematic in-game experience, a nonlinear narrative and the ability to import saved information from earlier Dragon Age games.

The Dragon Age II BioWare Signature Edition is only available before January 11, 2011 as an upgrade for pre-orders of the standard Dragon Age II game. This special edition contains loads of additional content, exclusives, and other perks. See the full list of content below.
Dragon Age II game logo
About Dragon Age II

Embark on an all�-new adventure spread across a ten-year span of years with an all-new hero in the multiple award�-winning Dragon Age saga. In Dragon Age II you are Hawke, said to have been one of the few to survive the destruction of your homeland. Forced to fight for survival, you gathered the deadliest of allies, amassed fame and fortune and sealed your place in history, eventually becoming in effect a legend in your own time. But legends are all in the telling.
A female warrior battling enemies in Dragon Age II
Revel in the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins.
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Dragon Age II utilizes a nonlinear narrative, taking the form of a story-within-a-story that hinges upon your exploits as told by the storyteller, Varick. Yet like any good storyteller, Varick tends to exaggerate from time to time. When questioned on events related to Hawke, Varick may present a different scenario in which Hawke’s exploits play out. It is within these replays that the decisions of the players hold sway, as their particular versions of Hawke relive these events. Is the player’s particular version of Hawke, male or female? A warrior, a rogue, or a mage? Is Hawke good-natured or something less than a salt-of-the-Earth type? Is romance in the air amongst characters he/she associates with? These choices are all the player’s to make and each affect the the outcome of the story at all levels.
The Dragon Age II BioWare Signature Edition

Pre�-order Dragon Age II before January 11, 2011 and receive an automatic upgrade to the BioWare Signature Edition – a special, collector’s edition version of the game that contains loads of additional content, exclusives, and other perks. This special edition version of Dragon Age II is only available for pre-order before January 11, so pre�-order now. The full BioWare Signature Edition contents include:
Contents of the in Dragon Age II: BioWare Signature Edition
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* A full copy of Dragon Age II for Xbox 360
* A download code for a bonus character and missions
* A downloadable game soundtrack
* An exclusive in�-game digital armory featuring multiple weapons
* Additional downloadable items

Game Features

* Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make
* Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land
* Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior
* Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go
* Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style
* Story-within-a-story nonlinear narrative style

Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition details:

* Includes The 2009 ?RPG Of The Year? Dragon Age: Origins, The Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Expansion Pack, Plus All Nine Additional Content Packs
* Critically acclaimed winner of more than 50 awards including over 30 ?Best Of 2009? awards
* A tremendous $114 value at one low price
* Critically acclaimed winner of more than 50 awards including over 30 ?Best of 2009′ awards. A tremendous $112 value at one low price.

Obviously I have some time on my hands today. I’m probably more thinking out loud and writing rather than concentrating on being creative or informative but i’ve been trying to do a lot of research on what RPG’s are going to be hitting the market in 2011. In turn it started me thinking on what RPG’s i’d played in the past as well as the games i’m playing now and what I can expect in the future.

It’s quite amazing how tight lipped some gaming developers are, you think they would at least dangle the carrot, and the ones that do? well the carrot is so far away you don’t know what to expect.

One of my best RPG’s of all time has to be Morrowind, this was part of The Elder Scrolls, number 3 I believe, and yes even though I am a loyal Sony customer I actually went out and purchased an XBox solely for this game. In turn this got me onto Fable which again was a great game.

After playing Morrowind, and believe or not I still go back to it from time to time, I had to get Oblivion as soon as that came out on the PS3. At the risk of being run out of town for this opinion I actually was disappointed in Oblivion. It was still a great game but it lacked what I enjoyed the most in Morrowind, just little things that seemed to make all the difference, at least for me.

A big part of my experience with Morrowind was taking over different buildings and stashing my stuff, actually decorating the houses exactly how I wanted them, I had one house with all my glass weapons and armor, another house with all my daidric armor etc..and you could be so precise with the way you laid out your pads it was quite enjoyable, some of my boys got really carried away with that aspect of the game.

I missed using levitation spells too, but you didn’t need them in Oblivion and somehow the quests didn’t quite grab me like they did in Morrowind.

So will we see an Elder Scrolls V (5)? Of course, that much we know, and it’s a game I wait for with great anticipation, I really hope they take the best from Morrowind and Oblivion and come up with something a little bit special.

Another really good game on the Xbox was a game called Thief: Deadly Shadows, an amazing game you could really get into. Seriously if you haven’t played this game you should, and you should be able to get it cheap because it’s so old now. The reason I say play this game is because Thief 4 is in development and although that is all we know at the moment i’m sure this is going to be awesome. If they improve even a little on Deadly Shadows I will be amazed and I will buy this one.

Yet another game in the making is Final Fantasy XIV (14) and to be quite honest I have lost track of the Final Fantasy series. I was extremely hooked on FF7 and 8 and i’ve played FF 12 and I don’t know what it is about Final Fantasy but I just can’t bring myself to look into them much anymore.

I heard so many rumors about 13 and how good it was going to be but all i’ve read anywhere is how disappointed people are with it, some to the point of not even bothering to complete the game.

There has been information leaked apparently that there is another Tomb Raider in development for the PS3, XBox360 and PC but won’t be released until around Christmas 2011. I cannot confirm this but it wouldn’t surprise me. This is another series of games that i’m a bit addicted to, I played my first Tomb Raider way back when I owned a PS1 and back then there wasn’t much that could touch it, at that time the graphics were as good as you could expect, the gameplay was fantastic and the quests nearly impossible to complete, a lot of fun so i’ll be looking forward to a fresh Tomb Raider with new quests, as always with Tomb Raider games the locations were amazing and there is always extras that you just got to do like get all the trophies, artifacts etc..

One other game i’m looking forward to will be Resident Evil 6. Again I seem to flow the opposite to most as I really enjoyed RE5, I got so hooked on that one and I loved the online play too, yet many said they preferred the original ones. Personally I think they went the right way with RE5 although from what has been said it is going to change again in a big way with RE6. I think it might just be a good one for all resident evil fans.

Ok gone on long enough for now, what was/is your favourite RPG and what are you looking forward to?

Tony:)

Any of you that have played Fallout, especially Fallout 3 will probably want to play Fallout New Vegas. Personally as with all games I rent first then buy if it keeps my attention long enough.

My collection of PS3 games isn’t that large simply because there wasn’t that many really good games, or more specifically RPG’s. Now it’s different, things are looking up for us RPG fanatics and when I see a new one I write about it. When I see an unusual offer I write about that too.

This is one of those games that is definitely worth a rent, I liked fallout 3 so much I bought it and seeing as New Vegas is going to be in similar format i’ll probably end up buying this one too.

For those who are interested in specific deals on specific games here is an interesting ‘collectors edition’.

When you purchase Fallout New Vegas from Amazon here is what you get in the collectors edition:

* “Lucky 7” poker chips. Each of the seven poker chips was designed to represent chips from the major casinos found on the New Vegas strip and throughout the Mojave Wasteland.
* A fully customized Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards. Each card in the pack has been uniquely illustrated to depict characters and factions found within the game.
* A recreation of the game’s highly coveted “Lucky 38” platinum chip.
* A hardcover graphic novel “All Roads”, that tells the story of some of the characters and events that lead up to Fallout: New Vegas. “All Roads” was written by Chris Avellone and created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics.
* The Making of Fallout: New Vegas’ DVD. This documentary DVD will contain exclusive video content, including interviews with the developers in which they take you from concept to creation.

You don’t often come across games with decent side stuff so I didn’t think this was a bad buy.

Want to know more about Fallout New Vegas?? Read on:

Welcome to Vegas. New Vegas.
It’s the kind of town where you dig your own grave prior to being shot in the head and left for dead…and that’s before things really get ugly. It’s a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis. It’s a place where the right kind of person with the right kind of weaponry can really make a name for themselves, and make more than an enemy or two along the way.

As you battle your way across the heat-blasted Mojave Wasteland, the colossal Hoover Dam, and the neon drenched Vegas Strip, you’ll be introduced to a colorful cast of characters, power-hungry factions, special weapons, mutated creatures and much more. Choose sides in the upcoming war or declare “winner takes all” and crown yourself the King of New Vegas in this follow-up to the 2008 videogame of the year, Fallout 3.

Key Features:

# Feel the Heat in New Vegas! Not even nuclear fallout could slow the hustle of Sin City. Explore the vast expanses of the desert wastelands – from small desert towns to the New Vegas strip – and see the Great Southwest as could only be imagined in Fallout.
# Feuding Factions, Colorful Characters and a Host of Hostiles! A war is brewing between rival factions that will change the lives of everyone in New Vegas. The choices you make will bring you into contact with friends and foes, and determine the final explosive outcome of this epic power struggle.
# New Systems! Enjoy new additions such as a Companion Wheel that streamlines communication with companions, a Reputation System that tracks your actions, and the aptlytitled Hardcore Mode. Plus, special melee moves and real-time combat mechanics give you new ways to fight.
# An Arsenal of Shiny New Guns! With double the amount of weapons found in Fallout 3, you’ll have more than enough exciting, new ways to deal with the threats of the wasteland. In addition, a new weapons configuration system that lets you tinker with your toys and see the modifications in real time.
# Let it Ride! In a huge, open world with unlimited options you can see the sights, choose sides, or go it alone. Peacemaker or Hard Case, House Rules or the Wild Card – it’s all in how you play the game.

That’s about it for now, if I ever get away from WKC this will be one of my next encounters along with Assassins Creed The Brotherhood.

Tony:)

Will also be available on PS3 and Wii. Lord Of The Rings Aragorns Quest for all you LOTR fans out there, here is the story:

Take up the sword and become the King of Men in this adventure that lets you live the Lord of the Rings trilogy through the eyes of Aragorn. Experience his greatest quests and most heroic deeds as you begin as Strider, Ranger of the North, and rise from the pages of legend to sit on the throne of Gondor. Wield his bow, sword, and spear as you battle the forces of Sauron on foot and on horseback. Fight alongside the Hobbits, Gandalf, and other characters from J.R.R. Tolkein’s fabled stories in a family-friendly journey through the world of Middle Earth.

I’ve seen the official trailer for this game and it’s not too shabby, lord of the rings fans will undoubtedly purchase this one. The graphics were quite impressive although I couldn’t tell if this was from the PS3 or PS2, it would be a game that I would personally rent as I’m not a huge fan of the LOTR games but I would play this one.

Tony:)

Ok i’m still playing the old WKC, i’m nowhere near achieving GR11 yet, still about 6million away, and I would like to get to GR13 at least so I can upgrade my town, this will take a while.

A couple of points of interest, just for a change I decided to play out the last area again, which would be my fifth time through the game, I didn’t do the final boss as then i’d have to start it over and i’m not going there again yet, the point is that when I was going through that last area it did give me newer items, i’m guessing it was because my level was at 50 and my GR at 10 but it is worth noting that, it may even be worth trecking through the game again at my level just to see how many decent items I can get hold of, all boss battles will be that much easier.

My town has now started producing black ore which is a result as that stuff is 24,000 to buy but it’s free to find, at least until you need some then you can’t find it anywhere.

A lot of this game now is trial and error, i’ve seen some awesome weapons and armor but don’t have the materials yet to bind them so unless you want to search forever on your own the georama logs can be quite helpful if you post what item your looking for someone usually comes back with where to find it.

Every time I upgrade something like my armor or longsword I go and test it all on the quest “all in the cards”. My way of thinking is if I can do this quest on my own without any problems then i’ll be of more use to mulitplayer, as of yet I can’t do the final boss in that quest solo but i’m not far off it.

Now we’ve heard that WKC 2 is coming out in Japan soon but today while scouring the internet I saw a post that this game was part of a trilogy so if that is true this series could take a front row seat in popularity, i’m seeing new players coming in every day it seems so I picked this game up at just about the right time, if I can get to Guild Rank 15 by the time the second one comes out I should be in a good starting position for the second instalment, assuming our Georama towns will be able to upload to the second edition, hope so.

I’ve re-incarnated twice so far and when I get a bit burnt out questing then i’ll rebirth a third time.

I’m always looking for players to catch some of the other quests other than bigred, I know this quest is quick and gives you the most GR points for the time but it makes a refreshing change when I find players on the other quests, today I played Station Attendant quest a couple of times and it keeps you on your toes, you do need at least two higher graded players I think to do well on this one, certainly at least one good healer who knows what he/she is doing, if you get a good 4 players on this one it rewards well.

If anyone was wondering why I didn’t open my room up Monday as planned it was because I didn’t receive any responses at all so I assumed there are already a ton of rooms open, if I get more than a couple of requests to do so then I will.

After writing this update i’ll be back online for about 4hrs questing all over the place, i’d like to get some S ranks for “Dragons heat” and “Take your lumps” Quests if anyone is interested, i’ve done both level 1 solo but haven’t got an S for either of them.

If anyone wants me to post any specific info then just let me know and i’ll try and help out. Catch you all later, let’s go questing.

Tony 🙂

Well after reaching Guild Rank 10 i’ve decided to re-incarnate again, this will be the second time and for some reason it seems easier to get my levels back, i’m already at level 44 and I only re-incarnated last night.

I don’t know about you but there are so many unanswered questions on this game now and I can’t find answers anywhere, that’s presumably because it’s still relatively new.

I’d like to make the most of my Georama town and even though I was impressed with my layout it’s not right, something is missing because it’s not producing the goods I expected. I have 20 residents now but when I talk to the residents they keep telling me things like “if I had a farmer we would do better”. What doesn’t make sense is that it might be a warrior or a mage that is asking for a farmer or a lumberjack, does this mean you can put different trades in the same houses?

I was under the impression you got better stats and produce if you kept the same trades in the same house, i’ll have to experiment more on this.

Another problem i’m having is knowing where to get certain items, for instance, I know to enhance my longsword for the 9th or 10th time I need a massive hoof, I know which animal drops this and where he is only he never drops this item. I realize that the drop percentage is quite low, sometimes as low as 1% which is ok, but does he drop it on level 1 quests or level 2 quests? or both?

I’ve battled this creature both on level 1 and 2 quests and never got the drop, he always drops a massive tooth or something other than the massive hoof. I don’t mind grinding it out to get an item to upgrade but it would be nice to be able to narrow it down just a little.

I do want to take this time to apologize to the two players that attempted to finish a high end quest even after one player left, I was also a letdown here because I wasn’t ready to take on this quest, I know they was still going for it and I just wanted to say sorry for letting you down in there, I imagine the rewards for completing that quest were quite huge, i’ll hold off in future before taking on those high end quests.

Anyway to get my levels back i’m grinding away at boot camp 2, several reasons for doing this, it’s quick, you have to kill 50 monsters, each time you complete the quest which actually takes around 10 to 15 minutes at level 35 to 50 you get pretty close to 20k experience, that’s pretty quick levelling up, also they drop a decent amount of gilder which you need so badly in this game, also some of the items dropped can be sold for around 30g, doesn’t sound like much, but do this quest about 50 times to get to level 50 and that’s quite a bit, especially if you aren’t too worried about the S rank and go for more than 50 monsters.

It’s also a good idea to make sure you have a weapon equipped that will take them down in one hit, two hits slows the quest down dramatically and makes a big difference at the end.

I’ve also found it an advantage to shake the three trees with wasps in them, 5 come out which makes for a total of 15 easy kills and lots of bonus cash,items and experience.

Well that’s it for now, don’t forget to look out for my town opening up for 4 to 5hrs each night from next week, i’ll be running all types of quests to try and obtain all the S ranks, it’s just going to be a change from the big red for a week, it will also catch us some new items for use in binding etc…

Tony 🙂

Yes I eventually reached Guild Rank 10 last night at 1:30am so my original estimation of reaching GR10 from GR9 was a little bit off, all in all it actually took me around 10 hrs not 20 which I first estimated.

We had some good runs grinding it out on the Big Red 2 quest, played with some excellent players who were even forgiving when I let them down a couple of times.

I’ve started working on my Georama a bit, i’m not purchasing any download content so i’m trying to make the most of whats available which is quite a bit.

This whole game now is going to be based around how much money you can make, or I should say Guilder which is the in game currency. I read a review somewhere and it said don’t even bother with Georama until you reach the 10 million guilder mark, that’s a trophy by the way, at the time I thought he must be joking but since hitting GR10 and arranging some stuff in my town some extra stuff became available in my general store which I thought was cool, until I saw the prices, it looks like 10 mil won’t be enough for the things you can do here.

After thinking about it and trying to get it in my brain about how the georama town actually works I did start to make some sense of it all.

I’ve started off with miners and warriors and got a couple of chefs and also a couple of farmers, when I eventually reach GR13 i’ll be able to upgrade my town again and have more space and i’ll go for more specialist stuff but for now I have 7 houses with 14 residents, 2 chefs, 2 farmers, 4 miners and 6 warriors.

You need to put two people in each house with the same skill, it’s no good putting a farmer with a miner as they won’t produce much, if you put two together with the same skill your stats will improve a lot and you’ll get better items.

This farming of items is almost needed because it’s free stuff being produced and if your a little bit wise about how you work your town you can can some good stuff which may otherwise be hard to come by.

Also I have been at it again by getting a few more quests open to me since reaching my new level, no chance of completing them, at least not alone but I still popped in there to see what kind of loot I could get my hands on, turns out it was worth it, i’m picking up things i’d never seen or heard of before these quests and i’m sure they are going to come in handy for binding weapons and so forth.

Next week i’ll be opening my room up every evening to anyone who wants to drop in, a room gives other players access to your hometown in Georama and we can do some quests together.

Even though i’m GR10 and level 50 I don’t mind helping out any newcomers who need some S rank quests, I really don’t mind doing some early level quests if you need the help.

Most online questers know me already by my character Assassin and i’ll list my room as The Guildmasters or Assassins Hideout so keep an eye out for me, once I open the room it will be open for 4 or 5 hrs so plenty of time to pop in and have chat, nick some of my produce, it’s not heavy stuff at the moment but it’ll do nicely for some of the lower ranked players or just play out some quests.

I’m still looking for players wanting to do something different other than Big Red, i’d really like to work my way through all the quests and try to get the S rank if anyone feels the same, there is a trophy for 20 S rank quests and I think there is also one for 50 S rank quests so no excuse not to try them all out and you’ll pick up some decent items and hopefully get some decent coin in the process to start adding to your own hometown.

If you don’t yet have this game believe me when I say your missing out on one of the best games so far this year, the relatively short story mode is almost a preview of what is to come once you get online and start questing, of all the players in this game i’ve only come across one A’hole and that’s a real plus, jeez I met a bunch of em in resident evil 5 versus, the difference with this game is you have to enjoy RPG final fantasy type games to appreciate all this has to offer and you don’t really get idiots playing this type of game, at least not that many, so far i’ve enjoyed over 300hrs of this game and it really feels like i’ve only scratched the surface, with around 500 items to bind i’ve probably only achieved binding less than 100 and this hometown thing, this could be never ending.

As a last thought I read a little about White Knight Chronicles 2, not much info on it but there will be a dash mode which could come in handy, and it will be more dynamic with seasons being put in the game.

My own thoughts on WKC 2 would be you wouldn’t have wasted money building up your town, I would hope that you can upload your WKC town to WKC 2 and keep adding to it which would be awesome.

Before you say it WKC has been out more than 2yrs in Japan so it’s not too early for a second one, although it probably won’t reach other countries so soon it’s definitely something to look forward to.

Ok i’m back off to play some more and I apologise for not posting any other games at the moment but i’m so into this one and so are all the other players. I will post some more upcoming games later in the week but probably won’t get around to reviewing any for a little while, hey life is short so let’s enjoy it at least for a little while.

Tony 🙂

Well here we are two days later and i’m back at level 50, the problem now is do I continue trying to grind for Guild Rank 10 or re-incarnate again?

Both have their advantages and I think i’m going to grind to get my guild rank up to 10 before re-incarnating again. I’ve worked it out it will take around 20hrs if I stick to big red 2 maybe a little less.

According to my save file i’ve played for 275hrs and yes I do have a life besides gaming, that’s been spread over a couple of months so there is tons of playability in this game.

I’ve only achieved 23% of trophies, i’m only at 300k in guilder, my georama is only level 7 so there is tons more to do, oh yeah and I only have about 11 S ranks in my quests so if there is anyone wants to help me clear up all the level 1 quests i’m available most evenings.

My hometown is open to all and I would prefer a change from grinding on just big red alone, it would be nice to try some of the other quests. Station attendant 1 isn’t too bad with 4 players and you get around 30+ thousand in guild rank points, I did it once with 3 others last night for the first time and the score was 32000 for the S rank so quite a bit more than red but it does take a little longer, but you do get some different gear dropped to so it makes up for it and it did only take us 13 minutes.

I’m still trying to enhance my weapons which is difficult enough finding the right items and I haven’t even started to try and understand fully the binding part, I have binded some early items but I think my guild rank has to be at least 10 in order to bind those decent pieces of armor and weapons.

Here is a link to some wiki pages which are going to be really helpful to me, newbies and mid level players, check it out if you want to know about quests, binding, enhancing and so forth, tons of info there:

Wiki info on WKC

Well hope to see more of you in my hometown, and if not will see you on the quests, may the grind be bountiful.

Tony 🙂