LOL I just realized I followed the PSN thread in. Sorry guys!

Originally Posted by Jodou Hated that you lost souls or hated the gameplay? The gameplay is on par with DS, but you lose nothing but time for dying (if you make sure to save often) in Dogma. You won't die half as much in DD as well and at a certain point become invincible unless you like taking long walks off short cliffs lol. I'll say that with DD it's more about the adventure than the challenge, whereas Souls is the other way around.

I just think what I didn't like was the fact that if you die, back to the start, and it's harder. So that is where I gave up! I loved the concept, and tried playing it many times, but just couldn't. So I hope that this game will help that.

I'm this close to starting a fresh new character to min/max but the problem is there's no hard cap in this game. I could set an artificial cap but that's not really min/maxing lol. Basically wanted to make a sick ass pawn for others to use, but again without a cap -- there's really no way to justify making a perfect pawn when players will just one with higher stats after 5-10 levels. I hope they balance the game better for DD2, either with scaling enemies or a hard cap to level the playing field at endgame.

Ugh, the dog days of August. . .

OK, going OT here since apparently Amalur was so popular nobody made a thread for it.

Amalur is an experiment in how not to copy WoW offline. Hate the combat, hate the quest design, hate it, hate it. . .hate it. I'd have to agree with everyone here who said Dragon's Dogma is the better of the two, by a million miles better. In DD, the enemies don't HOME-IN ON YOU WHILE YOU DODGE, MAKING DODGE A WORTHLESS MECHANIC. You can also jump in DD, eliminating the need for pre-determined locations where you can JUMP DOWN FROM A LEDGE AS HIGH AS A SMALL CHILD. In Amalur, a contest between who can interrupt the others attack first is not good design. Hell, once you or your opponent is knocked down, it's pretty much time to die from the chain-stun afterward in Amalur. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING.

In DD, side-quests are counted by quality, not quantity. The quests in DD also have you doing/fighting some epic things at times, not running around the world touching stones for rainbow jizz. And that's just the side-quests; the main story is paced well and interesting in DD. Amalur just keeps talking about fate and has you running idiot errands for no apparent reason. "But first, you must give Gnorrash the Ogre a reach-around before I can tell you the secrets!" Here's the secret: the game ing sucks.

So yeah, I won't be finishing Amalur even though I was just trying to power through the main quest and see what it had to offer. The boring quests, awful combat mechanics, and updated WoW graphics are simply a waste of time. With an empty backlog, maybe I'll go see this thing called the sun everyone keeps telling me about. . .

Update today added some 'easy mode' to the game. Sucks because I'd LOVE a hard mode to go back through the game with right now.

I keep wanting to pick up this game. I haven't played a game in 3 months because of all the shit going on in the summer, but I loved DeS, and had an unhealthy obsession with DaS. I was really hoping that this game would suck so I didn't want it. Originally I had talked myself out of it because it didn't have co-op (could care less about PvP), but I think I am going to cave... just not at $60. Sigh, no point to this just thinking out loud. Mabye I'll finally go back and finish DaS on NG+, until price drops...

Originally Posted by snowsquirrel I keep wanting to pick up this game. I haven't played a game in 3 months because of all the shit going on in the summer, but I loved DeS, and had an unhealthy obsession with DaS. I was really hoping that this game would suck so I didn't want it. Originally I had talked myself out of it because it didn't have co-op (could care less about PvP), but I think I am going to cave... just not at $60. Sigh, no point to this just thinking out loud. Mabye I'll finally go back and finish DaS on NG+, until price drops...

Heh, not sure how long the price will hold but it's nearing three months now without a drop anywhere. By the time it does drop, the new games will probably be out. Now is really the time to play since the community is still very strong and has active updates. I just logged on to see how the new mode worked and had like four feedback messages waiting for my level 118 sorc lol. Pretty cool knowing that your pawn is immortalized in the system and people are using them daily.

Jodu, I know you were a big DaS guy. How would you rate the single player experience of Das to DD?

Oh, and can you finish my basement, so I can have some more alone time with my PS3.

~S

Originally Posted by snowsquirrel Jodu, I know you were a big DaS guy. How would you rate the single player experience of Das to DD?

It's a little hard to compare considering you have companions in DD, unless you go the assassin route of playing without pawns (totally doable BTW). So ignoring that I'd probably rate them equally.

For example, both have the realistic dark fantasy open world environments that take themselves seriously. While DD doesn't have mean spirited traps littering the world, it does have a few environmental traps and the Bluemoon Tower gave me a few oh shit moments when teetering on a ledge. What sets them apart is DaS always had its time of day frozen, while DD gives you the option of venturing only during the day when its safer. The real thrill comes from knowing where you need to go will take a day and being caught in the wilderness at night is truly creepy. Once that happens, you will catch glimpses of the same fear you'd find in DaS, which is simply brilliant design. If I had to rate one above the other, I'd give the nod to DD for the pure fact that I LOVE persistent worlds without many loading screens.

Then you have enemies, large and small, but DD integrates the same grappling system you'd find in Shadows of the Colossus. You can grapple anything, even arm-lock humans to allow your pawns to deliver devastating blows. For large enemies, the weak spots can prove hard to hit with arrows or fireballs, so you might decide to grab on to make sure they go down quick (they will enrage closer to death). If you're confident in aiming, however, you can just opt to loose arrows til the beast falls. Only spellcasters get any sort of lock-on reticle, so unlike DaS you're on your own to connect with melee/bows. Dodging mechanics are woven into abilities in DD, so there's a bit less skill required than in DaS where you need to dodge and then decide how to follow up. I like both combat systems equally, since they're both very engaging.

Lastly, the quests/story are both very minimalist but breathe life into the world as a whole. In DD, the quests are very much about exploration and telling a tale of locations in the world which I dig. There's still plenty of forgettable notice board quests but those are more of a bonus for playing the game, some of which you might not even complete your first playthrough due to the amount of items you need. More to the point, I never felt like I needed to grind anywhere to kill a specific creature. The main quests take you all around and the quests complete naturally. How you complete some quests are also very open-ended, so you get options such as 'do I want to keep this item because it helps me complete another quest or do I want to be loyal and follow instructions'. You don't get any of that in DaS, since the main quest is very direct and sidequests are more of a memory game of who wanted what. Again, love both equally.

This is quickly becoming long-winded, but the one unique factor to DD is the pawn system and it really has to be experienced first-hand to understand just how good it is. It provides the illusion of playing a online game without really being co-op. It's an experiment in social interaction and works brilliantly. If the game doesn't win GOTY from at least one outlet, it will be a crime.

Wow, great rundown. I am in.... gonna a put a solid week of work into the basement, then call it break time for a while, and pick up DD.

Cheers.

If you want, they're putting out a new demo on the 21st for PS3 only, which covers the prologue, character creation and up to the encampment storywise. You can play the demo and take your save straight into the full game if you like it. What I find interesting is once you leave the first town, you don't have to follow the story and can just go off exploring lol. Unless they put up some invisible walls, you'd theoretically have access to the entire game with only the harder monsters to stand in your way.

Well I'll get the demo. But at this point, I am convinced that I need to get the game. Just need to create time in the schedule.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Hard mode and speed runs coming in an expansion for Dragon's Dogma next year. Can't ing wait!

Yeah, I'll be buying a second copy since this is a GOTY style release. My guess is the added content will also be DLC on PSN, but to hell with digital IMO!

Expansion includes:

• Save transfer possible benefits: costume pack(s), 100k rift crystals, infinite Ferrystone
• Original game included free

So far it's coming out in Japan 4/25 this year; no release date here yet.

Early adopters get the arisen dlc for free

http://www.ps3trophies.org/news/news...-Detailed.html

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Originally Posted by bjstucker Early adopters get the arisen dlc for free http://www.ps3trophies.org/news/news...-Detailed.html

The wording is vague because I read it as you get the extra goodies as free, not the expansion. Guess we'll find out but I find it hard to believe this would go out as free to anyone who bought the game. Of course, it has held its value this far with almost no sales at all so maybe that is the justification. I think I'd still pick up the physical copy to support such an amazing game. Hate digital with a passion lol.

Originally Posted by Jodou The wording is vague because I read it as you get the extra goodies as free, not the expansion. Guess we'll find out but I find it hard to believe this would go out as free to anyone who bought the game. Of course, it has held its value this far with almost no sales at all so maybe that is the justification. I think I'd still pick up the physical copy to support such an amazing game. Hate digital with a passion lol.

You turned out to be right will probably sell my currently copy and preorder the new one seeing as it is the GOTY edition

Originally Posted by bjstucker You turned out to be right will probably sell my currently copy and preorder the new one seeing as it is the GOTY edition

My only question now is how will the content scale because I'm honestly ready to reroll to not only min/max stats, but make sure I'm not too overpowered for the new content. Forget what my level was, but the regular game was a joke by that point with only the udragon of any challenge.

My bet is either they will do it a la Borderlands 2 and tack it on thinking most people are mid leveled to it or maybe you can play it in hard with everything scaled to your level.

I'm falling in love with this game all over again. Turns out I was level 118 starting this and was stomping enemies until I met a giant cyclops that kicked my ass. He got me a couple times while I was trying to get a strat going to jump on him and keep him off my pawns, but DAMN it felt good coming off that adrenaline rush of beating him. Got a staff off him that was immediately an upgrade for my pawn and she's decked out in UR-dragon gear, all dragonforged so I can already tell there's going to be some badass loot in this expansion.

I should note that the loot is now like how Diablo II was with UNID rares in the fact that you don't know what you have until you spend rift crystals at the starting NPC to ID them. It's nice that they addressed the issue of having no use for rift crystals at all in the original game other than to hire pawns, or change the appearance of your own. At least the 400k or so I have now will go to some use.

Also, for anyone wondering how the hell to get to the island, you need to go to Cassardis at night and look for a woman on the docks. The blue quest marker will lead the way for the entire expansion from what I can tell, while the original red is there for any notice board quests you still have or take. I'm a little disappointed that the only thing Dark Arisen adds is the new massive dungeon and no other real improvements to gameplay or UI, but I suppose that's what sequels are for (Deep Down). So buyer beware, if you didn't enjoy the original, you won't like this either. It's also a bit pricey for what it offers but for the new customer it's totally worth the $40. From what I understand you will need to have beaten the game and be at least level 50 to access the new content, though. Just be aware that even I was having trouble downing the first boss at almost 120 levels, so maybe get a little UR dragon loot before attempting the Bitter Isle lol. (Or you can friend me on PSN and use my pawn for free )