Return to Ostagar DLC for Dragon Age available now; it's pretty good.
This morning, the Return to Ostagar DLC for Dragon Age: Origins became available on Xbox Live, after over a week-long delay. The PC version should be available tonight, if it's not already, and the PS3 version is on its way in the near future. Apparently, Bioware doesn't really want you to know when to expect it.
I had some Microsoft points from Christmas, so I decided to plug them into DA:O content. I got Warden's Keep, which was a fun experience that supplies some utility to the game at large. There's new abilities, new items, and a party treasure chest for holding onto things without them taking up inventory. The story felt a bit less like filler than the one in Stone Prisoner with the random boss encounter, but it's worth a purchase just for the sake of having armor that looks cooler than the stock, recolored leather, chain, plate, etc.
Then, I played through Return to Ostagar. It has far fewer "utility" purposes, aside from allowing you to revisit things you potentially missed in your first time through the place. Notably, that includes adding the dog to your party and opening a chest by the mage's tent full of goodies (though nothing important). The story of the DLC has you returning to Ostagar for memorial purposes, as well as securing certain important documents that I have yet to see have an impact on the game at large (though it could, easily). It really is a lot of fluff, with some more chances to level up in a re-dressing of an area you've already been through, plus a small dungeon nearly identical to the one from the Dalish origin story.
To put it simply, the DLC might give you about an hour and a half worth of play time, as well as some new quips from your companions (mostly Alistair), a new gift for Alistair, and a rad set of armor and weaponry (that will just barely continue to be useful at the end of the game). For $5, it's worth it, if you liked the whole game; it adds an extra bit of content to lengthen that somehow enthralling story.
Then, this happened. The patch breaks specializations, and now the DLC has been removed from XBL until the issue is fixed. Sucks, because my specializations are all locked again, and every time the game is restarted, any that I've unlocked a second time are re-locked.
Guess there's just bugs everywhere.
that sucks! i can't wait to play some new content~~ \o/
mkay,bioware needs to seriously get to debugging this damn game. I dont think it would be terribly hard to release a patch to fix some of the major issues. I mean I really didn't think the level advance glitch or the unlimited number of stat points would still be in that game a month after it was released.
I don't really mind all the random glitches you don't normally come across without looking for.
It's just that I can't play Dragon Age right now because they've broken my game with that patch. It's not all bad, though, now I'm discovering glitches in Mass Effect, which is also a fantastic game. Turns out this guy I need to talk to for this one quest is already dead from the end of another quest. HMMM.
But seriously, I can't put down Mass Effect, now that I've found a class that suits my play style.
I've got my panties in a twist because i've run into two major "cant continue advancing through the game" glitches. And both times I had invested a little over four hours. So im sort of in a kerfuffle with bioware,without them knowing.
I never really thought much about mass effect until I saw the commercials for mass effect 2. im sort of interested but im a little tired of bioware and scifi together after playing kotor 2 a few weeks ago.
kotor 2 was actually done by Obsidian, who is also working on the next Fallout game. They did a lot of sequels to Bioware classics back in the day, including a few Baldur's Gate games and Neverwinter Nights 2.
Mass Effect is its own beast altogether. It's an RPG, but your character has a constant name and personality, which you merely guide through the game, rather than defining everything about. So, you might choose the response "Sounds good," and Shepard (the player character) will say, "If you've got it under control, then why do you need me?" or something that is generally a positive acknowledgment of the dialogue at hand. Then, the RPG elements only come into play as a extension of the third person shooting mechanics, so you can level up stats that only affect the way you play the game. If you like pistols a lot, you'll pour points into pistols. If you like to do psychic attacks, you can increase the range of your AoE blasts.
The game is quite good. It feels like I'm playing Battlestar Wars Trek Firefly Bebop, in the best way possible.
Ah,I really should save more.
And whoa,I didnt know obsidian made kotor2!
Also how did you lose 4 hours in Dragon Age? You should save much more often. (I learned my lesson there the hard way as soon as I started playing Bioware games)
It's out again, by the way. Seems they've fixed all the bugs and shit, so if you want it, you can get it.
It's probably not really worth your time, though.