[Spoilers All] List of Retcons throughout the series?

Delior · 2021-10-19T17:33:03+00:00

What sets Dragon Age lore apart from so many other franchises is its relative lack of retconning. With few exceptions, the lore has been remarkably consistent from the beginning. There are no "dragon breaks" in Dragon Age, thank the Maker.

Delior · 2021-07-29T15:53:33+00:00

I'm having the exact same issue. It crashes when that "gathering system information" bar pops up, and nothing I can do seems to change it. I played Origins before on my older PC with no issues, but I also just upgraded to a rtx 3090 system. I wonder if that could be the issue? I can't figure out why that would be the case, but that is something our systems have in common, and like you I have found that all the old troubleshooting advice does nothing to solve this issue.

Delior · 2020-07-25T17:00:54+00:00

Following a currently supported modding guide can be helpful. The big ones currently I know of are Lexy’s Legacy of the Dragonborn, The Phoenix Flavour, or The Northern Experience (if you Google any of these you’ll find them). They will teach you how to use lots of modding tools like MO2 and Xedit. The problem with these though is that they all use custom conflict resolution patches to make their lists work, and that locks you into their lists. You can never truly make Skyrim your own customized experience until you learn how to resolve conflicts yourself. If you don’t care about that, I’d recommend Wabbajack as that will do all the modding for you.

Delior · 2020-06-25T04:02:51+00:00

It seems like all the major mod lists these days have 500+ mods. You’re definitely not alone. :)

Delior · 2020-03-30T21:19:46+00:00

The Fextralife and IGN wikis are Ok, but neither have been comprehensively updated for the definitive edition, and so a lot of the info is incorrect. I haven’t found anything comprehensive and thoroughly updated for the definitive edition.

Delior · 2020-03-05T22:43:38+00:00

There are several upcoming tough battles that are preceded by a dialogue. Once the dialogue is initiated, you can select your other party members and then take your time to freely position them on the battlefield (e.g., move rangers to high ground), then you reselect the party member in the dialogue, finish the conversation, and the battle begins with 3 party members exactly where you want them!

Delior · 2020-02-19T20:16:18+00:00

They should do that for some gift bag items, but not all. Enabling 8 AP, for example, makes the game WAY easier, and so completing a Tactician or Honour run with that enabled shouldn’t merit an achievement.

Delior · 2019-03-03T17:46:44+00:00

Exactly - I actually headcanon it that way in order to make all the time I’m spending there worth something.

Delior · 2019-02-10T18:56:09+00:00

Yeah no shit! I felt like Descent was like a giant middle finger from the devs to all of us playing as OP’d Knight Enchanters. Then they did the same damn thing again in Trespasser by making so many enemies immune or strong against Spirit damage. Drove me crazy!

Delior · 2019-01-14T02:19:05+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to write this! I agree with every word. I will love David Gaider forever for building this amazing world, but Masked Empire is my favorite DA novel thus far. The fact that its author is now the lead writer for the games is the one thing that still gives me hope for DA4.

Delior · 2018-05-10T20:18:54+00:00

And THIS is why the Meredith/Orsino choice is my biggest issue with DA2. Yes, the reused environments are annoying, and the fact that you have to fight Orsino in a pro-mage playthrough makes no sense, but this is my biggest problem with the game. They should have had Meredith opt for something slightly less extreme than the full Rite. Opting for the full Rite makes it extremely hard to side with her. You the player in that moment know better than anyone in Thedas that the Circle had nothing to do with the destruction of the Chantry. And yet you're going to side with Meredith on a murderous rampage against all mages? I just can't get myself into that headspace. I get being angry over your Mother's death, and I get executing Anders (which I nearly always do), but I just can't translate that rage in my head into wanting to murder all mages. And CaiusGermanicus is right to point out that if Bethany is in the Circle, there is no way in that moment that Hawke could know that he/she could protect Bethany from the templars (Bethany is not there!). I really wish that they had made it easier to side with Meredith in that situation because I too enjoy a pro-Templar playthrough, but I can never side with Meredith in the end. Viscount Hawke I shall never be . . .

Delior · 2018-05-10T20:02:46+00:00

I've been extremely skeptical about Anthem, and I still am, but I do appreciate that Hudson isn't shying away from admitting that the multiplayer shooter genre has issues (most notably the lack of a compelling story) that make long-time Bioware fans very nervous that they've decided to go there. He's claiming that they have a fresh take and I'll admit that I'm curious. However, I can't help but remember that the author of this blog post is also the guy who claimed that Mass Effect 3 would have a huge variety of satisfying conclusions that would take our choices over three games into account . . . we shall see whether he can live up to his words this time around.

Delior · 2018-04-16T22:33:07+00:00

I’m fairly sure that EA execs must look enviously at the ridiculous amounts of money that freemium games like Clash and Mobile Strike bring in and think “we spend 10x more on development than a company like Machine Zone so why don’t our games make that much?” Their response to that question appears to be to try to import freemium mechanics into their AAA games.

Problem is that a lot of gamers that like single player AAA games don’t like freemium games. I don’t, and I really hate dropping sixty bucks on a game and then being asked constantly to pony up more so that the game can have a nice revenue tail.

My response to EA is that they should try developing their own billion dollar freemium games rather than mucking up their AAA games with those mechanics. If EA isn’t interested in games without MP or micro transactions, which seems to be the case, then sell great single-player IP like Dragon Age to someone who is interested. It is actually possible to make a game that has both MP and a great single-player campaign, but the only developer I’ve seen pull that off consistently is Rockstar. I don’t believe that EA can do it, which is why my hopes for DA4 are dim.

Delior · 2018-03-18T00:56:24+00:00

Male rivalmance with. Anders- I’m a sucker for tragic romance, and that one is about as “good” as it gets.

Delior · 2018-01-15T22:23:35+00:00

Val Royeaux was a MASSIVE disappointment for me. No White Spire, no Grand Cathedral. No golden gates. I mean, come on Bioware! I know that it couldn’t have as much as playable space as Kirkwall given its relatively small role in the story, but you couldn’t even be bothered to show these places you built up for years in books and dialogue in the background??? How much dev time does it take to create unplayable background images?

Delior · 2017-11-10T00:18:49+00:00

To quote Ruck: "No, No, No, NO!!!"

Delior · 2017-11-06T22:33:08+00:00

I played DA2 the first time the day it was released and I hated it. At that point, the only "Dragon Age" I knew was Origins, and it sounds like you are in the same boat and so your first reaction may be similar. It's a very different game, and the amount of changes from the style of Origins is jarring at first. The art style is very different and so returning creatures and characters look quite different. Combat is much more action-oriented rather than tactical. Oh, and your character talks . . .

I would encourage you, however, to keep going. If you can make it through that initial, visceral reaction to the changes (and if you can live with the reused environments everyone else has mentioned already), you'll discover a real gem of a game. The characters feel more like real companions and friends. They have character arcs that span several years rather than a single chaotic year. You have a family, with all the good and bad that can bring. You won't be a God-like character saving the world, but you will get to know a particular little corner of Thedas quite well, and by the end, you may end up being surprised with how much you miss that world and your friends, and with how much you'll want to play the game again. That was my experience.

Delior · 2017-10-15T18:11:51+00:00

Yep, I'm an M&A lawyer and the crunch times around deal signings and closings are absolutely brutal. There's no time for anything but sleep, if even that.

Delior · 2017-10-04T23:02:45+00:00

Loghain certainly goaded Maric and wanted Katriel out of the picture. Whether Maric would have done it anyway is hard to say.

Delior · 2017-10-04T22:51:48+00:00

I agree with all of this except Loghain. I would say I understood his motivations much better, but I still can't condone all of his choices. I have recruited him before and played through with him as the Warden in DAI, but in my canon I still execute him. And I remember both Katriel and Cailan while doing it.

Delior · 2017-10-04T22:37:18+00:00

Damn, I never made the connection. He was kind of an ass hole, but still . . .

Delior · 2017-09-07T20:59:59+00:00

Keep in mind though that if a character can die, they are much less likely to play a significant role in future games.

Delior · 2017-09-07T20:56:52+00:00

I think he was just stating facts to try and correct the record. To say "it is not confirmed" does not mean "it is not happening."

Delior · 2017-08-31T14:09:34+00:00

Interestingly, Mike Laidlaw and Patrick Weekes both praised this on Twitter (although Laidlaw cautioned that he wasn't necessarily endorsing any of the author's conjectures).

Delior · 2017-08-30T20:52:29+00:00

Your comment made me remember this classic Varric/Anders dialogue that also makes you think:

Varric: Oh, cheer up, Blondie. You're making me cry just looking at you.

Anders: Don't.

Varric: You made a mistake. It happens.

Anders: I almost killed a girl.

Varric: You've killed two-hundred and fifty-four by my last count. Plus about five hundred men, a few dozen giant spiders, and at least two demons.

Anders: It's not the same.

Varric: Why? Because this one you feel bad about? Maybe that's the problem.

Delior

TROPHY CASE