Dragons Dogma

[Fiach]

I haven't paid much attention to this game, while being aware of it, it just hadnt grabbed me, I thought it would just be riding around on a dragon like Panzar Dragoon Orta, but these  links put it on my radar big time. It has a very unusual MP component, it has regular MP, but your character has two helpers and people online can "rent" them to help with difficult fights using an in game gold system called Rift Credits, they come back with what ever XP and loot they gained, plus if it was a dungeon that you havent visited, they will advise you on tactics to deal with the fights there.

http://www.destructoid.com/preview-dragon-s-dogma-is-gooooood-226258.phtml

Some Sorceror gameplay/powers:

Dragon's Dogma - Sorcerer Gameplay - OXM

[Binnatics]

It's not my type of game, but that MP component is indeed interesting. Like having your own 'bots' gaining experience but in a different and useful way.

That tornado is massive :) :-X

[PZ]

Graphics are excellent!   :-X  Like Binn, not exactly my favorite style of game; I've tried RPGs and a game or two that have sorcery as the foundation, but for a reason unknown to me, they do not hold my interest for too long.  I guess I have a rather narrow range of gaming interests  :-()

[Fiach]

I got to play the demo today and I was impressed with the partner AI, they do give advice and guide you through a dungeon, instead of following the glowing breadcrumbs, there are times that they will point out stuff you can use like explosive barrels, which you can pick up and throw.

In combat they will grab enemies and say stuff like "I've got him, kill him while he cant move!", there was aboss fight at the end against a creature that was half lion, half something else and their combat was pretty impressive against it, jumping on its back and grabbing the non lion part, shouting stuff like ..."I've silenced its magic, now's your chance to hit  it!"

Its a very good looking game for a console too.

Gamestop are doing some quite excellent DLC for pre orders, probably the best pre order DLC I have seen for a game.

[Fiach]

Been playing this for about 20 hours, its feckin hard going. You really need to grind levels to gt anywhere, I'm still in the first area after this length of time.

Its a good looking game, the story is OK, but I think the main point to the game is exploration and combat.

The battles are pretty time consuming, even just for bandits you meet on the road and at lower levels you need to save after every encounter. There is a day/night cycle, with night being a real pain in the arse, where you get lots of large groups of monsters spawning all over the place, which make the more cautious player run around and grind XP during the day time and run back to an inn to rest until the next day.

Makes me sound like a pu$$y, but thats OK, the fact that you can have only one feckin save and the game sometimes overwrites it at terribly inconvenient times, can cause you to lose alot of play time if you have to reset to the checkpoint last time you satyed at an inn.

This is the first game I bought specifically for the console, The PS3 allows you to copy saves, where as you cannot copy the 360 save files, so as I have it on PS3, I can at least copy my save file as a back up.

While I am enjoying the game, I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. There is no fast travel, there is no indication of enemies level until they hand you your arse and you have to reload, alot of battles you get into, just as you are getting to the end, you can get another bunch of enemies jump into the action as well. Quests give no indication as to what level you should be, until you get your a$$ handed to you, you do not know whats going to happen, but sure as Rage inflicts rage for Binn ( >:D), the feckin game will autosave after you take the quest, making you have to revert to the inn save from a good while earlier, if the quest proves too difficult.

Good game, but hard to recommend.

[KingRat]

Well, I'm still playing it :)

Started a new game on my 4th xbox profile the other day and hit lvl 104 last night. Have 3 other characters lvls 200, 198 & 192. The Dark Arisen expansion fixed a lot of issues people had with the main game. Ferrystones are cheaper now, portcrystals can be found while exploring and you can buy/sell from inventory.
Bitterblack Isle opened up a whole new can of worms when it comes to difficulty and lvl 50 is suggested start point. What keeps me playing this game are the combat mechanics, they are some of the best I've ever played. Skyrim is a good game, but if it used these combat mechanics it would be great...just saying ;)

[Art Blade]

hey man  :) always good for a surprise.. showing up just in time before everyone thinks you've buggered off for good. Good to see you, KingRat -- I'd love to see you around a tad more often, though :-()

[PZ]

Nice to see you again, KingRat - enjoy the game!

[KingRat]

Nice to see you again, KingRat - enjoy the game!

I am, especially since they finally released it on PC last Jan. Modders have done some w@&k on it too, although I haven't used any yet.