Dragon Age Promo Items Go Free

[Creator002]

GODDAMNIT! I just recently beat Dragon Age 2 again in order to make another save for Dragon Age 3. Ah well, I'll probably play it a few months before Dragon Age 3 comes out anyway. Nice gesture from BioWare/EA.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

This gives me an excuse to finish my Awakening playthrough. Now if they do this for Mass Effect then my god I just don't know.

 

[skywolfblue]

Nice!

Sadly I play on a secondary (offline) account (my brother technically has the main Xbox live gold account) for most of my single-player games. Dragon Age 2 seems to require online for it's items to work. So I'd have to create new characters on my brother's account. That makes me a little sad, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

At least it looks like the DA1 stuff will work offline.

 

[Starke]

Won't these items unbalance the gameplay?

I'm always skeptical of DLC items after having gotten a few for DA:O. I had my rouge using that Warden Commander armor and I felt that it totally unbalanced the game. With the backstab damage bonus from that armor combined with other backstab enhancing items I had Liliana, whom was in my party for the locks and traps, doing damage comparable to my main warrior while being very well protected. I feel like that, and the few other DLC items I had (ahem, Starfang) enabled me to decimate that game on HARD and wish I had played on NIGHTMARE.

You may be confusing DLC equipment with pre-order fluff. Unless the items are stated to explicitly scale with level, a lot of these would be nothing more than beginner trinkets, or losing any semblance of their effectiveness by the time you get a third or halfway through.

All of these promo items were available from either pre-orders or playing the online tie-in games, and thus immediately available from the start, and largely were designed around that fact.

He is, but he's not wrong. The pre-order items did tend to be balanced for mid to late game, so your memory band or wolf's tooth amulet would be perminantly bolted to your equipment slots for at least the first 60 or so hours of DAO.

Chiming in: yes, a little. Then again, at this point after the release, most of the people getting this stuff will have probably already played the game once or even a few times without them so... grind reduction/little boost = not unwelcome. I don't think any one platform had access to ALL of them at launch at once (they kinda sprinkled them here and there) - unless maybe the PC folks.

Honestly, given that they're single player only, balance can afford to be a bit wonky in these games to begin with. Every DLC release was loaded down with gear that would completely mutilate balance in the main game, and while the promo items weren't as egregious, they still stand head and shoulders above the rest.

I mean, if you're playing a rogue in DA2, if you've got it, the Ser Clarke armor is flat out the best choice for you at least until the second act. The same goes for the Blood Dragon Armor if you're a Warrior. This is in place of armor sets you need to scrounge up through the various acts (and as I recall the Dead Space armor was actually better than the top tier armor set in Act 1).

Does it actually harm the game? Maybe, maybe not, but it does bjork the game balance, such as it is.

Also, for those wondering, the Ser Clarke armor, Blood Dragon, and the CE items were not included in this release. So, if you missed out on those, they're still gone. :\

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Won't these items unbalance the gameplay?

I'm always skeptical of DLC items after having gotten a few for DA:O. I had my rouge using that Warden Commander armor and I felt that it totally unbalanced the game. With the backstab damage bonus from that armor combined with other backstab enhancing items I had Liliana, whom was in my party for the locks and traps, doing damage comparable to my main warrior while being very well protected. I feel like that, and the few other DLC items I had (ahem, Starfang) enabled me to decimate that game on HARD and wish I had played on NIGHTMARE.

You may be confusing DLC equipment with pre-order fluff. Unless the items are stated to explicitly scale with level, a lot of these would be nothing more than beginner trinkets, or losing any semblance of their effectiveness by the time you get a third or halfway through.

All of these promo items were available from either pre-orders or playing the online tie-in games, and thus immediately available from the start, and largely were designed around that fact.

He is, but he's not wrong. The pre-order items did tend to be balanced for mid to late game, so your memory band or wolf's tooth amulet would be perminantly bolted to your equipment slots for at least the first 60 or so hours of DAO.

Chiming in: yes, a little. Then again, at this point after the release, most of the people getting this stuff will have probably already played the game once or even a few times without them so... grind reduction/little boost = not unwelcome. I don't think any one platform had access to ALL of them at launch at once (they kinda sprinkled them here and there) - unless maybe the PC folks.

Honestly, given that they're single player only, balance can afford to be a bit wonky in these games to begin with. Every DLC release was loaded down with gear that would completely mutilate balance in the main game, and while the promo items weren't as egregious, they still stand head and shoulders above the rest.

I mean, if you're playing a rogue in DA2, if you've got it, the Ser Clarke armor is flat out the best choice for you at least until the second act. The same goes for the Blood Dragon Armor if you're a Warrior. This is in place of armor sets you need to scrounge up through the various acts (and as I recall the Dead Space armor was actually better than the top tier armor set in Act 1).

Does it actually harm the game? Maybe, maybe not, but it does bjork the game balance, such as it is.

Also, for those wondering, the Ser Clarke armor, Blood Dragon, and the CE items were not included in this release. So, if you missed out on those, they're still gone. :\

Right. Totally agree. In a single player environment the balance can be shifted at the player's fancy. If you want hard, crank it up a notch and don't play with the item packs (they install and uninstall with ease on the PS3 at least - or heck you can just not open the item chests in the game with the content installed if you have self control). If you want to have a breezy run through and dress up your character then off you go. The option is yours and you are the only one who will be impacted by it in single player so... yeah.

Personally, I like having the option to take or leave. More options is something I like and then I can decide what I want of the various offerings for the style of play I want at any given moment.

 

[putowtin]

sweet!

Freeeeeeeeebies! (anad I've just started a new playthrough, good timing me thinks)