Rndm

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Survival_Bonus Larger bonus= bigger damage buff and increased chance to find items

while I own a ps3 and still enjoy sacred on it, I've heard it isn't as prone to crashing on xbox live, and xbox owners get the carrier imp as well. So I have to vote for the 360

clear skies, hot weather (I like cloudy days, preferably accompanied by rain and with a temperate temperature). good part about going to work before the sun comes up, you're done before it gets too hot

I've hit the same roadblock, though if you try signing in without the verification it will ask you re-enter login info, and will then send a verification e-mail to your default address, so you don't have to change it (not that that's done me much good *grumble* had the email resent about 7 times and still haven't received it...).

I agree with stubbie about most of the gameplay elements (though I play on ps3 so I don't have to deal with pc controls/screen resolution problems). After playing quite a bit (as Reinhart) I have to say I really enjoy this game (reminds me a lot of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance), though it isn't without flaws. While I enjoy not having health potions, so far my healing ability seems subpar (recieve up to 50% of your health back -over time- before taking mods/abilities to increase healing) giving me a very slow heal during which I have to repeatedly dodge. So far though I've wished I DID have mana potions back, because while I think it's cool that you have to attack to regain mana, basically making your mana infinite, since you NEVER get an increase to your base mana pool of 100 sometimes you have to attack a bunch just to use one ability that will drain most of your pool, forcing you to use normal attacks again, which makes it harder to set up ability combos when Area of Effect effects disappear by the time you have mana for another ability (probably part of the strategic element of the game, but after playing X number of other hack 'n' slash rpgs it's frustrating to have to constantly attack to unleash one ability, then attack again, as opposed to baldur's gate/champions where level gain increases your mana pool, allowing you to cast more of your special abilities before restoring mana). Another problem I see with mana is that there is no out of battle regen, meaning you'll most likely enter many battles without the use of your special abilities (relatively minor, as you'll attack to restore it). One problem I've seen (with reinhart) is that abilities meant to have strategic use (entropy trap, circle of energy that looks like a clock) activate too slowly to warrant using in many cases, my example being the clock trap for Reinhart, that with a long activation time and inability to select a target location take away the "trap" element and turn it into a less desirable close range Area of Effect (by the time you see an enemy group they often are already running toward you, and are attacking you by the time reinhart's clock activates). As for multiplayer, I have not yet played MP, though what I have read is not good. You can join games over PSN/Live, however, all players share inventory when grouped (other players may sell your unequipped items) and only the host's data is saved at the end of the session (all other players must revert to pre-multiplayer saves to continue their game). Dialogue choices are made based on majority vote, which seems like it could be a good or bad depending on who you're playing with. All in all I think it's a good game (much better than I thought it'd be based on reviews of the demo, and a game I'd definitely suggest for those who enjoyed BG:DA), but those who want to play multiplayer online or are unsure about DS3 might want to wait for a price reduction/patch fixing common issues.

Controls actually fit fine on a gamepad (if they keep the oblivion layout), d-pad can hold 8 hotkeyed spells/weapons/potions or poisons, left trigger = block while right is attack, right bumper fires currently equipped spell, and one button leads to a menu w/multiple tabs, navigable via triggers, with submenus being selected with the control stick/d-pad. Other than that it's a button for jump, one to interact w/ everything, and one take out/sheath weapon. forget what left bumper/L1 does as I haven't played it in a while lol. All in all I think they did a great job with gamepad layout so far.

Pretty sure those are recolors of the set further down the page, and it looks like that's a CM patch only set.

Sounds pretty cool, might have to try it out. So are the classes in the expansion also useable in the main game? or is everything self contained in the expansion?

Hoping necro has permanent minions (die when damaged enough, not on a 1 minute timer X_X) and someone has scythes. Also, just me or does anyone else think it'd be awesome if (independent) Margonites are made a playable race in GW2 (dunno if the story allows for it as I haven't finished the nightfall campaign yet)?

Think I'm going to be a charr, as for class, so far I'm leaning toward necromancer (I currently have a level 7, though lacking any sort of coherent build/drive to look at every skill I have or can get to make a specific skill set, I grew bored with him), or whatever incarnation of the dervish appears (scyyyyyythes, oh and avatar forms). Hope they let you use more than just 8 skills at once, though it does make you think of and stick to a certain strategy/playstyle.

Fable is medieval (I'd suggest Fable: The Lost Chapters as it is still my favorite), Dragon Age:Origins & Dragon Age 2. Can't say as I know any steampunk games (.hack//G.U. series is set in a steampunk themed game). That's about all I can suggest, if I think of more I'll post them. Hope this helped.

I think if you plan to go melee constitution is a must, and you might want to take warding lore, as I've read there are ways to get insane amounts of shield hp and 100% shield protection. Also, I have a tg at 40-something and I have to say, spamming his Area of Effect spikes and using combat alert to give him a huge damage boost is fun, you also might want to take lost fusion focus/lore w/ just enough points to get jolting touch fully modded (faster regen times on CAs, plus damage reduction for the duration of the ability).

Playing as Lann/dual wielder, starts with dual swords, can use dual spears at later levels. As of now there are 3 characters/classes, Lann/dual wielder (dps), Fiona/1h and shield (tank), and Evie/staff or scythe (dps/support). Looks like they'll add Karok/giant pillars soon (not sure about his exact role, but I'm thinking it's dps with tanking capability), with Kai/bows being added later. The combat is awesome so far (like most rpgs, more abilities that may change your skill rotation are added every few levels), each class has it's own playstyle and approach to battles, and group dynamics are an important factor in the tougher boss battles (I believe), with items like the chain hook that allow one player to snare a boss and not allow it to move/bring it into melee range for other players. Most things in the game environment (pillars, huts, pots, trees, etc.) can be broken, leaving pieces that the player can pick up and use as a weapon (players and enemies alike can be injured by falling debris from destroyed environmental objects). All in all I really enjoy the combat. Kind of wish there were open hostile areas (none mission areas that allow for combat w/o a main objective) as it is mission based. I'd say the only thing I didn't like at first was that it is mission based, though I believe it winds up working a bit better for getting groups than games w/o missions (you can see what groups are going on a mission before you head out, giving you the option to join up with others or wait to see if anyone else will join). Oh, forgot to say that even if you repeat missions the level layout changes every time, making missions less repetetive than they'd be otherwise.

Anyone else tried it? I'm currently playing on a level 11 Lann-type character and so far it's pretty cool.

I rather agree about the combat, doesn't help that for some reason your companions like to run to random places whenever you're not actively controlling them, and that they sometimes don't follow tactics very well (maybe my tactics priorities are set up wrong but I swear no matter how I set them up I can't get aveline to tank very well). While I enjoyed it, I'd have to agree with what others have said, having enemies jump out of nowhere from many places around you ruins whatever tactical setup you had going (what use is it to block a doorway with your tank when enemies spawn and run up behind you?). My 2 biggest problems with it though are that it has no new game+ (I feel this game and origins are both perfectly suited to have it, and yet for some reason don't), and the cool mage ability (the spectral hands in the preview trailer AND they opening game sequence) is (semi-)inexplicably absent from the game. I'm hoping these problems are fixed with patches/in any upcoming dlc, but considering that they made an expansion and a bunch of add-ons for origins w/o adding new game+ I'm not going to hold my breath...

yep, kind of annoying that, mostly anders' conversations options where either you express interest or get 15+ rivalry with him. depending on what point you're at there are certain quests where you can find items that correspond to specific party members and start conversations that can let you choose to begin a romance/get more friendship points (ship in a bottle for isabela, halla carving for merill, and shield of the knight herself for aveline), if you haven't already I'd recommend taking whomever you want to romance with you and go explore the different areas, after certain fights/certain choices on none-story quests you can get a few points of friendship with them, though it might also be that you're not far enough in to see the effects of a romance yet (I think you start it in the first act [simply flatter a party member], then it progresses in the second act, 'til it's a fully realized romance in the third act). So if you're still in the first act or the beginning of the second I wouldn't worry. Also, if you go on the quest Forbidden Knowledge don't bring merill, as completing the objectives for the quest will gain rivalry for her. Although, I've read you can have a "rivalmance" with character's who've become rivals as opposed to friends, though I haven't tried it myself. Though for gaining friendship/rivalry I'd suggest keeping characters' likes/dislikes in mind when doing quests (ex: fenris with mages on a "save mages" quest will most likely result in gaining his rivalry, whereas taking anders or merill will gain their friendship etc.). What I do if I absolutely want to get friendship/rivalry is save and try a quest and reload if I don't get the outcome I want (cheating a bit but oh well).

yes, it gets better when you get more skills (I'm back and forth about skill upgrades, would rather have all the skill upgrades combined into an end-of-skill-tree skill so as to not spend half of my points to give my skills good range, group damage/control, etc.) though I'd say that it's slightly less tactical than origins, and (for me at least) there was a bigger jump in difficulty going from normal to hard difficulty (though I'm playing as a force/blood mage, which means I have anders healing, and no matter how much I micromanage it seems like the minute I switch characters he runs right into a group of enemies and gets himself killed *sigh*). Also, after playing a two hand warrior, I'd say get all skills in your 2 handed tree, and only get the upgrades that decrease skill cooldown for now, as well as deep breath (5% stamina regen, no cooldown other than waiting for the animation) and second wind with both upgrades (100% stamina regen that also shortens all of your other cooldowns, on a 45 sec cooldown if you have both upgrades). Also, I found that if you want to tear through groups quickly Berserker/Reaver is great, take the stamina penalty reducing upgrade for berserk, as well as assault w/upgrade (huge attack speed increase) with the last skill in the reaver tree (another big attack speed increase whenever your character kills an enemy) and cleave (extra damage for 10-15 seconds). At the end of the story I was tearing through small groups in seconds with this. Also, forgot to say, if you plan to pursue friendship with Isabela/Sebastian make sure they either never leave your group or are never in it, as there's a glitch that makes their friendship buffs actually -permanently- subtract from Hawke's attack speed/damage resistance whenever they leave the group.

I'd play with the "don't display helmet" option turned on if you're a mage, they still have some funny looking headgear. Not much advice for you, other than to start on normal and don't spend gold on armor/weapons right at the beginning, as you'll find a good weapon/gear set as a drop/during different quests in each section of the game. And always keep a rogue in your party (and I'd level their cunning attribute up before dexterity so they can pick whatever locked chests you encounter). Chest ranks are simple-moderate-complex-master, requiring 10-20-30-40 cunning to unlock. Think the chests are Simple to moderate in section 1, moderate-complex in section 2, and complex-master in section 3. If you're playing a mage and are on Hard or Nightmare difficulty you might want to be the party healer as so far on hard I've found Anders' healing to be substandard.

the same reason you do it in sacred but without the allure of set/legendary items? Personally I'd probably do some grinding to try and "complete" a certain character build, like how in sacred by level 75 I've pretty much become set in that character's playstyle but I still level them up to get the rest of my modification points and skill mastery etc. (though I haven't really done that much more leveleing as my highest level char. is 78 I believe). That being said I still haven't played it so I don't really know.

I think I have nearly a full set of niokaste's and a few pieces of the celestial set in that level range, if you still need them next time I'm on I'll trade 'em all to ya (actually going endijan on my EP/BFG serpahim).

so one of the only games I've seen with a level cap higher than sacred, followed by star ocean: till the end of time. Wait, so all your equipment stops getting better way before you reach max level (or even a pretty high level)? huh

actually I usually enjoy 3rd person games more, just heard that there were problems with camera control and whatnot, sounds really cool so far though. Level 125 and 151 characters?! What's the level cap?

Can go ahead and add me, haven't played sacred in a while, will help if I'm on though. PSN: Rambles01

I loved Elder Scrolls IV, this is just 3rd person though right? Thinking about getting the royal edition, heard mostly mixed things about it though.

Love DA2, only 2 things disappoint me, no new game+ (when both Mass Effect & ME2 had it, DA2 is one game that should have it), and the mage ability (the one in the preview vid AND the first battle with the mage, the magic claws ripping enemies apart) isn't actually available as a usable ability. Hoping these things are fixed via DLC, other than that think it's awesome. Got dungeon siege: throne of agony for psp, want to try DS3 now, and anyone hear about a release date for Torchlight 2?