You know I'd never actually heard that entire conversation up to the point where she goes for him. Shame it ended that way. In Origins, it's Leliana and Morrigan with Shale and Sten right after. Primarily for fun/interesting dialogue - Sten makes a great straight man with the stuff like talking to Dog and his love of cookies, for example. In DA2 it's Isabella, Aveline, and Varric, with Tallis stealing the show for what she's in the game for. On my second playthrough of both games I really feel like on balance, I really like all of the DA2 companions better than Origins. I think it does a better job getting across the idea these people all have relationships with each other, not just the P. The relationship between Isabella and Aveline I especially like.
The banter in Origins is so good that I ran across the trigger spots (e.g. the bridge to the provings/arena in Orzammar) over and over again with all possibe party compositions I especially liked a lot of the Allister/Morrigan stuff. As for DA2, I have to agree with Kestrel, the depth and complexity of the relationships between the companions was definitely improved. Agreed also on Isabella and Aveline - they gelled very well with my Rogue FemHawke. Great, badass all-female party!
^My go-to team is almost always Isabella, Avaline and Merrill. I think it wasn't until about half way through my first playthrough that I actually realised that with my female Hawke, I had an all female group 90% of the time. The character dynamics between them worked so well I can't help but wonder if they were designed to fit together. I've often felt that with the addition of a sarcastic femHawke, it almost feels like a family sitcom; you've got the serious older sister, the flirty sister, the younger innocent and sightly air-headed one and the tomboy who slices peoples throats and sleeps with two of the othe--OK, that analogy broke down a bit there, but you get the picture. By contrast, Fenris and Anders were always too self absorbed to fit terribly well. Sebastian was a waste of space, though Varric was always good to have around. Weird thing is, the same thing occurred with Mass Effect where I tended to favour Liara & Tali for my soldier femshep. In other news, the profiles for Dorian and Solas are up with the former (aside from being the first non-bad guy Tevinter mage EVER) is confirmed to be the gay male romantic interest. Interestingly, Solas is an apostate elf hedge mage. Till now I had assumed he was a rebel mage from one of the circles.
I preferred the character interactions from 2 as wll My primary team for my snarky FemRogue in DA2 (at least from the second chapter onwards) was Isabela, Aveline and Merril too. For the first chapter, Beth tended to be one of the party I liked Varric but the banter between Aveline and Isabela was good and I needed a mage. Other Hawkes varied though. For DAO, I went through the first game mixing and matching. Alistair was usually one of the group along with Leliana for rogue skils (I had a warrior for my primary run) though the only one I didn't particularly like was Oghren.
In DAO, my team was usually Morrigan and Leliana, who are also my favorite companions. I also liked Shale. Wynne was ok, but barely got used because I like Morrigan a lot more. Alistair and Oghren were used for a few story things, but I'm not a fan of either of them. I hate Zevran, so I basically never used him any time I played. In DA 2 it was a bit more diverse. My favorite companions from 2 are Varric and Isabella, but I also like Merril and Aveline was ok. My group was a mix depending on the situation. I liked Varric and Isabella, but when I needed variety I'd change Isabella to Aveline or merril. In DA 2 I disliked Fenris, and only used him once or twice, mostly when I needed a warrior for a quest and didn't want to bring Aveline because it was something she'd disprove of (I always wanted the good companions to like my character, so my party could change because of that).
I've never used Morrigan in DA:O. If you're playing a good-aligned character, which I always do, she bitches about every little good deed you do. So as soon as I make it to the party camp, I dump her and she rots there the rest of the game. I still give her gifts and get her approval up to 100% just like everyone else, though. My A-Team is always Alistair, Leliana and Wynne, since they all love it when you do good deeds. Only time I really switch it up is when I take along Oghren and Shale for the Deep Roads. I never really touch Sten either. I just don't "get" the Qunari, and his reactions to stuff is too unpredictable.
Sten was my favorite in DAO. Honest, straightforward, honorable, and a great straight man. It's kinda funny, my main party ended up exactly like that Sacred Ashes CGI trailer, with my Warden, Sten, Morrigan, and Leliana. I liked Alistair, too, but since my main Warden was also a sword-and-shield Warrior he was a bit redundant.
...and now the Solas profile/interview is up. I think that's the last of the companions at least, though I'm sure we'll be getting ones from Cullen, Leliana and possibly that scribe looking girl before long. Interesting bunch overall. I'm still trying to figure out what my preferred line-up will be as that'll dictate which class I choose to play first. On the one hand I really want to see how Varric and Cassandra get along, but on the other hand Sera and Iron Bull look like a very entertaining pairing... Initially I'd intended to go with a rogue since that's what I did with my first Warden & Hawk...but I'm thinking if I want to go with two rogue archers and a sword & shield warrior I probably ought to be a mage. Either way, I'm pretty sure it'll be a female qunari/vashoth.
Cassandra's probably going to be a 2H Warrior, right? If so, I'm going tank I think. Or vice versa Definitely male though, after FemHawke and my male Hero of Ferelden.
^Pretty sure she's been consistently shown as a sword & shield tank. Who knows though, maybe this time the companion's weapon assignments won't be as rigid as they were in DA2. Oh and Leliana's profile is up. I have to say, I really like where they've gone with her design this time around. The hooded look suits her surprisingly well. Not sure if I buy that she's aged 10 years though...but then I could say the same about the whole cast of DA2.
Here's hoping, some of their statements made it sound like they'd allow at least some of the customizational (if that's a word) freedom of DA:O.
You can defiantly change their armour, I'm just not 100% that applies to weapon types too. One of the things that always annoyed me about DA2 was how there was really only one way to spec each character without borking it. This usually meant that unless I was playing a tank, I'd pretty much always need Avaline and unless I was a mage healer, I'd pretty much always need Anders, unless I wanted to spend half my gold on health potions. Origins wasn't much better since each character had an *optimum* role and without a way to respec (not counting mods, obviously) most of them were really only good at one thing. In a way it was worse since in DA2 you at least got most of your companions fairly early on. In DAO, if you were doing a blind playthrough, it's possible you didn't get Wynne as a healer until three quarters of the way in because you left the circle tower till last. Then there was the oddly in balanced line-up, what with only two mages & rogues but three warriors (four if you count Shale) which if you're playing as a warrior too, makes things very lopsided.
Apologies for the double post, but I thought this was worth sharing. [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZdvO1rnn0[/yt] Looks like at least one of the four Inquisitor voices is going to be a lot of fun. I recall she was very funny as Traynor in the Citadel DLC. [EDIT] ...And now the Leliana interview is up, along with the reveal of Cullen. (fangirls, commence squeeing!) Honestly, it amazes me just how much of a following this guy has (mostly, it seems) among the female fans. I thought he was just a minor character who had exactly two scenes in Origins. Indeed, when he showed up in DA2 I didn't even twig it was the same character until my second or third playthrough. Not that I'm complaining. There are a few minor characters from Origins that I would have liked to have seen more (got my wish with Merrill) and they do seem to be doing something interesting with him this time around. Still curious what the Lion armour is about given that it's a very Orleasian design and he's a Fereldan. My first guess that it means he's Empress Celene's new champion (he's seen in the trailer next to Morrigan, also said to be a new addition to the Imperial court.) For those that didn't read Asunder, Celene did have a Champion called Ser Michel--basically, her chief bodyguard, honour bound to her side etc. etc,--and now he's...uh...gone. So there would be a job opening. On the other hand that sword looks like a Grey Warden design, so maybe the lion helmet has no such meaning.
Not a huge surprise. I've never known a Bioware game not to get pushed back. The only thing that made me raise my eyebrows a bit is that the pre-alpha footage looks damn near complete, so they seemed pretty secure in their release date. Maybe instead of doing things in phases (as I gather is the norm) they're making the game in huge chunks; getting one section/area done to completion before moving on? That could mean there's large sections that aren't even close to done and would explain the pushback. I'd hate to see a repeat of DA2 where act three was conspicuously barebones and rushed. Indeed, after the Arishok fight the whole final act felt like more of an epilogue than a climax.
Damn! The original release date was three days before my birthday. Now instead of asking for it for a birthday present and getting it for free, I'll probably have to buy it myself.
Actually another EA game (the new Battlefield game) has been delayed, though word is that's simply because the beta is supposedly a buggy mess. The timing seems a bit coincidental. Perhaps EA just did a Q2 project assessment or some-such.