#ray plays datv

[asolitaryrose]

great. that's just great.

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜

Corinne: "PC has been a priority for us! It’s heartening to see so many PC champions on the team working hard to make this a great experience" [source]

Corinne: "Enjoy shield-bashing and drop-kicking hurlocks off the ramparts! Don’t forget to toss that shield around too" [source]

User: "I love that they chose a no mage party to showcase. 😂 The two companions thing had me a little worried that I’d have to take a warrior and a mage into battle with my Rook rogue all the time." / Corinne: "We know players get attached to certain characters, so while there are benefits to having one of each class, it’s completely viable and intended that you can find synergies with a variety of party comps" [source]

Each Background has a specific last name, very much inspired by the approach in Origins [source]

Corinne: "We’ve put a lot of effort into ensuring our gameplay and customized difficulty options allow players to find something comfortable and engaging for themselves. I’m sure you’ll do great! It was one of the biggest challenges in designing the combat system, as we know the Dragon Age player-base has a wide range of motivations and expectations." [source]

Corinne mentioned to a user who said that they prefer a warrior/mage experience but without all the slash and spin of rogue attacks that they might enjoy the Warrior Reaper spec [source]

Hrungr noticed that it looks like you can hide your armor as well as your helmet [source]

Mary: "True fact: For the longest time, in the DA writers' pit, we had "It has been __ (usually 0) days since someone mentioned cannibalism" on the whiteboard." [source]

Gabe, posting the release date reveal trailer: "My friends, I have made an effort to avoid shilling too much here so that when I do, it'll be worth it. I love this game and the team that brought it to life so much." [source]

Bryce: "if I may workpost for a sec, I'm forever grateful for days like today when I get to gush about dragon age with the fans this community is so welcoming and my heart is so full today 💜" [source]

The ray-tracing NVIDIA video from earlier this week that showed mage combat was showing early-on mage combat [source]

Blair: "the achievement names include some personal career highlights for me." [source]

Trick on the podcast: "The [DA:TV game] writers were pretty tapped with other stuff at the time, sadly, but I think it came together great." [source]

Though neither option is wrong or evil, making Cole more human in DA:I leaves him sadder [source]

John: "honestly it’s a very strange feeling to go from a half decade of ‘dragon age? maaaaybe we’re making a new one? tee hee’ to actually being able to talk about it" [source]

John: "been busy all day so I just got to read some of the reactions to the DATV combat showcase. I am incredibly proud of this team and I’m thrilled to see people excited about it. even after spending every day with it for the last 5 years I still love playing it." [source]

John: "being creative director means i work with pretty much every single department and team on the project. everyone brings creativity and innovation to their roles and the project would be nothing without them (and it)" [source]

John: "am I playing our game for fun on a Friday night, I certainly am. romancing my own companion to do one last check to make sure all the conditionals work. folks it is a very strange thing" [source, two]

[emedeme]

Can you go share more of your Rook?

HI NON, THANKS FOR ASKING ABOUT HIM!!!

This is Zale Mercar (26) my Shadow Dragon rogue Rook 💕 He's a freaking ray of sunshine and I love him so much - he's funny and charming and forever an optimist. So when he finally cracked it hurt even worse because he's always trying to find a positive angle for everything!

Even if the game gives you some Dalish dialogue options if you play an elf, I hc him as a city elf and always try to play him like that (and I've been missing city elves from DAO!). So while he respects the elven heritage and wants to learn more about it and preserve elven history, he doesn't personally connect with it. Also, he's a city rat through and through and not really a nature person 😂

He romanced Harding (very unexpected! He's bi and almost romanced Davrin or Taash at some point) and they are very silly and roguish together, amazing chemistry 💕 Also, he changed his hairstyle like 3 or 4 times during the game because this boyo is fashionable (and we got a transformation mirror now)

He's been briefly featured in my DATV-related strips and I have like 3 wips with him--- but I was consumed by EPIC/Greek myth again and I paused them :_) Here's Zale with his best bro Davrin:

[brighterworlds-blog-blog]

Ray and Paul of @sadboxrocks playing live on DATV in Dayton! #Sadbox #sadboxband #rock #Dayton #rockandroll #live #livemusic #music #drums #guitar (at DATV) https://www.instagram.com/p/Byd1Ez6D6v-/?igshid=wwgl5fz018hv

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

anyway i think stalgard is the most under-rated and under-appreciated npc in veilguard

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

after completing my first playthrough of dragon age: the veilguard, my principle takeaways are:

1) the things this game does well, it does extremely well, and those successes do a lot to make up for the game’s shortcomings. i’d die and also kill for my rook, no one touch my short queer elf son or his geriatric soulmate;

2) this is a game gift-wrapped for nerds who also really enjoy dr. pimple-popper’s youtube channel.

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

since when are the antivan crows this nice??

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

"he has your eyes!"

parenthood 😌

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

okay look i know it's self indulgent, i know no one else actually cares, but i'm stupidly fond of my rooks and i wish i could make them all interact with each other, because while i firmly believe hakim mercar (bottom) and sen thorne (top) would get on like a house on fire, esha de riva is in his 30s and is very tired, and he would like to go back to treviso and have a nap

he and i have that in common

(also, special guest appearance by my hawkes, mordred and aristide. do i have any pals who remember these guys? 🥹 i had to go mining through my old blog to find them since i no longer have the computer with their save files. rip. miss those idiots.)

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

today’s hot take: the lucanis romance is an inconsistent hot mess, and opportunities to actually dig down into his history with the crows—what do you mean you used to resent catarina? why? talk to me about it!!—are passed up in favour of… more cut scenes about cooking and coffee.

i really wanted to like his character! i can see the outlines of what his character could have been each time i boot up the game or watch videos of other people’s playthroughs. it’s a real shame the finished product is so, well. unfinished.

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

truly i'm one of those people who plays through rpgs multiple times and amasses a small legion of original character protagonists with such varied backstories and personalities that i could probably relaunch the game just with my cast of characters

but man, i'm so attached to my very first rook, i'm not sure how i'm supposed to move on from him

he's such a cutie. he suffers so prettily. he's definitely working through his daddy issues by hooking up with emmrich (he probably tried shooting his shot with varric too, at some point in the past, and was gently let down). he's doggedly determined to route the venatori out of minrathous one dock town street at a time. top surgery scars!!! also canonically terrified of heights. a short king.

i'm willing to forgive a lot of the crap about this game that grinds my gears because of just how much work was put into making rook feel like a person i'd take a bullet for.

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

my kingdom for datv dlc that is just varric’s wake, where in addition to rook you get to play both hawke (if they’re alive) and the inquisitor and get to reconnect with all your old friends/companions 🥲

like i totally get why this isn’t going to happen, but this really is the perfect in-game excuse to get everyone back together again. it could be done! like with the citadel dlc in mass effect!!

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

@frankensteined asked for screenshots of my special little guy (literally as short as i could make him in game) so here he is!

hakim! my scrappy city elf mage and shadow dragon, who grew up practicing cartwheels in the streets of minrathous when he wasn't being mistaken for his adoptive parents' slave 🥲 also my delight at being able to actually give him top surgery scars! waaaahhhh

(yeah the graphics on my steam deck blow, but they get the job done)

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

…….all right, i’m big enough to admit it, this final act fucks hard enough to make up for the majority of my criticisms, twice over.

i think only the suicide mission from ME2 has had me on pins and needles like this. damn!!

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

hey pals, show me your rooks. i wanna see them face.

i'll go first, here are my children

hakim mercar! shadow dragon elf mage who would is so short. as short as i could possibly make an elf. that's definitely why he woo'd emmrich, because emmrich is tall. get those hard to reach items off the top shelf for your short husband, volkarin. /hezenkoss voice

sen thorne's background is ~shrouded in mystery~ before she tripped into the wardens as an apostate! also no idea how she got the scar, or what happened to her eye! she and harding are precious, which means it's going to end in heartbreak. 🥲

and then last but not least is esha de riva, who is a mage and a grumpus (or as grumpy as this game will let me be, which isn't grumpy enough for my tastes). no idea who he's going to woo; probably lucanis idk.

love making everyone as gay as possible in my video games. 🙌

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

so.... how's everybody doing.... 🫠