Advice - What to buy?

[Mistletien]

So, I've found myself with a little extra cash on my hands, and I'm looking at getting a PC game to tide me over in my times of boredom. Unfortunately, I only want to buy one game, while a couple have caught my eye.
Options:
Dragon Age 2 ($20)
Dragon Age Origins + Awakening(About the same as above)
Borderlands ($8, on sale for a few days on Steam)

Those are my big three so far. What I want to know is for which game will I get my biggest amount of money's worth for an RPG. I'm bored of Skyrim for now and want something a little more lively, to be honest. I've read the reviews for all three, but I want to hear from you, the players.

[SirArtemis]

Borderlands is more fun with friends. Dragon age 1 is better than two.

[SirArtemis]

If you want to try this game out, I can give you instructions on how to get into the closed beta. it's this weekend. Friday-Sunday. Free.

http://tera.enmasse.com/

[Mistletien]

Unfortunately, while I'd love to play some TERA, I'm lacking in time this weekend. Thanks for the offer though.
What makes the first Dragon Age better than the second?

[SirArtemis]

I felt like the first dragon age had some more strategy and more storyline, and you'll get more hours out of the original + awakening than dragon age 2. the second one moved more toward the hack and slash "spam x" sort of combat, so it FELT more satisfying because of animation but wasn't strategic. Also, the storyline was less epic in the second for most.

As for Tera, there are two more betas, so after this weekend, i can give you a full analysis and you can decide whether you'd want to try for one of the other two closed betas, then open beta.

[Mistletien]

I'll wait for the open beta, see what you have to say about the closed. I'd rather not download something that's just going to be a waste of space later on onto my computer.
That being said, I took a second look at DA2, and decided I should just go with DAO. People seemed to enjoy it much more over all, including yourself.

[SirArtemis]

I mean, tera is huge. it's 30 gigs. and you have to download it. so it's a burden. i downloaded it a week before beta so i'm all set and ready to go, though starting now may or may not be troublesome (it's peer to peer so it may be even easier now). But you could always uninstall and remove it - it's not like it's permanent.

[Mistletien]

I suppose. I'll still wait. I've got Fable 3, Skyrim, Vindictus, Mass Effect 2 and many more on my computer, and I'm trying to save as much space as needed.
That being said, I haven't even started the game yet and I've already got the hots for Morrigan.

[orphans]

DA2 was.... I didn't even finish it because it's was that bad :/

Combat was... pretty much as stated above: Spam attack on everything (or on PC, spacebar!!!!!!! GO!!)

Boss battles were.... not very strategic. It was more like a slugging fest to see if you had enough potions to outlast the dude's hp bar (which you would never need to use unless it's a boss fight).


I super rainbowed all over DAO though :D

[Letho]

I finished DA2 twice, even though it was bad. :(

Morrigan is fricking hot. What I like to do sometimes is play a female character and get a mod from dragon age nexus that allows me to romance her (because you can't usually romance her with a chick). Makes it very interesting later on. Also hot.

At any rate, a very good choice. If you're not rushing it, you're looking at some goot 60-70 hours for the main storyline of Dragon Age and all the side stuff (frankly, my first walkthrough took around 80, but I go extremely slowly and read all the codex info :P). DA2 suffers from the same thing Mass Effect 2 suffered, and it's dumbing stuff down, though not as much as Mass Effect 2. Add recycled locations and the aforementioned hack-and-slashy gameplay, it's really a downgrade from the original in pretty much every way possible.

Borderlands was fun for like ten or twenty hours. It basically has no story worth mentioning and it's all about the loot, getting guns with better stats to kill harder enemies to get guns with even better stats. It has an almost MMO feeling, and yeah, it's a bit more fun with friends if you're into that sort of thing.

[Mistletien]

DA:O it is. Downloading it as we speak. Can't wait to get into the world and lore. I'm not looking for another hack-n'-slash or shoot-em-up, I'm lookin' for that engrossing story that I thought Skyrim would have had. It was alright, but I was honestly disappointed.