[Gaming] Official Dragon Age 2 Thread - Thar be Spoilers

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In a few weeks the game will be out... and I'm still contemplating if I'll buy it or not. I'm conflicted.

I played the demo last night and it was really... a sexy beast. Combat is more immersive and wicked. The mage effects are beyond amazing and the new life bars/mechanics look like a vast improvement over the original. The voice acting as usual is top notch and now since your main character is Shepardized you get a fully voice acted character with Mass Effect like dialogue controls. The demo left a really good impression on me. The effects and music are top of the line and real selling points. Dialogue choices ("the middle one") is particularly funny. The storyline, especially Avaline? is particularly funny. I found myself holding back my emotions... and I barely met her in the game 10 minutes ago. Once again, the dialogue and music.... fantastic.


The negatives and sadly I will dwell on them.

- I really hate the fact there's a DLC on Day 1. To me, this is complete bullshit. It's enraging that a game that is billed at an impressive $60 has an additionnal cost for the DLC the first day that sadly will at one point or time be purchased.. To me, this tells me they are charging me for additionnal content. This is unacceptable in my book.

- I feel the interface is lacking, I don't like the fact I cannot move the camera around anymore or look below my chest if I zoom in. The interface looks very "console" like. I'm afraid of what this may cause in future games, like Mass Effect. Obviously, a "skill" bar is needed to play the game, however, I don't feel it needs to take up 1/5 of my screen all the way to the left to the right.

- I'm still upset that Steam users didn't get the FULL pre-purchase deal (we don't get the DLC). Once again, I feel that Bioware is coming across as greedy fucks by not being able to provide the premier game market what they should get. And while I'd rather not fuck them and simply torrent the game in revenge of this, I do want to support the product.

- The demo revealed obviously that you cannot pick an "origin". You're a human, deal with it. And while the original game at one point or time congregates to the same thing, I like how distinctive if you picked X or Y as an origin, you got a special reaction or talked to a special way. Those are nice touches. Now, it seems that the distinction is simply, "are you a mage?" "are you a rogue/warrior?" "are you a man/woman?". I miss being an asshole elf who got chewed on and called elven curs.

- Noticed a few bugs with the game and I don't like the fact that I cannot play better than "moderate" grphics because I have Windows XP. (DX 11) Yeah yeah, I should upgrade, but I'll do that on my new rig. I just don't like seeing "sorry you play moderate because LOL DX9", yet my rig playing a video orgasm such as Crisis can handle hight quality with no qualms.
 
I've heard some of the negatives you speak of and I'm sure they will bug me some as well but I guess, in the end, if you think you will enjoy it buy it. As much as I wish they had stayed with more of the gameplay concepts from the first one like you talked about I'm sure it's gonna be a great game.
My pre-order should arrive just as I finish up my school stuff so I'm stoked.
 

Dave

Staff member
I'd be willing to bet that certain people who pre-order this will get the DLC stuff.

It's a game I want but won't get for a while. Being broke sucks.

 
I really want to get this game, but something about Bioware games ends with me locking myself in my apartment for a weekend ignoring sleep and actual food. For the sake of my own health, I may forgo.
 
I really want to get this game, but something about Bioware games ends with me locking myself in my apartment for a weekend ignoring sleep and actual food. For the sake of my own health, I may forgo.
I scheduled vacation time around its release. I am prepared.
 
The combat was way too fast imo... felt like it forced me to button spam or pause for every action...

Otherwise it was ok.
 
I really liked the combat interface of the first game, kind of sad that it got dumbed down somewhat to make it more console friendly.
 
Kinda sad that mages are so debeefed. Fireball felt super, duper anemic.
I agree, it felt very underwhelming. combat is very fast paced.

On thing I noted on another attempt, my bow rogue... can sever enemies in HALF with pinning shot. How that is possible is beyond me.

Oh and his name was Mike Hawke.
 
I've pre ordered it on steam. Kinda pissed about the dlc as well but i loved the 1st game too much not to play the second because of 5 $.

Will the first game have any impact on the DA2 based on the choices made? I really do not like my "canon" save (loghain alive) but i don't have time to replay it
 
I've pre ordered it on steam. Kinda pissed about the dlc as well but i loved the 1st game too much not to play the second because of 5 $.

Will the first game have any impact on the DA2 based on the choices made? I really do not like my "canon" save (loghain alive) but i don't have time to replay it
I think you can allow it to use your old game info if you want or it can start fresh.

 
I pre-ordered and I can't wait for this. I'm so excited, I even signed up to play a stupid Facebook game for the first time (Dragon Age: Legends -- it's "meh", but it helps me get my DA fix). No Mac demo, but I finally found an explanation (they branched the demo early in development, before they had a stable Mac version) and since we're getting a same day release, I'm not going to complain.
Kinda sad that mages are so debeefed. Fireball felt super, duper anemic.
This makes me sad, because I love playing a mage. In DA, I maxed out Elemental spells on my mage: that was freaking awesome!
 
I heard archer rogues are fantastic. With the right type of build in DA:O, it was the highest single target DPS, my Dalish elf was fantastic.

I have no idea if saves matters in DA2, I know it will in ME3.
Added at: 11:32
Interesting post :


Transferred, and note this isnt a debate on what makes an RPG, but why the lead designed for Dragon Age decided not to work on Dragon Age 2.

Why Brent Knowles left in his own words:

http://blog.brentknowles.com/2010/08/15/bioware-brent-year-10-fall-2008-summer-2009/

The bottom line is: to a greater or lesser extent, Brent Knowles left because the direction the game (DA2), and the company had changed to something he could not work for anymore because they were making the game into something he didnt envision as his type of game.

When your lead designer bails out, then something is truely wrong. Or do some of you actually think that nothing was wrong and he left for the heck of it? Read his own words. He was being polite, but there are some things couched in there, to be sure.

Not seeing that is being rather obtuse.

Note this here, from the blog:

I did some high level design for a potential new project but a few months later I realized that, given cutbacks and other things that it really seemed unlikely that the project I had been ‘assigned’ to was ever going to materialize. I can’t/won’t go into any other details other than to point to an old entry I made about this and reiterate: “I’m not the same person I was when I started, and BioWare isn’t the same company. ”

This man worked for 10 years for Bioware. He was there.

Any apologists still up for the notion that Bioware "is still the same as they ever were" argument?

Got over it. EA has them now, and will do what they want with them. If that means make lesser games in order to shuck out more product to be bought up by unexamining hordes, then thats what will happen.

The man who worked there 10 years has just shot your argument down. Completely.

Bioware has changed folks, and not for the better when a great designer like Brent Knowles feels he has to quit because of those changes.
 
Where is that post from?

While it doesn't sound good, and there could be a lot to it, I can also think of lots of developers I've met who've left where they work in a huff over a personality clash or creative disagreement and didn't characterize it in glowing terms.
 
It's hard when your vision is different from the others around you. I think it was wise of him to move on if he didn't feel comfortable with it but I still expect to enjoy DA2, even if I will miss the old school touches of the first.
 
That forum post has "disgruntled fanboy" written all over it ("unexamining hordes"? LOL!). All that's missing is "They sold out, man! They SOLD OUT!".
Nerd Raged Forum Poster said:
When your lead designer bails out, then something is truely wrong. Or do some of you actually think that nothing was wrong and he left for the heck of it? Read his own words.

Okay...
Brent Knowles said:
Discussion on Dragon Age 2 began around this time and looking ahead I knew that I wasn’t going to be satisfied with what Dragon Age 2 would be. Party control/tactical combat are huge factors in my enjoyment of a role-playing game as is adopting the role of the hero (i.e., customizing my character). I was fairly certain Dragon Age would transition towards more of a Mass Effect experience, which while enjoyable is not the type of role-playing game I play. Could I be the lead designer on such a title? Certainly… though if I were going to work on a game adopting a set-in-stone protagonist I’d rather work on something lighter, like a shooter.
OMG THEY'RE MAKING IT MORE LIKE MASS EFFECT THOSE EVIL BASTARDS!!!!!!! :aaah:

 
On thing I noted on another attempt, my bow rogue... can sever enemies in HALF with pinning shot. How that is possible is beyond me.
It's not Pinning shot, i saw it happen will normal bow attacks plenty of times...


Okay...
OMG THEY'RE MAKING IT MORE LIKE MASS EFFECT THOSE EVIL BASTARDS!!!!!!! :aaah:
ME2 - better combat (ignoring the stuff that made Jack useless on HC and Insanity) but felt more like a shooter...


On another note... why is it that the only female character that doesn't have giant chest cannons is the PC?! Seriously...
 
It's not Pinning shot, i saw it happen will normal bow attacks plenty of times...




ME2 - better combat (ignoring the stuff that made Jack useless on HC and Insanity) but felt more like a shooter...


On another note... why is it that the only female character that doesn't have giant chest cannons is the PC?! Seriously...
Jack wasn't that well endowed.
 
The only time a woman has huge boobs is when the dwarf is exaggerating the story at the very beginning.
 
The only time a woman has huge boobs is when the dwarf is exaggerating the story at the very beginning.
Uh... did you see Isabella? She's sporting a rather... "hefty" pair.

Speaking of Isabella, has anyone seen her pants? Seems like she's got some "weak spots" the enemy could exploit.
 
The first thing I'm hoping for is :

- Mod to bring back the camera options that they failed to add.
- Mod to remove the bandana and jaw piercing on Isabela

And yea, they are huge.
 
It's pretty huge for harder difficulties as you can pickup new waves of enemies coming in BEFORE they start attacking you. It also help you strategically plan the battle and avoid resorting to playing LOS blocking you from seeing what you need to see.
 
Makes sense. I kind of prefer the insanity of being in the middle of the battlefield although with the new battle system I have learned that playing a mage kind of sucks. Think I'm going rogue or warrior. They want me in the middle there so I guess thats where I'm gonna be.
Which kind of sucks because I really like playing that strategist roll and throwing out crazy spells.
 
BTW, i d/l the steam version of the demo and now it has AA activated and seems to run better (no awkward pauses before starting loading cut scenes or screen resizing while loading between chapters etc.)

Anyone got any experience with those issues?!

The only time a woman has huge boobs is when the dwarf is exaggerating the story at the very beginning.
Having played Mage for the first 2-3 times (Carver is with you then at the start) i can tell you that i've noticed Bethany's endowment just fine even after he started telling the real story... even the mother has a pretty round chest... you just don't notice it easily because Isabella eclipses them...

The PC is the only one that wouldn't need potions against back pain on a regular basis.

But hey, good idea, i'll just pretend it's all because the dwarf is a pervert and exaggerating that part (the PC is safe because he's afraid of her)...
 
The first thing I'm hoping for is :

- Mod to bring back the camera options that they failed to add.
- Mod to remove the bandana and jaw piercing on Isabela

And yea, they are huge.
GET OUT OF MY MIND!!! (aka, I totally agree)

So I finally played the demo... and was happy with almost everything. Combat feels way to fast paced though... and honestly... hitting a darkspawn like 30 times with a giant two handed sword before it dies feels really stupid. I'm constantly pausing to take stock of what's going on and to micromanage party actions.
 
Honestly that was one of the weirdest things, why the hell was it so hard to kill a stupid darkspawn? That sword, even if I'm not at high level, should still do a decent amount of damage to a stupid foot soldier.
 
I know... it just felt weird... they ramped up the pace of everything... but in doing so it seems like it takes FOREVER to actually kill something. I much prefer the pace of Dragon Age Origins... and low grade enemies bit the dust after only a few hits.
 
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