Zacparis' anti-Dragon Age 2 thread

And to think I was looking forward to playing a Qunari female.

 

Some of the inevitable DLC for this game will probably let you choose your race.

 

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/4376174/1

It is written that DAO II was made thinking of console users (the biggest sales are on console) and as a consequence, they worked on the game with console in mind.

Two consequences :
- making textures just for the PC Baldur's gate aerial view (as opposed to 3rd person console view) would have been too expensive compared to the targeted audience. So, M Laidlaw confirmed there will be no tactical Baldur's gate like camera view (isometric view).
- no toolset (hey, no mods on consoles after all, and more sales for official DLCs maybe?) I thought I'd cry when I read this.

 

I never used any other view in DA.

The fail grows.

Edit: I read the rest of that thread, and Laidlaw came back and said that the camera isn't completely gone; on PC you will likely be able to free your camera from the character and move it around the battlefield, though you probably won't be pulling it up as far as they did in DAO.

The toolset may be the subject of an update.

So basically allaying fears without confirming anything.

 

Yeah, the tactical view isn't completely gone. The Joystic article was fail. Don't trust those translations.

 

Well that's good I guess... but it kinda sounds like damage control.

 

To some extent, I'm looking more forward to TW2 because it presents a more mature, "realistic" and gritty setting than did DA (Codex Thedas is much more interesting than what we're actually presented with)... still, I'll undoubtedly buy DA2 regardless.

I can't feel your pain, really. From my perspective, being limited to one race is a good thing and will (potentially) make for a considerably better story driven RPG than DA, one that can be crafted completely around the character. Instead of DA's rather more generic fare, in which no matter whether you were human, elf, dwarf or mage... you basically got the same story, even though race is a supposedly a MASSIVE DEAL in the setting.

As Dan Hemmens from Ferretbrain, puts it: "Dragon Age is sometimes criticised for being generic. That's not really the problem, the problem is that it's generic in places where it has already been specific."

This was a pretty huge deal for me, to the point that I found myself wishing time and again that we'd had fewer -- but more comprehensive -- origins.

 

I don't see the difference really. How does limiting to a human completely craft the character? Through voiced dialogue? That's one of the only reason they're doing it, so all the NPCs can say "Hawke".

I felt the original did an excellent job of crafting my character whether I was elf, human or dwarf, but I guess it's limited to people's imagination, which seems to be slowly evaporating with the "console audience" (disclaimer: I am a consolite myself, so I'm not pointing fingers).

BioWare have their focused, single character, voice-driven action game with Mass Effect, and I really thought Dragon Age was for a different audience. It just a shame that BioWare have lost that train of thought, they seem to want to make their games all the same.

And those who thought the original Dragon Age was "generic" have obviously been living under a rock for the past 50 years. You could argue that anything with elves, dwarves and swords was a generic rip-off of LOTR.

 

Eh, Ulicus raises a valid point IMO. Having played through Dragon Age multiple times with different characters there really isn't that much of a difference once you get past the origins portion. Yes, there are a few different conversation options, and everyone can't help but mention that you're an elf (or dwarf) but 95% of the game is identical.

 

Sure, the story didn't change, but so what? That wasn't the point of the multiple origins. The point was about the small differences. People reacted to you differently and you had different options at the end of the game depending on what race you were.

I don't know why that's suddenly become a negative thing that's used in argument for removing features from DA2.

 

Personally, I generally enjoy games with very tight narratives more than the open ended kind we get in DA. That said, I found DA to be rather unsatisfying as far as the main story went. I'm looking forward to seeing what Hawke's all about.

 

Probably would have been more appropriate to post the trailer link here....http://dragonage.bioware.com/

 

This is actually a nice quote to see from an article on IGN; "If you were concerned that Dragon Age was being fed through the Mass Effect sausage grinder, you shouldn't be. Yes, they've adopted the conversation wheel and cinematic, fully-voiced speeches, but that's no cause for alarm ? after all if you developed an awesome tool and storytelling technique you'd want to use it in more than one game too. Bioware has made some great alterations -- sharper graphics, satisfying combat and cinematic conversations. I can't wait to spend more time with this game."

IGN Article

 

Kate Mulgrew's back!

Nice trailer, but it's a shame they don't show us any actual gameplay. Like the first trailer/game, DA2 will probably look nothing like that.

 

Hopefully that means we haven't seen the last of Flemeth and Morrigan.

 

This trailer was awesome. A bunch of awesome, actually.

[image=http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac252/IndigoVolfe/Trailer27.jpg]

I think this is a new creature type, the Strider.

[image=http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae354/Saibh_photos/flemethcommand.png]

Flemeth, being badass as usual.

[image=http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac252/IndigoVolfe/Trailer15.jpg]

Hot Pirate Lady

[image=http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac252/IndigoVolfe/Trailer24.jpg]

....I don't even....

 

I saw this and thought it needed to be shared on this thread...enjoy...http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/dragon-effect/347078

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/18/dragon-age-2-origins-through-mass-effect-specs/

See this is what annoys me about gaming journalism.

PC Gamer loved Dragon Age, slapping a 94% score on it and proclaiming it the best RPG of the decade.

...

[Dragon Age 2]?s sharpened and tightened look demonstrates the team?s commitment to the revamp: BioWare are aiming for visuals that truly represent Dragon Age?s violent world. Stark, clean lines dominate, high contrast environs as the counterpoint to spiky, angular enemies. It?s a galaxy away from Origins? muddy browns and indistinct texturing.

Huh? Didn't you just say you gave it 94%? Now the sequel comes along and it's suddenly muddy and indistinct?

I loved DA's colour palette and texture, it gave it a unique style. No flashy new sequel will change that. But anyway, I'll give DA2 a chance. As renegade Shepard says: "one chance".

 

Ugh, Zac, you've touched on one of my biggest gripes about not only gaming journalists but developers themselves. You don't know how many times I've seen a news headline that says something like "Molyneaux: 'Fable 2 had too many unnecessary features'" or "Blezsinski says Gears 2 multiplayer was 'terrible'", etc. Quit freaking bashing your previous work that two years ago you couldn't stop talking about for crying out loud. It doesn't give me a lot of confidence buying your product if I know that a year from now you're gonna **** all over it.

Then again I've never been a big fan of the Gears or Fable franchises, so maybe they have points.

 

No, you're right, developers are especially guilty of that. I think the problem is that people expect the next game to be bigger and better, so it's easy to dump on the previous game when the sequel achieves some technical feat.

 

[image=http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae354/Saibh_photos/flemethcommand.png]

Is it me or does that not look anything like the Flemeth of DA? It's a cool picture and all but the Flemeth I know is an old crone.

 

Possible game spoiler: Flemeth possesses the bodies of her daughters, so she could look like anything really (even a dragon).

 

94% is not 100%, so obviously there were things that they didn't like. And even if it was 1005, there is always room for improvement. There is absolutely nothing contradictory about that statement.

Personally, I liked Dragon Age, but I did hate its "real is brown...and gory" look going on at times. Far from being uniquie, it struck as a very generic looking, style wise.

 

94% does seem a bit arbitrary, but they didn't mention the "muddy" and "indistinct" graphics at all in the original review, so why suddenly pick those out now?

Different people it seems, but I think it's a bit soon to be praising DA2 for correcting those shortcomings when just about every screenshot we've seen so far contains even more muddy textures.

You may call it generic looking, but I appreciate DA's visual style. The heavy use of browns and rust colours seemed like a very deliberate choice given the limitations of the game's engine, but I think they pulled it off well.

 

It's proof that graphics aren't everything. To be honest Dragon Age probably has the worst graphics of any game I've played on the 360, but it was such a good time that it never bothered me at all.