Dragon Age II - Page 2

Some off screen gameplay video.

Congratulations Bioware. You managed to make me, for the first time, not want to buy the sequel to a game I've spent 80+ hours in. Each new thing I find out about this seems worse than the last one.

I must be missing something. What exactly was it about that video that put you off? The dialogue system? The fighting? The greatly improved graphic quality?

I thought that video looked awesome.

Yeah, if the writing is like before but it has that type of combat I'm ok with it. The graphics look so much better than the first one. It's BioWare though, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

The fighting. Bioware keeps dancing around the question of how much of an action RPG they're going to make it. They don't want to admit that they're going to completely ditch the first game's mechanics in favor of more action oriented combat. I do not want that. The Dragon Age franchise was sold to us as an old school, pausable, stat dependent, tactical combat game. And it was a great success, both critically and financially. A bigger success than Mass Effect 2 according to Bioware themselves. Changing course 180 degrees just so they can get to some hypothetical console gaming audience that hasn't played the Infinity Engine games that DA was supposed to hearken back to, sucks.

I was under the impression Bioware had already confirmed their intent was that you could set the game up to be "turn-based strategic combat" if that was what you wanted to do. Supposedly for sure on PC, possibly not on Consoles.

They still haven't showed anything to support that argument. All they keep repeating is some nonsense about an isometric viewpoint the PC version is supposed to have. Pause and camera alone are not enough to make a system similar to the first one.

Listen, I know that the previous system wasn't optimal for playing with a console controller. Yes, some changes to better serve controller gaming should be made. I think about trying to play DA with a controller and I cringe. But from what I've seen so far I just can't believe that Bioware has made a fork in the combat system so drastic that the console gameplay can be what they've shown so far while PC gameplay remains the same. Not if they want to keep some semblance of parity between the versions.

I don't know, man. The combat looked pretty much the same to me, but I'm coming from playing DAO on the 360. It's not like they are going to necessarily show tinkering with companion AI in a live demo like that. I saw a few pauses and character switching going on in that video. It seemed very much like DAO to me, but it is hard to tell without actually seeing what the person is doing with the controller.

DAO allowed for different playstyles. Why do you assume that DA2 won't? Perhaps this is just the way this particular person likes to play the game, and if you got your hands on it, it would look quite different.

For me, the "game" in these games is the branching story and the choices you can make within it. I'd play and enjoy them even if there weren't any walking around and destroying 18 billion mindless enemies. The swordplay or gunplay are just mini-game hoops I jump through to continue the real game. If they're fun mini-games, great. But as long as they aren't awful, I'm buying the game on day one.

Looks similar to the first, like you said. That's fine though, the combat system worked for the most part.

I noticed that Hawke was about to bite it on the second runthrough in the video though. Ha.

That's the first thing released about DA2 that speaks to me in a positive way. Consider me interested again. Finally, no more "Press a button and something awesome happens!" horseshit. And Hawke almost bit it because whoever was playing this didn't have the first idea how to use a tank.

That looks great to me, and I'm exactly that guy that plays full-on action for some scenarios and tactical for others.

Gameplay videos are great for getting me hyped up to play a game.

But for all the strategy in these preplanned game scenarios, and all the narration that makes it look like there's layers upon layers of thought going on, I know that when I sit down to play the game, it won't be like that. It'll be more like two or three trail and error attempts at killing the overpowered, just out of reach mage faster than it can wipe out my party, and then chugging potions like a motherfucker while I'm having my party members all gang up on one melee enemy at a time until they're all dead.

Not that this makes me want to play the game any less, but I know what I'm getting myself into this time.

New preview from Destructoid:

http://www.destructoid.com/bloody-gr...2-189549.phtml

Wait, what? I thought Hawke was supposed to be the bearded dude from the trailers. You can change the gender now?

You ever see The Black Donnellys? Kinda reminds me of that.

It works if Varrick taunts you: "And so Hawke escaped the dungeon....finally. You know, some 12 year old legally blind kid in Wichita only need two tries. You ever hear of Fireball, might want to use it." or "After finally deciding that shield bash was an incredibly retarded method on those Hurlocks, Hawke escaped."

"And then Hawke discovered an XP glitch and so he had same two-line conversation with the wizard for over 8 hours, while the in-sight genlocks staved their attack until Hawke crossed the action line. Next he discovered an item duplication glitch and made himself over 2000 arrows and 15 bows. He really wished he had pre-ordered his escape from the dungeon so he would be able to copy the specialized armor. But he wasn't sure if this would be a birthday present or not."

"Having defeated the dragon and saved the kingdom, Hawke returned to his camp to rest and reflect on the hard road he'd traveled. In the middle of the night, however, he was woken up by the sound of rustling outside his tent. He grabbed the nearest sword he could find -- a dagger he had carried with him for as long as he could remember -- and dashed outside the tent. Within moments, he had spotted the intruder and had used the foliage around the tent to sneak up behind him.

Without any effort, Hawke had the intruder against a tree, the dagger's edge at the man's neck. The intruder's eyes showed fear at first, then relief.

'Hawke? I'd heard you were back. I haven't seen you since you were a child, but if I didn't recognize your face, I'd certainly know that dagger.'

'Who are you?' Hawke demanded.

'A friend. I've been looking for you for a long time. It's your parents, Hawke. They're alive. They're alive, and they desperately need help!'

..."

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"What happened next?"

"Fifteen dollars, please."

Well that joke was run into the ground rather quickly.

That joke was old since they did the same thing in the first game. Hey guy that hung around the base camp, stop asking me to pay you in order for me to save your family honor.

IGN has some new information on the DLC character that'll be available for download on launch day -- "The Exiled Prince":

 

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1143054p1.html

 

Here I want to know something, I've decided I'm getting this game but I'm waiting for the "all DLC comes out with it" version.  Am I alone in this or is anyone else like "I want this game but I want everything"

This was going to be the game where I put my foot down, where I passed on the opening-day buy and instead waited for the eventual ultimate edition. And then my brother had to go and get me a $50 Gamestop gift card for Christmas. And then I went and pre-ordered the Dragon Age II Signature Edition with it. I'm so weak.

I figured this "Exiled Prince" was originally developed to fit ingame, and was taken out to provide DLC buyable content on release. If I do purchase this game, I'll wait to the "Special Edition" when the DLC comes with it.

 

If this game doesn't suck.  Yes, yes, I know Bioware has a decent reputation and makes fairly high quality games, but I'm simply not interested in what they're selling....yet.

Quote:

For myself, I'm perfectly down with buying the "vanilla" version of what's likely to be a "AAA" role-playing title, and then snatching up the DLC as it comes out. Others choose to wait, however, and that's cool too. In my case, though, if I don't play it around release-time, the chances of it vanishing into the event horizon of a theoretical Pile of Shame are extremely strong.

 

 

 

Inexplicably, I somehow managed to receive some $40 in various mixed credits from Amazon a few months back ($20, $10, and $10), and I applied all of them to the Signature Edition that same day, before anyone there realized their mistake.

 

$19.99 shipped, with Prime.

Does anyone else think they'll put the first games DLC up on sale before this is released? I'm missing the last three and I don't want to find out about a sale on them 2 days after I get them like the Mass Effect 2 stuff.

It's possible that there'll be a sale on the first game's DLC -- Mass Effect 2 just had a recent sale for some of its expansion content in the last couple weeks, and I can see BioWare doing something similar close to the new Dragon Age's launch.

The graphics do seem kind of rough when compared to ME2 but I went a head and pre-ordered from Amazon before the 11th. I have faith that the story and characters will at least be interesting.

They're messing with DA:O's gameplay in ways I'm not comfortable with. The quality of the graphics seems to have gone a bit down at least in the art department. I've found their marketing to be, honestly, condescending towards their current fanbase. "You guys are buying it anyway so we're all about those who didn't give a shit about the previous one." And now they pulled this very cheap stunt with their pre-order not being on Steam until a day after their big promotion ended. Unless this game gets a 90%+ from Desslock in PC Gamer I'm waiting for a sale on the complete edition.

 

I can't believe I'm doing this with a game who's first part I happily spent 80+ hours with. And a Bioware one at that. Fuckers.

 

I just saw an ad on the dashboard that is granting your wish. A bunch of EA stuff is 50% off this week, including Dragon Age DLC.

Yeah, got it last night, I was rather happy I didn't get them before then as half off is a much better deal than full price.

Hope you guys are picking up Dead Space 2- http://www.chud.com/32033/dead-space-comes-to-dragon-age/

Eh.

 

I thought the whole Dragon Armor in Mass Effect 2 thing was goofy, and I never used it. This doesn't really appeal to me at all. I find it slightly off-putting while playing, having such large references to other games. Ruins the immersion for me.

In the game itself, however, the armor has nothing to do with the Dragon Age universe -- the armor's specs give its history, and it's a modified uniform from some extreme sports team ("the Blood Dragons") that the Illusive Man owns, and he sent along a set of their competition armor to Shepard as a gift. The interior of the armor even bears the autographs of every member of the team ("Go Shepard! Kick Some Reaper Ass!!", etc.).

If you'd never even heard of Dragon Age: Origins and were playing Mass Effect 2 with that armor, there's absolutely no immersion being broken at all.

Bioware are clever enough to try and write a reason for why the Dead Space 2 outfit fits into the Dragon Age universe, but it still doesn't take away for me the idea that I'm constantly reminded of Dead Space 2 (or that I'm staring at the Dragon Age logo while playing Mass Effect 2).

 

It's a cool thing for people who are into it -- and it's great synergy for selling multiple game titles. But I'm just not into it. I like my game universes like I like my comic book movie universes: mutually exclusive; no cross overs.

So just don't use it.  I thought the blood dragon armor was cool looking, but I didn't wear it because the helmet hid your entire face during every cutscene/conversation.

Yeah, same thing here -- unlike the first game, where you could choose to "deactivate" your armor's facial gear, you have to wear the entire enchilada in this game, or not at all.

 

I tended to stick with stuff like the Inferno Armor or some of the other Cerberus armor suits, where you could at least see SOME of Shepard's facial expressions during conversations.

I'd have my character wear a Tenderheart Bear outfit if it was the best available for his stats.  Then I'd Care Bear Shine all over some Hurlocks.

My faith may be blind as I'll still pre-order the shit out of the special edition of this, but to be honest, the more I hear about this sequel, the more I'm worried I may end up falling into the stelios camp - and considering how utterly nuts I was for the first game, that's really saying something.

Demo Feb. 22nd. All platforms too!

 

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/demo

IGN's PC editor compares the console versions to the PC build, and this time the console versions come out shining.

 

Considering that Onyett regularly trashes console-gaming on that site, coming from him, this very likely means something.

I love Bioware, but I think I might be more of a Mass Effect guy.

 

I'm not sure I'll ever even finish Dragon Age. I swear I have spent at least 10 gameplay hours in the goddamn fucking dwarf mines. And I'm playing on easy, too. I'm apparently in the last area finally, but a ways away from the final final final final boss.

 

Maybe I'm just...playing the game wrong, or something, or I picked the wrong things to specialize in, but basically the only effective thing I can do is to start out with an earthquake/blizzard combo, then missile them til they get to me, and keep the warrior in front ready. Every single battle goes like that now. And every group of enemies is the same. How is it fun or "strategic" to fight the same group of generic orcs for 10 hours?

 

I mainly enjoy Bioware games for the dialogue, characters, world designs, etc. Basically, the adventure game elements. Anything that takes me away from those elements for too long pisses me off. Mass Effect 2, for example, has action that's solid enough...not great enough that I would play it if it was an action only game, but cool and visceral enough to hold my attention through the battles, and I only died a few times here and there on medium. Even Jade Empire I enjoyed a lot, because of the unique world and storylines (working for that evil ghost guy was the best), and I was able to plow through the terrible action on easy mode using a few cheap moves.

 

Dragon Age, though, didn't have enough good writing to justify the massive amount of repetitive shit I had to do. The dwarf politics storyline, for example, felt like a really forced, cliched way to tack on some depth. There wasn't a single memorable character in the whole cavern. A few things came close to interesting, like the giant mutant queen thing, but it just wasn't enough to keep me going.

 

That's not to say the whole game was uninteresting. Some of the main characters are great, like the witch, the mage lady, and Alestair. Getting the witch's trust and hearing her backstory was probably one of the highlights of my playthrough. Of course, I always wanted the archer lady, but I walked right by that one building you have one chance to go into to get her.

 

So, the point of all this blahblah is it will take a lot to convince me to give DA2 a try. Different combat and a whole lot less of it would be a good start. A voiced main character would also be a big plus in pulling me in, (I havent read what the deal on that is yet) and some more unique story stuff. So I'll wait to hear yous guyses opinions, and I'm curious if anyone agrees with me about DA1.

I find both MASS EFFECT games to be superior to DRAGON AGE, although I certainly enjoyed the latter and am looking forward to a hopefully improved sequel. Yeah, the Deep Roads were kind of shitty in ORIGINS (and the Fade was also a bit of a bore), but those were just two sections of a long and varied game that had a lot to like about it.

 

I agree that not all of the writing in DRAGON AGE was up to par, but I think Bioware realized it and that's why we're getting a more focused universal lead character, a change in the dialogue system, etc., etc. Those things should help.

 

I will say one great thing ORIGINS had going for it (that I hope is just as prevalent in the sequel) is all the conversing that went on between your party members. I loved hearing those guys bitch at each other while we were adventuring around.

I saw a video demo of DA2 in which the guy from Bioware specifically said the random conversations between characters is still in.  I wonder if any of the new characters will be as bitchy as Morrigan.

 

DA1 might be my favorite game of all time, so I respectfully disagree with a lot of your post.  The Deeproads section that you are in now is certainly the most tedious/repetitive portion of the game and the Broodmother is the toughest boss in the game, IMO, so if you have already defeated her then you are about 90% done with that section. 

 

It sounds like you are playing as a mage which is the toughest character to play, IMO.  It seems as if you have your spell points and party configuration a little off.  What you should be concentrating on as a mage are shatter combos.  Cone of Cold + Stone fist is a devastating combo, basically allowing you to two-shot most enemies...and the cool-down for both spells is relatively short.  Other shattering combos for CoC + crushing prison, Petrify + stone fist & Petrity + crushing prison.  Crushing prison in general is a great spell.  Delivering constant damage while keeping your enemy suspended and unable to attack...great for mini-bosses.

 

For areas with several enemies, try dropping a sleep spell and then hitting the highest ranked enemy with a nightmare for massive damage.  And while all the enemies are asleep, it allows for the rest of your team to get the drop. 

 

I usually don't have points in the blizzard/lightning storm/firestorm mass damage spells.  On higher difficulty levels they will do damage to your own party and I have found that I just never used them very much.  Plus the cooldown takes forever and they eat up so much mana.

 

If I am playing as a mage then the rest of my party consists of a tank (Alistair) a rogue (Leliana) and another mage (usually Morrigan).  You need a rogue around to open chests and disarm traps, but you will also be able to turn them into Rangers.  A Ranger can summon an animal to fight by the party's side and a fully leveled up Ranger can summon a very badass animal to fight, essentially giving you a 5-man group, very useful for boss fights. 

 

Make sure you have PLENTY of health potions.  I usually dont depend on my mages to heal, preferring them instead to deal damage.  In each character's tactics screen I will usually have them drinking a potion if their health gets below 25%.  For bosses maybe 50%.  If you want a mage to heal, switch out Morrigan with Wynne.  Still, at least make sure your tank is drinking potions if his health gets low.

 

Make sure you do all of the Dragon Age DLC.  Each DLC offers great weapons and armor that can be used late in the game.

 

DA can be a really challenging game if you don't know exactly what you are doing.  When I first got the game I was dying left and right on the normal level.  Now I am almost unbeatable on the Nightmare level.