Dragon Age 2

Meh, Who cares. I just wonder if there are other options of...interest.

Three LIs is pretty meagre, yeah. I wouldn't even mind if they were three really good ones, but I can't really see myself finding either the elf girl or the skanky pirate chick particularly lovable.

I think there are more, I haven't played the game.

There's Fenris as well. Male elf.

Kimarous wrote:

There's Fenris as well. Male elf.

Oh, So instead of being able to play as a male elf, I have the option of having one as my LI? Oh, Wait, I could have both in Origins. -_- ...Bah, One out of two is better than nothing.

So Bioware is in full damage control mode now that this has been released. Their forum mods are being nazis locking/deleting threads left and right and not even responding to the legitimate complaints most of the time.
People have been banned from the forums which has resulted in their legally purchased games/DLC being unplayable thanks to the stupid "Bioware Social Account" required to install the game. EA violated a court order and included SecuROM copy-protection on the disc without any mention of it on the box or in the manual or EULA.
The lead writer of a game blamed 4chan for the low user review score on metacritic, even though there were just as many Biodrones spamming 10/10 scores as there were trolls. The well written, constructive reviews with low scores have been completely ignored because "they're all trolls".
That's not including all the problems with the game itself.

I hope ME3 isn't ruined like this.

Neo wrote:

EA violated a court order and included SecuROM copy-protection on the disc without any mention of it on the box or in the manual or EULA.

Having no morals is one thing, disregarding the law is another thing entirely.

Just another reason not to buy an EA game.

So... anyone actually enjoying the game? Lord knows I am.

I uninstalled the game when it expected me to believe that the same cave I went through literally twenty times were unique locations.

David Gaider - Lead Writer of DA2 wrote:

Neo wrote:

I uninstalled the game when it expected me to believe that the same cave I went through literally twenty times were unique locations.

I won't pretend that doesn't smack of either laziness or a rush-job, but ME1 did the same thing. Yes, it was irritating there as well, but that alone is by no means a game killer.

Incidentally, while I'm a huge Bioware fanboy, I'm not blind to their failings, and I do have some misgivings about DA2 seven hours in; firstly, it's a bit boring in places. DA:O had a sense of urgency about its story, DA2 does not. Kirkwall, while large, looks very samey and is visually no match for the variety of DA:O's many differing environments. Don't get me wrong, DA2 is a better looking game than Origins, but everyhting looks the same. DA2 is also if anything too easy. I'm playing on Hard mode right off the bat, and I've only been wiped out twice. DA:O's hard mode was much tougher than this.

In any case, I've still got a long, long way to go. I'm still messing around with sidequests tryng to gather 50 sovereigns to gain access to the deep roads, so I'm still at a very early part of the game. Thus far though, I think DA:O is the more engrossing game, even if DA2 is technically superior. If my opinion of the game changes, for better or worse, I'll say so.

SimianWonder wrote:

So... anyone actually enjoying the game? Lord knows I am.

I've really been enjoying this game, to the point that I'm almost doing a post-release media blockout because I'm sick of hearing people blowing minor gripes way out of proportion.

Yeah, I've stayed away from most of the bioware/ GF forums, because they're full of people moaning about silly little things. No, the game isn't perfect, and no, it's not a patch on ME2, but it's frightening how many people seem to be looking back at Origins with rose-tinted glasses and ignoring the many, many flaws that had as well.

I've just finished my first Mage play through, clocking in at around forty nine hours all in. That includes probably 95% of the side quests (I'm sure there were some that I missed, but I did all those I found), and the DLC Exiled Prince (though the achievements are cuurently glitched, meaning they don't unlock... grrr.)

I'll let others finish the game before I post my final thoughts.

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/84747/bioware-employee-allegedly-caught-boosting-metacritic-scores/

http://kotaku.com/?_escaped_fragment_=5780870/ever-wonder-why-dragon-age-ii-came-out-so-soon#!5780870/ever-wonder-why-dragon-age-ii-came-out-so-soon

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6459941/1

I think I'm going to wait a little longer before I buy this....Actually, I'm just going to wait until this shit stops. >_> I still have DA:O, That's good enough for me.

Rockstar_Bahamut wrote:

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/84747/bioware-employee-allegedly-caught-boosting-metacritic-scores/

http://kotaku.com/?_escaped_fragment_=5780870/ever-wonder-why-dragon-age-ii-came-out-so-soon#!5780870/ever-wonder-why-dragon-age-ii-came-out-so-soon

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6459941/1

I think I'm going to wait a little longer before I buy this....Actually, I'm just going to wait until this shit stops. >_> I still have DA:O, That's good enough for me.

If you don't like what Bioware and EA have made of the game, don't pay for it. I certainly didn't.

Neo wrote:

If you don't like what Bioware and EA have made of the game, don't pay for it. I certainly didn't.

That's only commendable if you don't get a pirate copy.

As for the other bits, I've swear I've never seen a game generate such a hateful response. No, it's not perfect, yes you can see where they cut corners, but it's still a good game. As good as Mass Effect 2? No, not even close, which I suspect is disappointing some. As good as Origins? That's a tougher one; in many areas, it make Origins look and feel like an archaic relic. In others, you pine for Origins' way of doing things. It actually reminds me a little of comparing Final Fantasy VII vs VIII; VIII was technically better, had far superior gameplay mechanics, yet VII had a far more engaging story and for that reason is still remembered with greater fondness, even if VIII was superior in almost every individual aspect. DA2 is superior to Origins in many ways, yet I don't love DA2 like I did Origins.

Origins is an 8/10 game.
DA2 is a 6/10 at best.

I don't really see how the DA2 gameplay mechanics are better. Spamming your abilities as soon as they cool down shouldn't be enough to get through the game on hard but, aside from a couple of bosses, it is. Nightmare mode is even worse, the entire concept of strategic tanking and damage mitigation is scrapped in favour of kiting, resulting in every battle being a drawn out, boring, slugfest.

Mages got a huge nerf and warriors and rogues were buffed which, although necessary, has been implemented so poorly that now 2H warriors and ranged rogues are just as overpowered as the mage used to be.
The story is simply worse, Origins wasn't anything groundbreaking but at least it didn't compromise itself for the sake of trying to be 'epic'.
The dialogue wheel is a step down. Cheapening the dialogue in order the have a voiced protagonist simply isn't worth it, especially if the VA is going to be so bad. It has the same problem as Mass Effect where half the time what Hawke says is completely different to what the wheel tells you, not to mention how you're restricted to being sickeningly-polite, a cocky smartass or an asshole, leaving the player with very little freedom in how their character develops.
The quests, for the most part, aren't as good, with the majority of them being either set in rehashed areas or being weird 'reverse fetch quests' where you'll find an item and magically know where to find the person who lost it.

Unrelated to the actual game, the way Bioware has handled the post-release situation has been absolutely terrible. I understand it's all about damage control but the way people, even actual fans of the game, have been treated on the Bioware forums is unacceptable. If you're not heralding the game as the second coming of Christ the mods lock the thread or completely ignore it because "you're trolling" or "being negative". See https://imgur.com/a/Rxrun#qYFjy for many examples of this.

tl;dr I don't see how this is better than Origins in any way. You just can't follow up a highly polished game that you literally spent years on with this kind of rushed cash grab and expect it to be well received.

Neo wrote:

Origins is an 8/10 game.
DA2 is a 6/10 at best.

I'm splitting hairs, but I'd suggest DA2 was closer to a 7/10.

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I don't really see how the DA2 gameplay mechanics are better. Spamming your abilities as soon as they cool down shouldn't be enough to get through the game on hard but, aside from a couple of bosses, it is. Nightmare mode is even worse, the entire concept of strategic tanking and damage mitigation is scrapped in favour of kiting, resulting in every battle being a drawn out, boring, slugfest.

I found DA2s combat considerably more satisfying than Origins'. I played through DA2 on hard, and while it was certainly easier than Origins, fighting anything more than small mobs saw you wiped out if you didn't either set up Tactics in advance, or try and take control of each turn. A lot of people have accused DA2 of being a button masher, but that's only true on Casual and Normal, and even then the combat feels more solid than Origins', where you stood next to your opponent and hacked at each other till one of you fell over. I do wish they'd put Origins' "deathblows" in DA2 though. Watching the Warden run up an Ogre and stab its face off was cool.

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Mages got a huge nerf and warriors and rogues were buffed which, although necessary, has been implemented so poorly that now 2H warriors and ranged rogues are just as overpowered as the mage used to be.

2h warriors put out barely more DPS than a mage's regular attack, and both rogue and mages will likely suffer from low health. The balance still seems pretty good to me.

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The story is simply worse

Agreed, hence te FFVII comparison above.

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Unrelated to the actual game, the way Bioware has handled the post-release situation has been absolutely terrible. I understand it's all about damage control but the way people, even actual fans of the game, have been treated on the Bioware forums is unacceptable. If you're not heralding the game as the second coming of Christ the mods lock the thread or completely ignore it because "you're trolling" or "being negative".

Agreed, Bioware (and their EA overlords) have handled the PR terribly.

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tl;dr I don't see how this is better than Origins in any way. You just can't follow up a highly polished game that you literally spent years on with this kind of rushed cash grab and expect it to be well received.

"Origins" and "highly polished" don't belong in the same sentence! :p

Perhaps polished is the wrong word, I just meant that Origins had 7 years of development time put into it and I thought it showed. DA2 only has a couple of years, unless they started work on it before Origins released.

i played the demo of this, was pretty fun.

is the combat in the first similar as i quite like being able to switch characters and fight in real time. I'm talking about concole versions btw.

Combat in the first game is probably less fluid than the second on consoles but overall better imo.

Its got a point to playing multiple times right? I might pick up the ultimate edition.