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[Kyoufu]

I have a dagger that requires 41 dex

Spoiler

the one Zevran gives to you

All right 41 then! The point is the only two stats you need for a rogue are DEX and CUN. With the Cunning talent you just need enough DEX to equip your items.

 

[Rubezh]

Some interesting mods are beginning to coming out for this game. Most are just simple cooldown or appearance modifiers, but there's a texture pack here I'm downloading as we speak and a model to override the Bethany model with the Varric's "exaggerated" version here.

 

[RedSwirl]

wat

The control structure is basically PSO, with the abilities mapped to face buttons through two tiers via a shoulder button. All in all, DAII's console interface will feel familiar to people who are used to Japanese Action RPGs.

Still, I found it a lot harder to set up advanced maneuvers. It's really easiest to just worry about Hawke and let everyone else do their jobs like Kingdom Hearts and Rogue Galaxy, except in the DAII demo the friendly AI was actually pretty reliable.

The only thing PC gamers really have a right to be worried about is how the enemy AI in DAII doesn't really require the same tactical approach as Origins. In Origins just a handful of Darkspawn can be a threat if you don't organize yourself, but in DAII you can wipe out dozens of mooks pretty easily. ...and maybe the graphics but the Lycium/Eclipse Engine has never been the best-looking thing on the market.

 

[subversus]

Some interesting mods are beginning to coming out for this game. Most are just simple cooldown or appearance modifiers, but there's a texture pack here I'm downloading as we speak and a model to override the Bethany model with the Varric's "exaggerated" version here.

I'm downloading the pack but textures already look nice as they're if we talk about DX11. It's a must-have for DX9 users though.

I saw his comparison and even though walls and tiles in Kirkwall look better I think it's all just sharpening. Will try anyway.

 

[RPGCrazied]

I'm downloading the pack but textures already look nice as they're if we talk about DX11. It's a must-have for DX9 users though.

I saw his comparison and even though walls and tiles in Kirkwall look better I think it's all just sharpening. Will try anyway.

I thought the texture pack overall helped immensely. I have the game on High, max AF & AA. 1920x1080 with DirectX 11.

So.. when can you start romancing your party?

 

[Vamphuntr]

I thought the texture pack overall helped immensely. I have the game on High, max AF & AA. 1920x1080 with DirectX 11.

So.. when can you start romancing your party?

Most of them can be romanced in ACT II after you do their questioning beliefs quest.

 

[Fix The Scientist]

I just hit level 14 and still can't see any option for spirit healer.. Is my game glitched?

 

[Vamphuntr]

I just hit level 14 and still can't see any option for spirit healer.. Is my game glitched?

You're able to get it as soon as level 7. It's between force mage and blood mage on the 360 version (blue hand icon). Only Hawke can get specialization.

 

[Gvaz]

Well I beat it, at 40 something hours. Would not play again, unless they did an about face and patched this crap and added some dlc that didn't stink.

I should have just played something else, what a disappointment

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

So is the

Spoiler

champion

armour the best armour in the game ? What about weapon (for warrior) ?

 

[Gvaz]

It's the best set armor, but not the best stats. You can find a chest and maybe a hat or gloves or something, and random loot with sort of better stats. Kind of.

So yeah I'd say it's the best overall.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Well I beat it, at 40 something hours. Would not play again, unless they did an about face and patched this crap and added some dlc that didn't stink.

I should have just played something else, what a disappointment

I have to agree with this. I beat it in 32 hours but I was skipping some of the worthless sidequest dialogues. Really hated the reused dungeons because well they were the only dungeon in the game. ME used some but at least there were some real dungeons. Even the final battle is not in a new place. The plot is a mess and almost non existant.

 

[Lostconfused]

So why is the level cap 50? Are they planning to pump out enough DLC that it would double the length of the game?

 

[RPGCrazied]

I'm getting this annoying sound echoy problem. At first I thought it was cause I was in a cave type environment, now It seems to do it in odd places. When music is playing its hard to tell, still annoying.

Also, when I first start the game I get an error "No disk" or something, and I have to alt-tab to get it off. Ugh.

 

[Vamphuntr]

So why is the level cap 50? Are they planning to pump out enough DLC that it would double the length of the game?

How would that work out?

Spoiler

everyone leave you except your romanced character in the ending and the game only create a campaign completion autosave

 

[Gattsu25]

Someone on the bioware forums found an easter egg:

Thread Title: Easter Egg found.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6529106/1

When you get a drink at the bar in the hanged man Hawk uses the EXACT same drinking animation that Shepard uses in ME2. He even pulls away from the counter the same way.

faux-edit: Bioware's response:

Each project has its own motion capture and animation budget, and there comes a point where you make the decision between 'do we get a bunch of new generic animations?' or 'do we use custom animations for the high-impact scenes?' Sure, we could have gotten new drinking animations, but that would've involved losing assets elsewhere for what may have amounted to a slightly different 'here's a drink, now pretend you're drinking from it' animation.

That's not to say that we don't want to try and use new assets where we can. Evaluating and planning replacements for the 'old' animations that either A) look less than spectacular or B) have been used to death is an ongoing process.

But when the choice comes between 'make this emotional moment work by using a custom animation for its participants' or 'make it so when your character has a drink at the bar, it looks nothing like Mass Effect 2', I tend to fall pretty heavily on the side of the emotional moment.

EDIT: I should mention - there are animations from Jade Empire in ME. There are animations from ME and DA:O in ME2. Our animation library is shared across all projects, and when a cinematic designer says 'that looks like it does exactly what I need', it gets ported over.

 

[Lostconfused]

Re used animations are not an easter egg.

 

[Jenga]

Re used animations are not an easter egg.

the bioware dude had a chance to pass it off as such

at least he was honest

 

[ProtoCents]

I'm surprised I didn't go through the Collector's Ship in DA2 knowing how much Bioware likes to reuse assets.

 

[Coxswain]

That dude just sounds super defensive; I think in the face of the ridiculously overused dungeon maps, the abrupt end to the third act, and the general bugginess of the game, nobody with a brain in their head is really going to be mad about a reused animation for having a drink at a bar that doesn't do anything.

 

[Lostconfused]

the bioware dude had a chance to pass it off as such

at least he was honest

Honestly it doesn't bother me. I thought "hey those are the animations from Mass Effect 1" a few times while playing DA2. It is news to me that they are re using animations from Jade Empire though, a nice little morsel of info that I am grateful to have.

Edit: Its really a waste to nitpick something minor like that when there are much greater flaws in DA2. Like eating plain bread when you could spread caviar on every sandwich for the rest of the week.

 

[X-Frame]

I don't see a problem with that -- and is that even considered an Easter Egg?

Not sure why it's shocking either -- the same company uses their own assets for several games?


In any case, I just finished now. Tried to play sarcastically 90% of the time and be neutral in the big events but eventually I had to pick a side. Sarcastic FemHawke is awesome, and I am sort of excited to go back and try as a Rogue.

My Warrior with 100% Vanguard, Berserker, and half Reaver specializations was absolutely murdering enemies at the end.

 

[HadesGigas]

Yeah I noticed the drinking thing. Sad that there's no dance floor for Hawke to bust a Shepard-like move on.

 

[The Technomancer]

I'm slowly warming up to this game.

First, the plot is much better. Characters are better written and voiced. I liked some dialogues in DAO because they were written out of some personal experience to which I could relate but the rest of the game was a standart boring fantasy stuff. I don't think that you need MAJOR STUFF HAPPENING to keep the plot going.

Also I'm starting to like combat. I'm playing on hard and use the same degree of pause-tactic gameplay which I used on normal in DAO.

So far it's pretty good.

Also while art isn't good enough, the technical side is very good. The game looks almost supersampled with 4xAA and most textures are very clear and crisp. And yes, lighting adds to the scene. Spell effects were improved. I like rock armor.

http://www.abload.de/img/dragonage22011-03-1518394x.png[IMG][/QUOTE]

Okay, why does every screen I see of this game look like its rendered in beige, grey, and shit. *goes to hunt for some screens that actualyl have color*

 

[Lostconfused]

Okay, why does every screen I see of this game look like its rendered in beige, grey, and shit. *goes to hunt for some screens that actualyl have color*

But it is brighter and more colorful than Origins.

 

[Zeliard]

I still can't believe that this game is really as bad as I feared it would be. The enemy waves ruin combat, and the lack of skills takes a toll on everything else. And that's not getting into the ridiculous level of asset reuse. Or no armor for companions. Or the ultra-annoying aiming of AoE spells with the limited camera.

There are just two reasons I keep playing: there is nothing else like it and some of the characters and their banter are really great. That also seems to be the only area where there isn't a marked step back from the first game.

The banter is the only thing in DA2 I really enjoy. If there's one thing Bioware usually gets right even in their most disappointing games, it's the companions. There's usually a pretty fun selection.

Not giving you a Qunari companion here, though, was an enormous missed opportunity.

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

And thats me complete, 28 hours it took. Enjoyed it, but Normal did seem insanely easy (compared to Origins), think the number of times i died i could count on 1 hand.

Barely saw any connection to my actions in Origins either, seemed like importing was pretty pointless.

And that ending..... :/

 

[X-Frame]

The banter is the only thing in DA2 I really enjoy. If there's one thing Bioware usually gets right even in their most disappointing games, it's the companions. There's usually a pretty fun selection.

Not giving you a Qunari companion here, though, was an enormous missed opportunity.

A Qunari companion would've been perfect. IMO, one should've replaced Fenris. He was the least interesting one to me.

 

[Zeliard]

I think Fenris is okay but he's sort of derivative of Shale, with his antagonism towards mages due to his backstory. I was running around with Fenris and Anders for a good portion of the first Act and those two had some pretty amusing back-and-forths. Fenris himself isn't that special a character but his circumstances and general mentality can lead to some fun banter with other characters.

I've been using Fenris for basically the entire game (I picked him up very early on). He makes a pretty solid tank with the right abilities.

 

[Lostconfused]

My favorite is Aveline. Mainly because the game at least tries to pretend that she has a life outside of just following Hawke around.

 

[lastplayed]

Okay, why does every screen I see of this game look like its rendered in beige, grey, and shit. *goes to hunt for some screens that actualyl have color*

How about some red and purple.

 

[Zeliard]

The Rock Wraith was an absolute fucking bitch on Nightmare, too. My god. I had to turn it down to Hard to get through that asshole.

 

[Coxswain]

Aveline is definitely the best-written character. Varric is more entertaining, but then the smart-alecky sidekick archetype is pretty easy to make work. Aveline is probably the first time in a Bioware game there's ever been an actual strong, capable female character, without
using the crutch of being an overly-edgy "badass" or coming off as an undersexed nerd's sex fantasy.

Generally speaking though (by which I mean "except for Merril, sometimes Anders, and occasionally Isabela") I think the playable cast of the game is one of Bioware's best efforts. If you had Sten and Merril switch places I think you could pretty much just state categorically that the DA2 cast is better than the DA1 cast.

 

[kitzkozan]

I just finished the game. Clocked in at just under 59 hours, playing on Nightmare and doing every quest that became available to me (I'm sure I missed a handful here and there); I expected a couple more hours at the end, but Act 3 is kind of abrupt. I'll probably let my thoughts crystallize for a bit before I do a bit more of a full writeup, but for now, after seeing the highs and lows of Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2, this is my immediate impression:

Dragon Age Origins is what happens when you give a development team years worth of time and all the budget necessary to create exactly the game they aspire to create, but they don't aspire to anything other than bog-standard mediocrity, in just about every respect. It's exactly the game it was meant to be, and it was always meant to be the most nondescript fantasy RPG around.

Dragon Age 2 is what happens when you have a development team with good ideas and a desire to create something interesting, but you choke back their budget and their timeline to the point where the game is releasing 1.5-2 years before it was meant to come out. It's got some heavy, heavy flaws dragging down some very nice ideas, and you can trace many of those flaws almost directly back to issues of time or budget constraint.

I pretty solidly preferred DA2 to the original, although a lot of its flaws are such that they grate more and more the further you get into the game, and I'm not as entirely taken by it as I was in the beginning. Still, if I'm going to be dealing with elements of mediocrity in my games, I'll take the one that's mediocre because the execution didn't do justice to the concept over the one that's mediocre because nobody bothered trying to develop anything interesting.

Interesting point of view, as I agree with some of your points.

Dragon age: origins was fully fleshed, but I agree that it's far from being the most inspired game in history. I wouldn't call it mediocre however, as it's still better than the vast majority of the mediocre stuff out there if you have a good perspective on the numerous insipid shooter or action/sport or casual game on the market. Even a rather boring game from Bioware can hold interest as they have their own style, which can't be said for I dunno 60 - 70% of the industry in general. It's just that the gameplay was nothing special, mundane fantasy world and you didn't have cool boss battle or creative setpieces.

Bioware doesn't have the best game designers, that's rather obvious. That seem to be a problem as a whole within wrpg developers. Rarely does the gameplay excel like in an japanese rpg like Demon's souls for example. It's kind of sad that the best western game designer would rather work on shooters,RTS or sandbox game like GTA (or indie games).

 

[Aaron]

There are just two reasons I keep playing: there is nothing else like it and some of the characters and their banter are really great. That also seems to be the only area where there isn't a marked step back from the first game.

If you haven't played the Drakensang series, I recommend them. They're pretty cheap too. I passed on DA2 after the demo, and have been happily playing River of Time instead.

 

[gdt]

Hot damn, what a finale! Not done yet though, my game froze, so I lost about 5 minutes. No biggie.

Almost done...

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

By the third act i started to hate all the repeat areas and dungeons, enough that i was seriously feeling down about my next playthrough as a mage.

But then that ending happened

Spoiler

with sanders and for the first time in fucking forever, i actually had to sit there and think about what to do next. My character was a righteous maker sent knight of honor and when he did that, which i honestly thought would be a failed poison attempt during the quest Justice, i was honestly shocked. Because i had been using him the whole game as my healer and my love interest was Merril, i had been helping the mages out the whole game without a second thought, also because it seemed like the most pious action. When the moment finally came to choose sides, i seriously questioned what to do because i was pissed a character i had gotten use to and valued (as an asset in battle) would do that shit. I eventually broke and still sided with the mages but goddam I am proud of a game to finally make a situation like that matter. The rest of the end and how the two leaders arcs played out was the definition of grey rather than the black and white we rpg fans are so accustomed to.

So yeah, that ending definitely played a big part in leaving a positive impression with the game.

Also, the sensation of my badass looking two handed warrior charging into a group of 4+ enemies followed by a whirlwind of blood was simply wonderful and i never got tired of it. In that sense, i feel the combat was a step up just as promised.

 

[Enduin]

If you haven't played the Drakensang series, I recommend them. They're pretty cheap too. I passed on DA2 after the demo, and have been happily playing River of Time instead.

Someone needs to sell me on this series cause so many people praise it but after playing like 6-8 hours of RoT on my friends Steam account I found it to be boring beyond belief. Combat was slow and just tedious, watching people miss 75% of the time isnt fun. But what really killed the game for me was the fact that the setting and all the characters were bland as shit and were horrendously generic fantasy 101. Nothing at all stood out to me as being compelling or worthwhile.

Do things get drastically better after going through that temple ruins on the island with that dwarf mystic, or is it cause the game has stats and numbers galore that make some CRPG fans hard that get it all its praise? This and Divinity II confound me and I actually went ahead and bought D2 DKS because of GAF praise, but I cannot get myself to continue playing after becoming a dragon because its just so unbelievably banal and uninteresting in almost every way from combat to appearance to characters.

At least with Two Worlds 2 the combat was relatively fun and the world was great looking which got me to the end despite the plot being complete shit, even Gothic 4 the bastard child of the series not even made by Piranha Bytes had a few redeeming values to get me to beat it.

 

[eek5]

But then that ending happened

Spoiler

with sanders and for the first time in fucking forever, i actually had to sit there and think about what to do next. My character was a righteous maker sent knight of honor and when he did that, which i honestly thought would be a failed poison attempt during the quest Justice, i was honestly shocked. Because i had been using him the whole game as my healer and my love interest was Merril, i had been helping the mages out the whole game without a second thought, also because it seemed like the most pious action. When the moment finally came to choose sides, i seriously questioned what to do because i was pissed a character i had gotten use to and valued (as an asset in battle) would do that shit. I eventually broke and still sided with the mages but goddam I am proud of a game to finally make a situation like that matter. The rest of the end and how the two leaders arcs played out was the definition of grey rather than the black and white we rpg fans are so accustomed to.

It's great until you find out that

Spoiler

it's so grey that your choice doesn't even matter.

 

[Fredescu]

Dragon Age Origins is what happens when you give a development team years worth of time and all the budget necessary to create exactly the game they aspire to create, but they don't aspire to anything other than bog-standard mediocrity, in just about every respect. It's exactly the game it was meant to be, and it was always meant to be the most nondescript fantasy RPG around.

Good overall write up, but I'm not sure that I agree with this assessment of DA:O. There were rushed elements in DA:O too, Shale for eg, which I think indicates that the development was so long because it was troubled, not because they had the time to do everything they had planned to. I think the protracted development time is also why DA:O ended up with very uneven pacing and very inconsistent graphics.

I can't compare it with DA2 though, my copy still hasn't arrived. The price I pay for penny pinching.

 

[Aaron]

Someone needs to sell me on this series cause so many people praise it but after playing like 6-8 hours of RoT on my friends Steam account I found it to be boring beyond belief. Combat was slow and just tedious, watching people miss 75% of the time isnt fun. But what really killed the game for me was the fact that the setting and all the characters were bland as shit and were horrendously generic fantasy 101. Nothing at all stood out to me as being compelling or worthwhile.

Huh? My attacks don't miss unless they're interrupted. Most battles are over in a couple of minutes. The setting is pretty generic though, but then so was Dragon Age and just about every other fantasy RPG, outside of Morrowind and Risen. I liked how low key the experience was, instead of 'You are the CHAMPION out to SAVE THE WORLD!' The characters were interesting for me without feeling the need to get in my face about it, and chatter every five seconds like they did in Dragon Age. Where was the muzzle accessory for Alistar? Christ.

Do things get drastically better after going through that temple ruins on the island with that dwarf mystic, or is it cause the game has stats and numbers galore that make some CRPG fans hard that get it all its praise? This and Divinity II confound me and I actually went ahead and bought D2 DKS because of GAF praise, but I cannot get myself to continue playing after becoming a dragon because its just so unbelievably banal and uninteresting in almost every way from combat to appearance to characters.

Divinity II for me was a game to played on hard, which brings a real challenge to the combat. Outside of a few touches, the setting wasn't all that great, but I thought it had a nice look to it, especially in the more demonic areas. Though it was more of a Diablo game, a loot game, than a full fledged RPG.

 

[Zeliard]

Seriously, was anyone able to beat Rock Wraith on Nightmare? If so, what was your party mix?

 

[Coxswain]

Good overall write up, but I'm not sure that I agree with this assessment of DA:O. There were rushed elements in DA:O too, Shale for eg, which I think indicates that the development was so long because it was troubled, not because they had the time to do everything they had planned to. I think the protracted development time is also why DA:O ended up with very uneven pacing and very inconsistent graphics.

I can't compare it with DA2 though, my copy still hasn't arrived. The price I pay for penny pinching.

Shale isn't really 'rushed' in the same way that DA2's issues are. It definitely came down to crunch time and they were all set to just launch the game without Shale, which sort of shines through, but the content with Shale (or at least the content that I saw) is still pretty unique and relatively polished. If you judge Shale in terms of post-release DLC, it stands up pretty well. To me, that's not really indicative of a rushed game so much as there being a pretty significant piece of content that almost didn't make the cut. I imagine there's swaths of unused ideas and half-done content for most games out there.

You'll probably see the difference between that and DA2 once you get playing it; depending on how sensitive you are toward that sort of thing it'll start to set in probably around the 4-7 hour mark.

Seriously, was anyone able to beat Rock Wraith on Nightmare? If so, what was your party mix?

Bethany, Varric, Anders, and a Two-Handed Warrior Hawke. I don't know if I can really offer anything more specific than that, though; I don't really remember anything about the fight except finding it a little long and tedious but not really hard.

 

[Zeliard]

It isn't that he's particularly difficult in his tactics or anything (in fact he's extremely predictable), it's that he has so many hit points that I would ultimately end up screwed over by the pot/heal cooldowns. So if Fenris fell, that was about it. Probably doesn't help that I had nothing for resurrecting a dead char (not sure if you can even get anything in Act 1).

Going with two healers is probably a better idea (I notice you had Anders and Bethany). I only had the basic Heal spell (non-upgraded) with mage Hawke when I was in that fight, and that probably didn't help either.

 

[gdt]

Holy fucking shit. One of the best endgames ever, ridiculously epic, and hard as fuck to decide what to do.

Spoiler

I couldn't kill Anders, though I wanted to. His healing is too good! Prince immediatly swore to tear me an asshole, and left. I felt awful, but Anders was still needed.

Sided with Mages.

Very excited to see where the story goes. The codex entry said that the name Dragon Age (as in name of the century) meant that it's an era of great change, can't wait to see what happens next.

For me, this game is farrr better than Origins, in pretty much every department. The biggest drawback of the game is the damn copy paste areas. The entire final sequence shot this game up to a 9 for me (whereas it was about an 8 before). My mouth was wide open during a good chunk of the ending.


Give me some ME2 quality DLC Bioware.

Edit: Finished at 40 hours.

 

[gdt]

In total, 4 quests bugged for me, two major ones.

I never obtained Isabella, Fenris's companion quest bugged, and two minor sidequests bugged.

 

[DLaren]

Alistair > Aveline
Leliana < Isabella
Zevran < Varric
Sten > Fenris
Shayle > Sebastian
Morrigan> Merrill
Wynne >Bethany
Ohgren > Carver
DA:O Dog > DA:2 Dog
DA:A Anders > DA:2 Anders


8-2, DA:1 wins in blow-out fashion….

 

[gdt]

That list is incredibly silly, but DA1 Anders vs DA2 Anders is a good one.

I don't know, Anders was really funny and charming in Awakenings...but dear lord, the end of DA2.

Spoiler

Anders was.......just wow. That fucker!

 

[gdt]

I missed a few achievements, where can I get that list? It's hard for me to see what I missed...

Edit: Ahh, ok. Just other choice stuff. Playthrough 2 will take care of that.

And none of the Prince achievements activated :/.

 

[Fredescu]

To me, that's not really indicative of a rushed game so much as there being a pretty significant piece of content that almost didn't make the cut. I imagine there's swaths of unused ideas and half-done content for most games out there.

A little for most games, sure, but most games aren't in development for 5+ years. I reckon there was a lot of chopping and changing through DA:O's development, more than the average game, and it shows. I'm not trying to say that it was rushed per se, but that the development wasn't exactly plain sailing and therefore I doubt that any one persons exact vision of mediocrity was what ended up on the disk. 18 months is rushed, sure. A 5 year cycle is not without problems of it's own.