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[Zeliard]

It's something that resolves one of the parts I really disliked about Origins where I'd see people's screenshots with their badass team and they would kind of all look the same. Near the end of the game, everyone had the same set of suits of armor.

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. He was annoyed that every DA:O party member in various people's screens looked the same (they didn't), so with DA2 he helped design a way to ensure they will always look identical in screenshots.

Way to go.

 

[HK-47]

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. He was annoyed that every DA:O party member in various people's screens looked the same (they didn't), so with DA2 he helped design a way to ensure they will always look identical in screenshots.

Way to go.

ASSUMING CONTROL!

 

[Peff]

Infinity Engine KOTOR! I'm in!

That would be really cool, actually.

Hopefully this slew of terribad interviews is just because they've never had to face this amount of criticism before and are trying to save face. If he actually believes some of the stuff he keeps saying for real...

 

[Basileus777]

If he didn't like characters all looking the same in screenshots, maybe they should have put in a more diverse looking set of armor designs. Considering how much of the leather armor and robes in the first game were basically palette swaps, and most of the heavy armor looked very similar, it wouldn't be difficult to do. What a stupid reasoning for what they did.

 

[Hixx]

I can't remember reading a Mike Laidlaw interview without laughing or rolling my eyes. There's defending your game and then there's talking absolute shite. 'Genre evolving' for fucks sake.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. He was annoyed that every DA:O party member in various people's screens looked the same (they didn't), so with DA2 he helped design a way to ensure they will always look identical in screenshots.

Way to go.

I think what he's saying is that all the armor sets looked the same, throw on a helmet for example and Alistair and Sten would look exactly the same. This way all the characters keep their own identity.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I think what he's saying is that all the armor sets looked the same, throw on a helmet for example and Alistair and Sten would look exactly the same. This way all the characters keep their own identity.

Well if that really bothered him, maybe he should have had the team go the extra mile and make armor look different on every character. Obviously that wouldn't make much sense, but it would sure be a lot more interesting for the player than having their party look exactly the same throughout the entire game.

An even better solution would have been to make almost all pieces of armor actually look different. It wasn't often in DA:O that your party would be using the exact same piece of armor at the same time, but a lot of the time the different pieces of armor would share the same models and textures.

Of course, all of that would actually take time, and certainly wouldn't fit into EA and Bioware's current ideology of cutting corners to rush content out and piece mealing anything extra as pay DLC.

 

[subversus]

yes, my DLC in Origins works now, thanks everybody for help.

Laidlaw seems to be a nice guy from video interviews but I want him to be removed from the team. I understand that 8 months to build a content isn't enough but he doesn't get it anyway. The more he talks the less I want to buy DA3 even if it turns out to be a finished game. I'm perfectly ok with Mass Effect direction but Dragon Age was about different things and conventions. What's worse he doesn't admit obvious shortcomings like waves of enemies and companion's armor.

I dunno, friend. Baldur's Gate 2 looks great to this day with that widescreen patch. Plays great too.

it looks great but animations are... well, you've seen them (one type of attack with a stick leaves too much work for imagination) and the game has a steep learning curve that makes me read 150+ pages in the manual.

 

[Confidence Man]

If he didn't like characters all looking the same in screenshots, maybe they should have put in a more diverse looking set of armor designs. Considering how much of the leather armor and robes in the first game were basically palette swaps, and most of the heavy armor looked very similar, it wouldn't be difficult to do. What a stupid reasoning for what they did.

Yeah that was really their own fault. There was only, what, one rogue armor model?

 

[mrpeabody]

Final thoughts with Mike Laidlaw:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6305575/p-1.html

[...]

The gist of the whole thing seems to be "We made the right decisions, the game is exactly where we wanted it to be, expect more of the same for DA3 with a few tweaks. We've evolved the genre, so get on board or get out of the way."

The level of wilful ignorance coming out of Bioware is unbelievable. Sure, DA2's problems are all the more painful and frustrating coming from the company that defined the story-rich, full-party tactical rpg. But even if they hadn't been the ones who made BG and DAO -- even if those games had never been made at all -- DA2 would still be a deeply flawed experience.

It isn't just comparisons from jaded PC gamers, and it isn't just rose-colored glasses. The game standing alone in a vacuum has serious problems. That Bioware can't even admit that much speaks volumes.

 

[Patryn]

Are there people out there who are saying, "I could not play Origins, but love Dragon Age II" or "I couldn't play Origins and this is more of the same." ...

...We wanted to make RPGs, especially fantasy RPGs, accessible, cool, and interesting to people who have been playing RPGs for the last seven years and not realizing that every time they ate food or went for a long run in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, they were essentially grinding constitution.

Fuck you too, Mike. Nice to know that you still don't give a shit about the audience that made DA:O a hit, and you just want a slice of that sweet, sweet GTA/COD audience.

 

[Xilium]

I think what he's saying is that all the armor sets looked the same, throw on a helmet for example and Alistair and Sten would look exactly the same. This way all the characters keep their own identity.

They could have gone the JRPG route and either a) Have character specific armor pieces or b) have a static outward appearance but still allow for armor to be added/changed that will effect stats.

The way they have it set up in DA2, nearly destroys any reason to ever pick up armor (Personally, the only armor I used in the game were the set pieces).

 

[Zeliard]

I think what he's saying is that all the armor sets looked the same, throw on a helmet for example and Alistair and Sten would look exactly the same. This way all the characters keep their own identity.

I understand that, but that issue was mitigated somewhat by the characterss having such different statures. Sten and Alistair may have had the same-looking chest piece if you equipped the same one on both, but the fact that Sten is physically much more enormous makes him look a lot different regardless. The armors scaled to the sizes of the characters.

Now Laidlaw has ensured that every character in people's different playthroughs will always look the same. So congrats, they may now keep their own 'unique' look relative to the other chars throughout the game, but it's the same 'unique' look that every single player will have in all of their screenshots. It kills one of the primary purposes of party customization. I would think the more obvious and effective solution there would have been to add more sets of armor, rather than stripping out armor customization almost entirely. Now you're constantly picking up sets of armor that you literally can't equip on anything - they could for all intents and purposes be marked as auto-junk.

 

[Rufus]

They didn't have enough time as is...

 

[Zeliard]

If you want to set a minimum bar for quality then you have to put in the time and effort. Half-assing elements will have them appropriately called out as half-assed.

Laidlaw's comments are such backwards thinking. He complains that party members would end up looking the same, so his solution is to strip that mechanic out entirely, never mind the fact that it completely removes choice from the player's hands. It's basically like saying "hey, stupid player, I don't trust you to customize your own party so that it doesn't hurt my eyes, so you don't get to do that anymore."

 

[Nirolak]

On where DA is and is going:

We wanted to make RPGs, especially fantasy RPGs, accessible, cool, and interesting to people who have been playing RPGs for the last seven years and not realizing that every time they ate food or went for a long run in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, they were essentially grinding constitution.

To me, that represents a huge audience that may have disregarded RPGs, especially fantasy, as being too hardcore or too confusing. And making certain changes to make the game palatable without ripping out the mechanics that make RPGs so fascinating to a stats guy or what have you. It keeps this genre evolving into something that's fresh and not stagnating.

Ha, glorious proof.

Greg Zeschuk, September 17th, 2007 when BioWare was still working with Microsoft.

IGN: Do you think attitudes are changing about RPGs? It's like Blue Dragon, which is a very traditional Japanese RPG but it's pretty much been panned in the West.

Greg Zeschuk: People's tastes are changing now. For example, we're currently having a debate in the office about whether San Andreas is an RPG - which is a fun discussion. I think that it's actually similar to Mass Effect but we're coming at the same core experience from very different directions.

IGN: What do you think about GTA IV, from what you've seen or heard?

Greg Zeschuk: I saw one trailer and the character was interacting in a way that looks quite a lot like Mass Effect. Rockstar is trying to create and action game, whereas as we are creating an action RPG. Somewhere in the middle is the holy grail and I think that all developers are trying to find it.

Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/820/820402p2.html

BioWare has been planning this new direction for years. I knew this quote would eventually be relevant.

 

[subversus]

BioWare has been planning this new direction for years. I knew this quote would eventually be relevant.

The next phase: Facebook and MMO stuff.

 

[X-Frame]

The next phase: Facebook and MMO stuff.

They already have a Facebook game out. Dragon Age Legends.

 

[Patryn]

The more I read from Mike Laidlaw, the more he sounds like the nerdy kid at school who is willing to screw over and make fun of his friends in order to get in with the "cool kids."

 

[subversus]

They already have a Facebook game out. Dragon Age Legends.

That's not as popular as Frontierville for example.

 

[CabbageRed]

I think I'm nearing the end and am surprised by how disappointing DA2 is. I was in favor of moving the series towards ME2's gameplay, but I hadn't realized just how much they would cut. However, my real issue is with just how contrived and angsty the companions are. I typically love following through on companion stories, but this group is so deeply unlikable that I find myself choosing party members based not on abilities, but who is least likely to start talking during NPC interaction. It's as though Bioware distilled all of the worst and least believable aspects of BSG- and Stargate:U's characters and then handed it off to the most bitter teenager they could find. "Women are delusional sluts who need to be coddled while men are violent and single-minded man-babies."

Plus, I don't get why they went with the city model. You create a world with all manner of cultures and races, but then set the game in an amalgam of Assassin Creed's cities? What a waste.

Changes to crafting that make no intuitive sense, Bioware's increasingly allergic reaction to armor and companion upgrades (who is Bioware talking to that dislikes both tactical and cosmetic changes?), enemies that spawn from thin air a foot in front of you, repeating levels, constant crashing, add an additional $10 for less content all leave me extremely underwhelmed.

 

[bhlaab]

Counterpoint to that interview, the guy heading development of hardcore indie RPG Age of Decadence posted what I consider an incredibly well-reasoned review all but trashing DA2 on the website RPG Codex.

He really breaks things down and he clearly knows what he's talking about.

http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=224

Some choice excerpts:

I’d say it’s one of the more interesting settings for an RPG and it does manage to raise interesting questions, questions without an easy answer. The potential is there, but it’s wasted on an action RPG where you kill bad guys and monsters instead of exploring the ethics of the society Bioware created.

Bioware also misses the opportunity to tie the game mechanics directly into that conflict. Magic cast by your party is completely ignored by the Templars outside of scripted events, Blood magic is purchased with a simple skill point choice instead of a story one like in DA:O, and you never have to face corruption of your own powers, as a mage. Disappointing, given that Bioware managed to make restrictions on magic tie into the game mechanics as far back as Baldur's Gate 2, with the Cowled Wizard's prohibition on spellcasting in Athkatla.

The game is challenging on Hard (though it would have been nice if friendly fire had been enabled there too), but the challenge comes not from the ruleset as it does in Dungeon & Dragons games and not from well-designed monsters with a variety of abilities as it does in Diablo-like games, no, it comes from the sheer numbers of enemies zerging your party and from that second wave of enemies spawning in all around you, literally out of thin air in most cases, which is the laziest design possible.

(snip)

Level scaling once again proves to be an abomination and a slight against God, ruining both combat and the item system. Every time you level up, you actually get weaker. Your “to hit chance” and armor rating go down (because enemies’ to hit chance and armor rating go up), which is absolutely retarded. So, your equipment, including unique items, lose their value faster than you can blink, and priceless artefacts of yesterday are quickly surpassed by the local mass production. If you want to maintain your combat worthiness you have to hit the shops after a level up or two and buy (often the same looking) weapons/armor with a 5-7% increase in stats. I call it the hamster wheel design.

 

[HK-47]

I recall Vault Dweller actually liking DAO as well, which surprised me more than him hating DA II.

 

[bhlaab]

Yeah, here's his review for Origins:

http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=195

 

[subversus]

I recall Vault Dweller actually liking DAO as well, which surprised me more than him hating DA II.

Edit: sorry, misread.

 

[Basileus777]

I don't understand complaining about level scaling in a non-exploration based game. Your attack and defense rating only go down if you don't allocate your attribute points accordingly. You definitely get more powerful as you level up and get access to more and higher level skills. I'll take level scaling if it helps prevent a game from becoming a joke in terms of difficulty as you do more sidequests or advance through the game. DA2 (and DAO) already get noticeably easier later in the game even with level scaling. Hell, DAO's biggest problem in terms of difficulty was that level scaling wasn't applied consistently enough and the beginning of every major quest had you fighting against weak trash mobs until the scaling ramped up again late in the questline.

 

[Lostconfused]

I don't understand complaining about level scaling in a non-exploration based game. Your attack and defense rating only go down if you don't allocate your attribute points accordingly. You definitely get more powerful as you level up and get access to more and higher level skills.

But you don't. A fight in the first two hours in the game is just as difficult and annoying as all the fights in the 30 or 40 hours that follow.

Edit: But then again I was playing it on hard and like I was playing DA:O. So apparently that's doing it wrong.

 

[npm0925]

I feel like Macbeth when I play this game -- I'm neck deep in a pile of shit but am convinced that I am almost to the other side, so I keep going. This game has no redeeming qualities. The graphics, sound, characters, plot, and gameplay all stink. Actually, the boss battles are quite good -- the combat system works as intended in those. If only Bioware had built this game as an RPG counterpart to Shadow of the Colossus, rather than forcing the player to battle through a thousand generic grunts in one generic sidequest taking place in one generic dungeon after another.

I would / should stop, but I paid $59.99 for this game on Steam, and it will piss me off to no end to see the icon sitting on my desktop.

 

[Seventy5]

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. Well, I was until I got to the deep road expedition. The giant spider wiped out my part except for Varric. Now I'm at the dragon and I've been stuck for days! In probably 20 attempts, I've only gotten him to about 1/3 health twice. He's fucking up Fenris badly, takes Bethany out in 1 hit and kills Varric very quickly too. My rogue Hawke takes very few hits from him before going down, and Bethany's bullshit heal spell takes 40 fucking seconds to cool down.

Does anyone have any tips for this fucker? I'm so frustrated that I'm considering trading it in, which would be a shame because I really want to see it through. I've tried sucking less already, just in case that was anyone's tip.

 

[Nirolak]

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. Well, I was until I got to the deep road expedition. The giant spider wiped out my part except for Varric. Now I'm at the dragon and I've been stuck for days! In probably 20 attempts, I've only gotten him to about 1/3 health twice. He's fucking up Fenris badly, takes Bethany out in 1 hit and kills Varric very quickly too. My rogue Hawke takes very few hits from him before going down, and Bethany's bullshit heal spell takes 40 fucking seconds to cool down.

Does anyone have any tips for this fucker? I'm so frustrated that I'm considering trading it in, which would be a shame because I really want to see it through. I've tried sucking less already, just in case that was anyone's tip.

I'd suggest a tank character like Aveline and a healer like Anders on top of Bethany.

At that point you should just win by attrition.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. Well, I was until I got to the deep road expedition. The giant spider wiped out my part except for Varric. Now I'm at the dragon and I've been stuck for days! In probably 20 attempts, I've only gotten him to about 1/3 health twice. He's fucking up Fenris badly, takes Bethany out in 1 hit and kills Varric very quickly too. My rogue Hawke takes very few hits from him before going down, and Bethany's bullshit heal spell takes 40 fucking seconds to cool down.

Does anyone have any tips for this fucker? I'm so frustrated that I'm considering trading it in, which would be a shame because I really want to see it through. I've tried sucking less already, just in case that was anyone's tip.

What combat difficulty are you playing on? You can switch in the menus on the fly, so don't feel bad about bumping it down to Casual just to get through a boss fight, and then putting it back up if it means you'd trade in the game otherwise.

 

[Nirolak]

What combat difficulty are you playing on? You can switch in the menus on the fly, so don't feel bad about bumping it down to Casual just to get through a boss fight, and then putting it back up if it means you'd trade in the game otherwise.

Yeah this is probably the best solution actually.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Now Laidlaw has ensured that every character in people's different playthroughs will always look the same. So congrats, they may now keep their own 'unique' look relative to the other chars throughout the game, but it's the same 'unique' look that every single player will have in all of their screenshots. It kills one of the primary purposes of party customization. I would think the more obvious and effective solution there would have been to add more sets of armor, rather than stripping out armor customization almost entirely. Now you're constantly picking up sets of armor that you literally can't equip on anything - they could for all intents and purposes be marked as auto-junk.

They could have gone the JRPG route and either a) Have character specific armor pieces or b) have a static outward appearance but still allow for armor to be added/changed that will effect stats.

The way they have it set up in DA2, nearly destroys any reason to ever pick up armor (Personally, the only armor I used in the game were the set pieces).

I agree with both of you. Either throw in more armor sets for party members and if not at least let them equip new armor with no appearance change. Really stupid they didn't do that. I was at least hoping for cosmetic changes with each time jump, but even that is asking for too much apparently.

As for Bioware's direction, originally I was hoping they revived Jade Empire and went with a three pronged strategy for all of their major franchises:

JE - strait up action game with light RPG elements / dialogue choices
ME - third person shooter with moderate RPG elements
DA - hardcore party based RPG

Kind of hit a bunch of RPG niches depending on the franchise. Now they're strategy seems to be to streamline or remove everything remotely "hardcore" no matter the game. Quite the shame really.

 

[subversus]

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. Well, I was until I got to the deep road expedition. The giant spider wiped out my part except for Varric. Now I'm at the dragon and I've been stuck for days! In probably 20 attempts, I've only gotten him to about 1/3 health twice. He's fucking up Fenris badly, takes Bethany out in 1 hit and kills Varric very quickly too. My rogue Hawke takes very few hits from him before going down, and Bethany's bullshit heal spell takes 40 fucking seconds to cool down.

Does anyone have any tips for this fucker? I'm so frustrated that I'm considering trading it in, which would be a shame because I really want to see it through. I've tried sucking less already, just in case that was anyone's tip.

I had Aveline on him as a tank and Varric, Merril + me were raping him with ranged attacks. When he got interested in someone other than Aveline we ran until she aggroed him again. Simple. Also you need potions, I don't go on a mission without at least 10 of them.

 

[WanderingWind]

ME - Casual RPG, heavy action elements
DA - Hardcore RPG, light action elements
__ - Action action, action action elements

This would be nice.

 

[subversus]

BioWare has been planning this new direction for years. I knew this quote would eventually be relevant.

I love how they were talking about San Andreas and now they're talking about COD. It tells a lot about their intentions.

They should go and start making free-to-play MMOs if they want money because they won't sell 10 million copies of RPG, they're limited by install base.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

Don't know if it's been discussed here or not, but I'm really disappointed with how they handled the DLC for The Exiled Prince. If you load a save post-completion, a pop up comes up saying a new quest in available, but you're unable to access any areas on your map. But even after loading a spot in Act III, only the last companion quest is available so to even properly enjoy it, you have to load a save in Act I/II to play through his starting quests, and then load back up Act III to finish it up.

It's really weird and assumes that you bought the content before you even started playing the game. Really hope they handle it better the next time around, what a headache.

 

[Seventy5]

I'd suggest a tank character like Aveline and a healer like Anders on top of Bethany.

At that point you should just win by attrition.

I took Fenris instead of Aveline because he's awesome, but he's dogshit compared to her as a tank. Can you switch your party after you start? I was going to take Anders, but he seems to be a crappy healer, and I think I can only choose 1 character to take since I'm stuck with Varric and I chose to take Bethany.

If I can't swap them out, I guess I will just drop to casual as a last resort, thanks for the help.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

If I can't swap them out, I guess I will just drop to casual as a last resort, thanks for the help.

No shame in dropping the difficulty down in certain circumstances. I played the majority of the game on hard but there were a handful of instances where it wasn't worth a half hour of my life to slowly dwindle an enemy's HP down to zero so I just dropped it down to normal.

 

[Gvaz]

I think what he's saying is that all the armor sets looked the same, throw on a helmet for example and Alistair and Sten would look exactly the same. This way all the characters keep their own identity.

The only ONLY way your characters looked all the same were if you were running all mages/rogues/warriors because the differences between each class armor were different (though plain).

Besides if you're not doing tank/mage/rogue/warrior you're doing it wrong anyways.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

The only ONLY way your characters looked all the same were if you were running all mages/rogues/warriors because the differences between each class armor were different (though plain).

Besides if you're not doing tank/mage/rogue/warrior you're doing it wrong anyways.

Going with Wynne and Morrigan in the same party isn't particularly rare or "doing it wrong" and they can look exactly the same, same with Sten and Alistair. Hell, Zevran and Leliana look very similar if you zoom out enough.

I think it's a valid complaint, especially when you include headgear. The problem is that Bioware's attempt to correct it ended up pretty lame, IE remove all armor customization both cosmetically and stats wise.

 

[Yurt]

Besides if you're not doing tank/mage/rogue/warrior you're doing it wrong anyways.

I'm playing with three casters and a tank on Hard. I'm melting faces.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I liked the unique armor in DA2. I was only disappointed that the upgrades didn't have a visual component with them, so while they where getting a bit tougher with each one, its didnt feel like it.

DAO was simply boring. All 3 mage robes looked like shit, all rogue armor looked the same, while warrior was the only one that got some variety, they simply repeated themselves with different colors later on.

 

[WanderingWind]

'DA:O had too few armor customization. It was stupid. DA2 - with their zero armor customization is much better.'

I don't want to be a gamer any more.

 

[Nirolak]

I liked the unique armor in DA2. I was only disappointed that the upgrades didn't have a visual component with them, so while they where getting a bit tougher with each one, its didnt feel like it.

DAO was simply boring. All 3 mage robes looked like shit, all rogue armor looked the same, while warrior was the only one that got some variety, they simply repeated themselves with different colors later on.

That actually seems to be the change they're making for the sequel judging by the GameSpot interview.

GS: Did you toy with the idea of tying the equipment system with the relationship system? For example, you can equip a character only if you've built a positive relationship with him or her.

ML: To a degree, it was something we considered. You'll notice that if you have Merrill or Anders move in with you, they'll change outfits in response to getting out of Lowtown or Darktown. It's something where I think there's a lot of weight behind it whether it's an unlockable reward for earning their companionship or if it's something where their visual signature remains the same, but has more evolutions. Potentially, it could go so far as letting you change to a certain class of armor, but keeping their visual style the same so that they maintain a consistency, even though you still have control over their inventory. These are all things for us to explore.

I've got to go to work for a while, but I think I'll compile a list of everything they've hinted at for Dragon Age 3 when I get back.

It might be fun to see what people hate and/or like about the changes BioWare has been hinting at for the next game.

 

[Gvaz]

Going with Wynne and Morrigan in the same party isn't particularly rare or "doing it wrong" and they can look exactly the same, same with Sten and Alistair. Hell, Zevran and Leliana look very similar if you zoom out enough.

I think it's a valid complaint, especially when you include headgear. The problem is that Bioware's attempt to correct it ended up pretty lame, IE remove all armor customization both cosmetically and stats wise.

As I main'd a mage, I mostly did Shale/Wyrnne/me/leliana sometimes replacing shale for Alistair.

Worked fine. No one looked too weird. Though there was like 3 choices of armor for mages: furry, chantry, and something else as drab.

quote.

Uh, so Merrill moves out of lowtown, gets better armor, then Hawke says for the whole game "this is the only thing merrill has moved in here, I guess she doesn't really feel like this is her home". No exposition to why she looks differently, just randomly changing it. If that was really the case, it would made more sense if she hung around at your home.

 

[Mrbob]

Pure softball interview by Gamespot. Laidlaw is in denial of all the issues with Dragon Age 2.

Anyway I took advantage of the Amazon download deal so I shall enter the fray of Shit Mountain soon enough. Dragon Age 2 is first Bioware game I have not bought on release on years. I'm already prepared the mediocrity.

 

[Lostconfused]

Uh, so Merrill moves out of lowtown, gets better armor, then Hawke says for the whole game "this is the only thing merrill has moved in here, I guess she doesn't really feel like this is her home". No exposition to why she looks differently, just randomly changing it. If that was really the case, it would made more sense if she hung around at your home.

Because she doesn't move out of lowtown. She spends most of her time in her house where she left the mirror.

 

[Alucrid]

I decided to make my character asian, then the starting scene beings and I go "fuck, now my family is asian too."

I think they made Bethany's boobs smaller too.

 

[kiun]

urgh... just read about the Isabella game breaking glitch on the official forums. I'm going to stop playing the game for now and wait for the patch. Seriously bioware.. spend more time QAing your games.