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[Gvaz]

I'm playing through the Witcher for the first time, and this, this is a city.

I think you all can agree this looks pretty sweet, videogame wise:


When inside the city, it actually feels expansive and while it needs a few more people, it reasonably feels like an actual city.

The point of this I suppose is, I hope DA2 has something like this, otherwise a polish developer has made more of a step forward than an american one, taking two steps back.

But I won't really know till the game comes out!

 

[kitzkozan]

Up until a few hours before they passed 1 million, which was like...before noon? it was ALMOST to 900k. Then suddenly around 1 it jumped to 1.1 million. AFAIK silver wasn't supposed to be able to start downloading until tomorrow, and before then it was moving really slowly in the last 24 hours.

Unless they were holding out on adding numbers from console+steam demo download to push people to download it as much as possible.Dirty for sure,but fair from their perspective of being hopeless enough in thinking this crappy marketing will help them sell 8-10 million copies.

The counter was only for people downloading the PC demo on their site.

 

[Jerk]

someone on the mass effect 2 forum created a flowchart to figure out how tali's chemistry would make her sweat taste, shut down the internet forever

1)- What the fuck were you doing in that god-forsaken place?

2)- Link?

 

[Salaadin]

Unless they were holding out on adding numbers from console+steam demo download to push people to download it as much as possible.Dirty for sure,but fair from their perspective of being hopeless enough in thinking this crappy marketing will help them sell 8-10 million copies.

The counter was only for people downloading the PC demo on their site.

I dont think it went by downloads but by number of Bioware accounts that logged in.

EDIT: WTF @ Tali sweat.....

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Melee rogue seems to be rather weak judging based on the demo. Ranged rogue is a better choice since archers have an AoE as well. So you have 3 AoE characters, have the tank pick up the group and everyone else just rains death on them.

I'm willing to give a melee rogue a try at first, that way I'd have two front line and two back line characters.

 

[kitzkozan]

I'm playing through the Witcher for the first time, and this, this is a city.

I think you all can agree this looks pretty sweet, videogame wise:


When inside the city, it actually feels expansive and while it needs a few more people, it reasonably feels like an actual city.

The point of this I suppose is, I hope DA2 has something like this, otherwise a polish developer has made more of a step forward than an american one, taking two steps back.

But I won't really know till the game comes out!

Right now,american and canadian developers are first and foremost interested in selling as much copies as possible.Pushing rpg forward is no goal of Bioware and Bethesda.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Biggest but not the only changes. I have no idea why you say its hyperbole to say that the combat system is not the same anymore.

Because I was able to play it pretty much exactly like I played the first on pc (pause, strategize, execute). It was faster and more fluid but the fundamentals are the same. I'd like to know what you felt was changed so drastically that makes it so different.

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

the original game was easily the most overhyped, blown out of proportion game i've ever had the displeasure of experiencing

i seriously do not get how anyone enjoyed that game. everything about it was just awful. it's up there with Assassins Creed for "most overrated game of all time"

the fuck?

also pretty sure that everyone agrees that AC1 sucks.

 

[kitzkozan]

I dont think it went by downloads but by number of Bioware accounts that logged in.

EDIT: WTF @ Tali sweat.....

Nah,since the counter was hacked a couple of time last week. It would jump ahead by 4000 every 5 seconds,but it's impossible to register or log in so many EA account in that time.A couple of people figured out the script and the counter on the main page would go up by one each time you would click on one of the 3 flags.

 

[DigitalDevil]

I was psyched for this game... Until I played the demo. It seems like dragon age beta or something

 

[Samurai Penguin]

Bahahaha...fuck me, I am in tears here. I almost choked on my coffee. Massive kudos to the OP

*bowdown*

 

[Lostconfused]

Because I was able to play it pretty much exactly like I played the first on pc (pause, strategize, execute). It was faster and more fluid but the fundamentals were the same. I'd like to know what you felt was changed so drastically that makes it so different.

I can't write a clear and concise explanation as to why I think that way because there isn't enough in the demo to get a complete grasp of it. So I can only post my impressions and feelings from a short part that we did get to play.

For one if the exaggerated intro of the game is representative of any portion of the game then I would find it much easier and more comfortable to play it with a pad without ever pausing.

Its hard to be completely certain because all of this is based on the demo but the difficulty, speed and abilities were different enough that I wasn't playing it the same way as I was playing origins. The cool down on the single warrior ability was rather short and the characters never ran out of stamina. I don't know if its the lack of isometric view or just how simple everything was but I never really payed any attention to the rest of the party and it didn't really effect the combat in any way even if one of them died. Even with extra waves of enemies spawning it didn't really matter if one or two of them decided to attack one of the flimsier characters because they weren't enough of a threat on their own. There weren't any crowd control abilities in the demo besides that single rogue stun bomb while it was a major part of combat in Origins.

 

[Mashing]

That OP is one of the greatest posts in the history of mankind.

I salute thee!

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I hope they don't have a fade section like DAO. By far the most tedious part of the game on replays.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I can't write a clear and concise explanation as to why I think that way because there isn't enough in the demo to get a complete grasp of it. So I can only post my impressions and feelings from a short part that we did get to play.

For one if the exaggerated intro of the game is representative of any portion of the game then I would find it much easier and more comfortable to play it with a pad without ever pausing.

Its hard to be completely certain because all of this is based on the demo but the difficulty, speed and abilities were different enough that I wasn't playing it the same way as I was playing origins. The cool down on the single warrior ability was rather short and the characters never ran out of stamina. I don't know if its the lack of isometric view or just how simple everything was but I never really payed any attention to the rest of the party and it didn't really effect the combat in any way even if one of them died. Even with extra waves of enemies spawning it didn't really matter if one or two of them decided to attack one of the flimsier characters because they weren't enough of a threat on their own. There weren't any crowd control abilities in the demo besides that single rogue stun bomb while it was a major part of combat in Origins.

Honestly I think a lot of it is perception due to the shifting of certain things. For example (and other people have explained it better) basically you attack faster but now fight more enemies at once. Fighting alone against 3 or 4 Hurlocks in DA:O could be very dangerous but a lot of that was because you attacked so slow (in comparison to DA2). So yes, you could now take 3 or 4 hurlocks without much trouble but you'll probably be fighting more than that more often now (like the multiple waves in the demo). During my Mage run through, getting 4 or 5 hurlocks in my face was not a good situation unless I used fireball like a personal AOE spell (which with friendly fire on, I assume will not be an option in the full game). Though I agree the stamina seemed to last forever with the Rogue it was still pretty well counterbalanced with the cool downs and I actually did manage to run out of mana during the real Ogre fight.

Ultimately though, I have a feeling the ease of the demo is just a symptom of it being a demo and being locked to an easier difficulty.

Also, I'm pretty sure the beginning is supposed to represent your character basically maxed out. Though I understand what you mean, I still played it the same and thought it felt fine. I just noticed I was pausing more frequently since things were dying a lot faster.

 

[Dennis]

*push Awesome button*

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I think the "perception" is based on the words of the developer and the game play expressed in the demo. I really do find the posts with claims of "pausing and tactics" to be amusing. Close your eyes, and spam r,1,2,3,4, open them in 15 minutes and the demo will have been completed...

 

[KibblesBits]

So, aside from all the crazy going on in this thread I am happy to find that Kate Mulgrew still sounds great despite the material she was given.

 

[Alucrid]

*push Awesome button*


http://www.abload.de/img/da2ot-06gu4i.jpg[img][url][/QUOTE]

The darkspawn face gets me every time.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Dat tavern hotness

Is the tavern carved out, or just made from paper mache'?

 

[Lostconfused]

Honestly I think a lot of it is perception due to the shifting of certain things. For example (and other people have explained it better) basically you attack faster but now fight more enemies at once. Fighting alone against 3 or 4 Hurlocks in DA:O could be very dangerous

Again as I said if any single part of the game plays at all like the introductory sequence then its radically different from the way combat in Origins plays out.

Things like inherent AoE effects to almost every single 2 handed attack is a dramatic difference. In origins a 2 handed warrior had only ability that hit more than 1 target, now auto attack and most abilities hit more than one target.

The large amount of enemies de-emphasizes the importance of single target crowd control. There is actually very little challenge to large groups of enemies attacking you. If you pulled the entire room accidentally you would pay for it and the party would be overwhelmed, if you let a single mage run loose your party would pay for it. Again this can all be attributed to the difficulty of the demo I guess.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I think the "perception" is based on the words of the developer and the game play expressed in the demo. I really do find the posts with claims of "pausing and tactics" to be amusing. Close your eyes, and spam r,1,2,3,4, open them in 15 minutes and the demo will have been completed...

You should record that and upload it to Youtube so we can see what actually happens. I'll be here waiting for that.

 

[ColonelColon]

1up is playing DAII live tonight, starting at 5 PST/8 EST. They're going to begin where the demo ended.
http://www.1up.com/news/game-night-dragon-age-2

 

[meltingparappa]

The OP is amazing and every OT should have some sort of hype-diffusing intro the week before release.

That being said, it looks like Amazon has release day shipping for the regular edition, but my pre-ordered signature edition is being sent to the distribution warehouse on a steamboat or something.

So this absolutely will not be the case, but IF the game's combat was similar to origins under the hood, auto-attack was automatically set on so no emergency rooms would see an increase in carpal tunnel, an isometric camera was patched in, somebody remembered to change the placeholder UI, at least one of the two MC genders has a passable voice actor, and the story was actually good and branched significantly...

IF all these happened, is there a point where Bioware gets some slack for making an engine "good enough" and uses that to make a decent story-based game (be it mass effect or dragon age) yearly? Or does making the game DA:2 instead of a spinoff raise expectations astronomically?

 

[Gvaz]

Hehe

Well, it made me laugh anyways.

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

700+ posts on a game that's not even out. Only on GAF.

 

[Lostconfused]

Or does making the game DA:2 instead of a spinoff raise expectations astronomically?

Well besides that there are also changes to the Darkspawn, Qunari and probably a few others that kind of require the story of origins to be retconned. There is a reason why genlocks make up the largest part of the darkspawn hordes.

 

[Slackbladder]

Right here, right now DA2 cannot win.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

You should record that and upload it to Youtube so we can see what actually happens. I'll be here waiting for that.

You have to adjust the angle of the camera periodically due the shitastic perspective, beyond that I have already done it and you can easily do it yourself.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Again as I said if any single part of the game plays at all like the introductory sequence then its radically different from the way combat in Origins plays out.

Though I really don't know if that's the end game level of combat, I still have to disagree with you that it's so different. It's faster and easier but I think that was more of a point of exaggerated narration/teaching you the basics in a stress free environment. We'll see though.

Things like inherent AoE effects to almost every single 2 handed attack is a dramatic difference. In origins a 2 handed warrior had only ability that hit more than 1 target, now auto attack and most abilities hit more than one target.

That only makes sense to me that a 2-handed sword would hit multiple targets though I know what you're ultimately getting at. I guess that's just a subjective preference of mine though since it annoyed me in the first.

The large amount of enemies de-emphasizes the importance of single target crowd control. There is actually very little challenge to large groups of enemies attacking you. If you pulled the entire room accidentally you would pay for it and the party would be overwhelmed, if you let a single mage run loose your party would pay for it. Again this can all be attributed to the difficulty of the demo I guess.

Yeah, we'll have to see in the full game. I agree that the emphasis has seemingly shifted from singular dueling to "one vs many" but I personally feel like it's mostly aesthetic with all of the other rebalances taken in to account. But like you said, hard to judge that from the demo.

 

[WanderingWind]

You're right. If this was Dragon Age: Hero of Kirkwall or something, and we knew they were making a DA2 that took the concepts and ideals of a new-fangled BGII and added to them, then yeah, the complaints would be unjust.

However...

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Well besides that there are also changes to the Darkspawn, Qunari and probably a few others that kind of require the story of origins to be retconned. There is a reason why genlocks make up the largest part of the darkspawn hordes.

Yeah, I'm interested to see how they explain that (or if they do at all).

 

[Canova]

Hehe

Well, it made me laugh anyways.

lol

This is truly one of the ugliest games of this generation. The art style is just terrible

 

[Trojita]

I'm thinking about canceling my Signature Edition and possibly picking up the game when an ultimate edition comes out on sale.

I haven't even finished Dragon Age 1 yet.

 

[Patryn]

I'm thinking about canceling my Signature Edition and possibly picking up the game when an ultimate edition comes out on sale.

I haven't even finished Dragon Age 1 yet.

Let me just point this one fact out:

A person is currently selling the Signature Edition for the 360 on Amazon for $150.

And that's the cheap one.

The other one?

$350.

 

[pahamrick]

I'm playing through the Witcher for the first time, and this, this is a city.

I think you all can agree this looks pretty sweet, videogame wise:


When inside the city, it actually feels expansive and while it needs a few more people, it reasonably feels like an actual city.

The point of this I suppose is, I hope DA2 has something like this, otherwise a polish developer has made more of a step forward than an american one, taking two steps back.

But I won't really know till the game comes out!

I'll be the first person to say I've loved every Bioware game I've played thus far, some are obviously better than others. With that said, they can't make cities to save their life. They are sometimes decent at giving you small area sets that give the impression you're in something far bigger, but normally you get medium to large sized 'rooms' connected by some form of corridor. The biggest offenders of this being Red Cliff and Denerim in DA:O.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Right here, right now DA2 cannot win.

Where I work, there's a great number of people that game and would not fall into the enthusiast category. Since the demo came out, there's been a steady caravan of love passing my office, with people sticking their head in and saying, "Dude! Did you play the new Dragon Age II demo? It's awesome!!!"

I've given up trying to explain that I hate the new direction. I just respond with, "Nope, not yet...can't wait!"

So although it's not so popular here on GAF, in the real world, I do believe that Dragon Age II will do just fine.

I'm soothing my disappointment with rumors of Obsidian trying to make Icewind Dale III and that Vagrant Story is hitting PSN tomorrow.

 

[KaYotiX]

I also remember all the hate for the first game and that changed pretty fast too.

Gotta love GaF, always saying the sky is falling

 

[X-Frame]

Did anyone who pre-ordered the Signature Edition from Amazon able to select Release Day Shipping?

This might be the first game that doesn't offer it for me.

 

[IceMarker]

http://www.abjecthubris.com/images/biowareprops.png

And some of you think EviLore doesn't know what he is doing!

 

[RedSwirl]

Just like Origins, I'll be waiting for a Steam sale on Dragon Age II - IF the characters and dialogue are as likable as they were in Origins. The combat in the DA2 demo didn't feel dumbed down at all, given a shot of adrenaline sure but not any less complex, but the combat was my last reason for enjoying Origins.

 

[Patryn]

Did anyone who pre-ordered the Signature Edition from Amazon able to select Release Day Shipping?

This might be the first game that doesn't offer it for me.

I got it.

But when did you order it? Or are you just changing the shipping? If so, try choosing one-day. A lot of the times you'll end up getting it on the release date anyways.

 

[jackdoe]

Let me just point this one fact out:

A person is currently selling the Signature Edition for the 360 on Amazon for $150.

And that's the cheap one.

The other one?

$350.

That means nothing if no one is buying at those prices. I mean, the extra value of the signature edition should be at most $20.

 

[X-Frame]

I got it.

But when did you order it? Or are you just changing the shipping? If so, try choosing one-day. A lot of the times you'll end up getting it on the release date anyways.

I ordered January 6th, and I would choose 1-day but then the shipping costs would rape me. The usual Release Date Shipping from Amazon is $1.

I'll just have to keep checking each day to see if they bring it back.

 

[Zzoram]

I also remember all the hate for the first game and that changed pretty fast too.

Gotta love GaF, always saying the sky is falling

The problem is that story heavy RPGs aren't easily shown in 2 minute demos. It just so happens that Bioware's way of doing it is blasting rock and having a guy do outrageous flips with his sword to kill a common thief, then showing some characters talk to each other while their faces are soaked in blood.

 

[Chairman Yang]

How does that change anything? My point was you can't judge the popularity of a genre on a handful of games in that genre.

If you look at shooters, for instance, all but the absolute worst shooters that are released sell 1/2M copies. Nearly every one that is backed by a major publisher (aka. money) sells 1M+.

I don't think this is accurate. Most shooters flop. A good chunk of those flop hard.

 

[meltingparappa]

Did anyone who pre-ordered the Signature Edition from Amazon able to select Release Day Shipping?

An e-mail to CS said flat out that they're not offering it for the special edition, for some inexplicable reason. They said it could change between now and release though.

 

[FLEABttn]

I hope they don't have a fade section like DAO. By far the most tedious part of the game on replays.

lol that's where I stopped playing. So fucking boring I couldn't stand it.

 

[Xilium]

Where I work, there's a great number of people that game and would not fall into the enthusiast category. Since the demo came out, there's been a steady caravan of love passing my office, with people sticking their head in and saying, "Dude! Did you play the new Dragon Age II demo? It's awesome!!!"

I've given up trying to explain that I hate the new direction. I just respond with, "Nope, not yet...can't wait!"

So although it's not so popular here on GAF, in the real world, I do believe that Dragon Age II will do just fine.

I'm soothing my disappointment with rumors of Obsidian trying to make Icewind Dale III and that Vagrant Story is hitting PSN tomorrow.

Yeah, you can go to pretty much any other forum and the game is viewed as a gift from God. Per usual for any Bioware game.

I also remember all the hate for the first game and that changed pretty fast too.

Gotta love GaF, always saying the sky is falling

I don't think it was hate as much as it was disappointment. A lot of the people that were excited from the original announcement of DA:O were expecting the game to be the spiritual successor to BG2 and the game was initially marketed as such. Over time, the reality that the game wouldn't live up to that disappointed a lot of people but many of them were skeptical anyway.

 

[Patryn]

I ordered January 6th, and I would choose 1-day but then the shipping costs would rape me. The usual Release Date Shipping from Amazon is $1.

I'll just have to keep checking each day to see if they bring it back.

An e-mail to CS said flat out that they're not offering it for the special edition, for some inexplicable reason. They said it could change between now and release though.

That sucks. I just double checked, and I definitely do have Release-Date Delivery.