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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain

dionysus

Yaldog
dalemurphy said:
Yeah, there were no one-liners in Origins.



You're not reading good. I'm responding to you getting hot and bothered by the INTRO. Not the whole game. The intro. You jumped to a million conclusions seemingly based on the INTRO.

Again, the INTRO.

The intro + the demo + lead developer comments + videos. So basically all available information on the game. As has been stated many times by mods, people are allowed to draw conclusions based upon the information currently available. Yes, the game could turn out to be different than the intro, demo, lead developer comments, and videos suggest, but that is pure speculation based on nothing.

I will give you the point that intros tend to be absurd and not indicative about the whole game. See The Witcher. However, the intro is just one peice of evidence to indicate a less tactical and more over the top game. These are changes I do no support.
 

Ysiadmihi

Banned
tmacairjordan87 said:
You didn't answer the question though.

Because the combat is not just faster paced. It was a completely dishonest question.

There are more enemies per fight now, the majority of which pose no threat to anyone in your party and are just there to make the battle feel more "EXTREME" and to make you feel like more of a badass because you're taking out larger groups at a time. The combat skills are too effective on the "trash mobs" and as far as I can tell, have little to no casting time. It all ends up leaving the combat feeling much less substantial than in the first game.

I want fights in the game where a group of 4-5 darkspawn can wipe out my party if I don't play it right. This just doesn't seem like it will ever be the case with DA2.

As for the dialogue, less options is always worse, both for the presentation and the story. Pretending the voice acting is a necessity is just silly.

Edit: Durante beat me to it.
 
The flailing mental gymnastics to justify the changes made to DA2 as actually being improvements is almost as funny as the OP.

Streamlined! I once had to read 8 sentences in an RPG and it broke the immersion!
 
HixxSAFC said:
Sorry I'm not seeing it. The combat in DA:O is dull for the majority of the time.

Yeah, that and the main hub levels went on too long. The weakest parts of the game for me were the long main areas (like the mage tower/fade, werewolf cave, deeproads, that mountain with the urn) because of the dull combat. If the combat was more satisfying it would have been easier to deal with, but it wasn't so most of the time I was basically turning a corner into another pack of enemies and saying "oh COME ON when is this shit over?"

I don't think 2 will solve anything, because like I said it felt the same to me just a little flashier and faster but I'm hoping it will be more fun.
 
One thing that is different that no one really mentions is that a lot of encounters now in DA2 have new enemies spawn and attack you in the middle of the encounter. This happens with pretty much every encounter in the demo. Compared to DA:O where this almost never happened excluding some specific boss fights. This isn't a negative or a positive but its one of the things that is different between the two games and certainly changes the dynamics of the combat.
 

dionysus

Yaldog
HixxSAFC said:
Sorry I'm not seeing it. The combat in DA:O is dull for the majority of the time. This is coming from someone who has put 50 hours into it over the last 3 or so weeks. The only difference in DA2 is that it was quicker and that it animated differently to go with the new speed. You have to remember the first fights in Origins to compare rather than the mid-late game dungeons. There was no tactics in those, just hitting your attacks and mowing through them.

I can see why people dislike the wheel, it makes the dialogue choices more clear-cut but its not like Origins had subtle choices in the first place.

I think a lot of people are remembering DAO for being better than it actually was. There's complaints about maturity/juvenility now and I'm thinking that the original was the same. It had OTT gore. Stupid one liners from characters. An incredible amount of cheesy innuendo.

People are seeing massive differences where I'm just not. I don't get it. The biggest difference is in the visual style, complaints about that I understand and accept (but will again disagree with it, but like I say can accept they don't like the change). The changes elsewhere aren't sweeping or vastly different enough to change how the game plays drastically.



For me, melee moving in so slowly was more frustrating than anything. I spent more time on my Dual-wield rogue getting into position than actually attacking stuff.

Yea, DAO origin was cheesy in places. I will grant that there are sections of DAO that are just as cheesy as what we have soon.

Moving on to the combat. I, and many others, felt the combat system in place was great. What made combat boring at times were balance issues, especially with mages, and lack of enemy variety, and encounter design. What I am trying to say is that the system was good, but the details were often bad.

In response to complaints about the combat, Bioware threw out the baby with the bath water. What a lot of us would have like to see was an iteration upon the foundation laid out by DAO. Mainly, more enemies, encounter variety, balance tweeking, and more active skills for warriors and rogues.

We still wanted a tactical real time with pause RPG, we just wanted the kinks to be ironed out.

Instead, it seems like we got an ARPG with some aspects of a tactical rpg.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Grisby said:
I'm not stopping till I see plaid.

Ludicrous 'A' mashing is go.

That's the spirit! It should be an achievement in the game.

scorpscarx said:
Off topic, but Vamphuntr, I always thought that cat was beautiful, is it yours?

Nope I cropped a gif from the funny animal thread. I would never let my cat play with a knife.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
I'll enjoy the game but I think it should have been a spinoff instead of a proper sequel. Instead of DA2, it could have been Dragon Age: My Village Done Got Its Shit Fucked Up, Now I Gotta Slice, Bludgeon, Zap You Straight Up Hawke Time.
 
ultron87 said:
Well the amazing OP has at least convinced me to try the demo just to see the truth behind it all.

Good luck wading through that mountain of shit, and watch out for the killer breasts.
 

jkanownik

Member
DragonAge2_Preorder_728x90.jpg

EA Store said:
The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.

I was kind of ignoring this game until I saw the OP, but now I can't unsee stupid stuff around this game. Why is Rise to Power in caps in the product description? Why does it say exclusive items when there is only one exclusive item?
 

Hixx

Member
Ysiadmihi said:
Because the combat is not just faster paced. It was a completely dishonest question.

There are more enemies per fight now, the majority of which pose no threat to anyone in your party and are just there to make the battle feel more "EXTREME" and to make you feel like more of a badass because you're taking out larger groups at a time. The combat skills are too effective on the "trash mobs" and as far as I can tell, have little to no casting time. It all ends up leaving the combat feeling much less substantial than in the first game.

I want fights in the game where a group of 4-5 darkspawn can wipe out my party if I don't play it right. This just doesn't seem like it will ever be the case with DA2.

As for the dialogue, less options is always worse, both for the presentation and the story. Pretending the voice acting is a necessity is just silly.

Edit: Durante beat me to it.

How the hell was it a 'dishonest question'?

And you're making presumptions on the whole combat system from a tutorial section (ala the Origins) & somewhere which will be the equivalent I imagine of Lothering in the Isabella section. The combat there was ridiculously easy & required no tactics at all. The first difficult fight in Origins was Redcliffe and we've seen nothing of that ilk in the demo.

If you'd judged Origins combat from a section of one of the Origins you'd be come to a similar conclusion.

And the demo will be easy cos it was locked to Casual afaik.

You say that the active abilties feel too powerful on trash and they were in the first. Heartseeker would one shot regular Darkspawn for example. Whirlwind did massive damage as another.

And just so people know: I'm not arguing that this is going to be a great game, I have no idea; it could suck. But I'm not going to write it off having played like 1% of it. I'm just arguing that people seem to be going overboard with their dislike/dismay.
 
HixxSAFC said:
How the hell was it a 'dishonest question'?.


It is a loaded question because its predicated upon the false assumption that it being "faster paced" is the entirety of the "problem". When in fact its just one of the many symptoms of a radical change in design and game-play philosophy.
 

Samb

Neo Member
Haha, the OP basically summarised all the fears I had about Dragon Age 2. I really do hope it is good, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure it will be. However, I'm a bit worried about all the day 1 DLC there seems to be. I hope they don't do the same with Mass Effect 3.
 

Patryn

Member
HixxSAFC said:
How the hell was it a 'dishonest question'?

And you're making presumptions on the whole combat system from a tutorial section (ala the Origins) & somewhere which will be the equivalent I imagine of Lothering in the Isabella section. The combat there was ridiculously easy & required no tactics at all. The first difficult fight in Origins was Redcliffe and we've seen nothing of that ilk in the demo.

If you'd judged Origins combat from a section of one of the Origins you'd be come to a similar conclusion.

And the demo will be easy cos it was locked to Casual afaik.

You say that the active abilties feel too powerful on trash and they were in the first. Heartseeker would one shot regular Darkspawn for example. Whirlwind did massive damage as another.

And just so people know: I'm not arguing that this is going to be a great game, I have no idea; it could suck. But I'm not going to write it off having played like 1% of it. I'm just arguing that people seem to be going overboard with their dislike/dismay.

It was locked on Normal.

And the lead designer has gone on record saying he thought DA:O was too hard, and DA2 would be adjusted accordingly (see: Friendly Fire only on Nightmare, for instance).
 
I agree that this game should have been a side story.

Now they just need to go the other way as well, hand the engine over to Obsidian and have them build what would basically be what Icewind Dale was to Baldur's Gate. A more tactical focused full party (6+ characters, full character creation for each) RPG.

Just thinking about how cool that could be makes me want to reinstall the Icewind Dales or Temple of Elemental Evil and play through one of those again...
 

Vamphuntr

Member
You guys should really go over to the Bioware forum for DA II. It's a comedy gold mine. Really.

You have amazing topics like :

-Pregnancy?
-ARE THEY OR AREN'T THEY? THE ALL-BI BETTING POOL
-Does Dragon Age 2 prove you can streamline without dumbing down?
-Am I the only one who thinks that the darkspawn look kind of lame?
 
I beat the shit out of DA:O and liked it a lot, played the demo for this (on PC) and got even more hyped to play 2. Can't please everyone I guess.
 
Samb said:
Haha, the OP basically summarised all the fears I had about Dragon Age 2. I really do hope it is good, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure it will be. However, I'm a bit worried about all the day 1 DLC there seems to be. I hope they don't do the same with Mass Effect 3.

They will, all EA games do now. 90% of the launch day dlc are useless items and armor though. The only potential significant dlc comes with the game for free when you buy it (emporium) and the other is if you were lucky enough to preorder the signature edition in which case you get an extra character and quest (like in DA1). If you didn't get the sig. edition in time then it's something like $7 to buy.

Even in ME2 the bonus DLC wasn't anything special. Zaeed was ok but not essential to anything, and the normandy mission sucked. It's a shitty practice that EA's doing now, but you usually don't miss out on anything special.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
I think you can streamline without dumbing down, and to me, ME2 is an example of this. I'm sure lots of people disagree, but those people won't admit that the original ME was a really shitty RPG.

That said, I've never believed that DA needed the ME treatment. Its a traditional RPG
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Vamphuntr said:
You guys should really go over to the Bioware forum for DA II. It's a comedy gold mine. Really.

You have amazing topics like :

-Pregnancy?
-ARE THEY OR AREN'T THEY? THE ALL-BI BETTING POOL
-Does Dragon Age 2 prove you can streamline without dumbing down?
-Am I the only one who thinks that the darkspawn look kind of lame?
Aaaaand those kinds of threads are why I like GAF. Only the third sounds like something you'd see around here.
 
truly101 said:
I think you can streamline without dumbing down, and to me, ME2 is an example of this. I'm sure lots of people disagree, but those people won't admit that the original ME was a really shitty RPG.

That's the thing, a lot of people don't disagree. A very small amount do, looking back at our 2010 goty voting. Either all those vocal people I saw complaining about ME2 forgot to show up on voting day, or there really just isn't very many of them.

I'm expecting a similar thing with this game. It won't be goty and it won't be as well recieved as ME2, but I expect to eventually find that the complainers were (again) a small minority.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
The_Technomancer said:
Aaaaand those kinds of threads are why I like GAF. Only the third sounds like something you'd see around here.

Aww c'mon. We totally need a Dragon Age hurt n heal character thread.
 
Vamphuntr said:
You guys should really go over to the Bioware forum for DA II. It's a comedy gold mine. Really.

You have amazing topics like :

-Pregnancy?
-ARE THEY OR AREN'T THEY? THE ALL-BI BETTING POOL
-Does Dragon Age 2 prove you can streamline without dumbing down?
-Am I the only one who thinks that the darkspawn look kind of lame?

The Official Anders Discussion Thread

198 pages.

Everytime I go to Bioware's forum I am reminded of the massive fan fiction community they seem to have built around their games. I am also reminded that some of the design decisions I am not fond of are basically Bioware's efforts to please this community. Whatever floats ya boat I guess.
 
EviLore said:
System Requirements:
MINIMUM
-486 Intel processor or 100% compatible
-4MB RAM
-MS-DOS 5.0 or higher
-8MB hard drive space
-256-color VGA graphics card
-CD-ROM drive
RECOMMENDED
-486/33MHz
-1MB video card
-Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card
-Double-speed CD-ROM drive

The sad thing is, this is more believable than the game being DX11.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I really wish Bioware would suck it up and license a fantasy world. Am I the only one that finds the dragon age world completely bland and boring?
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
subversus said:
Kotor was their first sci-fi RPG and it was dumb from the beginning. Mass Effect was a huge improvement. Also please remind me of other sci-fi RPG that was in 3D setting before Kotor.

System Shock 2, Anachronox, Deus Ex
 

Coxswain

Member
Hari Seldon said:
I really wish Bioware would suck it up and license a fantasy world. Am I the only one that finds the dragon age world completely bland and boring?
It's bland as fuck but it's still a good deal more interesting than any licensed setting they've ever used.
 

Dresden

Member
Vamphuntr said:
You guys should really go over to the Bioware forum for DA II. It's a comedy gold mine. Really.

You have amazing topics like :

-Pregnancy?
-ARE THEY OR AREN'T THEY? THE ALL-BI BETTING POOL
-Does Dragon Age 2 prove you can streamline without dumbing down?
-Am I the only one who thinks that the darkspawn look kind of lame?
I still remember those Tali threads for ME2 right before release.

So many people horny for helmeted aliens.
 

Grisby

Member
jergrah said:
I guess Im in the minority, but Im really looking forward to this game and quite enjoyed the demo.

No way man, I'm going to be there day one. I wasn't anticipating DA at all and ended up loving it. Really looking forward to the sequel.
 

jtrov

Member
I can't wait for a trip through Shit Mountain when the game comes out next week. I can totally see why people are upset with the game, but after trying the demo a few times I enjoyed it on it's own merits. I won't know for sure how much of it is "really" stripped down until I'm able to dive deep into the full game, but if the transition is like from ME1 - ME2, then it wont bother me. As long as the game ends up being enjoyable and fun to play, I'll be alright with it.
 

bhlaab

Member
http://www.destructoid.com/the-old-...es-194234.phtml

"I think [Dragon Age II] sidesteps what I see as almost like traditions. Traditional weak points of the classic RPG are ... they're daunting. High barrier to entry. They're hard to get into," he says. BioWare's own player-tracking statistics tell a similar tale: a significant portion of Origins players had their own mystifying "other" moments, dropping the game after only an hour.

"They weren't even getting an Achievement," Laidlaw continues.

FOUcS.jpg
 
Hari Seldon said:
I really wish Bioware would suck it up and license a fantasy world. Am I the only one that finds the dragon age world completely bland and boring?

This is something I cannot understand. They develop the DA IP over a period of 150 years. And what comes out is one of the most cliche, boring shallow stock fantasy worlds imaginable. Characters, history even the NAME is generic sludge. The two antagonists in the first game? A mustache twirling villain and a nameless mindless beast.

I just cant figure out wtf they were/are thinking.
 

iavi

Member
jergrah said:
I guess Im in the minority, but Im really looking forward to this game and quite enjoyed the demo.

I don't think that you're in the minority, as much as it's that the majority just isn't speaking out. There seemed to be a lot more positive impressions in the demo thread.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
jergrah said:
I guess Im in the minority, but Im really looking forward to this game and quite enjoyed the demo.
Nah you aren't the only one. I am looking forward to it and I am thoroughly enjoying my replay of DA:O and all DLC at the moment.
 
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