Dragon Age 2 article

[imaloony]

People, calm the hell down about Dragon Age 2, okay? Bioware knows what they're doing.

I admit, the "Dialog Circle" isn't their best idea, but:

Preset character last names didn't bother anyone in Mass Effect, so why should it bother anyone here?
The combat needed a makeover. It was designed for PC, so doing the combat on the console was always a bit clunky.
I don't see what everyone's problem is, we haven't even seen a trailer yet, and Bioware is known for pumping out masterpiece after masterpiece. Just hold your tongues and be patient.

 

[Engarde]

I am not a big fan of the way they are taking this, but am trying to trust in them.

Firstly, becoming ye olde Shepard does not particuarly engage me. I liked being Engarde! I could associate better with Engarde! And Engarde was a sexy elf.

Ahem, back on topic, whilst playing Mass Effect 2, I did not find myself role playing so much, as I could not connect with Shepard or such. The story just sort of rolled along with Shepard being Shepard. I never felt like I was the main character or anything, just a laser pointer for Shepard. I truly hope the same does not happen with Hawke. Though I am still mad at not being an elf.

Next, I much prefered the actual text of what I was going to say rather than the wheel. There are, of course, the moments where the words on the wheel do not quite connect with what I want. And then I am suprised when it does not meet my expectations. Also, the small descriptive piece helped further along the effect I mentioned earlier, the telling Shepard what to do nonsense. I actually had moments when *shock and horror* I read all the conversation options in Dragon Age.

...Now. I think I will stop arguing here. Do not want to get too out of control and into a ridiculous rant. Anyway, I hope Bioware does this well. And I hope someone drew something of use from what I have said.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Hmm... This article WAS poorly written, but even at that - the game's starting to look worse. I guess we'll wait and see.

 

[F-I-D-O]

What a terribly written and poorly done preview. Are IGN's normally that bad? Honestly I don't visit the site much, but I'd always figured a site that big would at least have a writing integrity higher than your average third-rate blog.

As for the game itself, I'm actually very disappointed with the direction DA2 is taking. If I want Mass Effect, I'll play Mass Effect, and Dragon Age had potential as an independent and unique series. Would have loved to see the origins mechanic worked out further and expanded for example, the strategy elements further refined. But it seems instead Bioware are intent on changing it towards more generic paths.

These changes also seem to just sets it up against The Witcher 2 I might add... Tough competition indeed, probably the toughest Bioware has faced in years. Hmm, could be interesting!

From the (better) GI cover story, they just changed the dialogue to make it feel more natural, and in doing so it leaned to the mass effect dialogue. The computer version of DA2 is supposed to be more pause-and-play, with the console being simpler and fast paced. They aren't adding as many new skills, but it sounds like you can customize skills to your liking (say, have a fireball do more DoT than damage on hit, etc.) so they are tailored to your use. The story takes place over ten years, and it sounds like each area is a story told by someone who saw Hawke rise to glory. It sounds like the "Origins" is how you want to make Hawke the champion of the town I can't remember...
The developers are extremely interested in keeping DA:O an individual franchise.

 

[Grey_Focks]

The way he described the combat....sounded exactly the same as the combat from the first on the 360. Literally, the same. And didn't they say they were keeping the PC version's combat the same pretty much?

Seriously, I have yet to see anything to dampen my spirits on this game.

Oh, and the previewer was just wrong about the "good, nasty, badass" dialogue tree, so says the BioWare site.

 

[Irridium]

And don't even get me started on how awful it would be wearing a bra made out of belts. Honestly, its bad enough to wear it in battle, but to wear it in OUTER FUCKING SPACE is just ridiculous. I could go on, but that would detract for the general Dragon Age conversation.

So in the spirit of the Dragon Age conversation, $20 says that female in the pictures is going to be a romance requirement interest.

You mean this one?

Spoiler

I'm guessing that's either a villain or Morrigan 2.0 (though one could argue that they are both the same). I'm leaning towards villain due to the black color and random spikes. Amusingly, her outfit is not as impractical and out-of-place as Jack's, considering Jack is in a game where everyone wears bulky armor, weird "future" clothes, or skin tight jumpsuits.

Here's a question; where the hell is she supposed to be in that picture? The smokey badlands?

No not her, there was a screenshot in the latest Game Informer of the main guy talking to a female mage. I'm guessing the same one was in the preview here.

And I think they're supposed to be on top of a mountain.

 

[Irridium]

Actually the gray haired chick is Flemeth. Apparently she is gonna be in this one also even though I stabbed her in the face in DA:O. According to Gamestar and the DA wiki at least.

Flemeth? That can't be right surely. Considering Flemeth was rather old, not to mention the fact that a number of DA:O players may remember Flemeth

Spoiler

turning into a dragon and doing her best to kill the party

.

Also, just what is up with the left arm?

Anyway, quite liking the look of the box art for the game, at least it looks better than Mass Effect 2's vanilla packaging...

This game takes place during the events of the first one. Plus if you follow the dialog and everything with Morrigan you'll find out you didn't really kill her, just her physical body. So its entirely possible she found a new one.

Plus at this moment in the game could be before your hero kills her. Although perhaps its taking into account of saved games from the first one, and if you killed her there she won't appear here.

 

[F-I-D-O]

Actually the gray haired chick is Flemeth. Apparently she is gonna be in this one also even though I stabbed her in the face in DA:O. According to Gamestar and the DA wiki at least.

Remember, Morrigan said you can't exactly kill her in the first game....
DUN DUN DUNNNNN

 

[F-I-D-O]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1108057p1.html

Just thought you guys might be interested. But it doesn't sound diffrent at all except for the dialouge and the guy writing seems like he never even played the first one. I mean seriously, "orcs", Ill assume he means darkspawn.

I'm annoyed that the article focuses mainly on the X360.
BioWare games are built on PCs, then ported to consoles.
That's why the PC versions are normally vastly superior.
DA2 sounds good but I'm disappointed with the lack of PC coverage.

This time they have separate teams working on the different versions. As I said above, the console versions will be faster and more suited to console players, while the PC will be pause and play heavy.

 

[Valkyrie101]

I have to concur, dreadful article. And what's with cutting the number of dialogue options, and not having neutral responses?

 

[CK76]

The more I hear about Dragon Age 2, the less I like it.

I like how Bioware said "calm down and wait for more information" and more comes and low expectations go even lower. They really don't get why this is such a let down for many fans of the original game.

I know, it's quite upsetting actually. They don't seem to realise (or care) that what people enjoyed about the came wasn't really the combat, but creating your own character from scratch and building him/her up to be as you wanted them. I hate this idea of playing as 'Hawke', a pre-built character who seems to have little relation to the events of the first game. If they continue story threads (especially Morrigans) from the end of the first game with a new character I'm going to be pissed, because that is part of the character from the first games story, and will lose a lot of pathos and depth if some new, random character Bioware have pre-built suddenly comes into the game and ties up the story. /endrant.

OT: The article is just bad. Nevermind the fact it doesn't seem like it's written by a Dragon Age fan, it appears to be written by someone with little semblance of RPGs in general.

You might understand if it flopped and was panned, but people loved the original and it did really well. If they wanted to make what they are in Dragon Age II, why not make a secondary fantasy series?

I really wonder how this will be received and how that will effect future of the series.

 

[Actual]

Actually the gray haired chick is Flemeth. Apparently she is gonna be in this one also even though I stabbed her in the face in DA:O. According to Gamestar and the DA wiki at least.

Flemeth? That can't be right surely. Considering Flemeth was rather old, not to mention the fact that a number of DA:O players may remember Flemeth

Spoiler

turning into a dragon and doing her best to kill the party

.

Also, just what is up with the left arm?

Anyway, quite liking the look of the box art for the game, at least it looks better than Mass Effect 2's vanilla packaging...

This game takes place during the events of the first one. Plus if you follow the dialog and everything with Morrigan you'll find out you didn't really kill her, just her physical body. So its entirely possible she found a new one.

Plus at this moment in the game could be before your hero kills her. Although perhaps its taking into account of saved games from the first one, and if you killed her there she won't appear here.

Interesting, do you havea source which says this takes place at the same time? I was under the impression this took place maybe a thousand years later in the next blight. I mean the grey warder already ended this blight, what is there for Hawke and co. to do?

Flemeth does leap from body to body so it's conceivable that she could have a new younger body not long after the events of the first game but Morrigan seemed to think she'd have a long time before Flemeth could find a new body.

 

[Volafortis]

I hope they go back on the dialogue system to something closer to the DA1 dialogue. I loved the gray area choices.

Also, REALLY shoddy preview. (They spelled Hawke wrong!)

 

[CK76]

Snippified for convenience.

snip ya back

It's a fair question, does the "II" play a role in how one views something? If this title was unveiled and was called "Hawke's Adventure" we might note it runs on similar engine and setting (which is not that unique in fantasy realms anyways) would we say "hmmm, interesting idea Bioware have there, but I really cannot wait for Dragon Age II!"

It's not like I haven't seen this before, remember how Zelda II holds this odd place because it deviated so much and then went back to style of original in next installments. Maybe Dragon Age will see similar path...

 

[maxben]

What a terribly written and poorly done preview. Are IGN's normally that bad? Honestly I don't visit the site much, but I'd always figured a site that big would at least have a writing integrity higher than your average third-rate blog.

As for the game itself, I'm actually very disappointed with the direction DA2 is taking. If I want Mass Effect, I'll play Mass Effect, and Dragon Age had potential as an independent and unique series. Would have loved to see the origins mechanic worked out further and expanded for example, the strategy elements further refined. But it seems instead Bioware are intent on changing it towards more generic paths.

These changes also seem to just sets it up against The Witcher 2 I might add... Tough competition indeed, probably the toughest Bioware has faced in years. Hmm, could be interesting!

IGN has always been crap, I NEVER check it out to see how good a game is.

I also agree with the direction, "Mass Effect-like" is what I've been thinking since they first started talking about it. It could still, and probably will, be a fun game, it will just lose what made it unique.

As for the Witcher, I never liked it. I tried playing the first and shut it down after the first town. So if its going to be similar to that experience... its going to suck for me.

 

[CK76]

Snippified for convenience.

snip ya back

snippy

snip snip

Awakening was a significant letdown for the reason you mentioned.

So...Leliana states she loves my dalish elf character and fellow me to ends of the earth and then...um...nothing, just gone awol? The only character that returned was Oghren, the guy I only used when forced to and discarded quicker than Morrigan (yes, I kicked them both out so missed major plot point most people seem to talk about).

So, I could deal with "build a new character in different era or place" but the pre-set thing, that really takes away from fun I had making people in the original and making new stories based on personalities, origins and choices.

 

[Hyper-space]

I am going to give the reviewer the benefit of doubt, the game is in alpha-stage as of now (i think) so maybe the orcs were not "labeled" so who knows, maybe there could be orcs or goblins in this installment.

snip

I believe that is Flemyth, as the file-name of the picture says so. Morrigan said that Flemyth did not die as here spirit would still linger in this world, so maybe she has managed to possess someone.

 

[Irridium]

Interesting, do you havea source which says this takes place at the same time? I was under the impression this took place maybe a thousand years later in the next blight. I mean the grey warder already ended this blight, what is there for Hawke and co. to do?

Flemeth does leap from body to body so it's conceivable that she could have a new younger body not long after the events of the first game but Morrigan seemed to think she'd have a long time before Flemeth could find a new body.

In the latest Game Informer it was revealed that Hawke's story starts in Lothering, which gets destroyed by the Darkspawn. Thats where it begins. This is also really early in Origins. So its possible that the section they're at in the preview takes place before you kill Flemeth, which you do relatively late or possibly in the middle of Origins.

http://www.gamekicker.com/gaming-news/first-dragon-age-2-screens-more-story-details-emerge

Plus, there is also the possibility the game being previewed is a save from Origins where Flemeth was left alive, or it could just be a clean save so she's alive by default. Again you can import your save, so there are many possibilities.

 

[JoshGod]

Does the article seem to be saying this?
Its DAO with a ME dialogue system and borderlands style graphics.
also it was very amusing. the title 'Did BioWare dumb down Dragon Age? Let's find out.' seems very silly when it becomes apparent the writter has never played the original for more than 2 minutes.

 

[arcade109]

Snippified for convenience.

snip ya back

snippy

snip snip

Awakening was a significant letdown for the reason you mentioned.

So...Leliana states she loves my dalish elf character and fellow me to ends of the earth and then...um...nothing, just gone awol? The only character that returned was Oghren, the guy I only used when forced to and discarded quicker than Morrigan (yes, I kicked them both out so missed major plot point most people seem to talk about).

So, I could deal with "build a new character in different era or place" but the pre-set thing, that really takes away from fun I had making people in the original and making new stories based on personalities, origins and choices.

I still haven't played Awakening for the reason they built up the idea a character apart from Alistair would be returning and then it was... Oghren! The least interesting character who I only used for the Deep Roads section and then got rid of.

The Morrigan plot point was even more significant for me, as she was the one I chose over Leliana so when she left at the end of Origins my character stated 'I will find her!' and I got excited about Awakening and the sequel for that reason, and both appear to have been giant let downs, even with the little information for the sequel given thus far. Seriously, if 'Hawke' is the one who finds Morrigan and Leliana in the sequel rather than my character I will be unbelievably pissed.

Agreed, My elf character was in a relationship with Leliana who was useful anyway because she could pick locks and use big guns.....I mean bows. Anyway, the most you heard from her was if you look in your codex there is a note from her that says something along the lines of "Sorry I can't be there love, I gots some shit I gotta take care of for some unspecified reason. TTYL!!! XOXOXO" It kinda pissed me off. I wanted more closure than just the epilouge saying they got together again. AND ALSO! Zevran was with me at the end of Origins and said he was gonna follow me around but is never mentioned again. wtf