GameStop Staff Lose Early Access to Dragon Age 2 Demo

[Zom-B]

I hear the Pc version is much more tactical than the consoles, however is it so bad if they streamline a few things like inventory?

it's the exact same game on console and pc, how could it be more tactical? from what i've heard, the only thing that might make that even close to true is that you can pull the camera out a bit farther away from your party. maybe i've missed something?

That simple ability allows for a lot more tactical leeway. If you ever played games like Baldurs Gate, Planescape Torment, or even to a lesse extent the Dungeon Siege, that's what the top down view allows: a tactical overview of the battle where you have at all time the "right" feel of what anyone is doing at any given moment, pause, micromanage, then unpause.

While you can still do that in the consoles, it's far easier for tactics to get blurry. Wynne, for example is best used as a healer/defensive mage and best kept to the background, but if you're controling your tank on the console you might find that while battling a cluster of enemies, another cluster has already surrounded her and is hacking away with glee. So you'd have to switch control to her and get her out of arms way manually while at the same time hoping that the tanks will follow their AI script. On Pc, you actually can issue a lot of orders simultaneously and have a whole new flow to the battles.

So, I'd say that there is a noticeable diference and that's the reason why virtually every review downplays consoles over the pc version. Not that the console version is bad, and you can still conceivably have some tactical control, but the Pc quite simply outperforms the consol versions on that point.

point well taken, however, this does not fundamentally change game play or make things more "tactical". the only difference between pulling the camera back on pc and using the "tactical pause" function in DA:O, for example is ease of use and quickness. of course in most RPG style games using a mouse to control a pointer is almost always more efficient and gives better control than an analog stick. but take for example, the two Fallout games. they're essentially identical on console and PC (not taking into account mods on pc) and if someone were to claim that Fallout on pc was more tactical or something along those lines, most people would probably say that person was showing some sort of irrational pc bias.

back on topic, DA2 apparently has taken that tactical view from Origins and removed it, and in fact, from all i've read, the console version and the pc version of DA2 will be far more similar than was DA:O on pc/console.

basically, what it comes down to, is despite the minor, minor differences that will be present in the versions, a claim that the pc version is somehow more "tactical" won't hold up.

 

[Zom-B]

Bioware has yet to truly disappoint me. So, I'll keep my fingers crossed and download the demo on both formats as soon as it's out.


Edit: I seem to have a bit of posting noobness in this forum and can't embed videos. Just search for Dragon age 2 combat walkthrough for that tactical aspect that I'm talking about.

well, i won't be able to sample the pc demo, but i will try out the PS3 demo. i'm not holding out a lot of hope for the game personally. i played Origins, and while it was a serviceable fantasy RPG, it really let me down in a lot of ways. just to name a few:

limited visual differences to armour/outfits.
combat animations were... let's say... clunky?
main storyline was really quite cliched.
too many different characters available for a game that limits you to a party of 4. some characters i used only briefly or not all (for example, playing a rogue meant both Leliana and Zevran were basically redundant or made my party too weak. Oghren was awesome, however! more games need drunken berserker dwarves.)
graphics were subpar, imo.

and those are just a few of the gripes i had.

i did see that combat walkthrough a while back and while i understand that it was an early build of the game, what i saw did not, unfortunately, fill me with hope. i'll reserve my ultimate judgement until i play the DA2 demo, but at this point, i have no plans to pick up the game until it hits the bargain bins, unless the demo really blows me away.

 

[Howlingwolf214]

Or the 11th of March for us European people.

I'll be glaring at you solidly for three days.

 

[nin_ninja]

Or the 11th of March for us European people.

I'll be glaring at you solidly for three days.

Don't hate us because of release dates. Hate us because Bioware is Canadian and just likes us more.

 

[Goldenkitten01]

too many different characters available for a game that limits you to a party of 4. some characters i used only briefly or not all (for example, playing a rogue meant both Leliana and Zevran were basically redundant or made my party too weak. Oghren was awesome, however! more games need drunken berserker dwarves.)
graphics were subpar, imo.

The rest is opinion so you're free to it. But this right here makes no sense. There were 8 followers in the vanilla game with no DLC. This means there were 4 characters not in your party if you collected them all. There are RPG's out there with HUNDREDS of recruitable characters yet you can only use 3-4 at one time. That hardly strikes me as to many.

More importantly having redundant roles was the whole reason for there being other characters. If you played a mage there were two fighters to choose from, if you played a warrior there were thieves/archers to choose from specifically to offer ranged combat and the ability to unlock things. The reason you wound up with two rogues despite being a rogue is because not everyone played one, if you were a warrior/mage then you needed on in your party (or accepted never unlocking half the chests in the world). If you didn't want another in your party then that's what the warriors and mages were for.

That complaint just doesn't make much sense.

 

[kromify]

I hear the Pc version is much more tactical than the consoles, however is it so bad if they streamline a few things like inventory?

it's the exact same game on console and pc, how could it be more tactical? from what i've heard, the only thing that might make that even close to true is that you can pull the camera out a bit farther away from your party. maybe i've missed something?

Who's going to use tactics for the most part anyway? Most fights are the same - paralyse/freeze/blood wound your targets, then cast chain lightning. Only bosses need tactics.
I don't reckon it makes any difference what you play it on. I never had any trouble on my xbox, although Origins didn't run on my computer.




...I hope they keep blood magic. It's win :-D

 

[kromify]

I hear the Pc version is much more tactical than the consoles, however is it so bad if they streamline a few things like inventory?

it's the exact same game on console and pc, how could it be more tactical? from what i've heard, the only thing that might make that even close to true is that you can pull the camera out a bit farther away from your party. maybe i've missed something?

Who's going to use tactics for the most part anyway? Most fights are the same - paralyse/freeze/blood wound your targets, then cast chain lightning. Only bosses need tactics.
I don't reckon it makes any difference what you play it on. I never had any trouble on my xbox, although Origins didn't run on my computer.




...I hope they keep blood magic. It's win :-D

Generally people who like to challenge themselves and play on a higher difficulty.

I play on nightmare. Challenges involve not playing a mage lol!

 

[Sou1forged]

Bioware has yet to truly disappoint me. So, I'll keep my fingers crossed and download the demo on both formats as soon as it's out.


Edit: I seem to have a bit of posting noobness in this forum and can't embed videos. Just search for Dragon age 2 combat walkthrough for that tactical aspect that I'm talking about.

well, i won't be able to sample the pc demo, but i will try out the PS3 demo. i'm not holding out a lot of hope for the game personally. i played Origins, and while it was a serviceable fantasy RPG, it really let me down in a lot of ways. just to name a few:

limited visual differences to armour/outfits.
combat animations were... let's say... clunky?
main storyline was really quite cliched.
too many different characters available for a game that limits you to a party of 4. some characters i used only briefly or not all (for example, playing a rogue meant both Leliana and Zevran were basically redundant or made my party too weak. Oghren was awesome, however! more games need drunken berserker dwarves.)
graphics were subpar, imo.

and those are just a few of the gripes i had.

i did see that combat walkthrough a while back and while i understand that it was an early build of the game, what i saw did not, unfortunately, fill me with hope. i'll reserve my ultimate judgement until i play the DA2 demo, but at this point, i have no plans to pick up the game until it hits the bargain bins, unless the demo really blows me away.

Well, the large ammount of companions is there so you'll be able to put together an adequate team whatever class you decide to play, giving you complete freedom creating your own unique strategy (if you play strategically, that is). The many ways in which you can combine the characters gives you endless possibilities.
As for the graphics, I can agree that it's not the best out there (though it's easily solvable by using fanmade mods). However, it shouldn't be the graphics that make a game good or bad, it should be the story and playability that matters. That's what I expect when I buy one of their games, and that's what they keep on delivering.

main storyline was really quite cliched.

Aren't the whole genre a bit clichéd? =P
I mean, it's just the same Journey of the Hero all the time, with the hidden king, the magic thingamabob, the wizard(well, there's a lot of them in DA:O), the evil villain, etc. It's very rare that anyone depart from this template at all.

 

[Zom-B]

[

main storyline was really quite cliched.

Aren't the whole genre a bit clichéd? =P
I mean, it's just the same Journey of the Hero all the time, with the hidden king, the magic thingamabob, the wizard(well, there's a lot of them in DA:O), the evil villain, etc. It's very rare that anyone depart from this template at all.

I agree, the whole genre is rife with cliches. But it is possible to tell original stories or put new spins on the cliches, or just tell a cliched story *really* well and I don't think DA:O managed to do any of those things.