Preview: What's New in Dragon Age II

[AlternatePFG]

"Concerned that Origins both looked and played too 'old fashioned,' the design team wanted to 'give Dragon Age a shot of adrenalin,'"

Oh. So you mean that game you marketed as "a return to Bioware's old roots" played like an old-fashioned RPG?

..

Wasn't that the frickin point?

I like the look of DA2, but still, taking what was marketed as the point of the first game and then saying "That's the wrong direction! We take it to new places!" and then market that, makes me scratch my head somewhat.

Exactly. That's what I loved about the original Dragon Age, but I think they're really trying to make the series too much like Mass Effect in some ways.

Is it just more, or does the new crafting system sound kinda like the resource gathering in ME1 and to a lesser extent ME2.

 

[Tarlane]

Susan Arendt thinks Commander Shepard should have a cameo in Dragon Age II somehow.

I'm lord Hawke and this is my favorite store in Kirkwall.

 

[Woodsey]

When was the difficulty balance "way off"?

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

I think...I just wet myself with excitement.

 

[DoubleRainbow]

Don't care..

Everyone trots out the same tired old BS about Bioware's 'excellent' writing....

Well I say you're all just sheep bleating away and that you wouldn't know HONESTLY good writing if it bit you on the arse.

Bioware's spewings are the same crap reguritated again and again, there isn't an 'original' story in the entire house.

GOOD writing is tight, cohesive and logical, with twists here and there.... Bioware has none of that any longer and haven't had since Jade Empire and that was truly the end of it and it's been sketchy at best since BGII.

Good ISN'T pages and pages of turgidly dry backstory that hopes to beat you down with the sheer amount of irrelevence, and Bioware is now all of that... DA is just the same story they've been telling since BG1... the stage is the same, they just messed around with some of the players backstory. Is no-one surprised they're not sick and tired trotting out the same old wretched fantasy offering, because I'm CERTAINLY sick of the same crap over and over again.. Big evil rears it's head, only one man can stop it and on the way he makes some friends.. Is Bioware really unable to think of another senario? REALLY?.. and DA2 looks more of the same, but this time you don't even get make your own character .

And the less said about the mish mash of broken ends, contradictions and plot holes that CONTINUES to be ME, the better. The first sets a good stage, they fire the writer.. the second goes off at a tangent, taking your char down paths that weren't even cosistant with the char of the first and NOW for the third they can't even stick to the rules for the big bad that they set in the first, good grief it was only a few years agao.. didn't they READ what they were writing?... WAAAA FANBOY ALERT... don't say that, you suck.. lies, WAAAA. I DEFY any of you to find ANY part of their recent storylines that can actually be called original.. or at least not rehashed from the same old same old stories that are constantly and persistantly told again, and again, and again.

If ANY of you are actually interested in good writing and originality, go play Arcanum.. or better yet Planescape: Torment, Bioware couldn't hold a candle to those games in terms of writing, not even in their hayday.

Biowares constant repetition is almost as bad as your constant procamations of their 'leetness'... I suppose it just gives you someything to say, and makes you feel as if you're all a part of something.

And I haven't even started on the dumbass gameplay.....

You just mad. :O

 

[Fumbleumble]

Don't care..

Everyone trots out the same tired old BS about Bioware's 'excellent' writing....

Well I say you're all just sheep bleating away and that you wouldn't know HONESTLY good writing if it bit you on the arse.

Bioware's spewings are the same crap reguritated again and again, there isn't an 'original' story in the entire house.

GOOD writing is tight, cohesive and logical, with twists here and there.... Bioware has none of that any longer and haven't had since Jade Empire and that was truly the end of it and it's been sketchy at best since BGII.

Good ISN'T pages and pages of turgidly dry backstory that hopes to beat you down with the sheer amount of irrelevence, and Bioware is now all of that... DA is just the same story they've been telling since BG1... the stage is the same, they just messed around with some of the players backstory. Is no-one surprised they're not sick and tired trotting out the same old wretched fantasy offering, because I'm CERTAINLY sick of the same crap over and over again.. Big evil rears it's head, only one man can stop it and on the way he makes some friends.. Is Bioware really unable to think of another senario? REALLY?.. and DA2 looks more of the same, but this time you don't even get make your own character .

And the less said about the mish mash of broken ends, contradictions and plot holes that CONTINUES to be ME, the better. The first sets a good stage, they fire the writer.. the second goes off at a tangent, taking your char down paths that weren't even cosistant with the char of the first and NOW for the third they can't even stick to the rules for the big bad that they set in the first, good grief it was only a few years agao.. didn't they READ what they were writing?... WAAAA FANBOY ALERT... don't say that, you suck.. lies, WAAAA. I DEFY any of you to find ANY part of their recent storylines that can actually be called original.. or at least not rehashed from the same old same old stories that are constantly and persistantly told again, and again, and again.

If ANY of you are actually interested in good writing and originality, go play Arcanum.. or better yet Planescape: Torment, Bioware couldn't hold a candle to those games in terms of writing, not even in their hayday.

Biowares constant repetition is almost as bad as your constant procamations of their 'leetness'... I suppose it just gives you someything to say, and makes you feel as if you're all a part of something.

And I haven't even started on the dumbass gameplay.....

You just mad. :O

You just sheep :O

 

[Flamezdudes]

Brilliant. I was a little worried at first but my worries have been put to rest now, i'm definatly looking forward to DA2 in March. It'll probably be one of my favourites of next year I bet, BioWare is awesome.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Susan Arendt thinks Commander Shepard should have a cameo in Dragon Age II somehow.

Given that we own both of the intellectual properties in question, we could, technically, get away with doing so if we wanted to. ^_^

 

[Fumbleumble]

l:Ol

Dude.. I don't mind someone saying I'm wrong... what I DO mind is someone saying I'm wrong and providing absolutely no justification for their point of view.

So tell me.. what part of my statement is inaccurate?

Is it the the part about the same old, same old? Or maybe it's the incohesive storylines?... It can't be the dumbing down (sorry, WHOLESALE REMOVAL) of rpg gameplay, that one's a given.

 

[Seneschal]

When was the difficulty balance "way off"?

The difficulty would adjust automatically to follow the player's progression, but there seemed to be a weird random factor. I know a friend of mine gave up the game for a long while because he got stuck on Normal, then picked it up again and it was a breeze. Generally people give inconsistent reports on the difficulty, and even within one playthrough it would shift from piece-of-cake to insanely-frustrating and back.

I'm not entirely sure that what they're doing here is in the best interest of storytelling. I couldn't care less if they simplified the interface for consoles, less is more for me. But a voiced protagonist and a conversation wheel? Since when did Mass Effect have better conversation choices than DAO?! Isn't the general consensus that the wheel is far less expressive and accurate, that ME had much less complex moral choices, and that the neutral choice was entirely pointless because it didn't give you paragon/renegade points? Regardless of the quality of the writing in ME (and I felt ME2 characters were slightly better-handled than their DAO equivalents), ME2 conversations were more linear and misleading than any other WRPG, much closer to JRGP territory of interactive movie.

Yes, the customized silent protagonist was better in the Baldur's Gate era when everything was 2D, all characters were abstract representations of themselves with limited animations, and 50% of the game you already had to imagine yourself. Imagination was the strength of those games, that's why they felt vivid. In DAO, with good graphics and facial animations, it's hard to suspend disbelief when your avatar just stoically stands and clicks on conversation choices.

But if better graphics and voice acting means we have to let go of roleplaying because it's too resource-intensive, aren't we on the wrong path as far as RPGs are concerned? Maybe I should rename BioWare my favorite "action-adventure" developer now.

 

[Woodsey]

When was the difficulty balance "way off"?

The difficulty would adjust automatically to follow the player's progression, but there seemed to be a weird random factor. I know a friend of mine gave up the game for a long while because he got stuck on Normal, then picked it up again and it was a breeze. Generally people give inconsistent reports on the difficulty, and even within one playthrough it would shift from piece-of-cake to insanely-frustrating and back.

Well yeah, some areas are set for higher level characters so you have to go back to them later.

Did people not know that?

 

[StriderShinryu]

"(During my playthrough, I wanted to just tell someone I thought they were cute and ended up inviting them to bed, but flirting is open to all manner of interpretation, I suppose.)"

Ugh... everything else about DA2 sounds great to me, except this. This is the kind of silliness I loved being able to avoid in DA:O by actually picking what I wanted to say (from an sometimes larger range of options). As much as I love ME1 and ME2, they feel so much more scripted, and the player feels so much less in control, than was ever the case in DA:O.

 

[Wandrecanada]

My name is Commander Shepard and DA2 is my favorite game on the Citadel.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

A couple of thoughts. One, which I'll just say briefly, while it was indeed very brown, the graphics weren't "butt-ugly" on the consoles. The amount you guys put the graphics down, I'm beginning to suspect you have a contractual obligation to, or something. Next, I like the new crafting design from the sounds of it, though I'm curious how this will effect my cash flow, like selling potent lyrium potion stacks for a decent profit did in the first. On the topic of loot, is there any word on letting anyone other than a thief open a chest? Baldur's Gate had the smashing mechanics, where you could just manhandle your way in, at a slight penalty to whats inside. That always annoys me more than a lot of other things, is not having ready access to a ton of loot because my warrior can't figure out how to whack a chest open with that giant axe of his. On to the relationships. Can I knock up an elf yet? One with all the appropriate lady bits?

 

[Susan Arendt]

When was the difficulty balance "way off"?

The difficulty would adjust automatically to follow the player's progression, but there seemed to be a weird random factor. I know a friend of mine gave up the game for a long while because he got stuck on Normal, then picked it up again and it was a breeze. Generally people give inconsistent reports on the difficulty, and even within one playthrough it would shift from piece-of-cake to insanely-frustrating and back.

I'm not entirely sure that what they're doing here is in the best interest of storytelling. I couldn't care less if they simplified the interface for consoles, less is more for me. But a voiced protagonist and a conversation wheel? Since when did Mass Effect have better conversation choices than DAO?! Isn't the general consensus that the wheel is far less expressive and accurate, that ME had much less complex moral choices, and that the neutral choice was entirely pointless because it didn't give you paragon/renegade points? Regardless of the quality of the writing in ME (and I felt ME2 characters were slightly better-handled than their DAO equivalents), ME2 conversations were more linear and misleading than any other WRPG, much closer to JRGP territory of interactive movie.

Yes, the customized silent protagonist was better in the Baldur's Gate era when everything was 2D, all characters were abstract representations of themselves with limited animations, and 50% of the game you already had to imagine yourself. Imagination was the strength of those games, that's why they felt vivid. In DAO, with good graphics and facial animations, it's hard to suspend disbelief when your avatar just stoically stands and clicks on conversation choices.

But if better graphics and voice acting means we have to let go of roleplaying because it's too resource-intensive, aren't we on the wrong path as far as RPGs are concerned? Maybe I should rename BioWare my favorite "action-adventure" developer now.

Allow me to just interject one thing about the dialog wheel in DA2 - it offers far more choices than ME2 (or seemed to, anyway). In ME2, you pretty much had the Paragon choice, the Renegade choice, maybe something neutral and then choices that let you probe for more information. In DA2, the top choice isn't always good-natured, and the lower choice isn't always "bad guy." From what I saw, it seems more nuanced than just good/bad, but of course it's tough to get a real perspective on something like that from just a few hours of play.

 

[KEM10]

l:Ol

Dude.. I don't mind someone saying I'm wrong... what I DO mind is someone saying I'm wrong and providing absolutely no justification for their point of view.

So tell me.. what part of my statement is inaccurate?

He's just trolling, let him be.
Me, on the other hand, just think your idea of context is a bit off. T.S. Elliot said it best, "Good writers borrow, great writers steal."

Of course they are telling the same story, most epic tales are just repeats of the old ones. DA:O is copying BG which is borrowing from Lord of the Rings, which takes a lot of information from Norse stories (and I skipped a few steps in there). I can do it again with other epics. Paradise Lost borrows from the Divine Comedy and in that Dante clearly states he is taking passages directly from Virgil's Aeneid which is a Roman retelling of the Odyssey that some modern scholars are doubting came from Homer (and if that is the case, someone else is concluding the Iliad story).

 

[DoubleRainbow]

l:Ol

Dude.. I don't mind someone saying I'm wrong... what I DO mind is someone saying I'm wrong and providing absolutely no justification for their point of view.

So tell me.. what part of my statement is inaccurate?

Is it the the part about the same old, same old? Or maybe it's the incohesive storylines?... It can't be the dumbing down (sorry, WHOLESALE REMOVAL) of rpg gameplay, that one's a given.

I never said you were wrong, just said you were mad. I could feel the anger oozing out of the words. Was it pointless to point that out? Yes, very. But... yeah.

 

[StriderShinryu]

When was the difficulty balance "way off"?

In my experience, the difficulty did seem to be.. I wouldn't say way off, but I would say it was oddly weighted. I found pretty much all of the boss battles to be simple and easy, but I would spend an hour on trying to successfully complete some of the "random" map battles.

Also, even the hardest battles sometimes seemed to be inconsistent within themselves where the same set of enemies would act completely differently on back to back occassions (though I suppose you could put this down as being reasonably realistic AI wise).