Preview: What's New in Dragon Age II

[paragon1]

wangst

Way to be extremely confrontational and hostile right out the gate. I would strongly suggest you reread the forum guidelines. If you can state your opinion in a polite manner, then maybe the Escapist isn't the forum for you.
If having a group of adventurers save the world from a great evil makes a game cliched, then a good 99.99% of videogames would have to be considered cliched to a certain degree.

Also, "leetness", really? I can't even remember the last time someone used that word seriously.

And despite the 3 pages of words in front of your eyes.. you have nothing else to say? :/

I could argue that your summation of all of my words in to such a singular statement as 'wangst' is equally confrontational and designed to provoke a negative reaction... hmmm?

At least my provocation had more than one syllable.

I've said all I wanted to say to you. I didn't feel your attempt to troll Bioware fans was worth any more words.

 

[Fumbleumble]

wangst

Way to be extremely confrontational and hostile right out the gate. I would strongly suggest you reread the forum guidelines. If you can state your opinion in a polite manner, then maybe the Escapist isn't the forum for you.
If having a group of adventurers save the world from a great evil makes a game cliched, then a good 99.99% of videogames would have to be considered cliched to a certain degree.

Also, "leetness", really? I can't even remember the last time someone used that word seriously.

And despite the 3 pages of words in front of your eyes.. you have nothing else to say? :/

I could argue that your summation of all of my words in to such a singular statement as 'wangst' is equally confrontational and designed to provoke a negative reaction... hmmm?

At least my provocation had more than one syllable.

I've said all I wanted to say to you. I didn't feel your attempt to troll Bioware fans was worth any more words.

Then why answer?.. ah, you didn't like that I got the last word and you want to make a come back... but you don't have one, so you just stop by one final time to stick your tongue out at me. Ok.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Ok, folks, the bickering ends now. If you care to continue the discussion, take it to PM, but it's obvious that this is going in a very negative direction that's going to end up with people getting banned.

Everyone is welcome to their own opinions and gaming preferences - what you are not entitled to, however, is attacking anyone or trying to make them feel small for not agreeing with you.

So knock it the hell off.

 

[DSK-]

I wasn't overly excited when I saw the combat demonstration video released last week, but reading this has made a slight tad of hope to recoup within me.

I'm still not too sure if pre-ordering it was a good idea. I'll reserve judgement for when I play it.

 

[The Harkinator]

Two things I want in this game is the epiphany that all fantasy RPG makers need to have: Bigger doesn't always mean slower. Also, make the character have an ability to stand out from the crowd. I'll explain:

1/ Bigger doesn't always mean slower. In Medieval times there were soldiers that wore full body platemail and had large 2 handed weapons able to cleave a foe in half. They were not slow and ponderous like DA:O and TES have us believe. In actual fact, to keep up momentum with the weapon they needed to be constantly moving. Platemail slows people down like nothing else and is heavy. OK it is quite heavy but in quite a few instances it was lighter that chainmail and allowed for better movement. A soldier could do somersaults in platemail if they had the right acrobatic skills. In one of the DA2 trailers Hawke spins a greatsword with skill, this is what I want to see in DA2.

2/In the Wardens Keep DLC you get some really nice platemail, nobody else in Ferelden has the Warden Commanders platemail. When my warden wore it I felt special, when I wore apparel nobody else had I felt like a warden, unique, powerful, an expert. When I wore armour that wasn't unique I felt like a common soldier without any defining features. Weapons and armour should be unique to Hawke and his companions like Shepherd and the crew in ME2. Duncan had unique armour and he was the defining warden, unique with his own armour not available to anyone else. Something acquired by a legendary man such as a Warden Commander.

I just want to feel powerful, I never felt powerful in DA:O I felt like a soldier in a battle for attrition. Only the finishing moves on foes such as the Broodmother or the High Dragon made me feel powerful.Wearing Warden Commanders Plate with a unique greatsword standing atop a dragons or broodmothers head as it tries to buck you off but you eventually manage to kill it. That is cool, that is a protagonists way of fighting. I want the feel that you are a cut above the rest (the wardens select only the best right? and a champion should be as equally badass) and can hack people to bits.

 

[Alkore]

Seems to be mass effect with swords which may not be a bad thing but i always wondered why they only ever allow the main character be human in most of there games

 

[Seneschal]

Yeah, let's change the subject, a little too much venom being flinged around over nothing.

SEX. Yes, I hope they make the sex fantastic. Let's not kid ourselves, the adition of adult romantic relationships is what makes modern BioWare RPGs distinct. I'm not asking for porn or anything, but just...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB4BmVmAPh8 - Zevran and a dwarf get it on. ._.

Now, this is deliberately ridiculous, but there are ways that even elf-dwarf gay sex could come out as maturely handled. Here they just look like two logs falling down a steep slope together. What should have been the culmination of a game-long romance turns out laughable, especially when the protagonist makes that "lustful" expression and his eyebrows fall into his eye-sockets.

Surprisingly, I think ME1 did it best. Dim lighting, soft glow, fading cuts, random shots of indistinguishable body parts... At least it looked and sounded like a sex scene, and managed to appear sensual even with 2007 3D models.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Two things:

1. I totally understand folks who are annoyed that they have to be human.

2. I have no idea about the sex. Didn't spend nearly enough time with the game to have made enough progress on that front (though I definitely know who I'm targeting when the game comes out).

 

[Fumbleumble]

Two things I want in this game is the epiphany that all fantasy RPG makers need to have: Bigger doesn't always mean slower. Also, make the character have an ability to stand out from the crowd. I'll explain:

1/ Bigger doesn't always mean slower. In Medieval times there were soldiers that wore full body platemail and had large 2 handed weapons able to cleave a foe in half. They were not slow and ponderous like DA:O and TES have us believe. In actual fact, to keep up momentum with the weapon they needed to be constantly moving. Platemail slows people down like nothing else and is heavy. OK it is quite heavy but in quite a few instances it was lighter that chainmail and allowed for better movement. A soldier could do somersaults in platemail if they had the right acrobatic skills. In one of the DA2 trailers Hawke spins a greatsword with skill, this is what I want to see in DA2.

2/In the Wardens Keep DLC you get some really nice platemail, nobody else in Ferelden has the Warden Commanders platemail. When my warden wore it I felt special, when I wore apparel nobody else had I felt like a warden, unique, powerful, an expert. When I wore armour that wasn't unique I felt like a common soldier without any defining features. Weapons and armour should be unique to Hawke and his companions like Shepherd and the crew in ME2. Duncan had unique armour and he was the defining warden, unique with his own armour not available to anyone else. Something acquired by a legendary man such as a Warden Commander.

I just want to feel powerful, I never felt powerful in DA:O I felt like a soldier in a battle for attrition. Only the finishing moves on foes such as the Broodmother or the High Dragon made me feel powerful.Wearing Warden Commanders Plate with a unique greatsword standing atop a dragons or broodmothers head as it tries to buck you off but you eventually manage to kill it. That is cool, that is a protagonists way of fighting. I want the feel that you are a cut above the rest (the wardens select only the best right? and a champion should be as equally badass) and can hack people to bits.

OK, in the spirit of this new found On Topicness (I did try :/).. I'll make a comment here ( I wish I could be bothered doing it all nice splitting your points up.. but.. CBA :/)..so..

1) Ok, can't comment on summersaulting, platewearing warriors, but considering their way of life, extreme manual labour, extreme training methods, I'm sure it would be fairly certain that that way of life would produce some pretty big guys and having seen William Wallace's 6' odd and DAMNED heavy longsword I certainly can't argue against it. However we're talking timing in a game here and it would be pretty unbalanced to have them swinging these big assed weapons around on a par with a thief with a dagger. So I'm probably not as much bothered about combat timing as I am about other things (I knew I'd get a final dig in somewhere )...but I DEFINATELY do agree that they seemed underpowered, jeez a good swing could cleave someone on two, armour and all, not that you would ever know it from this combat.

2) Didn't get any DLC except the free stuff but at no point dd I ever feel unique or even nearly worthy of my title as uber world saviour.

I don't know what to say about the combat.. I'm used to thinking things out and I never had too much trouble, died a few times ovbiously, but never repetedly over the same battle but I do say most battle felt the same regardless of who I was fighting.. tbh I had more trouble with wolves at higher levels.. wolves can bite through plate? WOW.

Mostly it all just felt scaled.. and I blame Oblivion for this kind of thinking.. My favourite parts of combat in the games I liked was when I accidentally wandered into the wrong cave, promptly got smooshed, knew full well a reload wouldn't cut it and said to myself "I'll come back for you later, Sunshine"

I miss that in games...easy areas where you really feel your progression, then falling over a big assed monster than had the tendancy of ripping you a new one, that was fun.

WAAA.. I'm sad again.

I think devs have to stop holding our hands in combat.. 'balancing' sucks.. too MMO-ish if I come across a monster I can't kill, let me get better and come back too it.. and if I'm finding it too easy then let ME slow up a bit... TBH, I thought it was ME playing the game and NOT the designer.

 

[Fumbleumble]

I wasn't overly excited when I saw the combat demonstration video released last week, but reading this has made a slight tad of hope to recoup within me.

I'm still not too sure if pre-ordering it was a good idea. I'll reserve judgement for when I play it.

If I may ask..

What was it you saw that turned you off?.. and what did you read that changed your mind?

 

[Thirsk]

I might pick it up. The tilty difficulty balance and the less-than-streamlined gameplay was what threw me off the original Dragon Age, so if that's fixed in the second game, that should be a good gaming experience for me.

 

[paragon1]

wangst

Way to be extremely confrontational and hostile right out the gate. I would strongly suggest you reread the forum guidelines. If you can state your opinion in a polite manner, then maybe the Escapist isn't the forum for you.
If having a group of adventurers save the world from a great evil makes a game cliched, then a good 99.99% of videogames would have to be considered cliched to a certain degree.

Also, "leetness", really? I can't even remember the last time someone used that word seriously.

And despite the 3 pages of words in front of your eyes.. you have nothing else to say? :/

I could argue that your summation of all of my words in to such a singular statement as 'wangst' is equally confrontational and designed to provoke a negative reaction... hmmm?

At least my provocation had more than one syllable.

I've said all I wanted to say to you. I didn't feel your attempt to troll Bioware fans was worth any more words.

Then why answer?.. ah, you didn't like that I got the last word and you want to make a come back... but you don't have one, so you just stop by one final time to stick your tongue out at me. Ok.

Well, I don't know how they do things where your from, but I've always been told it's polite to respond when someone asks you a question. Your right, I didn't have a "comeback", because I wasn't interested in getting into a childish and pointless argument with you. And I'm not going to answer you again, because this conversation is no longer has anything to do with the thread at all.

 

[Casual Shinji]

If there's one thing I hope Bioware improves, it's the replayability.

After finishing it once, I was all ready to jump in again, realizing I just didn't feel like going through the motions again.

 

[Fumbleumble]

wangst

Way to be extremely confrontational and hostile right out the gate. I would strongly suggest you reread the forum guidelines. If you can state your opinion in a polite manner, then maybe the Escapist isn't the forum for you.
If having a group of adventurers save the world from a great evil makes a game cliched, then a good 99.99% of videogames would have to be considered cliched to a certain degree.

Also, "leetness", really? I can't even remember the last time someone used that word seriously.

And despite the 3 pages of words in front of your eyes.. you have nothing else to say? :/

I could argue that your summation of all of my words in to such a singular statement as 'wangst' is equally confrontational and designed to provoke a negative reaction... hmmm?

At least my provocation had more than one syllable.

I've said all I wanted to say to you. I didn't feel your attempt to troll Bioware fans was worth any more words.

Then why answer?.. ah, you didn't like that I got the last word and you want to make a come back... but you don't have one, so you just stop by one final time to stick your tongue out at me. Ok.

Well, I don't know how they do things where your from, but I've always been told it's polite to respond when someone asks you a question. Your right, I didn't have a "comeback", because I wasn't interested in getting into a childish and pointless argument with you. And I'm not going to answer you again, because this conversation is no longer has anything to do with the thread at all.

Yeah, yeah.. we stopped all this, I was having too much fun and everyone else resented it.

 

[The Harkinator]

Two things I want in this game is the epiphany that all fantasy RPG makers need to have: Bigger doesn't always mean slower. Also, make the character have an ability to stand out from the crowd. I'll explain:

1/ Bigger doesn't always mean slower. In Medieval times there were soldiers that wore full body platemail and had large 2 handed weapons able to cleave a foe in half. They were not slow and ponderous like DA:O and TES have us believe. In actual fact, to keep up momentum with the weapon they needed to be constantly moving. Platemail slows people down like nothing else and is heavy. OK it is quite heavy but in quite a few instances it was lighter that chainmail and allowed for better movement. A soldier could do somersaults in platemail if they had the right acrobatic skills. In one of the DA2 trailers Hawke spins a greatsword with skill, this is what I want to see in DA2.

2/In the Wardens Keep DLC you get some really nice platemail, nobody else in Ferelden has the Warden Commanders platemail. When my warden wore it I felt special, when I wore apparel nobody else had I felt like a warden, unique, powerful, an expert. When I wore armour that wasn't unique I felt like a common soldier without any defining features. Weapons and armour should be unique to Hawke and his companions like Shepherd and the crew in ME2. Duncan had unique armour and he was the defining warden, unique with his own armour not available to anyone else. Something acquired by a legendary man such as a Warden Commander.

I just want to feel powerful, I never felt powerful in DA:O I felt like a soldier in a battle for attrition. Only the finishing moves on foes such as the Broodmother or the High Dragon made me feel powerful.Wearing Warden Commanders Plate with a unique greatsword standing atop a dragons or broodmothers head as it tries to buck you off but you eventually manage to kill it. That is cool, that is a protagonists way of fighting. I want the feel that you are a cut above the rest (the wardens select only the best right? and a champion should be as equally badass) and can hack people to bits.

OK, in the spirit of this new found On Topicness (I did try :/).. I'll make a comment here ( I wish I could be bothered doing it all nice splitting your points up.. but.. CBA :/)..so..

1) Ok, can't comment on summersaulting, platewearing warriors, but considering their way of life, extreme manual labour, extreme training methods, I'm sure it would be fairly certain that that way of life would produce some pretty big guys and having seen William Wallace's 6' odd and DAMNED heavy longsword I certainly can't argue against it. However we're talking timing in a game here and it would be pretty unbalanced to have them swinging these big assed weapons around on a par with a thief with a dagger. So I'm probably not as much bothered about combat timing as I am about other things (I knew I'd get a final dig in somewhere )...but I DEFINATELY do agree that they seemed underpowered, jeez a good swing could cleave someone on two, armour and all, not that you would ever know it from this combat.

2) Didn't get any DLC except the free stuff but at no point dd I ever feel unique or even nearly worthy of my title as uber world saviour.

I don't know what to say about the combat.. I'm used to thinking things out and I never had too much trouble, died a few times ovbiously, but never repetedly over the same battle but I do say most battle felt the same regardless of who I was fighting.. tbh I had more trouble with wolves at higher levels.. wolves can bite through plate? WOW.

Mostly it all just felt scaled.. and I blame Oblivion for this kind of thinking.. My favourite parts of combat in the games I liked was when I accidentally wandered into the wrong cave, promptly got smooshed, knew full well a reload wouldn't cut it and said to myself "I'll come back for you later, Sunshine"

I miss that in games...easy areas where you really feel your progression, then falling over a big assed monster than had the tendancy of ripping you a new one, that was fun.

WAAA.. I'm sad again.

I think devs have to stop holding our hands in combat.. 'balancing' sucks.. too MMO-ish if I come across a monster I can't kill, let me get better and come back too it.. and if I'm finding it too easy then let ME slow up a bit... TBH, I thought it was ME playing the game and NOT the designer.

Fair enough (BTW I like my points to be picked apart, nice to know other gamers viewpoints from an intelligent viewpoint such as your own) but I like your point about levelling. In Fallout and Oblivion (Oblivion especially) I wanted to come across things where I hoped they would kill me or at least mortally wound me. Take for example 'Guardians of the Sacred Grove' they were Ogres in Oblivion, I wanted them to smash my face in to remind me I was level 4 and only out of prison for a week. Instead I beat them all and felt that this 'Sacred Grove' must be quite rubbish if its guardians fell so easily. Same goes for their highwaymen, eventually every Kajhit on the road was kitted out in full glass armour with an enchanted glass mace. How did they get that? If they sold all wargear they'd have enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

You're right about games holding our hands in combat. They should give the tutorial (if its that complicated) and then set everyone in the world a set level so fools can die as quickly as you can say 'I rule!' and others such as the champion of the arena will be a strong foe that can't be beaten at level 2.

Please don't be sad, be happy that its nearly christmas. Hope it snows where you live!

 

[Dora]

Still not interested. I cancelled my pre-order some time ago when I realised the overall structure and handling of things this time around was more similar to Mass Effect than, say, Baldur's Gate, and I couldn't for the life of me bring myself to care about anything going on in Mass Effect. It's just not a style of gameplay and storytelling I personally enjoy. We'll see; I'll watch some more footage as we get closer to release. Maybe my mind will change, but I have a feeling that's not my thing anymore. I keep losing interest in RPGs before I finish them anyway.

... also, I totally just looked at some new screenshots for the first time. Why do all the Qunari look like characters from that old Disney Gargoyles cartoon?

 

[Fumbleumble]

Two things I want in this game is the epiphany that all fantasy RPG makers need to have: Bigger doesn't always mean slower. Also, make the character have an ability to stand out from the crowd. I'll explain:

1/ Bigger doesn't always mean slower. In Medieval times there were soldiers that wore full body platemail and had large 2 handed weapons able to cleave a foe in half. They were not slow and ponderous like DA:O and TES have us believe. In actual fact, to keep up momentum with the weapon they needed to be constantly moving. Platemail slows people down like nothing else and is heavy. OK it is quite heavy but in quite a few instances it was lighter that chainmail and allowed for better movement. A soldier could do somersaults in platemail if they had the right acrobatic skills. In one of the DA2 trailers Hawke spins a greatsword with skill, this is what I want to see in DA2.

2/In the Wardens Keep DLC you get some really nice platemail, nobody else in Ferelden has the Warden Commanders platemail. When my warden wore it I felt special, when I wore apparel nobody else had I felt like a warden, unique, powerful, an expert. When I wore armour that wasn't unique I felt like a common soldier without any defining features. Weapons and armour should be unique to Hawke and his companions like Shepherd and the crew in ME2. Duncan had unique armour and he was the defining warden, unique with his own armour not available to anyone else. Something acquired by a legendary man such as a Warden Commander.

I just want to feel powerful, I never felt powerful in DA:O I felt like a soldier in a battle for attrition. Only the finishing moves on foes such as the Broodmother or the High Dragon made me feel powerful.Wearing Warden Commanders Plate with a unique greatsword standing atop a dragons or broodmothers head as it tries to buck you off but you eventually manage to kill it. That is cool, that is a protagonists way of fighting. I want the feel that you are a cut above the rest (the wardens select only the best right? and a champion should be as equally badass) and can hack people to bits.

OK, in the spirit of this new found On Topicness (I did try :/).. I'll make a comment here ( I wish I could be bothered doing it all nice splitting your points up.. but.. CBA :/)..so..

1) Ok, can't comment on summersaulting, platewearing warriors, but considering their way of life, extreme manual labour, extreme training methods, I'm sure it would be fairly certain that that way of life would produce some pretty big guys and having seen William Wallace's 6' odd and DAMNED heavy longsword I certainly can't argue against it. However we're talking timing in a game here and it would be pretty unbalanced to have them swinging these big assed weapons around on a par with a thief with a dagger. So I'm probably not as much bothered about combat timing as I am about other things (I knew I'd get a final dig in somewhere )...but I DEFINATELY do agree that they seemed underpowered, jeez a good swing could cleave someone on two, armour and all, not that you would ever know it from this combat.

2) Didn't get any DLC except the free stuff but at no point dd I ever feel unique or even nearly worthy of my title as uber world saviour.

I don't know what to say about the combat.. I'm used to thinking things out and I never had too much trouble, died a few times ovbiously, but never repetedly over the same battle but I do say most battle felt the same regardless of who I was fighting.. tbh I had more trouble with wolves at higher levels.. wolves can bite through plate? WOW.

Mostly it all just felt scaled.. and I blame Oblivion for this kind of thinking.. My favourite parts of combat in the games I liked was when I accidentally wandered into the wrong cave, promptly got smooshed, knew full well a reload wouldn't cut it and said to myself "I'll come back for you later, Sunshine"

I miss that in games...easy areas where you really feel your progression, then falling over a big assed monster than had the tendancy of ripping you a new one, that was fun.

WAAA.. I'm sad again.

I think devs have to stop holding our hands in combat.. 'balancing' sucks.. too MMO-ish if I come across a monster I can't kill, let me get better and come back too it.. and if I'm finding it too easy then let ME slow up a bit... TBH, I thought it was ME playing the game and NOT the designer.

Fair enough (BTW I like my points to be picked apart, nice to know other gamers viewpoints from an intelligent viewpoint such as your own) but I like your point about levelling. In Fallout and Oblivion (Oblivion especially) I wanted to come across things where I hoped they would kill me or at least mortally wound me. Take for example 'Guardians of the Sacred Grove' they were Ogres in Oblivion, I wanted them to smash my face in to remind me I was level 4 and only out of prison for a week. Instead I beat them all and felt that this 'Sacred Grove' must be quite rubbish if its guardians fell so easily. Same goes for their highwaymen, eventually every Kajhit on the road was kitted out in full glass armour with an enchanted glass mace. How did they get that? If they sold all wargear they'd have enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

You're right about games holding our hands in combat. They should give the tutorial (if its that complicated) and then set everyone in the world a set level so fools can die as quickly as you can say 'I rule!' and others such as the champion of the arena will be a strong foe that can't be beaten at level 2.

Please don't be sad, be happy that its nearly christmas. Hope it snows where you live!

Lmao.. yeah, why bother risking your ass when your hemet could buy a small town

Yeah, Oblivion, looked like a fish.. steered like a cow :/

Most of the time I AM that fool.. and I rush in constantly... and promptly rush out again.. Fun and giggles.

BTW.. I'm from Scotland.. SNOW?????? We're closed for the duration lol.

 

[The Harkinator]

[BTW.. I'm from Scotland.. SNOW?????? We're closed for the duration lol.[/quote]
Yeah I'm from England (yorkshire) and everything is failing, the car froze up, the cooker doesn't work and I'm not sure I have any feet any more. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

[Fumbleumble]

BTW.. I'm from Scotland.. SNOW?????? We're closed for the duration lol.

Yeah I'm from England (yorkshire) and everything is failing, the car froze up, the cooker doesn't work and I'm not sure I have any feet any more. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Lol, we're all iced up in the same boat.

Merry Christmas, mate

(edit... My Grandfather was a Yorkshire man . I still remember him singing me "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at"))