Razorfist gives his oh so tactful review on DA2

[Feylynn]

Three easy steps to enjoying Dragon Age 2.

-Play on Nightmare.
No other difficulty is cannon, nor is it a game, normal is the difficulty equivalent of getting to sleep within a time restriction of 48 hours.

-Try to roleplay not metagame.
You need to work to color these games, the developer cannot make them perfect, or even really good compared to a novel when they need to account for a billion whiny fans and 47 flavours of player character. They will always be bad it is up to you to think out side of the box and color inside the lines.

-Remember that no matter how much you glorify Origins it was very very VERY flawed, that didn't stop us from loving it.
Bad, slow, terribly balanced combat that closer resembled MapleStory's potion chugging contest than a game, or even tactics.
Glitches and graphics and inconsistencies that make grown men cry. Still we loved it, get over DA2's flaws if you want, or don't, It's not changing my experience with the game.

That said, he had many good points. Be vocal, less of an idiot maybe, but vocal.
BioWare needs to be told where they went wrong here, hopefully they listen and fix it.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

After his views on The Olive Garden, I learned enough not to take him seriously. So yep, I dismissed him.

Is that really so wrong?

I'm sure he had things he didn't like about DA2 that many others did. But do I really have to listen to 10 minutes of him to know I don't like his style?

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

After his views on The Olive Garden, I learned enough not to take him seriously. So yep, I dismissed him.

Is that really so wrong?

I'm sure he had things he didn't like about DA2 that many others did. But do I really have to listen to 10 minutes of him to know I don't like his style?

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

Can we just have a legitimate discussion on some of the points he made?

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

After his views on The Olive Garden, I learned enough not to take him seriously. So yep, I dismissed him.

Is that really so wrong?

I'm sure he had things he didn't like about DA2 that many others did. But do I really have to listen to 10 minutes of him to know I don't like his style?

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

Can we just have a legitimate discussion on some of the points he made?

My opinion from his review is based on three things: dialog, exploration, and an ending which introduces a sequel. My opinion on all three of these things is negative.

If there's anything I enjoyed most out of my time playing BioWare games, it's the conversations I've had. Take KoTOR: from Jolee talking about his wife's fall to the darkside to Hk-47's description of love and the origin of meatbags to Canderous' war stories and his growing disgust with his own past. It made that game.

Exploration is also big. It's my biggest gripe with Mass Effect. I hate being so constrained. They make gorgeous landscapes but always off in the distance. Just out of reach. It's like discovering your car is on a treadmill and the background is just a screen.

Finally, I heavily dislike endings which lead to sequels. I feel cheated out of stories. For some works, it's acceptable. Take the LoTR trilogy. That's just too large a book to put in one volume. For games and movies, there's less room for that. Books don't cost me 60 dollars. There's also no guarantee I'll see that sequel. Look at Part 3. It's still not out. Look at Beyond Good and Evil. It never made it past the first game.

Also, I didn't like what they did to Flemeth, but that's personal taste.

What did you think?

 

[Feylynn]

Can we just have a legitimate discussion on some of the points he made?

He's right that features shouldn't have been removed. The conversations, ability to equip characters how you wished, the other 4 maps (DA1 really didn't have that many either people).

He's wrong about graphics, DAO had more than enough, DA2's are overkill. What they need to work on is animation.
The combat was great, DAO had terrible combat by comparison.

The issue he didn't address (which is weird because it's the only issue worth mentioning in the big picture), pacing.
They should have given us time to make the journey to Kirkwall, time to know our family before killing them off.
Shown us some history before the blight, make us actually get out of Lothering, find a boat, make some of the trek to give Kirkwall more impact. Similarly they needed to give the story more structure and pace the acts better. It felt like 2 stories and 476 side quests when it should have felt like one story, that had tangents.

The wheel was a bad choice it took away flavour. It was much harder to have a religious character this time. Much harder to portray opinions. Also, I feel the text should have been 1 to 1 with the script not implied meaning.

Overall I think he needs to take some morphine to dull the apparent pain this game caused him (Choking on the disc maybe?) and then rationally and stoically concede more of it's steps forward without the hyperbole of it's many errors.

 

[Haydyn]

He pointed out the same flaws I hate. He has just chosen to be a lot more bitter than myself. Pretty entertaining though. I want more people like that so designers do not make those mistakes again.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Can we just have a legitimate discussion on some of the points he made?

He's right that features shouldn't have been removed. The conversations, ability to equip characters how you wished, the other 4 maps (DA1 really didn't have that many either people).

He's wrong about graphics, DAO had more than enough, DA2's are overkill. What they need to work on is animation.
The combat was great, DAO had terrible combat by comparison.

The issue he didn't address (which is weird because it's the only issue worth mentioning in the big picture), pacing.
They should have given us time to make the journey to Kirkwall, time to know our family before killing them off.
Shown us some history before the blight, make us actually get out of Lothering, find a boat, make some of the trek to give Kirkwall more impact. Similarly they needed to give the story more structure and pace the acts better. It felt like 2 stories and 476 side quests when it should have felt like one story, that had tangents.

The wheel was a bad choice it took away flavour. It was much harder to have a religious character this time. Much harder to portray opinions. Also, I feel the text should have been 1 to 1 with the script not implied meaning.

Overall I think he needs to take some morphine to dull the apparent pain this game caused him (Choking on the disc maybe?) and then rationally and stoically concede more of it's steps forward without the hyperbole of it's many errors.

1. The graphics aren't so bad as the art style was just a huge veer in the wrong direction
2. Agreed, I hated after the year of paying your way through Kirkwall that there were all of these vendors that Hawke spoke to like he knew them and I was sitting there thinking "who are these people?"
3.Agreed, I hated that if I didn't want to get gay with Anders my only option was to tell him to "Fuck off"

 

[Freechoice]

I saw his books list and was like "nop."

 

[Canadish]

I hate it when people start acting immature. This thread seems to be a perfect example.
It's feels like its become socially unacceptable to want some quality and depth to game.
It's our job as the customer to call a company out when they release a sub-standard product, don't forget that.
Sure, it was never going to be Baldur's Gate 3, but a sequel should build on what a game gave us last time. DA2 just stripped things out.
Never mind the question of whether it was dumbed down. There was just WAY less variety and content. Plus, the awful, sequel-bait ending (which I suspect they'll try "fix" in DLC, at $15 or some rubbish).
But, we still had to pay full price. Or were at least expected to.

But I suppose the issue comes down to a simple question.
At the end of the game, did you have that wonderful feeling of satisfaction?
Origins was one of the best games I've ever played for this feeling.
At the end of DA2, it was empty, sudden, jarring and from Bioware, the masters of great epic tales, it felt like a gut punch.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

After watching several of his reviews, I can safely say he is a mainstream idiot and should not be viewed as a good source by anyone.

On the DA2 review? Meh. I didn't like the game, but that doesn't make him intelligent.

 

[Koroviev]

I've never heard of him before, but to be honest, I found the video to be fairly entertaining. It doesn't look like he strives to reinvent the video game reviewing wheel, but he effectively supports his opinion via a decent multimedia approach.

That being said, I could have done without the beginning. Scatological humor is one of the few things I dislike about AVGN.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

I (after an edit) addressed what he said back in my original post. Now I don't feel I'm wrong. But feel much more disdain for that guy in that video, than I did before.

Read your edit,
Am I "my little pony"?

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

I (after an edit) addressed what he said back in my original post. Now I don't feel I'm wrong. But feel much more disdain for that guy in that video, than I did before.

Thanks. I haven't played the game, and this review is one of the sources I have to go off of. How is he wrong about talking to NPCs and allies? Was he correct in saying the ending introduced a sequel?

 

[The Madman]

Never heard of him, although apparently the guys favourite game is Thief 2: The Metal Age so that gives him some default thumbs up from me. Bloody brilliant game and series! Watching the video in question about Thief 2, I also find myself nodding along to his thoughts. His voice is clear enough to be heard, the video quality... alright, much room for improvement there actually. But still he doesn't seem too bad, certainly better than most youtube reviewers.

Not watching the Dragon Age 2 video however seeing as I haven't played the game to completion yet. I'll judge the game myself when I've beaten it, till then I'm avoiding spoilers as much as possible.

 

[KingWeasel]

Just ask yourself if you played DA:O and then DA2 if you felt there was anything ... missing. Were things taken away from you. Then ask why.

Many people are confusing bad with, "VERY OBVIOUS CASH IN!" offended sensibilities.

We see this all the time with production, later models of electronics and other widgets we buy are sold with less features and flimsier parts but at the same price. Why? because cheaper parts and striped-out components make more profit. This offends us because we know we're basically being ripped off by the manufacturer.

Same for games, you get suckered in by the really good DA:O, then buy the sequel and get a repetitive environment button masher with a story written by the B-team writers over at Bioware all at the same price as the original.

Now that does not make the game bad, just a "VERY OBVIOUS CASH IN!" that offends peoples sensibilities.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

I (after an edit) addressed what he said back in my original post. Now I don't feel I'm wrong. But feel much more disdain for that guy in that video, than I did before.

Read your edit,
Am I "my little pony"?

No, the My Little Pony Avatar who I quoted. You're the OP. Sorry, I'll make that more clear in the edit, I thought I quoted them. Sorries!

No big whoop,
I thought it was funny.

 

[Elamdri]

For those of you who know who Razorfist is, I think you know where he's going with this.
Dragon Age: Origins was his favorite game of 2009 (as was mine.) If you haven't heard of Razorfist yet this is a great jumping off point, he's one of the best, most honest "game critics" at work right now. http://www.youtube.com/user/xRazorFistx#p/u/6/gOnmQHATLQE

So what do you think? Agree/disagree?

Oh my god, what a tool that guy is! I'm laughing so hard my stomach kinda hurts, look at his ridiculous shades and T-shirt. My god, he's like 25 and has dreadlocks? Jesus, I'm gonna die from laughter.

Um, his review, I guess there were some objectively good points on his part, but between his swearing and terribly poor life choices, it was hard to take them seriously. The rest of it was mostly opinion, which is fine, but it's completely subjective.