Zero Punctuation: Dragon Age II

[Earaldor Xerron]

While I will not say that DA II is better than Ps:T (that would akin to sacrilege) or MoB, it's still a good game imho. Others being better is not that bad.
Also, few agree, but I reall hated DA:O-s story. It was boring, typical and predicable, and it tried to seem so much more than it was. OH EPIC! No, it wasn't epic. Epic in fantasy has to include gods or some semi-godly creature. Not paranoid backstabbing idiots, whose backstory is about as fantasy-like as your avarage Brazilian soap opera. I can accept that "dark fantasy" equals to "realism" and "human (not the race) characters" but this does not work with epicness. Not in fantasy. DA II chose it's range much better for this kind of perspective and while the rush probably effected this part of the game as well, it's still an interesting story about a woman/man who is...well, more or less a normal human.
It's true that everyone is racist or fanatic or has some kind of defect. That has a negative impact on "reality".

 

[Randvek]

That was... that was a lot of gay jokes, y'know?

 

[Sabinfrost]

I called my Hawke Bob... I'm sure the Australians will get it.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

"YAY! NEW ZP!!

Moderator Edit: Watch the entire video before posting."

Ok, I have a legitimate question, if people are going to be put on probation for posting before the video's time-length why don't you just enable the comments 6 minutes after the video goes up? Also why is it only Zero Punctiation you set trap cards for when your other videos don't have the same problem? (Lisa Foiles, Extra Credits, etc)

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I'm not even sure why they would bother enforcing this. I also posted in this thread before watching the video. I just didn't do it in the first 6 minutes. I post on slashdot all the time without having RTFA, too. Big deal.

 

[Ihniwid]

I thought it was a pretty good time...

I'd play anything half decent nowadays instead of another shooter. So. Sick. Of. Shooters.

 

[samaugsch]

Not much of a story...

But I liked how the rogue actually did flips and shit. I can't recall another RPG that had rogues that actually felt nimble.

I thought I'd hate the new combat. It's actually the only reason I keep playing...

I always play a rouge its my favorite class, but the rouges were just to weak in this game. i had to play a warrior, and that was disappointing.

What about picking locks? Do they limit rogues to that in the 2nd game like they did in the first? Because that was the only reason I chose to go rogue.

 

[FriedRicer]

Anyone else hearing this weird woodpeckerish sound in the background?

Btw "Mike Hawke." Say it out loud in the library.

Genius!

 

[Optional Opinion]

If the backlash is any indication, "knobbing off" would not have been the most popular subtitle for this game...

I thought he said "gobbing off" not knobbing.

Gob is colloquial for mouth.

I apologise if someone has already brought this up or if I'm wrong.

 

[Meggiepants]

So yesterday I started to watch this, and then got a little bored so I switched to something else. Today I gave it another go, and made it to the end.

I must say, much like the game Yahtzee is reviewing, this video gets much better by the end.

 

[carnagejc]

When will he be reviewing Call of Crysis: Modern Nanosuit you ask?

 

[Zeromaxx]

Anyone else hearing this weird woodpeckerish sound in the background?

Oh good, I'm not the only one. It sounds like a coded message to me, to be perfectly honest, starting sometime after 3 minutes in...a bunch of low tones in alternating long and short bursts like Morse code. My hearing isn't good enough to tell if that's right though, I can't discern the tone from the rest of the sound at points.

OT: I have to agree with Yahtzee on every front here, luckily I didn't buy this game...I'm glad a friend of mine did and let me play it for a bit.

 

[Earaldor Xerron]

Actually, rouges are overpowered and since cunninc and dextreity are their two main skills (with cunning used for opening locks: 10:easy, 20:medium 30:hard or something like that up to 40 or 50, I don't remember)cunning increases the critical damage and dexterity the critical chance (and the attack). So, by the end of the game I just activated a bunch of speed increasing modes for varric and watched as he single handedly killed anything or anyone.
You can also backstab and use undetectable invisibility (enemies as well, though they are also invulnerable when cloaked, dunno if you own guys are too).

 

[chainguns]

Let's take the good: there's precious little at fault with the story itself.

Except for the small point of it ending on a cliffhanger because they wanted to microtransact you into paying more to find out what 'really' happened. And that the story is 99% the same no matter what your Hawke does and dialog options s/he picks. And it's plain weird and OTT B-movie stuff. Give me Origins' cliches anytime over exploding chantries.

The combat is also mostly fun. We should NOT have to always compensate for a new wave of enemies in the middle of a fight, but it becomes a minor nuisance once we learn that it's to be expected.

No it's not just the waves. It's the spawning in mid air. It's the fact that the game tries to be an action game ... using a vestigial semi-turn based mechanic from Origins. Ends up being just a chaotic mess where you desperately flail around trying to use the combos, but can't see properly or time them properly. Using the AoE is just random luck because the enemies move stupidly fast and the targetting area UI is glitched (snaps into places it 'likes'). Boss battles take 25 minutes, so if you are on NM and need to reload 3 or 4 times it is a frustrating, mind numbing chore.

As it stands, DA2 is one of the best RPGS out there. But, on the strengths of his story alone, it could have SOARED. Sadly, bioware rushed it, released it in the same engine as Origins,

Sorry, but you must have played seriously different RPGs to me (or this is some level of sarcasm I do not grasp). This game is Sacred 2 -level bad. Rushing it was not the main problem. They gutted out 50% of typical RPG mechanics (which is a big deal, since last time I checked, BW made R-P-G's). They made an art style based on some anime cartoon with stupid exploding enemies and JRP combat moves. The plot and dialog is clearly aimed at young emo teens (in BW's insane bid to get the Call of Duty audience interested in orcs and sorcery). Basically BW lost the plot on almost every level. In no conceivable way is this just a question of bugs and recycled areas - the rot goes waaay deeper.

 

[X51]

Just for the record, the Escapist disagrees:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8701-Dragon-Age-II-Review

I'd also like to point out that Yahtzee is a cynical bastard (I still love him!), and if you go into any game looking for cut corners, that's all you're going to see. I get the gripe about the reused dungeons, but I'd bet my financial aid check that that was solely the result of a short development window. If the price for the awesome dialog and amazingly well-developed characters is a few repetitive dungeons, then I'll gladly pay it.

 

[Tontomanzz]

Just for the record, the Escapist disagrees:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8701-Dragon-Age-II-Review

I'd also like to point out that Yahtzee is a cynical bastard (I still love him!), and if you go into any game looking for cut corners, that's all you're going to see. I get the gripe about the reused dungeons, but I'd bet my financial aid check that that was solely the result of a short development window. If the price for the awesome dialog and amazingly well-developed characters is a few repetitive dungeons, then I'll gladly pay it.

Thing is, if I wanted just awesome dialog and well-developed characters (and I say just as there's nothing wrong with that, just if that's all there is), I could pay $5 and rent a movie...

For the case on rushing it out, seems to be the trend with time being focused on marketing and DLC. I knew there was some in DA2, but never how much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMcVZQI6ybw

It's a trend that I hope stops sooner than later. I didn't like hats (yes hats) taking over my TeamFortress2 and stopping new gameplay development.

 

[Wolfram23]

Not when your character is supposed to be " the Champion"
It kinda defeats the point don't you think if he doesn't do something incredible to make playing him worthwhile

Spoiler

He defeated in single hand duel the 7 foot tall leader of a very hostile tribe of religious zealots who seemed content in calling an army, annex the town and submit everyone to either the Qun or the blade. He Saved the town. Does that only count as incredible if he did it while riding in a fucking unicycle? Suppose then there'd be bitching about there not being unicycles in Thedas...

He stepped up, saved a city in a time of cryisis, and during a vaccuum of power. THAT justifies being called a champion. It's what heros do, in fact.

Spoiler: Nuh uh!

He refused to duel because he was a rogue and couldn't take a hit, so Hawke, Aveline, Merrill, and Anders, and Isabella kicked everyone's ass together. But Hawke is the only Champion

 

[Tontomanzz]

Here's a though after mentioning the DLC. If there was all that DLC already ready at the time of release.... how can they say they were short of time and had to cut and paste the dungeons??

Seems more like putting DLC and money ahead of the original content you already paid for in buying the game. That's a nasty trend.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Didn't have any problems with loading, even playing on my laptop. Yeah, preferred DA1, the dungeon recycling didn't bother me that much, and I don't even know why people are bitching about this when Oblivion had the same problem, only 100x worse. I did enjoy DA1 though, the characters were more involving and interesting, and the villains truly seemed like villains.

Even though a story based closer around a character and his personal happenings was a breath of fresh air from the usual "save the world from total utter tragedy" fare.

 

[samaugsch]

Not much of a story...

But I liked how the rogue actually did flips and shit. I can't recall another RPG that had rogues that actually felt nimble.

I thought I'd hate the new combat. It's actually the only reason I keep playing...

I always play a rouge its my favorite class, but the rogues were just to weak in this game. i had to play a warrior, and that was disappointing.

What about picking locks? Do they limit rogues to that in the 2nd game like they did in the first? Because that was the only reason I chose to go rogue.

yeah only rogues can pick locks, but you can keep a rogue in your party that well pick locks for you.

I know that, but in the first game, if I didn't go rogue (I like saying that ), I wouldn't be able to open some of the chests early in the game at all because I wouldn't be able to get one in my party at the moment. I always liked to make my party completely diverse ;D (a warrior, a rogue, a mage, and a war hound). What I wanted to know is if there's a moment in Dragon Age 2 where there is absolutely no way to pick a lock because you couldn't get a rogue in your party unless you started out as one.