BioWare announces Dragon Age 2. ETR March 2011

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

A video game thread and I am post #20, I am ashamed of myself.

I got the signature edition pre-ordered from EA store, so in that 3-5 day span it will take to ship I'll beat Dragon Age: Origins again, hopefully.

The game looks bloody good, the graphics are way smoother and the fighting is much tighter. My only gripe is that you can only be Hawke, rather than a bunch of different characters, but I guess in Origins that was the point of the game so I am not too bother, plus Hawke looks pretty bad ass and you can still change who he is (Rouge, Magi, the other one).

You can choose a gender and class so it's customizable enough I would think.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I actually have a relative working on this game in Edmonton. He's totally sick of it.

Other than that, what else has he told you?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Komskies

You can choose a gender and class so it's customizable enough I would think.

i prefer it that way, so that the main character will actually speak and have a full range of dialog for either male or female. i always hated in RPG's where my character was a mute, one of the main reasons why i love Mass Effect so much

[Hemi-Cuda]

IGN has a preview up and it looks pretty damn good

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1143659p1.html

sounds like they're taking the awesome character and dialog structure from Mass Effect while keeping the traditional RPG elements. i'm quite looking forward to this now

[3 Justin 3]

The graphics for the player models look sooooo much better than they did in Origins, much smoother. The gameplay looks fairly much the same (which I liked) outside of a few combat tweaks, which look awesome.

Very excited for this game.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

Other than that, what else has he told you?

Nothing really, I haven't asked much about it as I don't have an interest in these games. The most was complaining to him about how DA doesn't have co-op gameplay like Baldur's Gate/NWN did which is the only reason I ever played these games.

[dissentowner]

Co-op for me is not a big deal, I have yet to play DA-O but I want to! Is it similiar to NWN? I loved that game!

[Johnny Canuck]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Co-op for me is not a big deal, I have yet to play DA-O but I want to! Is it similiar to NWN? I loved that game!

It is pretty similar, and if you enjoyed NWN you'll really enjoy DA-O. DA-O offers a deep involving single player story with many moral choices to be made (without the limitations of that pesky alignment system seen in NWN), memorable NPCs, and a great ending.

Imo Dragonage Origins is one of the best rpg's you can find on the current gen consoles and is highly recommended.

In regards to the sequel; I've had the signature edition pre ordered for awhile now, and am really looking forward to playing through it when it comes out in March.

[GreenLantern]

I have tried a few times to play DAO through and I can't stay interested.. maybe I need to roll a new toon, Archers are boring.

[llama64]

I hope they fix the combat system to make it more engaging. It reminded me of Dungeon Siege (but slower) in that you select an enemy, hit a button and auto attack it to death for 2 minutes. Playing a melee character was the only way to feel even remotely in the action. Mages and Archers were boring as heck.

A better interface for the console version would be nice too. It's obvious the game was designed for the PC. I'd like to be able to actually setup tactics rather then relying on scripts to control my party members.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I have tried a few times to play DAO through and I can't stay interested.. maybe I need to roll a new toon, Archers are boring.

They address this in the expansion, but in the main game archers sucked.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by llama64

I hope they fix the combat system to make it more engaging. It reminded me of Dungeon Siege (but slower) in that you select an enemy, hit a button and auto attack it to death for 2 minutes. Playing a melee character was the only way to feel even remotely in the action. Mages and Archers were boring as heck.

You missed a great game. Maybe it's different on the consoles but the mage gameplay in DA:O was one of the best I've played. Huge variety of spells, spell combos, etc.

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by llama64

I hope they fix the combat system to make it more engaging. It reminded me of Dungeon Siege (but slower) in that you select an enemy, hit a button and auto attack it to death for 2 minutes. Playing a melee character was the only way to feel even remotely in the action. Mages and Archers were boring as heck.

A better interface for the console version would be nice too. It's obvious the game was designed for the PC. I'd like to be able to actually setup tactics rather then relying on scripts to control my party members.

I think you're playing DA:O wrong. You aren't locked in combat for one character, you're constantly switching amongst party members in order to be attack the situation. Just because you make a mage, or an archer, doesn't mean that you should be exclusively using that character.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

I think you're playing DA:O wrong. You aren't locked in combat for one character, you're constantly switching amongst party members in order to be attack the situation. Just because you make a mage, or an archer, doesn't mean that you should be exclusively using that character.

I was constantly bouncing between characters - there is no way to pass the game without doing so.

But the game still suffers from auto-attackness. I really wanted to make use of things like explosive flasks and area of effect spells, but the scripts controlling the characters completely negated any ability to really use them. Plus most encounters were either too trivial to make tactics matter, or required split second tactical control which is nearly impossible on the console.

They got the combat correct in Mass Effect, but in DA:O it's just stale and boring. It's got the PC style control shoe-horned into a console game that doesn't quite work as well as it could. All I want is that they devote more time to the control scheme for the console versions - it was obvious it was an afterthought in the first game.

[Nehkara]

I have to disagree with the auto-attack complaint. In my experience if you just auto attack in DA:O, you will get your ass handed to you on a silver platter.

[WhiteTiger]

Or it may be that you just aren't really using the right tactics. If you want to drop a firestorm or AoE ice attack after the melee have engaged, of course you are going to have friendly fire problems. That's when a Mage should be switching to single target attacks. You use big AoE's to soften them up as they run in. You don't AoE after all the melee fighters have engaged each other (unless, of course, you don't care about friendly fire).

[CaramonLS]

I thought the NWN series was just OK, but god, I'd die if they ever made a BG:3

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by llama64

They got the combat correct in Mass Effect, but in DA:O it's just stale and boring. It's got the PC style control shoe-horned into a console game that doesn't quite work as well as it could. All I want is that they devote more time to the control scheme for the console versions - it was obvious it was an afterthought in the first game.

Ahhhh, I missed the part where you were playing on a console. I've heard that the console version was made easier (so you could auto attack and survive), reduced the amount of enemies per encounter, and didn't feel right without a hotbar.

You have to try it on PC if you can!

[Mike F]

The GUI looks terrible, IMO - huge step back

[Henry Fool]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I have to disagree with the auto-attack complaint. In my experience if you just auto attack in DA:O, you will get your ass handed to you on a silver platter.

Oh man, that's so true. I'm pretty much a veteran when it comes to rpgs, and I was surprised by how tactical the combat was is DA. Unless it's different for consoles or you're playing at the easy level, at the very least you need an active mage to control the battle field.

After I kept dying in certain encounters, I found out that you have to actually pay attention in that game. Replaying it, I turned the difficulty up, but at first it genuinely challenging at times on 'normal'.

On the other hand, once you get used to it you also sort of develop a bag of tricks that work. Certain talents in certain situations, certain spells and spell combinations. So it would be nice if they changed things for the second, or it will feel too familiar.

I have DA2 preordered. Although I liked it very much, I wasn't totally blown away by the first, because frankly feudal politics leave me pretty cold (for once I'd like to play an anarcho-syndicalist dirtfarmer and bring down every stupid inbred bann, teyrn, and king that I encounter), but the second looks very good.

I think it's good that the protagonist is a specific person and voice acted. It always adds to the story. Wasn't so enthusiastic about the option of playing different origin stories.

The only problem is that Claudia Black was used in the first one and Jennifer Hale probably can't be in the second either because of Mass Effect. I always play a lesbo.