Dragon Age 2

Owen Keez wrote:

Now, the melons, as in breast. There freakin huge on some of these characters, like there abnormally large. I know that men are probably a large audience, but seriously who likes them like that.

Typho. Nuff said.

Davan Kelhur wrote:

Owen Keez wrote:

Now, the melons, as in breast. There freakin huge on some of these characters, like there abnormally large. I know that men are probably a large audience, but seriously who likes them like that.

Typho. Nuff said.

I second this. The bigger the better. And they'll probably count as some sort of special attack or something.

The demo overall was pretty good. The vocal sounds were almost impossible to hear for some reason. Hopefully that was just a mess up on the demo and not my actual speakers. It also annoyed me that I couldn't get highest level of textures due to them needing DirectX 11, which is only available on Windows 7 or Vista. I also agree with Owen about the textures and style. I'm not a big fan of this stylised look, especially up close. The armour and faces looked a lot better and realistic in Origins. I also don't like how they've changed the look of a lot of things, including Flemeth and the Darkspawn. BioWare needs to know that non-stylised graphics look a lot more realistic and better

On the whole, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it, although maybe 95% was just combat.

Although I haven't played the demo have seen screenshots, videos etc. and fully agree with the new graphics. Much prefered Origins on that and can't understand why they didn't stay with it. But overall the most important things to me are the story and combat, now combat sounds good so big tick there and story... well I will find out when the game is released.

I seem to be alone in preferring the new graphics huh? That's fine One thing they did a lot better with is the animation... oh how I hated almost every single animation in Dragon Age Origins, they looked like gorillas -.-' And the attack animations for staves in DA:O were horrid Love them now though

The comment about the dwarves is a bit incorrect most dwarves in DA:O looked like that, remember the ones following your camp for example?

And they finally fixed archery YAAAAAY

And the new UI was awesome even though it placed the first spell on button 2 instead of button 1 which was a bit irritating

Typho Raame wrote:

Davan Kelhur wrote:

Owen Keez wrote:

Now, the melons, as in breast. There freakin huge on some of these characters, like there abnormally large. I know that men are probably a large audience, but seriously who likes them like that.

Typho. Nuff said.

I second this. The bigger the better.

More than a handfull is wasteful.

Ah Volar, a great saying! I was going to post it but decided to name Typho instead, well done sir.

lol what's up with his buggy shadows and it's funny that he couldn't figure out how the camera works for ages

Lisara Novar wrote:

Hmm I am playing the demo right now, and it's pretty damned good. On xbox of course

The xbox version really doesn't compare the the pc one

Well I gave in and downloaded (on PS3, even though I will get full game on PC, but PS3 was closer). I was enjoying it but sadly it froze at one point meaning I will have to play it tomorrow. I think the ogre actually looks better in these graphics, the rest so far I still prefer the old style.

Combat not going to say much on because I know it is different between PC and consoles. Hawke should be Scottish! They should have got gerard butler to do the voice, would have been much better.

I will probably have more thoughts on the game once finished the demo. Also I feel the intro to this sets up a DA3 game already, depending on what happens in the story.

P.S. Volar I downloaded it in 20 minutes, happy days.

The one irritating problem for me with the console version (At least the 360) is that it still has that choppiness in the cut scenes.

So I just finished playing the demo, and overall i thought it was pretty good. I was still left with a feeling that I would rather be playing a ME3 demo, but thats more a product of me just preferring that universe.

Anyway, first off, the combat is a ton better. The pace of the fighting is much faster and in my opinion this makes things a lot more enjoyable. Micromanaging is much less of a necessity, but still possible. As has been said, combat animations are also greatly improved and i think this makes a huge difference in the flow of the combat.

The graphics and models are certainly different, but I'm not so sure I don't prefer them this way. I dont really like the new darkspawn models, but others like Flemeth and other NPCs looked good. Faces looked good for the most part too, and I think they improved over the first Dragon Age. Textures however are another story. They might be marginally better than DA Origins, but they are still far below standard and don't look good at all.

I can't really comment on story since there wasnt much shown. Dialog was very good, as is standard in Bioware games. No surprises there.


Oh and the breasts are indeed crazy big... I think some more moderate sizes would have been better.

I have to say that I'm also really not a big fan of the armour right now. It looks nothing as good as it was in Dragon Age. Nothing massive or big and mean looking about it on the Warrior, as did with Origins. I'm hoping that Dragon Age 2 isn't turning out to be more of an action adventure game, and less like an RPG, with what I've played with the combat. I prefer more realistic combat than wielding a greatsword like it weighs nothing more than a pen.

I enjoyed the demo, i am really looking forward to the game. The story is very promising and I like Hawkes voice. However, im unsure about combat. I like some of the new moves, but the combat feels like I'm playing Dynasty Warriors on hard difficulty (i.e. The enemies have red names and health bars hovering over their head which slowly go down chunk by chunk when hit. Frustrating visually when you repeatedly hit an enemy and there is no visual damage).

Despite that, I am eager to play the full game.

Volar Odias wrote:

I enjoyed the demo, i am really looking forward to the game. The story is very promising and I like Hawkes voice. However, im unsure about combat. I like some of the new moves, but the combat feels like I'm playing Dynasty Warriors on hard difficulty (i.e. The enemies have red names and health bars hovering over their head which slowly go down chunk by chunk when hit. Frustrating visually when you repeatedly hit an enemy and there is no visual damage).

Despite that, I am eager to play the full game.

Very few RPGs have enemies that have physically shown damage. While that would certainly be cool, its certainly not anything that I would miss having.

Typho Raame wrote:

I'm hoping that Dragon Age 2 isn't turning out to be more of an action adventure game, and less like an RPG, with what I've played with the combat. I prefer more realistic combat than wielding a greatsword like it weighs nothing more than a pen.

How does having faster paced combat make it less of an RPG? I think the attribute and ability level up system, the friend-enemy spectrum, and the decision making part of the game make it squarely in the RPG camp.

As for the realistic part of the combat... thats debatable. Sure it is a bit showy and has some questionable moves, but i much prefer combat that actually feels like fast paced fighting instead of some turn-based I attack you, you attack me.

Typho Raame wrote:

I'm hoping that Dragon Age 2 isn't turning out to be more of an action adventure game, and less like an RPG, with what I've played with the combat. I prefer more realistic combat than wielding a greatsword like it weighs nothing more than a pen.

Darc Akora wrote:

How does having faster paced combat make it less of an RPG? I think the attribute and ability level up system, the friend-enemy spectrum, and the decision making part of the game make it squarely in the RPG camp.

I'll rephrase that to it feels less like an RPG I prefer, with the DnD style dice rolling outcome, like in the Neverwinter Nights games, as well as the KotOR games (although I preferred Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age combat). It feels less like class, solid RPG combat that I enjoy. I lost count of the amount of times I had to hit some of those darkspawn with my greatsword before they finally went down. Their armour must be REALLY strong.

Darc Akora wrote:

As for the realistic part of the combat... thats debatable. Sure it is a bit showy and has some questionable moves, but i much prefer combat that actually feels like fast paced fighting instead of some turn-based I attack you, you attack me.

But when you think about it, combat was probably never that fast-paced in medieval times. A longsword was actually pretty damn heavy to wield and hit the enemy, especially in armour and when using a shield, so they aren't hitting them every second. And when you look at it, Dragon Age: Origins combat wasn't turn based. Someone dual wielding daggers would get in two or three hits to every hit by a greatsword. That seems more realistic that a greatsword hitting with the same pace as a dagger.

Typho Raame wrote:

I'll rephrase that to it feels less like an RPG I prefer, with the DnD style dice rolling outcome, like in the Neverwinter Nights games, as well as the KotOR games (although I preferred Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age combat). It feels less like class, solid RPG combat that I enjoy. I lost count of the amount of times I had to hit some of those darkspawn with my greatsword before they finally went down. Their armour must be REALLY strong.

Darc Akora wrote:

As for the realistic part of the combat... thats debatable. Sure it is a bit showy and has some questionable moves, but i much prefer combat that actually feels like fast paced fighting instead of some turn-based I attack you, you attack me.

But when you think about it, combat was probably never that fast-paced in medieval times. A longsword was actually pretty damn heavy to wield and hit the enemy, especially in armour and when using a shield, so they aren't hitting them every second. And when you look at it, Dragon Age: Origins combat wasn't turn based. Someone dual wielding daggers would get in two or three hits to every hit by a greatsword. That seems more realistic that a greatsword hitting with the same pace as a dagger.

I actually felt that the darkspawn were dying extremely quickly. Only a couple hits from my dual wielding rouge brought them down, and a backstab was usually a one hit.

And generalizing about medieval combat probably doesn't really work. Im sure it widely varied how quickly things happened, however I do agree that the great-sword does attack too fast. And im not saying that DA:O was actually turn based, just that it felt that way because of how stiff the movements were. Sure the timing between weapons was different, but it still felt like a planned attack sequence.

Typho Raame wrote:

But when you think about it, combat was probably never that fast-paced in medieval times. A longsword was actually pretty damn heavy to wield and hit the enemy, especially in armour and when using a shield, so they aren't hitting them every second. And when you look at it, Dragon Age: Origins combat wasn't turn based. Someone dual wielding daggers would get in two or three hits to every hit by a greatsword. That seems more realistic that a greatsword hitting with the same pace as a dagger.

I've seen on the history channel that a battle between combatants would last only a couple of seconds, the first wrong mistake and you're dead.

Owen Keez wrote:

Typho Raame wrote:

But when you think about it, combat was probably never that fast-paced in medieval times. A longsword was actually pretty damn heavy to wield and hit the enemy, especially in armour and when using a shield, so they aren't hitting them every second. And when you look at it, Dragon Age: Origins combat wasn't turn based. Someone dual wielding daggers would get in two or three hits to every hit by a greatsword. That seems more realistic that a greatsword hitting with the same pace as a dagger.

I've seen on the history channel that a battle between combatants would last only a couple of seconds, the first wrong mistake and you're dead.

Yeah, but that's not from about them swinging their weapons really fast. Slipping on bloody grass, or being attacked from behind, that's the kind of mistakes that happened that'll kill you. Swinging a large broadsword or even longsword would take more than a single second

So I just played the demo again as all the classes. The mage still seems to have an advantage. Really, through the entire darkspawn part you could solo it, not the invincible part, really all you just to do is kite. fireball run, fireball run. I let all my people die to see how it would work, and I barely had any health lost, stupid ogre knocked me over when I was taking a drink. You might be able to do this with the ranged rogue class to but might not work as well since you don't have the firestorm or fireball abilities. Only problem with this tatic are those rogues in the last fight are kind of hard to outrun cuase of there little back stab ability. But if you fire storm then fireball right at the start, you can get most of them down to a very low point of health. So, thats just my input on the still partially over powered mage.

Also, in the cinematic, I'm starting to thing they showed Hawke as a mixture of every class. Since he jumps around like a rogue, he uses the longsword like the warrior, but uses that grip pull apart thing the mage does. And to think I thought, when the cinematic first came out, that Hawke was some sort of demon man. But that just seems to be the new style of DA 2.

I ramble...

Awesome! The bloke who voices Hawke was in Doctor Who a few years ago. He played 'Businessman' in 'Gridlock'

Gridlock

He is therefore now perfect for the doing Hawke's voice.

Expansion that's supposed to come out this month.

http://kotaku.com/5819150/the-first-major-dragon-age-ii-expansion-seems-like-an-apology

First question, why is Fenris holding a door?

Also, Lord of the Ring Troll anyone?



Joking aside, I'm guessing it's going to take place in the time period between one of the years it's skipped in the campaign, but it's only a guess.

Answer: It might be the troll holding a very big shield. Not sure its hard to tell.

And yes it does look like a troll from Lord of the rings. It does look pretty cool.

Seems interesting. Naturally, like all Dragon Age games and addons, I'll definitely be getting it. However, I don't think it's an expansion pack. Looking at the Dragon Age II website, it seems more like a large DLC, costing $10 or so. Regardless, I'll still be buying it and trying it out.

Atlia Tomur wrote:

Answer: It might be the troll holding a very big shield. Not sure its hard to tell.

You're probably right. Since the spiky bits are pointing towards Fenris. Just a strange choice of angle.

Hmmm... interesting. I had a love-hate relationship with DA 2 and was overall disappointed, but this DLC does look interesting. I still hold a great dislike for DLC though, even if it appears as the gaming industry, and especially bioware, are heading right in that direction.


And yes, I'm fairly certain that the troll is holding the shield, not Fenris.