First DA2 Screens from Game Informer

[King Crispy]

Slight nod to the PC crowd? They'll never come out and say it (oh, wait) but DA2 sounds like it'll have Dumbed-Down-"Strategic"-Combat (tm) for the kids and Not-So-Dumbed-Down-"Strategic"-Combat (tm) for the growups.

That alone brings me up from a 0.02% chance of buying it to maybe a 5% chance. Just to spite consoles.

 

[ironyuri]

Slight nod to the PC crowd? They'll never come out and say it (oh, wait) but DA2 sounds like it'll have Dumbed-Down-"Strategic"-Combat (tm) for the kids and Not-So-Dumbed-Down-"Strategic"-Combat (tm) for the growups.

That alone brings me up from a 0.02% chance of buying it to maybe a 5% chance. Just to spite consoles.

Odds are that a month before release they'll just scrap the PC only combat mechanics in favour of a "more streamlined", "user-friendly" combat model.

Please help Codex, I don't know whether to Wast re-ta-dred maen? , to Mad , or to I approve this message.

I think the correct response is:

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Eh, I'm not really surprised. They saw that DAO was selling better than ME1 and thought: "Wow, it must be fantasy setting's fault! People love fantasy! Oh wait, what if we combine EXTREME Mass Effect gameplay AND fantasy? Biggest bestseller evah!". And then they have realized that general consoletard public loves anime as well.

Hence - belts and zippers! Now with more retarded anime-like swords.

Heh, they could take inspiration from Kentaro Miura's Berserk, it would actually have been an improvement, but nooo.

 

[Zeus]

The Swordman's face looks okay. Kind of an animated, stylized look, as opposed to the "carved from flesh-colored play dough" faces on DA:O, or "randomly generated Inuit Indian Elf from the depths of your nightmares" faces of Oblivion.

It's obviously unpolished though. This is like the opposite of a developer showing impossibly high-rez photoshopped too-good-to-be-true shots in a preview.

A little off-topic, but anyone else see the article in RPS today? Alec Meer had a couple of good points:

I’m going to make a bit of a wild guess that something a little similar to Sins of a Solar Empire happened. The game appealed heavily to a bunch of gamers who know exactly what they want, who have money to spend and are prepared to spend it, rather than just a mass of floating audience who were simply curious. People who go deep, especially. Dedicated, passionate, impossibly valuable customers.

If DA2 really is going ME2, that’s then an astonishingly risky gambit. In the name of having an even bigger success yet, they’re risking alienating their biggest audience so far by emulating the approach of less successful but broader, more widely-hyped game.

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

Eh, I'm not really surprised. They saw that DAO was selling better than ME1 and thought: "Wow, it must be fantasy setting's fault! People love fantasy! Oh wait, what if we combine EXTREME Mass Effect gameplay AND fantasy? Biggest bestseller evah!". And then they have realized that general consoletard public loves anime as well.

Hence - belts and zippers! Now with more retarded anime-like swords.

Heh, they could take inspiration from Kentaro Miura's Berserk, it would actually have been an improvement, but nooo.

No belts, no zippers. Rugged armour yes, but it makes sense since the protagonist is basicly a hobo.

Also the word is not as big as all of you seem to believe. Do you guys even look at the screens.

And judging by the Artworks they heavily take inspiration ( = rip off) from Berserk.


Also: You made me defend a Bioware game. See what your anti-fanboy whining brought onto us?

 

[Abelon Blanchetourbe]

My personal favorite :

What HAWKE has on its arm (1st photo) is BLOOD in real time, or a RED TATOO? Cause if it's the first, this time the blood will be more real, I think... it was one of DAO mistakes.

Thank god BLOOD IN REAL TIME

 

[Stainless Veteran]

No belts, no zippers. Rugged armour yes, but it makes sense since the protagonist is basicly a hobo.

Also the word is not as big as all of you seem to believe. Do you guys even look at the screens.

And judging by the Artworks they heavily take inspiration ( = rip off) from Berserk.


Also: You made me defend a Bioware game. See what your anti-fanboy whining brought onto us?

Erm. No belts? And I'm sure that there are zippers there, somewhere.

On a more serious note - armor in DAO was p. retarded too, especially female armor. Nothing says "mature, gritty fantasy setting" like cleavage. But armor on this screen looks more like mage armor from DAO, only with more belts and retardation. Only the character on this screens isn't a mage, and can't rely on spells for protection and wear armor only for shits and giggles.

The word? Ok, barring bad puns - tell me where I wrote that the sword is too big? I'm pretty sure that I wrote "retarded".

Ripping off Berserk? Where? With what? With their alleged grimdark setting?

And yeah, dekrine, sure.

 

[Achilles]

Alec Meer is the heathen bastard who thinks that XCOM will turn out great. Just wait and watch him change his tune about DA2 as soon as he gets an exclusive preview.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

pic

Erm...I think the armor needs these supporting belts to hold on to the user, no? Final fantasy belts are funny because they don't have any use, not for simply being belts. Example:

 

[Zeus]

Alec Meer is the heathen bastard who thinks that XCOM will turn out great. Just wait and watch him change his tune about DA2 as soon as he gets an exclusive preview.

Hah, I didn't know that. Strange that he'd point out making DA:O more like ME2 is weird, but is apparently fine with X-Com turning into Destroy All Humans?

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Erm...I think the armor needs these supporting belts to hold on to the user, no? Final fantasy belts are funny because they don't have any use, not for simply being belts. Example:

Well, Dragon Age armor is funny because it doesn't have any use either. If the guy on screen is our hero, presumably Champion of Whatever, why can't he get normal armor? I mean yeah, DAO armor was bad, massive armor was meaningless without horses, latex-tight chainmail - oh, well, don't get me started. But here we have JRPG-grade mismatched pieces of questionable use. OK, if it was post-apoc setting I would understand such jury rigged "armor". But, unless I'm mistaken, Bioware isn't planing to turn Thedas into post-apocalyptic wasteland. Or are they?

As for armor, you can read about its construction, for example,this resource, or countless others. There were many types of armor in human history, but most of them tried to minimize the quantity of fasteners, or somehow cover them, because it's always a vulnerable spot.

 

[Gosling]

Retarded huge sword aside, what the fuck is wrong with his humongous belt buckle? Does it serve any practical purpose except sprouting three ugly spikes to scare away darkspawn?

Seriously DA had horrible art direction, fucking ugly in a bad way. DA2 looks even more tasteless. And I'm not speaking about graphics here.

P.S.: talking about swords BG2 probably had the ugliest bizarro-impractical sword concepts in an RPG ever.

 

[Zomg]

The direction looks better to me, at least the ocean waves of ever-growing humongous pauldrons have funally broken on the beach of retards and begun to recede, sword is retarded but whatcha gonna do

Don't put superfluous chainmail on your fantasy shitbird armor that shows off the PCs rad guns if it's just gonna be a stiff polygon and you aren't gonna animate it though

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

. But here we have JRPG-grade mismatched pieces of questionable use. OK, if it was post-apoc setting I would understand such jury rigged "armor". But, unless I'm mistaken, Bioware isn't planing to turn Thedas into post-apocalyptic wasteland. Or are they?

No but Hawke is a refugee. So the cheap made armor kinda fits.

Looks kinda Berserkish.

 

[CrimHead]

ANOTHER CLASSIC GAME FRANCHISE RUINED

OH THE HUMANITY

 

[mondblut]

Torment has all kinds of weird, impractical things in it. Like the Godsmen armor. Why do they need spikes like that on their shoulder pads? BECAUSE IT LOOKS COOL

Because Torment is a JRPG, naturally.

 

[Whipporowill]

Oh boy, oh boy! Looks like ass, smells like ass - it's likely ass?

 

[CrimHead]

r00fles!

JAP SHIT

IMPRACTICAL

 

[ElectricOtter]

Please help Codex, I don't know whether to , to , or to

I think the correct response is

 

[Black]

Looks kinda Berserkish.

With the difference that Berserk is good.

 

[Radisshu]

The direction looks better to me, at least the ocean waves of ever-growing humongous pauldrons have funally broken on the beach of retards and begun to recede,

And it's been replaced with weird, shitty-looking polygonal crap!

 

[circ]

Funny that people here always blame consoles for shitty graphics. But then when a really gorgeous looking game gets released and you like it you're suddendly a graphics whore. Or can't run it on your shitty PC.

Not too long ago someone, I forget who, made a topic here on aesthetics vs graphics whoring. How quickly we forget.

 

[deuxhero]

Why would you put serrations on a sword?

To further wound the target when it's removed?

Not that any game but JA2 ever bothered with bloodlosss...

Anyone stabbed with a sword deep enough to use those serrations is pretty much fucked whether they are there or not. Meanwhile, removing the sword is much harder when nameless badguy #2 behind him decides to come after you

I wouldn't be entirely sure if a giant monster that may have a healing factor would be fucked by being stabbed with a normal sword.


I just justifed part of DA's design (and the devs likely only did it because it looked edgeyy23123twelve). I need a shower.

 

[santino27]

As far as I can tell, "new art style" means bland environments, slightly lower polygonal counts, and strange S&M-style leather geometry pasted onto darkspawn. Hmm.

 

[sportforredneck]

MRE LIEK DRAGON ASS 2 AMIRITE?!?!?!??!?!LAOLAOALAOlAOLOLOLOLL