DA2 has leaked

[Serus]

This would also be a good time to mention I do agree that judging the game ENTIRELY on blablabla serves no purpose, but I also find completely ignoring EVERYTHING, including the fucking TITLE OF THE GAME ITSELF to be pushing it a little too far.

Oh right, the title. The most important RPG aspect.

:facepalm:

 

[kris]

After having tried it a bit yesterday I can say it is not really as terrible as expected, but still it feels lifeless and soulless. Note, I liked DAO. I don't understand why people claim the game is easy though, I think it is brutal on hard and nightmare. Mostly because enemies spawn behind you and on your flank in almost every battle. Poster a page or two before described the combat well. Note: mighty blow seems like the best early ability by far.

I think my experience so far can be summarized in "THE TYRRANY OF CHOICE". Bioware seemed it fit to remove choice from this game. Here you can see how they took away choice.

- You can't choose.... Character, well it feels like you can hardly develop your character apart from which special ability you get. Not that DAO was special, they just decided to make character distinctions even less. BAsically they kept the choice of class and then you can diverge those class in like two ways (possibly more for mage). As all know you can't choose race or origins any more.

- You can't choose Equipment. This almost made me rage. For some reason in shops you can buy equipment "only for Hawke". What? Shops sells thing only ONE character can use? Even worse since they are also class-specific that means no person in the world can us some of it. :D Yeah, pretty much all is class-specific too. Even all weapons. I am pretty sure I could use an handaxe with my rogue in DAO, not in DA2 because then a hand axe can only be used with a shield.

- You can't choose the way to go. Because Bioware tunnel syndrome is fully functional. You have to laugh when characters discuss which way to go when you know there is only one possible way.

- You can't even choose quests! As mentioned above, many quests you must complete. Some quests you can't say no too. I guess you can ignore some, haven't tested it well though.

Thats all on this accord.

VD and Volly. I can't agree on how Kirkwall is such a big city. I mean visually it is and I actually like what they did visually with Kirkwall. The problem is that it is lifeless and empty. There is very few characters to talk with, most of them shops selling (a few) class-locked and character-locked equipment. Pretty much no houses you can enter. Compared to BG2 and that city (forgot name) it is really empty and lifeless. I walked into a noble quater. Dead! not a single person to talk too. Elven alienage, same! Huge bar, any questgivers? Hallo?

But sure, compared to the huge disappointment called "Denerim" I would say it feels big.

 

[Trash]

In 2010 Brent Knowles wrote a blog about why he stepped down from the lead design role on Dragon Age 2 and why he later quite Bioware. Playing Dragon Age 2 it just came back to me.

“I’m not the same person I was when I started, and BioWare isn’t the same company.”

Indeed.

If I had to give a description of Dragon Age 2 I would call it a computerised basic fighting fantasy book which was rushed to make the deadline.

 

[alkeides]

If I had to give a description of Dragon Age 2 I would call it a computerised basic fighting fantasy book which was rushed to make the deadline.

If you mean thosse "flip to page 413", choose your own adventure books, they generally offer far more choice than DA2. NOTHING you do changes anything in the ending except which NPCs help you in the final fight.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

I reinstalled the demo and played a bit as a mage. Gave up even faster than the first time around. Seriously Bioware, what the fuck?

 

[treave]

I reinstalled the demo and played a bit as a mage. Gave up even faster than the first time around. Seriously Bioware, what the fuck?

That's what happened to them. They cater to a new fanbase now.

 

[kris]

If I had to give a description of Dragon Age 2 I would call it a computerised basic fighting fantasy book which was rushed to make the deadline.

Don't look rushed to me. It instead seems like they decided they could get away with doing less, so they did.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

I have this (vague) impression that Bioware's Mass Effect team is genuinely interested in delivering a fun game with good writing (yes, YMMV), while the DA team seems to have completely sold out and consists of charlatans (Laidlaw) and broken hacks (Gaider) now. I don't know if that even makes sense when they're all under the filthy EA umbrella, but I'd be very surprised if ME3 turns out to be a perverted clusterfuck like DA2 turned out to be. It does kinda worry me though, I had high hopes for ME3 after liking ME2 so much, and after this I'm not willing to preorder ME3. I'll wait for the game to come out and see if it got corrupted as badly as this turd of a sequel.

You may now commence making fun of me for liking both ME2 and APLHA BROTOCOLS.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Anybody dissing Freelance Henchman for liking ME2 and Alpha Protocol will have to get through me first.

Also, I too am slightly worried about the state of Mass Effect 3.

 

[Pegultagol]

IMO, Kirkwall is an abomination of a city in its right...there is no rhyme or reason why a certain entrance is placed here or why there is an exit there. It is as if someone got blocks of building construction set with different pieces of wall decals and just started randomly piling on the mass like Lego to fill out the volume. The layout design and how one navigates through different sections of the city is convoluted, and for the life of me I cannot see why they decided to give this weird day/night toggle; is it just not possible to choose to 'wait' until nighttime? Not to mention the repeat of the building layout and copy and paste feel to almost every environment there is. It is an unredeemable mess.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Flip to DX9 mode. Either that or wait for the new drivers which are supposedly going to fix DA2 high end performance.

Seriously, I have never seen a game that does anything better in Dx10/11. It seems every game I play is a mess in DX10/11, and when it is patched there are only marginal improvements to how the shadows look at the cost of performance.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Anybody dissing Freelance Henchman for liking ME2 and Alpha Protocol will have to get through me first.

We shall fight the good fight together, my equine brother! Put on your Horse Armor(tm) and we shall do battle unto the haters!

 

[Exmit]

Flip to DX9 mode. Either that or wait for the new drivers which are supposedly going to fix DA2 high end performance.

Seriously, I have never seen a game that does anything better in Dx10/11. It seems every game I play is a mess in DX10/11, and when it is patched there are only marginal improvements to how the shadows look at the cost of performance.

dx10/11 is a good excuse to sell new video gfx , windows 7 etc etc

If developers wanted they could have all settings from dx 11 on dx 9 in XP.

 

[Gord]

Seriously, I have never seen a game that does anything better in Dx10/11. It seems every game I play is a mess in DX10/11, and when it is patched there are only marginal improvements to how the shadows look at the cost of performance.

Call of Pripyat lets you choose between DX11 with higher performance but without visual improvements, or tesselation for almost no visual gain but lower performance.
So until I see a game making intelligent use of tesselation the only advantage seems to be that DX10-level graphics can be rendered faster.

That and the gradually blurred shadows.

 

[DraQ]

This would also be a good time to mention I do agree that judging the game ENTIRELY on blablabla serves no purpose, but I also find completely ignoring EVERYTHING, including the fucking TITLE OF THE GAME ITSELF to be pushing it a little too far.

Oh right, the title. The most important RPG aspect.

Hi guys!

I've heard PST 2: Blood War is in the works. It's going to be a Dante's Inferno (the game) inspired slasher with trace amount of RPG elements and small amount of dialogue (during the cutscenes). But that's ok, right? I mean, title is not an important thing anyway and the game looks pretty entertaining in its own right. Right guys?

Flip to DX9 mode. Either that or wait for the new drivers which are supposedly going to fix DA2 high end performance.

Seriously, I have never seen a game that does anything better in Dx10/11. It seems every game I play is a mess in DX10/11, and when it is patched there are only marginal improvements to how the shadows look at the cost of performance.

Second and third STALKERs use something called dynamic wet surfaces during the rain. It's pretty impressive and DX>=10 exclusive. Other than that the differences are marginal.

- You can't choose Equipment. This almost made me rage. For some reason in shops you can buy equipment "only for Hawke". What? Shops sells thing only ONE character can use? Even worse since they are also classspecific which means no person in the world can us some of it. :D Yeah, pretty much all is class-specific too. Even all weapons. I am pretty sure I could use an handaxe with my rogue in DAO, not in DA2 because they a hand axe can only be used with a shield.

Wat.

No, seriously, wut.

That's it.
The sooner Bioware goes down in a cloud of dust and rubble, the better.

 

[kris]

- You can't choose Equipment. This almost made me rage. For some reason in shops you can buy equipment "only for Hawke". What? Shops sells thing only ONE character can use? Even worse since they are also classspecific which means no person in the world can us some of it. :D Yeah, pretty much all is class-specific too. Even all weapons. I am pretty sure I could use an handaxe with my rogue in DAO, not in DA2 because they a hand axe can only be used with a shield.

Wat.

No, seriously, wut.

This really highlighted that I should proofwrite my posts, horrible writing by me.

But yet, what I wrote is correct. I first discovered how most equipment was class-locked. I was especially shocked to see all weapons were. Then I saw that actually quite a lot of equipment was "Hawke only" and just face-palmed. Now since your characters also have "special equipment" that level with them... equipment really is mostly for your main. Exception is magical jewelry that can be used by anyone, actually with this they gone the other way and an amulet that gives mana, also gives stamina. Making mana and Stamina really just two different names for the same things in every respect.

But now I really realised another damning issue. Ability-locks on equipment. While I think being strong enough to use some things is something that is really good... that is not the issue here. The small issue is how ability-lock is more or less weapons leverl specific. :/ But then we have the BIG issue. That is that most equipment is locked to two abilities and that in turn force the players to progress their character in a certain way. As a rogue you can't "waste" points in other things like constitution and strength (etc), because if you do that you will never be able to upgrade weapons. With my Bethany I couldn't upgrade her staff, simply because I had not put any points in willpower.

We are back on Diablo level here.

 

[alkeides]

You could upgrade weapons? You mean the default shit that came with all the NPCs?

I dunno, I kept changing their weapons for better ones as I found them, although Varric was fine with his crossbow the whole time. Bows were useless for me since none of the NPCs could use it effectively and I wasn't a rogue.

 

[DraQ]

- You can't choose Equipment. This almost made me rage. For some reason in shops you can buy equipment "only for Hawke". What? Shops sells thing only ONE character can use? Even worse since they are also classspecific which means no person in the world can us some of it. :D Yeah, pretty much all is class-specific too. Even all weapons. I am pretty sure I could use an handaxe with my rogue in DAO, not in DA2 because they a hand axe can only be used with a shield.

Wat.

No, seriously, wut.

This really highlighted that I should proofwrite my posts, horrible writing by me.

It's not about the post, it's about the Can of Retardora biowhore opened.

We are back on Diablo level here.

That's downright insulting towards Diablo.

 

[kris]

You could upgrade weapons? You mean the default shit that came with all the NPCs?

I dunno, I kept changing their weapons for better ones as I found them, although Varric was fine with his crossbow the whole time. Bows were useless for me since none of the NPCs could use it effectively and I wasn't a rogue.

Varric's weapon autoupgrades with levels. Several NPC armors the same. Haven't looked at enchantments.

It's not about the post, it's about the Can of Retardora biowhore opened.

I know, still it was hard to understand what I wrote.

 

[Vault Dweller]

This would also be a good time to mention I do agree that judging the game ENTIRELY on blablabla serves no purpose, but I also find completely ignoring EVERYTHING, including the fucking TITLE OF THE GAME ITSELF to be pushing it a little too far.

Oh right, the title. The most important RPG aspect.

Hi guys!

I've heard PST 2: Blood War is in the works. It's going to be a Dante's Inferno (the game) inspired slasher with trace amount of RPG elements and small amount of dialogue (during the cutscenes). But that's ok, right? I mean, title is not an important thing anyway and the game looks pretty entertaining in its own right. Right guys?

No, of course not. Even if the game is good it should be forever condemned.

THEY HAVE PICKED THE WRONG TITLE...
THEY HAVE MESSED WITH THE WRONG GUYS...
ON THE INTERNET NO ONE CAN HEAR THEM SCREAM...

 

[Antihero]

They don't even have the decency to tell you upfront that it's the exaggerated prologue, and that you are in-fact *immortal* despite having a variable health bar. Just try to die - you'll be automagically healed before that can happen, and it's not your sibling working any magic to do so. It doesn't stay that way when you soon have your awesome might stripped away,

I can accept this battle in which you are immortal. It is supposed to be special as in how the gay dwarf tells it. That also explains Bethany's big boobs.

The player doesn't know he's playing an exxagerated version of Hawke because the game isn't talking to the player - by that point there is only the dwarf talking to the foul-mouthed lady, and he's obviously not gonna start by telling her he's making shit up.

Also, it's the tutorial - unless your fingers were bitten off by a chimpanzee and you're playing with your tongue, you're not gonna die anyway. This is a pretty derp thing to bitch about, really

You couldn't die there even if you were playing with your tongue, or passed out face down on your keyboard. Literally, you cannot. The dwarf isn't going to say "And then they all died. The end," but it's still a derp thing as a tutorial to draw in their coveted CoD crowd, which is the context I was bashing it in. What does it actually teach somebody about how to level up their character when they can explode enemies left, right, and centre without breaking a sweat? So it exposes them to a bunch of abilities, that's fine, so you mindlessly spam those for a bit, most of which might as well be labelled "Asplode Darkspawn!" and then you're thrown back to your meager reality shortly thereafter.

But as a "Isn't Hawke awesome!" intro I suppose it does alright, even if the actual execution is lacking.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Anybody dissing Freelance Henchman for liking ME2 and Alpha Protocol will have to get through me first.

We shall fight the good fight together, my equine brother! Put on your Horse Armor(tm) and we shall do battle unto the haters!

You have my keyboard!

 

[Vault Dweller]

After having tried it a bit yesterday I can say it is not really as terrible as expected, but still it feels lifeless and soulless. Note, I liked DAO. I don't understand why people claim the game is easy though, I think it is brutal on hard and nightmare.

Because most people only played the demo.

I reinstalled the demo and played a bit as a mage. Gave up even faster than the first time around. Seriously Bioware, what the fuck?

The demo is a tutorial. It's devoid of challenge. Playing the game on Hard or Nightmare is a very different experience.

 

[Jaesun]

In 2010 Brent Knowles wrote a blog about why he stepped down from the lead design role on Dragon Age 2 and why he later quite Bioware. Playing Dragon Age 2 it just came back to me.

“I’m not the same person I was when I started, and BioWare isn’t the same company.”

Indeed.

Goddamed patriot. Nice to see someone with balls finally tell bioware to shove their pop-a-mole shit and shove it up their ass, and leave Bioware.

Also, I too am slightly worried about the state of Mass Effect 3.

I follow one of the ME3 dev blogs, and I have not seen anything that has caused me to worry (yet). Keep in mind that (thank gawd) the ME and DA teams are completely separate.

 

[Satori (original)]

Also, I too am slightly worried about the state of Mass Effect 3.

I follow one of the ME3 dev blogs, and I have not seen anything that has caused me to worry (yet). Keep in mind that (thank gawd) the ME and DA teams are completely separate.

Yeah, Casey Hudson is developing Mass Effect 3.

Casey Hudson (producer):
--KotOR
--Mass Effect
--Mass Effect 2

Mike Laidlaw (producer):
--Sonic Chronicles - Dark Brotherhood
--Dragon Age: Origins
--Dragon Age 2