DA2 has leaked

[duanth000]

BROs, don't judge the neck graphics by graphical standards of any other game. In the DA2 universe, necks are at least a foot longer than typical for humans. It's good for what it biologically is. In fact,

I hereby

give,

DA2 the 'GOOD FOR WHAT IT IS' (aka disposal of all accumulated knowledge and experience about quality) AWARD OF 2011.

 

[Dele]

game was horrible that is all

 

[RK47]

Made archer Hawker. Played around 2 hours:
1. Loss of weapon swapping.
To use dagger skills, I have to go to the inventory screen, equip 2 daggers. Repeat again if you need to use archery skills. Not good. Why remove a perfectly good feature? I mean, what's wrong with warriors having access to bow then switch to two handers for melee?

2. No origins.
Since they're going with Hawke voice, there's no choice I guess.

3. Itemization
Can't even equip found armor for party members, so I end up selling away a lot of plate armor and boots that doesn't fit my rogue.
Also, can't equip daggers on fighters, because Dexterity no longer boosts Defense, there's no reason for a Warrior to pick Dex at all.

4. Mages
Tempest is seriously broken. All filler fights can be won if you just carry 3 mages and 1 rogue. Everyone stay at choke points, and let the enemy come towards the tempest radius.
This may not be true for boss fights, so swap one mage for a tank. Other classes seem to pale to mages who can damage, paralyze, aoe knockback, and heal. I keep my Hawke Rogue as pick locker and trap disarm.
Watching the Nth encounter turn into tomato juice in ten seconds with triple chain lightning is pretty much is all I do from 2 hrs up onwards.

5. Combat in the City
...Dozens. Literally dozens of bandits in every single encounter. It had nothing unique about it, just EXP fodder. I know the city is supposed to be dangerous, but killing 3 dozen people every night in the alley is pushing it.

6. Explosions
Wow. It used to be slightly less stupid. When I made a killing shot with a bow in DAO, it shows my arrow impaled the guy on his throat as he bled to death. That was fine. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's cool.

In Dragon Age 2, they explode into liquid gore. Point Blank or 20 meters shot doesn't matter. They just turn into tomato ketchup. It was funny the first time, not so much after the 50th time. Have to find a button to turn it off.

All in all, it didn't improve from the original at all. With lobotomized combat, poor itemization (belt, amulet, boots yay) and verbose dialogue, it's not an improvement.

The only thing they got right is the good loading time and no memory leaks so far on my old system with 2GB RAM.

 

[Antihero]

I'm not demanding anything. I'm saying that games should be reviewed based on their merits or lack thereof, and that any comparisons should be with games of the same sub-genre.
...
I apologize if somewhere I lost track of what we were talking about, so let me clarify my position.

I was arguing against positions like:

"Yeah, we are so stupid to expect RPG as a sequel to RPG. You are taking "it's good for what it is" thing way too far."
"If you judge it only on what it is, why not adopt a frame of reference that matches the marketing press release"
...
...
Overall, I feel that my position is very simple. Clockwork Knight had no difficulties understanding it but maybe he is some kinda genius:

Nothing stops you from having the valid point that you could review a game on what you determine to be its merits alone - and sure, I exaggerated a little - but in a situation like the move from DA:O to DA2, strictly comparing it to other games in its newfound official sub-genre is still a disservice to somebody who's also interested in knowing how far gone it is so they can draw on their own experience to reach their own conclusion whether they'll like the sequel. The game could have been made a little more "actiony" without jettisoning the other RPG baggage it was carrying, and there wouldn't have been half as much controversy about it. Honestly, I don't even really care that much about a review, but would have preferred a more honest demo if it's inaccurate to judge the full game by - maybe something that didn't start right at the game's beginning.

But now for more exaggerations: "Let's say DA2 is an aRPG, so let's compare it to The Witcher or VTMB. No QTE combat, so it already has the best combat since The Witcher. But lacks a first person shooting mode for fireballs, so not as good as VTMB." Not helpful (not that that's even a serious comparison). But it gets better when people can't always even agree what exact sub-genre a game fits into.

And instead of seeing DA2 as moving into a new sub-genre, some will just see it as a lobotomized version of the previous game's genre if it's still too close to it in some aspects, even if just superficially. And we already know how loved DA:O was.

 

[circ]

So how's the char generator this time? Any different? Can you change bodysize, maybe even titsize (like Drakensang 2!)? Or did they go full ME 2 and remove even basic customization to ensure everything looks pretty much the same?

 

[waywardOne]

Where are the parallels? "Best since..." is not a comparison.

holy shit.

"best since..." is a direct comparison for every (criteria=true) for the time frame specified. just because you do it in a general way instead of point-by-point or focusing on a particular aspect doesn't mean it's not a comparison.

you can't be this stupid but for the benefit of those other guys who are, it's like saying Twilight is the best vampire movie since Nosferatu eine Symphonie des Grauens. you're not comparing it only to Nosferatu, you're comparing (and rating it higher than) every vampire movie released/published in the years between the two including but not limited to House of Dracula, Blacula, and Zoltan - Hound of Dracula.

it's not semantics; it's basic fucking syntax.

 

[RK47]

So how's the char generator this time? Any different? Can you change bodysize, maybe even titsize (like Drakensang 2!)? Or did they go full ME 2 and remove even basic customization to ensure everything looks pretty much the same?

Even b4 u start generating and giving a first name to Hawke, you are already given a vision of what he's going to look like in the tutorial. I assume this is his 'Champion Veteran of Kirkwall' version since he has full access to all of his class abilities.

Then during char gen...you are given the choice to edit his face.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

4. Mages
Tempest is seriously broken. All filler fights can be won if you just carry 3 mages and 1 rogue. Everyone stay at choke points, and let the enemy come towards the tempest radius.
This may not be true for boss fights, so swap one mage for a tank. Other classes seem to pale to mages who can damage, paralyze, aoe knockback, and heal. I keep my Hawke Rogue as pick locker and trap disarm.
Watching the Nth encounter turn into tomato juice in ten seconds with triple chain lightning is pretty much is all I do from 2 hrs up onwards.

Enjoy that while it lasts, it won't be long until enemies have too much HP to simply be splattered with a round of AoE attacks.

 

[DraQ]

Could have been a 8/10 game if only they had 9 months to finish and polish it.

It takes 9 months to make a fucking human, FFS!

If it makes you feel better I myself didn't pay for it. Somebody probably did but my wallet certainly never opened up. The only obligation I have is to play the damn thing at least twice.

It doesn't matter whose money they were, it matters who received them.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Where are the parallels? "Best since..." is not a comparison.

holy shit.

"best since..." is a direct comparison for every (criteria=true) for the time frame specified. just because you do it in a general way instead of point-by-point or focusing on a particular aspect doesn't mean it's not a comparison.

you can't be this stupid but for the benefit of those other guys who are, it's like saying Twilight is the best vampire movie since Nosferatu eine Symphonie des Grauens. you're not comparing it only to Nosferatu, you're comparing (and rating it higher than) every vampire movie released/published in the years between the two including but not limited to House of Dracula, Blacula, and Zoltan - Hound of Dracula.

Grading vs comparing.

Compare - To examine in order to note the similarities or differences of. i.e. no discussion of similarities and differences = no comparison

Grade - To arrange in a series or according to a scale.

There is a huge difference, in my opinion, between actually comparing Nosferatu or Interview with the Vampire to Twilight and saying, for argument's sake, that Twilight is the best vampire flick since the Interview, which, frankly, says nothing at all.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59467 ... F09C4C6E1/

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Twilight is the best vampire flick since the Interview, which, frankly, says nothing at all.

I don't know what you guys are on about but this sentence means exactly this: Twilight is better than all vampire flicks produced after (BUT NOT INCLUDING) Interview With a Vampire.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594679696997423757/07BC6FDADA95E3B65F3D8E1531EC8FDF09C4C6E1/

Sandal, son...that'll teach you not to go snorkeling in a woman's secret marshlands at her time of the month.

 

[commie]

Found on /v/, not sure if 'shooped. Does this really look like that ingame?

http://i.imgur.com/LBlah.png

That's the 1000 yard stare right there.....Hawke coming to the awful realisation of exactly what he is partaking in: humping an elf that looks like a hunchback goblin.

 

[Antihero]

There is a huge difference, in my opinion, between actually comparing Nosferatu or Interview with the Vampire to Twilight and saying, for argument's sake, that Twilight is the best vampire flick since the Interview, which, frankly, says nothing at all.

Only if there have been no other vampire movies in the meantime, and by "since" you really mean "after". But I agree that a blanket statement about something being the "best" does say nothing at all.

I don't know what you guys are on about but this sentence means exactly this: Twilight is better than all vampire flicks produced after (BUT NOT INCLUDING) Interview With a Vampire.

The malleability of the English language is a wonderful thing to hide in, different nuances possible when using words as prepositions or conjunctions. It's the best thing since sliced bread. Or should that be after but not including (which reduces to just after) sliced bread - or are we talking about time, quality, or both? And why cut off the quality comparisons to when sliced bread was invented - is the wheel/ball bearing or fire taken too much for granted?

I just can't believe this debate about something so mundane can carry on this far. How about this as a rule of thumb for Kodex Kwality Kritiques: if you name drop in a sentence, then have it mean something purposeful and spell out that purpose, whether it be a comparison or grading. That's what MCA would do.

Edit: lots of edits.

 

[J_J_M]

Dragon Age 2 music composer admits the game was rushed.

http://music.ign.com/articles/115/1154594p1.html

IGN: After the game is finished, do you go back through a play it again with all of the music in place?

Zur: Sure thing. I'm actually really anxious for the game right now, so I can pop it in and start playing. I'm really looking forward to see it. I know there are a few bugs that still need to be fixed. Unlike other titles from Bioware, this [score] was kind of a rush job. EA really wanted to capitalize on the success of Origins, so the game was really being pushed hard to be released now. So I'd like to know if there are bugs, or if there's anything we could patch or fix.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

DUnlike other titles from Bioware, this [score] was kind of a rush job. EA really wanted to capitalize on the success of Origins, so the game was really being pushed hard to be released now.

It's horrible when developers are pressured by publishers like this. Bioware is being treated like the Troika of old

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The malleability of the English language is a wonderful thing, different nuances possible when using words as prepositions or conjunctions. It's the best thing since sliced bread. Or should that be after but not including (which reduces to just after) sliced bread - or are we talking about time, quality, or both? And why cut off the quality comparisons to when sliced bread was invented - is the wheel/ball bearing or fire taken too much for granted?

That's just paranoia. When you say DA2 is the best thing since sliced bread, it means there was nothing noteworthy between sliced bread and DA2 - however, saying both are noteworthy doesn't mean you are comparing them to each other; you are comparing them to the shit released in between, like PST, Taliban, or the Sputnik.

 

[Antihero]

The malleability of the English language is a wonderful thing, different nuances possible when using words as prepositions or conjunctions. It's the best thing since sliced bread. Or should that be after but not including (which reduces to just after) sliced bread - or are we talking about time, quality, or both? And why cut off the quality comparisons to when sliced bread was invented - is the wheel/ball bearing or fire taken too much for granted?

That's just paranoia. When you say DA2 is the best thing since sliced bread, it means there was nothing noteworthy between sliced bread and DA2 - however, saying both are noteworthy doesn't mean you are comparing them to each other; you are comparing them to the shit released in between, like PST, Taliban, or the Sputnik.

Paranoia...? Anyway, here's where I would have pointed out that you fell into my word-trap and that it's an idiomatic expression often used in hyperbole. But I won't because my point is there's no shame in admitting when something could have been expressed better to avoid misunderstandings instead of arguing on the level of Bill Clinton's meaning of the word "is".

Edit: and for the "after" meaning to really to be clear, it's implied that the older thing you're comparing it to is established and no longer even in the running, and then you're still not directly comparing them to each other anyway - just as you said, what was in between, so it could still suck but just not as much as everything else up to that point. It feels natural to qualify a "best since" with a "but not better than" if their direct comparison could be contentious, and you want your meaning to come across without room to be misinterpreted. Or better yet, let's not obsess over it.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

It doesn't matter whose money they were, it matters who received them.

Well, I can't do much about that.

The DVD case smells awesome, btw. I'm gonna lick the inside.

 

[Hamster]

:Noms DVD case:

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

So what is it with this stun-locks, when 3 enemies are pounding on your mage and you can't cast and can't even flee because you're caught in an endless *being pounded upon* animation. Is this how action RPGs work these days?

 

[J_C]

So what is it with this stun-locks, when 3 enemies are pounding on your mage and you can't cast and can't even flee because you're caught in an endless *being pounded upon* animation. Is this how action RPGs work these days?

Do you see know that Datoo is a challenging game?But Bioware is so good that they don't have to bother with clever encounter desing. They just use cheap tricks like enemies appearing from thin air, and constant stunning.

 

[kris]

Honestly I find my opinion and VD's to be the most detailed so far. It's not a bad game, it's a 6-6.5/10 game. It's enjoyable for what it does. The flaws are so many but there are also some great touches of style. Ie: your sister's boobs being bigger in the prologue cause the narrator wanted to exaggerate the tale.
Not only that, there are some minor choices and consequences, like your romance with Isabela affecting her storyline. Or the fact you could lose your sister if you took a particular choice instead of another.
Could have been a 8/10 game if only they had 9 months to finish and polish it.

It can't ever go over 6 with such a bad and broken system. What exactly are you proposing that they could improve?
More quest that you can only complete by killing 1-5 groups of enemies?
Finally putting loot in the game? (Why there is little loot, since almost only Hawke can use it is often worthless anyway)
More cutscenes?

By the way, were are yours and VDs opinions so I can cut them to pieces?

 

[alkeides]

So what is it with this stun-locks, when 3 enemies are pounding on your mage and you can't cast and can't even flee because you're caught in an endless *being pounded upon* animation. Is this how action RPGs work these days?

What level are you? There's an ability that adds 100 fortitude so you effectively won't get knocked down besides with certain bosses.