Game News Dragon Age II Shorter And More Cinematic

[Volourn]

"then bumped the price"

Nah. DA2 is basically the same price as DA1. And, neitehr comes close to BIO's most expensive game.


"Basically, I hated it cause what if I haden't played the first game and had to experience BioWare's version of events only to realise that there are better events which weren't unlocked cause I hadn't played the original game?"

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Theyr eward those players who played the first game. WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!


R00fles!

 

[Cynic]

This game is a motherfucking clusterfuck

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

"then bumped the price"

Nah. DA2 is basically the same price as DA1. And, neitehr comes close to BIO's most expensive game.

My apologies Volly, I thought that DA:O was released when PC games were still more or less at USD50, before Kotick ramped the price to be in line with Consoles (due to Microsoft and Sony taking a cut of the action for licence fee) for SC2. Got to hand it to him, the price is what the consumer is willing to spend, and dumbfucks worldwide are eating into the giant shit pie that is a 20% hike, with consoletards at the forefront defending "lol inflation", wonder if they would be so happy if "lol inflation" had their console games up to USD72 as standard.

 

[Volourn]

BG2 released in 2000-2001?: $75
NWN released in 2003: $95
DA1 released in 2009: $75
DA2 released in 2011: $70

 

[Jaesun]

what fucking 3rd world shithole do you live in?

 

[deus101]

Only reason why BG2 had import feature was so you could get the golden pantoloons.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Bioware should make a sequel to Dragon's Lair.

 

[circ]

That's what they've been making.

 

[kris]

The "longer game is better" and "100 hours of gameplay" style of thinking got us deep roads, the fade and throwaway sidequests.

Judging by this information I can only say that we probably got MORE of those things. It says that there is only 40% the amount of dialogue, while 66% the lenght of the first game. That would mean the added thing is either only cinematics or more filler combat. Hearing comments about the DEMO, I guess it is both.

 

[Brother None]

"then bumped the price"

Nah. DA2 is basically the same price as DA1. And, neitehr comes close to BIO's most expensive game.

It is over here in Europe, still 50 EUR. But we've always overpaid. That's 70 USD. Quite a bit more than USians paid. Still, I don't get the rationale of a pricebump for PC. It's not like there's licensing there...
Because I think you did miss something, Volly. DA:O was still the normal 50 USD in NA. DAII is listed as 60USD everywhere. Just an FYI.

 

[circ]

Looked up the prices here and DA:O is now about 9-10 USD. Ultimate Edition of that is about 50 USD; which includes Awakening and other DLC. Why anyone would pay an extra 40 bucks for that buggy piece of shit and seriously bad DLC mostly, is beyond me. DA2 is looking to cost 50 bucks too, an extra 10 USD for console versions. Oh, there's apparently a special xbox360 offer. Console + DA:O, about 200 USD. Hohoho.

EDIT: Just thought some more about Ultimate Edition. 40 extra bucks for Awakening, a minimal area (Warden's Keep) and a character (Shale)? That's pathetic. You used to pay that for a pack with 2-3 add-ons, but now you're paying it for Ring of Ultimate Doom +11? What the fuck?

 

[Brother None]

DA2 is looking to cost 50 bucks too, an extra 10 USD for console versions. O

It is listed as 60 USD on Amazon and GameStop and US users of steam have told me it is 60 USD on Steam too (it lists as 50 EUR for me). GameStop And Amazon list the same price across all platforms.

I don't know the details and am unaffected as the Eurozone has always overpaid for games compared to the US (it is what it is), and they seem to realize that and leave our PC games alone, but if it's EA policy, it's EA policy. So it goes.

EDIT: Just thought some more about Ultimate Edition. 40 extra bucks for Awakening, a minimal area (Warden's Keep) and a character (Shale)? That's pathetic. You used to pay that for a pack with 2-3 add-ons, but now you're paying it for Ring of Ultimate Doom +11? What the fuck?

Retailers tend to pay more attention to repricing of "common" editions than more recent, "Ultimate" Editions. It's not a reflection on the value of the added materials since we're not talking about first sales, it's a reflection of the sluggishness of repricing by retailers. DA:O is being offered cheap. The Ultimate Edition isn't, yet. Nothing to get upset about.

 

[Lesifoere]

It was one of those you had to be there reading the thread kind of moment VOD.

 

[Volourn]

"Because I think you did miss something, Volly. DA:O was still the normal 50 USD in NA. DAII is listed as 60USD everywhere. Just an FYI.
"

Noty everywhere. I believe I know how much I apy for my games. I still have the receipt obviously for DA2. it's just under $70 including taxes. It's cheaper than DA1.

 

[DraQ]

I'd say that TW2 being shorter is more due to focusing on broader C&C rather than longer narrative, though more cinematics trend is worrying.

Why? The import feature was something I have nothing against in me2/me3/da2. It would be neat if there were consequences to who did you side with at the end (Scoiatel, Triss/neutral or the Order).

I hated it in ME2. My first playthrough (female shep import from ME) I experienced everything. I had all party members alive (except the one you are forced to leave.. I won't be surprised if that character turns up in ME3 though) and had completed all side quests/encounters which lead to some cool ME2 moments with NPC's from ME running into me here and there.

All that was great up until I replayed the game with a new character and experienced BioWare's version of events. Most encounters never happened and I even lost the only ineresting Krogan team member from ME as well. This left the world feeling even more lifeless than it was before. Only few side-quests and no other NPC interaction/surprises. That sucked.

Basically, I hated it cause what if I haden't played the first game and had to experience BioWare's version of events only to realise that there are better events which weren't unlocked cause I hadn't played the original game? PS3 players had the same thing happen to them (they get to pick events from a comic thingy instead of playing the whole game). Basically, the whole system feels broken and forced.

It's a nice way to force players to play your other games though. Maybe in future even more major events and equipment/skills can be locked out completely if the player doesn't import crap from the prequel (forcing you to eventually give in a buy the prequel). I am sure we all know how DLC's have been used to shorten the original playtime for games already by the same dev.

HAI GUISE DID YOU KNOW TAHT IMPORT FETURE LIEK IN WIZARDY 6-8 IS TOTALLY POPAMOLE DECLINE NEXTGEN SHIT???/

Fucking inbreds...

 

[Brother None]

Noty everywhere.

No one said it's getting a price bump everywhere. In fact, I said exactly the opposite. The fact that the price bump doesn't apply to you doesn't mean it does not exist.

 

[Volourn]

Are you fukkin 'idiot?

"DAII is listed as 60USD everywhere."

So.. why do you fuckkin' lie?

 

[Brother None]

Are you fukkin 'idiot?

Apparently you are. Because when you do not understand that when I say "It is over here in Europe, still 50 EUR (...) DAII is listed as 60USD everywhere" that I do not mean "everywhere" literally, then you need some help, bro.

As said, DAII is listed as 60USD by major US retailers. This is a price bump over DA:O for the same retailers. To claim "It's cheaper than DA1" like some kind of universal fact is a lie. To say "nah" to Pika-Cthulhu's "then bumped the price" is a lie, as they bumped the price for him. To say "DA2 is basically the same price as DA1" is a lie. But why? Why do you lie? I do not understand this.

 

[Jigawatt]

But we've always overpaid. That's 70 USD. Quite a bit more than USians paid.

Don't worry, you're not the only one Yes, that's 89USD for PC or 110USD for the consoletards - standard edition, nothing fancy.

Dragon Age II
• 400,000 Words
• 2,500 Cinematics
• 500 Characters
• 38,000 Spoken Lines
• 40 Hours of Gameplay

Ok, so how can this possibly work? There's so many problems I don't know where to begin.

I'm assuming by 'hours of gameplay' they mean time of your life to get from start to finish. When you see the final credits, you're forty hours older. Next I'll say that 'cinematics' vs 'everything else' is roughly 1 to 1. That seems like way to much cinema to me, but assuming any less makes the next bit of maths even more ridiculous.

So they need to cram in 2500 separate cinematics into 1200 minutes, for an average cinematic time of 28.8 seconds. And because to be a separate cinematic I assume there has to be some 'gameplay' between each one, you then get to play for, on average, 28.8s before control is taken from you again. WTF?

Then you've got the 'Spoken Lines'. From observing the demo videos, a short line takes about 3 seconds to be delivered all told. 38,000 lines = 31hrs 40mins. In 40hrs, you only get 8hrs 20mins of not listening to people spew their crappy Bioware dialogue. At this point, why even bother with game mechanics.

 

[Phelot]

THIS IS THE NEW NEW SHIT

"Still day 1 for me"

 

[Volourn]

"Apparently you are."

HELPFUL HINT 101: Don't say anywhere when you don't mean anywhere then get all butthurt when people actually think you mean anywhere.

LMFAO

 

[MetalCraze]

Cinematic


Cinematic = watch boring unskippable cutscene -> watch another unskippable dull cutscene -> kill 3 or 4 enemies -> watch stupid cutscene -> kill 2 enemies -> watch cutscene -> watch another cutscene -> kill the boss -> watch cutscene of boss dying -> press F to watch the next cutscene -> watch cutscene -> haven't uninstalled this retarded shit yet? Rince and repeat!


Console "game" #4519: Cutscene watching simulator

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Im not bothered about price, and I live in Australia, so the USD only interests me out of sheer greed at the moment. Also, not following the game as I am not interested (Havent played DA:O, and with the critical panning of DA2's choices here, I wont bother to anytime soon) I only was interested in the butthurt that a price bump could make.

Most of my understanding came from this thread http://social.bioware.com/%25255Bur...bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/5704263/1

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Cinematics in this case probably takes into account stupid shit like showing the people walking around or doing stuff while they're talking. Anything that isn't combat, animated in-engine and where you don't have any control and are listening or looking at something is all cinematics.
Or maybe they could all be thrilling CG masterpieces on par with DoW1 and 2's openings and the Dragon Age CG trailers. Of course. Impossible to say for sure.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

Cinematics in this case probably takes into account stupid shit like showing the people walking around or doing stuff while they're talking. Anything that isn't combat, animated in-engine and where you don't have any control and are listening or looking at something is all cinematics.
Or maybe they could all be thrilling CG masterpieces on par with DoW1 and 2's openings and the Dragon Age CG trailers. Of course. Impossible to say for sure.

It gives people more time to admire their naked femHawkes.