Game News The Technology of Dragon Age II, Part 1

[ortucis]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration. Art style is fine but I am expecting fuckload of blurry textures on PC (typical BioWare port-job).

Also..

The screenshots are taken from the DirectX 9 PC version of the game, but the visual output would be almost identical on consoles.

Yeah, so basically all we will get is a few extra effects thrown in with higher system requirements.

Anyways, it will be a fun game in the end, so whatever.

 

[Xor]

Thanks markec!

Very useful link you got there.

 

[shihonage]

Hey guise we'll just make boobs rounder through using more polys and call it tessellation. And that will be all DX11.

Unfortunately, no. Tessellation works only with the distant terrain.

... which is what boobs are to most Bioware fans

 

[Angthoron]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration.

Wait what? Did we see different sets of screenshots...?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

and here we go

 

[ortucis]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration.

Wait what? Did we see different sets of screenshots...?

Yes.

 

[Monocause]

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/077.jpg

Turn off the modern lights and what you've got there are Morrowind - level graphics.

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/foundry.jpg

The ground looks totally awesome. To quote a Bio board member "very atmospheric". Also notice the crappy model of something that resembles a wooden spike barricade.

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/0041.jpg

Oh God. Chains and lights. Is something wrong with color depth over there? Look at the middle of that wooden grate. Also, the ground and foliage somehow reminds me of Alpha Centauri.

 

[Angthoron]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration.

Wait what? Did we see different sets of screenshots...?

Yes.

Show please. The ones presented in the news part show no evidence of the game being any more of an "open world" than DA1 or ME1.

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/0041.jpg

Oh God. Chains and lights. Is something wrong with color depth over there? Look at the middle of that wooden grate. Also, the ground and foliage somehow reminds me of Alpha Centauri.

Woah, yes, you're right.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Show please. The ones presented in the news part show no evidence of the game being any more of an "open world" than DA1 or ME1.

ffs
no one said its gonna be fucking sandbox like oblivion
the main part of the game is supposed to take place in kirkwall, which will be more like athkatla than that shitty capital in origins. did you feel somehow limited in athkatla?

 

[The Wizard]

oh god, the bones in the first picture.

that's some 1999 shit right there.

 

[Angthoron]

Show please. The ones presented in the news part show no evidence of the game being any more of an "open world" than DA1 or ME1.

ffs
no one said its gonna be fucking sandbox like oblivion
the main part of the game is supposed to take place in kirkwall, which will be more like athkatla than that shitty capital in origins. did you feel somehow limited in athkatla?

Well I'm sorry if I'm not following the development of this piece of shit more closely. The screenshots and videos that I've seen so far show nothing like Athkatla though and once again remind me of Dragon Age. If Kirkwall will be as large and as detailed, I'll only be happy to be wrong. Except we both know it won't be.

Also, Oblivion isn't sandbox, SimCity is.

 

[Xor]

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/077.jpg

Turn off the modern lights and what you've got there are Morrowind - level graphics.

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/foundry.jpg

The ground looks totally awesome. To quote a Bio board member "very atmospheric". Also notice the crappy model of something that resembles a wooden spike barricade.

http://bioware.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/0041.jpg

Oh God. Chains and lights. Is something wrong with color depth over there? Look at the middle of that wooden grate. Also, the ground and foliage somehow reminds me of Alpha Centauri.

A few thoughts:
-Many of those textures are from DA1
-Seriously shit draw distance
-I'm pretty sure the Source engine had better water reflection than that
-NPCs remind me of NWN1 models

-Somehow the interface reminds me even more of WoW than DA1 did
-The fucking draw distance is shit
-The skybox actually looks decent
-What the fuck is that weapon hawk has in the 2nd shot
-The wooden construct doesn't look structurally sound
-Did I mention the draw distance being shitty

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

-NPCs remind me of NWN1 models

really you see them similar? especially the haircut


no just no

 

[Leimrey]

What the fuck is that weapon hawk has in the 2nd shot

Some mageish naginata derivative with an oversized straight blade or something like that. Ironically, it looks less retarded than the sword in the other two screenshots.

EDIT: disregard that, it looks more like a Chinese Guan Dao.

 

[MetalCraze]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration.

Wait what? Did we see different sets of screenshots...?

There are mountains in the background. It always means that the world is big and open for exploration.

 

[ortucis]

Show please. The ones presented in the news part show no evidence of the game being any more of an "open world" than DA1 or ME1.

ffs
no one said its gonna be fucking sandbox like oblivion
the main part of the game is supposed to take place in kirkwall, which will be more like athkatla than that shitty capital in origins. did you feel somehow limited in athkatla?

Well I'm sorry if I'm not following the development of this piece of shit more closely. The screenshots and videos that I've seen so far show nothing like Athkatla though and once again remind me of Dragon Age. If Kirkwall will be as large and as detailed, I'll only be happy to be wrong. Except we both know it won't be.

Also, Oblivion isn't sandbox, SimCity is.

DA2 will have bigger cities to explore from what I have read/seen. Even if it doesn't give you freedom to explore EVERYWHERE, I am at least expecting a major city or town to waste time in.

On the side note, the art style in some areas reminds me of Divinity 2 and level design looks more inspired from Witcher. Looks like BioWare is busy copying better games out there, which is ok with me. It's a shame that Witcher 2 will be ignored by biased US media in favor of DA2 in the end, just like DA is apparently the best RPG ever, ignoring Divinity and Witcher.

 

[Volourn]

Divinity was shit. So is TW. But, they weren't ignored either. Don't lie.

TW was pimped to high heaven. FFS They even had access to the BIO fanbase which is likely why the game sold over a mil. FFS That's why they got my $. No fuckin' more as theys crewed the pooch with that fuckin' sozzy game fuckin' game oh fuck yeah.

 

[Tycn]

FFS

 

[Phelot]

Really my only problem with this all is that journalists outright lie and pretend like this is all somehow impressive. Have some fucking integrity and call ugly by it's name. I mean, the game might even be good, it's not like it'd be the first time that a fun game was ugly as fuck. See Mount & Blade for a good example. FFS!

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Really my only problem with this all is that journalists outright lie and pretend like this is all somehow impressive. Have some fucking integrity and call ugly by it's name. I mean, the game might even be good, it's not like it'd be the first time that a fun game was ugly as fuck. See Mount & Blade for a good example. FFS!

It might be the way DA2 was budgeted, more money went into the PR budget than the Graphics department, so they already anticipated the poor graphics, and spent the PR money wisely bribing 'Journalists' for favourable reviews. That or they really are fucking incompetent and EA is threatening the press to give it glowing reviews or it will shit a brick on their establishment.

 

[Archibald]

Every EA game has more money put into PR. There was article somewhere, IIRC marketing took 2/3 of the budget.

 

[Leimrey]

FFS They even had access to the BIO fanbase which is likely why the game sold over a mil.

Simply because they used a modified Aurora engine for their game? Did Turd Effect also have access to the Unreal games fanbase?

EDIT: grammar fixes

 

[commie]

Every EA game has more money put into PR. There was article somewhere, IIRC marketing took 2/3 of the budget.

So the whole 'we need to sell 5 million copies to make moneys' is a self-fulfilling prophecy as the more you spend to advertise, the more you need to sell and the more you need to sell, the more streamlined and accessible you need to make your game in order to sell.

Why not just get rid of the advertising budget and be happy to sell a million copies of a much better game? The ratio of profit will still be the same, probably more so.




Also can someone ban that fuck volly for constantly using the word 'Sozzy'? What kind of retarded shit is that?

 

[Storyfag]

Screenshots posted on blog look good, at least the world is huge/open enough for exploration.

Too bad the minimap in the gameplay vid clearly shows a simple corridor surrounded by terrain that is, for some reason, inacessible. FFS, DOOM had a more open world

 

[commie]

FFS, ArcaniA had a more open world

Fixed that for you.