Dragon Age II

[Totenkindly]

That sucks.. I'm going to try to cancel. If I can't, oh well.

I'm a little more flexible and would say a price under $40 would be acceptable to me, but not the $59 or whatever it was I paid for it. I definitely did not get the game I was expecting based on the license, and I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had been coming into it cold -- I only bought it because I had played DA.

I used to chat often with one of the Bioware writers actually. He had left, and after that, it seemed like Mass Effect 2 had suffered a bit. I thought it was a fluke, but there must have been more people who had left, if some of this streamlining is trickling down to Dragon Age as well (which was never really like their old games either, but cool enough). It makes wonder about that Star Wars game in the works too. I hate MMOs, but the only reason I'd play that one is because of what Bioware might bring to the table, storywise. It's sounding like that could suffer too (that is, unless all of the good writers left were actually moved there). Umm, just a thought.

Which would suck. Because my two most fave games are SWKOTOR 1 & 2, and because of those, I'd considering playing the Star Wars MMO. Not sure now, though.

Hows the team combo stuff? Like disorientate, brittle, stagger etc.

I'll let you know when I get there.

I finally did hit a stage where my mage is icing stuff, and a hit from my warrior/rogue will shatter them, but I haven't had a chance to experiment with other synergies yet. That specific synergy was already in DA.

 

[JocktheMotie]

Honestly, my largest complaint is how awful it runs on my comp. My vid card is definitely my bottleneck [8800GT] but I was going to wait until summer/fall to upgrade for Deus Ex/Skyrim. High settings worked very well in DA:O, while this game looks worse and runs poorly. Hopefully newer drivers can fix it, but it just looks very bland.

I'm thinking of changing the difficulty up too, because as it is early in the game I can just spam Auto Attack and cruise.

 

[EcK]

Alright, you're slowly putting me off the game.

Hows the team combo stuff? Like disorientate, brittle, stagger etc.

Frankly all the finesse of DA:O's gameplay is pretty much gone. The absence of a good overview of the battles and the fact that enemies just spawn magically (not, some enemies, pretty much all enemies) doesn't even make me want ot be tactical. It'd be like wasting good grain on bad soil.
The story is okey, even though it's not up to my standards for a rpg so far.
I still play it, that has to count for something, I usually don't last 10 minutes in a 'so so' game, but I suspect the licence has something to do with it.
Also I tend to be more forgiving when a game is 'fast' (that's why i didn'"t up the difficulty level).

 

[Totenkindly]

Honestly, my largest complaint is how awful it runs on my comp. My vid card is definitely my bottleneck [8800GT] but I was going to wait until summer/fall to upgrade for Deus Ex/Skyrim. High settings worked very well in DA:O, while this game looks worse and runs poorly. Hopefully newer drivers can fix it, but it just looks very bland.

Yeah, I have a GT460 I just bought in December, and DA:O works fine at all high settings, but I had to lower some of the settings on this game because it was either skipping frames just in the opening sequences (against the darkspawn) and/or leaving large triangles of black on my screen. wth?

 

[EcK]

Yeah, I have a GT460 I just bought in December, and DA:O works fine at all high settings, but I had to lower some of the settings on this game because it was either skipping frames just in the opening sequences (against the darkspawn) and/or leaving large triangles of black on my screen. wth?

artifacts maybe related to hum, your graphic card overheating or, say something crazy and unlikely as bad optimization.

 

[Octarine]

artifacts maybe related to hum, your graphic card overheating or, say something crazy and unlikely as bad optimization.

Yes, artifacts = overheating or excessive overclocks. You can damage cards if you are pushing them hard enough to artifact (done that before)


The game appeared to run acceptably on my i5, 8800gts 320 (overclocked to max stable) system in 1680x1050, in direct x 9 mode (medium settings, 2xAA). You don't need super high frames per second as it is not a first person shooter.

 

[Totenkindly]

Hmmm... Well, I never set my card up to overclock, it's not overclocked normally is it? And I've played recent versions of Need for Speed and MMO raids, and DA:O on max etc. since I got it without it showing ANY sign that it was even being pushed hard. I haven't tried any official benchmark tests, though. And I was only running at 1280 x whatever rez.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

The games story is very episodic in nature. The story pacing isn't unlike a several seasons of a Television show all with episodes that begin and close and filler episodes in between.

Television probably would have been a better medium for it honestly, as a show it's brilliant.

 

[JocktheMotie]

Yes, artifacts = overheating or excessive overclocks. You can damage cards if you are pushing them hard enough to artifact (done that before)


The game appeared to run acceptably on my i5, 8800gts 320 (overclocked to max stable) system in 1680x1050, in direct x 9 mode (medium settings, 2xAA). You don't need super high frames per second as it is not a first person shooter.

Yes, I've gone to the DX9 renderer and am playing @1920x1080 with 4x AA without a hiccup, it's astounding how much a difference the renderer makes. Very peculiar, but it may iron out soon with some updates I'm hoping.

Now that I can actually play the game I'm finding it pretty enjoyable. Like I said, I do like the pacing of the combat much better along with its more visceral nature. I'm not far enough into the story to really comment however it seems more centered around YOU and your development as a "Champion" than about saving the world from evil, which I find to be a bit of a departure. As Kdude mentioned earlier, it's more ME2 in that regard, as it was more about your team and your relationships with them than it was about the Collectors. Some of the game mechanics have been tightened up and some simplifications made [potion/crafting system gets rid of having to buy reagents for the most part] that I think are fine, and the Ability trees have been tightened up too, which for me is welcome from the Mage perspective as I always thought in DA:O they were largely a mess with way too much filler.

Unfortunately, none of the characters I've met so far have been as interesting as Morgan Le Fay Morrigan or Mordin, and I miss Morrigan and Alistair's banter.

 

[ultimawepun]

The game appeared to run acceptably on my i5, 8800gts 320 (overclocked to max stable) system in 1680x1050, in direct x 9 mode (medium settings, 2xAA).

Wow. I run everything on 1162x864 resolution with a 9800GT and an i5. I get paranoid if I set the resolution any higher. Do you guys think it's safe for me to turn it up a bit? I am not so knowledgeable in regards to hardware capabilities.

On topic: I haven't finished awakening yet, so I'll pass on DA2 for now.

 

[EcK]

The game appeared to run acceptably on my i5, 8800gts 320 (overclocked to max stable) system in 1680x1050, in direct x 9 mode (medium settings, 2xAA). You don't need super high frames per second as it is not a first person shooter.

Strange, plays like one.

I made the game a bit more tactical by using curses etc instead of the no-friendly-fire-zone-spells.

 

[EcK]

Wow. I run everything on 1162x864 resolution with a 9800GT and an i5. I get paranoid if I set the resolution any higher. Do you guys think it's safe for me to turn it up a bit? I am not so knowledgeable in regards to hardware capabilities.

On topic: I haven't finished awakening yet, so I'll pass on DA2 for now.

You can push it however much you want, it wo'nt explode I swear. Only excessive overclocking\overheating can damage your card. Pushing the settings higher won't do that.
Usually some graphic options tend to use alot of gpu power (the graphic card's processor), you can just run a few tests to see what makes the game smoother etc. Generally I prefer a higher resolution with less fancy effects (especially on a big screen)

 

[Atomic Fiend]

Just beat the game, turns out the person behind the interrogation of was a member of the first games party, maybe you may have killed that person in your imported run of the first game and it may be a different ending. Who I got I'll never tell.

 

[EcK]

Okey, am I being suspicious or is it normal this review doesn't seem to adress any of the major flaws of the game.
o_o
I mean, at least to mention the fact that there's basically 2 models of "inside a place in the city" and 1 and a half type of cavern for the whole game.. seems reasonable to me... also there's nothing 'awesome' about having a 50 hours long rpg mostly happen in one, utterly unrealistic small city ('official offices in the street, wierd harbor, few interactions, every house is the same inside with more or less opened doors depending on the mission, 90% of dialogue options are meaningless as they end up in violence for no good reason anyway)

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/08/dragon-age-2-review/

 

[erm]

Okey, am I being suspicious or is it normal this review doesn't seem to adress any of the major flaws of the game.
o_o
I mean, at least to mention the fact that there's basically 2 models of "inside a place in the city" and 1 and a half type of cavern for the whole game.. seems reasonable to me... also there's nothing 'awesome' about having a 50 hours long rpg mostly happen in one, small city.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/08/dragon-age-2-review/

Games journalists are notoriously corrupt. If it's not outright bribes, it's advertising revenue and corporate pressure. Even "journalist" parties, or whatever the events where they get free stuff are called.

Is the post above you a serious spoiler? My mind wiped before it had a chance to fully form in my consciousness. "Just beat the game" is one of the trigger phrases.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

It happened.

 

[EcK]

Games journalists are notoriously corrupt. If it's not outright bribes, it's advertising revenue and corporate pressure. Even "journalist" parties, or whatever the events where they get free stuff are called.

I loved flawed games before, like vampire bloodlines for example. That's not the issue, but not even mentioning the issues and just calling everything awesome, even the shitty camera, is just not something i'd imagine a serious non completly blinded by fanboyishness reviewer would do. 94% and calling DA 2 better than DA:O is just.. I mean it's not even a matter of opinions, you can make a long list of what da:O has and DA2 has less of and the list of enhancements is extremely short.

 

[EcK]

sh, why the hell are you giving out major spoilers. That is NOT cool

 

[Atomic Fiend]

I'm being careful enough not to actually spoil a thing. Also, remember that there are multiple endings. You have no clue what happens at the end. Not a one.

 

[erm]

vampire bloodlines

I think the love for that games comes from the bits that aren't flawed. You know, most of it.

I'm being careful enough not to actually spoil a thing. Also, remember that there are multiple endings. You have no clue what happens at the end. Not a one.

I'm gonna guess it's a big spoiler then.

Remember, "there's a twist" is a spoiler. That sentence alone has lowered my enjoyment of so many stories. It's so much easier to guess a twist if you know one is coming.

Any vague allusion to an event in the second half is definitely a spoiler.