Dragon Age 2

[Jeff]

Dutch saying: "Better to steal something good, then make up something bad."

Free translation though...

 

The more I read about DA:2, the more I'm starting to like it. Although they will sadly depart from their RPG-roots (Dragon Age ISN'T hardcore RPG folks...play Baldurs Gate), the direction it's taking is...interesting to say the least!

I think the PC version is as hardcore / old school of a Western RPG as we've had since Baldur's Gate.

[DarthParametric]

Dragon Age ISN'T hardcore RPG folks...play Baldurs Gate

BG isn't really considered "hardcore" by a lot of people. I'm not sure I've seen a lot of reference to DA being considered hardcore either, more just being a welcome return to Bioware's more traditional RPG roots. Roots they are apparently digging up and poisoning with DA2.

[Miltiades]

I haven't enjoyed a BioWare game as much as Dragon Age since KotOR. I don't get why they would overhaul so many aspects of Dragon Age for its sequel. I thought people really liked how DA turned out.

[stoffe]

The devs say over on the official forums said that the limit of 3 options was just in the demo they are showing and that, like ME, the wheel can accommodate up to 6 choices in a single screen, with the option of paging through multiple screens if needs be.

 

I guess this demonstrates the danger of releasing info about an upcoming product in small bits and pieces. Without seeing the whole picture people get the impression that what they see now is all that they'll get, and such misconceptions can be hard to do something about once they've taken root.

 

Just like how the Bearded Wonder protagonist they've been using so far in screenshots and demos has made some previewing sites/magazines jump to the conclusion that you'll play as a fixed male warrior protagonist where you can't change the gender, profession or other specifics.

 

Kind of sad that you need to plow through the Bioware forums for developer posts to find out actual facts about the game, something only the Hardcore fans would consider doing. How hard would it be to put all the released info as a summary on the official site, really?

 

To me the wheel interface itself isn't the problem, it's the overall shift in direction they appear to be taking. Everything I see from the devs just reminds me of the Lucas "faster, more intense" mantra.

 

I'm kind of ambivalent about the whole dialog wheel/VO thing. I prefer a voiced main character to a mute one who just stands there nodding while people talk to her, but I also like seeing in advance just what the character will say if I pick a particular response.

 

The Mass Effect games were notoriously poor at that. Made me scratch my head several times wondering if I slipped and clicked the wrong reply option when the character says/does something completely different than what the reply option would suggest.

[DarthParametric]

The devs have said that no company releases every last drop of info about a game this far out from release, and that's a fair point. However, the info they have released to date does strike me as odd. They've made it very clear they have no particular interest in pandering to the tastes of long term Bioware fans or existing Origins fans. It seems they spy greener pastures in mainstream land. I'm not sure their current marketing approach really serves that market very well though. It seems like they are both alienating their current user base and at the same time offering up something to the mass market that is probably going to get a resounding "meh".

 

Kind of sad that you need to plow through the Bioware forums for developer posts to find out actual facts about the game, something only the Hardcore fans would consider doing.

At least they make that easy to do, just by clicking the BW icon next to the thread title, happily a feature from the old forums they retained.

[Astrotoy7]

Dragon Age ISN'T hardcore RPG folks...

 

This depends on what someone accepts as their definition of "hardcore RPG"

 

Some will insist it must have PnP roots, others a complex dialogue system - I personally like the "has an intro level that makes you kills rats" and "goes on for way too long" criteria

 

Im still cursing the fates at losing my DAO save... drats!!

 

mtfbwya

[Rake]

The gamespot preview seems to have the most accurate info that I read:

 

Overall, the combat didn't feel remarkably different from the first Dragon Age. It flowed a little more smoothly and moved at a quicker pace, but that was mostly because our talents and spells recharged quickly after using them. That could very easily have just been something BioWare tuned for this public demo--likely a lowered difficulty to help ease players back into the experience. After this admittedly brief demo, we're confident that BioWare knows what they're doing. This isn't going to be a hack-and-slash game.

 

I'm not too worried about the combat, however I really don't like the art direction they took. I wasn't a huge fan of DA:O's art style, as I don't think it fit the world; however, I was hoping for a more realistic rather than comicy look for the newer Dragon Ages. VO isn't a problem in my book either, Mass Effect made silent PC games a little more awkward for me. My only concern is that the game will be A) around only 20 hours long and B) Like others have said, the "Get Lost" option turns into "ima pop a cap in yo ass."

[DarthParametric]

Video posted of some random behind-the-scenes stuff over at Game Informer - http://gameinformer.com/games/news/m/mediagallery/430825.aspx

[Char Ell]

Wow, isn't that a bit fast. That can't be good for quality... Even ME 2 took much more time and they didn't jump to another engine. Just tweaked and altered it.

 

This doesn't bode well

QFE. I can't help but express the same sentiments, 4+ months after Quanon posted this. I haven't drawn many conclusions about the changes BioWare is making to DA2, still waiting for more info on that front. But I am definitely concerned with the seemingly short development timeframe for DA2. IIRC DA:O was released in 2009 November. DA2 is scheduled for a 2011 March release. So let's see... add the 2... carry the 5... that's 17 months after the release of DA:O. I will be impressed if come March BioWare pulls it off and releases a quality game with minimal bugs but color me skeptical at this point in time.

[DarthParametric]

As has been previously stated, primary development on DA1 was completed at the beginning of 2009. The PC version was originally slated to ship around March or April, but EA held it back for a simultaneous release with the console versions, the porting of which continued until the release in November 2009. That essentially means that there will potentially have been up to 2 years available for development of DA2 by the time it ships in 1st quarter 2011. Now judging from what devs have said, they didn't leap into developing DA2 straight after primary development work on DA1 ended, but I am fairly certain that they started at least some initial work on it before DA1's retail release. If you look at the credits for Awakening, released in March 2010, you'll see that it was pretty much developed by a "B team". The obvious explanation now for why that was the case is because the bulk of the DA1 "A team" was already at work on DA2. This is also supported by the original post in this thread, pointing out that some copies of Awakening shipped with teasers for DA2.

 

Also keep in mind that, again as has been previously stated, contrary to what Quanon said DA2 is not using a new engine. It's still running on the Eclipse engine and from what they have shown so far there don't seem to have been any significant changes made under the hood. They've changed the art style, but that is mostly cosmetic.

[Char Ell]

Ah yes, I am familiar with the development timeline for DA:O. And yes, sorry, I did know BioWare continues to use their internally developed Eclipse Engine used for DA:O in DA2 development.

 

What I'm not clear on is when DA2 production really began. You seem to have knowledge that some level of pre-production work was done prior to DA:O's release. Two years of development time would definitely be better than 17 months and would inspire more confidence in yours truly. But I haven't closely followed DA2 development info thus far. I will likely start paying closer attention a month or two before DA2's scheduled release to see how the game appears to be shaping up. Will BioWare score another win with DA2 or will it be BioWare's first game in the EA era that fails to meet expectations of BioWare's corporate parent? I can only await the answer to that question.

[DarthParametric]

The development timetable is really a non-issue to me. People seem to be getting caught up in it, but of far greater concern should be the overall direction they are taking, not how long they are taking to do it.

[Tysyacha]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

So BioWare wants to make people play a Dragon Age version of Commander Shepard.

 

How utterly original! NOT!!!

 

No importation of the character you worked SO !!@@ing hard to level up to 30 in the course of Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening? No clicking text and picking out which ones are the "special" ones related to your race, class or skills (like Willpower and Cunning)? I swear--at least with the text clicks, there were literally HUNDREDS of conversational combinations you could pick? Now? You could exhaust all of "Hawke's" dialogue options in about three separate playthroughs. More combat-oriented? Please. The reason I'm so addicted to Dragon Age is BECAUSE of the RP, not IN SPITE OF IT.

 

When I "tweak" Hawke's stats, I'm making his intelligence 8 if possible. That way, he'll at least be an idiot who will have some "dialogue wheel" options like "Angry grunt", "Meh", "Hit on target!" and "Playful Gibberish". Thus, I will have my revenge upon this horrible desecration of what made the original Dragon Age so fantastic! It makes me want to re-buy and re-install Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura again, just for the RP.

 

All the same, if GameSpot loves DA2, I'll probably download it and give it a shot. *sigh*

 

Am I addicted? Like any drug user...

[Sabretooth]

When I "tweak" Hawke's stats, I'm making his intelligence 8 if possible. That way, he'll at least be an idiot who will have some "dialogue wheel" options like "Angry grunt", "Meh", "Hit on target!" and "Playful Gibberish". Thus, I will have my revenge upon this horrible desecration of what made the original Dragon Age so fantastic!

 

Oh no, they won't let you get away with it that easily. Having a low intelligence will still let you speak as well as anyone else, because the story has to be CINEMATIC and GROUND-BREAKING.

[DarthParametric]

That, and because it's too expensive to record 2 (male/female) whole other sets of dialogue tracks for retard characters. Same reason you don't get to play as an Elf or Dwarf.

[igyman]

Nah, not being able to play as an Elf or a Dwarf has nothing to do with voice actors, or at least it shouldn't, since accents are not race specific in Dragon Age, despite uninformed claims to the opposite. What the real reason is, I fear we'll never know for sure.

[DarthParametric]

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/07/28/a-look-at-the-qunari-evolved.aspx

[Sabretooth]

Great model, I really like the new Qunari design, even if it reminds me of a certain someone who couldn't carry any more and so he had to drop it.

[igyman]

While I don't have anything bad to say about the design itself, visual consistency is very important to me and I would have preferred a new race with this look, instead of an old race suddenly getting a drastic makeover.

[DarthParametric]

Well apparently the horns at least aren't a retcon. According to a post on the official forum it is mentioned in the Origins codex that some qunari have horns. That was news to me - guess I never read that part. Or maybe I never unlocked it because Sten was as dull as hell.

[Astor]

I like the 'new' Qunari - it looks a little more exotic than Sten, who just looked like a really tall, muscular, red skinned human.

[DarthParametric]

Red? He was more of a dark grey.

[Char Ell]

The development timetable is really a non-issue to me. People seem to be getting caught up in it, but of far greater concern should be the overall direction they are taking, not how long they are taking to do it.

I guess we should agree to disagree on this one. KotOR II is an example of a game that could have been much better if more development time had been granted it. While I don't think that a long development timeframe guarantees a good quality game, I do hold the opinion that a good quality CRPG can not be developed in less than two years. I won't change that opinion until I see it happen. I will judge Dragon Age 2 on its merits whenever it comes out though I won't be able to determine DA2's development timeframe unless it's known when development actually started.

[DarthParametric]

That's not really a fair comparison. K2's failings are due to Obsidian's incompetence, not the development timeframe. Every game they have released to date has been a bug-ridden mess, regardless of whether they had 1 year to develop it or 4.

[Ztalker]

I guess we should agree to disagree on this one. KotOR II is an example of a game that could have been much better if more development time had been granted it. While I don't think that a long development timeframe guarantees a good quality game, I do hold the opinion that a good quality CRPG can not be developed in less than two years. I won't change that opinion until I see it happen. I will judge Dragon Age 2 on its merits whenever it comes out though I won't be able to determine DA2's development timeframe unless it's known when development actually started.

 

I started a thread about this in the official Bioware forums. I got insulted by fanboys (one even asking what Bioware had to do with Star Wars) before a moderator shut it down.

 

However, I agree with you completely. If you look at the development time for Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2, you'll see it's almost unrealistic to think Dragon Age 2 will be top-notch.

 

Unless Bioware allowed a small team to polish the original DA (it was delayed a few months if I remember correctly) and shoved the rest of their team on Dragon Age 2. In any case, I'm excited for this, but I'm doubting Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 quality can be met.