Dragon Age II

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Originally Posted by erocker

If you haven't installed them yet, don't bother. They do nothing for Dragon Age II over the current beta's currently listed on Nvidia's site.

Really? Oh well

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Bjorn_Of_Iceland

Really? Oh well

if you DONT have the betas, time to upgrade.

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Originally Posted by Mussels

if you DONT have the betas, time to upgrade.

Teh betas. I dont has em

Ive the 267.24, which reportedly fixed the DA2 issues prior to installing DA2. Current betas listed on their site. Senior Moderator saved me some time from downloading em 267.46

[AnaMaria81]

DA2 is really long.....I spend more time reading the lore than actual play.

[sakai4eva]

Originally Posted by AnaMaria81

DA2 is really long.....I spend more time reading the lore than actual play.

I spend more time kicking @$$ than doing anything else. Maybe you would like to try skipping the lore?

[AnaMaria81]

Originally Posted by sakai4eva

I spend more time kicking @$$ than doing anything else. Maybe you would like to try skipping the lore?

Then you are not understand a thing from the story of D.A. universe...
I like to play those games like I'm reading a good book. I bet you don't even know what the title means if you didn't read all those stuff from codecs...

[alucasa]

Originally Posted by sakai4eva

I spend more time kicking @$$ than doing anything else. Maybe you would like to try skipping the lore?

The point of RPG is not having fun from kicking and slashing. The joy of RPG comes from understanding the world you are virtually in, understanding characters' motives and their backgrounds, and finally understanding what is happening to the world you are set in.

RPG = Role playing game.

[WhiteLotus]

Originally Posted by alucasa

The point of RPG is not having fun from kicking and slashing. The joy of RPG comes from understanding the world you are virtually in, understanding characters' motives and their backgrounds, and finally understanding what is happening to the world you are set in.

RPG = Role playing game.

I enjoy the killing big bad things most.

[Nailezs]

im all for sticking one of mmy 2 swords into the chrst of some beastie. i have to make myself have the patience to read the lore. i enjoy the lore, im just impatient.

[sakai4eva]

Originally Posted by alucasa

The point of RPG is not having fun from kicking and slashing. The joy of RPG comes from understanding the world you are virtually in, understanding characters' motives and their backgrounds, and finally understanding what is happening to the world you are set in.

RPG = Role playing game.

Originally Posted by Nailezs

im all for sticking one of mmy 2 swords into the chrst of some beastie. i have to make myself have the patience to read the lore. i enjoy the lore, im just impatient.

What he said ^


All things said and done, I find myself no longer having the patience to deal with the actual RPG-ing

Of course, having read most of the lore in DA:O does allow me some leeway in skipping the lore of DA2, just as ME1's lore allowed me to skip some of ME2's lore.

Just a little side-track here, anybody thinks that ME2 should have retained the cool-down based weaponry instead of the clip based?

[crazyeyesreaper]

i believe ME2 should have left the hacking etc as it was, they should have maintained cool down clips are retarded, ME2 is basically a gears of war wannabe, the RPG elements of it are worthless. same goes to DA2 might as well just play a true action hack and slash, along the lines of Devil May Cry, Bayonnetta etc, lol i feel ME1 and DA:O were the superior titles in both series, and #2 of each was a let down.

[sakai4eva]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

i believe ME2 should have left the hacking etc as it was, they should have maintained cool down clips are retarded, ME2 is basically a gears of war wannabe, the RPG elements of it are worthless. same goes to DA2 might as well just play a true action hack and slash, along the lines of Devil May Cry, Bayonnetta etc, lol i feel ME1 and DA:O were the superior titles in both series, and #2 of each was a let down.

+9000

I hated how every single char class was totally raped in ME2 and DA2. The bio/engineer and mage skills used to rock the boat and allow for cool combos. Now it's just dps or cc skills only.

And I hate the low amount of skills available for each char type. It used to be cool...

[Mussels]

i like the lower amount of skills, its simpler and easier to deal with.

that said, i do wish there was more combos available with the same char, not just cross class ones.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by sakai4eva

+9000

I hated how every single char class was totally raped in ME2 and DA2. The bio/engineer and mage skills used to rock the boat and allow for cool combos. Now it's just dps or cc skills only.

And I hate the low amount of skills available for each char type. It used to be cool...

Lets not forget how they removed the 'wobble' from using the sniper scope.. I heard that consoler's actually complained about it and that it was too hard to snipe [with the wobble], hence why they removed it

Origins and ME1 were great games (ME1 to a lesser extent due to being an actual console port), where as both of their sequels forced me to stop playing not even half way through due to sheer boredom and even irritation at the gameplay/story events...

[sakai4eva]

Originally Posted by Mussels

i like the lower amount of skills, its simpler and easier to deal with.

that said, i do wish there was more combos available with the same char, not just cross class ones.

The original DA:O was designed with the PC in mind. There was really a ton of spells for use. DA2 was designed for cross-platform appeal, so the controls are made easier and simpler. The thing I hated the most is that the rogue now no longer has a kill move that has a 99% one-hit kill chance. I kinda missed that.

[sakai4eva]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Lets not forget how they removed the 'wobble' from using the sniper scope.. I heard that consoler's actually complained about it and that it was too hard to snipe [with the wobble], hence why they removed it

Origins and ME1 were great games (ME1 to a lesser extent due to being an actual console port), where as both of their sequels forced me to stop playing not even half way through due to sheer boredom and even irritation at the gameplay/story events...

I played ME1 and ME2 from start to finish. Did DA:O more than once. I just have the feeling that playing the older version seems better than the new one, despite the improved graphics

[yogurt_21]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Lets not forget how they removed the 'wobble' from using the sniper scope.. I heard that consoler's actually complained about it and that it was too hard to snipe [with the wobble], hence why they removed it

Origins and ME1 were great games (ME1 to a lesser extent due to being an actual console port), where as both of their sequels forced me to stop playing not even half way through due to sheer boredom and even irritation at the gameplay/story events...

lol console jerks must have failed to recognize that the wobble goes away the more you invest in that skill. And really if you're not going to invest in that skill why use the weapon?

but really I do miss the cool down based weaponry of me1 and certainly the skill sets, it actually made combat more interesting.

Looks like I'll be waiting for DAII to go on sale just as I did with me2.

[random]

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

but really I do miss the cool down based weaponry of me1 and certainly the skill sets, it actually made combat more interesting.

I was talking about this with a couple of mates of mine and we found it weird that they had went backwards in technology in regards to weaponry in ME2 since you were back to using clips and ammo where in ME1 you were using actual sci-fi weapons that didn't need any of that crap.

[crazyeyesreaper]

lol its already been said they did it to appeal to more of the market, in order to get the greatest majority of buyers they need to water down and simplify shit to an extreme, Thus same engine same everything easiest way to appeal to the Gears of War fanatics was to make ME2 more like gears of war lol and other games like it thus we went backwards i tech to better appeal to that audience.

[n-ster]

I'm liking DA2, not as much as DA:O but still alot nonetheless... however, it is much more fun on harder difficulties than normal

[Mussels]

i think i've read/played enough to comment on DAII now, a mini review if you will.

• Pros:
• Simplified combat. Still many trees to branch into, but each spell seems more effective on their own now.
• Nice graphical improvments
• Stable game (zero crashes for me)
• In depth backstories/quests for each party character.
  Main character is voiced, most dialogue is 'cinematic'

• Cons:
• Audio problems (voices quieter than combat, all voices echo??)
• Zero variety. its all the same combat missions against the same opponents - no 'vehicle' missions, no stealth, nothing. every mission is the same - go from start to finish of a linear path, kill everything.
• Insane repetition of maps. most combat areas are reused at least half a dozen times. One example stood out where i had to return to an area i had to kill a boss monster and they even had hawke say "why is this alive? didnt we kill it already?" - its a terrible sign when even the voice actors get lines about how damn repetitive it is.
• DLC is almost a requirement, the quality of the loot is much higher than you can get without it.
• Loot/equipment is screwy - armor can only be equipped on hawke (the main character), so 99% of armor drops are worthless.
• Minimal effect from importing save games. none of it affects gameplay at all, just a few overheard conversations really.
• Fight difficulty is very erratic. some boss fights were far harder than the leadups to them, so you'd have to backtrack and level up before returning (not always possible), or just lower the difficulty.
• No more awesome kill animations like leaping onto a dragons head to stab it through the skull! i mean come on
• Much, Much smaller scope. for a sequel with so much repetition, it still felt about half the size of origins. without the repeated maps it'd be half that again.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by Mussels

i think i've read/played enough to comment on DAII now, a mini review if you will.

• Cons:
• Simplified combat.

Fixed.

And combat looks like it's been taken out of a bloody anime, it's ridiculous.

[AltecV1]

Originally Posted by Mussels

i think i've read/played enough to comment on DAII now, a mini review if you will.

• Pros:
• Simplified combat. Still many trees to branch into, but each spell seems more effective on their own now.
• Nice graphical improvments
• Stable game (zero crashes for me)
• In depth backstories/quests for each party character.
  Main character is voiced, most dialogue is 'cinematic'

• Cons:
• Audio problems (voices quieter than combat, all voices echo??)
• Zero variety. its all the same combat missions against the same opponents - no 'vehicle' missions, no stealth, nothing. every mission is the same - go from start to finish of a linear path, kill everything.
• Insane repetition of maps. most combat areas are reused at least half a dozen times. One example stood out where i had to return to an area i had to kill a boss monster and they even had hawke say "why is this alive? didnt we kill it already?" - its a terrible sign when even the voice actors get lines about how damn repetitive it is.
• DLC is almost a requirement, the quality of the loot is much higher than you can get without it.
• Loot/equipment is screwy - armor can only be equipped on hawke (the main character), so 99% of armor drops are worthless.
• Minimal effect from importing save games. none of it affects gameplay at all, just a few overheard conversations really.
• Fight difficulty is very erratic. some boss fights were far harder than the leadups to them, so you'd have to backtrack and level up before returning (not always possible), or just lower the difficulty.
• No more awesome kill animations like leaping onto a dragons head to stab it through the skull! i mean come on
• Much, Much smaller scope. for a sequel with so much repetition, it still felt about half the size of origins. without the repeated maps it'd be half that again.

all your "PROS" are total and utter BS!

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by AltecV1

all your "PROS" are total and utter BS!

hey, i had to try and find SOME.


personally i like the simplified combat. i'm not the only one. setting up tactics for an hour in origins was extremely annoying.

[ctrain]

Going to disagree on DEEP CHARACTERS.

My brother is a fucking asshole who exists solely to spite me and be a dick at every possible chance he gets. He will go out of his way to disagree and seems to have it in for our own family. Me trying to help our mother was apparently more upsetting to him than me fucking some elf guy in a whorehouse completely out of the blue while he got to sit outside and listen the bed bang the wall. Fuck him and that's about as deep as it gets.

Spoiler

If you leave him behind he will go off to join the templars just to say fuck you one more time. I was happy to know that I got to personally kill him.

It's not much better for most characters. Your sister is probably the best character in the game save for Merrill and Verric because they aren't assholes for no good reason at all. I felt infinitely more in tune with the characters from the first game, they actually had some kind of personality.


The entire plot is that you are some dude who apparently has no qualms about turning 30 dudes in a cramped alley into paste because word apparently doesn't spread that you can fart and cause half of them to burst like a balloon... oh and you totally happen to be THE UP AND COMING THING IN THE BIG CITY. It plants the seed in your head that you have to save the world or some shit and then tosses you into some shithole city where you have to do a million quests that are usually on par with helping people wipe their own ass because you "need experience" first.

So then you get to do a bunch of stupid shit that isn't interesting in the slightest or really even remotely relevant to the grand plot save for some minor things. Then later you get to do a million tedious, stupid quests again... then later yet more stupid borderline nonsensical shit happens like:

Spoiler

the quinari or whatever get pissed for no reason and decide to be assholes and take over the city. Then you have a dramatic showdown 1v1 style that literally involves you running in circles spamming cooldowns and waiting.

Finally they top it off with more moronic plot devices that makes it completely impossible for any kind of good outcome and shit hits the fan ROLL DRAGON AGE 3.