Dragon Age II

[dpp]

I heard you can leave a bottle of wine and get vinegar 10 years later

[SoulChicken]

Have no problem with a Shepard in my Dragon Age. I didn't like that my guy was mute at all. Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption showed me this year I can have a named character and still feel like its me playing.

Already have a problem with some dude saying conversations will happen like in Awakenings from now on only, I liked campfire chats. I hope and pray they keep the PC gaming RPG in it and not Mass Effect 2 it. I LOVE ME2 but my hope was that Dragon Age 2 would keep rocking DAO's play style.

We will see.

[Forbin]

My guess is for combat they'll make your companions fulling auto-pilot with maybe the option to change combat tactics, reduce the potion chugging requirement and just make a wow clone by playing around with the spell cooldowns and locking the camera over the shoulder. There were serious problems with the combat in DA:O, even on the PC. I'm going to miss the style, but I'm going to be optimistic they come up with something that's still fun. Seriously all I ended up doing was having my mages cast sleep + waking horror and easy mode every pull.

Mass Effect 2 was a great game, and even though it was so streamlined I felt like I was roleplaying more in it than I ever was in DA:O. If they can bring that kind of personality to the protagonist, I think they've got a shot of creating something great with the world they've constructed. A bunch of waring city states over a period of 10 years, surrounded by a massive Romanesque empire and English and France analogues should make for an interesting game.

[dpp]

The only problem with the combat in DA:O was that it required you to either exploit the shit out of it or have a really hard time. Anyone familiar with Baldur's Gate will always abuse of AoE spells. Still, I enjoyed every bit of Cone of Cold in that game

[juv3nal]

To clarify, I don't think DA2 is going to be the second coming of Planescape Torment or anything, but what it boils down to is that I've yet to play anything by Bioware aside from Neverwinter Nights (original campaign anyways, some of the user generated stuff was great, but way too much work to sift through the chaff) that I haven't liked. I even liked Jade Empire. So whatever their marketing folks have decided that their customers like has been generally better than ok by me. Given that DA:O outsold ME2, they're probably clever enough not to tilt the needle too far in that direction.

[Lu]

Hmm.

[Hermie]

Wait, light Darkspawn? Lightspawn?

[miffy495]

My brain keeps on thinking that that ogre is a graphics glitch. That armor just looks wrong.

[Moelman]

The entire second screenshot looks like shit. Even with the game a ways away, why would you make that piece of garbage public. Hopefully the final game does not look like that because from those two shots, I am not liking the new style at all.

But I guess this is the new new shit.

[Lu]

I wanna see gameplay footage before I make up my mind, but I agree that the 2nd screenshot looks kind of ugly.

[lobotomy42]

Both screenshots are really angular and not particularly interesting. This is supposed to be their "new style."

[juv3nal]

Yeah, the way they've done the angular thing just looks as if they're trying to save polys to bump up performance.

That's not "stylized" in any good sense of the word.

I think an angular look could be done well, but this isn't it.

Edit: But this is probably just a case of something being shown too early/rough...look at the ground texture (the blood splatter) in that second shot and tell me that's going to make it into the game.

[Murdoc]

:/

I know I've been shitting on what we know so far, but really my enthusiasm is pretty friggin low at this point. Odd since DA was my favorite game last year and i put more hours into in during one month then I did in TF2 all year(which is shocking for me).

Looks like the new visual style wasn't as extreme as the firstconcept shots wre proving and actualy pretty subtle. It's cleaner, like the ME stuff at least.

These look like really early set up shots companies do where they take some models, a peice of terrain and set up a couple fight scenes; so I doubt it speaks much about the final product.

But they aren't winning over my imagination with sily designs. Dragon Age: O may have had the cookie cutter lotr designs, but at least set an estalised mood. The stuff in this looks more like they are trying to merge GuildWars designs with their current drabness... which quite frankly looks amateurish and silly.

Lighting is pretty generic but at least doesn't contain some of the horrifying artifacts of the orignal; but since these are just diaorama bullshots, it's hard to really say if it'll look like that in the game.

Honestly it sounded like the PC was the focus for Origins and the consoles got the port, but for 2 it sounds like consoles are the focus and PC is getting the port... case in point the "angular stylization" seems more console polycount.

If they had to do that for performance, fine; but look at your concept art for direction; the atmosphere and styled anatomy was pretty cool.

I should say this isn't surprising, but then I remember Origin actually being amazingly successful on the PC... wasn't?

[Forbin]

New trailer is up:

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/

I don't like the character design and animation really. It seems like his armor is weightless, he looks weak as hell, and he moves like a woman.

[Murdoc]

Awesome logo treatment.

That's all I really have to say about this so far...

edit: *Yeah, I do actually, Forbin its a prerendered movie so I wouldn't worry about the animation at all since it's probably done by a third party company.

Also, still not digging the mass effect 2 route they are going with this one.

[Sleepdance]

So I'm playing Dragon Age right now and seeing all this stuff about the sequel makes me think. Right now I'm enjoeing it, but it is slowly becoming annoying, especialy in some espects that were clearly designed for older fans. Don't have a problem with that, since it is kinda what this game is about, but I would be glad for the noob mode. But even with Origins being that good, I don't think I could do it another time. It looks like they needed a game that could make a good franchise and then progres with their 'new gameplay sistems'(more streamlined combat,...).

I'm kinda happy that they aren't milking the same cow again, but at least switching them every once in a while. (although the cow it is looking they are milking is almost as big as the first(Buldar's gate included) cow).

Man, that was a bad cow comparison.

[lobotomy42]

I like that Flemeth is doing the narrating. It makes me optimistic that she (and Morrigan?) will have a big role in DA2.

[mikemariano]

New trailer is up:

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/

Noooo!

Whatever you do, don't watch a Bioware promotional video! Their alchemy turns anticipation into dread!

[Murdoc]

Nevermind it was.

Bleh, Id really not like this connected with the first game if they are going in a new direction with it.

edit3: Though DA2 is supposed to take place during DA, so they'll probably do some crisscrossing or something.

[Karimi]

That logo treatment was fantastic. The rest was ok. It seems like its going away from what I liked about DA:O , which was essentially the similarities to BG2. I'm not loving the look of the main character, the armor, or the bad guys. The spell was badass, but I'm not sure how much badass I want - i'm not looking for a God of War rpg. How much badass is too much ?!

[CaptainFish]

The spell was badass, but I'm not sure how much badass I want - i'm not looking for a God of War rpg. How much badass is too much ?!

If you want less badass, just choose Good or Nasty.

[Forbin]

Nasty

[Snooglebum]

Considering the Dragon Age world & mythos is not interesting, I'm not sure what's left if they tie us down to a predetermined character.

But the world of Thing is being menaced by Things and there's magic and dwarfsss and things! How is that not interesting!?!?

New trailer is up:

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/

I don't like the character design and animation really. It seems like his armor is weightless, he looks weak as hell, and he moves like a woman.

...So what will the female version move like? An alligator? Actually, that would be awesome.

[Forbin]

I think the dragon age world is actually pretty interesting, if they'd just get out of Ferelden, and stop treating the dark spawn as the only enemies. The best part of DA were the origin stories (other than the wood elves), and random side quests that focused on the different empires and the religious culture.

I'd love if DA2 didn't even mention the Grey Wardens.

[CaptainFish]

I think the dragon age world is actually pretty interesting, if they'd just get out of Ferelden, and stop treating the dark spawn as the only enemies. The best part of DA were the origin stories (other than the wood elves), and random side quests that focused on the different empires and the religious culture.

I agree, besides the fact that there are humans, elves and dwarves, Ferelden has some interesting traits. All the races have strange class structures with weird quirks. The elves aren't the high, respected magical creatures they usually are in Tolkien. Likewise, the treatment of magic as being more of a corruption than a blessing was refreshing. The darkspawn does basically mimic the style of the orcish hordes in the Lord of the Rings movies though. I even liked the idea of the Grey Wardens, this cult that has to defend the world from a force so rarely seen that the wardens are treated as rumour and people lose reverence for them in the interim. I haven't played DAO (Daaao, dey like come and me want go home!) since launch and haven't beaten it yet, but I liked the concepts, even if I can't comment on the full execution.