Dragon Age: Origins

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
If I ever see Awakening for about $20 or less I will probably get it, but honestly I don't know too much about it.

I never really liked Leliana that much so I can't say I'm super excited about her backstory add-on. Also, considering it sounds like just one mission $7 is kind of steep.

If they come out with some really cool additions priced reasonably I would very excited to go back in the Dragon Age world. I just really hate this age of pricey DLCs and micro-transactions.
 
Eluvei said:
Guys I'm curious, have any of you bought Awakenings? If you have, is it a good campaign? I didn't buy it because I thought the price was too high for an expansion, and it still is, but I want to be prepared in case it goes into a random sale again on Steam, so I need opinions! I want to take my elf on new fantastic adventures.
It's alright, but certainly not worth the 40 bucks. It's on the short side, feels especially rushed at the end. Story could have been interesting, but the more fascinating elements of it (namely,
the Architect
), are kept in the background and don't come into play until the last minute. You also get to make some decisions on how to run the land you're ruling, which is neat, but most of them don't really pan out satisfactorily in-game, only really affecting the epilogue cards. It's also on the easy side, since the enemy AI remains as inept as ever while you get all sorts of game-breaking abilities.

Worst of all, though, are the freaking bugs. There are lot of them, many are game-breaking (you could end up losing your gear, miss out on side quests, or getting your companions' Approval ratings trashed) and even three months after release, Bioware has yet to fix them (they are currently working on that, but it still did not need to take this long). You'll also need to patch Origins to run Awakening, and that has the unfortunate effect of replacing the memory leaks that plagued it before with more frequent CTDs. Hooray!
 
Thanks everyone for helping me decide not to get Awakenings yet. :casca:

Walter said:
Well, the cover is awesome at least.

I'm ... vaguely interested?

Yeah, not much to discuss without any real details or at least screenies.

Instead, why don't we discuss how awesome my old elf looks?

5xoh85.jpg
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen this discussed anywhere that I check today.

The team at BioWare is also aware that many gamers weren't satisfied with the graphical quality in Origins; Dragon Age II not only looks better, but sports a new artistic direction that gives the world of Thedas a more distinct visual identity.
Ahem... really? I see that the main character appears to have a higher poly count. But I'm really not seeing this dramatic new art direction in these shots. All I see are character models with more angular armor than in the last game.

That shot with the Ogre also wasn't one to ingratiate this sequel to me. The scripted deathblow animations got old the second time they used them in the game. By the 18th they were just annoying.
 
I'm shocked at how uglier than the first game these look. Maybe it's in a very early stage of development, but oh my, look at those textures in the background. The pointy armors also look very ugly and early 2000s.

And I'm not happy that they dropped the "Origins" aspect by giving us a main character called HAWKE:

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/07/09/five-facts-about-hawke-in-dragon-age-ii.aspx said:
Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the player's character in Dragon Age II will be fully voiced. This opens the door for a more cinematic approach to dialogue and creates an identity for the character outside of the text you see on-screen. It also eliminates those awkward scenarios where you feel like your character should be reacting, but instead just stares blankly without so much as a grunt.

Did they consider it a failure to make such a drastic change? I really like my elf Jamil more than a fucking Hawke, that's for sure!
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
The team at BioWare is also aware that many gamers weren't satisfied with the graphical quality in Origins; Dragon Age II not only looks better, but sports a new artistic direction that gives the world of Thedas a more distinct visual identity.

I had never heard any complaints about the game's graphics. At all.

Hell, us sharing all of our awesome screenshots was a major appeal of the game.


Walter said:
The scripted deathblow animations got old the second time they used them in the game. By the 18th they were just annoying.

So true. It also became infuriating when during the lengthy animations I was still taking damage from other enemies pelting me with arrows and spells.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
http://kotaku.com/5585473/dragon-age-2-following-in-mass-effects-footsteps
Dragon Age 2 isn't pulling just one page from Mass Effect's book. It's pulling several, including the ones titled "conversation systems" and "save game continuity".

Information from the latest issue of Game Informer has begin appearing online, and mentions that Dragon Age 2 is doing away with the classic "tree" dialogue system, where you're presented with lines of text that you select, and replacing it with Mass Effect's "wheel", which uses intent as a means of generating almost "real-time" conversations. There's a slight change, though; rather than basing your answers on their position on the wheel, the "hub" will now clearly indicate what tone your response will be; anger, flirting, etc.

You'll also be able to carry over your save game from the first title, the events you forged in Dragon Age determining how things turn our in the sequel. Sounds strange, but Dragon Age 2 begins while the final events of the first game are coming to a close, so there's cross-over there.

Another change - and this might be the biggest - is that only the PC version will retain Origins' "strategic combat". The console versions will feature a new combat system, one BioWare says plays to the strength of the control pad. "Rather than try to mimic the PC experience on consoles", the GI report states, "Dragon Age II has a battle system more tailored to the strengths of the PS3 and 360."

Sounds like your Dragon Age combat just got Oblivioned.

As one of those bastards that prefers Mass Effect's more "contemporary" take on the RPG to Dragon Age: Origins' more "classic" approach, I'm digging these changes, as in many places Dragon Age felt like playing a game from, well, 2003. That said, those left upset by the move, I will understand, and provide tissues and hugs if need be. Change can be tough when you liked the thing it used to be.
 
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/110/1108058p1.html said:
Dialogue has been simplified so that you only have up to three choices. Each choice is represented by an icon that indicates whether or it's a "good," "nasty," or "badass" choice. Good choices are represented by an olive branch, nasty by a Greek comedy mask, and badass by a red fist. This is an easy way to gauge what response your dialogue choices will produce.

yeahhhhhhhhh :schierke:

:daiba:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Simplifying the dialogue sucks, but if those 3 choices make a true difference each time, it might actually be an improvement over having 10 dialogues options that can only get 3 possible responses. It'll make the responses better tailored and could give the main character some personality, like Shepard.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Trailer is up: http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/home/

The demonic powers at the end of the trailer look promising. I'd love to just summon massive demon forearms to rip my opponents apart!

Aazealh said:
Simplifying the dialogue sucks, but if those 3 choices make a true difference each time, it might actually be an improvement over having 10 dialogues options that can only get 3 possible responses. It'll make the responses better tailored and could give the main character some personality, like Shepard.

I'm not really going to complain too much about this. I'd like a little less dialouge options when it comes to talking to people.
 
For the few still interested, here's a gameplay video of some sort of demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rrJENZlqw

Looks better in movement, but still ugly as fuck. It plays just like Drakengard.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Eluvei said:
For the few still interested, here's a gameplay video of some sort of demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rrJENZlqw

Looks better in movement, but still ugly as fuck. It plays just like Drakengard.

I have to disagree about it being ugly for right now, it's hard to make a judgment based on one map and one set of enemies.
 
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
I have to disagree about it being ugly for right now, it's hard to make a judgment based on one map and one set of enemies.

Well, I'm judging the specific environment and characters that they've been showing us for the last couple of months. If (even in a playable format!) it doesn't do justice to the visuals of the rest of the game, I'm not sure why they keep showing it, but I'll apologize.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Eluvei said:
Well, I'm judging the specific environment and characters that they've been showing us for the last couple of months.

Completely understandable, but I'm trying to stay as optimistic as possible. Though I'd be shocked to see Bioware completely fuck this game up.

If (even in a playable format!) it doesn't do justice to the visuals of the rest of the game, I'm not sure why they keep showing it, but I'll apologize.
My personal guess is that, this is probably in the very beginning of the game, since the demo starts right there, after you choose your character. It could just be the feel of that particular area. :???:

fake edit: fuck I'm sleepy.
 
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Completely understandable, but I'm trying to stay as optimistic as possible. Though I'd be shocked to see Bioware completely fuck this game up.
True though it looks a lot less customizable at the start there, but I'll probably get it eventually. I really doubt that this is going to be bad, but different.

I am too still waiting for Awakenings to shoot down to $20 or less...
I did buy the Witch Hunt DLC though (mainly because I had 3000 xbox points just sitting around and nothing to play) but it was fun enough.
My character was a rouge male and romantic with Morigan, so I still had the ring she gave me equipped. It was interesting to note that she told me she stuck around because of that ring/she felt my presence. Turns out shes got a kid if you perform the ritual with her or not, as I did not in this scenario. You can kill her, let her go, or go with her, if you were interested.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Honestly that footage doesn't look too bad to me. I'm still not excited, but I'm willing to wait and see where they're going with it.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
New trailer is up, color me excited: http://www.ripten.com/2010/10/26/new-dragon-age-trailer-is-full-of-action-and-adventure-mauler/

Well, the trailer's well edited, but I can't say the character design looks any better to me. Or rather that the 3D models look good (art direction?). Not that it necessarily matters much with the way the game is played, but I remain dubious for now.
 
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