Dragon Age 2 - Catch All

wordsmythe wrote:

Got a couple more for you, with sex choice even:
IMAGE(http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/15687/608624-ultima7_1__large.jpg)

Gather the deadliest of flours, amass dough and ovens, and knead your place in history.

I really like the idea of having a set character for DA2. I think it will mean a more structured story where they can go into my character and their place in the world. In DA:O your character has a unique beginning which gives you a glimpse into their place in the world but it's never really continued. My character didn't seem to have the depth that say Morrigan had. With this move I really hope DA2 has voice dialogue for the main character.

Bioware is making another game and I'll be buying it. How is this something to be up in arms about?

This is freaking Bioware.

I'm not sure if Fallout is a good example.

Edit: Nevermind. I wasn't getting what was being said. I just don't see a difference between having a set character (although you'll probably be able to give him a first name, just like in DA:O). Actually I don't see any difference between two hours of origin story (that all leads to the same place) and choosing between Human, Elf, Dwarf (which is mostly cosmetic).

Remember the DA:O advertisements?

Everyone thought they were going down the wrong road with Marylin Manson, so I'm guessing this is just the marketing department smoking crack again until proven otherwise.

I suppose best case scenario is that they've finally noticed that the Witcher happened and are trying to do something more in that style, which would be pretty good, if they can pull it off.

Since they're Shepardizing the main character, I hope they get Obsidian to do an expansion where you play a city elf or something; frankly, I would much rather play a buggy mess with an intriguing story than the same old fantasy fare.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

They should have called it Dragon Age: Fully Awake Now.

Dragon Age: Coffee's Ready

Hm. I thought I was prepping characters for a multi-game arc, a la Mass Effect. Disappointing?

I'd say it's more like Fallout (not in every way, just the one I'm about to use) in that your character from the first game was important, and your actions had a lasting impact, but in Fallout2 you play a different character who has been impacted by your decisions from the first game, as we have save importing now.

Tanglebones wrote:
Gather the deadliest of flours, amass dough and ovens, and knead your place in history.

I still love the kid early in U8 who quizzed you and allowed joke answers.

Rat Boy wrote:

This should probably make people worry the most. I don't get why Bioware suddenly thinks it needs to reinvent the wheel for DA2; it's not like hordes of people were complaining that the Warden had no personality or the combat wasn't "dynamic" enough.

This is cheaper and easier.

I don't like being restricted to a set starting character for Dragon Age 2. It's not a deal-breaker for me, but it is a disappointment. I really, really liked how each race/class/sex combination resulted in a different origin story experience, and that those things were at least noted and referenced throughout the game, even if it didn't necessarily make for any substantial differences. Dragon Age was more like the classic pc rpg's, where you make your own story for your primary character. I'll miss the flexibility and immersiveness they granted for that in DA:O. Yes, there's some of that in Mass Effect, but not nearly what I would hope for in a sequel to Dragon Age.

I'm okay'ish with having one specific Player Char, as long as we can form him/her through the game. Technically even with a specific char, they could still allow different backstories (if their goal simply is to make the main char voiced + make other chars say your name).

Im very much skeptical about the description of more 'action' in combat. Really loved the combat in DA:O. Hell, I really loved nearly everything in that game.
And the changes made from ME1 to ME2 makes me worried DA will get the same treatment. Not that ME2 wasn't good, I just liked ME1 a whole lot more.

Overall Bioware seems slightly out of their minds if they try to move DA and ME closer to each other. Wouldn't the bright idea be to have two major franchises taking two very separate ways to the RPG genre, as a strategy for reaching the most customers.

Definitely in wait and see mode here. Karla played through Dragon Age twice and she's totally fine with a more restricted main character choice. I am too if they leverage it into a better story with voice acting.

Regardless, I definitely do NOT want to carry over my dude from the first game. I spent a lot of time with that guy and he got pretty badass. Unless they would knock him on the head and make him forget his abilities or some other unsatisfying contrivance, I don't see how it would work well. A fresh start in a new part of the world would be a good way to go. Kind of like the Elder Scrolls series focusing on different provinces for each game.

mrwynd wrote:

I really like the idea of having a set character for DA2. I think it will mean a more structured story where they can go into my character and their place in the world. In DA:O your character has a unique beginning which gives you a glimpse into their place in the world but it's never really continued. My character didn't seem to have the depth that say Morrigan had. With this move I really hope DA2 has voice dialogue for the main character.

Much as I like my femshep or Geralt, I'm afraid I'd have to say my preference is to roll my own characters play, rather than have one spoon fed to me.

It's also a fairly safe bet that a voiced character means dramatically less conversational variety (in fact, I'm now expecting the - unwelcome - return of the mass effect 'wheel').

ugh...i have to stop thinking about this until more information is known...

One thing about the DA:O character being 'your' character, it wasn't. I was a choice of 6 predefined characters, each with their own backgrounds that influence the story (weakly). Thinking about it there are precious few games where you are truly a blank slate.

If Mass Effect: Darkspawn means fully voiced main character, characters that emote and more inspired environments then I'm all for it =)

From shack:

EA has confirmed that Dragon Age II is scheduled to release on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in March 2011.

I often think that voice acting in RPGs might do far more damage to the story than it does good. It adds so much cost to every line of dialogue you write (hiring the voice actor, coaching the voice actor, recording the sound, processing the data, compressing the data, scripting the data, lip syncing the model, etc...) that it must necessarily limit the amount of branching you can place in conversations, and by extension the amount of choice your character has. Even when you do have spoken dialog, it is so hard to get the voice acting right and even harder to get the 3D graphics to do it any sort of justice. I do not enjoy watching a model stand there moving its lips while badly done voice acting emanates from its general direction; I would much rather read.

I for one was perfectly okay with the Baldur's Gate style of recording important/unavoidable dialogue and leaving the rest as text; I often find myself skipping through the spoken dialog anyway because listening is usually a waste of time.

I'm glad there's a new character. The Warden can now breathe easy that he won't have to endure partial amnesia and a complete loss of all his skills and powers.

I have mixed feelings about the other details.

With this new info, I'd really like there to be one more big expansion like Awakenings to tie things up better for all the characters from the first game.

While I'm not at all pleased that I can't continue my character's story, the ending of DA:O did tie up all the loose ends rather nicely. All except one.

Spoiler:

$50 says Hawke is Morrigan's child.

(Not sure if we're tagging DA:O events as spoilers in here or not...)

Pex-Corrh wrote:

While I'm not at all pleased that I can't continue my character's story, the ending of DA:O did tie up all the loose ends rather nicely. All except one.

Spoiler:

$50 says Hawke is Morrigan's child.

(Not sure if we're tagging DA:O events as spoilers in here or not...)

I'm not sure about that plot point...

Spoiler:

Isn't DA2 set ten years after DA:O? Her child, if she indeed had one, would only be a kid.

Rat Boy wrote:

I'm not sure about that plot point...

Spoiler:

Isn't DA2 set ten years after DA:O? Her child, if she indeed had one, would only be a kid.

Did they say how much time there was between them? I may have missed that announcement.

Rat Boy wrote:
Spoiler:

Isn't DA2 set ten years after DA:O? Her child, if she indeed had one, would only be a kid.

Spoiler:

I think the press release said DA2 takes place over the course of a decade, doesn't it? How old do they start you off in fable2? Not that I'd be in favor of it, but I could see as a possibility an intro section at 10 years old, then a quick training-montage jump to age 18 and playing out those 2 more years for the majority of the game.

Hopefully we can talk about the press release outside of spoiler tags...

It does say on the teaser page that the "adventure...takes place across an entire decade", but it doesn't seem to say anything about how it relates temporally to the first game.

Well I liked the first one. I played through it once, but wasn't interested enough to play it a second time. I'm going to have to wait for more info and hopefully have my socks blown off. But I'll add it to my cautiously interested category.

4xis.black wrote:

I often think that voice acting in RPGs might do far more damage to the story than it does good. It adds so much cost to every line of dialogue you write (hiring the voice actor, coaching the voice actor, recording the sound, processing the data, compressing the data, scripting the data, lip syncing the model, etc...) that it must necessarily limit the amount of branching you can place in conversations, and by extension the amount of choice your character has. Even when you do have spoken dialog, it is so hard to get the voice acting right and even harder to get the 3D graphics to do it any sort of justice. I do not enjoy watching a model stand there moving its lips while badly done voice acting emanates from its general direction; I would much rather read.

I for one was perfectly okay with the Baldur's Gate style of recording important/unavoidable dialogue and leaving the rest as text; I often find myself skipping through the spoken dialog anyway because listening is usually a waste of time.

I started to reply, but I realized this is neither the time nor the place to get into this discussion. Suffice it to say that I agree with you in some cases and in others I think that the more cinematic, voice acted stuff can be done effectively and involve choice. Personally, I think the amount of choices you were given in Origins was actually pretty limited even if you had 7 dialog options to choose from, it was all smoke and mirrors to the fact you only had 3 flavors of choices in the end.

But, like I said, neither the time nor the place.

Well, I was hoping they'd continue on with what made DA:O so fun. I hope they aren't turning it into Mass Effect: Fantasy to sell more units on the consoles. Hey, EA! There are better margins on the PC!

Pex-Corrh wrote:

While I'm not at all pleased that I can't continue my character's story, the ending of DA:O did tie up all the loose ends rather nicely. All except one.

Spoiler:

$50 says Hawke is Morrigan's child.

(Not sure if we're tagging DA:O events as spoilers in here or not...)

There was a post by a bioware employee on their forums that specifically said that was not the case.