Dragon Age 2 - Catch All

DFKQ wrote:

I'm finding nightmare to be a pretty enjoyable difficulty for me. Playing as a 2-hander warrior I have to be incredibly careful though, the aoe special attacks (which is what, most, if not all of them?) are absolutely devastating friendly-fire wise. I'm regularly knocking Aveline out and one time I even took out all 3 other members of my party with a single Scythe. :-o

Out of curiosity do you find that the new character movement (namely leaping around) adds to the difficulty of not AoEing your own characters?

Tkyl wrote:
SpyNavy wrote:

Is anyone else having a hell of a time trying to register your codes on the PC version?

I was able to register my codes, but I can't actually install any of the DLC. The site allows me to download it, it complains that I don't have DA2 installed.

I finally got everything downloaded and installed today. What a pain in the... Hopefully the game is easier than the registration process.:)

This is a big thread and I might have missed it. While in combat pressing R (the default bind) will auto target and start attacking. When out of combat pressing R will make you run up to the nearest piece of loot and grab it. Just spam R after a fight and you'll loot everything without having to pay attention.

You're welcome.

So after seeing some good posts and fairly positive reviews about the story/characters, I caved in. I wish I had the willpower some folks had here to wait, but I haven't bought or played a new game in 6 months. I only got about ~3 hours in with PC version yesterday.

Likes:
1. Combat still needs some pausing, planning, and rearranging tactics slots are critical to not having the AI fireball bomb your teammates.
2. My 2hand warrior feels very strong. Almost to the point of being too strong. It feels like they did a better job of making the talent trees create synergy within this spec.
3. The friend/rival system is much more enjoyable than like/dislike. I just wish there were more ways to raise and lower it.
4. Companions talk to each other a lot! Mostly its in the city and the best thing I have noticed is a lot less yelling from characters during combat fights.
5. Crafting is much simpler, but on the other hand this takes away the distinction and value of bringing certain characters along your travels.

Dislikes:
1. The difficulty, and the way BioWare creates faux difficulty, is disappointing. Its almost better to keep 1-2 trash mobs on the screen than to kill them all off, which spawn another wave of 3-5 trash. Also, seeing a high level fighter potion up to extend a battle feels cheesy (playing on hard difficulty and the only stressful fight I have had was the 2nd ogre encounter at the beginning due to lack of abilities/build).
2. I really miss being able to chat with my party members. It almost feels like they are GTA npcs that are there to give me jobs rather than actual companions. However, it is early and am hopeful this improves.
3. Slowing in cutscenes. My PC is pretty much at the recommended level or higher. The only thing lacking might be in the graphics card department, but it's not far behind the recommendation. All that being said, at odd points, during certain bits of certain cutscenes, the flow begins to get choppy or turns into a slow motion delivery only to improve dramatically when the camera angle shifts.
4. There are moments where I feel like an Alzheimers patient in this game. All these NPCs in Kirkwall know me, but I have no clue who they are and am supposed to simply go along with it. Also, there are some strange character shifts in companions so far that make me question if I ever knew them in the first place and if will ever truly know them in the future.

Overall: I'm enjoying the game so far and there's lots of room for developments to improve my opinion of the overall experience.

One thing I really liked, and made me wonder if I'd missed out on any similar stuff so far due to who I had with me (unfortunately, mild spoilers regarding the interaction with the Qunari):

Spoiler:

At a certain point you gain an audience with the Qunari arishok. I'd finally given in to my logical side and removed Merrill from my party, as her abilities simply don't mesh with my mage's. I put Fenris in because he had not seen much action to that point. To my surprise, when the arishok was dismissive of both me and my business partner, Fenris began speaking Qunari to him, and opened up new dialogue options. I wound up getting 4 sovereigns out of that conversation and I'm suspecting that without Fenris I'd have been shown the door quickly.

Spoiler free version: I think there are very tangible benefits to having certain characters with you, depending on their backstory/knowledge/skills. That's neat.

Yeah, I had Varric sweet talk me out of a situation too. Pretty neat mechanic there, imo.

I wish there was a respec for NPCs, Blind_Evil. I can't use her either since there's too much redundancy between us.

After the initial disappointment that it wasn't going to be just like the original, I finally came to my senses and realized it is Bioware and they have yet to do me wrong. So I picked up the PC version, then downloaded and installed the hi-res texture pack as well as the DLC. So far I'm really enjoying it, and the fact that it's drop dead gorgeous doesn't hurt. I was initially worried that the combat had devolved into a button mashing action affair, but color me surprised that it's not much different. I can still pause to give orders, and with auto attack I don't have to constantly click. Story and characters seem interesting so far, but I haven't really played very far. I started a Warrior and Rogue both, just to see how different things can turn out.

Jury is still out on the new skill trees. It looks like there are lots of abilities to choose from, but I don't like how they removed others entirely. (Lockpicking comes to mind.) I was kind of disappointed that as a warrior the first rogue I get into my party couldn't even pick the locked chests in that area. Combat abilities are pretty cool and suitably over the top. I'm interested to see what some of the top tier stiff looks like.

Performance is pretty good in DX11, provided I use the beta drivers from NVidia. Using the latest release drivers gave me all kinds of problems, but everything fixed if I switched to DX9. Unfortunately it won't let you set the detail any higher than medium, so I bit the bullet and installed the beta drivers. Even still I can't quite crank the AA all the way up, but everything else is maxed out at 1920x1080 with no slowdown as of yet. I'm running an i7, 8GB, GTX 570.

Glycerine wrote:

Jury is still out on the new skill trees. It looks like there are lots of abilities to choose from, but I don't like how they removed others entirely. (Lockpicking comes to mind.) I was kind of disappointed that as a warrior the first rogue I get into my party couldn't even pick the locked chests in that area. Combat abilities are pretty cool and suitably over the top. I'm interested to see what some of the top tier stiff looks like.

I would like it more if cunning improved the rogue's damage in a more direct way than critical hits since it ties directly to how much they can lockpick. It seems like you may end out having a rogue who can pick every lock and a rogue who does excellent damage. Then again, I only have varric so far as a rogue and he's doing quite well with both.

drdoak wrote:
Glycerine wrote:

Jury is still out on the new skill trees. It looks like there are lots of abilities to choose from, but I don't like how they removed others entirely. (Lockpicking comes to mind.) I was kind of disappointed that as a warrior the first rogue I get into my party couldn't even pick the locked chests in that area. Combat abilities are pretty cool and suitably over the top. I'm interested to see what some of the top tier stiff looks like.

I would like it more if cunning improved the rogue's damage in a more direct way than critical hits since it ties directly to how much they can lockpick. It seems like you may end out having a rogue who can pick every lock and a rogue who does excellent damage. Then again, I only have varric so far as a rogue and he's doing quite well with both.

Cunning also affects natural AC, or as the game says, the ability to evade attacks. Sounds like classic D&D reasons for dex, if you ask me. Considering my rogue won't have the best armor, dumping a ton of points into it now isn't just for thief skills, it's for keeping her alive too!

I must say, it's nice to have a exact info for what all my attribute points are doing for me.

Also, the graphics on the 360 are pretty solid. Once I got Hawke into some black armor, she's sleek as can be. Kind of a bummer I can't change other's breastplate/robe, but I'll live.

Oh, and while I initially wanted to play on hard, I pushed it back to normal after that first big fight before heading Kirkwall. Now it's just a great ride. It's totally got that "one more sidequest" hook in me, too.

drdoak wrote:

Yeah, I had Varric sweet talk me out of a situation too. Pretty neat mechanic there, imo.

I wish there was a respec for NPCs, Blind_Evil. I can't use her either since there's too much redundancy between us. :(

I didn't know you couldn't respec companions. Oops! I've been playing fast and loose with the skill points.

And in Merrill's case, it's not really what she needs. She just doesn't have access to support spells. Whereas the player-mage can go in any direction he'd like, Anders and Merrill are Support/Offense and Debuff/Offense. I've specced my mage to be...well, Offense/Offense (Elemental + Primal). I guess I could respec him to include support, but I can't imagine losing either Cone of Cold or Chain Lightning.

Maybe I just need to wait for more levels, but they've slowed to a crawl after level 8.

I didn't know you couldn't respec companions. Oops! I've been playing fast and loose with the skill points.

Supposedly there are respec potions you can buy from the black emporium shop. I would assume you could use them on any character you like.

One other handy thing I discovered in the very short time that I've had to play is that if you have a targeting circle up for an AOE ability you can use F1-F4 to change to another character's view and do your aiming from there. Not sure if this was possible in the first game or not since that was a scenario where one would typically use the iso view, but in any case it helps to solve some of the control issues created by the removal of iso view, for me at least.

Gametrailer's review went up last night.
Short and skinny: 9.2

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...

That's enough positive stuff from you guys and a review source I trust. I've caved. Gonna pick up today at my local independent dealer, I think.

Likes:
-Playing Dragon Age 2

Dislikes:
-Working, and not playing Dragon Age 2

Yeah I haven't picked up black emporium, but that's one of its features. No idea how it works. I forgot that she doesn't even have access to some of the trees. I may have to just not ever use her then. I'm a damager/controller and she's a controller/damager. Too bad. I like how she's basically Anya from Buffy.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Likes:
-Playing Dragon Age 2

Dislikes:
-Working, and not playing Dragon Age 2

QFT. Is it 5 o'clock yet?

zeroKFE wrote:

One other handy thing I discovered in the very short time that I've had to play is that if you have a targeting circle up for an AOE ability you can use F1-F4 to change to another character's view and do your aiming from there. Not sure if this was possible in the first game or not since that was a scenario where one would typically use the iso view, but in any case it helps to solve some of the control issues created by the removal of iso view, for me at least.

I can't think of a way to say this without sounding negative: You know what else would solve those issues? Not removing iso view in the first place. Having a view locked to characters is getting in the way of issuing commands, and adding more steps to do the same thing.

I really hope there's a mod to add it back.

Ulairi wrote:

I'd finish the first game if I were you because you can import your character.

Actually, I was surprised and happy to discover that you don't have to finish the first game to import your character's history. If you point it at a not-complete game, it will bring in the details from that game for as far as you got, and then use defaults for the remainder. (Which might not be where you were aiming for the end-game, but is much better than nothing!)

Blind_Evil wrote:

I never really understand anyone else's views on game writing. I suppose I hold the medium to a lesser standard than I do books or movies, but I usually don't agree with the common assertion that the best writing in games pales in comparison to your average novel. I felt the writing in DA:O was leagues better than say Eragon, for example (my friend insisted I read it, I couldn't get past page 50). Is this on par with George Martin or Patrick Rothfuss? No, but I wouldn't be scared away from a comparison to R.A. Salvatore.

Let's see. Eragon < R.A. Salvatore = Eddings << DA:O = Brett Weeks < DA2 = Tamora Pierce < GRRM ~ Rothfuss (still not sure if Rothfuss actually has more than one story in him) << Gene Wolfe

Really, both DA:O and DA2 are in the category of: "decent plotting, okay writing" (particularly within the limitations of the art: I give credit for having to work around the choices of the player). Salvatore is in the realm of "stupid but fun plotting, bad writing". Eragon is "dumb plotting, bad writing". GRRM and Rothfuss are in "solid plotting, solid writing, sometimes a bit too self-impressed". And Wolfe, of course, is a god among men.

For people playing on Hard, I'm playing on hard and I haven't needed to pause the game to succeed. I can just auto-attack and click my special powers and get by fine. I haven't set a single combat tactic yet. My Hawke is a rogue and his backstab ability is vicious.

Ulairi wrote:

For people playing on Hard, I'm playing on hard and I haven't needed to pause the game to succeed. I can just auto-attack and click my special powers and get by fine. I haven't set a single combat tactic yet. My Hawke is a rogue and his backstab ability is vicious.

Whaaaaat. What about the fight where you're flanked by a mabari pack and 2 mages with archers and bandits ahead? That sh*t took forever to get right.

I need a backstabby rogue is the lesson here.

EDIT: I tend to redo every fight if someone falls. I'm a perfectionist like that.

Scratched wrote:

I can't think of a way to say this without sounding negative: You know what else would solve those issues? Not removing iso view in the first place. Having a view locked to characters is getting in the way of issuing commands, and adding more steps to do the same thing.

I really hope there's a mod to add it back.

Me too. So painful. Aiming spells without being able to move the camera is just agonizing at times. I also want to turn off locking the aoe on a target.

Hypatian wrote:

And Wolfe, of course, is a god among men.

I wasn't positive who that was, but it rang a bell. I looked it up, and then remembered that I bought something of his when I was 18 and it was nearly incomprehensible. I think I should see if I still have it, my tastes have since seasoned.

One thing stopping me from pausing the game is that combat is too damn fast. With DA:O, I could pause, set the characters and their actions, unpause watch it and then pause again. With DA2, I need to constantly pause, unpause, pause and I never actually get to see the combat it seems. So, when I went to do that action that you were told to do at the begging in the game from that person who is pretty damn cool from the first game, I just started playing it like an action game. The combat doesn't feel like DA:O to me at all. It feels like an Xbox game that they port to the PC and tried to retrofit.

I'm not sure if this has been said, but one thing that is really frustrating me about the game is the inevitable waves of bad guys for each fight. I like to go into a battle with a plan, and adjust appropriately. I generally don't like surprises. However, I understand that adding a couple extra bad guys in the middle of a fight can be important and forces the player to always be mindful that more enemies might be coming.

However, I do not believe I've had a single battle (other than a boss battle) that does not involve several waves of bad guys each showing up just before the previous wave is beaten. Really, it's extremely frustrating. I can see why this game is shorter. Every combat encounter had to be had scripted to allow for additional waves to show up.

My god I'm trying hard to resist this. I still have Awakenings, and Mass Effect 2 to playthrough.

Ulairi:

I've not needed to pause the game as much as DA:O. It's very much like a Diablo experience so far on Hard, particularly with being able to spam AoEs all over my partymates. I've been taking my time pausing to set AoE effects just for fun, but when I don't want to, I can really just control my Fighter Hawke and the AI's smart enough to handle the action mostly by itself. I've set one or two Tactics, though, since I enjoy seeing combos happen.

Ulairi wrote:

For people playing on Hard, I'm playing on hard and I haven't needed to pause the game to succeed. I can just auto-attack and click my special powers and get by fine. I haven't set a single combat tactic yet. My Hawke is a rogue and his backstab ability is vicious.

That's so not been my experience. I'm play hard on the PC and I really like it. I've had to reload on about 3-4 of the battles so far (But I'm really early on just got access to Kirkwall). I've got access to all the additional loot from the Signature edition and such + several upgrades to skills which means the world in terms of survival.

I'm loving the game thus far. I love that I'm able to identify with Hawke and the story really feels personal. Have not decided if I want my whiner of a brother to be rival or friend but I'm really liking the dwarf plus the scarcastic banter between the 2 of them.

I really like the new skill trees. The skills seem to matter more now. I played DAO and Awakenings and towards the end everyone has over 30 skills, most that are not used. I tend to be a horder and in RPG's I end the game with LOADS of potions and stuff all unused. Have to get used to using them in DA2. Its definately not a cakewalk but if you skill up correctly and play smart its very fun.

Some Tips:

Spoiler:

- On the first Ogre, if you have problems, I had Avaline grab aggro and basically run around kiting the Ogre. Carver and me were killing the adds and then concentrating on the ogre while Avaline justs taunts and runs. It works.
- You really need to upgrade Mind Blast at the first opportunity. Esp if your main is a mage. (IMO)
- Don't be afraid to use injury pots (ie. sacrificing one member to finish the battle)
- Don't kill all the adds. Leave about 2 and then concentrate on the elites otherwise you get even more adds which is what usually causes me to wipe.

Giant Bomb's quick look is up. It's a little over an hour and has some footage of the 360 and PC versions being played split-screen. Pretty interesting. There are some spoilers for the quest where you take the amulet from the demo for Flemeth.

I felt the same way at first Ulairi, but after 5 hours or so i just feels like a prettier version of DA:O.

I'm loving the game thus far. I love that I'm able to identify with Hawke and the story really feels personal. Have not decided if I want my whiner of a brother to be rival or friend but I'm really liking the dwarf plus the scarcastic banter between the 2 of them.

I have no connection to Hawke at all. I think they started the game in the completely wrong way. Are we going to do a spoiler thread?

Spoiler:

So, we start the game escaping from the Darkspawn with no connection to the characters. My characters brother dies? Do I care? No. Because I don't know who the hell he is and he hasn't said a word to me. My family lost their city. Do I care? No. Because I was never there. If they would have had an origin story for Hawke to let me see his family and everything prior to the city being sacked, even let me play through that, I would have felt some connection. Right now, I guess the connection is supposed to come as I play the game but I'm a few hours in and I don't see it happening. But, I know I'm a crumudgen who thinks that video games have terrible stories and I just need enough plot to keep me interested. The plot is good but so far, the story is terrrrriiiiiiiibbbbbbllllleeeee.

They're just working backward, as far as I can tell. Show you events and then show you later why they were significant.

So how many extraneous letters would be removed by putting the most notoriously cliched opening in all RPGdom at the start? Just curious.

[quote=Ulairi]

I have no connection to Hawke at all. I think they started the game in the completely wrong way. Are we going to do a spoiler thread?
Spoiler:

So, we start the game escaping from the Darkspawn with no connection to the characters. My characters brother dies? Do I care? No. Because I don't know who the hell he is and he hasn't said a word to me. My family lost their city. Do I care? No. Because I was never there. If they would have had an origin story for Hawke to let me see his family and everything prior to the city being sacked, even let me play through that, I would have felt some connection. Right now, I guess the connection is supposed to come as I play the game but I'm a few hours in and I don't see it happening. But, I know I'm a crumudgen who thinks that video games have terrible stories and I just need enough plot to keep me interested. The plot is good but so far, the story is terrrrriiiiiiiibbbbbbllllleeeee.

I don't have a problem with the begining. Its like a story book, introduces a character, that can be interesting, see the stuff that happens to him and ... eventually how he became the Hero of Kirkwall. I'm still not sure how my Hawke is characterwise, but I think I'm tilting more towards being a goody with tracks of wiseass with a deep hatred for Templers

I guess we all identify differently to the story. But that's what makes the world so interesting, lots of points of views.