Dragon Age 2 - Catch All

IMAGE(http://imgur.com/f7Lsw.jpg)

IMAGE(http://imgur.com/zi6X6.jpg)

Interesting... very very interesting...

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

4xis.black wrote:

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

garion333 wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

Skins look more textured, otherwise I don't see much improvement. Not that I care about that.

I definitely think the combat in DA:O needed improvement. It will be interesting to see whether our ideas of improvement match in any fashion.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

Skins look more textured, otherwise I don't see much improvement. Not that I care about that.

Yeah. I'm not particularly concerned about it either, but it would seem those claims about a new art style are a little dubious.

4xis.black wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

Skins look more textured, otherwise I don't see much improvement. Not that I care about that.

Yeah. I'm not particularly concerned about it either, but it would seem those claims about a new art style are a little dubious.

Well, it looks less like Lord of the Rings and more like Conan. I'm a little perplexed why they would release a screenshot of an ogre. Yeah, that's distancing yourself from the first game.

garion333 wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

give them time...they clearly haven't added in the button prompts yet

I guess the darkspawn are still the bad guys then.

I'm not sure what to make of those pics to be honest. They don't really look awesome, but they don't look abysmal either. If the DA:O publicity is anything to go by, I guess I'll be deciding whether to buy it when it's in the hands of early adopters.

It really does look like Conan. Weird. It also looks like it's the same engine, I thought they were changing?

You know what, no. I bet this looks like TOR would look if they could make it single-player only.

Shoot. I liked how grimy the other one was. Ah well. Still Bioware. Still Buyo-ing.

oilypenguin wrote:

It also looks like it's the same engine, I thought they were changing?

I think they said they were making the current engine look more awesome.

oilypenguin wrote:

Still Bioware. Still Buyo-ing.

I hate you. I totally agree with you, but I hate you.

stevenmack wrote:
garion333 wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

give them time...they clearly haven't added in the button prompts yet

Dude if this game has Quick Time Events Bioware will have turned me from fanboy to hateboy faster than Final Fantasy 8 killed my love of Square.

ccesarano wrote:
stevenmack wrote:
garion333 wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Doesn't that look just like Dragon Age on medium graphics?

Not quite. It looks different, but I'm struggling to figure out in what ways.

give them time...they clearly haven't added in the button prompts yet

Dude if this game has Quick Time Events Bioware will have turned me from fanboy to hateboy faster than Final Fantasy 8 killed my love of Square.

What?! they have swords... with guns on them! What's not to love? There's crazy talk all over!

garion333 wrote:

IMAGE(http://imgur.com/zi6X6.jpg)

I know it's early but that just looks straight up BAD. I can't tell if it looks more like a high end Xbox game or an early 360 game. Why would they release this screenshot? And in the first screenshot his arm is clipping through his armor! This is just reminding me of the horrible marketing behind DA:O. Whoever is in charge of marketing on the Dragon Age franchise should be canned.

Seriously with this shot? I can't stop looking at it in disbelief.

Yeah, those screenies are really not good. While I would never look at the game I'm playing from those perspectives, I play from far above as the gods intended, it is really bad advertising.

Those models look really low poly, like MMO graphics.

*edit*

On the plus side, at least they're not bullshotting us.

I'm being cautious about calling it consoleised at the moment. Even though DA:O PC was successful I imagine they're focusing on consoles for their marketing, I don't remember many plain PC screenshots of DA:O before release either. There's hints in the marketing that PC and console variants of DA2 could be very different. Besides that, it's hard to believe those shots would be from gameplay on any platform, or at least a special kill move which you don't have control of.

Also remember that the DA:O marketing was pretty rubbish. They're almost forcing you to read between the lines. They're generating buzz for the game, but not telling people what they want to hear.

It just wouldn't be a DA release without sturm and drang and worry over screenshots and the like. I almost cross my fingers for another trailer with a played-out 90's metal maestro. Maybe some Alice In Chains this time.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

It just wouldn't be a DA release without sturm and drang and worry over screenshots and the like. I almost cross my fingers for another trailer with a played-out 90's metal maestro. Maybe some Alice In Chains this time.

Blasphemy! Alice in Chains is not played out! Go with Stone Temple Pilots instead..

My main problem with DA2 as it's presented right now, is that without the Bioware name attached and without being the sequel to DA:O I would be ignoring it completely. They've said barely about it that sets it apart and makes it interesting. It could easily get lost in the early 2011 crowd.

Tanglebones wrote:
SpacePPoliceman wrote:

It just wouldn't be a DA release without sturm and drang and worry over screenshots and the like. I almost cross my fingers for another trailer with a played-out 90's metal maestro. Maybe some Alice In Chains this time.

Blasphemy! Alice in Chains is not played out! Go with Stone Temple Pilots instead..

Agreed.

5. Hawke drives the story.
Dragon Age II is not about killing an ancient evil or about quelling another blight; Hawke is the driving force behind the narrative. Over the course of the game's 10-year timeline, players' actions and choices will determine Hawke's history, relationships, and regrets...all in service to answering the larger question: Who is the Champion of Kirkwall?

Huh. A character-driven story arc? I'm really intrigued by that approach. I'm about sick of saving the freaking world all the time.

As long as the combat is still largely tactically oriented and there is SOME consequence arising from the way I played DA:O, I will be happy, even with a fixed human male/female (don't-call-me-Ethan) Hawke.

Thinking on the "make it like Mass Effect" angle, why is this considered a bad thing as another way to play the game? I'm thinking less of the story but more of the gameplay. DA is a pretty complex game, and seems suited to a mouse and keyboard isometric view for combat, but how many of you played the entire game like that? I know when I was exploring I often zoomed in a bit almost to the familiar third person shooter view and used direct WASD control of my character to move instead of clicking a destination.

Is it that great a stretch that they could change combat to be a bit more like Mass Effect, where you can point where you want your party members to go and what ability to use, you have direct control of your current character and manually activate abilities. It sounds very similar to DA:O combat but from a different viewpoint. An advantage would be that it might feel better for keeping the flow of combat without pausing every two seconds to adjust what you're going to do. How well would melee combat work in Mass Effect?

The two concerns about if it would work would be situational awareness, you need to show the player what's happening clearly, and the AI for party members, who need to be smarter by default without the trial and error tactics programming. If it's done right it could be fun.

Scratched wrote:

Is it that great a stretch that they could change combat to be a bit more like Mass Effect, where you can point where you want your party members to go and what ability to use, you have direct control of your current character and manually activate abilities. It sounds very similar to DA:O combat but from a different viewpoint. An advantage would be that it might feel better for keeping the flow of combat without pausing every two seconds to adjust what you're going to do. How well would melee combat work in Mass Effect?

No. Just no. I bought DA:O because of the Baldur's Gate legacy. The full control over my entire party is why I played the game. It definitely wasn't for the story or the sex scenes.

The pausing every two seconds and issuing commands is the point. To take it out is like taking the shooting and the first person perspective out of Half-Life.

Interestingly, the way they sound like they are taking the game puts it in direct competition with a certain other RPG...

compare the above shot of our new hero with...

IMAGE(http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2010/081/reviews/975399_20100323_screen001.jpg)

(I should mention that I'm not really too worried about the graphics, so long as the gameplay is there...but still...those are terrible screenshots. What happened to the smaller darkspawn? Are they ill? Half-human? They look like Classic Star Trek klingons vs Next Gen Klingons.

I'm not saying they make The One True Way to experience DA2, but a choice of two. What if you're doing the same actions by either method, but with a different control method.

I'd also say The Witcher is it's own thing, not quite similar to DA style combat as there's less actions to perform, but how well you swing your sword is most important.

edit again: Having said that about The Witcher, it did give you a choice of viewpoint, isometric or two flavours of over the shoulder, although the combat in all of them involved clicking on your enemy.

IMAGE(http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2005/20050525h.jpg)

MrDeVil909 wrote:

No. Just no. I bought DA:O because of the Baldur's Gate legacy. The full control over my entire party is why I played the game. It definitely wasn't for the story or the sex scenes.

The pausing every two seconds and issuing commands is the point. To take it out is like taking the shooting and the first person perspective out of Half-Life.

Basically what you're saying (although I also liked the story and the sex scenes and the banter and the codex and...). I don't want to feel like I'm playing an MMO with bots, hoping Oghren doesn't go all Leroy Jenkins on me.

Hangdog wrote:

Huh. A character-driven story arc? I'm really intrigued by that approach. I'm about sick of saving the freaking world all the time.

Ooh--speaking of story, good call. For you and BioWare: create a game world where not every installment has to be about you saving the world because you've already played an installment where you save the world. All the drama of an apocalypse, none of the responsibility!

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle....

Following the game's reveal last week, details are trickling in about BioWare's Dragon Age II, which is due out in March 2011 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Game Informer has some details up on its website and the Dragon Age community is cataloging additional information from early issues of the magazine. I won't detail everything here, but there are some key points to point out.

First, players will take the role of Hawke, a human warrior, rogue, or mage, who escaped The Blight during the events of Dragon Age: Origins, fleeing north to Kirkwall. "Dragon Age II begins as the events of Origins are still taking place, so you may see some familiar events from a different angle."

The conversation system will be much closer to Mass Effect 2's with players choosing from a type of response to give, and the dialogue continuing with a fully-voiced male or female version of Hawke. I actually really like this change. I found myself skipping a lot of the voice-acting in Dragon-Age: Origins because I could read it faster than it was spoken. Now that the conversations will play out a bit more cinematically, I'm optimistic.

On the combat side, the PC and console versions of the game will feature different combat systems. "The PC version implements the same strategic approach afforded by a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme," but "rather than try to mimic the PC experience on consoles, Dragon Age II has a battle system more tailored to the strengths of the PS3 and 360."

Many more details can be found in the latest issue of Game Informer. A trailer is scheduled to be released on August 17.