Dragon Age 2

[Cyros]

Re: Dragon Age 2

I'm surprised they didn't do more DLC with Dragon Age. It shipped with 2 DLCs, then another you could buy for what, $40 initially (way overpriced). And then finally another DLC. I figured there'd be more micro-stories available, like a dozen or so.

Dragon Age DLC:
Return to Ostagar
Warden's Keep
Darkspawn Chronicles
Leiliana's Story

Expansions:
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening ($40)

[Misfit]

Re: Dragon Age 2

According to the release you can only play a Human Male/Female. They are taking a more Mass Effect approach to this.

I am a huge fan of Origins, so I hope this isn't turning into a Mass Effect 2 type sequel where they eliminate options to present a better paced story. The one thing that keeps me hooked into Origins was the multiple backgrounds and the customization of making my avatar. Call me old school.

Agreed. If anything I want more of all that stuff. More races, more character classes, more customization. I thought Dragon Age was a great debut, but felt in a lot of ways it played it too safe and was too conventional. It was basically D&D with a lot the D&D lingo removed. It's not a bad thing, as their D&D based games were great, but I'd support Bioware and any effort it makes to distinguish itself from the other fantasy RPG's in its past.

[sportsdude]

Re: Dragon Age 2

gimme more Dragon Age. I never play games like this but the first day I had Dragon Age, I played it for seven straight hours.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Yeah I was just going to say they just released Leliana's Story this week for DLC. I am stoked, I loved Dragon Age and Dragon Age: Awakening.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Some details:

• We will be able to import our Dragon Age: Origins saves - "You may be controlling a different character in Dragon Age II, but the choices your Grey Warden made in Origins are still imported from your save and reflected in the world."

• Flemeth returns at some point.

• Pissing off party members won't always be a bad thing - "They won't necessarily leave. They may still join you, but they're going to try to show you up, and that may influence battle in a different way."

• "Dragon Age II uses a conversation system similar to Mass Effect's, where players select paraphrased versions of the dialogue from a wheel. An icon in the middle of the wheel even illustrates the line's basic intent (like aggressive or sarcastic), so you can focus more on the interaction rather than reading and analyzing your dialogue choices."

• The way the story unfolds will be very different compared to the past Bioware games - "Dragon Age II has a framed narrative structure, which means that the exploits of Hawke occurred in the past, but are being retold in the present. Narrators with unique insights into the events in question tell the tale of his past adventures."

• We may get to see some of the Dragon Age: Origins events at the start from a different perspective - "Dragon Age II begins as the events of Origins are still taking place, so you may see some familiar events from a different angle."

• Because of the game spanning a decade, we get to see the consequences of our actions sooner, rather than in a little text at the end of the game.

• The PC version's combat system remains mostly the same - "The PC version implements the same strategic approach afforded by a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme." "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."
  
  All it really said was that the PC version will have the same ability to "examine the battlefield closely, make decisions from a top-down view, and direct your party like a general."
  
  They say they got to play the Xbox 360 version and they can "confirm that it is faster, more responsive, and more fluid than before. As soon as you press a button, something happens. As a warrior, Hawke threw down special strikes and used a new dash move to slash through darkspawn with ease. It isn't on the Dynasty Warriors side of the spectrum, but with obvious improvements to the targeting system and animations, playing Dragon Age II with a controller finally feels natural."

[jfsolo]

Re: Dragon Age 2

The meltdowns on the Bioware board about some of the changes to the game has been straight up comedic gold. Maybe some of this new info will bring some people over there back in from the ledge.

[Solidice]

Re: Dragon Age 2

sounds like the PC version wont be changing too much(combat/gameplay wise anyway), so thats good I suppose.

I don't really have a problem with the conversation system in Mass Effect, so that is not a negative. is the player's character going to have a voice since it seems they are forcing you to to a male/female human? that would be the only way I would be content with not being able to choose other races(elf, dwarf).

I figured you wouldn't be able to use the same character from DA to DA2(way too many choices/variables in DA), but it is nice to see that the save game will carry over to help 'shape' the world events.

[Pokes]

Re: Dragon Age 2

I like the fact that the PC is going to have a voice now. It'll add some personality into the game. As for the other races I only really played with human characters so this doesn't bother me too much.

[jfsolo]

Re: Dragon Age 2

I like the fact that the PC is going to have a voice now. It'll add some personality into the game. As for the other races I only really played with human characters so this doesn't bother me too much.

Yep, even though I'm an old school head, with the most text heavy graphics based RPG of all time Planescape Torment being my favorite game ever, I totally embrace the voiced protagonist for Western RPG's.

[Cubfan]

Re: Dragon Age 2

First Dragon Age 2 screen shots:

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/07/12/dragon-age-ii-first-screenshots.aspx

I like this look alot more then in the first game. Much more realistic.

[Linuxx]

Re: Dragon Age 2

isnt this a little quick to come out with a new game? I mean they took a long time to make the first..and now after having a expanison come out in what Feb of this year? and now another all new game..how good or improved can they really make it.

[Cyros]

Re: Dragon Age 2

isnt this a little quick to come out with a new game? I mean they took a long time to make the first..and now after having a expanison come out in what Feb of this year? and now another all new game..how good or improved can they really make it.

Well, the game was finished spring of last year so that would make it roughly a two year development cycle with all the groundwork done for the engine, lore, and gameplay mechanics. And while it did take Bioware a long time they had a lot of games come out in that time.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 Combat Preview

1. BioWare wants to improve the graphics.

During our play session, BioWare candidly admitted that Dragon Age Origins wasn't the best-looking game around, on console or PC. For the sequel the developer is refining the graphics engine and adjusting the art style with the goal of creating something instantly recognizable as Dragon Age. You should be able to look at a screenshot and tell what it is without any caption, BioWare says. The engine is also being improved to allow for more characters and creatures onscreen, which should allow for more **** battles. While there was some initial skepticism in the gaming community when the first Dragon Age 2 screenshots were released, what we saw today looked just fine. The character models have a subtle comic book look to them, which we liked.

2. The combat is being refined.

The combat in Dragon Age Origins was very tactical, allowing you to issue orders to the folks in your party. For the sequel, BioWare is aiming to keep that tactical aspect but also make it more action packed, if players wish it to be. Today we got a taste of the new combat system with a mountaintop battle against an army of orcs. They might have been imps or goblins or demons, actually. We're not nerdy enough to know the difference.

Different attacks are mapped to the X, Y, and B buttons of your controller (we were playing on an Xbox 360). Hawk, the hero of the game, had a typical sword swipe mapped to X, a thrust mapped to Y, and a twirl that would take down all the enemies around him mapped to B. By holding the right trigger you can access a second set of attacks, so it seems you'll have six moves available to you at a time. Each move has a recharge time, so you can't just keep mashing the X button to chop through enemies.

Speaking of chopping through enemies, you literally do that. The violence is quite visceral, as a sword swipe might leave just an enemy's torso or even their feet standing before you.

With the bumpers you can switch between characters in your party. Anyone you're not controlling will be handled by the AI. If the action is getting a little too hectic you can still stop it and issue commands to your party by holding the left trigger. This ability seems to work much like the squad commands in Mass Effect. You can also pause the action to carefully set spell target areas. Alongside our hero Hawk we had a female mage fighting with us in this battle. Her fire spells deal damage in a radius, and we were able to pause the fight and move the circle of death around the battlefield before casting.

We also got to see the new conversation system. 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.

At key points in conversation you'll have the opportunity to let your companions handle a situation. When a fresh group of orcs approach, for instance, you can decide whether or not you want Hawk or his female companion to take care of them. Whomever you choose will dispatch them all in one shot during the cut scene.

We only got a small glimpse at what Dragon Age 2 has to offer, but it was enough to whet our appetite. The combat was satisfying and seems to offer something for action fans and more thoughtful gamers.

A couple other things we noticed:

- The intro cut scene recaps the story of Dragon Age Origins, so newcomers should be able to jump right in.
- The title screen already has a "Downloadable Content" option.

[Chizzypoof]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Thanks Flawless.

That's kind of disappointing with the three choices of response. I hope that's just an overall view and you can still extract more information from the person you are talking too. But it is nice to hear the QT thing from Mass Effect 2 has made its way here.

It's also nice to hear the combat hasn't changed too much and switching characters is still in.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

IGN is wrong about the conversation system. I saw this developer post on the official forums.

We put up to 5 choice options and 5 investigate options per dialog node. There is also a difference between choices (where you are actually deciding something) and giving you the opportunity to express yourself in different ways (which I think is quite cool, but not something I believe we have released any details on yet).