Dragon Age 2

[goh]

Re: Dragon Age 2

The only place I can pre-order from is amazon and they don't even have it listed yet. So no maybe it's not fair.
Though of course I should finish DA 1 first.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

<object width="853" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/30cKbNXf4cM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/30cKbNXf4cM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>

[trobinson97]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Long way off...

[Cyros]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Long way off...

It'll be upon us before you know it.

[trobinson97]

Re: Dragon Age 2

It'll be upon us before you know it.

Yeah you're right. I still got a lot of NCAAFB10, NBA2K11, GT5 and Cataclysm to play. I'd give it all up for more Dragon Age though.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6czpvXmluAA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6czpvXmluAA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

[Jasong7777]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Preordered this last Friday, eventhough I still have not finished the first one.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Preordered this last Friday, eventhough I still have not finished the first one.

Same here....
When I first played DA I was still in the "Buy everything that comes out" mode, so I never got around to finishing it. My goal this weekend is to finish it and the DLC since I've finished Fable3 and almost have all the extras found etc...

[Cyros]

Re: Dragon Age 2

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6czpvXmluAA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6czpvXmluAA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Any spoilers?

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Looks like the 1st opening mission. Lots of fighting going on, meet some chick witch, some talking is going on but being they at some type of comic con, you can't hear the damn tv, you just hear all the people in the background talking. And who ever is recording isn't standing still so it is hard to read the words on the screen because the camera keeps tilting and moving.

[Flawless]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Joystiq Preview

The disparity in the two introduction highlights the overall theme of Dragon Age 2. EA is going for "a frame narrative" this time around, where the multi-act game is actually "a story being told; a person recounting history." This change isn't just for the sake of the story, but also serves an organizational purpose. Darrah explained that "if you weren't careful in Origins, you could kind of end up in this branching situation where you have 1,000 quests open and it'd be very easy to lose your way." This new act system will give players the freedom to do things within each act, but when an act concludes, it could jump forward a year, sometimes more. This way, it's "easier for the game to stay cohesive," Darrah said.

"We will import your decisions, in choices like who became king and the male/female gender of the Warden," Darrah said. "In terms of Witch Hunt decisions, we will be importing them into the game, but Morrigan doesn't have a huge role in Dragon Age 2, so it's more about having them for the future and making sure that we keep those. We will be maintaining and preserving those decisions, but we may not have a big reaction to them in DA2." But if you're one of those people who can't wait to see what happened to Morrigan, Darrah offers hope: "We're definitely not done with Morrigan."

Many players will remember that the PC and console versions of the first game were very different, not only from a UI standpoint, but also in presentation -- both graphically and in how the camera worked. I got to sample the Xbox 360 version of Dragon Age 2 here, which played more like an action-RPG like Fable compared to my experience playing the first game on the PC. In the console version, the pace is much more brisk -- the combat is constantly pushing forward. Pressing a button immediately initiates the command, and there isn't any kind of queue or stall between input and something happening in the game.

Character animations and the textures really stood out -- the game has a clean, quasi cel-shaded look to it and there aren't those random ugly textures I (like so many of you, I'm sure) had to get used to in the first game. In combat, your characters' weapons will more accurately connect with enemies, and in conversations, facial expressions emote according to the dialogue chosen.

Bioware has implemented a new dialogue system akin to that of Mass Effect, too, with unique icons indicating the tone in which your choice will be delivered, eventually shaping your character's identity. Darrah recalled how an issue in Origins, where players would accidentally flirt with Zevran, stemmed from a lack of visual indication, "because the line would say something negative and Zevran would interpret that as a flirtatious line."

"Just knowing approximately what the words are going to be isn't necessarily always an absolute, so we wanted you to know total information -- 'okay, this is an aggressive line,' 'this is me being humorous' and so on. So what will happen is as you choose the different tonal responses, the game will start to learn how you're playing. Some conversations will then just end with a line coming from you, and that will often be based on the tone you're choosing. If you tend to be sarcastic, you'll tend to end conversations in a more sarcastic manner. Your voice really gives us the opportunity to push you into a leadership position in the conversations, which wasn't possible in Origins where you weren't really a voiced character."

What I took away from my time with the game is that it's possible to compare its improvement to some of those made between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. The game's campaign is being tightened, and BioWare is looking to make the console-side combat feel more responsive and the character classes feel more unique and useful in Dragon Age 2.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Hmmm I thought the console version played responsive.

EA is going for "a frame narrative" this time around, where the multi-act game is actually "a story being told; a person recounting history."

This reminds me of Alpha Protocal.

What I took away from my time with the game is that it's possible to compare its improvement to some of those made between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2

This makes me happy, because it was a huge leap of improvement from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2.

[thaima1shu]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Anything they do to make it more like Mass Effect will make me go bananas for this game. I'm still trying to get through Origins, but the non-voiced main character is bugging me. I hate just selecting text options.

[Cyros]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Some of those improvements will probably drive the hardcore rpg crowd crazy.

[thaima1shu]

Re: Dragon Age 2

Some of those improvements will probably drive the hardcore rpg crowd crazy.

Fine with me