BS. It's their story. They make that clear in the threads on their own forum.

Edit:



Actually, I think they're worse. The women run like they're hokers showing off the merchandise.

That's one issue, but what really got me was the complete lack of transition between standing still and running. No sense of acceleration/deceleration, characters either break into a full run or come to a complete stop immediately, just like that. This is especially egregious because Bioware has in the past shown to be very good in this department, especially in the MEs and DAO. What the hell happened?! >_<

Let's not even talk about the Darkspawns' comical shuffle.

Attacks also looked like they were missing transitional animations. And I really don't know why everyone is raving about the combat. Flashier animations don't make auto-attack combat any less boring than it was in DA:O. I was very disappointed with what Bioware did with the mage class - there are far fewer activated spells, all of which have to be upgraded to even reach the level they were in DA:O. Additionally, cooldown timers have been extended for most, and the mage spends most of combat auto-attacking. I found the arcane warrior spec boring as hell, and don't appreciate the mage class being railroaded into one in DA2. Don't get me started on what Bioware did with the spirit healer spec.

Oh my god. Looked up the PC gamer podcast, so [censored] insufferable how they blathered on. 65% of the [censored] pod cast had to be uhhhh, mmm, hmmm, nnnsss, hahahahahah's about some quiet joke I couldn't [censored] hear, or that weird moist mouth flapping sound when people talk. After suffering through so much and skipping around this massive... collection of human sounds... I heard them say something dragon age and a rogue back stab animation looking good. Either way I got fed up, and I can't take their review seriously.

i absolutely loved the combat in DA origins, pause + squad control = great fun,
but man i found the story and characters really hard going,
and impossible to put up with for a second playthough, which is a shame really,
having tried the demo for DA2 i was horrified to discover that the thing they've changed the most is the combat,
the realistic look and feel is gone in favour of devil may cry silliness,
nevermind the fact that you have to be a fully voiced [censored] - someone else's cheesy idea of a character,
(shepherd... would you SHUT UP?)
and guess what - there seems to be even more tiresome dialogue, and even more naff writing to sit through,
bye bye bioware, it was nice for a while, but you are so dumped

Obviously that's why you wait for reviews from sites like Gameinformer.

Played the PS3 demo a few times now. Based on what I've seen, I'm not buying the game. At least, I will wait until I see user feedback from PS3 gamers before I think about buying it. Here's why:

1) Button-mashy combat. Press X a million times, wait for abilities to come off cooldown, repeat. I'm going to get RSI in my thumb playing DA2.
2) My abilities felt too weak. Enemies needed way too many hits to die, the fights felt tedious.
3) Too many glitches. Blood spatter appearing and disappearing from characters in cutscenes, terrible pausing issues between live action and cutscenes.
4) STILL can't loot while in combat (not a major thing but this really annoys me).

It sounds like a very different experience on PS3.

On PC the demo was far too easy - it seemed almost impossible to die. Were you pausing and micromanaging all the characters?

After finishing the main quest, I imagine it could add interesting replay value to go back and try playing the game without pausing at all.

I don't like to have the followers use tactics, so it would be a sort of challenge solo playthrough without followers.

Actually the fights weren't difficult (apart from the last ogre fight which was fairly tough), they just seemed to drag on forever. I was watching their health bars go slowly down and thinking "Oh come on! I've just shot a ball of FIRE in your FACE and you lose 5% health? Gimme a break!"

Did Bioware sneak in a better version for the PC? Micromanaging was pointless on 360, as companions ignored commands half the time. When I reached the ogre battle, telling Carver and Aveline to attack the ogre resulted in them standing there. :brokencomputer:

Did you uncheck all the tactics boxes first? Once you uncheck them, the followers don't do anything other than attack unless you tell them. Also helps to toggle the hold position button if you want all the enemies to come to your party.

I played the demo 4 times, each time micromanaging every action by each character. I had Avelline use taunt and attack the ogre repeatedly while my rogue backstabbed him and Bethany hit him with fireballs (if he she survived instead of Carver).

Oh, that's rich. Remove tactics to get companions to attack designated target? That's piss-poor programming right there. I'm NOT impressed.

I, on the other hand very much enjoy setting and fine tuning the tactics. In Final Fantasy XII i had such good tactics setup that i usually didn't need to inetervene when the crew fought standard enemies

Shame that controlled party member in Dragon Age doesn't use tactics.

IIRC, DA:O seemed to work in a similar way.

If you are really issuing commands for every action by each follower, it's much more convenient not to have any active tactics. I think in the past the only tactics I would use were drink potion if health < 50%, etc.

@ Tojka - the PC can definitely use tactics as well.

IMO, having all the party using tactics, at least in the PC demo for DA2, felt more like watching a movie than actually playing the game.

Yay its meaningful, until the next expansion/game where they retcon all your choices.



The writing annoyed me *everyone stops, and talks* "we have to keep moving" no [censored] sherlock.
Then you have the redshirts they expect you to care about.
And the investige option talking to flemmeth is BS.


Really ? Closest I have seen is people sya giader made loads of excuses why a mute character was great, then did a 180 about how voices make it better.


1) Yeah I got tired of mashing a, and it was boring "oh bower is back" *press B then spam A again*
2 you played duel rogue too huh ?
3 Didnt find
4) yeah I hate waiting to loot stuff.


So thats why the redheaded (aveline or something ?)was just standing there doing nothing while darkspanw attacked her...

Yea, I thought the writing for the escape from Lothering sequence was pretty bad. "We have to escape!" No, really? 5 seconds later - "Where are we going?" How about away from the Darkspawn? Flemeth was the highlight of the entire demo.



Really. Check the threads screaming about how your class determines which sibling kicks the bucket.

I remember someone (I think Gaider) saying that he wanted everyone to see all (most?) of the outcomes in a single playthrough. This runs directly counterpoint to actually having a good sense of choice and consequence. Let me demonstrate typical Bioware conversation:

NPC: You have to help me, my cat is stuck in the tree!
PC: , , , ,
NPC:



They really only have small reactions for one line after you say something which as no impact on anything else whatsoever. Plus, the review is totally whack for more reasons than one, but one is because Alpha Protocol did it better, AND it was a recent game.

Note that the was also in Dragon Age: Origins for much of the game, but at parts your choices really did matter (ie: who will be King?). If DA2 was even like that, it would be okay, but then I heard Gaider say how everyone should be able to experience everything, and it all went to [censored].

Micromanaging? I only went through the demo once, but with the PC version the only commands I ever gave to people were to use health potions, since the heal spell's giant recharge made it fairly useless. I never once even looked at the tactics screen, it just didn't occur to me as necessary in a demo. So beyond those potions I never did a thing with my party, and thanks to having little more than a pointless heal spell and mage regular attack to back it up, I was mainly just following the others and watching them do the work.

I didn't even bother picking up the Heal Spell. 60 seconds for a single-target heal? It's a complete waste of a talent slot.

I wished Dragon Age had FFXII's tactics system. They're both similar but 12's is just way better. Although I'm glad the controlled party member doesn't use tactics because he'll probably get killed.

I actually enjoyed the Dragon Age 2 demo. I'll probably buy it.

The character face gen has been drastically improved...each character looked fairly unique. I could barely tell that guy at the beginning was a dwarf...which is good because they all looked the same in the first.

The combat was a mix between diablo (click/mash) and fable. Being fans of those series, I kind of enjoyed it. It took me a while to get used to Dragon Age's MMORPG-KOTOR style of tactics, so I guess some adjustments will come. I definitely feel like this game was made for a controller while the first one was better with a keyboard...which is also good because I hate using a keyboard and mouse to play video games.

And last but not least, and you're all probably going to hate me for this, but I LOVE the fact that my character can now talk. Even though previous Bioware games featured a silent character, Mass Effect kind of set the stage (for me) in terms of what I expect Bioware characters to do.

I'm actually quite suprised people hate the demo. Besides a few poorly transitioned cut scenes and an ogre design that didn't need changing I didn't see what was really wrong with it. :shrug:

Uh I will take your word for it, I cant go back there, its either about companions you can bone or fanboyism (shhhh it is a word now) where anyone not praising it is flamed, so then BW can continue to make thier games worse because any criticism is drowned out.


And this is why I cant agree with people when they saythat choosing the dialouge makes it an rpg, it dosent, it gives the illusion of choice, but its meaningless, and imo if the gameplay is still the same its not an rpg.
Did AP dialouge effect much ?
I would get the game but I hear obsidian left it for dead.
(In the unlikely event a dev reads this :Hey Obsidian devs if you read this, please fix your games, you guys are amazing developers, making great games/rpgs, much better than people like BW, and could easily be alot more popular if you fixed the games and did a bit more testing, beneath the bugs are amazing games (also now BW has dumbed down, less compitition, and a higher demand for the type of games you make )

*fixed

I don't think that choice and consequence makes a game an RPG, but it's a nice feature to have, regardless... especially when you're using it to hype up the game along with your "visceral combat" and "streamlined interface" (am I the only one who gets reminded of urination by the word "streamline"?). My point is that if the game promises that it has deep choice and consequence, it should deliver. Bioware usually does, to a small extent, but the reviewer is likely using hyperbole. But then, I'm one of those people who likes various statistics and skills in RPGs, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I wouldn't recommend buying AP (unless it's cheap now). It's enjoyable for the choice and consequence more than for the actual game; I simply godmoded my way through once I got to the third boss fight. It gives a good illusion of your choices actually mattering since you can kill off characters and become friends or enemies with others. It can make some missions easier and others harder. It still doesn't make the game very good, though. =/

Well I find they way overhyped imports in ME2, and judging this, its the same, any important choices wont matter much.

I think a a jet with the word streamlined, becuase jets are streamlined.

Hmmm will wait for it to drop a bit lower, but I like obsidian so will most likely get in new to support them.

I agree with most of what you have said. I don't mind that the Hero is voiced the only problem I have is that it adds on to the memory but that's a minor issue.