She is very important, she may not be seen much in DA2 but she still has a big role to play

Characters may not be that relivent in DA2, but they are in the big picture, DA isnt a trilogy, they havent got a limit on how much time they have to set everything up, be patient.

The series is going to be finished and a new IP brought in before they throw even the tiniest of bones. Simple marketing tool, get a hook in and let it sit there. Throw no bones unless absolutely needed. Take money and profit.

Point 3 isn't really relevant at all, which is explained when you deliver her amulet.


What I said was that she is exactly as relevant, mainly because she does the exact same thing as she did in origins. Besides, you don't have to physically see her for her to be relevant or for her to influence the plot, talk to Sandal for example, that was explained in an earlier post.

She provides a deus ex machina, ensures her survival, then Sandal foreshadows and possibly hints at flemeth. Not the type of plot relevance I was hoping for. She is not relevant to the main story of DA2. Honestly, the story could have been told without her.

Just played that part over again and she said

So could the story in Origins, your point being?

I already stated it in my original post on the subject. She should have been more relevant to the plot, and that it would have probably been an improvement.

Was anyone able to romance Aveline? I couldn't seem to get her interested. I followed all the "heart" dialouge, but then the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen, happened.

No romance possible for Aveline.

It is possible to get her to kiss you, however, the process seems to be difficult to pull off.

Hmmm, I suspected as much. Well for some reason I never unlocked isabella ( don't tell me how please I'll find out next playthrough ). Now I'm stuck with Merril or going homo, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hmmm Varric is kinda of a handsome devil. :biggrin:

LOL Aveline and Varric are the only characters you can't romance.

(I think you also can't romance the DLC character Sebastian but not sure about it.)

Nope, you can. Choir boy is special though, he's the only pure straight romance option. And chaste. ^_^

Really? I'm sure I've seen a heart appear in the conversation wheel. So it only for a kiss?

You can flirt in the first year in Kirkwall, but it's nothing that Avelline reacts to. At least not in the right way. Though that's not quite limited to Hawke trying to flirt, as you might see later on.

Just starting playing Awakening and I keep finding toys as gifts to whom is is the best person to give them to at the moment I have Oghren,Anders and Nathaniel Howe as my companions.

The one of those who has a kid might be the right choice.

Well, I just finished DA2 (after playing it a LOT over the last few days to take advantage of my break) and I can say I’m disappointed, but not as much as I thought I’d be.

Storywise it felt like The Witcher. The obvious factional war immediately made me think of The Witcher rather than Dragon Age. Also there was the problem in that while Origins had a clear goal at all times, DA2 seemed to….flounder…somewhat. There was in my eyes never really a sense where there was a deliberate goal that Hawke was working towards except . Too much of the time I seemed to simply be going between disconnected missions to advance the story, with all the major plot points only occurring at the end of each act after the “filler” had been completed. Also, what happened to the 10 years thing? By my count there were only 6-7 years unless we include the time up to Varic’s interrogation as well. Also, the whole finale

The companions did somewhat warm up to me eventually. I actually felt a sense of emotion when and I felt myself getting attached to Varric, Sebastian and Anders, actually being surprisingly angered when . However I did encounter quite a few glitches. Merrill’s dialogue in her home went out of order, so

Graphics wise I’m really disappointed. Because I use XP I was limited to the ‘Medium’ setting and the game in many cases looked worse than Origins. The Darkspawn look absolutely terrible (and what the hell happened to the Genlocks, did they magically disappear?), the Elves now resemble skinny Welsh giraffes and Kirkwall is filled with NPCs who appear to have been created by technology from 1986. Even the returning characters like The new art direction really didn’t suit me at all. It just felt rushed and the cut-corners were obvious all over the place.

And by the way Bioware, if you’re having a story that’s spanning “10 years”, at least actually make it seems as though the city has changed over 10 years ey? Having the same unchanging merchants in the same spot selling the same stuff in the same area with no environmental change whatsoever completely broke any sense of immersion I had.

Gameplaywise, I found the combat to be immature and so much removed from Origins that it could barely be called a sequel. While the combat mechanics worked fairly well, it made DA2 feel like an action game, and the over-the-top blood felt like I was playing a game intended for 13 year old males. Enough has been said on the removal of stuff like Origin stories, so I wont go there, but I was really annoyed by the crafting and skills system. I liked having to invest points into those skills to be able to access the best crafting equipment, as well as provide my own resources. Now finding a mushroom means you have a seemingly unlimited supply and companions are only there for combat. I also really missed Coercion. I was great to play through Origins once with maximum coercion and once without any. It really changed how I dealt with situations in the game. Here, the whole thing has been Mass Effectified, so you only have “Good, Bad and Funny”. All ambiguity was removed and the sense of conversations being a “game within a game” is gone, replaced by Commander Hawke of the SSV Kirkwall.

I’m probably making it out to be far worse than it actually was. I did find myself enjoying it more towards the end, once I got used to the changes from Origins. However the game was obviously rushed, and Bioware trying to excuse every change with a self-righteous answer is annoying me to no end. As this is obviously now the direction that Dragon Age will take, I fear for the series. Dragon Age 2 was not a great game. It was a slightly above average Roleplaying game, but a poor Dragon Age game, and definitely not up to Bioware’s usual standard. When compared to Origins, DA2 really doesnt have anything it can say was improved in my eyes. All that being said, I’m not looked forward to the plethora of half-arsed DLC we’re now sure to get so EA can keep milking the cow.

Edit: bleh thats been formatted somewhat badly. Oh well you guys will manage.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/24/bioware-wanted-quot-a-more-viable-future-for-the-franchise-quot-with-dragon-age-ii.aspx

Well it looks like Dragon Age 3 is going to svck. They aren't going to go back to the things that made the franchise great. Enjoy being 2nd place in RPG's Bioware to Bethesda Game Studios. I used to like Bioware but now I'm really starting not to like those guys at all. I think Laidlaw has to go or EA needs to get the hell off of Bioware's back and allow them to have more time for development and make a game that will actually sell. DA 2 was an abomination compared to Origins and not making any changes towards Origins is stupid and foolhardy. Alieniating your best and loyal customers is not a smart business strategy and I'm hoping Mass Effect 3 isn't my last Bioware game because as of now I think it will be unless changes are made to the company. My bigger fear is that Bioware will go out of business because of these decisions and that's a shame because Bioware is a good company but unless they make changes I can see it happening especially if ME3 tanks because people will be skeptical of buying Bioware products because of DA2. I'm buying ME3 regardless of what Bioware did with DA2 because I want to see how Shephard's story ends but I will be damn sure looking for bugs/glitches before the product comes out.

Hmm... I don't care if Dragon Age 3 isn't going to be like the first. The story has got me hook, I must see what happens next. Same thing with Mass Effect 3, I cannot wait to continue my Shepards adventure.

Grreat, so its now ME, follow the adventures of Hawke, that explains everthing, I thought it wouldbe like ME when i saw the gameplay, but now, one origin, no epilouge and the same ending regaurdles of choices made, its going to be like ME following one guy, its never going to be your story, and choices are irrelivant.

[censored] EA, and [censored] Bioware, if they want to make everything like ME and keep trimming down games thats fine, but they have just garunteed I wont be giving them my money.

Same here, I'm going to rent it instead.

Why? Because they said they are not suddenly turning around AGAIN, destroying any credibility, to pursue the clunkier route of Origins without all the changes they made? Seriously. Cheer the hell up. ^_^

(Also, Bethesda makes a completely different kind of RPG.)

Dragon Age 2 has some things that are better then Origins but mostly it pales in comparasion to Origins. The story is a hell of a lot better in Origins then it was in DA2. Bioware shouldn't have screwed over it's hardcoe fanbase by changing what was great about Origins and going with the "Press a Button something awesome happens" type of mindset but nope they just want the COD audience which they aren't going to get. DA3 needs to be closer in some degree to Origins. If it isn't I'm not buying the product and will wait for the price to drop before getting it.

Also it doesn't matter if they are two different RPG's. BGS is the best that I've seen in developing RPG's and I don't think anybody is close to them. Bioware was challenging them for a while, Mass Effect 1 was pretty good although it has it's flaws and Origins was really good as it was Bioware's best selling game but Mass Effect 2 didn't help them (Although it's a good game in it's own right) and Dragon Age 2 is just a major step in the wrong direction. Bioware needs to either have a change in leadership for DA3 (Laidlaw has to go) or EA needs to give Bioware more time like 3 years development minimum.

Oh, you're one of those who translates "games don't always show their RPG aspects and some people don't care" to "OMG we want a slice of the CoD crowd"?

Yes, yes it does. It wouldn't at the point where we get a grandly written TES that's as open as ever and epically cinematic in scope. But that's just not going to happen. Different niches.

DA2 from my point of view was a huge success. Not only do i find it a game fun to play, it has spawned some ridiculously polarised internet commentaries that have given me many laughs over these weeks :lmao: Mainly in the BW forums, mind you