Yeah, truly a bummer that a follow-up to such an engrossing game could be classified as a "chore". I am sure I will finish it eventually. And yep Dragon Knight Saga is what I am re-playing through. It's actually a good game, a bit draggy in parts,but I still love the Dragon morph mechanic.


Yeah, personal tastes and all that. I have been trying not to be all screaming and stomping of feet kind of hatin' on DA2 - but it just felt like such an empty game experience for me, compared to the heart and soul they seemed to put in the first, the care with the characterizations and very good writing.. I was amused and shocked at DA2, but not for good "this is a cool game" reasons, more for "omg, Bioware Devs, some of you must be downright depressed over this" or "what? Seriously Bioware? Really?"


I have played several mages and try as I might, I end up going "oh screw it" and re-speccing to the Entropy school, with a few other random spells to accompany it. They did a good balance of dark, edgy spells that feel very mage-y, and make you feel kind of a little bit evil for knowing those sorts of spells. I have yet to go the blood mage route - it just seems so... messy

this game DA2 is very short in comparison to the first one
i did every quest etc etc and it took maybe 30 hrs tops
it is more of an action/adventure game rather than an rpg
on the other hand i really liked DAO

i am replaying divinity/dragon knight saga now
it is a very nice rpg from a small company
and it has all the aspects of a true rpg
also
they remade the game and did a nice job rebalancing the game

That is the common view of the game. Origins felt to me like "D&D for dummies", an RPG but still simpler than the old ones. DA2 felt to me like "D&D for dummies for dummies" :hehe: (speaking only about gameplay mechanics here.)

Playing some older games for a while now has made think that.

Dragon Age 2 is not a bad game. I think my first time through took like 100+ hours... but I started it on nightmare mode as a healer/support mage. Nightmare mode in DA2 is WAAAAY more challenging than DAO although both have plenty of party AI issues that caused me to rip my hair out (why do my party memebers run around and use random abilities when I tell them to hold still! Some encounters were [censored] hard due to the poor party AI, but the only fight I had to resort to cheap kiting tactics was the Ogre in intro sequence. I really liked the Deep Roads boss, even if it took me hours to beat him due tot he stupid AI...Why must my allies run into the bosses attacks after I tell them to stand still and out of sight!

The dialogue was cheesy at times, but I did enjoy how it tried to be morally gray. The story was a TON more logical than DAO, imo. DAO made almost NO sense to me with the illogical betrayal from the start.

Running around Kirkwall was not anywhere near as boring as posters made it sound. I would have liked some more variety in scenery, especially as the years progress. Just having the vendors change position or the displayed wares would have made a big impact.

The thing that annoyed me the most was the [censored] party AI using skills in different orders than I posted in the tactics slots and how ranged members would run past everyone and into the middle of a pack of enemies for NO reason (and running around, attacking, doing other stupid things after telling them to hold position out of the enemy line of sight). DAO had plenty of dumb AI moments itself and the frustrating habit of characters performing different actions than what I directed INSTANTLY after I had issued an order persisted in DA2.

I lost my train of thought. Hopefully I made some sense!

EDIT: I do not see how the games are dumbed down from the old days. My first time playing BG2 my paladin was completely invincible to everything except maze for most of the game.

I prefer "simplified". The game mechanics in modern games are simpler, whether that is good or bad is for everyone to decide themselves. I would be lying if i claimed that all the rules of D&D 3 weren't overwhelming when i first saw them, so move away from that intricate systems is all good in my view.

Yeah, I agree with you there. Phrases like "dumbed down" are seen as a little pejorative, which is sometimes the intent but not always, whereas "simplified" carries less baggage. Of course you see the opposite, too, with phrases like "streamlined" intended to put a positive spin on something that not everyone may see as an improvement.

I know what you're going through. I went through the exact same when ME2 came out.

The first spell that all bloodmages are required to learn is called Cloroxio. It gets out the toughest bloodstains and leaves your robewear smelling fresh and clean.

The Blood mage animations are just as exaggerated as the rest of the combat. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197988732882/screenshot/595807815426871786?tab=public.

The staff impaling was a little bit much I agree. they should have just made all the animation revolve around the little knife you always have with you to finishing people off.

The boss fights in DA2 were, in my opinion, a lot more satisfying than the DAO ones. Combat in general was better even if the spawning waves of enemies was kind of annoying. Physical attacks dealing friendly fire damage made the game a lot more strategic too. I had to watch my parties distribution to ensure safety when a 2 hand warrior spammed his abilities.

Enemy health regeneration was pretty annoying too. My healer mage with only auto-attack as an offensive ability could not win any duels because the NPCs would pop healing potions faster than the character could deal damage. I could see allowing a few heals... but after 45 minutes and the enemy was still healing to 100% I just gave up.

Oh... the annoying rogues who would 1 shot everyone in my party except the tank were kinda over the top.

While I wait for a response on the Bioware forums, I thought I'd throw a question to you folks.

I just installed retail Ultimate Edition, registered the game and released the DLC. The game refuses to accept my password when I try to sign in on the main game menu, thereby blocking the DLC. The password works fine logging into the Bioware site and forums.

Does the game have a problem with special characters in a password (#, *)?

I wouldn't know, but that could be the issue. Try changing your password to something that contains only lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers.

That did it. The game does not seem to like special characters in a password. Thanks.

I'm glad to have helped.

I just finished DA2 a couple of days ago and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I've heard a lot of put downs directed toward this game for no specific reason when compared to DA1, and I was a little put off that there was no "camp " area to talk to everyone and no gifts. In the end, I ended up being really happy with all of that. I felt closer to some DA2 characters than DA1 (and personally, I liked almost all of the DA2 characters better, they were much more relateable for me) and there were only personal gifts for each character, instead of a ton of gifts that you could give to just about anyone.

I also really liked the three act thing. Instead of just one long build up to the end, it was as though there were three endings, all building up the final one, which really made me feel like I was living the life of my character and that a lot of things were developing.

And I can't go without mentioning my approval for the main focus being man vs. man as opposed to man vs. beast, since I find the former much more interesting. The whole game was quite a nice gray area for the most part, and a lot of debate could be held on who was right in their actions, the Templars or the Mages.

Great stuff.

And as you have found out yourself, that information is... well, for lack of a better word, a myth.

I find it fascinating how so many people, when they dislike something to the point of near-hatred, they generally tend to, either intentionally or subconsciously, make up additional "bad" false details about it which helps them push their attitude towards the thing they dislike into a full-fledged hatred. Granted, I don't witness that frequently on these forums, but generally in my life I have seen it happen on so many occasions it's just fascinating and a little bit concerning at the same time. Most people don't seem to like to have an "in-between", "non-absolute" opinion about something - i.e., most of the people want to either absolutely adore/love something, or absolutely hate it. When their opinion leans a bit towards one of the two, they don't like it that way and will (in most cases subconsciously) invent fake details to push their opinion toward one of the extremes.

I am not immune to this myself, either. I have caught myself on many occasions debating about something I either like or dislike, be it a game or a film or whatever, saying various things to support my arguments and back up my opinions, only to discover that when I later think about or re-read what I have written and think about it a bit, the only thing I can say is that it is simply not true.

It's just the kind of animals we are, I suppose.

I couldn't agree more, and that's why I always try my best to keep an open mind about things. As you quoted, "a little put off" was the extent of my feelings on that. Even though there was no "camp" and there weren't a bunch of unassigned gifts, I didn't jump to the conclusion that the interpersonal relationships with followers were being neglected, and I was right not to, because as I found, at the end I felt much more attached to them than the ones in DA1. And after thinking about it (and seeing it in action) the lack of unassigned gifts is a good thing, in my opinion. Less inventory space being hogged up and more emphasis on actually interacting with the companions instead of tossing junk at them.

An important lesson to remember.

Indeed.

By the way, yo momma so noob she couldn't even woo Isabela.

Apparently there was a rush to get a new thread up, even though this one still had some room.

FYI, there is no special achievement for starting the next thread in a series.