Escapist Dragon Age II Review, Is Something Wrong Here?

[drunken_munki]

I agree with the post. I had problems with the Escapist's review because it seemed so bland and contradictory in some places. The random false claims of AMAZING GRAPHICS LOL K THX BYE, really irritated me.

 

[Zaik]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

Metacritic was out 5 years before Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins just came out not too long ago and it has good ratings, care to explain this "guarantee"?

Occams Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, there is no conspiracy here, it's just not very good and people are angry because of it. Not liking the reason behind the result doesn't change the reason.

Well folks, I just looked up Oblivion's metacritic page out of curiousity and, lo and behold, it has a grand total of 1413 ratings between pc/xbox/ps3. I'll stop pulling the fanboy irrationality card if you'll admit that it's a little odd to compare a game that's been out 7 years that has less reviews than a game that has been out for two or three days depending on where you live.
Then again that was my doing so I guess that would put us at square 1.

Edit 2: on that point, a game that has been out 7 years has less ratings than a game that has been out a few days. That tends to further suggest spamming actually, but you could argue that metacritic was less relevant in 2006, but that would make my previous argument less irrelevant.

Whatever.

Edit 3: Math fail again, it's late. 2011-2006=5

 

[Krantos]

Biggest issue I have is Meta-critic (seriously, in this case, ignore the user reviews, stick to the pro ones) has the Escapist listed as 100/100 as a score. It is the ONLY perfect score across ALL platforms.

No other professional review has thus far given the game above a 94, but the Escapist gave it 100.

I doubt that EA paid anything for the review, but I do seriously doubt the reviewer's credibility. Taken from a statistical perspective, the Escapist's review would be considered an outlier. Perhaps he really thought the game was that good, but his fellow reviews disagree.

ALL of them.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I didn't like the way the guy worded his review (and was vocal about it in a slightly drunken post), but I do love the game. I must be in on the conspiracy then, eh?

No, you're fine. I am enjoying the game too, but a shoddy review needs to be called out.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

regardless of the actual ratings on DA2/DAO/etc..

i will highly agree to this, the amount of facepalm i get for people wasting there time to troll a game/game company is sad really, and there are plenty of them to go around.

OT: eh..i partially think your going way to into it, but at the same time i do see your point, overall i think DA2 should have been it's own stand alone game, rather than any kind of continuities of the series, as i really really did enjoy DAO and awakening, and i'm not saying im not enjoying DA2, but it is quite different in alot of aspects (art style/lore/trajectory of story thus far/character play-ins/customizations)

 

[Danpascooch]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

Metacritic was out 5 years before Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins just came out not too long ago and it has good ratings, care to explain this "guarantee"?

Occams Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, there is no conspiracy here, it's just not very good and people are angry because of it. Not liking the reason behind the result doesn't change the reason.

Well folks, I just looked up Oblivion's metacritic page out of curiousity and, lo and behold, it has a grand total of 1413 ratings between pc/xbox/ps3. I'll stop pulling the fanboy irrationality card if you'll admit that it's a little odd to compare a game that's been out 7 years that has less reviews than a game that has been out for two or three days depending on where you live.
Then again that was my doing so I guess that would put us at square 1.

How does the number of reviews Oblivion have matter? It doesn't reduce the review count on Dragon Age II. The volume of quick responses can be easily explained by the fact that people who are angry or feel betrayed by a low quality game are motivated to take action to hold the developer accountable (IE leave a negative rating) while people who are satisfied don't feel the same sense of urgency and often don't bother.

Explain to me why it's odd, what about the Oblivion rating count damages the legitimacy of the Dragon Age II rating? Given that trolls can be all but ruled out since they aren't attacking other new releases and the sheer volume of negative reviews is too much to be accrued by trolls, and that's not even considering the fact that nobody has any motivation to attack this game's ratings for no reason.

 

[Danpascooch]

I didn't like the way the guy worded his review (and was vocal about it in a slightly drunken post), but I do love the game. I must be in on the conspiracy then, eh?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just question the review due to some flaws I noticed. If you enjoy the game you're lucky because a lot of people want to enjoy it and find themselves unable to. I sincerely hope you enjoy it all the way through, I really do.

 

[Zaik]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

Metacritic was out 5 years before Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins just came out not too long ago and it has good ratings, care to explain this "guarantee"?

Occams Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, there is no conspiracy here, it's just not very good and people are angry because of it. Not liking the reason behind the result doesn't change the reason.

Well folks, I just looked up Oblivion's metacritic page out of curiousity and, lo and behold, it has a grand total of 1413 ratings between pc/xbox/ps3. I'll stop pulling the fanboy irrationality card if you'll admit that it's a little odd to compare a game that's been out 7 years that has less reviews than a game that has been out for two or three days depending on where you live.
Then again that was my doing so I guess that would put us at square 1.

How does the number of reviews Oblivion have matter? It doesn't reduce the review count on Dragon Age II. The volume of quick responses can be easily explained by the fact that people who are angry or feel betrayed by a low quality game are motivated to take action to hold the developer accountable (IE leave a negative rating) while people who are satisfied don't feel the same sense of urgency and often don't bother.

Explain to me why it's odd, what about the Oblivion rating count damages the legitimacy of the Dragon Age II rating? Given that trolls can be all but ruled out since they aren't attacking other new releases and the sheer volume of negative reviews is too much to be accrued by trolls, and that's not even considering the fact that nobody has any motivation to attack this game's ratings for no reason.

*shrug* At this point we're talking maybes. I think there is, you think there isn't. I can't prove there is, and you can't prove there isn't. We can argue all night, but it won't get either of us anywhere. So, I propose we try something that might sound a little less dumb.

I'm gonna go through and average up every user review score for Dragon Age 2 that isn't a 0, 1, 2, 9, or 10. I think that clears up all the bias, right? 3-8 will be acceptable numbers to be averaged. Then I'll come back and post what an average without trolling and countertrolling ends up being, and we can argue about what that means.


Nevermind i'm going to bow out of this, i'm too damn tired to work a calculator and the sheer number of threes and fours that start out "I HATE YOU BIOWARE/EA YOU RUINED MY LIFE" aren't helping matters.

I'm going to bow out because i'm not qualified to have this discussion anymore.

Enjoy your bias, i'll keep enjoying my game.

 

[Buizel91]

-.- I'm guessing there will be at least 20+ threads of DA2 today. I also bet there will be one titled Dragon Age 2...Why all the hate -.-

Please...can we drop it already -.-

 

[AndyRock]

Just to get things straight, I am currently enjoying DA2 more than I did origins, but even I found this review to be a bit too much up bioware's arse, I think it's good, but a 4/5, not a 5/5.

 

[Danpascooch]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

Metacritic was out 5 years before Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins just came out not too long ago and it has good ratings, care to explain this "guarantee"?

Occams Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, there is no conspiracy here, it's just not very good and people are angry because of it. Not liking the reason behind the result doesn't change the reason.

Well folks, I just looked up Oblivion's metacritic page out of curiousity and, lo and behold, it has a grand total of 1413 ratings between pc/xbox/ps3. I'll stop pulling the fanboy irrationality card if you'll admit that it's a little odd to compare a game that's been out 7 years that has less reviews than a game that has been out for two or three days depending on where you live.
Then again that was my doing so I guess that would put us at square 1.

How does the number of reviews Oblivion have matter? It doesn't reduce the review count on Dragon Age II. The volume of quick responses can be easily explained by the fact that people who are angry or feel betrayed by a low quality game are motivated to take action to hold the developer accountable (IE leave a negative rating) while people who are satisfied don't feel the same sense of urgency and often don't bother.

Explain to me why it's odd, what about the Oblivion rating count damages the legitimacy of the Dragon Age II rating? Given that trolls can be all but ruled out since they aren't attacking other new releases and the sheer volume of negative reviews is too much to be accrued by trolls, and that's not even considering the fact that nobody has any motivation to attack this game's ratings for no reason.

*shrug* At this point we're talking maybes. I think there is, you think there isn't. I can't prove there is, and you can't prove there isn't. We can argue all night, but it won't get either of us anywhere. So, I propose we try something that might sound a little less dumb.

I'm gonna go through and average up every user review score for Dragon Age 2 that isn't a 0, 1, 2, 9, or 10. I think that clears up all the bias, right? 3-8 will be acceptable numbers to be averaged. Then I'll come back and post what an average without trolling and countertrolling ends up being, and we can argue about what that means.

I guess you could do that, but you won't really be able to, you can't see individual scores that aren't attached to reviews, and I only see a dozen or so actual full user reviews, which really is too small a sample size.

You mentioned that you "think there is" but my point is that I am at a loss for what "there is" means, what are you implying? There is a troll movement against the game? There is a database glitch that caused its score to be swapped with another game? What do you mean by "I think there is"?

 

[Danpascooch]

-.- I'm guessing there will be at least 20+ threads of DA2 today. I also bet there will be one titled Dragon Age 2...Why all the hate -.-

Please...can we drop it already -.-

My intention wasn't really to hate on the game in this thread, but rather to call attention to the review itself.

It's only natural that there will be tons of threads, it's a big game, sometimes the threads are positive, sometimes negative, I understand the annoyance at the opinion-rush, but its expected with this big a release.

 

[Buizel91]

-.- I'm guessing there will be at least 20+ threads of DA2 today. I also bet there will be one titled Dragon Age 2...Why all the hate -.-

Please...can we drop it already -.-

My intention wasn't really to hate on the game in this thread, but rather to call attention to the review itself.

It's only natural that there will be tons of threads, it's a big game, sometimes the threads are positive, sometimes negative, I understand the annoyance at the opinion-rush, but its expected with this big a release.

At least your's is worded better than "OMFG THIS GAME IS AWFUL BECAUSE OF THE SPEECH WHEEL!"

Still i commented so i might as well contribute =3

OT: it's strange because people say there is no auto attack, yet i swear in the demo my guys were auto attacking =\ i actually know they were...

am i just lucky or something?

 

[Zaik]

You keep citing metacritic user reviews, but you know I could put 5-10 of those up an hour if I wanted to, right?

Sure, and you would put up 5-10 out of over 1000

It's not all trolls, the denial has to stop, when's the last time Game Informer has given an 83 to a major Bioware RPG? It's not a coincidence that it's scoring badly, it's not a paradox, the universe is not imploding, it's just not very good.

Nope, but let's say maybe me 20 other people put up an average of 7 an hour for an average of 5 hours a day, and you've got... 700 per day. Total reviews on all consoles = 1569 right now, that's two days and a few legitimate reviews.

And who would willingly do that for 5 hours? Who would even spend an hour doing that?

Nerd raging fanboys. I mean, honestly, look at the reaction. I'm not saying your 7s, 6s, hell 5s are wrong. I'm saying your 1s and 2s are just nerd raging fanboys spamming the site because they haven't been this mad since Oblivion added fast travel.

And yet oblivion doesn't have user scores in the 3's and 4's?

Was metacritic even around when Oblivion came out?

I don't know, but having seen the Morrowind loyalist base firsthand, I can guarantee that if Oblivion was released today the same thing would have happened.

Metacritic was out 5 years before Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins just came out not too long ago and it has good ratings, care to explain this "guarantee"?

Occams Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, there is no conspiracy here, it's just not very good and people are angry because of it. Not liking the reason behind the result doesn't change the reason.

Well folks, I just looked up Oblivion's metacritic page out of curiousity and, lo and behold, it has a grand total of 1413 ratings between pc/xbox/ps3. I'll stop pulling the fanboy irrationality card if you'll admit that it's a little odd to compare a game that's been out 7 years that has less reviews than a game that has been out for two or three days depending on where you live.
Then again that was my doing so I guess that would put us at square 1.

How does the number of reviews Oblivion have matter? It doesn't reduce the review count on Dragon Age II. The volume of quick responses can be easily explained by the fact that people who are angry or feel betrayed by a low quality game are motivated to take action to hold the developer accountable (IE leave a negative rating) while people who are satisfied don't feel the same sense of urgency and often don't bother.

Explain to me why it's odd, what about the Oblivion rating count damages the legitimacy of the Dragon Age II rating? Given that trolls can be all but ruled out since they aren't attacking other new releases and the sheer volume of negative reviews is too much to be accrued by trolls, and that's not even considering the fact that nobody has any motivation to attack this game's ratings for no reason.

*shrug* At this point we're talking maybes. I think there is, you think there isn't. I can't prove there is, and you can't prove there isn't. We can argue all night, but it won't get either of us anywhere. So, I propose we try something that might sound a little less dumb.

I'm gonna go through and average up every user review score for Dragon Age 2 that isn't a 0, 1, 2, 9, or 10. I think that clears up all the bias, right? 3-8 will be acceptable numbers to be averaged. Then I'll come back and post what an average without trolling and countertrolling ends up being, and we can argue about what that means.

I guess you could do that, but you won't really be able to, you can't see individual scores that aren't attached to reviews, and I only see a dozen or so actual full user reviews, which really is too small a sample size.

You mentioned that you "think there is" but my point is that I am at a loss for what "there is" means, what are you implying? There is a troll movement against the game? There is a database glitch that caused its score to be swapped with another game? What do you mean by "I think there is"?

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dragon-age-ii/user-reviews
http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/dragon-age-ii/user-reviews
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/dragon-age-ii/user-reviews

If you want to look through them yourself and see the rationale of the average poor rating, you're welcome to, all the actual written reviews are there.

I'm going to concede. I've got nothing but theory on what's going on.

 

[Zaik]

-.- I'm guessing there will be at least 20+ threads of DA2 today. I also bet there will be one titled Dragon Age 2...Why all the hate -.-

Please...can we drop it already -.-

My intention wasn't really to hate on the game in this thread, but rather to call attention to the review itself.

It's only natural that there will be tons of threads, it's a big game, sometimes the threads are positive, sometimes negative, I understand the annoyance at the opinion-rush, but its expected with this big a release.

At least your's is worded better than "OMFG THIS GAME IS AWFUL BECAUSE OF THE SPEECH WHEEL!"

Still i commented so i might as well contribute =3

OT: it's strange because people say there is no auto attack, yet i swear in the demo my guys were auto attacking =\ i actually know they were...

am i just lucky or something?

It's a console thing. The PC version's auto attack works fine, it's screwed up on consoles and doesn't work yet.

 

[BabyRaptor]

As the biggest Bioware fanboy there is, it's a sobering reality that looking at one of their games faults is such a taboo thing, it's horrible.

No joke. Origins is one of my top 5 ever games, but the demo for 2 didn't thrill me and hearing the negativity continue is just reinforcing it. It kinda depresses me.

 

[Tanis]

Yeah, the review did seem something you'd expect more on a Bioware/Atlus/whatever forum, or maybe Game Informer.

Normally the reviews for games on this site tend to pretty 'mainstream' or 'average' with most of the pros and cons mentioned.

Felt like the review was something you'd expect in 10 years when a huge fan of Bioware decided to do a 'retrospect' review than any sort of normal reviews - rose colored glasses, wut?

However, if the reviewer really DID enjoy the game that much...kudos to 'em.
I haven't played the game yet, but it's definitely gonna be in my 'to rent' list once I've gotten bored of several other games.