How's Dragon Age 2 treating you?

[marscentral]

The fact that I have the game and can't play it because of some ridiculous "Release Date Check" is irritating me. You're not stopping piracy, you're just pissing off all the people who pre-ordered.

You shouldn't have it before the release date.....

Except every game I preorder online comes a day early, including Dragon Age:Origins. It's just a perk of pre-ordering. If it hadn't arrived, I would have just had to wait and I would have been okay with that.

The simple fact is though, I physically have the game, the disc is in my drive and it's had the serial code approved. The only reason I'm not playing it is because they've gone out of their way to block UK customers until midnight. From what I've read on the official forums, people are looking to pirates to crack it so they can play early (I don't know how successful they've been, I'm not going that route). So they've managed to increase piracy and annoy their paying customers.

 

[Carnagath]

It's not going to treat me at all. I didn't even like DA:O, I consider it Bioware's worst game (I'd even go so far as to claim that it objectively is the worst Bioware game), and now I read the DA2 is slightly worse...so it's a pass for me.

 

[Sabiancym]

The fact that I have the game and can't play it because of some ridiculous "Release Date Check" is irritating me. You're not stopping piracy, you're just pissing off all the people who pre-ordered.

You shouldn't have it before the release date.....

Except every game I preorder online comes a day early, including Dragon Age:Origins. It's just a perk of pre-ordering. If it hadn't arrived, I would have just had to wait and I would have been okay with that.

The simple fact is though, I physically have the game, the disc is in my drive and it's had the serial code approved. The only reason I'm not playing it is because they've gone out of their way to block UK customers until midnight. From what I've read on the official forums, people are looking to pirates to crack it so they can play early (I don't know how successful they've been, I'm not going that route). So they've managed to increase piracy and annoy their paying customers.

Perk of pre-ordering? It must work different there. I've never gotten a game early when pre-ordering. I always get it on the release date. That's why it's called a release date.

 

[Sabiancym]

It's amazing how many fanboys come to the rescue whenever I criticize a game.

Why do you people care so much if I dislike a game. Every time I say something negative about one I get a response that basically says "Nuh uh, you're wrong."

It's a freaking opinion, it's what good games are built on. Stop trying to crush any and every criticism out there. It will only lead to stagnation in games. If everyone only said how much they love the game, it would never improve.


I'm just amazed at how many people will defend this game no matter what is said. It's a fine game, but stop acting like it's Jesus reincarnate.

And it's amazing how fast people who don't know what they're talking about are ready to throw their hands and up and whine about their "opinions and free speech" being trampled on, right after they've declared that something is for sure terrible, bad and broken, without evidence or support for their claim and then demeaning others as stupid for enjoying something. All without having the faintest clue in the first place what their talking about.

You were given a thorough breakdown of all the ignorance in your statement, take it like a man and accept that while opinions are opinions, ignorance is still ignorance as well.

See this is what I'm talking about. I gave plenty of reasons why I dislike this game, but instead of discussing them, you just claim I don't know what I'm talking about.


This forum is full of people criticizing games, why are so many people getting butt hurt when this game gets the same? It's a commercial product. You paid for it, you didn't invest in it. So why do you feel the need to defend it?

Thanks for proving my point though.

 

[IdiotHeart]

Pre-order comes a day early, success.
SecuRom says I can't play it because its 5 hours before the official European release date.
A great way to treat paying customers that.

 

[fingerbang143]

Really well, although I never did the side quest to get that one dual weapon chick at the start and I wanted to use her in my team as well as collect all team mates ... Does anyone know how to get her at a later level?

 

[Kyogissun]

Been loving it, gonna go finish up Act 1 now before I head off to work in an hour and fifteen minutes.

 

[marscentral]

The fact that I have the game and can't play it because of some ridiculous "Release Date Check" is irritating me. You're not stopping piracy, you're just pissing off all the people who pre-ordered.

You shouldn't have it before the release date.....

Except every game I preorder online comes a day early, including Dragon Age:Origins. It's just a perk of pre-ordering. If it hadn't arrived, I would have just had to wait and I would have been okay with that.

The simple fact is though, I physically have the game, the disc is in my drive and it's had the serial code approved. The only reason I'm not playing it is because they've gone out of their way to block UK customers until midnight. From what I've read on the official forums, people are looking to pirates to crack it so they can play early (I don't know how successful they've been, I'm not going that route). So they've managed to increase piracy and annoy their paying customers.

Perk of pre-ordering? It must work different there. I've never gotten a game early when pre-ordering. I always get it on the release date. That's why it's called a release date.

I also go for the free basic postage as well. It was dispatched by Game yesterday and here today, I can't fault the postal service. But since UK releases are almost always several days later, I still don't get them before US customers.

 

[Kilo24]

The combat is mostly improved. The talents are cleaned up and the focus of the design has been taken from the mages by a bit by changing spell combinations into exploiting conditions that encourage party synergy. Getting crits with my mage is often a bigger nuisance than just attacking normally due to the animation time that makes kiting harder.

The dialogue system is something that I'm a little annoyed by - not being able to see exactly what your character will say causes a host of mostly minor instances of not saying precisely what you mean, but none of the changes thus far have been particularly glaring. I just tend to feel like my character is putting her foot in her mouth every now and then when the 'clever' choice is less clever than the summary text suggested.

Difficulty is improved. It plays quicker, and is a fairly good challenge on Nightmare (I haven't tried the other difficulties.) The biggest annoyance I have is shades who are immune to my primary damage spells (spirit bolt and walking bomb) so I'm frequently stuck staffing them to death while kiting them. Numerous party wipes have happened - moreso than Dragon Age: Origins, though I still am only level 7 and haven't gotten to where DA mages became pretty sturdy (and then became gods in the expansion, causing me to swap out my fighter for a third mage.)

The loss of skills is something I'm quite comfortable with. They led to a lot of unnecessary micromanagement of putting crafting skills on all your non-primary party members, persuasion on your character, and combat-benefitting skills on your primary party members. I quite like what they did with the crafting system, though I'm still loath to spend money on consumables.

Lack of equipment customization is annoying to my specific build, considering that I can't find spirit-resistant gear for my party members which tempers my usage of Walking Bomb.

Thus far, it's shaping up to be a minor-to-significant improvement over Dragon Age.

 

[infohippie]

Hmm, I haven't played it that long yet, but I'm not sure I like the changes. I'm not happy with the new art style, I thought DA:O looked better. I hate female Hawke's voice acting - I haven't tried the male one yet. I am glad, however, nobody seems to have an American accent, that's a pleasant change from most games. The combat feels a little better in some ways, but so far it seems to be focusing too much on combat and not enough on story. It feels very much like a console game, which is not a good thing in my opinion.
Overall, some minor improvements over DA:O, but taken as a whole I think Origins is the better game.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Still on the fence about the new art style, as I like some things but downright hate others. Other than that, fantastic game. Only other downside, I'm about 9 1/2 hours in, and I'm still not seeing any real antagonist/major threat. Not that big of a complaint, but the game's plot doesn't have much in the ways of "direction", though the writing is still top notch.

Again, great game, though. Nice to see a thread that isn't just people who haven't played it bashing it.

 

[CommanderKirov]

Finished it just a minute ago. I think my balls exploded during the last hour of it.


Now I'm starting up another character on my "Funsave" LETS SEE HOW THE CHOICE OF ME SIDING WITH WEREWOLVES TRANSFERS OVER!

But anyway. Loved everything and especially the frekking wonderfull cliffhanger at the end.


Two complaint I had not noticed alot of change due to save transfer from the DA:O. And also, the companion interaction system took a severe hit. Saddening but I'll have to live.

 

[A Weakgeek]

I don't own the game, yet. But I have stuff to say:
To me, it's completely understandable to make a game console friendly. But! When that is done in the expense of the PC version thats no good. For example: The topdown view, whoppee we have ceilings but cant see/strategize(?) properly since we have to watch our characters ass from 2 meters back. This has made micromanagement hard for no reason.
To me, the best solution would be to make the PC and console version a "completely different game" like when doing handheld versions of console games, that way everyone is happy. I do realize why thats not possible, so what I at least expect is to not make it even worse in a sequel! I mean why no topdown view? Or the crafting? The other changes (Not able to chooce race, voiced PC) are debatable and up to the player, but you can't deny that taking these options away from the game hurt atleast the PC version.
I may sound like an elitist here, but just try to understand that all I'm doing is asking Bioware not to take options away. Graphics don't matter! If your gameplay is shit (I'm not claiming its here) I won't stay here oogling at your scenery now will I?
Lastly, my personal opinion on the other changes. These are reasons that I don't think can be professionally held against the game. 1. The voiced PC: I don't like this at all, I'ts supposed to ME there bashing stuff not some british asshole. 2. Art style: Ok, the scenery is all nice and cool but the weapons are rediculous. Why is a sword 3/4 of the characters lenght? That isin't appealing to look at all. 3. The race thing: I don't really think it matters so much, I don't mind not being able to have spiky ears but it sure was funny to accuse people of racism when they said something bad to me as an elf.

 

[Levethian]

when console-only gamers call me an "elitist", all I hear is "I can't afford, or refuse to build, a quality gaming PC, so I'm going to accuse you of arrogance for having the audacity to point out the stone-cold truth". If that rubs anyone the wrong way, sorry, but that's the way it is. I know because I was gaming exclusively on 360 and PS3 for years.

Lovely

I suspect in many family homes a PC will be a thing of work and a console will be for the kids. It's not about console-users being stupid, but I imagine the demographic is younger.

My first 2 hours with DA2 have been okay, but it marks the demise of the types of RPG's many of us grew up with which no doubt pisses people off. No more Dooms, no more Baldurs Gates, instead both genres have converged into linear-action-narratives.

Only a matter of time before there is only 1 game, a big grey mass of samey violence interspersed with numerous half-hour cutscenes.

 

[LiudvikasT]

Finished it, it was great. But I've got a couple complaints:
1. Slow beginning. There's no real conflict for quite some time.
2. Abrupt end. It ended far too quickly.

Spoiler

I hoped there would be some more gameplay after destroying the circle, but no I just kill Meredith and it ends. I guess I'll have to wait for more DLC.

 

[manythings]

I want to play it but have issues with the gameplay, and I cant play it until its atleast £25 becuase I feel BW need to lose money for cutting content to use as dlc.

So I will play it eventually, but the more I hear the more I hate.

Less that half of what you pay for a game goes to the developer. The rest goes to retailers, transport, storage and a dozen other things. The DLC is a measure to try and get people to buy new games over trade-ins which give a grand total of 0 to the developer.

I can pay £40 for a new game, just like others, and have to pay extra becuase I didnt get it before the 11th, how isthat fair ? iIts not buy new dlc, its bullshit.

Fadeshear and The lion of Orlais are the only things you don't get. The Black Emporium and it's quests, the Mabari Warhound and the other stuff on the Dragon Age site are still available. http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/info/bonus_items/

BioWare/EA only gets about £18 of that £40 so you should reall be more pissed off at the retailer who is making about the same amount. They set the prices and could afford to sell for less, they just don't want to.

Sebastian isnt free, 560 mS points, like I aid its bullshit.

Which is part of the Signature edition along with the soundtrack and the in-game armory. That's not what you were talking about, that was for pre-ordering before January 11th. At no point is Sebastian necessary.

Yes and I pay the same price as them.
Neither is all the other crap, but you mentioned that.
A character > weapons.

Its bullshi, I didnt have the money then so now I pay extra.

Keep trying to justify it though, many BW fans have, I am sure letting them do crap like this will have negative effects when they realise its ok, and start going further, whats that you want to have a companion aside from the dog, money plz.

I didn't have the money either but places accept about $5 for any preorder and I paid off more when I could. You can't suddenly call them satan because you didn't want to do something, that's what preorder bonuses are for, getting people to preorder. Every developer does it. You want to talk about bullshit check out the L.A. Noire preorder stuff. It depends completely on where you preorder and if you don't preorder from the right store you get miss out on extra cases and shit.

Pre orde rbonus are BS, a reskinned suot or weapon is nothing, but htiwas a character, who was 99% on disk, I could buy new just like others and have to spend 560 MS points on top, sorry but yor excuses for BW arent working.
Infact them doing this actually makes me want to get it preowned they try and fuck me over with content I will make sure they dont get any oney for thier greed.

Well see that's exactly why they are doing it, because of the trade-in market. You're not actually a customer of theirs so they don't give a shit what you think. At best they don't care about you, at worst their going to keep making more and more exclusive content until trade-ins ARE as content free as you say they are.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I don't care much for the setting. Kirkwall is an immensely boring place after the 40th side quest in the same 3 or 4 areas.

Combat is MUCH improved. It flows better, less pausing, less heal spam. Rogues are actually really damn good in DA2, as opposed to Origins where they were basically lockpicking ***** and nothing more. I dislike how poorly my tank holds aggro though, I feel like once she unloads her Stam pool, I can either have her keep chugging potions or just have her forget about aggro for a while. Sustainables eat 80% of Aveline's Stam pool.

Characters... mixed bag. I like a few, don't like some others. None of them have become as interesting/funny to me as Alistair and Morrigan were in Origins.

Story has been mediocre so far. Nothing has really happened, although I have spent most of my time on side quests thus far. I still don't really have a main antagonist to worry about, nor do I really know what direction the game is taking me.

I'm about 15 hours in on PC, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

Sustainables? You don't just leave them on all the time do you? They are intended to be activated after the fight starts, so you don't actually lose that much, if any, stamina from them.

I think the Aggro situation is vastly improved in DA2. You have so many more ways to modify threat, with both rogues and warriors (And even mages have Mind Blast).

Also, anyone else really loving the Brittle/Disorient/Stagger system?