I get why Dragon Age 2 gets lousy user reviews.

[MetallicaRulez0]

I finished the game (27 hours played) and haven't seen a single bug. The quality of your tactics are the largest determining factor in the quality of the AI. If you have your tactics all screwed up, your AI will likely be all screwed up.

If you feel like your companions aren't doing what they should be your first place to look should be the Tactics screen.

 

[Scars Unseen]

My theory on why people have been rating the game low: Hawke does the same weird head shake motion that Shepard does when he drinks.

 

[VincentX3]

Bullshit, either you're trolling or horrible at the game, probably both.
20hrs in today and I haven't noticed a single game breaking bug. If you use your tactics right they all attack fine.

Your character does stop attacking, but is it THAT hard clicking on the next enemy or\and pausing? No, it's not.

So yea keep whining and go back playing some other game you're bad at.

What a well thought out and eloquent rebuttal. Everyone's experience must be exactly like yours. Everyone else is wrong, only you are right.

I've had the game crash a bunch of times, but otherwise no terrible problems (Besides the game being pretty lackluster, anyway).

No obviously not
But it's not my fault if "Someone" does the most simplest things wrong or doesn't do them at all (Tactics) then complains about it being the games fault saying

IT'S BROKEN!
And I don't mean like poor gameplay, I mean that it is so buggy it's hard to play. Melee-characters that isn't controled by the player dosen't move. Ranged charcters don't shoot. The only character that does something is the one the player is using. This is a flaw that shouldn't exist. Even if they fix this and several other bugs, no game should be released in an unplayable state.

So yea, I've been playing 20+Hrs in a game that's in a "unplayable state"

 

[Spencer Petersen]

And besides, think that's bad? Just think of New Vegas when it was released.

Which raises another problem... why wasn't New Vegas panned as awful by the overwhelming majority upon release, while DA2 was, if the OP is right?

Because New Vegas had a lot of systems in place to fix or avoid bugs that you encountered. Opening the console can fix most of the problems, and if you encounter an area that isn't working right you can avoid it or work around it. With games like DA2 accessing the console is much more difficult, much less intuitive and not nearly as helpful. Also, due to the linear and cinematic nature of the game, its much harder to avoid buggy areas.

I had a problem with DA:O that was a worse bug than all of New Vegas combined. In the human and dwarf commoner origin stories a door that was supposed to open never did, and it was impossible to actually progress in the story. This made 1/3 of the game completely unplayable, and with a whole host of other bugs advancing in the story became a chore. It ruined DA:O for me, and turned me off of the linear and scripted control of Bioware games.

 

[Hisshiss]

Sounds to me like you just forgot to actually set tactics for the characters. they arent going to do anything if you dont tell them what to do.

Im a good 20 hours in and have yet to see a single mistake in the AI on either side that wasnt just the result of me messing of a tactics slot.

Edit: The guy above me has the other most likely culprit of your problem.

...Also, why would you assume that if I game was so bugged it was unplayable that the critics would still give it a 9 out of 10? You do realize that they see the same things we do right?

 

[MinishArcticFox]

I haven't had a single bug like the OP said he had. But if everyone remembers the lead writer for the game did say something about how 4chan was just a place to rant on so I think they might have 0 bombed it for revenge.

 

[VincentX3]

Bullshit, either you're trolling or horrible at the game, probably both.
20hrs in today and I haven't noticed a single game breaking bug. If you use your tactics right they all attack fine.

Your character does stop attacking, but is it THAT hard clicking on the next enemy or\and pausing? No, it's not.

So yea keep whining and go back playing some other game you're bad at.

What a well thought out and eloquent rebuttal. Everyone's experience must be exactly like yours. Everyone else is wrong, only you are right.

I've had the game crash a bunch of times, but otherwise no terrible problems (Besides the game being pretty lackluster, anyway).

No obviously not
But it's not my fault if "Someone" does the most simplest things wrong or doesn't do them at all (Tactics) then complains about it being the games fault saying

IT'S BROKEN!
And I don't mean like poor gameplay, I mean that it is so buggy it's hard to play. Melee-characters that isn't controled by the player dosen't move. Ranged charcters don't shoot. The only character that does something is the one the player is using. This is a flaw that shouldn't exist. Even if they fix this and several other bugs, no game should be released in an unplayable state.

So yea, I've been playing 20+Hrs in a game that's in a "unplayable state"

People said that Alpha Protocol was rendered unplayable by bugs and glitches. I didn't run into too many, but that doesn't mean my playthrough was the norm. It's entirely possible I just got lucky, just as it's possible you got lucky. With something as variable as encountering bugs, you cant just rule out someone's issues as them "doing it wrong", especially when there have been plenty of other bug reports.

I also played Alpha Protocol and it was a pretty great game, that I never ran into a single bug in.
There's a difference between calling something a bug and saying

IT'S BROKEN!

Then saying that the others don't do anything which is an obvious lie and that ranged characters don't shoot which is another lie.

Now if he was saying the game was locking up, then fine it could happen, it might be a leak or a momentary glitch. Or if he stated that "X" quest is not showing up in the map or\and Journal then fine, it has to be a bug.

I'm not going to get into all the detail, but simply ranting about it without double checking and making sure everything is correct, then lying about it saying it's unplayable.
Yea I'll stick to saying he's doing it wrong or is just trolling.

 

[Hawgh]

I have seen nothing of this sort. The only annoyances in NPC behavior has been some truly odd tactics presets.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

That is true. Many glitches are afloat, the story is kinda under bioware's belt, the graphics are amazing, but it's basically Fable meets Dynasty Warriors :/

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Well I've been playing plenty of DAII and have had no severe problems with it. My team is functioning superbly, and the story has been enjoyable. Plus, it's a bit ridiculous that all those negative reviews on day one are because the game's bad. Most, I think, are just gamers that are angry with the changes made. I'm sorry that you've been having gameplay issues though, but Bioware can't really fix them on day two of the release.

...Wait, it's "ridiculous" that a lot of negative reviews could be a reflection of the game's quality? I'm not saying that they necessarily have to be right, but they at least prove that it initially made an unfavorable impression on a lot of people and that has to count for something. I mean, it's only the second Dragon Age game. There can't be [i/]that[/i] many crazy fans who are going to whine about it being different, unless they took out something that was really central to the experience.

 

[Eri]

So many butthurt people over DAII. I've played for hours and hours and only problem so far was a single crash. Oh, and you know what? I'm playing it on casual and LOVING it. I love feeling like I'm a god over these monsters or bandits. I couldn't be enjoying myself more. I'm also on W7 64-bit and 0 problems.

 

[MercurySteam]

An RPG is buggy on release? In other news, the sky is blue.

Fixed it for you.

 

[darthmason0719]

But the loading screens are bootyful!

 

[David Demers]

Lately, Dragon Age 2 have recieved decent reviews by critics, but the players butcher it. I have played the game for a couple of hours and I get why.
IT'S BROKEN!
And I don't mean like poor gameplay, I mean that it is so buggy it's hard to play. Melee-characters that isn't controled by the player dosen't move. Ranged charcters don't shoot. The only character that does something is the one the player is using. This is a flaw that shouldn't exist. Even if they fix this and several other bugs, no game should be released in an unplayable state.
That's at least my thory on why they get lousy reviews.
Also Bioware has recieved tons of complains about this, but have still to fix it.

Hey, remember Black Ops? How about System Shock 1 & 2, a game you probably worship alongship Deus Ex. those latter runs didn't run for THREE WEEKS for THOUSANDS of people. Black Ops was so laggy it wasn't even funny.
It's new.
And I never encountered Any of these problems.
Any.
And I beat it already.
Awesome Story. Terrible for an RPG system, but still better than Origins.