Razorfist gives his oh so tactful review on DA2

[Canadish]

Once again, the Escapist responds to anything they don't like by dismissing it. I didn't like his style, but I sat through to the end and found he made some good points.

Yeah, it is wrong. Half the responses in this thread boil down to, "Lol, didn't read." or "OMG, he insulted Yahtzee, he's just a poser." Or the oh so good, "WAAAAH, WHY SHOULD HE COMPLAIN ABOUT CHANGES!"

His image, his taste in food, his humor, or his constant swearing have nothing to do with his opinions on games. How famous he is doesn't either. No one in this thread has addressed anything he said. At all. Or at least, nothing specific. So, yeah, it's wrong.

I (after an edit) addressed what he said back in my original post. Now I don't feel I'm wrong. But feel much more disdain for that guy in that video, than I did before.

I'd love to see you address the issues with the actual game in more detail. Truly.
While I was not a fan of the videos style, I could not disagree with the points raised. It's an abridged sum up of my problems with Dragon Age 2.
Your edited post back at the top didn't really address why you thought he was wrong, just that he was. It was kinda venomous to be honest, and not very coherent.

 

[Volkov]

He is 100% correct of course.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Thanks. I haven't played the game, and this review is one of the sources I have to go off of. How is he wrong about talking to NPCs and allies? Was he correct in saying the ending introduced a sequel?

There many times you have long conversations with our party members. He just wants the dialog tree to sprout whenever and wherever. Usually you have more personal conversations one on one at the allies home instead of inbetween a battle with everyone standing around doing nothing like in the first game. It's different, so he hates it.

The NPC's.. I may have listened wrong actually, I think he suggests the giant arrows on your minimap are the only people you can talk to. That is false. If you are close to a random NPC you can chat with, they are highlighted. There are quite a few that offer missions and such that don't appear on the minimap.

The ending does set up a sequel. The game itself has 3 acts that I think wrap around themselves nicely tho. Sure I wanted more at the end, but that's the way most games I really like leave me.

Okay. Did you feel you had the same quality of conversations with your allies as in, say KoTOR?

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

Thanks. I haven't played the game, and this review is one of the sources I have to go off of. How is he wrong about talking to NPCs and allies? Was he correct in saying the ending introduced a sequel?

There many times you have long conversations with our party members. He just wants the dialog tree to sprout whenever and wherever. Usually you have more personal conversations one on one at the allies home instead of inbetween a battle with everyone standing around doing nothing like in the first game. It's different, so he hates it.

In his defense 90% of the time you're allowed to have a conversation with a party member there's that huge yellow retard-proof arrow above their head.
Beyond that it's either a scripted conversation or the game is hoping you dropped in their "base" to talk to them.
What he was complaining about however was that you couldn't talk to them wherever you wanted, and I agree that was an idiotic design choice on Bioware's part, it's basically Bioware says "you want to talk to your companion, FINE! but it's on our terms."
Sure it may have happened that way occasionally in Origins but at least all of your companions were easily reachable in a small enclosed space. You don't have to go on a tourist route along a city to get them hoping they have something to say.

 

[Eisenfaust]

he... raises some good points, the majority of which i noticed during gameplay, so i know he's not necessarily talking out of his arse

but i'm sorry, he seems like a MASSIVE c*** and i liked the game anyway, so meh

 

[Madkipz]

I agree with his points, DA 2 is a steaming pile of turd.

 

[Vault101]

thats the problem with a developer like Bioware

peple not only expect perfection everytime but they expect perfection to their exact standards, it seems good games arnt enough anymore

 

[Venereus]

So I started checking this guy's videos and in the MW2 review: "OMG he hates ZP! WTF?" He was doing so well...

 

[Elijin]

I dont particularly agree with him, or like his style. I enjoyed the few hours of dragon age 2 I played, it wasnt the best game ever, but really...so what? It filled some down time for me. If I can sit and play it for a while, and not feel like I want to be doing something else instead, the game has achieved its purpose.

As for his style...I found it just annoying. I didnt agree with many of his points, since I apparently dont hold videogames to the same standards as 'everyone else' these days. And I can openly say I hated his method of every single negative point, being presented as the worst thing in the world, and being compared to something meant to represent such. I probably could have come round and acknowleged some flaws in the game, if it werent for the fact he presented them as the worst thing to ever happen. In saying that, Im not saying the game was perfect or flawless, just didnt find anything broken enough to linger in my head for more then its immediate discovery. Because lets be honest, as gamers, we're going to find faults in everything. The problem tends to be in how much weight we give those faults.

I dont know. He was offensive and vulgar, without really being entertaining. Too much exageration and assumption that other things were bad too. He ran with a style of 'everything I think is right, so that will be the baseline' with all his linked points to other games. Seems to miss the point that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and he's not some kind of sage. Also feels a lot like its just jumping on the 'lets all hate DA2 to get hits' trend...

 

[Neosage]

This guy obviously didn't play Dragon Age: Origins.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

I dont particularly agree with him, or like his style. I enjoyed the few hours of dragon age 2 I played, it wasnt the best game ever, but really...so what? It filled some down time for me. If I can sit and play it for a while, and not feel like I want to be doing something else instead, the game has achieved its purpose.

As for his style...I found it just annoying. I didnt agree with many of his points, since I apparently dont hold videogames to the same standards as 'everyone else' these days. And I can openly say I hated his method of every single negative point, being presented as the worst thing in the world, and being compared to something meant to represent such. I probably could have come round and acknowleged some flaws in the game, if it werent for the fact he presented them as the worst thing to ever happen. In saying that, Im not saying the game was perfect or flawless, just didnt find anything broken enough to linger in my head for more then its immediate discovery. Because lets be honest, as gamers, we're going to find faults in everything. The problem tends to be in how much weight we give those faults.

I dont know. He was offensive and vulgar, without really being entertaining. Too much exageration and assumption that other things were bad too. He ran with a style of 'everything I think is right, so that will be the baseline' with all his linked points to other games. Seems to miss the point that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and he's not some kind of sage. Also feels a lot like its just jumping on the 'lets all hate DA2 to get hits' trend...

Actually, I've started watching his reviews around Super Street Fighter IV, and after I finished Dragon Age II I thought to myself "I'm calling it right here and now that he's going to hate this game."
It's pretty easy to differentiate that he would hate this game and I'll hate this game for popularity mindset some of the more independent game critics have nowadays. *Cough Other M Cough*

 

[Kroxile]

Guy was pretty much right on the money.

Everything he said was true. I'm just shocked that he didn't mention the reused dungeons/caves/houses, because that was probably my number one gripe about the entire thing. Lazy design is lazy.

 

[KingWeasel]

thats the problem with a developer like Bioware

peple not only expect perfection everytime but they expect perfection to their exact standards, it seems good games arnt enough anymore

I dont need perfection to my exact standards... but I need them to the standards of the DA:O.

In my opinion, they just didnt try as hard for DA2 as the original.

I challenge people to point out what DA2 has going for it so much better than DA:O.

I then challenge you to point out what could have been done better in DA2 with honesty and reason, because so many others seem to think that DA2 was a poor following to DA:O.

Face it, DA2 has enough things in it to point at as "Less than" DA:O that people are going to do it. As mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, it is not so much a bad game as it offends people as a cash in game.

 

[Hader]

For those of you who know who Razorfist is, I think you know where he's going with this.
Dragon Age: Origins was his favorite game of 2009 (as was mine.) If you haven't heard of Razorfist yet this is a great jumping off point, he's one of the best, most honest "game critics" at work right now. http://www.youtube.com/user/xRazorFistx#p/u/6/gOnmQHATLQE

So what do you think? Agree/disagree?

Wtf is this? Another bitchy Origins fan.

I was a huge Origins fan and I loved DA2 as well. This guys speaks for no one but himself, as always with anyone.

Also, that analogy was shit. No pun intended.

 

[Slangeveld]

I'll come right out from under my rock to say that I never heard of this guy, and loved the review. ^_^ Ah, felt great listening to that.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Ugh, youtube commenters, the biggest hive of scum and villainy in the whole galaxy.

thats the problem with a developer like Bioware

peple not only expect perfection everytime but they expect perfection to their exact standards, it seems good games arnt enough anymore

I dont need perfection to my exact standards... but I need them to the standards of the DA:O.

In my opinion, they just didnt try as hard for DA2 as the original.

I challenge people to point out what DA2 has going for it so much better than DA:O.

I then challenge you to point out what could have been done better in DA2 with honesty and reason, because so many others seem to think that DA2 was a poor following to DA:O.

Face it, DA2 has enough things in it to point at as "Less than" DA:O that people are going to do it. As mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, it is not so much a bad game as it offends people as a cash in game.

Well ones I can think of off the top of my head.

The Game runs faster and looks better
Hawke actually has facial animations
All the characters are fleshed out rather than just Morrigan, Leilana and Alistair.
Combat is more flowing
UI improvements all around

Those are the ones off the top of my head. They took away,

Conversations with other party members out in the field (it's still there in the character's house, location whilst not in party though)
The ability to equip other party members fully
Potion/poison/trap making etc. But these always seemed pointless to me.
Varied dungeons. This was horrible.

As for the ending/point of the game, it was to give people a more personal character piece (which they said it was, not a grand adventure) and show you at the end that it's going back to Origins' style for the 3rd game.

 

[WorldCritic]

Yeah no, normally I don't agree with judging things too early, but as soon as I saw him and his style I knew I was going to hate him. No thanks.