DA2 Demo

[Jaesun]

14 pages... This forum continues to amaze me.

DA2 is so bad the codex can't help but post about it all day!

The Codex is just preforming a Public Service announcement.

 

[20 Eyes]

Just finished the demo.

It plays just like the original game, only a bit sped up (good) and with the only good camera options disabled (retarded). It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics, just not a very good one. I don't know where the 'beat 'em up' comparisons are coming from. I played a warrior in the demo. You click on whatever you want to attack, then occasionally hit special move buttons. You can also directly control your party, if you so choose. Just like you did in the first game, only faster and with more over-the-top animations. The combat isn't very good, its just 'meh' (like the first one, imo). My main gripe is the camera sucks.

Clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat
...
...
fucking newfags consoletard.

Where exactly did I say that 'clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat'? Please enlighten me, because I'm looking through the quoted text and I don't see where I said that. I think you should work on your reading comprehension.

If you actually read what I wrote, I said that DA2 plays just like many real-time-with-pause RPGs, only with bad MMO-inspired features and a shitty camera. It's much like the first game in that regard.

 

[sick]

oh mt god, i might be newfag and my opion is nothing but this demo is bad, seriously bad. i used to be bioware fanboy for many years, i even liked ME2 (as quite nice corridor shooter) but this is fuckin' bad.

 

[7hm]

Just finished the demo.

It plays just like the original game, only a bit sped up (good) and with the only good camera options disabled (retarded). It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics, just not a very good one. I don't know where the 'beat 'em up' comparisons are coming from. I played a warrior in the demo. You click on whatever you want to attack, then occasionally hit special move buttons. You can also directly control your party, if you so choose. Just like you did in the first game, only faster and with more over-the-top animations. The combat isn't very good, its just 'meh' (like the first one, imo). My main gripe is the camera sucks.

Clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat
...
...
fucking newfags consoletard.

Where exactly did I say that 'clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat'? Please enlighten me, because I'm looking through the quoted text and I don't see where I said that. I think you should work on your reading comprehension.

If you actually read what I wrote, I said that DA2 plays just like many real-time-with-pause RPGs, only with bad MMO-inspired features and a shitty camera. It's much like the first game in that regard.

It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics... You click on whatever you want to attack

Probably there.

Poorly worded, perhaps you should have said "its still very much like a POS RTwP RPG game".

Meh. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. A rushed out, dumbed down sequel to a borderline acceptable game that took like 5 years to make obviously wouldn't be anywhere near as good. (And being as good as DAO is not exactly the greatest praise you can give an RPG.)

 

[Radisshu]

Just finished the demo.

It plays just like the original game, only a bit sped up (good) and with the only good camera options disabled (retarded). It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics, just not a very good one. I don't know where the 'beat 'em up' comparisons are coming from. I played a warrior in the demo. You click on whatever you want to attack, then occasionally hit special move buttons. You can also directly control your party, if you so choose. Just like you did in the first game, only faster and with more over-the-top animations. The combat isn't very good, its just 'meh' (like the first one, imo). My main gripe is the camera sucks.

Clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat
...
...
fucking newfags consoletard.

Where exactly did I say that 'clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat'? Please enlighten me, because I'm looking through the quoted text and I don't see where I said that. I think you should work on your reading comprehension.

If you actually read what I wrote, I said that DA2 plays just like many real-time-with-pause RPGs, only with bad MMO-inspired features and a shitty camera. It's much like the first game in that regard.

It was mostly your phrasing rather than the meaning of what you said, some people aren't very benign in their interpretations and would rather assume that the person being interpreted is a tard.

 

[20 Eyes]

Just finished the demo.

It plays just like the original game, only a bit sped up (good) and with the only good camera options disabled (retarded). It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics, just not a very good one. I don't know where the 'beat 'em up' comparisons are coming from. I played a warrior in the demo. You click on whatever you want to attack, then occasionally hit special move buttons. You can also directly control your party, if you so choose. Just like you did in the first game, only faster and with more over-the-top animations. The combat isn't very good, its just 'meh' (like the first one, imo). My main gripe is the camera sucks.

Clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat
...
...
fucking newfags consoletard.

Where exactly did I say that 'clicking with a mouse = RPG style combat'? Please enlighten me, because I'm looking through the quoted text and I don't see where I said that. I think you should work on your reading comprehension.

If you actually read what I wrote, I said that DA2 plays just like many real-time-with-pause RPGs, only with bad MMO-inspired features and a shitty camera. It's much like the first game in that regard.

It's still very much an RPG in its combat mechanics... You click on whatever you want to attack

Probably there.

Poorly worded, perhaps you should have said "its still very much like a POS RTwP RPG game".

Meh. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. A rushed out, dumbed down sequel to a borderline acceptable game that took like 5 years to make obviously wouldn't be anywhere near as good. (And being as good as DAO is not exactly the greatest praise you can give an RPG.)

Well, I wrote the first post before going to bed and I'm not going to deny it could have been worded better.

But nobody would say anything if I was talking about X-Com and said something like, 'you click on the xeno you want to attack' while I was briefly summing up the gameplay.

Plenty of games across different genres use mouse clicks to select targets. But because it's Dragon Age, clearly using the mouse is dumbed down banal popamole newshit and I'm a newbie because I wasn't around when the Codex elected Dragon Age: Origins as RPG of the Year.

Not when it's an AAA title with a huge marketing/hype campaign and no other redeeming value.

Fair point, especially when Bioware is charging 60 bucks for the game (I forgot about that).

 

[DraQ]

I think RPGs (even bad ones) should get a bit of a pass on graphics, as long as it's easy to understand what's happening on the screen.

Yes, *if* they don't blather about ZOMGNEWTECH, while actually making graphics inferior to much older stuff in order to, I don't know, accommodate extremely retarded art design?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Yes, *if* they don't blather about ZOMGNEWTECH

There's currently a bit of a thought going around that current games are being optimised for shit on purpose to sell new cards that can handle the bloat. I think Crysis 2 was named as a particular culprit. Perhaps a little Cleveish but it's not like downgrading directx11 games to directx9 games is going to turn them into unviewable shit. Hurray company of heroes has SLIGHTLY smoother edges on shadows. And worse performance. Thank you. Really. Just what I wanted.

 

[Jools]

Played the demo. The whole 15 minutes of it. Here are my quick after-action impressions:

- characters change their minds surprisingly fast (Templar goes on against apostates, and not 2 minutes later he's all caring and loving);
- the "sarcastic" dialogue option is actually the comical relief option, the only drawback is that the humour it entails only works on people below the age of 13;
- NPCs' deaths: too soon, thus one isn't given the time to grow "attached" and such deaths just feel irrelevant instead of dramatic as intended;
- God-awful voice acting. Seriously, DAO's was much better: DA2 acting has funny accents (not like proper accents, more like people who cannot into acting trying to voice act);
- loading pauses during cutscenes or mechanima dialogues, really mood-breaking (well, that is, if there was any mood to break: therefore they are just annoying);
- combat is just a mix between dynasty warriors and diablo. The whole game mechanics are like that in fact. Basically, this is a hack-n-slash, action, button-mashing game, with a small side-order of stats;
- dialogue wheel fail. The lines in the wheel are different from the lines the characters actually speak. I mean, too different (this wasn't so bad in ME 1/2: of course the lines on the wheel must be a "summary", but DA2 takes it to another level);
- again, everything in this game smells of FF+Dynasty Warriors+Diablo: menus, graphics, music, design choices...;
- the little writing present is ATROCIOUS;
- fights are a savage button mashing fest;
- WTF is with characters teleporting and zooming all around enemies?;
- area design is worse than pathetic: most areas (in the demo at least) are just corridors (again, the latest FF's come to mind);
- xp only awarded at the end of fight? WTF? how much more consoletard can this game get?
- (too) many animations have been recycled from DAO;

That's it.

Overall impression: it's actually a decent action hack'n'slash button-masher arcade game, combat gives a mild impression of gore and violence. Don't expect story or challenge or C&C anything of the sort.

 

[Vibalist]

DraQ , change your fucking avatar. There must be 3 black dragons like yours and a red and I think I saw a blue version as well.

Go back to the old dragon, that slightly gay looking dragon with his (paw?)claws stretched out in a 'hello sailor' kind of way. It was cool, it was YOU!

But full body shots are sexier.

Also, if there was a blue version, I'd have went with that.

 

[Xor]

howdidyoudothat

 

[sgc_meltdown]

enough with this dragonshit you dragonfucks

 

[racofer]

No dragoning way! We must fuel the hype machine for another week and a half until Dragon Age 2 is out.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Dragon the age of your avatar if you like it so much

 

[Sergiu64]

I prefer this look for a Dragon.

 

[Exmit]

Seems Kodex entered a new age...



a Dragon Age


yeaaaaaahhh

 

[20 Eyes]

- combat is just a mix between dynasty warriors and diablo. The whole game mechanics are like that in fact. Basically, this is a hack-n-slash, action, button-mashing game, with a small side-order of stats;

I agree with most of your points, especially the ones about the writing. I didn't really care when a certain NPC died. I just met him/her two minutes ago and then it was made out to be this traumatic event and I didn't care at all.

But I don't see how the game has much in common with Dynasty Warriors or Diablo. I didn't feel like I was button-mashing when I played. You don't have to hit a button on every attack, just click to send whatever character after whatever enemy (or cast whichever spell or what have you). In the games you mentioned, every sword swing requires a button press or a click of the mouse. You can't stop those games to issue commands. Dragon Age is still a real-time-with-pause RPG. Bioware made it look more like a hack-and-slash, but it's still very much the same game.

The initial 'exaggerated' scene of the game was more different, but after that everything felt very similar to Origins to me.

 

[DemonKing]

I thought the demo was fairly decent (up until the point it crashed on me after about 3/4 of an hour).

Unfortunately there did seem to be a fair whack of filler combat and it was a bit distracting that there was a mini "loading" stutter after you picked your dailog choices (I don't remember that in the original), but I liked the changes in skill trees and interface generally - it was pretty intuitative to pick up.

I'm not so hot on the removal of the full dialog options for the Mass Effect style options, but overall I think it will be decent (for what it is). The combat didn't seem any worse or batter than in the original - only a little more gory perhaps.

 

[Jaesun]

So basically you are playing Devil's Advocate now DemonKing?

 

[DemonKing]

So basically you are playing Devil's Advocate now DemonKing?

No - I just don't possess rabid hatred for Bioware - I've got some enjoyment out of all their games that I've played, despite the consolisation process that began with KOTOR and has infected all of their titles since.

I do wish they'd abandon their patented Bio story-structure though and attempt something new (although at least they left "the twist" out of the original DA). It's also becoming clear that they are now structuring their games simply to make content creation easier - ie there are distinct hubs where the environments have no real relationship to each other so they can be developed independantly by different teams.

In short they are currently producing very much in an assembly-line mode rather than from an overall creative vision. I'm not saying that this means they are creating bad games, but if they went outside the box for a while they might have a chance of making something that was a breath of fresh air like the original BG back in the day instead of "just andother Bio game".

 

[Undead Phoenix]

So basically you are playing Devil's Advocate now DemonKing?

No - I just don't possess rabid hatred for Bioware - I've got some enjoyment out of all their games that I've played, despite the consolisation process that began with KOTOR and has infected all of their titles since.

I do wish they'd abandon their patented Bio story-structure though and attempt something new (although at least they left "the twist" out of the original DA). It's also becoming clear that they are now structuring their games simply to make content creation easier - ie there are distinct hubs where the environments have no real relationship to each other so they can be developed independantly by different teams.

In short they are currently producing very much in an assembly-line mode rather than from an overall creative vision. I'm not saying that this means they are creating bad games, but if they went outside the box for a while they might have a chance of making something that was a breath of fresh air like the original BG back in the day instead of "just andother Bio game".

The problem here is that DA2 is just a bad game. There's nothing more to it than that. No soul - no attention to detail - dire graphics - dire voice acting - dire gameplay. There's nothing of value to salvage here (apart from maybe Kate Mulgrew's voice).


Banal

Boring

Shit

 

[Black]

I thought the demo was fairly decent (up until the point it crashed on me after about 3/4 of an hour).

Unfortunately there did seem to be a fair whack of filler combat and it was a bit distracting that there was a mini "loading" stutter after you picked your dailog choices (I don't remember that in the original), but I liked the changes in skill trees and interface generally - it was pretty intuitative to pick up.

I'm not so hot on the removal of the full dialog options for the Mass Effect style options, but overall I think it will be decent (for what it is). The combat didn't seem any worse or batter than in the original - only a little more gory perhaps.

So you dislike filler combat, loading and dialogue wheel and yet you still say it's decent without naming a single pro.
How come?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

So you dislike filler combat, loading and dialogue wheel and yet you still say it's decent without naming a single pro.
How come?

I also hope he forgot the fact that it costs 60 AMERICAN MONEYS unless you preorder for a 10 dollar discount.
This is Bobby Kotick level pricing strategy for a beat em up. The extra 20 bucks from the very generous $40 starting point that I'd give it appears to be for witch granny breasts.

 

[DemonKing]

So you dislike filler combat, loading and dialogue wheel and yet you still say it's decent without naming a single pro.
How come?

"Decent" doesn't mean OMFG Greatest Game Ever!!! you know.

(Plus I did mention I liked the interface and skill trees).

 

[Jaesun]

In short they are currently producing very much in an assembly-line mode rather than from an overall creative vision. I'm not saying that this means they are creating bad games, but if they went outside the box for a while they might have a chance of making something that was a breath of fresh air like the original BG back in the day instead of "just andother Bio game".

You know, THAT is one of the best descriptions of Bioware I have heard in a long time. I disagree with the bad games however.