Dragon Age II - GameInformer Scans

[ironyuri]

I'm quite sure the original mission statement for Dragon Age: Origins was to bring the cRPG into a new era with an emphasis on maintaining it as a true PC RPG rather than a console optimised title. Surely their sales figures for a game more inclined toward PC but which still sold across all platforms were good enough to warrant continuing the trend.

Those screenshots look fucking awful. The graphics in them, and I don't care if it's a fucking beta because the teasers for DA:O were advanced well beyond what the final offering included, look like they belong in some of the earliest 3D games such as Outcast or fucking Thief: Dark Project. Low poly armour models, the hair design is even worse than in DA:O, the blood looks about as low res as it could possibly get.

And the fucking troll? The troll in DA:O cutscenes was exactly as it was in actual open play and it looked good, the one in those shots looks like a fucking concept model for the one in DA:O.

This is a serious

 

[hoochimama]

While the disney-ish concept art certainly looks different from their regular stuff and I like it, it doesn't seem to translate to the in-game shots, those still look fairly generic like DA1, only lower quality in the tech department.

They're still not revealing how the new actiony combat system works. Last time they tried one for melee it was Jade Empire, it wasn't particularly impressive and certainly not on the same level as ME2's combat system when it comes to pleasing the console crowd.

With the ME games they had fairly successful cover-based shooters to imitate, there isn't an equivalent popular melee system for them to copy.

I didn't like DA1's mmorpg-flavored combat anyway so hopefully the PC version also gets the optional action combat system.

Thanks for the scans, Drog.

 

[Achilles]

Also, the article's first four paragraphs make me want to hunt down the author and beat him senseless.

 

[fastpunk]

I've been seeing those screenshots all around the net, and I gotta say, they look butt ugly. Are they pre alpha or something?

 

[chzr]

This led many evil-inclined players to avoid using Leliana or Wynn even if they were optimal characters in terms of balancing the party. This kind of meta-game is no longer necessary in Dragon Age II.

When I hear people mention "meta gaming" in P&P RPGs they're usually referring to some sort of stat-oriented decision, usually powergaming. It's interesting to see it used here in almost the opposite sense of letting the game's story elements interfere with stat decisions.

Like it mattered in DA if you gave them 10 gifts and everything was ok, they probably meant things like that and removing party memebers for dialogues.

Anyway imho it sounds like they removed approval system.

edit: i don't get what's wrong with avoiding 'good characters' (especially if you're forced to have them) when playing evil.

 

[Some Moron On Welfare]

I never play an asshole in RPGs, so I don't care about that.

 

[ironyuri]

I never play an asshole in RPGs, so I don't care about that.

Just on the Codex then?

I rarely if ever play as an evil character. I liked the Renegade/Paragon dichotomy in ME because the Renegade options weren't just purely evil, some of them felt more realistically pragmatist than the paragon options, ie: human Shepard putting the human race ahead of others in the face of a threat rather than trying to find some solution for everyone even if they dick him around.

KotOR evil was a failure. Dragon Age evil was a failure. Full renegade/evil cyborg Shepard was certainly a failure.

Most of the time developers "encourage" you to play a good character with the way the game is set up and often the evil pathways are left incomplete or half-assed.

 

[Trash]

Despite the fact that I really don't like the art direction shown so far the character models do look a bit better than the plastic fantastic claydough people in the original.

Oh, and didn't they say that the consoles will have more actiony combat while the pc will retain its top down tbwp thing? Considering how shitty it played on the xbox 360 this might be a good move for them.

 

[fastpunk]

Oh, and didn't they say that the consoles will have more actiony combat while the pc will retain its top down tbwp thing?

They did, which is one of the few positive things I've heard of this game so far. I've only seen videos of DA:O on the 360, and it looked like total clusterfuck. None of that on the PC, please.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

The terrain really looks like it could use some normal mapping, a few more polys wouldn't hurt either. The characters on the other hand, could use some more detail, but it is nothing compared to that barren and flat terrain. You would think that by now they would be able to produce terrain that doesn't look like it came straight out of Mechwarrior 2.

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

How players would react to traditional elements like a silent hero and highly tactical combat was difficult to predict, especially with titles like Mass Effect setting new standards for conversation systems and cinematic presentation.
Any reservations about the design were put to rest with Origins' release. Due to BioWare's skillful implementation, gamers accepted and embraced the oldschool aesthatic in Origins.

Can somebody please kill this idiot?

Tactical combat being outdated and therefore bad.
I get the silent protagonist argument (allthough I still don't see why it is less immersive, than a generic voice I maybe didn't imaging suited to my character but well), but tactical combat? What the fuck. It's a RPG. I WANT TACTICAL COMBAT! IF I DIDN'T I WOULD BE PLAYING GOD OF WAR FFS!

Also: Only because of BioWare tactical combat is good! Not because it is fun to think, and the reward of a tactical combat is var superior than the reward after bashing the same button all the time.

Damn those "professional" journalists. Should be renamed to prostitutes, since they already suck more cock than doing journalism

 

[Razz]

Since when do "shit graphics" constitute an art style? Seriously, what the hell. If you want to go more cartoony or something, at least do it properly. They seem to be stuck between trying to get something semi-realistic and going full-on cartoon style, and they end up with it just being shit. I don't even hate Bioware nearly as much as 95% of the Codex, but man.

Also I didn't actually read all of that but what's been quoted here makes it sound like an extreme exercise in dumbing down. Why does everything need to be an action game these days? I'm a console tard and sometimes I'd like to play something that isn't God of War or an FPS.

 

[Rhalle]

Good that they listened to the fans about the mute PC and the overused 'Savior of the Universe' plot. However, they threw away everything else for consoltarded mechanics and cell-shaded anime visuals on the Unreal engine.

That's the new shit, though, I guess: dumbed-down mechanics, actiony, cinematics, spoken speech instead of read text and explicit cartoony-ness--- pretty much the opposite of the RPG's purpose when it all started, of course.

 

[Volourn]

"pretty much the opposite of the RPG's purpose when it all started, of course"

When RPgs started, there was no such thing as C&C, story, characters, or any other part of that faggy stuff. Just faggy combat repeated over and over again. FFS

 

[Rhalle]

"pretty much the opposite of the RPG's purpose when it all started, of course"

When RPgs started, there was no such thing as C&C, story, characters, or any other part of that faggy stuff. Just faggy combat repeated over and over again. FFS

Oh that's bullshit and you know it.

 

[Rhalle]

"pretty much the opposite of the RPG's purpose when it all started, of course"

When RPgs started, there was no such thing as C&C, story, characters, or any other part of that faggy stuff. Just faggy combat repeated over and over again. FFS

Oh that's bullshit and you know it.

 

[Volourn]

O RLY?

 

[CrimHead]

I can't believe Bioware would betray us like this.

 

[Hamster]

Good that they listened to the fans about the mute PC .

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

So Commander Shepard gets teleported to an alternate fantasy dimension where he gets to grab collars and fuck elves, huh?

What the hell are they thinking? The Ass Effect dialogue system was/is HORRIBLE.

ffs

 

[Rhalle]

O RLY?

YA RLY

And I posted twice just to make my point. I did that on purpose.

Um. Yeah, on purpose.

 

[Pablosdog]

This is so goddamn lame, i've made sure to tell all my friends about this, who are mainly console players. It's so pointless to change it this way when Dragon age already sold more than Mass effect, are they trying to alienate everyone? I mean, even the console crowd thinks this is for the most part a stupid fucking idea.

 

[FeelTheRads]

So it has already caught that this is "art direction", eh?

Sheeple will be sheeple.