Dragon Age vs Baldurs Gate 2.

[Dnny]

The original BG is a fucking party based diablo. The NPC didn't have any more personality than the NPC you create in Icewind Dale, apart from having their own unique combat voice.

With Xzar & Montaron partied with Khalid and Jaheira you would hear bickering that could lead to a real in-fight. How many RPGs have NPC companions that will literally fight each other to the death?

That's just a cosmetic thing though because there is no interaction with your party npc apart from the time you recruit them and their first and only quest. The party NPC in BG1 are just a portrait, a soundset and a recruiting quest, after that, they aren't more than the NPC you create in Icewind Dale or in BG1 multiplayer mode.

This absolutely cannot be compared to the amount of interaction featured in PST and BG2.

So, those two portraits and soundsets conflicts with the other two portraits and soundsets. THATS SO MUCH PERSONALITY YEAH RIGHT

 

[zalashkolina]

Agree with everything!

And the funny thing is that BG2: SOA is not a finished polished game - due to publisher's time limit bioware skipped and cut out many plots and quests, while DA was polished all the way through and still BG2 takes it by far any day.

Another strong point for BG2 is the big modding community around it (because it was such a good game and of course the relative easy-to-use infinity engine) which added so much to the gaming and re-playing aspect.

Overall DA is not a bad game, on the contrary and far from it! But its definatelly not BG2's spiriual succesor, just another KOTOR/NVN type game and I can't believe I built my hopes up again.
I think the reason y BG2 was so good is credited to much to bioware, I believe it was Black Isles that should be mainly credited for it (if I'm not mistaken they r also responsible for the very good BG2 style RPG's of Planescape and Fallout) which only makes me cry and wonder what masterpieces they could have done with today's game technologies.

 

[aleph]

Overall DA is not a bad game, on the contrary and far from it! But its definatelly not BG2's spiriual succesor, just another KOTOR/NVN type game and I can't believe I built my hopes up again.

This. Most truthful statement in this whole thread. Unfortunately the truth is quite bitter in the case, the only (very remotely, though) chance of a true BG2 successor turned out to be not very much like BG2 at all.

 

[Volourn]

"I believe it was Black Isles that should be mainly credited for it "

You are a fuckin' idiot. Interplay./BIS wer eonly the publishers. Don't forget, these are the same morons who published/developed games like DTU and LH. LMFAO

Trying to give that uber fail of a company any credit for Interplay's most successful series as a publisher is extreme retardedness.

R00FLES@

DA > BG2

BIO > DEAD COMPANIES

 

[Drakron]

And the funny thing is that BG2: SOA is not a finished polished game - due to publisher's time limit bioware skipped and cut out many plots and quests, while DA was polished all the way through and still BG2 takes it by far any day.

I could say you cannot polish a turd but the fact is DA:O is not polished at all.

Examples? Redcliffe battle spawn issue, Ancient Elven Boots and Helmet location, Disguise bug ... Heck the difficulty is all over the place, item prices are what I can only call a "rip-off" ... I could go on.

BG2 might have "cut content" but hey, its not as DA also does not have cut content either (the "Blood Mage" follower), not to mention the DLC is also cut content.

BG2 is shinny diamond compared to DA:O, at least Interplay HAD a Q&A department back in the day as DA:O is a typical bug ridden mess from EA.

 

[Volourn]

"at least Interplay HAD a Q&A department back in the day as DA:O is a typical bug ridden mess from EA."

Is that the same QA that worked on DTU? Fucking' what a joke.

BG2 was way buggier than DA is. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.



In eveyr menaingful way DA > BG2.

No contest.
_________________

 

[FeelTheRads]

Icewind Dale > Bioware

 

[Volourn]

IWD - okay game ripped off from BIO by BIS. Game doens't get made at all without BIO's IE And, likely would have been much worse if its engine was BIS made.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Bioware are the morons who made NWN1 and Jade Empire.
Lionheart > NWN1 + Jade Empire.

 

[Volourn]

Youa re fuckin' on crack.

JE and NWN are awesome. LH is nshit.

 

[MasPingon]

Bioware are the morons who made NWN1 and Jade Empire.
Lionheart > DA + NWN1 + Jade Empire>

fixed

 

[Silellak]

And the funny thing is that BG2: SOA is not a finished polished game - due to publisher's time limit bioware skipped and cut out many plots and quests, while DA was polished all the way through and still BG2 takes it by far any day.

I could say you cannot polish a turd but the fact is DA:O is not polished at all.

Examples? Redcliffe battle spawn issue, Ancient Elven Boots and Helmet location, Disguise bug ... Heck the difficulty is all over the place, item prices are what I can only call a "rip-off" ... I could go on.

BG2 might have "cut content" but hey, its not as DA also does not have cut content either (the "Blood Mage" follower), not to mention the DLC is also cut content.

BG2 is shinny diamond compared to DA:O, at least Interplay HAD a Q&A department back in the day as DA:O is a typical bug ridden mess from EA.

DA? A bug-ridden miss? Seriously? None of the items you listed are anything close to game breakers, and "unfair item prices" isn't even a bug, which just goes to show how desperate you were to pad your list. You could go on? Then do so, please. Show me all the serious game-breakers that justify the label of "bug-ridden mess."

 

[GarfunkeL]

The memory leaks are fucking horrible in DA. It's stable, doesn't really CTD and haven't met any serious bugs but the god damn memory leaks force me to play in small chunks. Ridiculous.

 

[Silellak]

The memory leaks are fucking horrible in DA. It's stable, doesn't really CTD and haven't met any serious bugs but the god damn memory leaks force me to play in small chunks. Ridiculous.

I remember getting some pretty horrible load times in the last 5 hours of the game, but I rebooted my PC and afterwards played to the end with no load-time issues.

The memory leak bug is pretty bad for some people, I agree, but hardly worth calling the game a "bug-ridden mess".

 

[FeelTheRads]

Youa re fuckin' on crack.

JE and NWN are awesome. LH is nshit.

Why are you raging, Volourn, why?

Also, JE and NWN are the worst shit ever produced.

 

[Drakron]

DA? A bug-ridden miss? Seriously? None of the items you listed are anything close to game breakers, and "unfair item prices" isn't even a bug, which just goes to show how desperate you were to pad your list. You could go on? Then do so, please. Show me all the serious game-breakers that justify the label of "bug-ridden mess."

No?

You know what the respawn bug was? the undead would never assault the barricade and so you were stuck in a battle that would never end.

Even if that was rare as the most often was the undead would spawn and would do nothing and it was just a question to find the ones that were taking a break but I also seen reports that the undead would respawn infinity meaning the battle would never end.

If THAT is not a game breaker then what the fuck it is? you PC blows up?

The Disguise Bug is another game breaker on a smaller level as if you ever accept the damn thing YOU HAVE NO WAY TO REMOVE IT and now you are stuck with it, so is having the armor slot occupied forever is not a serious issues now?

Also my issue with the gold is simple, I DONT LIKE THE FACT THEY PAY 1/6 OF THE ITEM VALUE! even less with the "potion designed" type of gameplay with any means to "farm" money, the fact the latest patch have increased potion drop rates would say something.

Sure its not "a bug", just poor design but hey, just give then 12 bucks and buy a DLC were you can find even better gear FOR FREE!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Just did the Redcliffe defending thingy and boy oh boy if it wasn't ridiculous.

1) Why split the knights and militia in two different places?
2) Why build barricades if they don't really barricade anything?
3) Why do the undead attack in pairs with plenty of time between a pair, even though I'm on hard? It doesn't even whittle the defenders down because everyone regenerates health back since the lapses between pairs are so large.

Seriously, the NPC's could have killed all of the undead or alternately I could have killed them all without NPC help.

What they should have done - allow you to place the militia and knights where you want by usage of landmarks ("Knights, defend the path near the mill", "Militia, defend the Church"), allow you to give them orders during the fight ("Follow me!", "Everybody group to the Church!"), make the Undead attack in 2 waves, with the first one being a column of 20+ coming straight down the patch, then the second wave being twice that size but being split between swimmers from the lake and runners along the path.

That would have been a more epic battle, instead of this miserable little fizzle which only padded gametime.

 

[Drakron]

The "pair" is a part of the spawning problems, the patch 1.2 now fixes as they will spawn and rush attack the moment you kill the par they are attached so its constant reinforcement, at least they should.

I seen your "polite undead" bug once in the windmill path battle but never in the chantry battle, I do know how it works because in order to get the helm I decide to do simply ... turn the AI off and I could seen their spawning pattern clearly.

Of course NOW the battle is even worst if you go to Redcliffe first as even if the militia is not going to show up half dead when you get to them, there is still 2 yellow undead when you get there and the stream of reinforcements coupled by the fact those dimwits have no ability to heal (and tier 3 armor is also not doing that much for then) as Morrigan is unlikely to had leveled up to the point were you can pick up spells for her (she lacks heal), also even if you go healer mage your "mass heal" spell does not work on then.

This is the Bethsoft school of encounter design, make level scaling and dont bother to check if encounters are winnable at all levels of play if their 25 level "test" party can mop the floor with then.

Heck at least Bethsoft LEARNED something with Oblivion as FO3 was far better at leveled things, DA:O does not even reward picking up any path beyond "kill everything to gain XP" and in THAT they are the successors to Baldur's Gate but at least in BG case that is how 2nd ed AD&D rules worked, there is no excuse for what DA:O does with XP rewards, heck cure the hound and you have to DEMAND payment to get XP ... that shows how fucked up the game is at this stage.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I have 1.2 and it went just as I described. Maybe healing would be necessary if they spawned properly. The way it is now, it's either a bug or retarded design. I'm not so sure if its a bug since I ran around the zone, everywhere and couldn't find any undead - except when the pair spawn at the top of the path.

Also, as a lvl 7-8 team with PC mage, Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana, the game is laughably simple. As previously mentioned, even two mages can curbstomp pretty much everything - it's going to be a blast when I get to add Wynne into the mix. WOOT WOOT!

 

[Drakron]

Its not if things work properly and you want to keep everyone alive.

You know Morrigan does not have heal spells and so your mage PC is the only healer, the problem is since its the only healer its his job is pretty much keep the militia alive, something that is hard due to the cooldown timer, the fact they should be about 8-10 undead at all time and they do spread around, making it a case of "save one and see the other one die".

Of course 2 at a time its nearly a joke, this is what I do when am pulling mobs but the game just loves to throw you against enemies that are at worst 3 levels bellow you and outnumber you 2-3 to 1.

I only did disabled the AI to check the reward to keep everyone alive, the castle was pretty much a cakewalk (even the Courtyard battle as I pulled the archers and dealt with then before I pulled the 2 undead and then finally the boss and his helpers come around but that was I could manager that.

That is also why I said the difficulty was all over the place, the game can be absurd as it throws a hard fight at the most strange time without much warning.

 

[Grifthin]

The undead in my game always come in waves. Two at a time would have been much easier to handle.

 

[Mathuzzz]

IWD - okay game ripped off from BIO by BIS. Game doens't get made at all without BIO's IE And, likely would have been much worse if its engine was BIS made.

True. And about bugs, i didn´t occur any bug during my many playthroughs of BG. Can´t say that about DA.

 

[Mathuzzz]

Agree with everything!

And the funny thing is that BG2: SOA is not a finished polished game - due to publisher's time limit bioware skipped and cut out many plots and quests, while DA was polished all the way through and still BG2 takes it by far any day.

Another strong point for BG2 is the big modding community around it (because it was such a good game and of course the relative easy-to-use infinity engine) which added so much to the gaming and re-playing aspect.

Overall DA is not a bad game, on the contrary and far from it! But its definatelly not BG2's spiriual succesor, just another KOTOR/NVN type game and I can't believe I built my hopes up again.
I think the reason y BG2 was so good is credited to much to bioware, I believe it was Black Isles that should be mainly credited for it (if I'm not mistaken they r also responsible for the very good BG2 style RPG's of Planescape and Fallout) which only makes me cry and wonder what masterpieces they could have done with today's game technologies.

Black Isle just published it, they made IWD,Fallout,Planescape, but BG is solely Bioware´s work.

 

[The Village Loon]

BG2 > Horse Show > DA

 

[Weresloth]

1) Why split the knights and militia in two different places?

Because the Knights were more concern with the castle and the militia was more concerned with the village. Just because you are Joe hero that just showed up on the scene doesn't mean you should be able to tell everyone what to do.

2) Why build barricades if they don't really barricade anything?

Because the milita was not that smart and though the barricades didn't serve to stop the enemy it does channel them into a smaller space. Good military tactic.

3) Why do the undead attack in pairs with plenty of time between a pair, even though I'm on hard? It doesn't even whittle the defenders down because everyone regenerates health back since the lapses between pairs are so large.

Were you able to run down that hill 4 abreast with your group? The undead had to come down a few at a time just as if you had an army at the top of the hill coming down. They also aren't too smart.

Seriously, the NPC's could have killed all of the undead or alternately I could have killed them all without NPC help.

You could have killed them all but the npcs would get slaughtered which is what will happen if you initiate the encounters and just watch them get slowly hacked to bits.

What they should have done - allow you to place the militia and knights where you want by usage of landmarks ("Knights, defend the path near the mill", "Militia, defend the Church"), allow you to give them orders during the fight ("Follow me!", "Everybody group to the Church!"), make the Undead attack in 2 waves, with the first one being a column of 20+ coming straight down the patch, then the second wave being twice that size but being split between swimmers from the lake and runners along the path.

That would have been a more epic battle, instead of this miserable little fizzle which only padded gametime.

Once again why should you be able to just show up 3 minutes ago and expect to order independant groups with their own agendas around. That was a decent encounter as far as non thinking ai rpg encounters go.