As a veteran DAO player, I've downloaded and played the demo for DAII. I am less than pleased. This game, at first look, appears to be a console port rather than something designed for the PC like DAO was. Combat is quicker, yes, but it's a frickin' blurry mess with a limited camera and ridiculous, OTT combat moves. Yes, we needed the rogue to be more backstabby, but teleporting into position in a puff of smoke and fucking EXPLODING your target with the backstab is NOT what I had in mind. Looks like almost every new combat skill is an AOE attack now that vaporizes hordes of darkspawn, if that's what those ugly, ape-ambling looking skeletor-thingies were supposed to be. Didn't much look like Hurlocks to me. How too, does a brand new 2011 game's characters look even more blocky/ cartoony than a game that went into development in the middle of the last decade? Why do the talent/skill trees look unbelievably dumbed down? Why do the UIs look like something from a space sim (say....Mass Effect?) rather than a D&D style fantasy roleplaying game? Why does the conversation system SUCK ASS in comparison to DAO, just so we can have a 'voiced' PC? My original intent was to buy this game out of the gate. No longer. This appears to be more an action game than an RPG, and it doesn't resemble DAO hardly at all, AFAIC see. I'm officially a fence-sitter now. Normally a game like this is moddable as well, but word on the street is that DA2 will not have a mod toolset like DAO. That may well be a dealbreaker for me on top of everything else. Glad I didn't pre-order. (I never do that anyway.) In other news, I found a ROCKING Paladin specialization mod for DAO. I'm starting a new playthrough with a real paladin instead of that poor man's substitute, the templar!
I also bought the complete Baldur's Gate II set, a game which I have never played, almost unbelievably. After what I've heard about it, you guys may never hear from me again around here.
They have some lesbian romance mods for that game and you never played baldur's gate and never heard of minsc and boo?
TechForge?!?!??! On topic: The buzz I have is that the PC demo is a port of the Console Demo. The PC version of the full game will be more in line with what you were expecting. At least, so I have heard.
I tried so hard to enjoy & love the first game, but couldn't do it. I ended up going back to Fallout 3 for another 100-hour save game.
Aw, that's tough news. My siblings and cousins are looking forward to this game. I am wondering why there is such a drastic difference. Did they give the IP to a new developer? Sometimes these things happen and the new game studio wants to put their own mark on it, so they change what works to try and be "new and revolutionary".
Dragon age 2 is supposedly set in one specific city for the most part told over a 10year period. Kinda reminds me of planescape torment.
Well, tomorrow is the Big Day for DAII. Fortunately I'm on the road right now so I will not even have the chance to yield to temptation and go splurge on this on opening day. I'll have a week's worth of reviews to help me decide if I want to take the plunge on this or not. Aww, who the fuck am I kidding? I KNOW I'm gonna get it- if nothing else than as a thank you for DAO. I spent about $50 on that game, and I've played it so damn much that I've gotten my money's worth out of it to the tune of probably less than 2 cents an hour based on playtime and fucking around with mods and the toolset.
I am gonna hold off on this one, because most of my free time is spent on Ogre Tactics and D&D planning.
I was very disappointed with the demo too. I didn't even bother to complete it. The original DA sucked me in right away with excellent stories for every class of character. The story seen in the demo is pretty lame compared to the original. Or maybe it's because I'm in the middle of playing Mass Effect 2 for the first time, every other game seems a bit bland in comparison.
I started ME I and quickly ditched it. I was expecting an RPG and got a shooter with lots of pretty cutscenes. Everyone raves about MEII but I just haven't bitten. Maybe someday.
MEII certainly isn't your average RPG... and that's why i think it's so popular. It combines the intricacies and depth of an RPG and the action of a real-time third person shooter. I love it! I'm on the fence about Dragon Age. I still haven't tried the demo.
If you are talking DAII, I'd advise skipping the demo whether you intend to try the game itself or not. The demo was ported from an early build and was singularly unimpressive in look and performance. If you are a big fan of MEII, DAII might be right up your alley. People are calling it 'Dragon Effect II', which ought to tell you something. I'm one of those PC Gamer clowns feeling a little betrayed by what is OBVIOUSLY a game designed for console players at the expense of the PC. RPG's used to be our sandbox in the computer gaming world. Perhaps not anymore.
I never liked PC gaming. Even games I love (Morrowind being a prime example) I played the shit out of on the Xbox (even managing to RRoD my first Xbox 360), yet I couldn't motivate myself to play with a keyboard and mouse. Gaming to me just doesn't feel right when I play on a PC. I must not be the only one anymore...
The biggest advantage of the PC for a game like DAO is the ability to mod it. If you haven't experienced this, there is no way to adequately describe the replayability you can get out of the game with various mods. I've got nothing against consoles, but I want games that are released for the PC to be MADE for the PC, not shitty console ports.
for me, the lure of playing on a big screen HDTV, and the control scheme of a console controller is why I prefer consoles to PC gaming... I've heard about the mods available on PCs and I understand why that's so popular, however, I haven't tried a PC mod yet.
You can get console-style controllers for PC now and map the keys however you want. For a game like Dragon Age with the toolset, the mod possibilities are endless. People are creating new campaigns, custom gear, whole new class and specialization mods, as well as mods that will allow you to do things like alter character appearance, gender, and respec NPCs into totally different classes. I've played DAO with Wynne as a young, dark-hair cleric (my PC was a paladin- not the default templar but a real paladin that could lay on hands and turn undead), Leliana as a Dalish Elf specialized as a ranger, and Zevran as a warrior. The combinations are endless, and that's before you get into custom-made levels and content. With the Winter Forge mod and tools I can create weapons and armor, rings, belts, or amulets, and imbue them with various abilities via an enchantment sub-game. Or I can alter the model, material, and color of in-game items. One typical example I use often is to take the blackmetal collar, which is designed for Dog, and transplant its properties (+6 armor, +6 attack) onto a shield for one of my warrior characters. Oh, and with the same mod I can put any heraldry present in the game on the shield as well. I'm gushing, I know. Now if they wanted DAII to be a hack n slash console game, fine. Make it a hack n slash console for consoles and don't bother releasing it on PC. PC gamers want a game made for the PC with the versatility of DAO, not a fantasy version of Mass Effect II.
I've tried the mods on a few games, and it does little to appeal to me. The HDTV comment is moot, since I run my HDTV as a computer monitor anyway, and I do have controllers for the PC, so that's not an issue really either. For some reason I just don't like PC gaming, and I can't really explain why.
That's perfectly okay- to each his own. All I'm saying is that as a PC type of gamer, I want PC games designed for my platform, not designed for consoles and ported over. Unfortunately, the console market has proven to be the cash cow. Life aint't fair. Whaddyagonnado?
Make your own games? Seriously, it's not that hard if you have a head for code. Back in high school we were using Visual Basic and I spent most of my time working on using it to make a game. My final project was a simple shmup, but the one I was working on that unfortunately never got finished was a Wizardry-style dungeon crawler. Anyway, even with the limitations of the language, you can still make a decent game if you know what you're doing...hell, I didn't know what I was doing and it was still pretty good Also, you could look into something like RPG Maker if you're not so handy with code...the PC version is vastly superior to the console ones. ROM hacking is also an idea - take a great game and tweak it...and I'm not talking changing the text to infantile humour (although Pussy City Pimps was worth a run through ). All sorts of options out there. Me, I'm just lazy...if the new shit just isn't good enough, I'll fire up the NES
With DAO's toolset for the PC you can make all manner of custom content. Been edumacating myself on it this week and may start trying my hand at it soon. Some of the old SW sims, I modded more content for than actually came with the original game, and I won a prize from Janes Combat Simulations back in the 90's for a mission set I published for WWII Fighters, using their in-game mission editor. It was just a deck of playing cards with the Janes logo and a bunch of old aces featured on the back, but it was the only time I ever got something (other than satisfaction) for putting content out to the gaming community. Gave me a warm fuzzy at the time. Still does!
Xbox version is moddable with a xbox data transfer device. Thats one xbox game that can be modded. Jane's combat games and wing commander games were fun. M
Well keyboard/mouse is far more sensitive and more inputs than your standard console controller (of course that could be why some like controllers - in some ways they are easier). However, I have HDMI out so I run my PC through the HDTV all the time, so there's no difference there.
Well, yeah!! Console controllers have far fewer inputs so they'd be an easer interface and they would seem to be more intuitively laid out, but like I said, I've never delved in to PC gaming. I guess you could say that I'm a little intimidated by it in some aspects. An HDMI out video carad would be awesome. I think that in many ways, the gaming industry has been held back by the console market. The XBox 360 has 512 MB of RAM and the PS3 only 256 MB. The average PC on the market today has about 4-8GB of DDR-RAM and the high end models can double that easily. In a year, those numbers will be up by 25%. Consoles seem to be on a 10 year cycle. I shudder to think of what a game developer could do with those kind of specs on a console.
Checkout the trailer for Skyrim (its on youtube) if you want to see what a PC game developer can do these days.
