Dragon Age II

[Archon]

well ive finished 1 playthough, started another. seems like all the changes was to just cater to the console players. seems to come down to console players loving it, pc players (especially old school rpg'ers) hating it.

overall i enjoyed the game. loved the dialogue and banter. copy/pasted dungeons were annoying, and the game was shorter than i expected. i think i would have to agree with many that it is probably bioware's weakest title to date. even the score composer admitted he was forced to do a rush job on the music.

i wont call it a bad game, just different. its not really an rpg, more like a 3rd person hack and slash.

anyone who wants a solid rpg, preorder the witcher 2, imo the witcher set the benchmark for a modern day rpg.

[l33tOMGlolz!11!shift]

I see my concerns about this are well founded.

I wasn't terribly impressed with DA:O. It seemed like a watered-down RPG. (I've been playing CRPGS since Might and Magic 1/Bard's Tale in the 80s). I had heard they "streamlined" this one even more which makes me not want to bother.

I too am eagerly anticipating the sequel to The Witcher. That's my favorite RPG of the last 3-4 years. GREAT game made by a studio that refuses to pander to the consoles.

I've been lamenting this general issue for a while now with my friends. The fact that gaming is becoming so mainstream is the cause for the watering-down of so many games. It's inevitable if you want to reach a mass market you need to simply the games to mass-effect (like that one?).

Could you imagine anyone creating a strategy game with the depth of Master of Magic these days? It'd never happen and that's sad

[Bronze Fox]

BioWare celebrates the success of Dragon Age II by giving fans that purchase and register a copy of the game online before April 30 a free copy of the PC version of Mass Effect 2. How does the offer work?

It's simple! If you've already activated the Online Pass that came in your copy of Dragon Age II for the PC, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3, you're halfway there. Once you've gained access to the Black Emporium, head over to the Mass Effect 2 offer page, enter your Online Pass code, and you'll be provided with a code that allows you to download Mass Effect 2 from EA's online store.

The offer is part of BioWare's sequel celebration, a way to say thank you to fans for purchasing more than one million copies of Dragon Age II within two weeks of the game's release.

What a lovely gift, provided you haven't already purchased Mass Effect 2 and have a PC that can run it well. If you partake, let us know how smoothly the transaction goes in comments!

-Kotaku

[BigBiker05]

I got that email too. However I already own ME2 so I'm trying to find a way to transfer it off my account. Would be funny if they only sent that email to people who have ME2 on their account.

[Paddyjack]

Maybe in celebration they could instead give a discount to DAII to those who already have a copy of ME2…

[Boss Llama]

I'd settle for a refund on DA2, so I never have to look at it again. As it stands, this seems more like a "please forgive us" than a "thanks, have a gift," regardless of how they phrase it.

[Ixtab]

So.... DA2. Dumbed down skill trees, very subpar plot.... No real 'epic' feeling to the plot, like the first one, just a collection of missions.... and i really, really dislike the 'response wheel' thing.... my character never seems to say anything even close to whats in the wheel. They migt as well have just listed responses 1,2,3 or good, bad, glib.

Aaaaanyway, complaining about it isnt what I am actually here for. Wat I wanted to ask is if anyone else as random slowdowns in DA2? Every once in a while, it slows waaaay down, or stops for a bit. It comes back in a bit, faster if i hit esc, it seems. But it is really, really annoying.

[metacide]

I have never experienced the random slow downs you are referring to. Maybe that's tied in to the whole "it takes Ixtab forever to load a L4D2 map" thing?

[Ixtab]

I dont think so. L4d2 is just stupid. It's the only game that acts that way. This random slowdown is a bit different. I've been looking online, and it seems to be a common issue, but I havent found a fix yet.

Also, sometimes after the slowdown, I get a 'connection lost' message in the bottom corner.... Maybe theres some stupid DRM that 'phones home' every once in a while that causes it?

[Boss Llama]

Something I've had happen to me in DA:O and DA:2, but never in any other game, is that Steam will decide to verify it's game cache in the middle of me playing. I'm not sure if it's failing to recognize that I'm in game, or if it's getting a wire crossed, but these are the only games it happens in.

When it occurs, I get no notice of it, but the game grinds waaaay down, becoming super slow until the verification is finished. I only ever find this out because I'll quit the game to restart it, and see the little verification progress meter on my toolbar. I can play straight through it as well, and it'll pick up back to normal speed when done, but it's nearly unplayable in the meantime due to system lag.

[jaypeebuoy]

However, I hated Baldur's Gate but loved DA:O.

I'm abit curious about Baldur's Gate. It's seems pretty clear that I won't go out of my way to try out DA2 but from reading up on it, it seems people have high praises for Baldur's Gate.

I've been looking for something to do when school is off during the summer and having a game that seems very involved and with a rich world seems like a nice balance to playing TF2 all the time.

Has anyone else played BG and liked/disliked it? Should I play BG1 first or should I skip to BG2 (it does look nicer )?

[MateoTheBold!]

I played BG and BG 2 and loved them both. I'm looking back with rose colored glasses, so take what I am saying with a grain of salt, but here is what I remember:

BG1: The story is excellent; one of the best in an RPG I have ever played, in fact.
BG2: The better of the two RPG's, but I think a good deal of my enjoyment came from playing the original first. BG2 is more polished then the first, but I think both are pretty similar and were built with the same engine, or a tweaked engine for the sequel at least. I am not 100% sure about that.

http://search.ign.com/product?query=baldur%27s+gate Spoiler warning, if you plan on playing the first Baldur's Gate, don't read the review for the second, as it gives away some plot details. There is a demo of BG2, so you might want to pick that up, check out the inventory system and graphics and see if they aren't too outdated for you before you buy either game. Hopefully it doesn't spoil any of BG1's plot details for you, but it probably does.

However, may I reccomend the Witcher or its sequel (which is coming out in May)? Outside of the SNES RPG classics like Chrono Trigger and FF3, the Witcher was my favorite RPG. At the very least it is the best RPG in the past 5 years for me.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/831/831264p1.html

Since the review, they have patched a lot the issues and added extra conent. Get the demo! http://www.fileplanet.com/183167/180000 ... tcher-Demo

[Ixtab]

BG 1 and 2 are both awesome... Just don't name your character Drizzt in BG2, or halfway trough he comes and kills you... and theres no way around it... maybe cheating, but I never tried that. There is also Icewind Dale, if you like that kinda thing... and te NWN games.

[metacide]

BG 1 and 2 are both awesome... Just don't name your character Drizzt in BG2, or halfway trough he comes and kills you... and theres no way around it...

Did you try killing him first? I find that if someone is dead they have a difficult time killing me. Not impossible mind you, just more difficult. This does not include zombies.

Also who names their character Drizzt anyway? You'd have to be some sort of super fanboi, and if that's the case you deserve to be hunted down

[Ixtab]

hey, it was many, many years ago when I first started playing games, and was reading those books at the time.
Also, yes. I did try killing him many times. He and his crew were pretty much unbeatable though.